RIYADMEDIA

Russia and Turkey are working on a contract for the delivery of a new batch of Russian S-400 missile systems, the Interfax news agency cited a senior official at a Russian military cooperation agency as saying on Friday.Such a deal would be likely to further strain Ankara’s relations with Washington which has suspended Turkey from the U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jet program in which it was a producer and buyer, to penalize it for buying S-400 batteries this year.“We’re gradually working on this question. Most importantly, both sides are intent on continuing cooperation in this sphere,” the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation was quoted as saying.The official, Dmitry Shugaev, said he thought there was a “fairly high likelihood” Turkey and Russia would sign a contract for the delivery of an additional batch of S-400s next year.The head of Russia’s state arms exporter told RIA news agency on Nov. 26 that Moscow and Ankara were actively discussing Ankara taking up an option in its original missile contract for it to receive more S-400 systems.
…

Hundreds of thousands of people went on strike in cities across France, causing a shutdown of public transport and drastically reducing teaching and hospital staff Thursday. Public and private sector workers are protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms that include extending minimum retirement age and rewarding employees for each day worked. VOA’S Zlatica Hoke reports.
…

President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Russia said Vladimir Putin is likely “joyful” about the renewed prominence of a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible for meddling in the 2016 election, which experts consider Russian disinformation.“He’s probably joyful that he has the world talking about something he may have been behind,” Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s the way they operate in Moscow, to try to sow seeds of discontent between the United States and Kyiv.”Huntsman is running for his old job as Utah governor after leaving the Moscow post, which he said likely had him spending as much time with the Russian president as any other American.Trump continues to say Ukraine was behind interference in the 2016 election as he faces an impeachment inquiry related to allegations he pressured the country into investigating his political rivals. The FBI has confirmed Russia was behind the meddling.‘No question’ Russia meddledThe Republican agreed that there’s “no question” Russia meddled while saying he didn’t have direct access to all information on Ukraine. It could happen again in 2020, from Russia or a handful of players, and the U.S. may not be prepared.“Let’s just say the capabilities are there to wreak havoc on our most prized institution of democracy,” he said. “We need to be prepared for it, and I don’t know if we are.”He said he’s especially concerned about state and local election systems, where officials might not have the resources or information to know about threats.The moderate conservative hasn’t quite endorsed Trump, who is less popular in Utah than in many other conservative states, but said he would back him in 2020.“He has maintained a strong economy and we are not at war … we hear a lot about the downside. I think the election will focus more on the upside,” he said, adding that an election is better than impeachment on deciding whether the president should stay in office.Utah governorAs he looks for a comeback in state politics, Huntsman downplayed the idea that becoming Utah governor again would be a platform between higher-profile roles, saying he’d serve out a four-year term if elected.First elected in 2004, he was a popular leader who oversaw a period of economic growth and tax reform and had recently won a second term when he stepped down in 2009 to serve as U.S. ambassador to China in the Obama administration.Huntsman mounted a short-lived run for president during the 2012 cycle, and five years later went abroad again as ambassador to Russia. Now, Huntsman said he’s ready to return to Utah.“If I wanted to be secretary of state, I would have stayed where I was,” he said. “No call is going to take me away from doing the work of the people here in Utah.”
…

Union leaders and Colombian government representatives met on Thursday for the second time this week but failed to reach an agreement to end protests against President Ivan Duque’s economic and social policies.The meeting took place just one day after a national strike organized by unions, students and advocacy groups drew thousands of protesters.”We remain deeply at odds with the government over the make up of the discussions,” Diogenes Orjuela, the head of the Central Union of Workers (CUT), told journalists after the meeting.”Furthermore, the government has taken a step back by labeling the discussions as exploratory. We continue to hold that this is a table for negotiations between the government and the national strike committee, to discuss the 13 demands that have been raised,” he said.Protest leaders’ demands include that the government take more action to halt the killings of human rights activists, better implement a peace deal with leftist rebels and dissolve the ESMAD riot police, whom they accuse of excessive force during the protests.FILE – Members of the Indigenous Guard and students march in an anti-government protest in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 29, 2019.Protesters also oppose a Duque tax reform which would cut duties on businesses, and reject other proposals Duque denies supporting, like alleged efforts to raise the pension age and cut the minimum wage for young people.The government on Thursday asked protest leaders to make their demands more specific.”The government needs to know the full depth of these demands so that it can discuss what agreements can and cannot be achieved,” said presidency official Diego Molano. “What we cannot do is build a negotiation based on 13 different topics without clearly knowing each demand.”The protests, which have been largely peaceful, saw looting and attacks against transport systems in the first few days, leading the mayors of Cali and Bogotá to institute curfews.Five people have died in connection with the protests, which followed upheaval in other Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.The government and protest leaders have agreed to a further meeting next week. 
…

Big oil companies operating in Mexico have launched a drive to convince leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to resume auctions of oil and gas contracts he has branded a failure in reviving the industry.Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, among other firms in Mexico’s Association of Hydrocarbon Companies (Amexhi), say they have met output targets and investment pledges worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the initial phases of their contracts.”We’ve been complying (with contractual obligations), and by any metric you look at, we’ve been successful,” Amexhi President Alberto de la Fuente told reporters this week.Now they want the government to restart the auctions initiated under a 2013-2014 energy opening, including those to select partners for state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).FILE – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during his daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, Nov. 21, 2019.Lopez Obrador has strongly criticized the reform, which was enacted under his predecessor and opened the door to over 100 exploration and production contracts for oil companies.Having canceled auctions scheduled for 2019, he points out the reform has failed to lift crude output to the previous government’s target of 3 million barrels per day (bpd).Production is below 1.7 million bpd, the lowest in decades.The government said it will not do more until seeing “tangible” results, without specifying what that means.The president also suspended auctions for the heavily-indebted Pemex to seek private partnerships known as “farmouts.”Amexhi argues output is a poor yardstick because only 29 contracts are in the production stage out of 111 awarded through 2018. The rest still need time to finish exploratory drilling and studies before beginning commercial production, it says.FILE – Alberto de la Fuente, CEO of Shell in Mexico, gestures during Forbes Forum 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico, Sept. 18, 2017.”What we need is to sit down with the energy ministry, with the government and understand which metrics are important to them,” said de la Fuente, a former energy regulator who is now Shell’s country manager in Mexico.Some voices within Lopez Obrador’s administration are trying to convince the president to resume auctions, two officials told Reuters. The task is hard, they said, because he believes the state should hold a prominent role in the sector.Meanwhile, private and foreign oil firms have spent about $11 billion in investment, taxes and payments to Pemex, and plan to invest another $37 billion in the coming years, Amexhi says.”We’re looking to raise awareness in the government about how imperative it is to resume tenders,” said a director of a foreign oil company in Mexico who requested anonymity.”If not, it’s going to be impossible for production to pick up given the state Pemex is in and because the government is racing against the clock to meet its own goals,” he said.Lopez Obrador has pledged to reverse more than a decade of falling crude output at Pemex. The firm’s exploration and production budget has been crimped by its debt, the largest of any oil company in the world.Experts say it will be impossible for Pemex to reach its output goal of 1.8 million bpd by the end of 2019 after October closed with production at 1.66 million bpd.In the private sector, Amexhi expects production to reach nearly 50,000 bpd this year and jump to 280,000 bpd by 2024. But it argues new auctions could produce even faster results.Carlos Salazar, head of powerful Mexican business lobby CCE that helped resolve a dispute between the government and several energy infrastructure firms, said he supports Amexhi’s efforts.”Let’s set the milestones so that everyone, the public opinion, knows the objectives,” he said. 
…

President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States may take action on trade with countries that are not contributing enough to NATO.Trump, fresh from a trip to London for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been pushing member countries to contribute more to the organization.The U.S. president said a lot of countries were getting close to the goal of 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product for NATO contributions.”A lot of countries are close and getting closer. And some are really not close, and we may do things having to do with trade. It’s not fair that they get U.S. protection and they’re not putting up their money,” he said.Trump and French leader Emmanuel Macron clashed over the future of NATO on Tuesday before a summit intended to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Western military alliance.In sharp exchanges underlining discord in a transatlantic bloc hailed by many as the most successful military pact in history, Trump demanded that Europe pay more for its collective defense and make concessions to U.S. interests on trade.He also was upbeat about the alliance on Thursday, saying his meetings went well and that “NATO is in very, very good shape and the relationships with other countries are really extraordinary.”
…

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer prevented the U.S. Senate from voting Thursday on a resolution that would recognize as a genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, saying it was not an appropriate time to pass legislation that would anger Turkey. 
 
The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution  405-11 in late October. But there has not been a vote in the Senate, where President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a majority of seats. 
 
Congressional aides said the White House did not want the legislation to move ahead while it was negotiating with Ankara on sensitive issues such as Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and the NATO ally’s purchase of an S-400 missile defense system from Russia, which could provoke U.S. sanctions. 
 
The resolution asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey. 
 
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but it contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide. Threat to sovereigntyAnkara views foreign involvement in the issue as a threat to its sovereignty. It immediately denounced the House vote. 
 
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas tried to force a Senate vote on the resolution Thursday. 
 
Cramer, of North Dakota, blocked it, saying the time was not right, just after Trump held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a NATO summit in London. 
 
“I don’t think there’s a single member of the Senate who doesn’t have serious concerns about Turkey’s behavior,” Cramer said, adding, “At the right time, we may pass it.” 
 
Menendez disagreed, noting Erdogan recently visited Washington and nothing had changed. He promised to come to the Senate chamber once a week to raise the issue. 
 
For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by the Ankara government. 
 
The House vote marked the first time in 35 years such legislation was considered in the full chamber, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from members of both U.S. political parties. 
…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has the “full right” to annex the Jordan Valley if it chose to, even as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned the country against taking the bold step.Netanyahu said his proposal to annex the strategic part of the occupied West Bank was discussed during a late-night meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said they also agreed to move forward with plans for a joint defense treaty.The longtime Israeli leader, beleaguered by a corruption indictment and political instability at home, is promoting the two initiatives as a justification for staying in office.The Trump administration has already delivered several landmark victories to Netanyahu, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Netanyahu says that thanks to his close relationship with Trump, he is singularly positioned to further promote Israeli interests at this junction before the 2020 U.S. election season heats up.The annexation move would surely draw condemnation from the Palestinians and much of the world and almost certainly extinguish any remaining Palestinian hopes of gaining independence.The Palestinians seek all the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of their hoped-for state. The Jordan Valley comprises some 25% of the West Bank and is seen as the territory’s breadbasket and one of the few remaining open areas that could be developed by the Palestinians.But many Israelis say the area is vital to the country’s security, providing a layer of protection along its eastern flank.In her annual report, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office was following the Israeli annexation proposal “with concern.”When asked by reporters about the warning, Netanyahu insisted that it is Israel’s “full right to do so, if we chose so.”Netanyahu’s visit with Pompeo was their first since the secretary of state announced last month that the U.S. no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Israeli nationalists have interpreted that policy change as a green light to begin annexing parts or all of the West Bank.Netanyahu called their 1 hour and 45 minute-meeting in Lisbon “critical to Israeli security.”In particular, he noted the progress they made toward a joint defense pact that would offer Israel further assurance against a future attack from Iran. He said he has informed his chief rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, of the progress in the initiative.Israeli defense officials, and Gantz as well, have expressed concern that such a pact could limit Israel’s freedom to operate militarily. Netanyahu said he was aware of the reservations but assured that it was a “historic opportunity” and Israel would not be limited to act against archenemy Iran.Mike Makovsky, president and chief executive of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in Washington, which has been promoting the idea of a narrow defense pact, said the proposal would offer “an extra layer of deterrence” and “mitigate the intensity and scope” of a potential war with Iran.“Just like every other mutual defense treaty it would be left to the discretion of both parties how it would be implemented,” he said. “Mutual defense pacts have been sources for stability.”In Lisbon, Netanyahu also met with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and thanked him for adopting the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, which toughens guidelines to include some forms of criticism of Israel. Israeli researchers reported earlier this year that violent attacks against Jews around the world spiked significantly in 2018, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades.The trip gave Netanyahu a brief respite as he fights for political survival in the wake of two inconclusive elections and a damning corruption indictment. He refused to discuss his future options but vowed to carry on.Israel’s attorney general last month indicted Netanyahu for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.It is the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Unlike mayors or regular ministers, the prime minister is not required by Israeli law to resign if indicted. Netanyahu is desperate to remain in office, where he is best positioned to fight the charges.
…

BOLSOVER, ENGLAND — Dennis Skinner is a no-nonsense, unchanging socialist and the only British MP ever to heckle the Queen’s Speech Ceremony, when Britain’s lawmakers process from the Commons annually to the House of Lords to hear the monarch’s address outlining the government’s legislative program.Nicknamed the “Beast of Bolsover,” a reference to the Derbyshire constituency he has represented since 1970, the 87-year-old Skinner has traditionally occupied the seat of the front bench below the gangway in the Commons, where invariably wearing a tweed jacket and red tie, he has harangued those he deems “class enemies,” earning himself a dozen cooling off’ suspensions for what was deemed “unparliamentary language.”The son of a coal miner — his father was sacked after the historic coal strike of 1926 — and a former miner himself, his first brush with the Speaker of the House of Commons was in 1984 when he dubbed the leader of a group of Labour defectors a “pompous sod” and was ordered out of the chamber when he agreed to withdraw only the word “pompous.” In 1992, he incurred another suspension for describing the then Conservative agriculture minister as “a little squirt” and “a slimy wart on Margaret Thatcher’s nose.”Skinner’s working-class constituents, many of them former coal-miners or the sons and daughters of miners, have been relentlessly behind their pugnacious tribune with the snappy bark, and they have been loyal to the Labour Party. The closure of local collieries by Conservative governments in the 1980s and 1990s only deepened Bolsover’s allegiance to Labour and to their MP, who took a pay cut himself in support of the miners during a ferocious 1984-85 miners’ strike.But the times are changing and the country’s oldest serving MP may became next week a casualty of electoral war thanks to the scrambling of British politics by Brexit and a makeover of the Labour Party, which has become more focused on metropolitan issues pushed by progressive urban recruits, irritating older and more socially conservative traditional Labour voters.FILE – Labour party MP Dennis Skinner listens to a speech at a Labour party conference in Liverpool, England, Sept. 25, 2018.Britain’s ruling Conservatives hope Boris Johnson can pull off what his predecessor at 10 Downing Street, Theresa May, failed to do in a snap election 18 months ago. Their hope is that Johnson will breach the Labour Party’s so-called northern red wall,’ once thought to be impregnable, by persuading anti-European Union northern working-class voters to defect to the class-enemy Conservatives to “deliver Brexit.”Skinner’s constituency is one brick in that wall and on the streets of Bolsover in the north east of the county of Derbyshire amid rolling hills, the talk is the December 12 general election may mark the end of the long-serving lawmaker’s political career. Locals say while they still admire their local MP, who’s been unable to campaign personally because of recent hip-replacement surgery, Brexit is driving them away from a Labour Party, which wants to hold a second Brexit referendum, if it wins power.
Bolsover voted 70 percent to Leave the EU in the 2016 referendum and because of that high proportion of pro-Brexit voters, the seat is a key target for the Conservatives. On a cold, breezy day when VOA visited the town center, which has the feel of left-behind desperation about it with boarded-up shops, shuttered pubs, neglected terrace houses and shabby cheap takeaways, it wasn’t difficult to find locals planning to switch their votes to either the Conservatives or the newly-minted Brexit Party of Nigel Farage.One former miner, Dave Michaels, a stocky 65-year-old wearing a flat cap, said, “I’ve been Labour all my life, as was my father, and I don’t like Johnson, don’t trust the man, but I think he’ll get us out of the EU and stop all the dithering.” He voiced annoyance at the influx of eastern European migrants to staff new warehouses and online retail distribution centers. Locals complain migration has altered the social cohesion of this corner of Derbyshire and strained already under-resourced public services.Others expressed similar sentiments, suggesting that Skinner’s 5,000 majority may well collapse next week, adding to a possible seismic change in British politics that could see Labour and the Liberal Democrats snatch traditional Conservative seats in the pro-EU south of England and the commuter belt around London, but lose heartland seats of their own in the north, midlands and southwest of the country.Britain’s Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s rival in the country’s upcoming election Jeremy Corbyn takes pictures with people outside the University of London, in London, Britain, Dec. 3, 2019.The Conservatives’ assault on the “red wall” will make or break Johnson’s dream of securing a parliamentary majority and dictate whether Britain leaves the European Union or not.Daphne, a 52-year-old, who’d just finished shopping in a butcher’s shop, said she’ll be voting for Skinner’s Conservative rival Mark Fletcher. The mother of two grown up daughters, Lewis says she remains grateful to Skinner for all he’s done in the past, but he is “long in the tooth” and it is time for a change. “The Conservatives seem to have a goal,” she says.The 34-year-old Fletcher, the grandson himself of a miner who was educated at state schools before heading to Cambridge University, says locals “want to get Brexit done and the Labour party has lost its way.” He’s convinced he can win Bolsover and that the Brexit Party won’t deny him victory by splitting the Leave vote. He is buoyed by a seat-by-seat opinion survey last week produced by the YouGov polling agency that predicted he will win the seat on December 12 with 42 percent of the vote, with Labour trailing 38 percent and the Brexit Party picking up 12 percent.But the remaining days will be crucial before voting — in Bolsover, as well as in 49 other Labour seats in Wales, the midlands and northern England targeted by the Conservatives. At the last general election there were hints the ‘red wall’ isn’t as strong as Labour strategists suppose — two of Bolsover’s neighboring constituencies, North East Derbyshire and Mansfield, defected to the Conservative camp.The Labour activists are hitting the doorsteps hard in the northern constituencies, though, trawling residual party support. And while the Conservatives are doing well when it comes to the issue of Brexit, they are on the back foot when it comes to public-service issues, and especially in regards to the under-staffed and under-funded National Health Service.But Brexit isn’t Labour’s only problem in the north in what commentators describe as a “hold-your-nose election.” Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, seen widely as the most far-left leader the party has ever had, are vying in the unpopularity stakes, and according to opinion polls neither are trusted by voters. Johnson is the most disliked new prime minister in the modern history of opinion polling, while Corbyn is the most disliked leader of the opposition.General election victory or defeat may come down to who is disliked the most. 
…

Hundreds of Venezuelan children are fleeing into Brazil alone and at risk of becoming homeless, abused or recruited by gangs, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
                   
The human rights group cited government figures indicating that over 500 children have crossed into the Brazilian state of Roraima since May.
                   
Ninety percent of the Venezuelan children were between 13 and 17 and traveled alone or with an adult who was not a relative or legal guardian. Many were fleeing hunger, looking for healthcare to treat serious ailments or trying to find work in Brazil.
                   
“The humanitarian emergency is driving children to flee Venezuela alone,” said Cesar Munoz, senior Brazil researcher at Human Rights Watch.
                   
An estimated 4.6 million Venezuelans have fled their country’s economic and political turmoil, a figure that the United Nations believes could reach 6.5 million by the end of 2020, making it one of the largest mass migrations on the planet today.
                   
More than 224,000 have fled to Brazil, where many remain in the border state of Roraima because of its relative isolation from the rest of the country. Human Rights Watch found that many of the shelters there are overcrowded, meaning children often end up living on the streets and unable to access government services.
                   
One 16-year-old boy was found choked to death in October, his body left in a plastic bag.
“While Brazilian authorities are making a great effort to accommodate hundreds of Venezuelans crossing daily into Brazil, they are failing to give these children the protection they desperately need,” Munoz said.
                   
The study encourages Brazil’s federal government to work with local authorities to identify, track and support unaccompanied Venezuelan minors.
…

Chileans are increasingly turning to bikes to get to work after weeks of rioting have hobbled Santiago’s metro system, destroyed hundreds of stop lights and left broken glass and debris littering its once-orderly streets.The unrest, the worst faced by Chile since it emerged from dictatorship in 1990, has left at least 26 dead and caused more than $1.5 billion in business losses, devastating the economy.Though protests have simmered down in recent weeks, the damage to streets, squares and the metro remain.Traffic is regularly snarled at downtown intersections that now have no stoplights and where motorists must fend for themselves.Cycling has emerged as the obvious solution, says Tomas Echiburu, a researcher with the Urban Development Center at Chile’s Universidad Catolica.”Before the crisis … 450 cyclists per hour passed through here at peak commute,” he said. “Immediately after the crisis, that quantity has doubled, to 900 per hour.”Bikes now outnumber cars at many intersections during rush hour, and cyclists in shiny new Spandex gear and fluorescent helmets are seen zipping down tree-lined bike lanes throughout much of the business district.”Since the crisis began, the streets have filled with,” said 60-year-old Ana Guzman as she pedaled to work at a local healthcare center. “Before, you could walk peacefully, but now it’s all congested.”Local bicycle shops have reaped the benefits. “Sales have taken off,” said Jorge Arancibia, a local shop owner.”People need to get around and so they’ve either dug out their old bike or bought a new one.”
 
…

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been proposed for International Olympic Committee membership, but World Athletics head Sebastian Coe will have to wait due to a conflict of interest, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Thursday.FIFA and World Athletics, the governing bodies of two of the biggest sports in the Olympics, have been without membership ever since the departure from the IOC of their respective former presidents Sepp Blatter and Lamine Diack in 2015.For years, membership of the IOC for the heads of soccer and athletics was seen as almost automatic.Yet the two international federations have been left out in the cold as they struggled with widespread corruption and doping scandals which tarnished their images. Diack, who has denied wrongdoing, faces a corruption trial in France in January.Bach said Infantino had been proposed for election at their next session in January along with International Tennis Federation chief David Haggerty and Japanese Olympic Committee president Yasuhiro Yamashita.World Athletics chief Coe, however, had not been proposed due to a conflict of interest.”We wanted him (Coe) to become an IOC member as president of one of our most important Olympic sports,” Bach said. “Since then we are in close consultation with him and since then we have addressed the risk of a potential of conflict of interest he may have.”Apart for his role at World Athletics, Coe is also Group Chairman of consultancy firm CSM which also works with the IOC.”CSM is consulting various organizations and stakeholders including having contractual partnerships with the IOC itself.”Bach said Coe had informed them that he could not immediately resolve this situation but was working on it. Bach said Coe could become a member at their session during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”He is hopeful to address it in a couple of months. Then that would mean the door is still open for Tokyo.”The IOC elects new members at its sessions once candidates are vetted by the Olympic body. 
…

Two Russian residents have been criminally charged in the United States over an alleged multi-year, international scheme to steal money and property by using malware to hack into computers, according to an indictment made public on Thursday.Maksim Yakubets was accused of being the leader of a group of conspirators involved with Bugat malware and botnet, while his close associate Igor Turashev allegedly handled various functions for the conspiracy, the indictment said.The indictment identifies Yakubets as one of the earliest users of a family of malicious software tools called Bugat, better known as Dridex, which has been bedeviling American banks and businesses for more than eight years.Cybersecurity experts say the malware, which first appeared in late 2011, is responsible for millions of dollars in damages worldwide. Experts have long speculated that the malware is the brainchild of a Russian hacking group.The conspiracy allegedly began around November 2011, and several entities – including a school, an oil firm, First Commonwealth Bank – were among the defendants’ victims, according to the indictment filed with the federal court in Pittsburgh. Two of the transactions were processed through Citibank in New York, the indictment says.The indictment is dated Nov. 12 but was unsealed on Thursday.U.S. and British authorities are expected later Thursday to detail charges against a Russian national over allegations of computer hacking and bank fraud schemes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.That announcement characterized the Russian national as being “allegedly responsible for two of the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the past decade.”Malware is a software program designed to gather sensitive information, such as passwords and bank account numbers, from private computers by installing viruses and other malicious programs.Spokespeople for First Commonwealth Bank and Citibank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump appears intent on following through with his plan to formally designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. His announcement has put the Mexican government on the defensive. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari looks at the political impact of such a move and its effect on bilateral relations with Mexico.
 
…

Moscow denies any involvement in the shooting death of a former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin in August. The Russian government Wednesday condemned Germany’s decision to expel two Russian diplomats over the case. Germany has accused Russia of failing to assist in the investigation. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the attack on the Chechen rebel in Germany has been compared to the attempt on the life of a former Russian spy in Britain last year.
…

An Americas regional forum on Wednesday published details of  “deliberate” and “malicious” steps to rig Bolivia’s October election in favor of then President Evo Morales, who has resigned and left the Andean nation in political crisis.A nearly 100-page report by the Organization of American States (OAS) described several violations, including the use of a hidden computer server designed to tilt the vote toward Morales.A charismatic leftist and Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Morales stood for president despite a 2016 referendum that voted down a proposal to allow him to run for a fourth consecutive term. A court packed with loyalists gave him a green light to run indefinitely.”Given the overwhelming evidence we have found, we can confirm a series of malicious operations aimed at altering the will of the voters,” the OAS report said.OAS findings included “deliberate actions to manipulate the result of the election” that make it “impossible to validate” the official results, the report said.Morales fled to Mexico shortly after the OAS’ initial report in early November. He described the allegations of vote rigging as a political hit, saying the OAS was “in the service of the North American empire.”Senators approve a bill on holding new elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 23, 2019.Bolivia’s Congress in late November passed legislation to annul the contested elections and pave the way for a new vote without Morales, a major breakthrough in the political crisis.Interim President Jeanine Anez, a former conservative lawmaker, has also pledged new elections.At least 30 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces since the Oct. 20 election. Most have died since Morales stepped down on Nov. 10. 
…

Daixy Aguero holds her chin up when students wander by and are surprised to find their teacher selling makeup at a weekend Caracas street market. Aguero says it’s the only way she can make ends meet on a teacher’s pay in Venezuela.Some 40 percent of Venezuela’s teachers have left their schools in the last three years, according to a union representing educators. They’re escaping low pay and crumbling classrooms.Others like Aguero have stayed behind on the front line of the country in crisis.They keep teaching out of a passion that first drew them to education, while taking side gigs to feed their families. Aguero tells her kindergarten students who find her hawking lipstick, eyeliner and face cream that she’s not ashamed.”I tell them you have to work,” she said. “And you have to study.”Thousands of Venezuelan teachers vented their frustration in a two-day strike in late October to demand better working conditions such as fair wages and urgent repairs to crumbling schools.  Teachers in 17 of Venezuela’s 23 states walked out of class, gathering by the hundreds at some protests, while organizers said others stayed in the classroom, fearing they would be punished or fired.Protesters in Caracas carried banners outside the Ministry of Education blasting President Nicolas Maduro, who they say has let the country down as well as its next generation, which they say doesn’t get a proper education.”We are mobilized to defend the quality of education for our students” said Griselda Sanchez, a representative of the Trade Union Coalition. “We’re defending a salary that will allow all of us to live with dignity.”Crisis has driven an estimated 40 percent of Venezuela’s 370,000 active teachers from their jobs since the start of 2017, according to union figures. Many are among the more than 4 million Venezuelans who have left in search of a better life.
Venezuelan Parents Doing Double Duty as Teachers video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkDespite drawing on the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela today produces less than 20 percent of the its peak crude production when the late President Hugo Chavez launched the socialist revolution in 1999.Opposition leader Juan Guaido’s U.S.-backed effort to oust Maduro, Chavez’s successor, so far has failed to budge the socialist president, who maintains a tight grip on power with support from the military and dozens of international allies including China, Russia and Cuba.As the political struggle continues with no end in sight, teachers and school administrators say their classes shrink, supplies dwindle and the pay barely covers the basics at home.New teachers earn a minimum wage equal to a few U.S. dollars a month, though pay doubles and triples with years of experience.Children work during class at a school in Caracas, Venezuela, Oct. 7, 2019.A week after the October strike ended Venezuela’s Minister of Education Aristobulo Isturiz spoke in a nationally broadcast press conference about the socialist party’s progress uniting workers, but he did not mention the teachers’ strike or their grievances.Officials recently hiked Venezuela’s minimum wage and bonuses by more than 350%, bringing it to the equivalent of $15 a month. But analysts say hyperinflation will quickly reduce it to a fraction and leave workers again struggling to afford basic items. The International Monetary Fund estimates Venezuela’s inflation will hit 200,000% this year.”This is the only country where no one is happy when there is a salary increase,” teacher Maria Carrillo said. The teachers demand between $500 and $600 a month.It’s not just teachers missing from classrooms.Erika Tortosa, the principal at Jerman Ubaldo Lira public school in the Minas neighborhood of Caracas, said that five years ago, she had 1,000 students crowding into the hilltop campus. Now, the school has about 200 pupils as families have emigrated.To cope with shrinking numbers, the school eliminated fourth grade two years ago, sending the remaining students of that grade to a neighboring school. Then, last year it did away with fifth grade, and this year Tortosa said she has no sixth grade.A girl waits at the entrance of her classroom for her teacher’s arrival, on her first day of class at the Jerman Ubaldo Lira public school in Caracas, Venezuela, Oct. 2, 2019.Teachers say broken desks leave students without a proper place to study, while the lights often don’t work and campuses don’t have consistent water services — troubles shared by residents across much of the country.Tortosa also has trouble finding enough teachers.”A lot of teachers have fled the country,” she said.  “Not everybody, in reality, can endure this situation in crisis that we’re living at this moment.”Aguero, 56, said she’s forced to sell makeup despite making double the monthly minimum wage because of her years on the job. Her salary falls far short of covering her grocery list, she said.  Basic items, like jar of mayonnaise or bottle of juice, can cost the equivalent of $2, quickly devouring her teacher’s pay.  So, she wakes up early on the weekends and pulls a heavy backpack onto her shoulders with her son’s help. She lugs the cosmetics and her portable table to the market.The extra work allows her to bring home considerably more than teaching. It’s is worth it when she’s back in class with her students, she said.”This is our reality,” Aguero said. “Despite that, we keep going to work, and we love it and we work hard.” 
…

Islamic State media operatives appear to be flailing about in cyberspace, still trying to recover more than a week after tens of thousands of their messaging accounts were targeted by European officials. Unlike some past efforts to hamper the terror group’s propaganda efforts, which dealt only temporary setbacks, the latest takedown seems to be having a lasting impact, counterterrorism officials and analysts say. “For the time being, for as far as we know, IS is not present on the internet anymore,” Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor’s office, said during a news conference at The Hague last week. “We will see how fast — if ever — they will regain service.” Only so far, the results of the operation by Europol and the European Union’s Internet Referral Unit working with online service providers such as Telegram, Twitter, Google and Instagram seem to be bearing out the optimistic assessment. U.S. officials say the crackdown on Telegram, long a favorite for IS operatives and supporters, has been especially effective. FILE – The Telegram logo is seen on a smartphone screen in this illustration, April 13, 2018.”Telegram removed over 43,000 terrorist-related bots and channels, the highest monthly total since Telegram began providing such data in September 2016,” a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA of the effort in November. Additionally, the official said, attempts by IS to reestablish or re-create its Telegram accounts have not gone well. “Telegram has expanded and strengthened its terrorist content detection and removal efforts on public channels and groups in the immediate aftermath of Europol’s recent action to disrupt ISIS’s online activities,” the official said, using another acronym for the terror group. Nor does it appear that IS is having much success moving its propaganda and messaging to other platforms. “They are going here, there and everywhere,” said Raphael Gluck, co-founder of Jihadoscope, a company that monitors online activity by Islamist extremists. “They are lost in the desert right now.” Over the past week, officials and experts have followed as IS media operatives have sought out alternative messaging platforms, including Russia-based TamTam, Brazil-based Rocket Chat and Hoop Messenger from Canada. Of these, TamTam saw what appeared to have been the biggest surge in new accounts and groups from IS operatives and supporters. But analysts described the company’s response as massive. Amarnath Amarasingam, a terrorism researcher at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, said that of the 165 IS channels and groups he found on TamTam between November 29 and December 2, only 37 were still operating December 3. Multiple attempts by VOA to speak to TamTam directly were unsuccessful. But the company told Amarasingam on Twitter that it was “strongly against the presence of any sort of content by terrorist organizations on our platform.” Thank you, Amarnath, good to know that! We are strongly against the presence of any sort of content by terrorist organizations on our platform. Feel free to report the remaining channels or chats by using the “Report” button in the app or sending links to abuse@tamtam.chat. BR— ТамТам Мессенджер (@tamtamchat) December 3, 2019In other tweets, the messaging platform encouraged experts and users to report any IS or terrorist-linked activity. Analysts caution that the sustained crackdown by governments and service providers is only part of the story. The other part, they say, is Islamic State’s response. “Judging by what they are doing on TamTam, and what they tried on Rocket Chat, there doesn’t seem to be much innovation going on at present,” Amarasingam said. Instead, it appears the terror group, long credited with helping pioneer the use of social media to grow its ranks, is struggling to adapt. “ISIS is at a loss since losing Telegram. They wish they could go back,” Gluck said. “At the tail end of the mass migration [to TamTam], they’re just linking back to good old Telegram.” FILE – Islamic State prisoners in orange jumpsuits are marched along a beach said to be near Tripoli, in this still image from an undated video made available on social media, Feb. 15, 2015.For now, analysts say, IS operatives are doing their best to create new accounts and groups on Telegram, as well as on familiar social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as fast as they can, trying to pump out as much information and propaganda as possible before the accounts are removed. “ISIS and its supporters are trying all kinds of messaging platforms right now, seeing what works, what does and doesn’t get blocked, and what is sustainable for them,” said Chelsea Daymon, a terrorism and security researcher at American University in Washington. “There’s still a good amount of activity on Rocket Chat, which some supporters are saying is the platform they are going to lay low on until things settle down.” For now, thanks to the European-led takedowns, Daymon and others see the start of long-awaited progress in the battle against IS’s so-called virtual caliphate. “It shows a sustained objective, which is what will have potentially positive long-term results,” she said. 
…

Italy has increased relocation of migrants around Europe, official figures showed Wednesday, reducing frictions around the issue and enabling far-right leader Matteo Salvini focus more on the economy.Interior Ministry data showed that 172 migrants who came onshore from the Mediterranean were sent elsewhere in the last three months, compared with just 90 in the January-August period.Immigration has been one of Italy’s most contentious issues and fueled the rise of Salvini’s League party, which ruled in coalition with the 5-Star Movement from mid-2018 until August.The new administration signed an agreement to distribute migrants saved from the Mediterranean around the European Union to ease pressure on southern states.Salvini’s replacement as interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, is a technocrat with no party affiliation and has established better relations with European partners. “European countries prefer the current government and interior minister to Salvini, who constantly accused them,” said Gianfranco Pasquino, an analyst from Bologna University.FILE – League party leader Matteo Salvini talks to reporters in Rome, Aug. 22, 2019.During his time in office, Salvini sought to block Italy’s ports to charity migrant rescue ships. Those noisy standoffs are over, though the new government of the 5-Star and the center-left Democratic Party has not repealed his laws.With EU countries offering to take 82% of migrants qualified for relocation, pressure on Italy has eased and Salvini has shifted his focus. Now he leads opposition to reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which he says could jeopardize citizens’ savings with restructuring of Italy’s debt.Polls show the League remains Italy’s most popular party.”Salvini jumps on every issue the government has difficulties with. The ESM [reform] is perfect. He will wait for other occasions and will try to exploit them,” Pasquino added.Italy’s immigration problems are, however, far from over.Arrivals may have halved from last year to 10,960 so far in 2019, according to government data. But there are still 95,000 migrants in Italian centers and more than 1,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, the International Organization for Migration says.
…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met Wednesday in an effort to defuse rising tensions over disputed territorial waters in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The meeting on the sideline of the London NATO summit comes amid Turkish-Greek tensions over territorial disputes about the Mediterranean.Bilateral tensions have escalated with Turkey’s agreement with Libya, increasing Turkish control of eastern Mediterranean waters. The region is experiencing a scramble for potential energy reserves in the area.Athens has been pressing for the full details of the Turkey-Libya deal, which Erdogan signed in Istanbul with Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA ). Under the agreement, Turkey extended its control of the eastern Mediterranean, opening up the area to Turkey to search for hydrocarbons.Athens condemned the agreement, claiming it denied the territorial waters of three prominent Greek Islands.”Turkey’s attempt to abolish the maritime borders of islands like Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos, and Kastelorizo with tricks, such as voiding bilateral memorandums of understanding, will not produce internationally legal results,” said Mitsotakis.Egypt and the Greek Cypriots, too, voiced concern about the agreement. The three countries, along with Israel, are cooperating in developing sizeable natural gas fields across the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is predicted that cooperation between the countries will extend to security, a move analysts say could be aimed at curtailing Turkey’s growing assertiveness.”Whatever Greece, Egypt, and Greek Cyprus do will not affect the step we have taken with Libya. We have already sealed our agreement with Libya,” Erdogan said, dismissing regional concerns.In this photo taken on Nov. 6, 2019, graffiti on a wall reading “Your wall can not divide us” is seen at the U.N buffer zone by a fence that divides the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north, in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus.Ankara is already at loggerheads with Athens and Nicosia over disputed territorial waters around the divided island of Cyprus. The island is partitioned between Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities following Turkey’s 1974 invasion in response to an Athens-inspired coup.The Greek Cypriots have the only internationally recognized government and insist it controls recently discovered gas fields in waters surrounding the island and will administer future drilling. Ankara insists Nicosia has to work with the Turkish Cypriots administration, which is only recognized by Turkey.”Turkey made it very clear, they are determined to protect their rights and the rights of Turkish Cypriots and its interests,” said former Turkish ambassador Mithat Rende, who now is a regional energy expert.”Do you think Turkey is bluffing or do you think the Greeks and Greek Cypriots, with its forces, will prevent Turkey from protecting its rights?” he asked.In this photo taken on Oct. 30, 2018, Turkey’s new oil and gas drillship ‘Conquerer’ is seen off the coast of Antalya, southern Turkey.Ankara has deployed energy exploration ships escorted by Turkish warship to Cypriot waters on four occasions, in the face of protests by Athens and Nicosia.Until now, the explorations have been carried out in Turkish Cypriot waters. In a potential flashpoint, Ankara is set to deploy the fifth exploration to waters contested by Turkish and Cypriot administrations.Analysts claim the Libya-Turkey deal, coupled with Ankara’s robust stance over Cyprus, is part of a significant shift in Turkish policy.”It’s a show of force by Turkey and assertion of its sovereignty according to the new maritime doctrine, called the ‘Blue Homeland,”‘ said international relations professor Cengiz Aktar of Athens University.”It’s part and parcel of a new doctrine. It claims a huge sea mass, in the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea bordering Turkey. It amounts to a 460,000 square kilometers. The doctrine says the surface of this ‘Blue Homeland,’ its water body, its sea bed and the landmass under the sea bed, belong to Turkey.”Ankara’s new doctrine is matched by a shift in its military priorities. “A lot of funds are now being allocated to the Turkish navy,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen.FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bottom center, accompanied by officials pose for photographs during the launch of a new Turkish Navy ship, in Tuzla, outside Istanbul, July 3, 2017.”The new Ada class corvette [ship] is top of the game, so to speak,” he said. “This open seas approach is prominent — the new deal with the Libyan government. Looking for oil and natural gas around Cyprus is there. This is like Turkey is back after a century. We understand the necessity of a navy, a blue-seas navy.”Ankara’s robust diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is calculated to force Nicosia to ultimately make a deal. “Without a settlement, they [Nicosia] are not going to reap the benefits of their resources,” said Rende.”I don’t believe any energy company is going to sink $10 billion or $15 billion into the deep waters of the eastern Mediterranean, as long as their remains a threat of confrontation,” he added.Migrants and refugees arrive at the Moria refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 23, 2019.Athens and Nicosia are looking for support from their fellow European Union members. Brussels is warning Ankara of sanctions if it doesn’t step back from violating Cypriot waters.”The EU is now filling in the contents of the sanction list against Turkish interests,” said Aktar. “Of course they may pull back, backing down, taking into consideration the threats of migrants by Turkey.”Erdogan routinely threatens the EU with opening Turkish borders and allowing millions of refugees hosted by Turkey to enter Europe. Such a threat has seen Brussels being reluctant to confront Turkey, and Ankara again may calculate its robust east Mediterranean stance will prevail.”International organizations like the EU, are preferring to ignore it [Turkey’s Mediterranean policy],” said Aktar. “They can’t deal with Turkey’s intervention in Syria. They are not capable of dealing with Ankara moving closer to Moscow. So they hate to see a new problem in the Mediterranean by Turkey. But it will create problems. It will create skirmishes and chaos in the eastern Mediterranean.”
…

Latin American lender CAF and the United Nations are seeking to provide financing to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to improve electricity supply in the crisis-stricken nation that is suffering from chronic blackouts, the two institutions told Reuters. 
 
Lawmakers in Venezuela’s congress have proposed a financing mechanism under which CAF would provide $350 million to make improvements to the ailing power sector, with the U.N. Development Program carrying out the investments. 
 
But the proposal has created a deep divide within the country’s opposition between those who say the proposal will provide humanitarian assistance and those who oppose it because it will provide new funding for Maduro’s government, which is widely accused of corruption and mismanagement. 
 
“The project is a CAF loan to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which is requested by the Ministry of Finance and has to be approved by the National Assembly,” a U.N. official wrote in an emailed response to questions from Reuters. 
 
CAF in an emailed response to questions confirmed that the loan would go to Venezuela’s government. System of controls
 
No funds would be transferred to state electrical authorities, the U.N. official said, and the financing mechanism would have a system of checks and balances “to ensure that the resources are only used for this purpose.” 
 
Though the amount would be relatively small, its approval could pave the way for Maduro to receive additional international financing down the road. That could eventually undercut the effects of U.S. sanctions, which block American citizens from lending money to Maduro as part of an effort to push him from power. 
 
Draft legislation for the proposal does not describe the financial conditions of the loan, which are usually provided to the legislature before such financing is approved. 
 
Venezuela’s information ministry, which fields questions on behalf of the finance ministry, did not respond to an email seeking comment.  FILE – Patients with kidney disease and their relatives wait on the street for the return of electricity, in front of a dialysis center during a blackout, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, April 13, 2019.Chronic blackouts around the country have undermined the functioning of everything from routine commerce to hospital emergency rooms. Especially hard hit has been the western state of Zulia, where citizens routinely go 12 hours without power. 
 
“Zulia, #withoutpower and distressed, is demanding solutions,” wrote opposition politician Manuel Rosales on Twitter. “It hasn’t been days or months but years of electrical chaos that have disrupted the lives of the people of Zulia.” 
 
Electricity sector expert Miguel Lara warned that legislators who voted for the project would be adding to the country’s debt burden by providing funds to the government. “It does not make technical or economic sense,” he wrote on Twitter. “All resources given to [state power company] Corpoelec are lost. They are the crisis.” 
 
The legislature on Tuesday postponed discussion of the proposal until next week in order to seek out more support among lawmakers. Opposition legislators opposed to the measure declined to comment, saying they prefer to wait for it to come up for a vote. Complaints of corruption
 
Critics have for years denounced widespread corruption in the ruling Socialist Party’s management of the power sector. 
 
Those complaints focused on a 2010 declaration of an “electrical emergency” that led to the disbursement of billions of dollars in no-bid contracts for generation projects that were never completed. Critics call it one of the largest embezzlement schemes in the country’s history. 
 
Maduro’s government denies misuse of funds and blames power problems on sabotage by the opposition. 
 
It was not immediately evident if or how U.S. sanctions would apply to the proposal in question. 
 
The U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 
…

Colombian unions and student groups held a third national strike Wednesday amid fraught talks between protest leaders and the government over President Ivan Duque’s social and economic policies. The strike was the latest demonstration in two weeks of protests, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of marchers and put pressure on Duque’s proposed tax reform, which lowers duties on businesses. The protests prompted him to announce a “great national dialogue” on social issues, but government efforts to stop new demonstrations have failed as the union-led National Strike Committee has stuck firmly to demands for one-on-one talks and refused to call off protests. Demonstrators hold flags during a protest as a national strike continues in Bogota, Colombia, Dec. 4, 2019.The demonstrations, while largely peaceful, resulted in damage to dozens of public transport stations and curfews in Cali and Bogota. Protesters have wide-ranging demands, including that the government do more to stop the killing of human rights activists, offer more support for former leftist rebels who demobilized under a peace deal and dissolve the ESMAD riot police, whom marchers accuse of excessive force.”We’re continuing to march to send a message to the president and to Congress: Don’t play with the people,” said student Diana Rodriguez, 23, as she made her way toward Bogota’s Bolivar Plaza late Wednesday morning. “Yesterday they approved the tax reform, and that shows they aren’t taking us seriously,” Rodriguez said, referring to the Tuesday approval of the bill by economic committees in both houses of Congress. The proposal now moves to a floor debate. Five people have died in connection with the demonstrations, which started November 21 and have occurred in tandem with protests in other Latin American countries. “I invite all Colombians to mobilize massively to show the government that there is another opinion in the country, that the other Colombia has the right to be listened to,” Central Union of Workers President Diogenes Orjuela told Reuters by phone early on Wednesday, adding marches must be peaceful. Meetings between Duque’s representatives and the committee are expected to continue on Thursday. The committee has made 13 demands, including that the government reject a rise in the pension age and a cut to the minimum wage for young people, both policies Duque denies supporting. The government has repeatedly said the demands for one-on-one dialogue exclude other sectors and that it cannot meet demands that it refrain from deploying the ESMAD. 
…

The self-confessed middleman in the murder of a journalist told a court on Wednesday a wealthy Maltese businessman was the brains behind the killing but also implicated people tied to government in the growing scandal.Melvin Theuma received immunity from prosecution last week for information that would lead to the conviction of alleged plot leader and multi-millionaire entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.However, his detailed court deposition raised fresh questions over the inner circle of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, with Theuma linking apparent attempts at a cover-up of the 2017 murder to figures inside government headquarters.Fenech has been charged with complicity over the killing of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb.He has denied the accusations and blamed former government chief of staff Keith Schembri and other senior officials.Schembri was arrested last month but later released. He has denied involvement in the murder which has highlighted allegations of rampant corruption in Malta’s overlapping worlds of politics and business.Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was arrested in connection with an investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, leaves the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Theuma gave a detailed account of how the 38-year-old Fenech contacted him in 2017 to organize the hit, providing 150,000 euros ($165,000) for the contract.The plot was put on hold before elections in June 2017 but reactivated the night the ruling Labour party was returned to power, Theuma told a packed courtroom.”I can assure you, Yorgen Fenech was the only mastermind.Only he spoke to me,” said Theuma, a taxi driver with links to the criminal underworld.Fenech wanted Caruana Galizia dead because he thought she was going to publish an incriminating story about his uncle, Theuma said.He said he was called to government headquarters after agreeing to arrange the assassination and that Schembri gave him a tour of the building, where Muscat’s offices are housed.Muscat has denied any wrongdoing but has acknowledged he could have handled the aftermath better and said he will step down next month.Panic
Theuma was subsequently told he had been put on the government payroll and received a paycheck for three or four months. “If you asked me, I wouldn’t know what my job was at the ministry, as I never went,” he said.He said he paid three local men to carry out the killing.Thanks partly to help provided by the U.S. FBI, the trio were later arrested, and are awaiting trial, having pleaded not guilty. They sat in court on Wednesday stony-faced.People hold pictures of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as they protest outside the office of the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, calling for his resignation, in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Theuma recounted his panic after the alleged triggermen were seized and news emerged that one was cooperating with police.He said he was then contacted again by an employee from government headquarters whom he named as Kenneth. In an apparent attempt to buy their silence, Kenneth said the three suspects would be released on bail and given 1 million euros, though the bail did not arrive, Theuma said.Theuma said he asked Fenech whether Schembri had sent Kenneth to him, but got no answer. Scared for his safety, he started making secret recordings of his conversations with the businessman, which he has given police.”I started to think they would either lock me up or kill me,” he said. He also acknowledged writing a note where he said both Schembri and Fenech ordered the hit. In court, he distanced himself from the accusation against Schembri, making clear he had no evidence.A police source later identified Kenneth as Kenneth Camilleri, who used to work in Muscat’s security detail. He was recently transferred to Transport Malta, a government body. The company said on Wednesday it had suspended one of its employees following Theuma’s deposition, without giving details.Camilleri did not respond to a message from Reuters requesting comment.With Malta under scrutiny, the new head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a thorough investigation without political interference. “It is crucial that all those responsible are put to justice as soon as possible,” she said.A European Parliament delegation, which has spent two days in Malta to review rule of law within the EU’s smallest member, recommended that Muscat go immediately.”There has to be absolute confidence in the (investigation) and I think when he is in office, that confidence is not there,” said Sophie In’t Veld, a Dutch member of parliament who led the mission. 
…

A sleepy Amazon town has become the flashpoint for the growing hostility between Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and environmental groups following the arrest of volunteer firefighters he has said set blazes in the rainforest. The episode prompted leaders of nine nongovernmental organizations on Tuesday to denounce the persecution of activists, academics and scientists since the election last year of Bolsonaro, who has accused many of them of working in the Amazon on behalf of foreigners — including actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The groups have been critical of Bolsonaro’s push to develop the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The government regards the third sector, Brazilian civil society, as the enemy of the country,'' Ricardo Borges, executive coordinator at Pact for Democracy, said on a video call with reporters that also included the Brazilian branches of the World Wildlife Fund and Amnesty International. FILE - A satellite image shows smoke rising from Amazon rainforest fires in Rondonia state, southwest of Porto Velho, Brazil, in the upper Amazon River basin, Aug. 15, 2019. (Satellite image ©2019 Maxar Technologies)Police last month accused several volunteer firefighters of setting forest fires to get funding through local NGOs in Alter do Chao, a town of fewer than 10,000 people on the bank of the Tapajos River in Para state. Federal prosecutors quickly said their investigation found no such evidence, the local police officer leading the investigation was removed from the case, and a judge ordered that the firefighters be released from prison. Still, Bolsonaro, a former army captain, publicly backed the police allegations against the firefighters and NGOs. Television footage of police making arrests and raiding NGO offices served, for some, as confirmation of the claims. Bolsonaro even accused DiCaprio of providing the funds to the NGOs, something the U.S. actor denied. The controversy has cast Alter do Chao, known asThe Caribbean of the Amazon,” into the national spotlight. Speaking at the edge of his verdant yard, Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of Health and Happiness, one of the two nonprofits investigated by local police, told the Associated Press incendiary rhetoric has created a climate of terror, and security consultants have recommended he leave Alter do Chao as soon as possible. Already he’s stopped sleeping at home. FILE – Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of NGO Saude e Alegria, or Health and Happiness, gives an interview outside his home in Alter do Chao, Para state, Brazil, Dec. 1, 2019.Today we're in a war of narratives. The country is polarized and unfortunately we've created an environment of deconstruction instead of construction, in which people shout at each other and don't debate,'' Scannavino said.It’s not justifiable to feed more hatred into an environment already polarized with hate.” The same day, on the other side of Alter do Chao, a group of traveling soy farmers spoke to the AP over breakfast at their hotel and expressed the sort of skepticism about NGOs that Bolsonaro shares. One suggested NGOs outnumber farmers in the surrounding region. Another said most of their funding goes to employee salaries rather than valid projects. The volunteer firefighters and nonprofits deny any wrongdoing and say the investigation is politically motivated. Para state’s government said it won’t comment on the probe until the police inquiry is concluded. The press offices of the president and the environment minister didn’t reply to requests for comments. Bolsonaro has accused NGOs of feeding off the industry of fines'' in the country's environmental sector and vowed to no longer allocate fine-related revenue to nonprofits. Environment Minister Ricardo Salles also announced earlier this year he was suspending funding to NGOs, pending review of contracts and partnerships to catch possible irregularities. Space researcherSuch targeting hasn't been limited to nonprofits. Amid the international outcry over the Amazon fires in August, Bolsonaro accused the then-head of Brazil's space research institute, Ricardo Galvao, of manipulating satellite data on deforestation in order to undermine his administration. Galvao publicly countered the claims and was fired. Brazil's annual deforestation report released last month showed a nearly 30% jump from the prior year. While the government eventually acknowledged logging had increased, the academic community remained shaken by the high-profile dismissal at a scientific institution. In the Bolsonaro government, there is a group that has a clearly negative view of science,” Galvao said in a phone interview. They have this idea that all scientists are on the left.'' In November, a group of international academics published a research paper in the journal Global Change Biology, debunking the Brazilian government's claims that Amazon fires in August were normal. More than one of the paper's authors remained anonymous for fear of reprisal like that Galvao suffered, co-author Erika Berenguer told the AP. It was really tough for them to make that decision,” she said. In Alter do Chao, the arrest of the firefighters wasn’t the first controversy this year to perturb the town’s peaceful vibe. In July, Brazil’s education minister was eating in the central plaza with his family when indigenous activists staged a short demonstration beside his table. The minister responded by taking a nearby microphone to address the crowd. I just want to show the difference between the left and people who aren't on the left,'' he said.I’m here with my family on my vacation, one week of the year, three little kids, and you try to humiliate me in front of my kids. Is that it? Is that what you are?” It quickly escalated into a shouting match, with video of the episode going viral nationwide. Names circulatedTwo days later, a list with names of NGOs, activists and professors from the region allegedly responsible for the mistreatment of the minister'' started circulating in local WhatsApp chat groups, according to a local journalist who writes under the name Hellen Joplin, who also works with local activists. She found herself on the list, described as being anti-Bolsonaro and aleftist of the worst kind.” It was a total witch hunt: get them and punish them,'' Joplin said in an interview. That night, four police officers drove to her home with red lights flashing as she hosted a meeting of indigenous activists. Terrified attendees hopped Joplin's back fence and hid in the jungle, while officers standing at Joplin's doorway warned her about supposed motorcycle theft in the area and peered into her home, she said at the AP's Rio de Janeiro office. She skipped town with her two toddlers and plans to return only to move her things out permanently. For now, the volunteer firefighters and nonprofits remain under investigation in Alter do Chao. For Ana Torrellas, who helps run a restaurant in the town's plaza, the process looks like arbitrary persecution. Boom, it was their turn, as can happen with me, as can happen with you,” said Torrellas, who moved to town from Venezuela two years ago. “I don’t need glasses to see the plan. They don’t want people who think differently.” 
…