Síntesis informativa - 28 de noviembre 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Lawyer for Snowden in Hong Kong Says He Left City Under Pressure
HONG KONG — A human rights lawyer who represented the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong says pressure from the local authorities, the bar association and legal aid groups have made it impossible for him to keep working in the semiautonomous Chinese city.
The lawyer, Robert Tibbo, is a Canadian national who left Hong Kong last year and is currently living in France. He did not disclose his move for nearly a year, fearing it would harm the cases of his clients in Hong Kong, particularly asylum seekers who sheltered Mr. Snowden during his 2013 stay.
Mr. Snowden, who leaked top-secret information on United States surveillance programs that had monitored the communications of hundreds of millions around the world, faces charges in the United States, including two counts under the Espionage Act. He now lives in exile in Russia.
‘They’re Going to Come for Us’: A Teenage Girl Caught in a War’s Riptides
My father knew we were next. “They’re going to come for us,” he’d say, after Meles Zenawi, then the prime minister of Ethiopia, told the country on national television in July 1998 that Eritreans weren’t welcome. “If the Ethiopian government says, ‘We don’t like the color of their eyes, and get out,’ ” Zenawi said, “then they should get out.”
That year, my family and I were among the estimated 75,000 Eritreans who were deported from Ethiopia at the start of a two-year border war, followed by a protracted cold war that ended this year in a formal declaration of peace. Twenty years have passed since that conflict uprooted thousands of families like mine. But the costly antipathy between Eritrea and Ethiopia goes back much further. During World War II, both states became battlegrounds in the fight against Italian imperial rule. After the war, the United Nations passed a United States-backed resolution to form a federation between the two countries. In 1962, however, Ethiopia annexed Eritrea, stripping its language, culture and ability to self-govern. A decades-long armed struggle for independence followed, and tens of thousands of men and women, including my uncle, lost their lives as resistance fighters to win back Eritrea’s sovereignty.
Starving Babies, Molotov Cocktails and Death Threats: One Photojournalist’s Venezuelan Reality
If you know anything about the crisis in Venezuela, you’ve most likely seen the work of Meridith Kohut, an independent photojournalist based in Caracas.
Meridith, who frequently photographs for The Times, has taken some of the most haunting images to come out of the country as its economy has spiraled deeper into chaos.
Raising Pressure on Nicaragua, U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Vice President
MEXICO CITY — The Trump administration imposed financial sanctions on Nicaragua’s vice president, Rosario Murillo, and a top aide on Tuesday, ratcheting up pressure on the Sandinista government to end its brutal crackdown on a popular uprising.
Nicaragua has been convulsed since April, when peaceful student protests developed into a broad-based movement demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and Ms. Murillo, who is his wife.
Washington has called on the Nicaraguan government to move up elections as a way out of the crisis, but Mr. Ortega has said that he will serve out his term, which ends in 2021. Early attempts at talks between the government and a coalition of opposition leaders foundered.
Ivanka Trump Says Her Private Email Use Has ‘No Equivalency’ With Hillary Clinton’
WASHINGTON — The president’s daughter and White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, said her use of a personal email account for government business was not the same as Hillary Clinton’s using a private email server, which the president and his supporters had long argued was illegal.
“There really is no equivalency,” Ms. Trump told ABC News in an interview that aired Wednesday in a defense that echoed what her father said earlier this month. Ms. Trump was asked if she should be locked up in prison as her father and his supporters chant about Ms. Clinton. “No,” Ms. Trump replied.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/us/politics/ivanka-trump-private-email.html
Roger Stone Sought WikiLeaks’ Plans Amid 2016 Campaign, Associate Says
WASHINGTON — An associate of the former Trump campaign adviser Roger J. Stone Jr. released documents on Tuesday showing that as the presidential campaign heated up in the summer of 2016, Mr. Stone tried to dispatch him to find out what information WikiLeaks had that could prove damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The associate, Jerome Corsi, said in an interview that he might be indicted on a charge of lying to federal investigators because he told them that he refused Mr. Stone’s request when in fact he passed it on to an intermediary. He said he had refused a plea deal offered by the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, because he did not intentionally lie, but merely forgot events of more than two years ago.
Mr. Corsi’s dealings with Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors have caused alarm among the president’s legal team, who were informed of developments by Mr. Corsi’s lawyer. President Trump’s lawyers were especially troubled by a draft statement of offense against Mr. Corsi that was passed on to them, according to people familiar with the situation. In it, prosecutors claimed that Mr. Corsi understood that Mr. Stone was “in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump” when he asked Mr. Corsi in late July 2016 to “get to” Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/politics/jerome-corsi-roger-stone-wikileaks.html
THE GUARDIAN
Argentinian government urges Buenos Aires residents to leave city for G20
Argentina’s capital city will go into a total security shutdown on Thursday as the heads of state of the world’s 20 biggest economies start arriving for the two-day G20 summit, which begins on Friday.
All flights over Buenos Aires will be diverted and trains, subways and all public transport will be cancelled for the duration of the summit, as the city braces for around 33 anti-G20 protests and cultural events.
Friday has been declared a public holiday, and the center-right government of Argentinian president Mauricio Macri has encouraged the city’s inhabitants to head out of town during the conference.
The US president will arrive in the largest air fleet bringing attendees to the summit: 10 aircraft – also carrying land vehicles and armed helicopters – will ferry the US delegation to Buenos Aires.
Advanced US security teams have already been in Buenos Aires for 12 days, and Washington will also assist Argentina’s security forces with “low-level radar coverage, extended air surveillance and detection coverage, persistent early warning capability”, according to a US diplomatic note obtained by the Guardian.
During the summit, a US navy vessel, three E-3 AWACS surveillance aircraft and three KC-135 refueling aircraft will be involved in monitoring Buenos Aires, while the US department of homeland security will also provide a mobile emergency response centre and “cyber intelligence support”, according to the note.
'A humiliation': Outcry after Mexico president gives highest honour to Jared Kushner
Peña Nieto praised Kushner as “a grand ally of Mexico” who helped achieve a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico.
The revised agreement – now known as Usmca – is expected to be signed in Buenos Aires during the G20 summit. Peña Nieto will decorate Kushner with the Order of the Aztec Eagle in the Argentinian capital this week.
‘Finally, they will pay’: justice beckons for survivors of El Mozote massacre
The brutal massacre was deemed the worst in modern Latin American history. From December 11 to 13, the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion massacred nearly 1,000 people in El Mozote – 533 children, 220 men and 200 women – trapping them in the local church and houses to shoot them en masse. The military still maintains the official version of events – that the massacre was a confrontation with guerrillas.
A trial against 18 military officers is now underway.
Putin accuses Ukraine's Poroshenko of Black Sea 'provocation'
Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews on Sunday over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine deniesKiev introduced martial law in parts of the country after the incident, saying it feared a possible Russian invasion. It has emerged that Russia is sending more of its advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Crimea amid the rising tensions.The Black Sea episode risks derailing a meeting between Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 in Argentina this week. The US president said on Tuesday he might cancel the meeting as a result of the incident, but the Kremlin said on Wednesday it thought the talks would proceed as planned.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/28/russia-deploy-missiles-crimea-ukraine-tensions
UK significantly worse off under all Brexit scenarios - official forecast
Officials modelled every scenario across a range, comparing them in nominal terms. Under the worst case no-deal scenario, GDP would be 10.7% lower in 15 years’ time, assuming there is no longer any net migration into the UK from the EU and EEA after Brexit.
Civil rights 'under serious attack' across the globe
Nearly six in 10 countries are seriously restricting people’s freedoms, according to a new report that warns of a growing repression around the world.
According to the study, there is little or no space for activism in countries such as Eritrea and Syria, and also worrying signs in countries where democracy is considered well established, such as France, the US, Hungary and India.
DEUTSCHE WELLE
Donald Trump may cancel Vladimir Putin meeting over Ukraine clash
The US president has said he might pull out of talks set to take place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Putin has dismissed recent confrontations with Ukraine as electioneering from Kyiv.
US President Donald Trump told the press late on Tuesday that he may cancel his much-touted summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin over a recent confrontation between Russia and Ukraine in the Sea of Azov.
https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-may-cancel-vladimir-putin-meeting-over-ukraine-clash/a-46482988
Europa
Putin defiende a sus guardacostas: “Cumplieron su deber”
Crisis con Ucrania: el presidente ruso aseguró que existía la posibilidad de que los buques ucranianos buscaran provocar “un incidente” en el puente de Crimea.
El mandatario ruso afirmó que los barcos ucranianos violaron aguas territoriales rusas e ignoraron las demandas de los guardacostas, que cumplieron "sus funciones legales de defensa de la integridad territorial de la Federación Rusa”, y aseguró que el lugar donde ocurrió el incidente son aguas que "siempre” han sido rusas, incluso antes de la "reunificación” de Crimea con Rusia.
https://www.dw.com/es/putin-defiende-a-sus-guardacostas-cumplieron-su-deber/a-46489187
XINHUA
Líder supremo de Irán pide elevar capacidades militares para "disuadir" a enemigos
TEHERAN, 28 nov (Xinhua) -- El líder supremo de Irán, el ayatolá Ali Khamenei, pidió hoy elevar las capacidades militares de Irán para "disuadir a los enemigos", dice su sitio web oficial.
Irán no está buscando la guerra con ningún país, pero las fuerzas armadas deben desarrollar sus capacidades para disuadir a cualquier potencial agresor, dijo el líder supremo iraní.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/28/c_137637804.htm
OCS es un importante elemento en diplomacia regional, dice jefe de ONU
NACIONES UNIDAS, 27 nov (Xinhua) -- El secretario general de la ONU, António Guterres, dijo hoy que la Organización de Cooperación de Shanghai (OCS) es un elemento importante en la diplomacia regional.
Tras señalar que la OCS representa a la mayor población combinada de cualquier agrupación regional del mundo con más de 3.000 millones de personas, el jefe de la ONU dijo en el segundo evento especial de alto nivel "ONU-Organización de Cooperación de Shanghai: Cooperación encaminada hacia el fortalecimiento de la paz, la seguridad y la estabilidad", que la OCS es muy importante para promover el multilateralismo y para alentar la cooperación con el fin de abordar los temas de paz y seguridad más urgentes en Eurasia.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/28/c_137635657.htm
Trump analiza con líderes republicanos en Cámara Representantes seguridad fronteriza
WASHINGTON, 27 nov (Xinhua) -- El presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, discutió varios asuntos legislativos, entre ellos la seguridad en la frontera, en una reunión con los nuevos líderes republicanos en la Cámara de Representantes celebrada este martes en la Casa Blanca.
Trump ha dicho que quiere 5.000 millones de dólares para la construcción de la barrera y que podría ser "un buen momento" para un cierre del Gobierno si no recibe los fondos que busca.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/28/c_137636789.htm
AL JAZEERA
Ukraine's first-ever martial law comes into effect
Russia condemns the implementation, saying martial law will escalate the conflict that has killed about 10,000 people.
Tamila Varshalomidze
The measure, which affects the regions closest to Russia's military bases - the first ever martial law in the country's history - was approved by parliament on Monday, a day after a clash between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Sea of Azov.
On Wednesday, Russia's Southern Military District spokesperson, Vadim Astafyev, told Interfax news agency that a fourth S400 surface-to-air missile battalion would soon be deployed to Crimea.
The Sea of Azov conflict on Sunday that saw Russia temporarily close the Kerch Strait came two months after Poroshenko announced the creation of a new naval base in the area between Crimea and Russia.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/ukraine-martial-law-effect-181128082222282.html
Google workers push to stop censored Chinese search project
Tech giant taken to task for not challenging Chinese government's policy that politically sensitive results be blocked.
Google has described the search app, known as Project Dragonfly, as an experiment not close to launching. But as details of it have leaked since August, current and former employees, human rights activists and US legislators have criticised Google for not taking a harder line against the Chinese government's policy that politically sensitive results be blocked.
The letter expresses concern over the Chinese government tracking dissidents through search data and suppressing truth through content restrictions.
Why Ebola crisis in DRC is unlike anything before
Democratic Republic of Congo has seen multiple outbreaks of Ebola, but this time it faces more challenges.
Azad Essa. 27 de noviembre. Since August, authorities in the country, together with a host of partners, have been trying to contain a new outbreak of the disease in the eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
The North Kivu and Ituri provinces are among the most unstable and densely populated in the country, and subject to some of the highest levels of human mobility in it.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/ebola-crisis-drc-181125140426233.html
RT
Massive blast near chemical plant in China kills at least 22, causes massive damage (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
At least 22 people have been killed and another 22 injured following a powerful explosion which, according to local authorities, also damaged around 50 vehicles near a chemical plant in the Chinese city of Zhangjiakou. The explosion in the vicinity of Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co., Ltd. in Zhangjiakou happened in the early hours of Wednesday, prompting local authorities to launch a massive firefighting and rescue operation.
https://www.rt.com/news/445021-china-chemical-plant-blast/
Hear no evil without subtitles? Bolton says no reason to listen to Khashoggi murder tape in Arabic
US National security adviser and uber-hawk John Bolton defended his and President Trump’s refusal to listen to a recording of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, implying the journalist’s death throes would get lost in translation.
That the veteran war hawk should shy away from a gruesome recording of the Saudi reporter’s dying moments is surprising, given that it’s his main duty to advise the US President on national security issues, which can get messy. But Bolton, like the president, cherishes the US’s special relationship with the Saudis, who last year signed a 10-year, multibillion-dollar arms deal – an agreement that has recently come under scrutiny for including “aspirational” arms sales.
https://www.rt.com/usa/445020-bolton-defends-khashoggi-trump/
X-ray machines & facial recognition cameras: MI6 architect displays the park of the future
The architect of MI6's headquarters showed off the next generation of defense gadgets, which are set to be unleashed on the public in the near future, at London’s International Security Expo.
Everything from x-ray machines that can detect concealed weapons to facial recognition cameras that can scan through a car’s tinted windows, were on display at the urban park, built by the London-based architects. The installation, named ‘Protecting Urban Spaces’, is part of the two-day expo held in Olympia, west London.
One of the more impressive items on display was the Argon weapons scanner that resembles a bin. The scanner fires electromagnetic waves at passersby to screen for items hidden by clothes, which could include weapons, large or small. Argon’s creators claim that their product can reportedly detect concealed items as small as a matchbox. The park also includes a bike stand that has been reinforced so it can withstand a 7.5 tonne vehicle hitting it at 50mph, and a facial recognition camera that can ascertain an individual's identity even if they are in a car with tinted windows.
As well as MI6’s iconic Thames-side HQ, famously ‘blown up’ in the James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’, Farrells designed the nearby US embassy, maligned by Donald Trump, and the new Home Office headquarters.A partner at architecture company, Farrells, Bennett said: “People are wanting us to make their buildings secure, without them appearing to be secure.”
https://www.rt.com/uk/445061-mi6-defence-weapons-security/
Russian anti-ship missiles filmed moving towards Kerch after flare-up with Ukraine (VIDEO)
A large column of Russian military hardware, including anti-ship missile systems, has been spotted moving towards the Crimean city of Kerch, after Russian border guards faced off with Ukrainian ships violating Russia’s border.
A video exclusively obtained by RT’s video agency Ruptly shows a whole column of military trucks, as well as several ‘Bal’ coastal defense systems, moving along a road in Crimea. The troops were being relocated to an area near the city of Kerch, following the tense standoff on Sunday with a group of Ukrainian ships that, despite repeated warnings, had breached Russia’s territorial waters in the Kerch Strait.
The ‘Bal’ systems are equipped with eight X-35 cruise anti-ship missiles, capable of hitting vessels with displacement tonnages up to 5,000 tons at a distance of up to 20 kilometers.
https://www.rt.com/russia/445015-russia-anti-ship-missiles-kerch/
Air-to-surface missile developed for Russian Su-57 jet ‘has twice the range’ of older projectile
Russia’s fifth-generation fighter jet Su-57 will have a long-range air-to-surface missile with a greatly extended range, the head of a leading Russian arms producer said.
The Sukhoi Su-57 multipurpose jet may receive a new weapon system meant to hit targets on the ground from well outside the range of anti-aircraft defenses of the enemy. At least that’s the implication of what Boris Obnosov, the head of Tactical Missiles Corporation (KTRV), told Zvezda, the TV channel of the Russian defense ministry.
KTRV is a leading Russian missile conglomerate. Among its products, which the Su-57 is rumored to become a platform for, is the Kh-31, a long-range air-to-surface missile meant to destroy radar installations and ships, depending on the variant. The anti-radar Kh-31P has the range of 250km while the anti-ship Kh-31A has the range of 150km.
https://www.rt.com/russia/444954-su-57-missile-range/
US tried to get classified data on Russian missiles with claims of INF Treaty violation – deputy FM
Accusations by Washington that Moscow had violated the INF Treaty were actually an attempt by the US to obtain classified data on missile projects that were developed by Russia, the country’s deputy foreign minister has said.
In view of those accusations, Moscow “received several question lists” from the US, according to Sergey Ryabkov.
“The subject of many questions by the Americans far exceeded Russia’s obligations as part of the treaty, and were rightly perceived by us as an attempt to ‘scan’ our newest missile developments,” he told a briefing in Moscow.
At the same, the Americans “haven’t presented any real piece of evidence confirming our violations of the INF Treaty,”Ryabkov pointed out.
https://www.rt.com/russia/444901-us-russia-inf-missile-data/
AL MAYADEEN
Fuerzas yemenitas atacan con misiles objetivos sauditas en Asir y Jizan
Según la prensa local, un misil Zelzal-1 golpeó con éxito a un agrupamiento de mercenarios liderados por Arabia Saudita en Jizan, y otro misil del mismo tipo impactó en otro centro enemigo en Asir.
La cadena de televisión local Al Masirah anunció que las fuerzas yemenitas dispararon otro misil Zelzal-1 hacia el punto de concentración enemiga leales a Mansur Hadi, y liderados por los sauditas, en la base militar de Helm, cerca de la localidad de Qa’atabah, en la provincia de Ad-Dali, en el suroeste de Yemen.
EE.UU. seguirá en Medio Oriente y la razón es "Israel", dice Trump en declaración de fidelidad a su aliado
Sin sonrojos el presidente Donald Trump sostiene al régimen sionista israelí -su principal aliado en el Medio Oriente- como como un ejemplo virtuoso en esa parte de mundo y la única razón para que Estados Unidos mantenga su presencia en la región.
