The son of former German president Richard von Weizsaecker was stabbed to death while he was giving a lecture at a hospital in Berlin where he worked as a head physician, police said Wednesday.A 57-year-old German man is in custody after he jumped up from the audience at the Schlosspark-Klinik and attacked Fritz von Weizsaecker with a knife on Tuesday evening.An off-duty police officer in the audience who tried to stop the attack was seriously wounded and had to undergo surgery.Von Weizsaecker died at the scene despite immediate attention from colleagues.“We cannot yet say anything about the attacker’s motive,” said police spokesman Michael Gassen.Police said later that the man, who was not a patient at the hospital, had been questioned overnight. Police were also investigating if von Weizsaecker or his family had received threats in the past.The 59-year-old was the son of one of Germany’s most esteemed presidents. Richard von Weizsaecker became West Germany’s head of state in 1984 and when the country was unified, became the first president of the new nation, serving until 1994. He died in 2015.Fritz von Weizsaecker was one of the ex-president’s four children. His sister Beatrice posted a picture of Jesus on the cross on Instagram after the killing of her brother and wrote, “Take care of my brother …”Both politicians and colleagues expressed shock over the brazen murder.Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences to his widow and the family, her spokesman said.“We don’t know much about what happened here in Berlin last night,” spokesman Steffen Seibert said. “It’s a horrible blow to the von Weizsaecker family and the chancellor’s condolences, and certainly also those of all the members of the government, go to the widow, to the entire family.”Christian Lindner, the head of the Free Democrats party, of which Fritz von Weizsaecker was a member, expressed shock at the murder.“I’m stunned and have to share my sadness,” Lindner tweeted. “Once more one wonders what kind of world we live in.”The board of Berlin’s Charite hospital said they were “deeply shocked by the violent death of the highly regarded friend and colleague. Our thoughts are with his family and the colleagues at Schlosspark-Klinik.”Von Weizsaecker studied and worked at several hospitals in Germany and abroad, including the Harvard Medical School in Boston and a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. His fields of expertise were internal medicine and gastroenterology.On Tuesday night, he was giving a lecture about fatty liver disease, an increasingly common medical condition. The lecture was open to everybody and local media reported that several colleagues were in the audience as well.The slaying of von Weizsaecker echoes a similar incident in 2016 when a man fatally shot a doctor at Berlin’s Benjamin Franklin Hospital before killing himself.The von Weizsaeckers are one of Germany’s most prominent families. Richard von Weizsaecker was not only one of the most popular but also one of the country’s most respected presidents.In 1985, then-West German President von Weizsaecker called the Nazi defeat Germany’s “day of liberation” in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the war’s end. His words were supported by most Germans, and to this day the speech is often cited by politicians and taught in schools.
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Croatia’s first-ever presidency in the European Union will come at come at a “critical period” for the 28-nation bloc, outgoing EU leader Donald Tusk said Tuesday.The EU’s newest member could end up in charge of launching the bloc’s post-Brexit negotiations with Britain, the European Council president said after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, takes over the bloc’s six-month rotating chairmanship at the beginning of January while Britain’s departure from the bloc is now set for Jan. 31.”Your task is not easy,” said Tusk. “It will be a critical period for the EU and we will be relying on your steady leadership.”Tusk expressed confidence in Croatia’s preparation for the job, adding that Croatia also needs to focus on the EU’s enlargement agenda and the volatile Western Balkans.EU aspirations in the Western Balkans have been dealt a blow after France and the Netherlands blocked the opening of membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania.”I deeply believe that you (Croatia) will do everything in your power to restore EU unity and enlargement while demonstrating positive EU engagement in the region,” Tusk said.Tusk was in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, for a meeting of the European People’s Party, the main center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The Polish politician is expected to be elected the leader of the alliance during the two-day gathering.”I am leaving the EU in good hands,” he said. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked each other’s policies on Brexit, health care and the economy Tuesday in a televised election debate that likely failed to answer the question troubling many voters: Why should we trust you?The two politicians hammered away at their rival’s weaknesses and sidestepped tricky questions about their own policies in the hourlong encounter, which was the first-ever head-to-head TV debate between a British prime minister and a chief challenger.It was a chance for Corbyn to make up ground in opinion polls that show his Labour Party trailing Johnson’s Conservatives ahead of the Dec. 12 election. For Johnson, the matchup was an opportunity to shake off a wobbly campaign start that has seen the Conservatives thrown on the defensive by candidates’ gaffes and favoritism allegations involving Johnson’s relationship with an American businesswoman while he was London’s mayor.Both play it safeBoth men stuck to safe territory, with Corbyn touting Labour’s plans for big increases in public spending and Johnson trying to keep the focus on his promise to “get Brexit done.”Speaking in front of a live audience at the studios of broadcaster ITV in Salford, in northwest England, the two men traded blows over Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union — the reason the election is being held. The U.K. is due to leave the bloc on Jan. 31, after failing to meet the Oct. 31 deadline to approve a divorce deal.Johnson pushed to hold the election more than two years ahead of schedule in an effort to win a majority in the House of Commons that could pass his departure agreement with the EU. He blamed the opposition for “dither and delay, deadlock and division” and said a Conservative government would “end this national misery” and “break the deadlock.”Corbyn said a Labour government would also settle the Brexit question by negotiating a new divorce deal before holding a new EU membership referendum within six months. A lifelong critic of the EU and lukewarm advocate of Britain’s membership in the bloc, Corbyn did not answer when asked repeatedly by Johnson whether he would support leaving or remaining in a new referendum.New trade deal would take yearsThe Labour leader, meanwhile, slammed Johnson’s claim that he would negotiate a new trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020 as a fantasy, saying such deals usually take years to complete.“You’re not going to get it done in a few months, and you know that perfectly well,” Corbyn said.The Labour leader also repeated his allegation that Johnson planned to offer chunks of Britain’s state-funded health system to American medical firms as part of future trade negotiations with the U.S.Johnson branded that claim “an absolute invention.”All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs in the election. Smaller parties in the race include the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, who want to cancel Brexit; the Scottish National Party, which seeks Scotland’s independence from the U.K.; the anti-EU Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage; and the environmentalist Greens.Two candidates are excludedThe debate featured only two candidates after the High Court in London rejected a legal challenge from the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party over ITV’s decision to exclude their leaders from the debate. The court decided it was a matter of ”editorial judgment” to limit the format to the leaders of Britain’s two largest political parties, one of whom will almost certainly be the country’s next prime minister.Later in the campaign, the leaders of smaller parties will take part alongside Labour and the Conservatives in two seven-way debates, and Corbyn and Johnson are due to square off again in a BBC debate on Dec. 6.The stakes are high for both Johnson and Corbyn as they try to win over a Brexit-weary electorate. Both are trying to overcome a mountain of mistrust.Neither delivered the kind of performance to silence their critics.Johnson — who shelved his customary bluster in favor of a more muted, serious approach — is under fire for failing to deliver on his often-repeated vow that Britain would leave the EU on Oct. 31.He drew derisive laughter from the audience when he urged voters, “Look what I have said I’m going to do as a politician and look what I’ve delivered.”Corbyn, a stolid socialist, is accused by critics of promoting high-tax policies and of failing to clamp down on anti-Semitism within his party. His refusal to say which side he would be on in a Brexit referendum was also met with laughter.Pushed by moderator Julie Etchingham to pledge to tone down the angry rhetoric that has poisoned British politics since the country’s 2016 Brexit referendum, the two men awkwardly agreed and shook handsAwkward momentThere was another awkward moment when they were asked about Prince Andrew’s friendship with American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew gave a televised interview last week in which he denied claims that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, a woman who says she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager.Asked if the British monarchy was “fit for purpose,” Corbyn replied, “Needs a bit of improvement.” Johnson said “the institution of the monarchy is beyond reproach.”Both expressed sympathy for Epstein victims — something Prince Andrew failed to do in his interview.Televised debates are a relatively new phenomenon in British elections — the first took place in 2010 — and they have the power to transform campaigns. A confident 2010 appearance by former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg sparked a wave of “Cleggmania” that helped to propel him into the deputy prime minister post in a coalition government with the Conservatives.’Pretty messy’During Britain’s last election in 2017, then-Prime Minister Theresa May refused to take part in any TV debates. The decision reinforced the view that she was a weak campaigner, and the election turned out to be a debacle for her Conservative Party, which lost its majority in Parliament.Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Tuesday’s debate was “a pretty messy score draw, although Corbyn may just have snuck a win in the dying minutes.”“Hardly two men at the top of their game, though,” he said.
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Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid defended NATO on Tuesday after French President Emmanuel Macron branded it “brain dead,” saying Estonia felt safe in a military alliance that has been fortifying its eastern flank as a shield against Russia.”NATO is clearly functional,” said Kaljulaid, whose Baltic state was for half a century a Soviet republic under Moscow’s thumb until 1991.”Let’s face it — it (NATO) has a 100% success record. No NATO ally has ever been attacked. So we trust in NATO, yes,” she told Reuters on a visit to Brussels.Macron said earlier this month that European countries could no longer rely on the United States to defend NATO allies and the alliance was experiencing “brain death.”FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2018.His comments questioning the alliance’s main principle of collective defense have prompted soul-searching in European capitals, and is likely to dominate discussions at a NATO summit in Britain next month. U.S. President Donald Trump, who described the 29-nation alliance as “obsolete” when he was president-elect, will attend.’Plan B’Estonia’s three-party coalition was split on the topic Tuesday. Mart Helme, the head of far-right EKRE, the second-largest coalition partner, said Estonia was looking for Plan B for NATO.”We are working also on Plan B, on what Estonia — and not only Estonia, but also other Baltic countries — will do if what Macron said was true,” Interior Minister Helme was quoted as saying by Finnish newspaper Iltalehti.The comments were strongly opposed by other ministers.”Estonian government has never discussed and does not plan to discuss Plan B. These stories are absurd, they undermine unity of NATO and weaken deterrence,” Defense Minister Jüri Luik said in a statement.As evidence NATO was still relevant, Kaljulaid cited its increased engagement in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and NATO standing by Kyiv in its fight against Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.Ukraine crisisThe Ukraine crisis has dragged European Union-Russia ties to historic lows, with the bloc imposing sanctions on Moscow. The economic curbs are now in place until the end of January 2020 and they require unanimity of all 28 EU states to be extended.But Macron also spoke this month of the need for the EU to rethink its relations with Russia, while stressing the need to remain firm on demanding that Moscow fulfills a peace deal for Ukraine.However, Kaljulaid stressed there were clear limits of that thinking for Estonia.”If you are firm in your dialogue and you keep pointing out that international law needs to be respected, countries’ territorial integrity needs to be respected, and you are having this dialogue to try to remedy the adverse developments, then dialogue is absolutely fine,” she said.”If you’re having dialogue ignoring the facts on the ground then of course we have a problem. And then we’d be against it.”
 
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Poland’s prime minister set out plans on Tuesday to strengthen the state’s role in the economy and deepen an overhaul of the justice system that has put Warsaw on a collision course with its European Union partners.Mateusz Morawiecki said the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party would continue increasing welfare spending and the share of Polish capital in domestic companies, underlining its break with the free-market reforms of liberal governments before it.”Neoliberals have fueled a sense of confusion in our value system. Many people were led to believe that the state is a ball and chain,” he said in a policy speech to parliament after an Oct. 13 election that gave PiS four more years in power.”Extremes are not good. We are building a normal state.”Morawiecki spoke repeatedly of a return to “normality,” referring both to PiS’s economic policies and its conservative vision of the traditional family which has won over voters but has been criticized by opponents for encouraging homophobia.He promised new welfare programs to help families with at least three children and the elderly.In separate comments, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said: “Our society… must be based on the Polish family, the family in its traditional sense. A family which takes the form of a relationship between a man and a woman.”Opposition lawmakers criticized PiS’s vision of normality.”The desire for normality means the rule of law and economic prudence, and you break those principles day after day,” said Grzegorz Schetyna, leader of the largest opposition party, Civic Platform.Morawiecki’s government won a vote of confidence in a late-evening session on Tuesday, with 237 deputies out of 454 lending him their support.Concerns over rule of lawSince returning to power in 2015, PiS has introduced changes to how courts are run and altered some of the rules governing the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court.The European Commission, the EU executive, responded by launching legal action over reforms which it says threaten the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that it was up to Poland’s Supreme Court to decide on the independence of the Disciplinary Chamber and the National Judiciary Council, offering some criteria on adherence to EU law.Morawiecki gave no details of the next steps PiS plans to take in its reforms of the judiciary. The party says further reforms are intended to make the court system more efficient but opponents say the reforms made so far have politicized it.PiS has said it will keep a balanced budget in 2020, benefiting from one-off revenues and fast economic growth, although some economists say such plans are too ambitious at a time when the European economy is slowing down.
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One of only four oar makers for Venice’s famed gondoliers, Paolo Brandolisio wades through his ground-floor workshop for the third time in a week of record-breaking floods, despairing of any help from national or local institutions.”If these phenomena continue to repeat themselves, you have to think about how to defend yourself,” he says. “Because the defenses that the politicians have made don’t seem to be nearly enough.”You have to think of yourself,” he repeats.Venetians are fed up with what they see as inadequate responses to the city’s mounting problems: record-breaking flooding, environmental and safety threats from cruise ship traffic, and the burden on services from over-tourism.They feel largely left to their own devices, with ever-fewer Venetians living in the historic part of the city to defend its interests and keep it from becoming mainly a tourist domain.The historic flooding this week — marked by three floods over 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) and the highest in 53 years at 1.87 meters (6 feet, 1 inch) — has sharpened calls to create an administration that recognizes the uniqueness of Venice, for both its concentration of treasures and its increasing vulnerability.Flood damage has been estimated at hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), but the true scope will only become clear with time. Architectural masterpieces like St. Mark’s Cathedral still need to be fully inspected and damaged manuscripts from the Music Conservatory library treated by experts — not to mention the personal losses suffered by thousands of residents and businesses.”I feel ashamed,” said Fabio Moretti, the president of Venice’s historic Academy of Fine Arts that was once presided over by Tiepolo and Canova. “These places are left in our custody. They don’t belong to us. They belong to humanity. It is a heritage that needs to be preserved.”Fabio Moretti, president of the Accademia di Belle Arti, Fine Arts Academy, looks out of a window of the academy during an interview with the Associated Press, in Venice, Italy, Nov. 16 2019.’Sick governance’The frustration goes far beyond the failure to complete and activate 78 underwater barriers that were designed to prevent just the kind of damage that Venice has endured this week. With the system not yet completed or even partially tested after 16 years of work and 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) invested, many are skeptical it will even work.”This is a climate emergency. This is sick governance of the city,” said Jane Da Mosto, an environmental scientist and executive director of the NGO “We Are Here Venice,” whose aim it is to keep Venice a living city as opposed to a museum or theme park.Brandolisio, the oar builder, sees systemic lapses in the official response, including the failure of local authorities to organize services immediately for those in need, an absence filled by volunteers. That included both a network of students who helped clear out waterlogged property for those in need and professionals like water-taxi drivers who offered transport during the emergency.For now, he is taking matters into his own hands.To protect his bottega where he not only makes oars but carves ornamental oar posts for gondolas or as sculpture, Brandolisio said he will have to consider raising the floor by at least 20 centimeters and buying a pump — precautions he never previously deemed necessary.”I think I will lose at least two or three weeks of work,” he said. “I will have to dry everything. Lots of things fell into the water, so I need to clean all the tools that can get rusty. I need to take care of wood that got wet, which I can’t use because it cannot be glued.”At the public level, proposals for better administering the city including granting some level of autonomy to Venice, already enjoyed by some Italian regions like Trentino-Alto-Adige with its German-speaking minority, or offering tax breaks to encourage Venice’s repopulation.Paolo Brandolisio stands among his oars in his flooded laboratory, in Venice, Italy, Nov. 17, 2019.Shrinking populationsJust 53,000 people live in the historic part of the city that tourists know as Venice, down by a third from a generation ago and dropping by about 1,000 people a year. The population of the lagoon islands — including glass-making Murano and the Lido beach destination — is just under 30,000, and dwindling too.That means fewer people watching the neighborhood, monitoring for public maintenance issues or neighbors in need. Many leave because of the increased expense or the daily difficulties in living in a city of canals, which can make even a simple errand a minor odyssey.Activists also say local politicians are more beholden to the city’s mainland population, which has jumped to 180,000 people not directly affected, for the most part, by the same issues as the lagoon dwellers.They are pushing for passage of a referendum on Dec. 1 that would give the historic center and islands their own administration, separate from that serving more populous Mestre and the industrial port of Marghera. Those areas were annexed to Venice by the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and not necessarily a natural fit.”It is precisely because we also have a climate emergency that this kind of thing is more important,” Da Mosto said.”The only thing we can do for the climate is to prepare. That requires appropriate policies and investments and responsible engineering. And because the political context of Venice is so wrong, Venice doesn’t have a chance at the moment.”
 
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Google’s head of philanthropy says the company is having “a lot of conversations” internally amid worries about the tech giant’s bottomless appetite for consumer data and how it uses its algorithms.
                   
Vice President Jacqueline Fuller wouldn’t comment on specific data privacy controversies dogging Google lately, but says she shares other concerns many have about Big Tech. Cyberbullying. Hate speech amplified online. The impact of artificial intelligence on everything, from jobs to warfare.
                   
“As a consumer myself, as part of the general public, as a mother, it’s very important to understand what am I seeing, what are my children seeing,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, where she announced new grant winners Tuesday for projects aimed at teaching digital skills to poor, immigrant, rural or elderly users.
                   
The philanthropic arm she runs, Google.org, is like the company’s conscience, spending $100 million a year on non-profit groups that use technology to try to counteract problems the tech world is accused of creating, abetting or exacerbating.
                  
“Across the world we want to make sure we’re a responsible citizen,” she said.
But can Google’s do-good arm make up for everything else? At least it’s trying, she argues.
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“The company is having a lot of conversations around things like access to information and access to data and making sure there’s no algorithmic bias,” she said.
                  
Public outrage has grown over Google’s use of consumer data and domination of the online search market, with governments stepping up scrutiny of the company.
                   
Just in the past week, nine groups called for the U.S. government to block Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, citing privacy and antitrust concerns. Then Google came under fire for a partnership with U.S. health care system Ascension that the Wall Street Journal says gives the search giant access to thousands of patient health records without doctors’ knowledge. Both companies say the deal is compliant with health-privacy law.
                   
Fuller wouldn’t comment specifically on either case, but said, “We take our users’ trust very seriously.”
                   
She also insisted that the company has a very vibrant discussion'' internally about sexual misconduct, human rights and other problems that have tarnished Google's reputation.
                   
Its philanthropic arm is focused lately on using artificial intelligence to help society, for example by providing better access to health care and more effective emergency services. It's also working on ways to limit the damage of the breakneck developments of AI, notably after employee departures and public pressure over a Pentagon contract pushed the company to pledge it wouldn't use AI in weapons development.
                   
Among projects Google.org is funding are those that help users create and share digital resumes or map job opportunities, as the company tries to figure out “how can we anticipate some of the impacts of AI in an economy, and understand how can we make sure that everyone has access to jobs that are not only interesting now but jobs that are going to be here in the future,” Fuller said.
                   
Google is also holding a competition this year in Europe for projects on “how we can keep children safe,” she said.
                   
Digital literacy is crucial, she said:All of us need to discern what is truthful of what I see online. How do I ask the questions of who is sponsoring this content.”
                   
In Paris, Fuller announced the winners of Google.org’s latest “Impact Challenge,” contests it holds around the world for non-profits using technology for good. Ten groups won grants worth a total of 3 million euros for projects helping the millions of people in France who lack the basic digital skills that are increasingly crucial for everything from paying taxes to finding a job.
                   
Despite its philanthropic efforts, Google’s critics remain legion _ even within the tech universe.
                   
Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris argues technology is shortening our attention spans and pushing people toward more extreme views. He couldn’t get Google to tackle these problems when he was there, so he quit and is pushing for change through his Center for Human Technologies.
                   
He says companies like Google won’t change voluntarily but that the tech world has undergone a “sea change” in awareness of problems it’s caused, thanks in part to pressure from a frustrated public. 
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Swedish prosecutors have dropped a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.The probe began when a Swedish woman accused him in 2010 of having unprotected sex with her while she was sleeping, after she repeatedly refused to have unprotected sex with him.Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson told reporters the case was dropped although prosecutors found the woman’s claim “credible.””My assessment is that all investigative measures that can be taken have been taken,” Persson said. “But… the evidence is not strong enough to file an indictment.”Assange, an Australian citizen, has repeatedly denied the allegation.The statute of limitations in the case was set to expire in August 2020.Tuesday’s decision by Sweden’s prosecution authority follows a June court ruling that Assange should not be detained.Assange was evicted from the Ecuador Embassy in London two months before the June decision after seven years of diplomat refuge.British authorities arrested him immediately and he is now serving a 50-week sentence in a London prison for jumping bail in 2012.Assange, an Australian citizen, has repeatedly denied the 2010 allegation against him.Assange is also battling extradition to the U.S., which says he is facing charges for publishing secret documents. 
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Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president.Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government was seeking military aid from the United States to defend against Russian aggression and allies of President Donald Trump were ramping up efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.Ukraine awarded the contract to Perry’s supporters little more than a month after the U.S. energy secretary attended Zelenskiy’s May inauguration. In a meeting during that trip, Perry handed the new president a list of people he recommended as energy advisers. One of the four names was his longtime political backer Michael Bleyzer.A week later, Bleyzer and his partner Alex Cranberg submitted a bid to drill for oil and gas at a sprawling government-controlled site called Varvynska. They offered millions of dollars less to the Ukrainian government than their only competitor for the drilling rights, according to internal Ukrainian government documents obtained by The Associated Press. But their newly created joint venture, Ukrainian Energy, was awarded the 50-year contract because a government-appointed commission determined they had greater technical expertise and stronger financial backing, the documents show.Perry likely had outsized influence in Ukraine. Testimony in the impeachment inquiry into Trump shows the energy secretary was one of three key U.S. officials who were negotiating a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader.White House and State Department officials have testified that the president would only meet with Zelenskiy if he committed to launching an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter. In the impeachment inquiry against Trump, the officials have also said that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was being withheld until Zelenskiy publicly announced such an investigation.The sequence of events suggests the Trump administration’s political maneuvering in Ukraine was entwined with the big business of the energy trade.Perry made clear during trips to Kyiv that he was close to Bleyzer, a Ukrainian-American investor and longtime Perry supporter who lives in Houston, and Cranberg, a Republican mega-donor who provided Perry the use of a luxury corporate jet during the energy secretary’s failed 2012 presidential bid.Perry’s spokeswoman said Wednesday that the energy secretary has championed the American energy industry all over the world, including in Ukraine.“What he did not do is advocate for the business interests of any one individual or company,” said Shaylyn Hynes, the press secretary for the Energy Department.Jessica Tillipman, who teaches anti-corruption law at George Washington University, said even if Perry did seek to influence foreign officials to award contracts to his friends, it is likely not illegal.“My gut says it’s no crime,” she said. “It’s just icky.”Zelenskiy’s office did not respond to requests for comment.In a statement to AP, Bleyzer denied that Perry helped his firm get the gas deal.“I believe that Secretary Perry’s conversations with Ukrainian government officials, if they in fact took place, did not play any role in Ukrainian Energy winning its bid,” Bleyzer said Tuesday. He said the process was competitive and transparent and “will hopefully serve as an example of how the Ukrainian energy market can be opened for new investments.”Amy Flakne, a lawyer for Cranberg’s company Aspect Holdings, said Wednesday that Perry and other U.S. officials supported “a fair, competitive process to bring foreign capital and technology to Ukraine’s lagging energy sector.”“Aspect neither sought, nor to our knowledge received, special intervention on its behalf,” Flakne said.‘FREEDOM GAS’As Trump’s energy secretary, Perry has flown around the globe to push for U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas, which he calls “Freedom Gas.” He’s made multiple trips to Ukraine and other former Soviet-bloc nations, where shipments of American gas and drilling technology take on strategic importance as a potential alternative to continued dependence on imports from Russia.Ukraine has long suffered from a reputation for political corruption, particularly in its oil and gas sector. In the chaotic days following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Ukrainian government sold off many state-owned businesses worth billions to a cadre of well-connected oligarchs who amassed immense fortunes.As Ukraine sought economic and security support from the U.S. and other Western democracies, those countries pressed it to put in place a more open and transparent process for awarding oil and gas exploration rights on state land.At the urging of Western partners, Ukraine’s government created a process requiring that exploration contracts be put out to bid and awarded following review from a selection board appointed by the president’s cabinet of ministers. The board recommends the winners, pending final approval from the ministers.Those Western partners also advised Ukraine to appoint an independent supervisory board at Naftogaz, the state-owned energy company, as a guard against corruption and self-dealing.In February, the Ukrainian government opened up bidding for nine oil and gas blocks encompassing 4,428 square miles (11,469 square kilometers) of land. Ukrainian Energy, the joint venture between Bleyzer’s investment firm SigmaBleyzer and Cranberg’s Aspect Energy, submitted a single bid for the largest block, which covers 1,340 square miles (3,471 square kilometers).Under the contracts, the winning bidder is awarded exclusive rights to extract petroleum for up to 50 years. After the initial costs are recovered, the company and the government split the profits.An internal review of the proposals by the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining obtained by the AP show they were not the highest bidder.The only competing bidder, UkrGasVydobuvannya, known by the acronym UGV, offered more than $60 million for the first phase of the project, compared with $53 million from Bleyzer and Cranberg, the document shows. UGV is Ukraine’s largest domestic gas producer and is a subsidiary of Naftogaz, the state-owned company where Perry sought to replace board members.Despite the lower upfront investment, the selection board gave the Americans higher scores for technical expertise and overall financial resources, according to the document reviewed by AP.Of the nine gas deals awarded on July 1, Bleyzer and Cranberg’s bid was the only one of the winners that didn’t include the participation of a Ukrainian company. UGV won four of the remaining bids.Two members of the board that helped select the bid winners told the AP that the process is designed to be difficult to improperly influence because it is a mix of government representatives and industry experts.Roman Opimakh, a commission member who is the head of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine, said the government was looking for foreign investment, particularly U.S., and the board considered that as a factor. He said it’s an advantage if a company is well-connected in Washington but added that he saw no indication that U.S. officials influenced the process.Perry, who served 14 years as the governor of Texas, has publicly championed the potential of U.S. hydraulic fracturing technology to boost oil and gas production in Ukraine and pressed for the bidding process to be opened up to U.S. companies.At an energy industry roundtable in Kyiv in November 2018, Perry said the potential for oil and gas development in Ukraine is “staggering.” Ukraine, he declared, had a chance to become “the Texas of Europe.”At the same event, which was co-sponsored by the nonprofit U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, Perry plugged Cranberg’s expertise. Both Cranberg and Bleyzer were in the room, along with several American and Ukrainian energy industry officials.“You know, Alex Cranberg, who has been in this business a long time, can attest to this probably as well as anyone sitting around the table, that we have the potential to change the world,” Perry said, according to a transcript released by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.During the same 2018 trip, Perry had a private meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where they discussed deepening the ties between the two country’s energy industries, according to a U.S. Embassy summary of the meetingRecords suggest Perry has also met regularly with Bleyzer. Visitor logs released by the Energy Department through a public records request show Bleyzer entering through the VIP check-in desk at the building where Perry’s office is at least three times, most recently on May 8.Less than two weeks later, Perry was on a plane to Kyiv to attend the inauguration ceremony for Zelenskiy, who had defeated Poroshenko in an April election. It was during that trip that Perry presented his list of recommended advisers that included Bleyzer and remarked on their long friendship, according to a person in the room who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Attendees left the meeting with the impression that Perry wanted to replace an American representative on the Naftogaz board with someone “reputable in Republican circles,” according to the person who was there.Bleyzer said Tuesday that he had been included in what he described as a brainstorming session with Energy Department officials about creating an informal group knowledgeable about Ukraine’s energy industry to help develop U.S. strategy, but he had no idea his name would be forwarded to the country’s new president.“I was not aware at any time that my name was recommended by Secretary Perry to the Ukrainian government to act in any capacity,” Bleyzer said.Perry’s work in Ukraine places him at the center of the House impeachment inquiry into efforts by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to press Zelenskiy to open an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings with Burisma, another Ukrainian gas company.Perry, who announced last month that he is resigning by the end of the year, has refused to cooperate with the congressional probe. In an Oct. 4 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Perry said that “as God as my witness” he never discussed Biden or his son in meetings with Ukrainian or U.S. officials.But Perry was at the White House for a key July 10 meeting where senior Ukrainian officials were told continued U.S. support was conditional on Zelenskiy’s government opening investigations into Democrats and Burisma, Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an aide on Trump’s National Security Council, testified last month.TEXAS TIESBleyzer and Perry’s ties go back at least a decade. As governor, Perry appointed Bleyzer in 2009 to serve as a member of a Texas state advisory board overseeing state funding to emerging technology ventures. The following year, Bleyzer contributed $30,000 to Perry’s 2010 campaign for Texas governor.The Ukrainian-born Texan cuts a flamboyant figure in the energy world. A 2012 profile in the Houston Chronicle is set in his modernist 15,000-square-foot mansion. In an accompanying photo, he stands next to his wife, a mane of gray hair to his shoulders, on a balcony overlooking a swimming pool.A former engineer at Exxon, Bleyzer was born in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and trained in digital electronics and quantum physics. In 1994, he founded SigmaBleyzer Investment group, a private equity firm that specializes in developing corporate stakes in Eastern Europe. The company says it manages about $1 billion in assets.Bleyzer also has ties to Giuliani. In 2008, Bleyzer’s company hired Giuliani’s former Houston-based law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, to help it acquire and consolidate cable holdings in 16 Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, according to an announcement at the time. The same year, Bleyzer donated $2,300 to Giuliani’s presidential campaign.Bleyzer’s company is the primary funder of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, which promotes the interests of American businesses operating in Ukraine. According to tax records, the business council is run out of the Washington, D.C, offices of its president and CEO, Morgan Williams, who is also listed as the government affairs director for SigmaBleyzer.The council, which sponsors events that feature senior U.S. and Ukrainian government officials, pushes for policy priorities that dovetail with Bleyzer’s business interests — including lobbying to create the very process that opened Ukraine’s state-controlled oil and gas fields to foreign investment, according to the webpage of the state geology service.Days after the government in Ukraine posted the gas blocks for bidding in February, visitor logs show Williams accompanied Bleyzer through the VIP entrance at the Energy Department.On May 28, the day the bids were due in Kyiv, Williams again accompanied Bleyzer, who photos show was sporting a Western-style shirt with a Stars and Stripes pattern, to the offices of Ukraine’s energy ministry to submit their company’s bid.On June 5 — while Bleyzer and Cranberg’s proposal was under review — Williams met with a key Zelenskiy adviser, Oleg Ustenko, and told him that significant expansion of oil and gas production in Ukraine could only be achieved with investments from private companies, including ones from the United States, according to a summary of the meeting posted on the business council’s website.In an apparent dig at the company competing against Bleyzer and Cranberg for the gas deal, Williams also told Ustenko that the “participation of the state monopoly player” undermined the chances of private companies to win, according to the summary.What the council’s media release failed to mention is that, like Williams, Ustenko serves dual roles. In addition to advising the Ukrainian president, the economist is the longtime executive director of The Bleyzer Foundation, a Kyiv-based nonprofit organization founded by Bleyzer in 2001. The group’s website describes its mission as promoting private-sector investment in Ukraine.Less than four weeks later, Ukraine Energy was named the winner of the Varvynska block over the Naftogaz subsidiary.Bleyzer would not say whether he considered it a conflict for his employee to simultaneously be leading the international trade group while also advocating for his private business interests.He said the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council is just one of many organizations that strongly support the participation of foreign companies in the bidding process “as one of the key factors in helping Ukraine achieve its energy independence from Russia.”As with Bleyzer, Cranberg also has longtime ties to Perry.A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, Cranberg was appointed by Perry in 2011 to serve a six-year term on the state university system’s board of regents. He is a generous political donor, giving more than $3 million since the mid-1980s primarily to Republican candidates and fundraising committees, according to federal and state campaign finance records.In the last 13 months, Cranberg has contributed just over $650,000 to two committees focused on electing Republicans to House seats, $637,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and $258,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. He and his wife each gave $50,000 last April to Trump Victory, the joint entity that funds the president’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.When Perry campaigned for president in 2011, federal disclosures show his campaign paid more than $16,000 to a holding company for a private jet used by Cranberg.Cranberg is also among those who entered through the VIP desk at the Energy Department, logging in with his wife for a visit in April 2018.Last year, his company hired Perry’s former campaign manager, Jeff Miller, as a lobbyist. Miller has been to the Energy Department’s headquarters at least a dozen times since Perry became secretary, according to the visitor logs. He mostly signed in through the VIP entrance.
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In her first public appearance since being deported by U.S. authorities who had jailed her for being a Russian agent, Maria Butina was on Monday offered a job by Moscow to defend Russians imprisoned abroad.During an event for the media, Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, offered Butina, 31, a job working for her commission.”I invite you to work in our group defending compatriots abroad. I’m sure together we’ll be able to do a lot of good for people who’ve ended up in tough situations abroad,” Moskalkova said.Butina, who flew back to Russia on Oct. 26 after being deported, did not say whether she would accept the offer made at what she called her first public appearance since she was mobbed by wellwishers in front of the media at the airport on her arrival home.Butina pleaded guilty in December last year to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a gun rights group and influencing U.S. conservative activists and Republicans, a conviction slammed as ridiculous by Moscow.Russia accused Washington of forcing Butina to confess.The case put strain on relations that were already under pressure from an array of issues including U.S. allegations of Russian election meddling and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.Moscow denies any inteference in U.S. elections.Moskalkova invited Butina to help her commission defend the rights of Russians abroad such as Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot serving 20 years in the United States for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the country.Moskalkova said she also knew that Butina had been offered a job in the State Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament, and urged her to accept that one too.The case of Yaroshenko, who was arrested by U.S. special forces in Liberia in 2010, and others like it have prompted Russia to accuse the United States of hunting its citizens across the world.The United States has accused the Russians in question of specific crimes and sought their extradition and arrest with regard to those crimes.Russia said last week it had lodged a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian man to the United States where he faces a slew of serious cyber crime charges. 
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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko maintained his hold on power after results published Monday showed not a single opposition candidate had won a seat in a weekend parliamentary election.Lukashenko has governed the former Soviet republic with an iron fist for a quarter of a century and he announced on Sunday he would stand again in the 2020 presidential election.The 65-year-old has given more leeway to the opposition and released political prisoners in recent years in a bid to improve ties with the West after disputes with traditional ally Moscow.But official data on Monday showed, on a 77% turnout, no opposition figure won a seat. At the last election in 2016, two opposition members won seats for the first time in 20 years but neither was allowed to stand again this time around.FILE – Members of a local election commission sort ballots before starting to count votes after the parliamentary election in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 17, 2019.”The (election) result has long been determined. The authorities selected approved candidates. A change of power in Belarus is not possible through elections,” Nikolai Statkevich, a leading opposition figure, told Reuters.Western monitoring agencies have not judged a Belarus election to be free and fair since 1995, and on Monday international observers criticized the lack of a level playing field and questioned whether results were reported honestly.”These elections have demonstrated an overall lack of respect for democratic commitments,” said Margareta Cederfelt, leader of an observer mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).”Parliamentary elections are in danger of becoming a formality,” she added.The European Union called the election a “lost opportunity” to conduct a fair vote and urged Minsk to carry out reforms ahead of the presidential election next year.”This will also be key for achieving the full potential of EU-Belarus relations, building on the positive cooperation of the last three years,” it said in a statement.Yauheni Preiherman, director of the Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations, said Sunday’s election result was unlikely to lead to a freeze in ties with the EU because other issues were at stake in the relationship.The EU and Minsk are negotiating an agreement on a simplified visa regime, while Brussels is also pressing Belarus to abolish the death penalty.Lukashenko: ‘Trust me’Lukashenko said on Sunday the Belarusian people could vote him out of office next year if they no longer wanted him.”I have promised that I would not hang on to this seat until my fingers turn blue. Trust me, it’s not really the softest chair,” he told reporters.U.S. and EU sanctions imposed on Belarus over its treatment of political opponents were mostly lifted in 2016 following the release of political prisoners and other reforms.In September, the United States and Belarus announced they would resume ambassadorial relations for the first time since 2008.Relations with Russia suffered after Minsk refused to recognize Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Moscow also cut subsidies to Belarus that have long kept the country of 9.5 million in its orbit.
 
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Pope Francis on Monday replaced the head of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency amid continuing fallout from a controversial Vatican police raid on the agency’s offices that jeopardized the Holy See’s international financial reputation.Francis thanked Rene Bruelhart for his work as president of the Financial Intelligence Authority as his term ended. The Vatican said the replacement’s name would be released next week.The AIF board had given its full support to AIF’s management after the Oct. 1 raid, which was sparked by a police investigation into a Vatican real estate deal in London.But even with that vote of support, international damage to the Holy See’s reputation was done.AIF works with financial intelligence units around the world in the fight against money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes. Officials expressed alarm that countries could be less willing to share confidential information with AIF in the future if that could so easily end up in the hands of Vatican police.FILE – Rene Bruelhart, president of the Vatican Financial Information Authority, right, and Tommaso Di Ruzza, director of the Vatican Financial Information Authority, talk to the media at the Vatican, April 28, 2016.According to the search warrant, which was seen by The Associated Press, Vatican prosecutors only alleged that the AIF’s actions in the real estate operation were “not clear” and faulted its director, Tommaso Di Ruzza, for being in contact with a London law firm.Prosecutors appeared to have misunderstood that AIF was working with Britain’s financial intelligence unit to try to catch the businessmen who were fleecing the Holy See in the real estate deal.The Vatican’s secretariat of state had put 150 million euros into the luxury apartment building in London’s tony Chelsea neighborhood, only to see tens of millions end up in the pockets of middlemen who were managing the venture.The secretariat of state in 2018 decided to buy the building outright while working with British authorities to nab the middlemen. But internally, the Vatican bank and auditor general’s office raised an alarm with Vatican prosecutors that the buyout looked suspicious, sparking the raids on AIF and the secretariat of state.As a result, the Vatican investigation appears more the result of an internal turf battle — between the Vatican bank on one side, and the secretariat of state and AIF on the other — over the secretariat of state’s sizeable financial assets, which are kept outside the bank and off the Vatican’s balance sheet.The Swiss-born Bruelhart, dubbed the 007 of anti-money laundering efforts by some media, had joined the Vatican in 2012 to help turn around its reputation as a scandal-marred offshore tax haven. Under his leadership, the Vatican won coveted membership in the Egmont Group, which groups financial information agencies from 130 countries to share information in the global fight against money laundering and terror financing.Then-Pope Benedict XVI created AIF in 2010 as part of the Vatican’s push to comply with international norms to fight money laundering.Bruelhart’s departure, coupled with the continued suspension of the AIF’s director di Ruzza, means that the AIF is without a leader going into a crucial period of consultations with Moneyval evaluators ahead of a regularly scheduled on-site visit early next year.
 
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The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran’s stock of heavy water for reactors has surpassed the limit set under its agreement with world powers.The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that Iran’s heavy water production plant was in operation and that its stock of heavy water reserves was 131.5 tons, above the 130-ton limit.”On 17 November, the Agency verified that the Heavy Water Production Plant (HWPP) was in operation and that Iran’s stock of heavy water was 131.5 metric tonnes,” an IAEA spokesperson said.It was the first time the agency has recorded a volume greater than the level agreed upon as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached in 2015 with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and the European Union.The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from it in May last year, after which Iran began reducing its commitments in a bid to win concessions from those still party to the accord.Heavy water is not itself radioactive but is used by some nuclear reactors to absorb neutrons from nuclear fission.Heavy water reactors can be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons as an alternative to enriched uranium.Earlier this month meanwhile, the IAEA reported that uranium particles had been detected at an undeclared site in Iran.The report also confirmed that Iran has ramped up uranium enrichment, in breach of the 2015 deal, feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into previously mothballed enrichment centrifuges at the underground Fordow plant south of Tehran.Since September, Iran has also been producing enriched uranium at a known facility in Natanz.It has exceeded a 300-kilogram limit on stocks of enriched uranium and has breached a uranium enrichment cap of 3.67 percent.At 4.5 percent, the level nonetheless remained well below the more than 90-percent level required for a nuclear warhead.
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Riot police in Tbilisi have begun using water cannons and launching volleys of tear gas at protesters who were blocking the entrance to parliament until early elections are called.Hundreds of demonstrators were gathered for a fourth day on Monday to protest parliament’s rejection of constitutional amendments on the transition to a proportional electoral system when riot police moved in.Live broadcasts from the scene showed demonstrators huddled in large groups as they were sprayed with water.The move appeared to have little immediate effect, and soon after clouds of tear gas could be seen wafting through the area and large groups of riot police slowly moved forward on the crowd, forcing many protesters to retreat.The rally “has gone beyond the law,” the Interior Ministry said earlier in the day in a statement.Concern that the protest could spill over into violence has risen among Western diplomats.On November 17, the United States and the European Union called on the Georgian government, political parties, and civil society to engage in a “calm and respectful dialogue” over the snap elections.Changing the system from a mixed system to a proportional one from 2020 was one of the demands of thousands of demonstrators who rallied for weeks in Tbilisi in June and July.The legislature currently has proportional representation for about half of the body’s seats.Opposition parties say the current electoral system unfairly favors the ruling Georgian Dream party.The Georgian Dream party, including its billionaire founder and leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, backed the accelerated reforms, but the measure still failed to pass.That prompted some lawmakers, including Deputy Speaker Tamar Khangoshvili, to resign from the party.Nonetheless, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, who is also the Georgian Dream general secretary, said voters should wait to voice their opinions at the ballot box.”It’s less than a year before an election. Accordingly, we are no longer going to consider any new initiative in connection with the election system. Elections will be held in constitutional terms, with the highest democratic standard and with a high inclusion of society,” he said.”Therefore, we urge opponents to prepare for the elections and not to blame the lack of popular support for the electoral system,” the former international football star added.The EU delegation to Georgia and the U.S. Embassy said in a joint statement on November 17 that they “recognize the deep disappointment of a wide segment of Georgian society at the failure of Parliament to pass the constitutional amendments.”The halting of the transition to proportional elections “has increased mistrust and heightened tensions between the ruling party and other political parties and civil society,” the statement said.The vote has also prompted criticism from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). 
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry says three Ukrainian naval ships that were seized in a shooting confrontation nearly a year ago have been returned.
                   
The two gunboats and a tug were taken by the Russian coast guard on Nov. 25, 2018, as they passed through the Kerch Strait that connects the Black Sea with the Azov Sea, en route to their home port in Mariupol.
                   
The Kerch Strait runs between mainland Russia and Russia-annexed Crimea. Russia claimed the ships violated procedures for transiting the strait.
                   
The Russian coast guard fired shots and seized 24 Ukrainian sailors. The sailors were detained for 10 months and returned home in September as part of a prisoner exchange.
                   
A Russian ministry statement said the ship handover took place Monday but did not give further details.
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Heavy police presence in Athens appeared to have prevented serious clashes Sunday with anarchists and other extreme leftists on the 46th anniversary of a student uprising against the then-ruling Greek military dictatorship.Over 20,000 people made the traditional march from the National Technical University of Athens, site of the 1973 uprising, to the U.S. Embassy on Sunday.Police said about 10,000 people participated in a Communist Party rally and a further 1,000 marched with the formerly ruling leftist Syriza party, both separate from the main march with over 10,000 participants. Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras started the march with Syriza but left before the halfway point.Police say they arrested 28 people in clashes after the march, mostly in the Exarchia neighborhood near the university, and detained a further 13.A recent crackdown by the conservative government on extreme leftist activity in Exarchia, a known anarchist haven and counterculture center, and another nearby university, the Athens University of Economics and Business, had raised fears of possible heavy clashes. More than 5,000 officers were deployed, focused on preventing rioters from occupying the rooftops of apartment buildings and hurling firebombs and rocks into the streets below, as happened two years ago.Police tactics appeared to have worked, and the first six arrests, shortly after the march, were of people who had sneaked firebombs, rocks, gas masks and other paraphernalia onto a rooftop close to Exarchia’s main square.There were reports of police violence, including from a news site reporter who said he was attacked while filming riot police pursuing protesters. He appeared in a video with his face bruised.Clashes with police also took place in the northern city of Thessaloniki, again after marches in which almost 10,000 took part, as well as in other Greek cities.In Thessaloniki, vehicles were set on fire. Police said they detained 14 people in Thessaloniki and 17 in two other Greek cities. They said 2 police officers were injured, but did not specify the city.
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Pope Francis hosted 1,500 poor and needy people for lunch on Sunday at the Vatican. Earlier he celebrated Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark World Day of the Poor.Some 150 round tables were prepared in the large Vatican hall where the pope normally holds his indoor audiences with the faithful during the winter months.  There he hosted lunch for poor people, including migrants and about 50 volunteers who work with the needy.Before lunch was served, the pope thanked all those present and asked God to bless them and their families. The menu for all the pope’s guests was lasagne, chicken with cream of mushroom sauce and potatoes, dessert, fruit and espresso coffee. Elsewhere in Rome, another 1,500 needy people were also served lunch and in many parishes.Earlier on Sunday the pope celebrated a special mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to raise awareness about the poor in the world. The mass was attended by the poor and the volunteers who later lunched with the pope. During the service, Pope Francis said the poor “facilitate our access to heaven” and described them as “the treasure of the Church.”People wait for Pope Francis arrival for a lunch in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Nov. 17, 2019.Francis encouraged the faithful not to feel annoyed when the poor knock on our doors, but to welcome them and help them as much as possible.”How many elderly, babies, disabled and poor people are considered useless”, the pope said in his homily adding that “we go our way in haste, without worrying that gaps are increasing, that the greed of a few is adding to the poverty of many others.”The pope told the faithful to ask themselves the questions: “Do I help someone who has nothing to give me in return? Do I, as Christian, have at least one poor person as a friend?”The pope, who chose the name Francis after the saint of the poor, has focused his attention on the world’s marginalized since the start of his papacy. 
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A senior official from Britain’s main opposition Labour Party says that leaks from a parliamentary report on Russian interference in British politics raises important questions about the fairness of next month’s general election.An 18-month-long investigation by the British parliament’s cross-party intelligence committee has concluded Russian meddling may have impacted Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, though the panel couldn’t decide how much it affected the vote. The leak of the report’s conclusion, published in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, is adding to pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to publish the full findings of the inquiry before Britons head to the polls on December 12.Emily Thornberry, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson, said the disclosure that Russian meddling may have distorted the Brexit vote raises questions about how next month’s election can be safeguarded. “If it is correct that our security services have been unable to reach a conclusion about the extent or impact of Russian interference in the 2016 referendum, then it raises serious questions which require serious answers,” she said.If the report is not immediately published by Johnson “people will rightly continue to ask: what is he trying to hide from the British public and why,” she added.Opponents have accused the government of sitting on the report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), despite the fact that the country’s security services have cleared it for publication. Witnesses who testified to the panel say the report will contain embarrassing disclosures about the funding of the ruling Conservatives by London-based Russian oligarchs tied to the Kremlin or Russian intelligence agencies.FILE – Marina Litvinenko, widow of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, addresses media following pre-inquest review, London, Dec. 13, 2012.The delay in publishing the report could well become the subject of at lest one court action this week, and possibly more. Lawyers acting for the widow of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and Russian dissident who was murdered with a radioactive isotope in 2006, sent Johnson a letter last week saying she planned to take legal action unless the report’s findings are released in full ahead of the election. An official British inquiry concluded Litvinenko was murdered on the orders of the Kremlin.Marina Litvinenko’s says there’s “profound public interest in the information being disclosed to the public, so they are fully informed of the extent of Russian interference in British politics before they go to the polls on 12 December 2019.”An urgent legal challenge is also being planned to force the government’s hand by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has written to Downing Street demanding publication. Lawyers for the bureau are planning to ask for a judicial reviewRachel Oldroyd, managing editor of the bureau, said in a statement: “The absolute minimum voters in any democratic election should expect is the knowledge that the previous election was fair and free of outside interference. British voters are being denied that.”Security minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News Sunday that the report couldn’t be published during the election campaign, which officially got underway last week, because of rules which restrict government announcements during the run-up to a general election.“We want to make sure, particularly where national security is involved, we go through that process properly and thoroughly,” he said. “We can’t publish things during the general election … but after the general election that report will be published,” he said.FILE – MP Dominic Grieve, the head of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, is seen at the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester, Britain, Sept. 30, 2019.But critics, including former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who chaired the committee, say the 50-page dossier, which examined the level of Russian infiltration of the higher ranks of British politics as well as allegations of a Kremlin-sponsored influence campaign during the 2016 referendum, was vetted by the country’s security agencies days before the election was called and could have been released before electioneering was in full swing.The report “comments directly on what has been seen as a perceived threat to our democratic processes,” says Grieve. He says members of the committee had expected Johnson to approve publication ahead of the election.“Someone in Downing Street calculated that it was less embarrassing to suppress the intelligence and security committee’s report into Russian interference in the UK than it was to publish it,” according to Oliver Bullough, author of the book “Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back.”According to the Sunday Times, the parliamentary panel found that anti-EU, pro-Brexit articles disseminated by Kremlin-controlled outlets in the run-up to the referendum campaign had four times more social media impact than those put out by British Leave campaigns. The report also reportedly criticizes British intelligence agencies for failing to devote sufficient resources to combat Kremlin meddling in British politics.Johnson dismissed claims Friday that he was suppressing the report to save the Conservatives from embarrassment and he defended taking money from Russian oligarchs living in London, saying there’s no evidence of Moscow interference.“All donations to the Conservative Party are properly vetted and properly publicized,” he said during a BBC radio interview. He added: “I think that you’ve got to be very careful before you simply cast aspersions on everybody who comes from a certain country just because of their nationality.”
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Pope Francis has agendas both pastoral and personal for his trip to Asia, where he’ll appeal for global nuclear disarmament at the sites of the atomic bomb and minister to two tiny Catholic communities that have suffered gruesome periods of persecution.Emphasizing the dignity of life is also on Francis’ to-do list for his trip to Thailand and Japan that begins Wednesday, given the scourge of human trafficking in Thailand and Japan’s use of capital punishment and high suicide rate.As a young Jesuit, Francis dreamed of being a missionary in Japan, inspired by the courage of Japan’s Hidden Christians, who braved two centuries of persecution to keep their faith alive.“In some way, this is the fulfilment of his dream,” said the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, editor of AsiaNews, a Vatican-affiliated news service.In Thailand, Francis will also be reunited with his second cousin, Sister Ana Rose Sivori, an Argentine nun who has lived in Thailand since 1966 and will serve as Francis’ official translator there.Here are some highlights of Francis’ pilgrimage, his fourth to Asia and one that could also touch on the Vatican’s delicate relations with China:Asian martyrs and missionariesOne of the highlights of the trip will be Francis’ prayer at the memorial of the 26 Nagasaki Martyrs, who were crucified in 1597 at the start of a two-century wave of anti-Christian persecution by Japanese rulers.Francis’ own Jesuit order had introduced Christianity to Japan with the arrival of St. Francis Xavier on the archipelago in 1549. After converting more than a quarter-million Japanese, missionaries were banned at the start of the 17th century. Japanese Christians were forced to renounce their faith, suffer tortuous deaths or go underground.Francis will greet some descendants of these Hidden Christians, whose story was recounted in the 2016 Martin Scorsese film “Silence.”Francis will also honor Thailand’s World War II-era martyrs, who were victims of anti-Christian persecution by Thais who viewed Christianity as foreign and associated with French colonial powers. Francis will pray at the sanctuary for Thailand’s first martyred priest, Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, who was beatified in 2000.A banner with portrait of Pope Francis is displayed inside St. Joseph Convent School ahead of Pope’s visit to Thailand, in Bangkok, Nov. 9, 2019.The pope says no nukesFrancis has gone further than any other pope by saying that not only the use, but the mere possession of nuclear weapons is “to be firmly condemned.” Japanese bishops are hoping he goes even further and calls for a ban on nuclear power.Francis will likely repeat his appeal for a total ban on the bomb when he visits Nagasaki and Hiroshima, meets with survivors of the 1945 bombings there as well as victims of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in northern Japan.An offshore magnitude-9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that knocked out power for the cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant, displacing more than 100,000 people and coating the area with radioactive waste. In response, Japanese bishops in 2016 called for the abolition of nuclear power to protect “our common home.”“We can only hope” Francis will speak about nuclear power, given his frequent exhortation to care for the environment, said Nagoya Bishop Michael Goro Matsuura.Minority Catholics and interfaith dialogueCatholics make up just .59 percent of Thailand’s population of 65 million, most of whom are Buddhist. The percentage is even lower in Japan – estimated at .42 percent of the mostly Shinto and Buddhist population of 126 million.As a result, Francis will be stressing interfaith ties and the positive role Catholics can play in mostly Buddhist societies, “especially in the service of the poor, the needy and for peace,” he said in a video message to Thais.The pope on life and deathFrancis has made the fight against human trafficking a cornerstone of his papacy, a message that is likely to resonate in Thailand, which the U.N. considers a key trafficking destination as well as a source of forced labor and sex slaves.In Japan, hopes are high among Catholics that Francis will send a message opposing the death penalty, and perhaps meet with a former boxer and human rights activist held for nearly five decades on death row.Death row inmate Iwao Hakamada (L), flanked by his sister Hideko, is released from Tokyo Detention House in Tokyo, in this photo taken by Kyodo, March 27, 2014.The Vatican confirmed that Iwao Hakamada, who converted to Catholicism while in prison, has been invited to the pope’s Mass in Tokyo, but it’s not clear if he will make it. Hakamada is awaiting a Supreme Court decision after being freed when his verdict was overturned in a lower court.Tomoki Yanagawa, who works at the Jesuit Social Center in Tokyo, said a papal statement about the death penalty would help raise awareness in Japan.“I hope he will speak about the preciousness of life and clearly denounce what trivializes life,” said Yanagawa.Francis changed Catholic teaching last year by declaring the death penalty “inadmissible” in all cases. He has also denounced today’s “throwaway culture” where euthanasia, abortion and suicide are often considered acceptable – a message that could resonate in Japan, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world.Vatican-China relationsWhen Francis travels from Bangkok to Tokyo next Saturday, he’ll fly through Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong airspace – and will send telegrams to their leaders as part of typical papal protocol.That could offer Francis a rare opportunity to address not only the current democracy protests in Hong Kong, but the Vatican’s delicate relations with Beijing. It would be the first such opportunity following last year’s agreement with China over Catholic bishop nominations. The pact aimed to unite China’s Catholics, who are divided between an underground church and an official one.The agreement has been hailed as a milestone by the Vatican, but critics point to continued persecution of underground prelates, including a report last week by AsiaNews that the underground bishop of Mindong was being hounded by Chinese security agents. Monsignor Vincenzo Guo Xijn had stepped aside to allow an official bishop be named as part of the 2018 Vatican deal with China. 
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The owner of a kebab shop targeted in a deadly far-right attack in the German city of Halle last month has gifted the eatery to the two brothers who were working there during the shooting.Siblings Ismet and Rifat Tekin received a framed letter transferring the ownership of the Kiez-Doener to them in a ceremony on Saturday as the restaurant reopened for the first time since the October 9 attack.”I wish my successors much strength in processing the terrible events of October 9, 2019 and hope they have many customers of different cultures and religions,” their former boss Izzet Cagac wrote in the letter, which was accompanied by a key.A 20-year-old customer was shot dead when a gunman opened fire on the kebab shop after earlier trying and failing to storm a synagogue. He also killed a female passer-by.The assailant, a suspected neo-Nazi, was arrested and later admitted that the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, fuelling concerns about an increasingly violent far-right scene in Germany.At the reopened kebab shop, a colorful memorial wall paid tribute to the victims and all customers could eat for free over the weekend, local media reported.Der Spiegel weekly praised Cagac’s gift as an act of hope.”In a society increasingly plagued by brutality and hatred, this gesture of solidarity and humanity offers a small ray of light,” it wrote.
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Venetians are bracing for the prospect of another exceptional tide in a season that is setting records.Officials are forecasting a 1.6 meter (5 feet, 2 inch) surge of water Sunday through the lagoon city. That comes after Tuesday’s 1.87-meter flood, the worst in 53 years, followed by high tide of 1.54 meters Friday.Those two events mark the first time since records began in 1872 that two floods topped 1.5 meters in the same year, much less the same week. The city’s mayor says the flooding damage are in “the hundreds of millions” and Italian officials have declared a state of emergency for the area.Tourists with suitcases were rushing to grab the last water taxis to get to the mainland Sunday before service is interrupted in anticipation of the high tide.
 
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Prince Andrew offered a detailed rebuttal Saturday to claims he had sex with a woman who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, providing an alibi for one of the alleged encounters and questioning the authenticity of a well-known photograph that shows him posing with the woman.In a rare interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew categorically denied having sex with the woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, saying, “It didn’t happen.”He said he has “no recollection” of ever meeting her and told an interviewer there are “a number of things that are wrong” about Giuffre’s account.Giuffre has said Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17. She says Epstein flew her around the world on his private planes to have sex with powerful men, and that she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London and New York and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.“I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said.A request for comment was sent to Giuffre’s representative. Giuffre recently challenged the British royal to speak out, telling reporters in New York, “He knows exactly what he’s done.”“And the answer is nothing,” Andrew told BBC.High-stakes interviewAndrew’s decision to grant the interview was seen in Britain as a high-stakes gamble in a country where the royals don’t normally talk with reporters on subjects beyond their charitable works.The nation’s newspapers, most of which featured photos from the interview along with the pre-released excerpts on their front pages Saturday, speculated that the prince thought he had no other choice after months of tawdry headlines that threatened his ability to continue working as a royal.Disputes photo, other claimsIn the wide-ranging interview, Andrew suggested a photograph Giuffre produced of her posing with Andrew could have been doctored, saying he “can’t be certain” that it actually shows his hand on the woman’s side.He said he was “at a loss to explain” the image, adding he is not given to public displays of affection. He said it also shows him wearing “traveling clothes,” noting he typically wears a suit and tie when he goes out in London, where the photograph purportedly was taken.“I’m afraid to say that I don’t believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested,” he said. “If the original was ever produced, then perhaps we might be able to solve it but I can’t.”Confronted with details of Giuffre’s claims, Andrew insisted he was home with his children on one of the nights Giuffre claims they had sex, saying it “couldn’t have happened.” He said he specifically recalled taking his daughter to a party at a Pizza Express that afternoon.Andrew sought to cast doubt on other parts of Giuffre’s account, including her recollection of Andrew sweating on her as they danced in a London night club.Andrew told BBC he has a “peculiar medical condition, which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time” after suffering an “overdose of adrenaline” after being shot at in the Falklands War, the 1982 conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
“It was almost impossible for me to sweat,” he said.Regrets friendshipAndrew also said he regrets not cutting ties with Epstein after the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida under a deal that required him to serve 13 months in jail and register as a sex offender.He saw Epstein following his release from custody in Florida and stayed at his New York mansion for several days. He said he ended his friendship with Epstein during that visit and did not have further contact with him.“It was the wrong decision to go and see him in 2010,” Andrew said. “I kick myself for (it) on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family.”Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with the elite and politically powerful, killed himself this summer while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of women.Andrew did not rule out cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation in the United States into Epstein’s associates, saying he would follow his lawyers’ advice.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says all Conservative Party candidates in the upcoming election have pledged to back his Brexit deal. “All 635 Conservative candidates standing at this election — every single one of them — has pledged to me that if elected they will vote in Parliament to pass my Brexit deal so we can end the uncertainty and finally leave the EU,” Johnson told London’s Telegraph newspaper in an interview published late on Saturday. “I am offering a pact with the people: If you vote Conservative you can be 100% sure a majority Conservative government will unblock Parliament and get Brexit done,” he said. The December 12 election was called to end three years of disagreement over Brexit that has sapped investors’ faith in the stability of the world’s fifth-largest economy and damaged Britain’s standing since it voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Johnson, 55, hopes to win a majority to push through the last-minute Brexit deal he struck with the EU last month after the bloc granted a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place March 29. Voters in a 2016 referendum narrowly voted in favor of leaving the EU. Johnson’s Conservatives lead Labour by sizable margins, four polls published Saturday show. A YouGov poll showed support for the Conservatives at 45%, the highest level since 2017, compared with Labour at 28%, unchanged. The pro-European Union Liberal Democrats were at 15%, and the Brexit Party was at 4%, unchanged. A separate poll for SavantaComRes also said support for the Conservatives was the highest since 2017, at 41%. Labour’s support was at 33%. The Conservatives have a 16-point lead over Labour, according to an opinion poll published by Opinium Research, and a poll by the Mail on Sunday said Johnson’s party had a 15-point lead over Labour. 
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A federal judge on Saturday ordered that a German citizen arrested on her return to the country on suspicion of being a member of Islamic State should remain in custody, prosecutors said. 
 
Authorities said the suspect, identified only as Nasim A., left Germany for Syria in 2014, married a fighter and moved with him to Iraq. There she was paid to maintain an IS-controlled house and carried a weapon. 
 
She and her husband later moved to Syria, where she also maintained a house, prosecutors said. Kurdish security forces arrested her in early 2019. 
 
The woman was arrested Friday evening in Frankfurt upon her return to Germany. 
 
The judge determined Saturday that she remain in detention because of “suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization in a foreign country,” prosecutors said. 
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