WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort agreed Friday to cooperate in the Russia collusion investigation in a plea deal that left the White House looking increasingly under siege by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Manafort, who led Trump’s election operation at the height of the campaign in the middle of 2016, admitted reduced charges of conspiracy just days before he was to go on trial for money laundering, illegal lobbying and witness tampering.
The surprise deal brought to seven the number of people who have pleaded guilty in cases tied to Mueller’s 16 month old investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
It suggested that Mueller is getting ever closer to Trump, his family and top staff in an operation that many speculate could generate an impeachment motion against the president.
The White House though insisted Manafort’s admission of guilt, in charges that mainly related to his work in Ukraine for the decade before the 2016 election, was wholly unconnected to the president.
“This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
The Manafort deal came three weeks after Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen implicated the president directly as he pleaded guilty in New York to charges of campaign finance violations, related to buying the silence of women who allegedly had affairs with Trump.
“I plead guilty,” the 69 year old veteran Republican political consultant told the court after being read the charges against him.
He faces a prison term of up to 10 years, and will see millions of dollars worth of real estate and financial accounts seized by US authorities.
Manafort attorney Kevin Downing said his client had agreed to cooperate to “protect his family.”
“He has accepted responsibility for conduct that dates back many years,” Downing added.
Manafort’s plea deal avoids a potentially explosive trial that could embarrass the president and his Republican Party during the seven weeks before hotly contested national elections on November 6.
But it also demonstrated the rapid progress Mueller is making in the sprawling investigation.
Last week George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the 2016 campaign whose contacts with Russians set off the original collusion investigation, was sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to the FBI. His sentencing had been held up for nearly a year while he cooperated with investigators.
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who also pleaded guilty for lying, is still cooperating in the probe as he awaits sentencing.
Manafort was already convicted in a separate jury trial on eight counts related to financial fraud in August.
Those charges, as well as the two counts covered in Friday’s plea deal, derived from his work for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow political party between about 2005 and 2014.
Prosecutors said Manafort acted illegally as a lobbyist for Yanukovych, laundered more than $30 million into the United States, and bilked the government of $15 million in taxes.
Yet Manafort could have inside information on the Trump campaign’s suspect interactions with Russians from his nearly six months with the campaign in the middle of 2016.
US intelligence chiefs say Moscow interfered in the election extensively in order to help Trump defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Documents submitted in his first trial showed Manafort maintained his own Ukraine and Russia contacts during the campaign, including with a longtime Ukraine aide who US intelligence says has close ties to Moscow’s powerful GRU spy agency.
In addition, Manafort was present at a meeting held by campaign executives, including Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner, with a Russian lawyer who had offered them “dirt” on Clinton.
That meeting is now a key focus of the Mueller investigation.
Trump has repeatedly spoken out in Manafort’s defense — while also seeking to distance himself from his onetime associate.
“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” he tweeted in August, one day after Manafort’s first conviction. “Unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ — make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’“
After that verdict, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani confirmed to The New York Times that he and the president had discussed the possibility of a pardon for Manafort, and the political fallout that could follow.
“He really thinks Manafort has been horribly treated,” Giuliani told the Times.
Ex-Trump aide Manafort to cooperate in Russia probe
Ex-Trump aide Manafort to cooperate in Russia probe
- Manafort, who led Trump’s election operation at the height of the campaign in the middle of 2016, admitted reduced charges of conspiracy
- The surprise deal brought to seven the number of people who have pleaded guilty in cases tied to Robert Mueller’s 16 month old investigation
Biden authorizes Ukraine’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia
- Biden's decision follows Russia's reported use of North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine
- The US had previously allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS only for limited strikes just across the border with Russia
MANAUS, Brazil: President Joe Biden has authorized the use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike even deeper inside Russia, the latest easing of limitations meant to prevent the conflict from further spiraling, according to one US official and three people familiar with the matter.
The decision allowing Ukraine to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, for attacks farther into Russia comes as thousands of North Korean troops have been sent into a region along Ukraine’s northern border to help Russia retake ground and as President-elect Donald Trump has said he would bring about a swift end to the war, expressing skepticism over continued support by the United States.
Biden's decision came hours after Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine, described by officials as the largest in recent months, targeting energy infrastructure and killing civilians.
The attack came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine's power generation capacity ahead of the winter.
It is the second time the US has permitted the use of Western weapons inside Russian territory within limits after permitting the use of HIMARS systems, a shorter-range weapon, to stem Russia's advance in Kharkiv region in May.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched a total of 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine. Various types of drones were deployed, he said, including Iranian-made Shaheds, as well as cruise, ballistic and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian defenses shot down 144 out of a total of 210 air targets, Ukraine's air force reported later on Sunday.
Zelensky and many of his Western supporters have been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles, saying the US ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
Some supporters have argued that this and other US constraints could cost Ukraine the war. The debate has become a source of disagreement among Ukraine’s NATO allies.
Biden had remained opposed, determined to hold the line against any escalation that he felt could draw the US and other NATO members into direct conflict with Russia.
But North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back land in the Kursk border region that Ukraine seized this year. The introduction of North Korean troops to the conflict comes as Moscow has seen a favorable shift in momentum. Trump has signaled that he could push Ukraine to agree to give up some land seized by Russia to find an end to the conflict.
As many as 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to US, South Korean and Ukrainian assessments. US and South Korean intelligence officials say North Korea also has provided Russia with significant amounts of munitions to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.
Trump, who takes office in January, spoke for months as a candidate about wanting Russia’s war in Ukraine to be over, but he mostly ducked questions about whether he wanted US ally Ukraine to win.
He also repeatedly slammed the Biden administration for giving Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in aid. His election victory has Ukraine’s international backers worrying that any rushed settlement would mostly benefit Putin.
America is Ukraine’s most valuable ally in the war, providing more than $56.2 billion in security assistance since Russian forces invaded in February 2022.
Worried about Russia’s response, however, the Biden administration repeatedly has delayed providing some specific advanced weapons sought by Ukraine, only agreeing under pressure from Ukraine and in consultation with allies, after long denying such a request.
That includes initially refusing Zelensky’s pleas for advanced tanks, Patriot air defense systems, F-16 fighter jets, among other systems.
The White House agreed in May to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS for limited strikes just across the border with Russia.
Ukrainian drones strike Russia
A local journalist died Sunday as Ukrainian drones struck Russia's embattled Kursk region, its Gov. Aleksei Smirnov reported.
Moscow’s forces have for months strained to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the southern province after a bold incursion in August that constituted the largest attack on Russia since World War II and saw battle-hardened Ukrainian units swiftly take hundreds of square miles (kilometers) of territory.
In Russia’s Belgorod province, near Ukraine, a man died on the spot after a Ukrainian drone dropped explosives on his car, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
Another Ukrainian drone on Sunday targeted a drone factory in Izhevsk, deep inside Russia, according to anti-Kremlin Russian news channels on the Telegram messaging app. The regional leader, Aleksandr Brechalov, reported that a drone exploded near a factory in the city, blowing out windows but causing no serious damage. A man was briefly hospitalized with a head injury, Brechalov said.
COP29 success requires G20 ‘leadership’: UN chief
- Annual UN climate talks in Baku deadlocked at midway point
RIO DE JANEIRO: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called on G20 leaders gathering in Rio de Janeiro to rescue stalled concurrent UN climate talks in Azerbaijan by showing “leadership” on cutting emissions.
“A successful outcome at COP29 is still within reach, but it will require leadership and compromise, namely from the G20 countries,” Guterres, who will attend the summit of the world’s biggest economies starting Monday, told a press conference in Rio.
The annual UN talks in Baku are deadlocked at the midway point, with nations no closer to agreeing a $1 trillion deal for climate investments in developing nations after a week of negotiations.
The talks are stuck over the final figure, the type of financing, and who should pay, with Western countries wanting China and wealthy Gulf states to join the list of donors.
All eyes have turned to Rio in the hope of a breakthrough.
“The spotlight is naturally on the G20. They account for 80 percent of global emissions,” Guterres said, calling on the group to “lead by example.”
India announces successful hypersonic missile test
- Defense ministry says missile designed to carry payloads over distances greater than 1,500 km
- Other countries known to have hypersonic missile capabilities are the US, China and Russia
NEW DELHI: India has test-fired its first long-range hypersonic missile, the Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday, marking the country’s entry into a small group of nations known to possess such weapons programs.
The Defense Research and Development Organization — an agency under the Ministry of Defense — conducted the test on Saturday night on Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha.
The missile, designed to carry payloads over 1,500 km, was “indigenously developed by the laboratories of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex, Hyderabad along with various other DRDO laboratories and industry partners,” the ministry said in a statement Sunday.
“The flight data obtained from down range ship stations confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with high degree of accuracy.”
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh took to social media to say the test was a “historic moment” that has put India country in the “group of select nations having capabilities of such critical and advanced military technologies.”
Hypersonic missiles can travel at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, or 6,115 km per hour — much faster than other ballistic and cruise missiles, making them more difficult to track than traditional missile technology.
The other countries known to have such capabilities are the US, China, and Russia.
Defense expert Ranjit Kumar told Arab News that the successful launch of the hypersonic missile has enhanced the deterrent capabilities of the Indian missile arsenal.
“(The) hypersonic missile will add more teeth to the Indian missile firepower. (The) Indian Armed Forces already possess over 300 km range (supersonic) Brahmos cruise missile and over 5,000 km range Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, but the latest, over 1,500 km range hypersonic missile will ... give more confidence to the Indian military to be able to hit the target with sure success,” he said.
“At a time when India is surrounded with adversaries possessing long-range ballistic missiles, the latest hypersonic missile will deter them from launching a preemptive strike on Indian locations.”
More than 1.2 million people flee as new super typhoon hits Philippines
- Authorities warn of ‘life-threatening’ impact of sixth storm hitting the country in one month
- Risk of landslides is high, as soil in many affected regions is saturated from previous storms
MANILA: More than 1.2 million people have been evacuated in eight regions of the Philippines as the country braces for the impact of the sixth tropical cyclone to hit in the past month, the Office of Civil Defense said on Sunday.
Super Typhoon Man-yi slammed into the coastal island of Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone Bicol region on Saturday evening, as the national weather agency warned of “potentially catastrophic and life-threatening situations.”
Five other storms — Usagi, Trami, Kong-rey, Yinxing and Toraji — struck the Philippines since late October, killing at least 163 people, displacing millions and causing widespread destruction mainly in the country’s north.
OCD Administrator Ariel Nepomuceno said there were no immediate reports of casualties from Man-yi’s impact, but government agencies were on alert as they expected flooding and landslides on Sunday and Monday.
Residents were evacuated in eight regions covering the northwestern, northeastern and central parts of Luzon — the country’s most populous island — as well as the Bicol Peninsula in its southernmost part, the island provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, and Palawan, and parts of the Eastern Visayas, including Samar island.
“We did worst-case planning … In total, 361,079 families cooperated, that means 1.24 million individuals who went to the evacuation centers,” Nepomuceno told Arab News.
“Fortunately, so far no one has been reported injured or killed. But we are not done yet because the storm is heading towards mainland Aurora … then to southern Aurora and northern Quezon, and then the typhoon will cross Central Luzon. It may exit La Union or Pangasinan, so we will look at that whole area.”
He said the main danger at the moment was from landslides as “the soils in the affected areas are already saturated.”
In Catanduanes, which was so far the worst hit, 11 of the island province’s 16 towns sustained major damage.
“Many houses were destroyed … because electric poles were toppled, there is no electricity in almost all of Catanduanes,” Nepomuceno said.
The Philippines is considered the country most at risk from natural disasters, according to the 2024 World Risk Report.
Each year, the Southeast Asian nation experiences around 20 tropical storms and typhoons, impacting millions of people as weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable and extreme due to climate change.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, displaced millions and left more than 6,000 people dead or missing in the central Philippines.
India announces successful hypersonic missile test
- Defense ministry says missile designed to carry payloads over distances greater than 1,500 km
- Other countries known to have hypersonic missile capabilities are the US, China and Russia
NEW DELHI: India has test-fired its first long-range hypersonic missile, the Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday, marking the country’s entry into a small group of nations known to possess such weapons programs.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation — an agency under the Ministry of Defense — conducted the test on Saturday night on Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha.
The missile, designed to carry payloads over 1,500 km, was “indigenously developed by the laboratories of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex, Hyderabad along with various other DRDO laboratories and industry partners,” the ministry said in a statement Sunday.
“The flight data obtained from down range ship stations confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with high degree of accuracy.”
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh took to social media to say the test was a “historic moment” that has put India country in the “group of select nations having capabilities of such critical and advanced military technologies.”
Hypersonic missiles can travel at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, or 6,115 km per hour — much faster than other ballistic and cruise missiles, making them more difficult to track than traditional missile technology.
The other countries known to have such capabilities are the US, China, and Russia.
Defense expert Ranjit Kumar told Arab News that the successful launch of the hypersonic missile has enhanced the deterrent capabilities of the Indian missile arsenal.
“(The) hypersonic missile will add more teeth to the Indian missile firepower. (The) Indian Armed Forces already possess over 300 km range (supersonic) Brahmos cruise missile and over 5,000 km range Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, but the latest, over 1,500 km range hypersonic missile will ... give more confidence to the Indian military to be able to hit the target with sure success,” he said.
“At a time when India is surrounded with adversaries possessing long-range ballistic missiles, the latest hypersonic missile will deter them from launching a preemptive strike on Indian locations.”
