ІНСАЙДЕР УКРАЇНА

Madrid believes Russian-based groups used online social media to heavily promote Catalonia’s independence referendum last month in an attempt to destabilize Spain, Spanish ministers said Monday.

Spain’s defense and foreign ministers said they had evidence that state and private-sector Russian groups, as well as groups in Venezuela, used Twitter, Facebook and other Internet sites to massively publicize the separatist cause and swing public opinion behind it in the run-up to the Oct. 1 referendum.

Catalonia’s separatist leaders have denied that Russian interference helped them in the vote.

“What we know today is that much of this came from Russian territory,” Spanish Defense Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal said of Russian-based internet support.

“These are groups that, public and private, are trying to influence the situation and create instability in Europe,” she told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Brussels.

Asked if Madrid was certain of the accusations, Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis, also at the meeting, said: “Yes, we have proof.”

Dastis said Spain had detected false accounts on social media, half of which were traced back to Russia and another 30 percent to Venezuela, created to amplify the benefits of the separatist cause by re-publishing messages and posts.

Ramon Tremosa, the EU lawmaker for the PDeCat party of Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, repeated on Monday that Russian interference had played no part in the referendum.

“Those that say Russia is helping Catalonia are those that have helped the Russian fleet in recent years, despite the EU’s boycott,” Tremosa tweeted, referring to Spanish media reports that Spain was allowing Russian warships to refuel at its ports.

Those who voted in the referendum opted overwhelmingly for independence. But turnout was only about 43 percent as Catalans who favor remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the ballot.

The separatist vote has plunged Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy, into its worst constitutional crisis since its return to democracy in the 1970s.

Dastis said he had raised the issue with the Kremlin.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any such interference and accuses the West of a campaign to discredit Russia.

Information warfare?

NATO believes Moscow is involved in a deliberately ambiguous strategy of information warfare and disinformation to try to divide the West and break its unity over economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the U.S. election to try to help President Donald Trump defeat rival Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing emails and spreading propaganda via social media.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who attended the EU meeting in Brussels, declined to comment on Spain’s accusations, but the alliance’s top commander said last week that Russian interference was a concern.

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander General Curtis Scaparotti said “Russian malign influence” was trying to sway elections and other decisions in the West, describing it as a “destabilization campaign,” although he did not directly address the Catalonia referendum.
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The next World Economic Forum of world leaders and CEOs in Davos will be chaired by women including International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and IBM’s chief executive Ginni Rometty.

The seven co-chairs for the four-day event in January were announced in the face of criticism that the conference has in the past lacked female representation.

“Co-chairs… were chosen to reflect global stakeholders,” said a spokeswoman for WEF, adding the co-chairs were all leaders in their fields.

The co-chairs shape the program and lead discussions and panels. The theme of the 48th conference is to “explore the root causes of, and pragmatic solutions for, the manifold political, economic and social fractures facing global society,” WEF said.

WEF, in an annual report this month, found it will take another 217 years before women earn as much as men and have equal representation in the workplace, revealing an economic gap of 58 percent.

It is the second straight year the Swiss non-profit has recorded worsening economic inequality.

A typical representative of the more than 2,500 titans of industry and influence that each January descend upon the Alps has received the unofficial moniker of “Davos Man” — a sign of the further shift in representation and thinking still necessary to balance uneven gender dynamics.

Other co-chairs are Isabelle Kocher, head of French energy conglomerate Engie; Italian physicist and director general of the CERN particle physics research centre Fabiola

Gianotti; founder of the rural cooperative Mann Deshi Bank for women, Chetna Sinha; and International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

Next year’s event will take place January 23-26, 2018.

 
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The United States is participating in the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, despite President Donald Trump’s announcement it will be leaving the Paris Climate Accords.

The State Department says a U.S. delegation is participating in the conference in Bonn, Germany.

A State Department statement Monday said, “The United States remains a Party in good standing to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and is participating in ongoing negotiations under the Framework Convention as well as the Paris Agreement, in order to ensure a level playing field that benefits and protects U.S. interests.”

The president announced in June the United States will leave the Paris climate agreement, which would obligate the United States to cut its overall greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26 percent by 2025, compared with 2005 levels.

Trump, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt have all questioned how much human activity has contributed to climate change.
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Irish musician and anti-poverty activist Bob Geldof returned his “Freedom of the City of Dublin” award to his hometown Monday, saying he cannot hold an honor also given to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I am a very proud Dubliner but cannot in all conscience continue to be one of the honored few to have received this great tribute whilst Aung San Suu Kyi remains amongst that number,” Geldof said in a statement.

“In short, I do not wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of North West Burma.”

Geldof is best known for organizing the 1985 “Live Aid” concert – reported to have been the biggest concert in the world, boasting multiple locations, and raising more than $104 million to combat hunger in Ethiopia.

Aung San Suu Kyi – a Nobel laureate – has come under fire internationally for failing to address what the U.N. has described as ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority Rohingya. More than half a million Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.

Fellow Nobel laureates, including the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, have also spoken out and called on her to say something to condemn the violence.

Aung San Suu Kyi initially maintained there had been “a huge iceberg of misinformation” about the plight of the Rohingya. She recently visited conflict-wracked northern Rakhine state, having come under pressure to halt a military crackdown. The operations were launched in response to attacks by Rohingya militants.
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Two former U.S. intelligence officials slammed President Trump Sunday for saying believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin “feels that he and Russia did not meddle” in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Former CIA director John Brennan, in an appearance on CNN with James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said Trump’s initial indication that he believed Putin shows “that Donald Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and try to play upon his insecurities, which is very, very worrisome from a national security standpoint.”

Clapper said Russia poses and obvious threat to the U.S., and to suggest otherwise “poses a peril to this country.”

Trump was asked Saturday whether the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election came up in conversations with Putin in Vietnam where the two leaders attended an Asia-Pacific summit. Trump replied, “He said he didn’t meddle, he said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times.”

Trump went on to say, “That whole thing was set up by the Democrats” – slamming former United States intelligence leaders, including Brennan and Clapper.  

“They’re political hacks. So you look at it, and then you have Brennan, you have Clapper and you have [James] Comey. Comey’s proven now to be a liar and he’s proven to be a leaker,” he said, referring to the FBI’s former director, who was fired early in Trump’s presidency amid much controversy.

“So you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that,” Trump said.

Taking issue

Trump’s remarks brought immediate criticism on Saturday.

In a statement, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a frequent critic of the president from his own party, said, “There’s nothing ‘America First’ about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community. … Vladimir Putin does not have America’s interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naive but also places our national security at risk.”

But Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Saturday the president understands the truth about Russian interference, and is simply choosing to “accept” Putin’s denials “over the solid evidence of our own intelligence agencies.” 

“He understands all this and more. He just doesn’t understand how to put country over self. Or to put it in terms he is more familiar with – Mr. Trump simply can’t bring himself to put America first,” Schiff said in a statement.

And Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency (NSA) tweeted Saturday, “So my question is: which is the position of the U.S. government? POTUS or CIA?”

Hayden then tweeted, “CIA just told me: The Dir stands by and has always stood by the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment entitled: Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections. The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed.”

On Sunday, President Trump clarified that he meant Putin was sincere when denying that Russia did not meddle in the election.

“As to whether I believe it, I’m with our agencies,” Trump said. “As currently led by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.”

Cooperation with Russia

Trump also reiterated his stance Sunday that “having Russians in a friendly posture, as opposed to always fighting with them, is an asset to the world and an asset to our country, not a liability.”

Earlier Sunday, on his Twitter account, the president wrote: “Does the Fake News Media remember when Crooked Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, was begging Russia to be our friend with the misspelled reset button.  Obama tried also, but he had zero chemistry with Putin.”

Trump told reporters on Air Force One as it flew from Danang to the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi Saturday that a joint statement on Syria he agreed to issue with Putin is “going to save a tremendous number of lives.”

The statement, first released by the Kremlin, says the two leaders “confirmed the importance of de-escalation areas as an interim step to reduce violence in Syria, enforce cease-fire agreements, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, and set the conditions for the ultimate political solution to the conflict.”

It also says that Putin and Trump “agreed to maintain open military channels of communication between military professionals to help ensure the safety of both U.S. and Russian forces and de-confliction of partnered forces engaged in the fight against ISIS.”

‘A very good relationship’

Putin told reporters in Danang Saturday the joint statement is one of extraordinary importance, confirming the principles of the fight against terrorism.

Trump said of the Russian leader “we seem to have a very good feeling for each other, a good relationship considering we don’t know each other well. I think it’s a very good relationship.”

Trump also said the United States could be helped a lot by Russia on the North Korean nuclear issue.

“You know, you are talking about millions and millions of lives. This isn’t baby stuff, this is the real deal. And if Russia helped us in addition to China, that problem would go away a lot faster.”

But Trump said, concerning the North Korea nuclear and ballistic missile issue, “I did not speak to President Putin about it, because we just had these little segments where we were talking about Syria.”

Putin, in his remarks to the media, said, “We discussed all we wanted” at the APEC Summit, but unfortunately there was little time to speak in detail. He added that it would be good for Russian and American teams to sit down to talk about the whole breadth of the bilateral relationship.

Putin described Trump as a comfortable person, educated, and said he and the U.S. president were highly civil in their interactions.

RT retribution

The Russian leader warned, however, that action is likely to be taken against U.S. media in response to an American requirement that Russia’s RT media outlet register as a foreign agent in the United States.

Putin termed it an attack on free speech by the U.S. government, and he warned retaliatory measures will be proportionate and reciprocal.

CNN, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America have been mentioned by Russian officials and media reports as the most likely targets of the retaliation.

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and VOA House Correspondent Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.

 
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Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives has fallen to the lowest level in more than six years, according to a poll on Sunday, as they prepare for more talks on a coalition deal with the environmentalist Greens and a pro-business party.

The weekly Emnid survey for Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed only 30 percent would vote for Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc if there were a federal election this Sunday, down 1 percentage point.

This is the lowest reading for the conservatives in this survey since October 2011 and marks a slump in support since the Sept. 24 election, in which Merkel’s bloc won 32.9 percent.

Merkel’s conservatives, who bled support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the election, are trying to forge a three-way coalition government with Greens and the pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) – an alliance untested at the national level.

At a meeting later on Sunday party leaders are expected to discuss progress made so far in exploratory talks and try to overcome their remaining differences over climate, immigration and euro zone policy.

The meeting is due to start at 1500 GMT in Berlin and no statements are planned after the talks.

While politicians from the CDU/CSU and the FDP have cited progress after three weeks of exploratory talks, senior Greens voiced frustration and stepped up the pressure on Merkel.

“We see no goodwill at all on Europe, foreign and domestic policy, on affordable housing and good working conditions, on transport and agriculture transition,” Greens co-leader Cem Ozdemir told Bild am Sonntag.

Touching on one of the thorniest issues, Merkel said on Saturday that Germany should lead the fight against climate change and cut emissions without destroying industrial jobs.

Merkel’s comments, made in her weekly podcast in the middle of talks on limiting global warming attended by about 200 nations in the western German city of Bonn, highlighted the dilemma facing the center-right leader in the negotiations.

While the CUD/CSU and the FDP want to spare companies from additional burdens, the Greens want to spell out which measures the next government will implement for Germany to reach its 2020 goal of lowering emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels.

Due to strong economic growth and higher-than-expected immigration, Germany is at risk of missing its emissions target without any additional measures.

Merkel wants to have an agreement in principle by Nov. 16 on moving ahead to formal coalition negotiations to form a black-yellow-green government – also dubbed a “Jamaica coalition” because the parties’ colors match those of that country’s flag.

With less than a week to go, the exploratory coalition talks are not only complicated by the differences between the parties, but also by splits within the political parties themselves e€“ especially within the conservatives and Greens.

A breakdown of the talks could mean fresh elections in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, since the Social Democrats (SPD) – the second biggest party – have made clear they have no appetite for joining another ‘grand coalition’ under Merkel.
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The Kremlin said on Sunday that inflexibility on the part of the United States was to blame for the lack of a bilateral meeting between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump during a summit in Vietnam.

Trump and Putin met briefly on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam on Saturday and agreed on a joint statement supporting a political solution for Syria, but did not hold substantive bilateral talks.

“Unfortunately the American side did not offer any alternatives despite all efforts of our Russian colleagues.

There was only one time offered that was convenient for the American side, and only one place offered, which had already been rented by the Americans,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.

“The Americans showed no flexibility, and unfortunately did not offer any other alternative proposals. That is why the meeting could not happen,” Peskov added.

Putin himself said on Saturday the lack of a bilateral meeting with Trump in Vietnam was due to both leaders’ schedules and protocol obstacles that their teams had been unable to overcome.

Allegations that Trump’s election campaign colluded with Moscow last year to turn voters away from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton have hampered the president’s efforts to improve frosty U.S.-Russian relations.

Putin renewed his denial of the allegations during his brief meeting with Trump on Saturday. Trump has previously said the accusations of collusion were a hoax.
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Iran’s nuclear deal is “not negotiable,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bassam Ghassemi said Saturday in response to remarks by the French president.

Emmanuel Macron called for vigilance toward Tehran over its ballistic missile program and regional activities, in an interview published Wednesday by the Emirati daily Al-Ittihad.

“We have told French leaders on several occasions that the Iran nuclear deal is not negotiable and that no other issues can be included in the text” of the 2015 agreement, state news agency IRNA quoted Ghassemi as saying.

France, the Foreign Ministry speaker said, is “fully aware of our country’s intangible position concerning the issue of Iran’s defensive affairs, which are not negotiable.”

In the interview with Al-Ittihad, published during Macron’s 24-hour visit to Abu Dhabi, the French president said: “It is important to remain firm with Iran over its regional activities and its ballistic program.”

Macron also said there was no immediate alternative to the Iranian nuclear deal — long lambasted by U.S. President Donald Trump — which curbs Iran’s nuclear program.

France has been trying to salvage the 2015 nuclear, which Iran signed with six world powers — Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and the United States.

On October 13, Macron told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone call that France remained committed to the deal.

But the French leader stressed it was also necessary to have a dialogue with Iran on other strategic issues, including Tehran’s ballistic missile program and regional security, a proposal ruled out by Iran.

Macron’s visit this week to Abu Dhabi came amid renewed tensions between regional arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s nuclear deal saw sanctions imposed on Tehran lifted in exchange for limits on its atomic program.
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Spanish authorities said they rescued 251 migrants, including children, on Saturday who were making the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.

The people were saved “from five improvised vessels, all in the Alboran Sea,” Spain’s maritime safety authorities said on Twitter, referring to the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea.

The number of migrants arriving by sea on Spanish shores has soared over last year, with the figure nearly tripling to 15,585 in 2017 by November 8, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Many Africans undertaking the long route to Europe are choosing to avoid crossing danger-ridden Libya to get to Italy along the so-called central Mediterranean route, and choosing instead to get there via Morocco and Spain.

However, Spain is still well behind Italy, which has recorded 114,400 arrivals by sea since since the start of the year.

Since January, nearly 15,600 migrants have made it to Spain by sea, with 156 dying during the crossing, according to the IOM.

The agency estimates that 155,850 migrants have made the dangerous crossing to Europe this year and another 2,961 died or went missing while trying.
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Carrying Polish flags and throwing red smoke bombs, tens of thousands of people on Saturday joined a march in Warsaw organized by far-right nationalists to mark independence day, while counterprotesters rallied against fascism.

The annual march also attracted a considerable number of supporters of the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party to honor the re-establishment of Poland’s independence in 1918.

This year’s slogan was “We Want God,” which 21-year-old Pawel from the southern city of Rzeszow said was “important because religion is important in our country and we don’t want Islamization, of Europe or especially Poland.”

Those marching chanted “God, honor, country” and “Glory to our heroes,” while a few people also shouted xenophobic lines like “Pure Poland, white Poland” and “Refugees, get out.”

A smaller rally of a couple thousand people earlier in the day protested what they called the “fascist” nature of the main march.

“I’m shocked that they’re allowed to demonstrate on this day. It’s 50,000 to100,000 mostly football hooligans hijacking patriotism,” said Briton Andy Eddles, 50, a language teacher who has been living in Poland for 27 years.

“For me it’s important to support the anti-fascist coalition, and to support fellow democrats, who are under pressure in Poland today,” he told AFP.

Main march participant Kamil Staszalek, however, warned against making generalizations and said he was marching to “honor the memory of those who fought for Poland’s freedom.”

“I for one don’t identify with fascists. The same goes for other people — and there are families with children here, too,” said Staszalek, 30, a Warsaw office worker.

“I’d say some people here do have extreme views, maybe even 30 percent of those marching, but 70 percent are simply walking peacefully, without shouting any fascist slogans,” he told AFP.

No monopoly on patriotism

Polish President Andrzej Duda hosted an official ceremony to mark 99 years since Poland regained independence after being wiped off the map for 123 years in a three-way carve-up between Tsarist Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Duda invites all living former Polish presidents and premiers to attend each year, and Saturday marked the first time since the PiS party came to power in 2015 that EU President Donald Tusk — a former Polish premier and PiS rival — decided to attend.

“Independence Day has always been and will continue to be a celebration of all Poles and not just one party. No politician in Poland has ever had nor will ever have a monopoly on patriotism,” Tusk told reporters upon arriving at Warsaw’s Chopin airport.

Tusk’s appearance came at a time when Warsaw has been increasingly at odds with Brussels because of the PiS government’s controversial court reforms, large-scale logging in a primeval forest and refusal to welcome migrants.

Relations between PiS and Tusk have been so tense that Poland was the only country to vote against his re-election as EU president in March.

Warsaw business owner Wojciech Krol, who attended the anti-fascist rally with a huge Polish flag, said he was a Tusk opponent for a long time but was now happy with his work in the European Union and glad that he returned to Poland on Saturday.

“I’m really happy he came. What we want most here is as much Europe as possible, because right now it is only global pressure, and specifically EU pressure, that has stopped us all from being arrested, beaten, harassed and so on,” Krol, 55, told AFP.
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President Vladimir Putin is promising that Russia will retaliate for what he calls attacks on Russian media in the United States.

Putin’s comments at a news conference Saturday in Vietnam follow complaints by the Kremlin-funded RT satellite TV channel that the U.S. Justice Department has ordered it to register as a foreign agent by Monday.

Putin says “attacking our media in the United States is an attack on freedom of speech, without any doubt,” and promised to retaliate.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said the station would register, since otherwise its American director could be arrested and its accounts frozen. She says “we categorically disagree with this requirement” and vowed to sue. She says “this requirement is discriminatory, it contradicts both the principles of democracy and freedom of speech.”
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For Sherpa, a scrappy French monitoring group that is thinly staffed, no multinational is too powerful, and no head of state untouchable as it seeks economic and social change through the courts.

It accuses a major bank of complicity in Rwanda’s genocide and a cement manufacturer of helping to finance terrorism in Syria. It has gone after African leaders, mining companies and even a supermarket chain for activities that allegedly impoverish communities and violate human rights.

“I think we are the demonstration that small is beautiful,” Sherpa’s founder, lawyer William Bourdon, said in his Paris office.

Sherpa teamed up with fellow anti-corruption group Transparency International France to score a major win in late October, when a French court handed a suspended prison sentence to Equatorial Guinea’s vice president, Teodorin Obiang.

The playboy son of the country’s longtime leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the younger Obiang was found guilty of using public funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle in France, including a 101-room Paris mansion and a fleet of luxury cars. He is appealing the verdict, delivered after a decade-old campaign by Sherpa and fellow nongovernmental groups to bring him to justice.

“It’s a new wind,” Bourdon said of the verdict. “What was considered absolutely unrealistic 10 or 15 years ago is now considered possible.”

Families of two African heads of state — Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Gabon’s deceased leader Omar Bongo — also face corruption investigations in France as part of a larger probe of “ill-gotten gains.”

Broader change

Observers say the Obiang sentencing reflects a broader change in France, long accused of turning a blind eye to lavish property snapped up by African dictators and their families — and of maintaining a tangle of shadowy business and political ties with former colonies, dubbed France-Afrique.

“Teodorin is somebody who seems to be completely immune to any sort of pressure,” Human Rights Watch researcher Sarah Saadoun said of Obiang, whose opulent lifestyle sharply contrasted with the grinding poverty in his country. “Here is a case where France was able to pierce this impunity by seizing some of his assets. It’s a tremendous victory in a context where it’s very hard to have victories.”

Also groundbreaking is new French due diligence legislation that went into effect this year, forcing multinational corporations to address the impact of their actions on people and the planet. Criticized by France’s MEDEF employers group and some conservative politicians and hailed by anti-corruption groups, it is considered by some as a model for other European countries.

“It marks a huge change in French law,” said Ken Hurwitz, senior legal anti-corruption officer for the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative, one of Sherpa’s funders, “because it gives standing to civil society organizations focused on anti-corruption to actually bring a civil party case.”

Finding legal bases

The legislation could help buttress Sherpa’s arguments as it goes after powerful companies.

“We have to be creative to find a legal basis” to link French multinationals to abuses allegedly committed thousands of kilometers away, said Sherpa’s litigation head, Marie-Laure Guislain. “The violations of human rights must also be really clear, like environmental damage or working conditions. And they must be very big, to affect communities as a whole.”

While some nongovernmental organizations use “name and shame” tactics against corrupt companies and wrongdoers, Sherpa’s team of lawyers and jurists, many working pro bono, argue legal tools are more sustainable.

” ‘Name and shame’ works sometimes, but not always,” Guislain said. “What we have seen so far is they are really only willing to change their practices before justice.”

In June, Sherpa and two other groups filed a complaint against BNP Paribas, alleging the French banking giant knowingly approved a $1.3 million transfer that helped arm Hutu fighters during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Judges are now looking into the allegations against BNP, along with those against Swiss-French company LafargeHolcim, which Sherpa alleges made payments through intermediaries to the Islamic State group to keep its Syria plant open.

Lafarge said that an internal investigation had found “significant” errors of judgment and that it had taken measures to correct them, although it could not source who exactly received the payments; BNP did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Not surprisingly, Sherpa has attracted its share of critics, and founder Bourdon said he had faced numerous threats.

Close aides to Mauritania’s president also reportedly plan to file defamation charges against the NGO in Paris, following an October report highlighting alleged corruption in the West African state, according to magazine Jeune Afrique.

All about attention, money

Other critics argue Sherpa’s attacks are easily and unfairly destroying the reputation of large and vulnerable companies for the sake of media attention and funds.

“They file a complaint and their objective is met,” said Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, lawyer for French construction company Vinci, which sued Sherpa over its Qatar worker abuse claims. “The bigger the company, the bigger the media interest.”

Sherpa claims the contrary — that it is tilting against vastly more powerful and richer adversaries — and says that defamation suits with mounting compensation claims are attempts to silence it and other critics.

“It’s a whole strategy of intimidating NGOs,” said litigation head Guislain. “We’re lucky that we’re French lawyers, but our partners are terrified when they are attacked in French courts.”
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The presidents of the U.S. and Russia have approved a joint statement on Syria, agreeing that “there is no military solution to the conflict.”

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin approved the statement on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. Russian officials said Putin and Trump had a conversation before the group photo ceremony for APEC leaders in Danang.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the Kremlin announcement or the conversation the Kremlin said took place. 

In the statement the two world leaders repeated the urgency of destroying the Islamic State and agreed “to maintain open military channels of communication between military professionals to help ensure the safety of both U.S. and Russian forces,” as well as to prevent dangerous incidents involving the forces of allies fighting the Islamic State.

Trump and Putin confirmed their commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and also called on the parties involved in the Syrian conflict to use the Geneva process to find a resolution.

The statement was released by the Russian ministry of foreign affairs, which said the document had been drafted by experts from Russia and the United States and coordinated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Television pictures from Danang showed Putin and Trump chatting — apparently amicably — as they walked to the position where the traditional APEC summit photo was being taken at a viewpoint looking over the South China Sea.

Earlier pictures from the meeting show Trump walking up to Putin as he sits at the summit table and patting him on the back. The two lean in to speak to each other and clasp each other briefly as they exchange a few words.

Although the White House had said no official meeting was planned, the two also shook hands at a dinner Friday evening.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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Turkey’s increasingly fractious relations with some key Western allies are taking a growing financial toll amid investor concerns, analysts warn.

Although the lira surged Monday on news that Turkey and the United States had resolved a dispute over the detention of some of Washington’s local employees in Turkey, the currency plummeted Tuesday following apparently contradictory statements by both sides.

The currency gyrations linked to diplomatic tensions are increasingly becoming the norm. In the space of a couple of months, Turkey’s lira fell sharply on news that a reporter working for a U.S. newspaper was convicted in absentia on terrorism charges. Additionally, the currency dropped in value amid reports that Berlin planned to sanction Ankara in the case of 11 Germans detained following a coup attempt in Turkey last year and a resulting crackdown. The tensions have led to the lira approaching record lows.

Foreign investors, attracted by relatively high Turkish interest rates offering rare lucrative returns, had until now been largely indifferent to Ankara’s diplomatic and political woes. With growing concerns, however, that Turkey’s central bank is not doing enough to contain surging inflation running at a nine-year high, political risk is entering into investors’ equations.

“From the investors’ perspective, the real [interest] rates are not only inadequate to contain domestic demand pressures, but they are also inadequate to compensate for the elevated political risk premium,” warns economist Inan Demir of Nomura Bank.

Demir says international investors’ concerns over diplomatic tensions are heightened by the fear they could now have direct financial implications for Turkey.

“It’s more customary to talk about the EU tensions and talk about it in the same breath a German veto on large financing deals for Turkey from multilateral institutions,” Demir said. 

The ongoing crackdown following last year’s attempted coup resulted in the detention of several German nationals along with a number of U.S. citizens, including a pastor, Andrew Brunson.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, in a statement after meeting Thursday in Washington with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, expressed “deep concern over the arrests of American citizens, our Mission Turkey local staff, journalists, and members of civil society under the state of emergency.”

Reliance on foreign credit

The Turkish economy depends heavily on overseas borrowing. Over the next 12 months, Turkey needs to renew $170 billion in loans. The current account deficit, the difference between what it imports and exports, has surged this year to more than $40 billion, an increase from 3 percent to 5 percent of gross domestic product, or GDP. Analysts warn this will likely put further pressure on the lira.

That pressure is predicted to leave the country financially vulnerable when it comes to political uncertainties.

“The possibility of political shocks, leaving the currency alone, is almost nil,” warned political consulate Atilla Yesilada of the New York-based Global Source Partners.

“Given Turkey’s reliance on foreign credit, prolonged political pressure on global banks to reduce exposure or more bad news about potential sanctions on Ankara could have a chilling effect,” Yesilada said.

Alleged sanctions violations

The trial in New York of a Turkish Iranian businessman, Reza Zarrab, and a senior Turkish State Halkbank executive, Mehmet Atilla, accused of Iranian sanctions violations also is looming large over Turkey.

“If the guilt or the wrongdoing of the Turkish public bank, whose vice president is in jail, is proven in court, it will have severe repercussions on Turkey’s financial system,” warned international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

“There were some unconfirmed reports about a big bill of penalties prepared for several Turkish banks and that would obviously shake Turkey’s financial sector and Turkey’s economy seriously, which relies on cheap credit in order to run its affairs. The repercussion for the Turkish economy and, therefore, Turkey’s political stability and the grip of the president on the country can be very serious,” Ozel added.

In the next two years, Turkey is due to hold presidential and general elections. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan predicted to face a closely fought election, he is widely seen as increasingly using anti-Western rhetoric to secure nationalist voters. Analysts warn any financial turmoil triggered by international sanctions or fines on Turkish banks is likely to see Erdogan further ratcheting up his nationalist rhetoric, which could further unnerve foreign investors.

“There is that risk the political tensions will escalate and in a manner to affect the external financing outlook for Turkey, and the resulting market pressure would lead Turkey to adopt an even more uncompromising stance, and that intensifies pressures on the market even further,” said economist Demir.

Demir warns such a vicious cycle poses the danger of a fundamental change in foreign investors’ lending attitudes toward Turkey and with it considerable risks to its currency. “The scenario where Turkey is facing an external funding shock because of political tensions could easily deliver a depreciation well in excess of the level of 20 to 25 percent levels.”
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From Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton — the leak of more than 14 million documents from firms involved in offshore finance, known as the Paradise Papers, has engulfed some of the world’s most famous names.

The latest revelations show U2 frontman Bono used a company based in low-tax Malta to invest in a shopping mall in Lithuania. The Irish band, well known for its campaigning against poverty, has faced past criticism for its tax arrangements. There’s no suggestion that Bono acted illegally.

But campaigners against poverty say sheltering profits in secretive tax havens is depriving the public.

“This is money that’s lost to healthcare, to education, vital public services,” says Murray Worthy of Global Witness.

Europe wants to blacklist jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate on tax transparency. After a meeting of finance ministers this week, French representative Bruno Le Maire said the threat must be credible.

“If states do not stick to their commitments we have to put sanctions on those states,” he said Thursday.

Many of the world’s wealthy shelter their money in British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, which operate autonomously and have their own rules on tax and company law. British Prime Minister Theresa May said the government is demanding more openness. “We want people to pay the tax that is due,” she told business leaders this week.

Campaigners question that commitment, especially as economic uncertainty grows after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

“Since the Brexit vote here in the United Kingdom, the government has been far less assertive with British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies,” said Duncan Hames of Transparency International.

The group has just released the details of an investigation into how lax rules and enforcement on company ownership in Britain are exploited to launder illicit wealth. Hames says just six people are employed to police the ownership of the country’s 4 million registered companies.

“We looked at just over 50 known corruption and money-laundering schemes. And we found over 750 U.K. companies at the very heart of those schemes, which themselves amounted to some $80 billion.”

Forty-four of the companies identified in the investigation were officially registered at one mailbox — number 11, at 43 Bedford Street in central London.

The property is owned by a franchise of the firm Mail Boxes Etc. No allegations of corruption or money laundering are made against the owners — who told VOA they carry out due diligence and follow all U.K. laws. But mailbox forwarding services are a major weakness in the system, argues Hames.

“That has resulted in what we call ‘company factories’ — single locations where there are thousands upon thousands of companies registered. Not locations where there is any meaningful head office activity taking place. Half of the companies we found involved in these corruption and money-laundering schemes were registered at just eight addresses,” said Hames.

An estimated $100 billion of illicit wealth passes through London every year. Campaigners say British laws on company ownership urgently need tightening up.

 
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Three Chinese students were injured Friday when a man deliberately ran over them with his car near the city of Toulouse, France, police said.

The French news channel BFM reports the driver, who was immediately arrested, was known to authorities for previous crimes but was not on a list of known extremists.

One police source told the French news agency the driver “deliberately” tried to ram the students with his car, one of whom is in serious condition.

All three of the victims, one woman and two men, are said to be in their early 20s.

France has experienced a rash of vehicular terror attacks inspired by the Islamic State group, but there has been no immediate confirmation of the driver’s identity or motive.

Last summer, a Tunisian man used a large truck to kill 86 people in the southern French city of Nice.

 
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Pope John Paul I, the shortest-lived pope in modern history, has moved a step closer to sainthood.

The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis has recognized the “heroic virtues” of John Paul I, who reigned for only 33 days before his sudden death in 1978.

His death fueled conspiracy theories that the former Cardinal Albino Luciani was murdered as part of a plot involving the Vatican bank, or perhaps committed suicide.

The move comes just days after the publication of a book that debunks the conspiracy theories. Pope Luciani: Chronicle of a Death, written by journalist Stefania Falasca, concludes that the man dubbed the “smiling Pope” died of a heart attack at age 65.

Falasca was involved in his beatification cause and had access to confidential Vatican documents, including the pope’s medical file.

Before John Paul I can be beatified, though, the Vatican still must confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession, and also a second miracle, before he can be made a saint.
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Lithuania said a growing rift between some eastern and western European Union states over issues such as migration posed a threat to the bloc at a time of increased Russian military assertiveness.

Frictions between ex-communist states in Europe’s East and the wealthier West have increased since the 2015 migration crisis and Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, as leaders try to quell popular disenchantment with the EU.

Nationalist politicians in Poland and Hungary have called for sweeping reform to bring more power back to member states at the expense of Brussels bureaucracy and refused to take part in efforts to relocate migrants from the Middle East.

“I believe it’s a worry,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Reuters on the sidelines of a security conference in Warsaw, when asked about Polish and Hungarian assertiveness within the EU.

“We would like to see more cohesion,” he said. “I know who is gaining. Those who are not happy with our cohesion,” Linkevicius said, adding that he was referring to Russia. “We are taking it very seriously not to help those who would like to divide East and West.”

Lithuania, alongside Poland, has been particularly worried about Russia since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

NATO has sought to reassure allies in the region by sending troops to the Baltics, Poland and the Black Sea, setting up a network of NATO outposts, holding more exercises and preparing a rapid response force.

Some western officials have expressed concern that parts of the Baltic states, which have large ethnic Russian minorities, could be seized by Moscow, much as Russia took control of Crimea.

Linkevicius said good relations with EU powerhouses Germany and France within the EU were crucial because of their ability to help militarily.

Poland, in particular, has seen ties with Paris and Berlin deteriorate since 2015, when the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party took power, over issues such as military procurement, wartime reparations and the EU’s single market rules.

Reporting by Justyna Pawlak; editing by Ralph Boulton.
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