Russia calls prisoner swap talks delicate, accuses US of leaks
Russia calls prisoner swap talks delicate, accuses US of leaks/node/2430101/world
Russia calls prisoner swap talks delicate, accuses US of leaks
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Washington is very actively pursuing the release of Paul Whelan, a former US marine, above left, and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. (AFP)
Russia calls prisoner swap talks delicate, accuses US of leaks
President Vladimir Putin said last week that Moscow hoped to reach an agreement but that Washington needed to listen to Russia’s conditions
Updated 22 December 2023
Reuters
MOSCOW: A top Russian diplomat said Moscow and Washington were still engaged in sensitive negotiations over a prisoner exchange, but accused the US side of leaking details to the media.
The United States said on Dec. 5 that Russia had rejected a “new and significant” proposal for the release of Paul Whelan, a former US marine serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for spying, and US reporter Evan Gershkovich, awaiting trial in Moscow on espionage charges. Both men deny they are spies and the US has designated them as “wrongfully detained” by Russia.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency in an interview published on Friday: “The issue of exchanges of citizens serving prison terms in Russia and the United States is extremely delicate. Decisions in this area are often hampered by being actively discussed in public.”
He said that contacts about possible exchanges were conducted by the intelligence services of both countries.
“It is interesting that the participants in these contacts on the American side insist on their complete confidentiality. We also adhere to this line, but then certain twists occur when the White House regularly arranges ‘leaks’ and begins to discuss sensitive issues in the public space.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Moscow hoped to reach an agreement but that Washington needed to listen to Russia’s conditions, which he did not specify.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington was very actively pursuing the release of Whelan and Gershkovich and would “leave no stone unturned” to find a way of getting them home.
The two countries have agreed high-profile prisoner swaps in the past — most recently in December 2022 when Moscow traded Brittney Griner, a US basketball star convicted of a drugs offense in Russia — for Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied that its reporter Gershkovich is a spy. He was detained in March and accused of trying to obtain military secrets.
Whelan, arrested in 2018, was quoted by the BBC this week as saying he felt “abandoned” by the United States and his life was “draining away” in a Russian penal colony.
The White House said on Thursday it was “very concerned” about reports that Whelan felt under physical threat in prison.
North Korean leader says past diplomacy only confirmed US hostility
During the speech at the exhibition, Kim Jong Un touched on the failed summits without naming Donald Trump
He accused the US of raising military pressure on North Korea by strengthening military cooperation with regional allies
Updated 8 sec ago
AP
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward his country and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats, state media said Friday. Kim spoke Thursday at a defense exhibition where North Korea displayed some of its most powerful weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland as well as artillery systems and drones, according to text and photos published by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. While meeting with army officers last week, he had pledged a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program. Kim has yet to comment directly on Donald Trump’s reelection as US president. During his first term, Trump held three highly orchestrated summits with the North Korean leader in 2018 and 2019, before the diplomacy collapsed over disagreements on exchanging a relaxation of US-led economic sanctions with North Korean steps to wind down its nuclear program. During the speech at the exhibition, Kim touched on the failed summits without naming Trump. “We have already gone as far as possible with the United States with negotiations, and what we ended up confirming was not a superpower’s will for coexistence, but a thorough position based on force and an unchangeable invasive and hostile policy” toward North Korea, Kim said. Kim accused the United States of raising military pressure on North Korea by strengthening military cooperation with regional allies and increasing the deployment of “strategic strike means,” apparently a reference to major US assets such as long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carriers. He called for accelerated efforts to advance the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, saying the country’s only guarantee of security is to build up the “strongest defense power that can overwhelm the enemy.” Kim’s expanding nuclear weapons and missile programs include various weapons targeting South Korea and Japan and longer-range missiles that have demonstrated the range to reach the US mainland. Analysts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington into accepting North Korea as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength. In recent months, the focus of Kim’s foreign policy has been Russia as he tries to strengthen his international footing, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and aligning with President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West. Washington and its allies have accused North Korea of providing Russia with thousands of troops and large amounts of military equipment, including artillery systems and missiles, to help sustain its fighting in Ukraine. Kim in return could possibly receive badly needed economic aid and Russian technology transfers that would possibly enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military, according to outside officials and experts. North Korea also held a major arms exhibition in July last year and invited a Russian delegation led by then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was given a personal tour by Kim that included a briefing on the North’s expanding military capabilities, in what outside critics likened to a sales pitch. That event came weeks before Kim traveled to the Russia for a summit with Putin, which sped up military cooperation between the countries. North Korean state media photos of this year’s exhibition showed various artillery systems, including what appeared to be 240mm multiple rocket launch systems that South Korea’s spy agency believes were part of the North Korean weaponry recently sent to Russia. When asked whether North Korea was showcasing the systems it intends to export to Russia, Koo Byoungsam, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said he wouldn’t make “premature judgments” but said the government was “monitoring related trends.” “We stress once again that arms transfers between Russia and North Korea are a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions and an illegal act that undermines the norms of the international community,” he said. Even with Trump returning to the White House, a quick resumption of diplomacy with North Korea could be unlikely, according to some experts. North Korea’s deepening alliance with Russia and the weakening enforcement of sanctions against it are presenting further challenges in the push to resolve the nuclear standoff with Kim, who also has a greater perception of his bargaining power following the rapid expansion of his arsenal in recent years.
How Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s alleged bribery scheme took off and unraveled
Gautam Adani allegedly tried to bribe local officials in India to persuade them to buy electricity produced by his renewable energy company Adani Green Energy
The allegations caught the attention of US watchdog agencies as Adani’s companies were raising funds from US-based investors in several transactions starting in 2021
Updated 22 November 2024
Reuters
NEW YORK: In June of 2020, a renewable energy company owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani won what it called the single largest solar development bid ever awarded: an agreement to supply 8 gigawatts of electricity to a state-owned power company.
But there was a problem. Local power companies did not want to pay the prices the state company was offering, jeopardizing the deal, according to US authorities. To save the deal, Adani allegedly decided to bribe local officials to persuade them to buy the electricity.
That allegation is at the heart of US criminal and civil charges unsealed on Wednesday against Adani, who is not currently in US custody and is believed to be in India. His company, Adani Group, said the charges were “baseless” and that it would seek “all possible legal recourse.”
The alleged hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes promised to local Indian officials caught the attention of the US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission as Adani’s companies were raising funds from US-based investors in several transactions starting in 2021.
This account of how the alleged scheme unfolded is drawn from federal prosecutors’ 54-page criminal indictment of Adani and seven of his associates and two parallel civil SEC complaints, which extensively cite electronic messages between the scheme’s alleged participants.
In early 2020, the Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded Adani Green Energy and another company, Azure Power Global, contracts for a 12-gigawatt solar energy project, expected to yield billions of dollars in revenue for both companies, according to the indictment.
It was a major step forward for Adani Green Energy, run by Adani’s nephew, Sagar Adani. Up until that point, the company had only earned roughly $50 million in its history and had yet to turn a profit, according to the SEC complaint.
The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of its Corporate House on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)
But the initiative soon hit roadblocks. Local state electricity distributors were reluctant to commit to buying the new solar power, expecting prices to fall in the future, according to an April 7, 2021 report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a think tank.
Sagar Adani and the Azure CEO at the time discussed the delays and hinted at bribes on the encrypted messaging application WhatsApp, according to the SEC.
When the Azure CEO wrote on Nov. 24, 2020, that the local power companies “are being motivated,” Sagar Adani allegedly replied, “Yup ... but the optics are very difficult to cover. In February 2021, Sagar Adani allegedly wrote to the CEO, “Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances.”
The SEC did not name the Azure CEO as a defendant, but Azure’s securities filings show the CEO at the time was Ranjit Gupta.
Gupta was charged by the Justice Department with conspiracy to violate an anti-bribery law. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Azure said on Thursday it was cooperating with the US investigations, and that the individuals involved with the accusations had left the company more than a year ago.
‘Sudden good fortune’
In August of 2021, Gautam Adani had the first of several meetings with an official in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, to whom he allegedly ultimately promised $228 million in bribes in exchange for agreeing to have the state buy the power, according to the Justice Department’s indictment.
By December, Andhra Pradesh had agreed to buy the power, and other states with smaller contracts soon followed. Other states’ officials were promised bribes as well, US authorities said.
During a Dec. 6, 2021 meeting at a coffee shop, Azure executives allegedly discussed “rumors that the Adanis had somehow facilitated signing” of the deals, according to the SEC.
Gautam Adani said on Dec. 14, 2021, the company was on track “to become the world’s largest renewables player by 2030.”
“The sudden good fortune for Azure and Adani Green prompted speculation in the marketplace about the contract awards,” the SEC wrote in its complaint.
Letter from the SEC
Before long, the SEC began to probe. The agency sent a “general inquiry” letter to Azure — which at the time traded on the New York Stock Exchange — on March 17, 2022, asking about its recent contracts and if foreign officials had sought anything of value, according to the Justice Department indictment.
According to the Department of Justice, Gautam Adani told representatives of Azure during a meeting in his Ahmedabad, India office the next month that he expected to be reimbursed more than $80 million for the bribes he had paid officials that ultimately benefited Azure’s contracts.
Some Azure representatives and a leading investor in the company decided to pay Adani back by allowing his company to take over a potentially profitable project. The representatives and investor allegedly agreed to tell Azure’s board of directors that Adani had requested bribe money, but hid their role in the scheme, prosecutors said.
All the while, Adani’s companies were raising billions of dollars in loans and bonds through international banks, including from US investors. In four separate fundraising transactions between 2021 and 2024, the companies sent investors documents indicating that they had not paid bribes — statements prosecutors say are false and constitute fraud.
FBI search
During a visit to the United States on March 17, 2023, FBI agents seized Sagar Adani’s electronic devices. The agents handed him a search warrant from a judge indicating that the US government was investigating potential violations of fraud statutes and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
According to prosecutors, Gautam Adani emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant on March 18, 2023.
His companies nonetheless went through with a $1.36 billion syndicated loan agreement on Dec. 5, 2023, and another sale of secured notes in March 2024, and once again furnished investors with misleading information about their anti-bribery practices, according to prosecutors.
On Oct. 24, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn secured a secret grand jury indictment against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Gupta, and five others allegedly involved in the scheme.
The indictment was unsealed on Nov. 20, prompting a $27 billion plunge in Adani Group companies’ market value. Adani Green Energy promptly canceled a scheduled $600 million bond sale.
World leaders split as ICC issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu
Palestinian Authority said the decision ‘represents hope and confidence in international law’
Spain, Italy said they would follow the ruling as Biden called the warrents ‘outrageous’
Updated 22 November 2024
AFP
PARIS: Israel and its allies denounced the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even as Turkiye — and rights groups — welcomed the move.
The court also issued warrants for Israel’s former defense minister as well as Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
They were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, set off by the militant Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack.
“The anti-Semitic decision of the International Criminal Court is comparable to the modern-day Dreyfus trial — and it will end in the same way,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
He was referring to the 19th-century Alfred Dreyfus affair in which a Jewish army captain was wrongly convicted of treason in France before being exonerated.
“The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement.
“Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Argentina “declares its deep disagreement” with the decision, which “ignores Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense against the constant attacks by terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,” President Javier Milei posted on social media platform X.
“(It’s) an important step toward justice and can lead to redress for the victims in general, but it remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said of the warrants against Israeli politicians.
“It is not a political decision,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking during a visit to Jordan.
“It is a decision of a court, of a court of justice, of an international court of justice. And the decision of the court has to be respected and implemented.”
“This arrest warrant against Mr.Deif is massively significant,” said Yael Vias Gvirsman, who represents 300 Israeli victims of the October 7 Hamas attacks.
“It means these victims’ voices are being heard,” she added, speaking from outside the court in The Hague.
The Palestinian Authority, a rival of Hamas, said that “the ICC’s decision represents hope and confidence in international law and its institutions.”
It urged ICC members to enforce “a policy of severing contact and meetings’ with Netanyahu and Gallant.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is now officially a wanted man,” said Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
“ICC member states and the whole international community must stop at nothing until these individuals are brought to trial before the ICC’s independent and impartial judges.”
“The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law.”
The ICC’s decision “is a belated but positive decision to stop the bloodshed and put an end to the genocide in Palestine,” Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan welcomed the warrants as “an extremely important step.”
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said his country would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they visited, although he added he believed the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu on the same level as Hamas.
Spain said it would follow the ruling, with official sources telling AFP the country “respects the decision and will conform to its commitments and obligations in compliance with the Rome Statute and international law.”
“It is important that the ICC carries out its mandate in a judicious manner. I have confidence that the court will proceed with the case based on the highest fair trial standards,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.
“Sweden and the EU support the important work of the court and safeguard its independence and integrity,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.
“The fight against impunity wherever crimes are committed is a priority for Belgium, which fully supports the work of the (ICC),” Belgium’s foreign ministry said on X. “Those responsible for crimes committed in Israel and Gaza must be prosecuted at the highest level, regardless of who committed them.”
Police report details 2017 sexual assault allegations against Trump nominee for top US defense post
The Monterey police department referred the complaint to the Monterey County district attorney, who declined to file charges saying there was no sufficient proof
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has denied the assault allegations and told police at the time that “there was ‘always’ conversation and ‘always’ consensual contact”
Updated 20 min 43 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: A woman filed a sexual assault complaint in 2017 against Pete Hegseth, US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to take charge of the Pentagon, according to a California police report.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has denied the assault allegations and told police at the time that “there was ‘always’ conversation and ‘always’ consensual contact,” between him and the woman, according to the report.
The case was referred to the Monterey County district attorney by the Monterey police department, but it declined to file charges since they could not be “supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” The Monterey police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“As far as the media (is) concerned, it’s very simple: The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it,” Hegseth told reporters on Capitol Hill where he met with Republican senators to build support for his nomination.
The police report, released by the City of Monterey on Wednesday night, does not have the complainant’s name but refers to her as Jane Doe. The report has surfaced after media outlets, including Reuters, filed requests for details about the incident that surfaced after Hegseth was named Trump’s defense secretary nominee.
The report says that Doe told an officer that she was attending a conference at a hotel in Monterey, California, in October 2017, where Hegseth was the keynote speaker.
Doe, according to the report, said she had been drinking and remembers leaving a bar with Hegseth. She said her next memory was being in an unknown room, with Hegseth blocking the door when she tried to leave.
“Doe remembered saying ‘no’ a lot. Jane Doe stated she did not remember much else,” the report said. The report added Doe said that her next memory was on a couch or bed with Hegseth over her and his dog tags hovering in her face.
While Hegseth was bare chested, “Jane Doe did not notice any tattoos, scars and or marks on Hegseth’s body,” the report said. Hegseth has a number of tattoos, including a large Jerusalem cross on his chest, Reuters has previously reported.
Doe, the report said, went to the hospital four days after the incident, where an examination was carried out. A copy of the medical exam was not included in the report. The report did not specify the hospital.
The police report said that video surveillance footage showed “Doe and Hegseth walking together, with arms locked together. Hegseth seemed to be talking and Jane Doe was smiling. Both did not have an unsteady gait.”
The report quoted a redacted name as saying that “DOE was not sure, but believes that something may have been slipped into her drink, as she cannot remember most of the night’s events.”
Hegseth says he told her he didn’t have protection and said they could stop if that was a problem, the report said.
“Hegseth stated Jane Doe said, ‘No No No, it’s not a problem. Hegseth stated he did not want to get anyone pregnant,” the police report said.
“This police report confirms what I have said all along — that the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed,” Hegseth’s attorney Timothy Parlatore said.
Trump has stood by Hegseth, calling the allegations false in a statement on Thursday.
“Pete Hegseth is a highly-respected Combat Veteran who will honorably serve our country when he is confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense, just like he honorably served our country on the battlefield in uniform,” said the statement.
The disclosure of the charges came as former US Representative Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration as Trump’s attorney general, after the House Ethics Committee deadlocked on releasing a report into allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.
Trump chooses Pam Bondi for attorney general pick after Gaetz withdraws amid fallout over sex trafficking probe
"It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz said
Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial when he was accused of abusing his power
Updated 21 min 14 sec ago
AP
WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, to be US attorney general just hours after his other choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration.
Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial, when he was accused — but not convicted — of abusing his power as he tried to condition US military assistance to Ukraine on that country investigating then-former Vice President Joe Biden.
Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. She’s been a chair at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump said in a social media post. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. told Fox Business on Sunday that the transition team had backups in mind for his controversial nominees should they fail to get confirmed. The swift selection of Bondi came about six hours after Gaetz withdrew.
Gaetz stepped aside amid continued fallout over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer.
That announcement capped a turbulent eight-day period in which Trump sought to capitalize on his decisive election win to force Senate Republicans to accept provocative selections like Gaetz, who had been investigated by the Justice Department before being tapped last week to lead it. The decision could heighten scrutiny on other controversial Trump nominees, including Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, who faces sexual assault allegations that he denies.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz, a Florida Republican who one day earlier met with senators in an effort to win their support, said in a statement.
“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1,” he added. Hours later, Gaetz posted on social media that he looks “forward to continuing the fight to save our country,” adding, “Just maybe from a different post.”
Trump, in a social media post, said: “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”
Last week, Trump named personal lawyers Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and D. John Sauer to senior roles in the department. Another possible attorney general contender, Matt Whitaker, was announced Wednesday as the US ambassador to NATO.
Bondi, too, is a longtime loyalist. She has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases against Trump as well as Jack Smith, the special counsel who charged Trump in two federal cases. In one radio appearance, she blasted Smith and other prosecutors who have charged Trump as “horrible” people she said were trying to make names for themselves by “going after Donald Trump and weaponizing our legal system.”
If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, Bondi would instantly become one of the most closely watched members of Trump’s Cabinet given the Republican’s threat to pursue retribution against perceived adversaries and concern among Democrats that he will look to bend the Justice Department to his will. A recent Supreme Court opinion not only conferred broad immunity on former presidents but also affirmed a president’s exclusive authority over the Justice Department’s investigative functions.
Bondi would inherit a Justice Department expected to pivot sharply on civil rights, corporate enforcement and the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol — defendants whom Trump has pledged to pardon.
It’s unlikely that Bondi would be confirmed in time to overlap with Smith, who brought two federal indictments against Trump that are both expected to wind down before the incoming president takes office. Special counsels are expected to produce reports on their work that historically are made public, but it remains unclear when such a document might be released.
In 2013, while serving as Florida attorney general, Bondi publicly apologized for asking that the execution of a man convicted of murder be delayed because it conflicted with a campaign fundraiser.
Bondi said she was wrong and sorry for requesting then-Gov. Rick Scott push back the execution of Marshall Lee Gore by three weeks.
Before she ran for state attorney general in 2010, Bondi worked for the Hillsborough County state attorney.
