Ukraine’s parliament voted Monday to impose martial law for 30 days as tensions spiked between Kyiv and Moscow. The action comes after Russian coast guard ships rammed and fired on three Ukrainian naval vessels Sunday in the Black Sea. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more.
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Month: November 2018
Trump Defends Tear Gassing Migrants
President Donald Trump is defending his administration’s use of tear gas to stop a group of Central American migrants who tried to force their way into the United States. The unrest represented a serious escalation of the crisis, with authorities on both sides of the border arresting migrants and pledging to prosecute those engaging in violence. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more.
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Apple to Tutor Women in Tech in Bid to Diversify Industry
Apple is launching a new program designed to address the technology industry’s scarcity of women in executive and computer programming jobs.
Under the initiative announced Monday, female entrepreneurs and programmers will attend two-week tutorial sessions at the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters.
The camps will be held every three months beginning in January. For each round, Apple will accept up to 20 app makers founded or led by a woman. The app maker must have at least one female programmer in its ranks to qualify. Apple will cover travel expenses for up to three workers from each accepted company.
Like other major tech companies, Apple has been trying to lessen its dependence on men in high-paying programming jobs. Women filled just 23 percent of Apple’s technology jobs in 2017, according to the company’s latest breakdown. That’s only a slight improvement from 20 percent in 2014, despite the company’s pledge to diversify its workforce.
The idea behind the new camp is to keep women interested and immersed in the field, said Esther Hare, Apple’s senior director of world developer marketing.
It’s not clear how much of a dent Apple’s new program will have. Google also offers training for girls and women pursuing careers in technology, but its program hasn’t done much to diversify the workforce so far. Women were hired for nearly 25 percent of Google’s technology jobs in 2017, up from nearly 21 percent in 2014, according to the company.
Apple and other technology companies maintain that one of the main reasons so many men are on their payrolls is because women traditionally haven’t specialized in the mathematical and science curriculum needed to program.
But industry critics have accused the technology companies of discriminating again women through a male-dominated hierarchy that has ruled the industry for decades.
Apple isn’t saying how much it is spending on the initiative, though beyond travel expenses, the company will be relying on its current employees to lead the sessions.
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‘El Chapo’ Oversaw Drug Shipments, Bribes as Head of Cartel, Trial Witness Says
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was “the boss” of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, a witness told jurors in the accused Mexican drug lord’s trial in Brooklyn federal court on Monday, contradicting the claim by Guzman’s lawyers that his dominance of the drug trade was a myth.
Miguel Angel Martinez, who described himself as a former manager in the cartel, took the witness stand on the sixth day of Guzman’s drug trafficking trial, testifying under an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors. For his safety, court sketch artists were ordered not to draw an accurate likeness of him.
“I knew that he was the boss,” Martinez said when a prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Robotti, asked him about Guzman’s role in the organization. “Since I met him, he would give all of us orders.”
Guzman, 61, was extradited from Mexico in January 2017 and faces life in prison if convicted. His lawyers are seeking to prove that another drug lord, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, actually ran the cartel and used Guzman as a scapegoat.
Martinez said he began working for Guzman as a pilot and as a guide to other pilots on drug flights in 1987. He said one of the pilots he assisted that year, on a flight carrying 170 kilograms (375 lbs) of cocaine, claimed he had flown in the U.S. Navy.
Martinez said he was soon relieved of his pilot duties after damaging a propeller in a botched landing with Guzman on board.
Guzman, he recalled, told him he was a “really bad pilot” and sent him instead to Mexico City to open an office for the cartel.
Posing as attorneys, Martinez said, he and others at the office directed bribes to government officials so the cartel could operate undisturbed. The beneficiaries included a high-ranking police official, Guillermo Calderoni, who fed Guzman information about law enforcement activities “every day,” Martinez said.
Martinez said he and Guzman became close, and that in 1989, Guzman became the godfather to Martinez’s newborn son.
Martinez said he often talked by radio to the Colombian cartel pilots who would bring cocaine to Mexico, using code words to avoid detection. Drug shipments, he explained, were “parties.” “Wine” meant jet fuel, and “girls” were planes.
In the 1990s, Martinez said, U.S. authorities became more capable of intercepting planes, and Guzman and his Colombian suppliers largely switched to using fishing and merchant ships.
Martinez is expected to continue testifying on Tuesday.
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Cameroon Gaming Stars Become Business Superheroes
One of Cameroon’s first video games studios and most successful digital startups is growing into a major player in the industry. Despite obstacles, Kiro’o Games – as it’s called – is committed to drawing inspiration from its local mythology and culture. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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UK’s May Fights to Sell Brexit Deal to Skeptical Country
Prime Minister Theresa May made a blunt appeal to skeptical lawmakers Monday to back her divorce deal with the European Union: It isn’t perfect, but it’s all there is, and the alternative is a leap into the unknown.
In essence, she urged Parliament: Let’s agree and move on, for the sake of the voters.
Britain and the 27 other EU leaders signed off on a Brexit deal Sunday after more than a year and a half of tough negotiations. It was a day many doubted would ever come, but May was anything but triumphant as she reported back to Parliament, which now controls the fate of the deal. May confirmed that British lawmakers will vote Dec. 11, after several days of debate, on whether to approve or reject the agreement.
Scores of legislators — from both the opposition and May’s governing Conservative Party — have vowed to oppose it. Rejection would plunge Britain into a political crisis and potential financial turmoil just weeks before it is due to leave the EU on March 29.
“No one knows what would happen if this deal didn’t pass,” May told the House of Commons.
“Our duty as a Parliament over these coming weeks is to examine this deal in detail, to debate it respectfully, to listen to our constituents and decide what is in our national interest.”
Before then, May plans a frantic two-week cross-country campaign to convince both the public and lawmakers that the deal delivers on voters’ decision in 2016 to leave the EU “while providing a close economic and security relationship with our nearest neighbors.”
But May’s defense of her hard-won deal in Parliament was followed by a torrent of criticism, from hard-core Brexit-backers, pro-EU lawmakers and previously loyal backbenchers alike.
Trade with U.S.
In another potential blow for May, President Donald Trump said her deal would make it more difficult for the U.K. to strike a trade deal with the U.S. Brexiteers see a wide-ranging trade deal with the U.S. as one of Britain’s main goals after leaving the EU.
Trump said that “right now if you look at the deal they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.”
“I don’t think that the prime minister meant that and hopefully she’ll be able to do something about that,” Trump said outside the White House. “But right now as the deal stands, she may not, they may not be able to trade with the U.S. and I don’t think they want that at all.”
In response to Trump’s comments, May’s 10 Downing St. office said that under the deal agreed with the EU, “we will have an independent trade policy so that the U.K. can sign trade deals with countries around the world — including with the U.S.”
Criticism
But during Monday’s debate in Parliament, legislators again expressed their deep unease, if not hatred, of the deal that keeps Britain outside the EU with no say but still subject to the rules and the obligations of membership at least until the end of 2020 while a permanent new relationship is worked out.
Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the “botched deal” would leave Britain worse off, with “no say over EU rules and no certainty for the future.”
“Plowing on is not stoic. It’s an act of national self-harm,” he said.
May argued that the British people are sick of endless debates about Brexit, and backing the deal would allow “us to come together again as a country whichever way we voted.”
“The majority of the British public want us to get on with doing what they asked us to,” she said.
The majority of lawmakers appear unconvinced. Dozens of Conservative legislators say they will reject the deal, either because they want a harder or a softer break with the EU. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May’s minority government, also opposes it, as do all the main opposition parties.
“The Prime Minister and the whole House knows the mathematics — this will never get through,” said Brexit-backing Conservative Mark Francois, who described the deal “a surrender” to the EU.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay conceded that “it’s going to be a challenging vote.” But he said Britain would be in “choppy waters” if the deal was rejected.
Both Britain and the EU are adamant that the U.K. can’t renegotiate the agreement, and opponents of the deal do not agree on what should happen next if Parliament rejects it. Some want an election, others a new referendum, and some say Britain should leave the bloc without a deal.
“I can say to the House with absolute certainty that there is not a better deal available,” May said.
She said rejecting it “would open the door to more division and more uncertainty, with all the risks that will entail.”
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Trump Says Brexit Deal May Hamper US-British Trade; UK Differs
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the agreement allowing the United Kingdom to leave the European Union may make trade between Washington and London more difficult, but the U.K. prime minister’s office disputed his interpretation.
Trump told reporters outside the White House that the deal sounded like it would be good for the European Union, but “I think we have to take a look seriously whether or not the U.K. is allowed to trade.
“Because right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us,” he said. “And that wouldn’t be a good thing. I don’t think they meant that.”
He said he hoped British Prime Minister Theresa May would be able to address the problem, but he did not specify which provision of the deal he was concerned about.
A spokeswoman for May’s office said the agreement struck with the EU allowed the U.K. to sign trade deals with countries throughout the world, including with the United States.
“We have already been laying the groundwork for an ambitious agreement with the U.S. through our joint working groups, which have met five times so far,” the spokeswoman said.
Under the deal secured with EU leaders on Sunday, the U.K. will leave the bloc in March with continued close trade ties. But the odds look stacked against May getting it approved by a divided British parliament.
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Ukraine’s Martial Law Declaration Explained
Ukraine’s parliament has approved an executive order signed by President Petro Poroshenko imposing martial law in parts of the country, in response to Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crew members off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea the previous day.
Poroshenko also said intelligence data suggested there is an extremely serious threat of a land-based operation against Ukraine by Russia.
“I have a document of intelligence in my hands. … Here on several pages is a detailed description of all the forces of the enemy located at a distance of literally several dozens of kilometers from our border. Ready at any moment for an immediate invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
Martial law would “in the event of an invasion allow us to respond quickly, to mobilize all resources as quickly as possible,” he said.
What does martial law do?
The new measure is being imposed in areas of the country bordering Russia, Moldova and along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts.
According to the text of Poroshenko’s martial law decree published online, it would allow authorities to restrict the rights and freedoms of citizens provided for by Articles 30-34, 38, 39, 41-44 and 53 of Ukraine’s constitution.As Mustafa Nayyem, a Ukrainian journalist who was elected to Ukraine’s parliament as a member of Poroshenko’s faction, noted in a Facebook post on Monday, these constitutional provisions guarantee, among other things, the inviolability of the home; the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations and other correspondence; freedom of movement; freedom of thought, speech and expression; freedom of assembly; and the right to strike.
Poroshenko insisted Monday that the martial law decree does not include any measures restricting citizens’ rights and freedoms or introducing censorship. “I hope politicians and the media will act responsibly and appropriately under the current circumstances and will not attack Ukraine with the theses borrowed from Russian propagandists,” the Ukrainian president said.
Impact on 2019 election?
When the president first mentioned imposing martial law in response to Russia’s naval aggression, some critics called it a “threat to democracy.” Those included three former Ukrainian presidents, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, who declared in a joint letter made public Monday that imposing martial law would delay presidential elections expected early next year.
Under the measure passed in parliament, martial law is scheduled to start November 28 and remain in effect for 30 days. Under that schedule, it’s not expected to interfere with the start of the presidential election campaign season.
Also Monday, Parliament approved Poroshenko’s request for the presidential vote to take place March 31, 2019.
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‘Water from Air’ Quenches Threatened Girls’ Thirst in Arid Kenya
In this arid part of northern Kenya, water can be hard to find, particularly in the dry season.
But a center run by the Samburu Girls Foundation – which rescues girls facing early marriage and female genital mutilation – has a new high-tech source of it.
Since June, the center, which has rescued more than 1,200 girls, has used panels that catch water vapor in the air and condense it to supply their drinking water.
“We used to have difficulties in accessing water and during a drought we could either go to the river to fetch water or ask our neighbors to give us water,” said Jecinta Lerle, a pupil and vice president of students at the center’s school.
But now, officials at the school say, the girls no longer have to travel for water – including into communities they have left, which could put them at risk.
“The girls can now have more time to study since there is enough fresh water to go round and there is no need to walk long distances to search for water,” said Lotan Salapei, the foundation’s head of partnerships.
Girls formerly trekked up to five kilometers a day in search of clean water during particularly dry periods, sometimes bringing them into contact with members of their former community, Salapei said.
The center, given 40 of the water vapor-condensing panels by the company that builds them, now creates about 400 liters of clean water each day, enough to provide all the drinking water the center needs.
The “hydropanels,” produced by U.S.-based technology company Zero Mass Water, pull water vapor from the air and condense it into a reservoir.
Cody Friesen, Zero Mass Water’s founder and chief executive officer, said the company’s project with the Samburu Girls Foundation was an example of its efforts to make sure the technology “is accessible to people across the socioeconomic spectrum.”
The panels provided to the Samburu Girls Foundation cost about $1,500 each, foundation officials said.
Zero Mass Water has so far sold or donated the panels in 16 countries, including South Africa.
Saving trees
George Sirro, a solar engineer with Solatrend Ltd., a Nairobi-based solar equipment company, said such devices can be a huge help not only to people but in slowing deforestation that is driving climate change and worsening drought in Kenya.
Often people with inadequate water cut trees to boil the water they do find to make it safe, he said, driving deforestation.
Philip Lerno a senior chief in Loosuk, where the girls’ foundation is located, said he hopes to see the panels more widely used in the surrounding community, which usually experiences long dry periods each year.
He said community members, having seen the devices in use at the school, hope to acquire some of their own if they can find the funding.
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On Cyber Monday, Pope Urges Generosity, not Consumerism
Pope Francis says the “sickness of consumerism” is the enemy of generosity as he called for the faithful to give a little something to the poor.
Francis made the comments during his morning homily Monday, so-called Cyber Monday when online retailers woo shoppers with bargains ahead of Christmas.
Francis made no mention of Christmas shopping — in Italy, the official season begins Dec. 8 — but his plea for generosity will likely be repeated in coming weeks.
Francis said giving away clothes, shoes or groceries can help the poor: “How many pairs of shoes do I have? One, two, three, four, 15, 20? … If you have so many, give away half.”
He said: “We can make miracles with generosity of little things.”
Macron Feels Diesel Tax Anger After Paris ‘Battle Scenes’
French President Emmanuel Macron, caught off guard by violent demonstrations against diesel tax hikes, warned his cabinet on Monday that the protests could tarnish France’s image and said the government needed to listen to voter anger.
The 10 days of unrest, which on Saturday left some Parisian boulevards transformed into battlefields, hit Macron as he sought to counter a sharp decline in popularity, and have again exposed him to charges of being out of touch with voters.
He has shown no sign, however, of reversing the diesel tax hikes, which he says are needed to help spur a switch to greener energy, though he is now indicating a willingness to soften the blow for motorists on modest incomes.
Police on Saturday fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who trashed restaurants and shop-fronts and set wheelie bins ablaze on Paris’ upmarket Champs-Elysees boulevard, a tourist magnet.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the impact of these images of the Champs-Elysees […] with battle scenes that were broadcast by the media in France and abroad,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.
After meeting with business associations, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the protests would have a “severe impact” on the economy, though it was too soon to say what the effect on fourth-quarter growth would be.
Now in their second week, the “yellow vest” protests have blocked roads across the country, impeding access to fuel depots, out-of-town shopping malls and factories.
“Behind this anger there is obviously something deeper that we must respond to, because this anger, these anxieties have existed for a long time,” Griveaux said.
Protesters will be looking for concrete answers from Macron when he unveils a new longterm energy strategy on Tuesday.
Green credentials
Macron has stepped up his defense of the diesel tax, aware that the French treasury is hungry for the revenues the levy generates and that unwinding the tax would damage his green credentials.
He has earmarked 500 million euros to help poorer citizens buy less-polluting vehicles, seeking to answer criticism that his reforms have eaten into household spending.
The weekend’s violence also exposed tensions within the amorphous “yellow vests” movement, so-called because the protesters don the high-vis jackets which all motorists in France must carry in their vehicles.
They strove to maintain a united front on Monday, forming a committee tasked with securing a meeting with the president and Griveaux said that would happen if they came forward with concrete proposals.
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Canada Blindsided by GM Oshawa Closure, Workers Walk Out in Protest
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday expressed his”deep disappointment” in General Motors Co’s decision to close its Oshawa plant, a move Canadian officials only learned about on Sunday and which led workers to walk off the job on Monday.
Canadian officials promised to aid auto workers affected by the 2019 closure, part of a wider restructuring by the automaker that will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce.
GM said the closure affects a total of 2,973 assembly line jobs. GM’s total employment in Canada is 8,150 direct jobs.
“I spoke with GM (CEO) Mary Barra to express my deep disappointment in the closure,” Trudeau tweeted on Monday.
“We’ll do everything we can to help the families affected by this news get back on their feet.”
Ontario, home to the Oshawa plant, was told by the automaker that there was nothing it could do to prevent it, premier Doug Ford said. Oshawa is about 37 miles (60 km) east of Toronto.
“The first thing I said is, ‘What can we do? What do we have to do?'” said Ford, referring to a Sunday night call with GM Canada’s President Travis Hester. “He said the ship has already left the dock.”
Ford later added: “We’re disappointed in GM. We supported GM years ago when they were in trouble.”
The Canadian and Ontario governments joined the United States in supporting GM with billions of dollars in aid after the automaker filed for bankruptcy protection during the severe 2009 global economic downturn.
Canada and Ontario also backed a 2005 investment by GM to modernize the Oshawa plant’s paint shop.
Canadian Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said that GM “only made this official announcement to us yesterday.”
A former Canadian auto executive said it would be difficult for Canadian government officials to entice GM further to keep the plant open.
“The government has done everything they could to keep them afloat.
bviously incentives by themselves don’t keep a car plant open,” said the executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “It’s all about getting a product mandate,” or a commitment to produce a specific vehicle.
Workers in the Unifor trade union walked out of the Oshawa plant “in protest,” ahead of a meeting with GM about the announcement, a union spokeswoman said.
“I’ve moved my family twice for this company and they do this to me,” a tearful worker told CBC TV as he left the plant.
Under Unifor’s four-year contract signed in 2016, GM must give the union a year’s notice before closing the plant. The automaker intends to close the plant in December, 2019.
A 2015 study commissioned by Unifor, which represents GM employees, estimated that shutting the plant would eliminate 4,100 direct jobs and reduce Ontario’s gross domestic product by C$1.1 billion.
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FIFA Urges Tough Line on Iran for Banning Women Fans
FIFA-appointed human rights experts want the soccer body to set Iran a deadline for ending a ban on women attending games.
The FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board says “FIFA should be explicit” giving the Iranian soccer federation a timetable to comply, and should warn of “anticipated sanctions if it does not.”
FIFA’s statutes prohibit gender discrimination, though its leaders typically avoid publicly criticizing Iran’s government. This month, several hundred mostly selected women were allowed to watch the Asian Champions League final in Tehran.
In the board’s annual report, FIFA says it will extend the eight-member panel’s mandate through 2020.
The expert group points to “consistent progress that FIFA is making across a range of issues,” and plans to focus its next report on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
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Spanish Comedian Faces Probe for Using Flag as Handkerchief
A Spanish comedian has appeared in a Madrid court after he blew his nose with the country’s national flag during a televised sketch.
Comedian Daniel Mateo is being investigated for allegedly insulting the nation’s symbol and inciting hate, which can be punished with up to 4 years in prison.
The 29-year-old declined to testify Monday arguing that he needed more time to prepare his defense.
Mateo had said he worried about the country’s image because “a clown has to stand before a judge just because he was doing his job.”
The sketch unleashed a debate over patriotism and the limits of free speech in humor, with some internet users calling for a boycott of the channel that aired the program and advertisers canceling contracts.
Explainer: What Skirmish Tells Us About Ukraine-Russia Conflict
Tensions were already high between bitter foes Russia and Ukraine, but there’s even more murk than usual following a weekend clash near the Sea of Azov.
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US Top Court Open to Antitrust Suit Against Apple App Store
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared open to letting a lawsuit proceed against Apple Inc that accused it of breaking federal antitrust laws by monopolizing the market for iPhone software applications and causing consumers to overpay.
The nine justices heard an hour of arguments in an appeal by the Cupertino, California-based technology company of a lower court’s decision to revive the proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in California in 2011 by a group of iPhone users seeking monetary damages.
The lawsuit said Apple violated federal antitrust laws by requiring apps to be sold through the company’s App Store and then taking a 30 percent commission from the purchases.
The case may hinge on how the justices will apply one of its past decisions to the claims against Apple. That 1977 ruling limited damages for anti-competitive conduct to those directly overcharged rather than indirect victims who paid an overcharge passed on by others.
Apple was backed by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration. Some liberal and conservative justices sharply questioned an attorney for Apple and U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who argued on behalf of the administration on the company’s side, over their argument that the consumers were not directly affected by purchasing the apps from Apple.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan, explaining how an App Store purchase is handled, said, “From my perspective, I’ve engaged in a one-step transaction with Apple.”
Some conservative justices, including Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, wondered whether the 1977 ruling was still valid in a modern marketplace.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts’ questions suggested he agreed with Apple’s position. Roberts expressed concern that, for a single price increase, Apple could be held liable by both consumers and App developers.
The iPhone users, including lead plaintiff Robert Pepper of Chicago, have argued that Apple’s monopoly leads to inflated prices compared to if apps were available from other sources.
Though developers set the prices of their apps, Apple collects the payments from iPhone users, keeping a 30 percent commission on each purchase. One area of dispute in the case is whether app developers recoup the cost of that commission by passing it on to consumers. Developers earned more than $26 billion in 2017, a 30 percent increase over 2016, according to Apple.
Closing courthouse doors
Apple, also backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business group, told the justices in legal papers that siding with the iPhone users who filed the lawsuit would threaten the burgeoning field of e-commerce, which generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually in U.S. retail sales.
The plaintiffs, as well as antitrust watchdog groups, said closing courthouse doors to those who buy end products would undermine antitrust enforcement and allow monopolistic behavior to expand unchecked. The plaintiffs were backed by 30 state attorneys general, including from Texas, California and New York.
The plaintiffs said app developers would be unlikely to sue Apple, which controls the service where they make money, leaving no one to challenge anti-competitive conduct.
The company sought to have the antitrust claims dismissed, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked the required legal standing to bring the lawsuit. A federal judge in Oakland, California threw out the suit, saying the consumers were not direct purchasers because the higher fees they paid were passed on to them by the developers.
But the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived the case last year, finding that Apple was a distributor that sold iPhone apps directly to consumers.
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Venezuela Holds Onto Prized US Refineries Amid Legal Battle
Venezuela will hold onto its U.S.-based Citgo refineries, settling a lawsuit that threw ownership of the struggling country’s prized assets into peril.
Court papers show that Venezuela on Friday began paying off $1.4 billion that a panel said was owed to the Canadian mining firm Crystallex, following a disputed takeover of the company by the late-President Hugo Chavez.
To recoup its losses, Crystallex had targeted Citgo refineries, potentially forcing Venezuela to sell off its most valuable foreign asset.
Papers filed in a Canadian court say Venezuela recently paid Crystallex $425 million, while agreeing to make good on the rest by 2021. That enables them to hold onto their refineries.
Russ Dallen of Miami-based Caracas Capital Markets says the payment shows Venezuela’s changing tactics — from fighting creditors to striking deals.
Chile Sends Planeload of Haitians Home
Chile is returning a second planeload of Haitian immigrants to their native country on Monday and will make use of the return flight from the Caribbean island to bring home Chileans stranded in crisis-stricken Venezuela.
After dropping off nearly 180 Haitian citizens in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the Chilean air force plane will stop in Caracas to pick up nearly 100 Chileans and fly them back to Santiago, Interior Minister Andres Chadwick told reporters.
As oil-rich Venezuela’s economy has sunk into crisis under President Nicolas Maduro, as many as 1.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015, according to the United Nations.
“This will be a humanitarian flight on the way there, and on the way back,” Chadwick said.
A total of 1,600 Haitians have signed up for the flights back to Haiti from Chile, part of a program labeled as “humanitarian flights” by the government of center-right President Sebastian Pinera but criticized by migrant groups as “forced deportations.”
The policy is aimed at Haitians who have struggled to find work in one of Latin America’s richest economies, in some cases lured to the Andean nation by people traffickers with false promises.
Earlier this month, 176 Haitians returned to Haiti aboard another Chilean air force flight.
The cost-free return trip requires those leaving to sign a declaration that they will not return for nine years, and asks they take immediate family with them.
The policy has generated controversy among some migrant groups, rights campaigners and academics. Haiti is one of the world’s poorest countries, blighted by natural disasters, political upheaval and poor security.
Chile’s government has said that there are approximately 112,000 Haitians in Chile, or about 10 percent of the total immigrant population.
More Than 200 Chinese Arrested in Cambodia for Online Scams
Police in Cambodia have arrested more than 200 Chinese citizens accused of defrauding people in China over the internet.
Gen. Y Sok Khy, director of the Interior Ministry’s Department of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime, said 36 women were among the 235 Chinese arrested Monday in three different villages in Takeo province, south of the capital, Phnom Penh.
Online scams by Chinese gangs that operate from foreign countries and target mainland Chinese are common throughout Southeast Asia and have been found as far away as Kenya and Spain. Cambodia has arrested and sent at least 1,000 Chinese and Taiwanese residents allegedly involved in such schemes to China since 2012.
The scams are carried out by making phone calls over the internet and employing deception, threats and blackmail against the victims.
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Russia Opens Civil Case Against Google Over Search Results
Russia has launched a civil case against Google, accusing it of failing to comply with a legal requirement to remove certain entries from its search results, the country’s communications watchdog said on Monday.
If found guilty, the U.S. internet giant could be fined up to 700,000 rubles ($10,450), the watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said.
It said Google had not joined a state registry that lists banned websites that Moscow believes contain illegal information and was therefore in breach of the law.
A final decision in the case will be made in December, the watchdog said. Google declined to comment.
Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher internet laws that require search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services, and social networks to store Russian users’ personal data on servers within the country.
At the moment, the only tools Russia has to enforce its data rules are fines that typically only come to a few thousand dollars, or blocking the offending online services, which is an option fraught with technical difficulties.
Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that Russia planned to impose stiffer fines on technology firms that fail to comply with Russian laws.
The plans for harsher fines are contained in a consultation document prepared by the administration of President Vladimir Putin and sent to industry players for feedback.
The legislation, if it goes ahead, would hit global tech giants such as Facebook and Google, which – if found to have breached rules – could face fines equal to 1 percent of their annual revenue in Russia, according to the sources.
UK Parliament Seizes Confidential Facebook Documents
Britain’s parliament has seized confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct bikini photo searching app as it turns up the heat on the social media company over its data protection policies.
A British lawmaker took the unusually aggressive move of forcing a visiting tech executive to turn over the files ahead of an international hearing that parliament is hosting on Tuesday to look into disinformation and “fake news.”
The parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has “received the documents it ordered from Six4Three relating to Facebook,” Committee Chairman Damian Collins tweeted on Sunday, adding that he had already reviewed them. “Under UK law & parliamentary privilege we can publish papers if we choose to as part of our inquiry.”
The app maker, Six4Three, had acquired the files, which date from 2013-2014, as part of a U.S. lawsuit against the social media giant. It’s suing Facebook over a change to the social network’s privacy policies in 2015 that led Six4Three to shut down its app, Pikinis, which let users find photos of their friends in bikinis and bathing suits by searching their friends list.
Collins, a critic of social media abuses and manipulation, is leading the committee’s look into the rise of “fake news” and how it is being used to influence political elections.
Lawmakers from seven countries are preparing to grill a Facebook executive in charge of public policy, Richard Allan, at the committee’s hearing in London. They had asked for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear in person or by video, but he has refused.
The U.K. committee used its powers to compel the chief executive Six4Three, Theodore Kramer, who was on a business trip to London, to turn over the files, according to parliamentary records and news reports. The committee twice requested that Kramer turn over the documents. When he failed to do so, Kramer was escorted to parliament and told he risked imprisonment if he didn’t hand them over, the Observer newspaper reported.
Facebook wants the files to be kept secret and a judge in California ordered them sealed earlier this year.
The judge is expected to give guidance on the legal status of the documents as early as Monday, Allan wrote in a letter to Collins.
“Six4Three’s claims are entirely meritless,” Facebook said in a statement.
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US, Mexico Pledge Tough Security After Group of Migrants Tried to Cross Border
Mexican and U.S. authorities are pledging to prosecute those engaging in violence at the border, after a peaceful march in protest of long asylum processing times Sunday ended with a group of migrants breaking off and trying to cross and U.S. border patrol agents responding with tear gas.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Customs and Border Patrol personnel “were struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members,” and the agency said that prompted officers to use the tear gas “because of the risk to agents’ safety.”
Mexico’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that authorities were able to contain a group of about 500 people who “in a violent manner” tried to cross the border near the San Ysidro crossing, and that those who are identified as participating would be immediately deported.
The statement said that in accordance with the Mexican government’s policy of respecting human rights and the non-criminalization of migration, it would not deploy military forces to control the migrants, but that it would reinforce the border points where people tried to break through.
The Tijuana government said officers arrested 39 people.
About 5,000 people — most of them from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — have gathered in Tijuana after traveling in caravans in search of asylum to escape poverty and violence in their homelands, and many are expressing frustration at long wait times for their cases to be heard. San Ysidro is the busiest U.S. land crossing, and authorities there currently process about 100 asylum seekers per day.
The migrants’ arrival has been met by some opposition from people in Tijuana, where many shelters were already at capacity, and on the U.S. side of the border by increased security measures that include members of the military deployed there by President Donald Trump.
Amnesty International said what happened Sunday was predictable after Trump ordered the troops to the border and said he told them that if a migrant throws a rock, “consider it a rifle.”
“Families are frightened and soldiers are shooting tear gas at toddlers. We must choose to be better than this, and @realDonaldTrump expected nothing less when he deployed thousands of troops to the border with the order to shoot to kill,” Amnesty said on Twitter.
U.S. authorities closed the San Ysidro crossing to vehicle traffic in both directions as well as pedestrians for several hours before fully reopening late Sunday. About 100,000 people cross there each day.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said it is critical for leaders on both sides of the border to work together to “safely resolve the migrant crisis.”
“Our way of life relies on a safe, secure and functioning border,” he said. “From travel to shipping to daily commutes between San Diego and Tijuana, it is essential to our community.”
Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum later tweeted a photo of himself with Faulconer and a similar message of regional unity, and said the people of Tijuana and San Diego “deserve all our effort.”
Earlier Sunday, Gastelum said he will not allow bilateral relations to be broken by bad actions of the migrant caravan.
“They are doing things outside of the law,” he wrote.
Gastelum has been outspoken against the migrants, and last week he declared a humanitarian crisis in his city as it struggles to accommodate them. Most of the migrants are being housed at a sports complex, where they face long wait times for food and bathrooms.
Trump has called on Mexico and countries farther to the south to take actions that would prevent such migrant caravans from ever reaching the U.S. border.
The Mexican Interior Ministry said Sunday that since October 19, it had sent nearly 2,000 Central Americans who were part of recent caravans back to their countries.
On Saturday, Trump said the migrants would not be allowed into the United States until a court approves their asylum claim, which would break from existing policy allowing asylum seekers to remain in the U.S. until an immigration judge hears their case.
But Mexico’s incoming government, which assumes power December 1, denied that it is willing to let U.S. asylum-seekers stay there pending the outcome of their cases in U.S. immigration courts, which could take years.
“There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the U.S. government,” future Interior Minister Olga Sanchez said in a statement. She ruled out that Mexico would become a “safe third country” for the migrants trying to reach the U.S.
Hours earlier, The Washington Post had quoted her as saying that the incoming administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had agreed to allow migrants to stay in Mexico as a “short-term solution,” a plan dubbed “Remain in Mexico.”
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