US Senate investigates Moscow’s meddling in 2016 election

James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US defense secretary, accused Russia of trying to break up NATO and said the US needs to stand up to its old foe. (AFP)
Updated 15 January 2017
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US Senate investigates Moscow’s meddling in 2016 election

WASHINGTON: US senators have launched a probe into Russian spying, saying intelligence reports of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to American political parties “raise profound concerns.” 
 
The Senate Intelligence Committee, backed by both Democrats and Republicans, will investigate possible contacts between Russia and the people associated with US political campaigns as part of a broader investigation into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
 
The probe could trigger forced testimony by officials of both Barack Obama’s outgoing administration and the incoming government of Donald Trump, who won the Nov. 8 presidential vote.
 
In a statement late Friday, Sens. Richard Burr. R-N.C., the committee’s chairman, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said the panel “will follow the intelligence where it leads.”
Burr and Warner said that as part of the investigation they will interview senior officials from the Obama administration and the incoming Trump administration. They said subpoenas would be issued “if necessary to compel testimony.”
 
“We will conduct this inquiry expeditiously, and we will get it right,” the senators said.
A declassified intelligence report released last week said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hidden campaign to influence the election to favor Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton, revelations that have roiled Washington.
 
Trump and his supporters have staunchly resisted the findings and Trump has leveled a series of broadsides at US intelligence agencies, even though he will have to rely on their expertise to help him make major national security decisions once he takes over at the White House next week. He will be sworn in Jan. 20.
 
At a news conference this week, Trump speculated that US intelligence agencies might have leaked details about a classified briefing with him that included unsubstantiated allegations that Russia had collected compromising sexual and financial information about him.
 
He said any such information was not true: “It’s all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen.”
The bulk of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s work will be done in secret, although the senators said they will hold open hearings when possible.
 
“As the committee’s investigation progresses, we will keep Senate leadership, and the broader body, apprised of our findings,” Burr and Warner said.
 
Democrats and some Republicans have pressed for a special, select bipartisan committee to conduct the investigation, but Republican leaders have maintained that the existing committees are capable of handling the inquiries.
 
According to the committee’s statement, the inquiry will include:
— A review of the intelligence that informed the declassified report about Russia’s interference in the election.
 
— “Counterintelligence concerns” related to Russia and the election, “including any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns.”
— Russian cyber activity and other “active measures” against the US during the election and more broadly.
 
A report from the Director of National Intelligence released early this month said the Russians hacked Democratic Party computers and accounts to release files embarrassing to Clinton, and also conducted a campaign of media manipulation with the same aim.
 
But the public version of the report was questioned for offering only weak evidence of its claims.
An unproven dossier compiled by a former British MI6 intelligence agent also alleged close ties between the Trump campaign and Russian government, and said Moscow had lurid video of Trump with prostitutes while in Russia.
 
“It is critical to have a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States,” the Senate panel said on Friday.
Trump, who will take office in one week, has repeatedly rejected suggestions that Moscow aided in his election victory.
 
He has also compared US intelligence agencies to “Nazi Germany” for allegedly leaking to the media their analyzes to undermine him.
The probe will review the intelligence community’s assessments and also other assessments, “including any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns,” the committee said.
 
That suggested the former British spy’s explosive report could also be reviewed.
Vowing to “get it right,” the panel said most of the work will be done out of public scrutiny to protect classified information.
 
In light of the hacking allegations, Trump’s close ties with Russia, and especially President Vladimir Putin, have come under growing scrutiny.
 
Trump, who sees an opportunity to cooperate with Moscow in fighting jihadist groups like Islamic State, has expressed admiration for Putin, and only reluctantly accepted US intelligence’s conclusion that Russian hackers acting on Putin’s authority interfered in the US elections.
 
The Washington Post reported that Trump’s incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn telephoned Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, several times the day before Obama unveiled punitive measures over Russia’s alleged cyberattacks to influence the US election.
 
Flynn receives a speaking fee from Russian government-funded Russia Today.
Trump’s incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Flynn in fact spoke with the envoy on Christmas Day, sending him a text to wish him a merry Christmas and happy New Year.
 
“I look forward to touching base with you, and working with you, and I wish you all the best,” Spicer quoted Flynn as telling the ambassador, adding that the envoy responded with holiday greetings.
On Dec. 28, the pair spoke by phone about “the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in, and they exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and schedule that call,” Spicer said. He added: “That was it. Plain and simple.”
 
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump hinted he may scrap Obama’s punitive measures altogether, and said he was prepared to meet with Putin after taking office Jan. 20.
 
Separately, he blasted the leak of the unsubstantiated report that Russia had gathered compromising personal and financial material on him as “totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives.”
He promised a “full report” on the hacking claims within 90 days.
 
In the first round of hearings for Trump nominees that wrapped up Friday, a week before Obama hands the Manhattan billionaire the keys to the White House, several of his cabinet picks publicly contradicted him.
 
But the president-elect dismissed talk of ideological splits.
“All of my Cabinet nominee (sic) are looking good and doing a great job,” he said in an early morning tweet. “I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine!”
 
The 70-year-old Republican later elaborated, telling reporters at Trump Tower: “I could have said, ‘Do this, say that.’ I don’t want that. I want them all to be themselves.”
 
“And I’m going to do the right thing, whatever it is. I may be right. And they may be right.”
Over three days of feisty hearings this week, Trump’s nominees warned of the threat posed by Russia, hailed NATO, repudiated torture, defended the US intelligence community and cautioned against withdrawing from the Iran nuclear treaty and the Paris climate accord.
 
On virtually every controversial foreign policy stance that Trump took during the campaign, they hedged and backtracked and sought to assure senators that they shared the consensus that has shaped Western strategic thinking and institutions since World War II.
 

Trump envoy in Russia for talks with Putin about Ukraine

Updated 9 sec ago
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Trump envoy in Russia for talks with Putin about Ukraine

MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Russia on Friday for talks with President Vladimir Putin about the search for a peace deal on Ukraine, the Kremlin said, saying the two men might also discuss a Trump-Putin meeting.
The Izvestia news outlet released video of Witkoff leaving a hotel in Russia’s second city St. Petersburg, accompanied by Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s investment envoy.
Witkoff has emerged as a key figure in the on-off rapprochement between Moscow and Washington amid talk on the Russian side of potential joint investments in the Arctic and in Russian rare earth minerals.
Putin was also in St. Petersburg on Friday to hold what the Kremlin called an “extraordinarily important” meeting about the development of the Russian Navy, which is in the throes of a major modernization and expansion drive.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down the planned Witkoff-Putin meeting, telling Russian state media the US envoy’s visit would not be “momentous” and that no breakthroughs were expected.
The meeting will be their third this year and comes at a time when US tensions with Iran and China — two countries with which Russia has close ties — are severely strained over Tehran’s nuclear program and a burgeoning trade war with Beijing.
Witkoff is due in Oman on Saturday for talks with Iran over its nuclear program after Trump threatened Tehran with military action if it does not agree to a deal. Moscow has repeatedly offered its help in trying to clinch a diplomatic settlement.
Putin and Trump have spoken by phone but have yet to meet face-to-face since the US leader returned to the White House in January for a second four-year term.
US and Russian officials said they had made progress during talks in Istanbul on Thursday toward normalizing the work of their diplomatic missions as they begin to rebuild bilateral ties.
However, US-Russia dialogue aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine appears to have stalled over disagreements around the conditions for a full pause in hostilities.
Trump, who has shown signs of losing patience, has spoken of imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is dragging its feet on a Ukrainian deal.
A February meeting between Witkoff and Putin culminated with the US envoy flying home with Marc Fogel, an American teacher Washington had said was wrongfully detained by Russia.
A Russian-American spa worker Ksenia Karelina, who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia, was exchanged on Thursday for Arthur Petrov, whom the US had accused of forming a global smuggling ring to transfer sensitive electronics to Russia’s military.
The US lists several Americans — some dual citizens — who are in jail in Russia, including Stephen Hubbard, another teacher whom Washington has officially declared as wrongfully detained.

India’s ‘drone sisters’ navigate change in farming and social roles

Updated 33 min 10 sec ago
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India’s ‘drone sisters’ navigate change in farming and social roles

  • ‘Drone Didi’ program equips women-led self-help groups with drones for agricultural services
  • Women say they earn about $150 a month by drone-spraying fertilizer and pesticide on farms

NEW DELHI: Rajveer Kaur enjoys the attention she receives whenever she goes out to the fields to operate her drone. Once a housewife and mother, the 29-year-old is now an independent woman, known in her region as a “drone didi” or “drone sister,” helping fertilize farmland and protect it from pests.

Kaur was working with a self-help group in her village in Faridkot district of Punjab when she was selected to join a government program providing women with drone technology for agricultural services.

“Then the central government gave us drones after giving training for a few weeks. It’s now almost a year since it has happened. I get good responses from the farmers. I also got the name of a woman operating a drone in the field,” she told Arab News.

“I was a housewife before becoming a drone pilot. My husband supports me, and it feels really good that a woman who has been a housewife can now step out and become a productive force.”

She also gets a sense of financial independence and can contribute to her household’s budget, earning on average $150 a month.

“There’s also a message in this — that a woman, even while being a housewife, can earn and become independent. She can show that she can be a pilot too — even if it means a drone pilot,” Kaur said.

“Sometimes farmers bargain, but generally I earn $4 for spraying one acre of land. It takes only five minutes. In the last eight months since I started working as a drone pilot, I’ve earned close to 100,000 rupees (around $1,160).”

She is one of the thousands of women in rural India who joined the government’s scheme to empower women-led self-help groups.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2023, the “Drone Didi” program aims to distribute 15,000 drones among the groups by the end of this year.

The 25–30 kg industrial drones are designed for agricultural use — to spray pesticides and fertilizers on farmland.

Kaur’s job involves filling the drones’ canisters with chemicals and then remotely navigating the devices over the fields to spray the crops, covering several hectares a day.

Farmers were initially reluctant, but they soon realized that the method works. Kaur’s neighbor, Manjinder Singh, was one of the first farmers to participate in the program when he sowed his field in December and had five and a half acres of land sprayed by drones.

“That was the first time I got my field sprayed by a drone. It was a new experience. It took less time, and it was very smooth,” he said.

“In terms of cost, I don’t see much difference, but it saved a lot of time and physical effort.”

What convinced farmers to rely on the services of the drone operators is that remote spraying uses much less water and is safer for the crops.

Drone operators do not walk through the fields and do not cause physical damage to the crops. They also reduce the probability of crops being infected.

“Bacterial illnesses do not get transferred from one field to another when you use a drone. You are not carrying the bacteria from one field to another because you’re not physically walking through the fields,” Roopendra Kaur, a 29-year-old drone pilot from Firozpur district, explained.

Her main job is in large fields during the sowing seasons. But in between the seasons, drone operators are active too, only their tasks are smaller — like spraying vegetable fields or chili plantations. Since getting her drone in March last year, she has earned about $1,200.

“We have got a sense of purpose in life and to be a drone didi is really a respectable profession. Farmers were initially hesitant, but they appreciate our work,” Kaur said.

“This was the first time I have stepped out of the house. I have been a housewife all my life and this is my first independent work.”


UN denounces army attacks in Myanmar despite post-quake truce

Updated 11 April 2025
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UN denounces army attacks in Myanmar despite post-quake truce

  • Following reports of sporadic clashes even after the March 28 quake that so far is known to have killed at least 3,645 people
  • The military air strikes on Pazi Gyi village on April 11 2023 killed at least 155 people, including many children

GENEVA: The United Nations rights office decried Friday attacks by Myanmar’s military despite a ceasefire declared following last month’s devastating earthquake, which killed more than 3,600 people.
“At a moment when the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones, the military is instead launching attacks,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
UN rights chief Volker Turk, she said, “calls on the military to remove any and all obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to cease military operations.”
A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following reports of sporadic clashes even after the March 28 quake that so far is known to have killed at least 3,645 people, the junta joined its opponents last week in calling a temporary halt to hostilities for relief to be delivered.
But Shamdasani highlighted that since the earthquake, “military forces have reportedly carried out over 120 attacks.”
“More than half of them (were) after their declared ceasefire was due to have gone into effect on 2 April,” she said.
The UN rights office had determined that most of these involved aerial and artillery strikes, she said, “including in areas impacted by the earthquake.”
“Numerous strikes have been reported in populated areas, many of them appearing to amount to indiscriminate attacks and to breach the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law.”
Shamdasani pointed out that areas at the epicenter of the quake in Sagaing, particularly those controlled by opponents of the military, “have had to rely on local community responses for search and rescue, and to meet basic needs.”
“Clearly these valiant efforts need to be further supported,” she said, calling for “common efforts to assist those in greatest need.”
“In this spirit we call on the military to announce a full amnesty for detainees it has incarcerated since February 2021, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint.”
The UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) also decried the attacks.
“Even as rescue workers searched for survivors during the devastating earthquake last month, the military continued its air attacks in Mandalay, Sagaing and other regions, killing and injuring civilians,” it said in a statement.
Nicholas Koumjian, head of the investigative team, slammed “the systematic and escalating use of air strikes by the Myanmar military across the country,” which “caused widespread death, destruction and displacement, and has terrorized communities.”
He said Friday marked the two-year anniversary of military strikes in the now quake-hit Sagaing region, which constituted the deadliest single attack in Myanmar since the coup.
The military air strikes on Pazi Gyi village on April 11 2023 killed at least 155 people, including many children.
“Aerial bombardments, including the use of drones and alleged use of chemical weapons, are a grim hallmark of the Myanmar conflict and have increased in frequency since the Pazi Gyi attack,” the IIMM statement said.


Ousted South Korean President Yoon embraces supporters after leaving presidential residence

Updated 11 April 2025
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Ousted South Korean President Yoon embraces supporters after leaving presidential residence

  • Constitutional Court removed him from office over his ill-fated imposition of martial law in December
  • Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, returned to their private apartment in affluent southern Seoul

SEOUL: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol left the presidential residence in Seoul on Friday for his private home, a week after the Constitutional Court removed him from office over his ill-fated imposition of martial law in December.
In recent days, moving trucks were seen driving in and out of the walled presidential compound in the Hannam-dong district, the site of a massive law enforcement operation in January that led to Yoon’s detainment. Yoon, who is facing a criminal trial on rebellion charges, was released from custody in March after a Seoul court canceled his arrest.
Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, along with their 11 dogs and cats, returned to their private apartment in affluent southern Seoul. As his black van arrived at the gate of the presidential compound, Yoon stepped out, smiling and waving to his supporters, shaking hands and embracing dozens of them, before getting back into the vehicle and leaving the site.
Arriving at the apartment complex where his private residence is located, Yoon stepped out of the van again and walked slowly through a crowd of supporters, shaking their hands as they chanted his name, as his wife closely followed.
Dozens of both supporters and critics of Yoon rallied in nearby streets amid a heavy police presence, holding signs that ran from “Your excellency Yoon, we will carry on with your spirit” to “Give Yoon Suk Yeol the death penalty!”
In a separate public message, Yoon expressed gratitude to his supporters who had protested for months calling for his reinstatement, and stressed that he will “continue to do my utmost” to build the “free and prosperous Republic of Korea that we have dreamed of together,” invoking South Korea’s formal name.
Yoon, a conservative who narrowly won the 2022 election, declared martial law on late-night television on Dec. 3, vowing to eradicate “anti-state” liberals whom he accused of abusing their legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. Yoon also declared a suspension of legislative activities and sent hundreds of troops to surround the National Assembly, but lawmakers still managed to form a quorum and voted to lift martial law just hours after it was imposed.
Yoon’s powers were suspended after the Assembly impeached him on Dec. 14. The Constitutional Court upheld impeachment and formally removed him from office last week, triggering a presidential election the government set for June 3.
Despite his self-inflicted downfall, it’s unlikely that Yoon will fade into the background, experts say. With the country entering election mode, he may try to rally his supporters while seeking to tighten his grip on the conservative People Power Party, whose leadership is stacked with loyalists.
Facing a separate criminal trial on rebellion charges, which are punishable by death or life in prison, Yoon would strongly prefer a conservative president who could pardon him if convicted and is likely to push to ensure the party’s primaries are won by a candidate he supports, experts say.


China hits back at Trump tariff hike, turmoil rings recession alarm

Updated 11 April 2025
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China hits back at Trump tariff hike, turmoil rings recession alarm

  • Donald Trump has now imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods of 145 percent since taking office
  • Beijing indicated that this would be the last time it matched the US tariff hike

BEIJING/WARSAW/WASHINGTON: Beijing on Friday increased its tariffs on US imports to 125 percent, hitting back against US President Donald Trump’s decision to hike duties on Chinese goods to 145 percent and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to up-end global supply chains.
China’s retaliation intensified the economic turmoil unleashed by Trump’s tariffs, with markets tumbling further and foreign leaders puzzling how to respond to the biggest disruption to the world trade order in decades.
The brief reprieve for battered stocks seen after Trump decided to pause duties for dozens of countries for 90 days quickly dissipated, as attention returned to the escalating trade conflict between the US and China that has fueled global recession fears.
Global stocks fell, the dollar slid and a sell-off in US government bonds picked up pace on Friday, reigniting fears of fragility in the world’s biggest bond market. Gold, a safe haven for investors in times of crisis, scaled a record high.
“Recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago,” said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shrugged off the renewed market turmoil on Thursday and said striking deals with other countries would bring certainty.
The US and Vietnam have agreed to begin formal trade talks, the White House said. The Southeast Asian manufacturing hub is prepared to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped to the United States via its territory in the hope of avoiding tariffs, Reuters exclusively reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, meanwhile, has set up a trade task force that hopes to visit Washington next week.
Trade war with China
As Trump suddenly paused his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on other countries hours after they came into effect earlier this week, he ratcheted up duties on Chinese imports as punishment for Beijing’s initial move to retaliate.
He has now imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods of 145 percent since taking office.
China hit back with new tariffs on Friday, although Beijing indicated that this would be the last time it matched the US, should Trump take his duties any higher.
“Even if the US continues to impose even higher tariffs, it would no longer have any economic significance and would go down as a joke in the history of world economics,” the finance ministry statement added.
“If the US continues to play a numbers game with tariffs, China will not respond,” it added, however, leaving the door open for Beijing to turn to other types of retaliation, and reiterating that China would fight the US to the end.
Trump had told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he thought the United States could make a deal with China and said he respected Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“In a true sense he’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries,” he said.
Xi, in his first public remarks on Trump’s tariffs, told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a meeting in Beijing on Friday that China and the European Union should “jointly oppose unilateral acts of bullying,” in a clear swipe at Trump’s tariff policies.
“There are no winners in a trade war,” the Chinese leader told his guest, adding that by acting together, the world’s second-largest economy and the 27-strong European trade bloc could defend their interests and help uphold “the global rules-based order,” China’s state news agency Xinhua reported.