Розділ: Повідомлення
Ex-Counsel Tells Congress of Trump Efforts to Undercut Russia Probe, Democrats Say
A former White House counsel “shed new light” on the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. elections and the pressure he was under to stymie the federal probe, congressional Democrats said Friday. Don McGahn, who served as Donald Trump’s presidential lawyer for nearly two years before resigning in October 2018, testified in a daylong, closed-door session before the House Judiciary Committee.McGahn appeared under a subpoena issued about two years ago to testify as the committee was looking into allegations of wrongdoing by Trump. Late in 2019, the House voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate, then under Republican control, acquitted him.A transcript of McGahn’s testimony is due to be made public in coming days. Under an agreement with the Department of Justice, Judiciary Committee members declined to provide specifics of what he said before then.”Mr. McGahn was clearly distressed by President Trump’s refusal to follow his legal advice, again and again, and he shed new light on several troubling events today,” committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement.Republican Representative Matt Gaetz told reporters that McGahn’s testimony provided no new information, however.”The expectation was that Don McGahn would be some sort of essential witness bringing new information worthy of years of litigation and countless taxpayer dollars spent,” Gaetz said of Democrats.Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean, a senior Judiciary Committee member, told reporters McGahn “brought to life the pressure he was under, the pressure that other aides were under by the president to direct Rod Rosenstein to oust special counsel [Robert] Mueller.”At the time, Rosenstein was serving as deputy attorney general, and Mueller was probing Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign.After a lengthy investigation, Mueller found “numerous links” between the campaign and the Russians and concluded the campaign “expected it would benefit” from Moscow’s effort to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. But Mueller said such interactions either did not amount to criminal behavior or would be difficult to prove in court.
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By Polityk | 06/05/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Україна переходить на е-лікарняні – Ляшко
Очільник МОЗ додав, що запроваджені зміни не можуть запрацювати відразу
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By Gromada | 06/05/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Добровольці батальйону «Айдар» отримали статус учасників бойових дій
Посвідчення учасників бойових дій отримали 26 добровольців
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By Gromada | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
After 2-year Battle, House Panel to Interview Trump Counsel
The House Judiciary Committee is poised to question former White House counsel Don McGahn behind closed doors on Friday, two years after House Democrats originally sought his testimony as part of investigations into former President Donald Trump.
The long-awaited interview is the result of an agreement reached last month in federal court. House Democrats — then investigating whether Trump tried to obstruct the Justice Department’s probes into his presidential campaign’s ties to Russia — originally sued after McGahn defied an April 2019 subpoena on Trump’s orders.
That same month, the Justice Department released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the matter. In the report, Mueller pointedly did not exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice but also did not recommend prosecuting him, citing Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president.
Mueller’s report quoted extensively from interviews with McGahn, who described the president’s efforts to stifle the investigation.
While the Judiciary panel eventually won its fight for McGahn’s testimony, the court agreement almost guarantees they won’t learn anything new. The two sides agreed that McGahn will only be questioned about information attributed to him in publicly available portions of Mueller’s report.
Still, House Democrats kept the case going, even past Trump’s presidency, and are moving forward with the interview to make an example of the former White House counsel. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the agreement for McGahn’s testimony is a good-faith compromise that “satisfies our subpoena, protects the Committee’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight in the future, and safeguards sensitive executive branch prerogatives.”
It is unclear what House Democrats will do with the testimony, which they sought before twice impeaching Trump. The Senate acquitted Trump of impeachment charges both times.
As White House counsel, McGahn had an insider’s view of many of the episodes Mueller and his team examined for potential obstruction of justice during the Russia investigation. McGahn proved a pivotal — and damning — witness against Trump, with his name mentioned hundreds of times in the text of the Mueller report and its footnotes.
He described to investigators the president’s repeated efforts to choke off the probe and directives he said he received from the president that unnerved him.
He recounted how Trump had demanded that he contact then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to order him to unrecuse himself from the Russia investigation. McGahn also said Trump had implored him to tell the deputy attorney general at the time, Rod Rosenstein, to remove Mueller from his position because of perceived conflicts of interest — and, after that episode was reported in the media, to publicly and falsely deny that demand had ever been made.
McGahn also described the circumstances leading up to Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director, including the president’s insistence on including in the termination letter the fact that Comey had reassured Trump that he was not personally under investigation.
And he was present for a critical conversation early in the Trump administration, when Sally Yates, just before she was fired as acting attorney general as a holdover Obama appointee, relayed concerns to McGahn about new national security adviser Michael Flynn. She raised the possibility that Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — and his subsequent interview by the FBI — left him vulnerable to blackmail.
Trump’s Justice Department fought efforts to have McGahn testify, but U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2019 rejected Trump’s arguments that his close advisers were immune from congressional subpoena. President Joe Biden has nominated Jackson to the appeals court in Washington.
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By Polityk | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden’s Pledge on Media Freedom May Be Easier Said Than Done
One of the Biden Justice Department’s first big moves has been to alert reporters at three major news organizations that their phone records were seized as part of leak investigations under the Trump administration, with President Joe Biden saying he would abandon the practice of spying on journalists.
But while Biden’s stated commitment that his Justice Department won’t seize reporters’ phone records has won support from press freedom groups, it remains unclear if that promise can be kept, especially because Democratic and Republican administrations alike have relied on the tactic in an effort to track down leaks of classified information. His comment last month about what law enforcement should or should not do was all the more striking given Biden’s pledge to uphold the tradition of an independent Justice Department.
“In this case, it seems bad policy to institute an absolute ban on logical investigative actions geared to finding out who violated the law, particularly in instances where the journalists themselves whose records may be at issue are not the subject or target of criminal investigation,” said David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who led the section that oversaw investigations into leaks.
The Justice Department in recent weeks disclosed that federal investigators had secretly obtained call records of journalists at The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN in an effort to identify sources who had provided national security information published in the early months of the Trump administration.
Past administrations also have struggled to balance the media’s First Amendment newsgathering rights against government interests in safeguarding national security secrets. Inside the Justice Department, officials have on several occasions over the years revised internal guidelines to afford media organizations better protection without ever removing from their arsenal the prerogative to subpoena reporters’ records.
Biden appears to be looking to change that.
He told a reporter last month that seizing journalists’ records was “simply, simply wrong” and that the practice would be halted under his watch. After the most recent revelation — that the Justice Department in the Trump administration had secretly seized the phone records of four New York Times reporters — White House press secretary Jen Psaki reaffirmed the commitment to freedom of the press.
But she also said discussions with the Justice Department were still underway and that no new policy was ready to be announced.
Michael Weinstein, a former Justice Department prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey, said he understood Biden’s comments as making clear his disdain for the practice without necessarily precluding the possibility that it could ever be used under any circumstances.
“I don’t see that he’s directing any specific case or that he’s directing that an investigation take one path or another,” Weinstein said. “He’s simply putting forth priorities and procedures, which then the Justice Department has to modify its protocols as a result.
“I don’t think he’s saying you can never do it,” he added. “I think he’s saying the standards have to be higher.”
The Justice Department says it has now concluded notifying the media organizations whose phone records were accessed. The latest revelation came Wednesday when The Times said it had learned that investigators last year secretly obtained records for four reporters during a nearly four-month period in 2017.
The gap in time likely reflects that the Justice Department regards the seizure of phone records as a last resort when other avenues in a leak investigation have been exhausted. The department said the reporters are neither subjects nor targets of the investigation but did not reveal which leak was under investigation.
The four reporters shared a byline on an April 2017 story that detailed the FBI’s decision-making in the final stages of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The story included classified information about a document obtained by Russian hackers that helped persuade then-FBI Director James Comey that he, not Attorney General Loretta Lynch, should be the one to announce the investigation had concluded without criminal charges. His unusual July 2016 news conference, held at the FBI and without Lynch or other leaders, marked an extraordinary departure from protocol.
The Trump administration announced a crackdown on leaks in 2017 as part of an aggressive stance. In addition to the phone records seizures disclosed over the past month regarding the reporters, the department won guilty pleas from a former government contractor who mailed a classified report to a news organization and a former Senate committee aide who admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with a reporter.
Psaki said Thursday that Trump administration officials had “abused their power” and that Biden was looking to turn the page. But the same intrusive tactics of the last four years were also employed during the Obama administration, which secretly seized phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors during a leak investigation in 2013 and also labeled a Fox News reporter a co-conspirator in a separate leak probe.
Amid blowback, former Attorney General Eric Holder announced guidelines for leak investigations that among other things required sign-off by the highest levels of the department for subpoenas of journalists’ records.
But the department’s ability to obtain those records under certain circumstances remained intact.
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By Polityk | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Кримськотатарський телеканал ATR отримає фінансування з держбюджету – Мінреінтеграції
ATR виграв тендер як єдиний канал, що здійснює мовлення кримськотатарською мовою на територію АР Крим
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By Gromada | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
‘I’ll Likely Never See Eye to Eye with Trump on Jan. 6’, Pence Says
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he wasn’t sure that he and former President Donald Trump would ever see “eye to eye” over what happened on Jan. 6 but that he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”Pence, speaking at a Republican dinner in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, gave his most extensive comments to date on the events of Jan. 6, when angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” after the vice president said he did not have the power to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.“As I said that day, Jan. 6 was a dark day in history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled. The Capitol was secured,” Pence said.“And that same day, we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence continued. “You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day.”It was a rare departure for Pence, who spent four years standing loyally beside his boss amid controversy, investigation and impeachment. It comes as Pence considers his own potential 2024 White House run and as Republicans, some of whom were angry at Trump in the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, have largely coalesced back around the former president.Pence praised Trump several times during his nearly 35-minute speech at the Hillsborough County Republican Committee’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Awards Dinner in Manchester. He tried to turn the events of Jan. 6 back around on Democrats, saying they wanted to keep the insurrection in the news to divert attention from Biden’s liberal agenda.“I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans. Or allow Democrats or their allies in the media to distract our attention from a new administration intent on dividing our country to advance their radical agenda,” Pence said. “My fellow Republicans, for our country, for our future, for our children and our grandchildren, we must move forward, united.”He accused Biden of campaigning as a moderate but becoming the most liberal president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He said the administration forced through Congress “a COVID bill to fund massive expansion of the welfare state” and was pushing a “so-called infrastructure bill” that was really a “thinly disguised climate change bill” funded with cuts in the military and historic tax increases.FILE – President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stand on stage during the first day of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, NC, Aug. 24, 2020.“I just say enough is enough,” he said, adding that “we’re going to stand strong for freedom.”Pence also hit upon several favorite themes of conservative Republicans, emphasizing the need for states to shore up voter integrity around the country. He praised law enforcement as heroes, saying: “Black lives are not endangered by police. Black lives are saved by police every day.”He also pushed back against “critical race theory,” which seeks to reframe the narrative of American history.Its proponents argue that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race and that the country was founded on the theft of land and labor. But Republicans have said concepts suggesting that people are inherently racist or that America was founded on racial oppression are divisive and have no place in the classroom.“America is not a racist country,” he said, prompting one of several standing ovations and cheers during his speech.“It is past time for America to discard the left-wing myth of systemic racism,” Pence said. “I commend state legislators and governors across the country for banning critical race theory from our schools.”His choice of states, including an April appearance in South Carolina, is aimed at increasing his visibility as he considers whether to run for the White House in 2024.Trump is increasingly acting and talking like he plans to make a run as he sets out on a more public phase of his post-presidency, beginning with a speech on Saturday in North Carolina.Since leaving office in January, Pence has been doing work with the Heritage Foundation and Young America’s Foundation. His team said he plans more trips, including stops in Texas, California and Michigan.Along with his visits to South Carolina and New Hampshire, Pence has been hitting the fundraising circuit. He is set to speak next week at another fundraiser hosted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, will travel to North Carolina for a Heritage Foundation donor event, and will then head to California, where he will take part in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s speakers’ series, a Republican National Committee donor retreat and a Young America’s Foundation event, according to aides.Among other prominent Republicans, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said in April that she would stand down if Trump decided to run in 2024. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has undertaken an aggressive schedule, visiting states that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 primaries and signing a contract with Fox News Channel.
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By Polityk | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pence: I’ll Likely Never See Eye to Eye with Trump on Jan. 6
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he wasn’t sure that he and former President Donald Trump would ever see “eye to eye” over what happened on Jan. 6 but that he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”Pence, speaking at a Republican dinner in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, gave his most extensive comments to date on the events of Jan. 6, when angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” after the vice president said he did not have the power to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.“As I said that day, Jan. 6 was a dark day in history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled. The Capitol was secured,” Pence said.“And that same day, we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence continued. “You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day.”It was a rare departure for Pence, who spent four years standing loyally beside his boss amid controversy, investigation and impeachment. It comes as Pence considers his own potential 2024 White House run and as Republicans, some of whom were angry at Trump in the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, have largely coalesced back around the former president.Pence praised Trump several times during his nearly 35-minute speech at the Hillsborough County Republican Committee’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Awards Dinner in Manchester. He tried to turn the events of Jan. 6 back around on Democrats, saying they wanted to keep the insurrection in the news to divert attention from Biden’s liberal agenda.“I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans. Or allow Democrats or their allies in the media to distract our attention from a new administration intent on dividing our country to advance their radical agenda,” Pence said. “My fellow Republicans, for our country, for our future, for our children and our grandchildren, we must move forward, united.”He accused Biden of campaigning as a moderate but becoming the most liberal president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He said the administration forced through Congress “a COVID bill to fund massive expansion of the welfare state” and was pushing a “so-called infrastructure bill” that was really a “thinly disguised climate change bill” funded with cuts in the military and historic tax increases.FILE – President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stand on stage during the first day of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, NC, Aug. 24, 2020.“I just say enough is enough,” he said, adding that “we’re going to stand strong for freedom.”Pence also hit upon several favorite themes of conservative Republicans, emphasizing the need for states to shore up voter integrity around the country. He praised law enforcement as heroes, saying: “Black lives are not endangered by police. Black lives are saved by police every day.”He also pushed back against “critical race theory,” which seeks to reframe the narrative of American history.Its proponents argue that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race and that the country was founded on the theft of land and labor. But Republicans have said concepts suggesting that people are inherently racist or that America was founded on racial oppression are divisive and have no place in the classroom.“America is not a racist country,” he said, prompting one of several standing ovations and cheers during his speech.“It is past time for America to discard the left-wing myth of systemic racism,” Pence said. “I commend state legislators and governors across the country for banning critical race theory from our schools.”His choice of states, including an April appearance in South Carolina, is aimed at increasing his visibility as he considers whether to run for the White House in 2024.Trump is increasingly acting and talking like he plans to make a run as he sets out on a more public phase of his post-presidency, beginning with a speech on Saturday in North Carolina.Since leaving office in January, Pence has been doing work with the Heritage Foundation and Young America’s Foundation. His team said he plans more trips, including stops in Texas, California and Michigan.Along with his visits to South Carolina and New Hampshire, Pence has been hitting the fundraising circuit. He is set to speak next week at another fundraiser hosted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, will travel to North Carolina for a Heritage Foundation donor event, and will then head to California, where he will take part in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s speakers’ series, a Republican National Committee donor retreat and a Young America’s Foundation event, according to aides.Among other prominent Republicans, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said in April that she would stand down if Trump decided to run in 2024. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has undertaken an aggressive schedule, visiting states that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 primaries and signing a contract with Fox News Channel.
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By Polityk | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Says Stands with ‘Brave’ Chinese Activists on Tiananmen Anniversary
The United States said Thursday it stands “with the people of China” in their fight for human rights on the eve of the anniversary of Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown, amid heightened tensions between the two economic giants.Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country will “honor the sacrifices of those killed 32 years ago, and the brave activists who carry on their efforts today in the face of ongoing government repression.””The United States will continue to stand with the people of China as they demand that their government respect universal human rights,” Blinken said, while also calling for “transparency” over Tiananmen Square.This, he said, included “a full accounting of all those killed, detained, or missing.”While discussion of the tanks and troops that quelled peaceful democracy protesters in Beijing on June 4, 1989, are all but forbidden in mainland China, huge candlelight vigils have been held the last three decades in the semi-autonomous Hong Kong.The city’s traditional day of pro-democracy people power, however, has been squashed this year, with thousands of police slated to enforce a ban on protests, and officials warning that a sweeping new national security law could be wielded against those disobeying.Last year’s vigil was also banned on the grounds of the coronavirus, but tens of thousands defied the ban and rallied anyway.”The Tiananmen demonstrations are echoed in the struggle for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, where a planned vigil to commemorate the massacre in Tiananmen Square was banned by local authorities,” Blinken said.The statement came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden expanded a blacklist of Chinese firms that are off-limits to American investors over their links to Beijing’s “military-industrial complex.”Washington is reviewing its diplomatic position with China on issues spanning trade, technological supremacy and rights, while it steps up efforts to hook Western democracies into a united diplomatic front against perceived Chinese aggression.
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By Polityk | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
4 червня пройде ЗНО з історії України
Щоб уникнути скупчення біля входу до пункту тестування, допуск учасників до пункту розпочнеться о 9:50 і триватиме до 10:50, повідомили у МОН
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By Gromada | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Justice Department Looking Into Postmaster General Over Fundraising
The Justice Department is investigating Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over political fundraising activity at his former business, a DeJoy spokesman said Thursday.Federal authorities in recent weeks have subpoenaed DeJoy and interviewed current and former employees of DeJoy’s and his business, The Washington Post reported. Mark Corallo, a DeJoy spokesman, confirmed an investigation in a statement to The Associated Press.”Mr. DeJoy has learned that the Department of Justice is investigating campaign contributions made by employees who worked for him when he was in the private sector. He has always been scrupulous in his adherence to the campaign contribution laws and has never knowingly violated them,” Corallo said.The agency declined to comment on news of the investigation.DeJoy, a wealthy former logistics executive, has been mired in controversy since taking over the Postal Service last summer and putting in place policy changes that delayed mail before the 2020 election, when there was a crush of mail-in ballots.Urged to write checksLast year, DeJoy faced additional scrutiny after the newspaper reported that five people who worked for his former company, New Breed Logistics, said they were urged by DeJoy’s aides or DeJoy himself to write checks and attend political fundraisers at his North Carolina mansion. Two former employees told the newspaper that DeJoy would later give bigger bonuses to reimburse for the contributions.It’s not illegal to encourage employees to contribute to candidates. It is illegal to reimburse them as a way of avoiding federal campaign contribution limits.DeJoy, who has not been charged with a crime, denied he had repaid executives for contributing to former President Donald Trump’s campaign, amid questioning before a congressional committee last year.Campaign finance disclosures show that between 2000 and 2014, when New Breed was sold, more than 100 employees donated a total of about $610,000 to Republican candidates supported by DeJoy and his family. He and his family have contributed more than $1 million to Republican politicians.A district attorney in Wake County, North Carolina, earlier this year decided not to pursue a criminal investigation into the allegations, saying the matter was out of her office’s jurisdiction.DeJoy to cooperateCorallo said DeJoy would cooperate with the investigation.”Mr. DeJoy fully cooperated with and answered the questions posed by Congress regarding these matters. The same is true of the Postal Service Inspector General’s inquiry, which after a thorough investigation gave Mr. DeJoy a clean bill of health on his disclosure and divestment issues. He expects nothing less in this latest matter, and he intends to work with DOJ toward swiftly resolving it,” Corallo said.
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By Polityk | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
В Україні кінець тижня очікується помірно теплим і майже бездощовим – синоптики
У Києві завтра без опадів, вдень близько 20° тепла
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By Gromada | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Збірна України з футболу перемогла команду Північної Ірландії
7 червня українці в Харкові приймуть команду Кіпру
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By Gromada | 06/04/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Biden Aims to Restore Alliances During Visit to Europe
U.S. President Joe Biden visits Europe later this month on what will be his first trip abroad since taking office, the White House announced Thursday. Biden, who became president on January 20, will meet with world leaders in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland during his visit June 10-16. “This trip will highlight America’s commitment to restoring our alliances, revitalizing the transatlantic relationship, and working in close cooperation with our allies and multilateral partners to address global challenges and better secure America’s interests,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a statement. The U.S. president will meet in the United Kingdom with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on June 10 and attend the June 11-13 G-7 summit in the county of Cornwall in southwest England. FILE – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II delivers a speech in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, at the Palace of Westminster in London, May 11, 2021.Biden will meet with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on June 13 before traveling to Brussels, Belgium, for the NATO summit on June 14, when he will “affirm the United States’ commitment to NATO, transatlantic security and collective defense,” Psaki said. While in Brussels, Biden will also meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “to discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues” and participate in the U.S.-EU Summit on June 15, when leaders will discuss international health security, global economic recovery, climate change and other matters. Biden will also meet with Belgium’s King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. His European trip will also take him to Geneva, Switzerland, “where he will hold a bilateral summit with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin on June 16,” according to Psaki. Biden will also meet with Swiss President Guy Parmelin and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.
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By Polityk | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Fighting Corruption is Core National Security Interest, Biden Says
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is formally establishing the fight against corruption as a core national security interest. Biden on Thursday issued his first national security memorandum, outlining his anti-corruption agenda. “Corruption threatens United States national security, economic equity, global anti-poverty and development efforts, and democracy itself,” the president said in his directive. “But by effectively preventing and countering corruption and demonstrating the advantages of transparent and accountable governance, we can secure a critical advantage for the United States and other democracies.” Biden’s memorandum is important because it serves as a formal notification from the president “that he expects all relevant federal departments and agencies to up their anti-corruption game in very specific ways,” a senior administration official told reporters on a briefing call Thursday. In part, the memo calls for combatting all forms of illicit finance in the country and with the international financial systems. It calls for American companies to report their beneficial owners to the Treasury Department and reduce offshore financial secrecy.Treasury’s beneficial ownership registry is intended to effectively bar illicit assets from being hidden behind anonymous shell companies. “It’s a massive undertaking,” acknowledged the senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of not being named. “We have seen several instances over past years in which the proceeds of corruption have been funneled through shell companies and wound up in major metropolitan areas in the United States to offshore those ill-gotten gains. And so we’re going to be taking additional steps to make sure that that doesn’t happen in the future.” In the action, the president calls for “corrupt individuals, transnational criminal organizations, and their facilitators” to be held accountable, including by taking criminal enforcement action against them. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Central Intelligence Agency will also be involved in the anti-corruption effort, which will use “all the tools at our disposal to make sure that we identify corruption where it’s happening and take appropriate policy responses,” said a senior U.S. official. Biden’s memo requests an interagency review to be completed within 200 days with a report and recommendations to be submitted to him for further direction and action.“The United States will lead by example and in partnership with allies, civil society, and the private sector to fight the scourge of corruption,” said the president in a statement. “But this is a mission for the entire the world. And we must all stand in support of courageous citizens around the globe who are demanding honest, transparent governance.”
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By Polityk | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
МОЗ підтвердило скасування заборони для гомосексуалів бути донорами крові
Раніше в переліку протипоказань до донорства крові пункт про гомосексуальні стосунки, прирівнювали до форм ризикованої поведінки
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By Gromada | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
ЗНО з хімії не склали 10,8% абітурієнтів – УЦОЯО
4 червня на інформаційних сторінках учасників будуть розміщені результати ЗНО з хімії, додали в УЦОЯО
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By Gromada | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Укрзалізниця відновлює курсування ще двох «морських» потягів
Нові рейси дадуть можливість оминути автозатори і комфортно дістатися курорту, запевняють у пресслужбі компанії
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By Gromada | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
ДПСУ не змогли повідомити про заборону Джигану в’їзду до України через захист персональних даних
Раніше стало відомо, що співак, ймовірно, виступав у Криму в 2015 році
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By Gromada | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Blinken Urges Central America to Confront Root of Irregular Migration
The United States is calling on Central American countries to confront corruption and poverty as Washington examines root causes and strategies to manage the flood of migrants at its southern border.Wednesday in Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard discussed “a variety of issues to promote the prosperity and security” in the region.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stands by as President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, June 2, 2021.The top U.S. diplomat’s trip comes ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ upcoming visit to Guatemala and Mexico.Harris has been tapped by U.S. President Joe Biden to lead diplomatic efforts in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address the underlying causes of migration in hopes of halting the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S.Some experts see Blinken’s visit to Costa Rica as laying the foundation for a successful visit by Harris.“The U.S. is also looking for cooperation on immigration, and we’re more likely to get that cooperation when governments see the carrot of a broad-based economic integration program,” said Professor Richard Feinberg, who teaches international political economy at the University of California, San Diego.Feinberg suggested including Caribbean Basin countries in the U.S. “transportation networks” and “economic integration,” as Biden is eyeing large expenditures on infrastructure, roads, ports and airports in the U.S.COVID vaccinesBlinken’s trip to the region also comes as China actively positions itself as the dominating provider of COVID-19 vaccinations in Latin America. FILE – Refrigerated containers with supplies to produce China’s Sinovac vaccines against the coronavirus disease arrive at Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil, April 19, 2021.As countries in Latin America continue to get doses, three Chinese vaccines — CanSino, Sinopharm, and Sinovac — are reaching wider distribution in the region. The U.S. has announced its goal to ship 80 million vaccine doses abroad by the end of June. Blinken said Biden will detail this global distribution plan, possibly as early as Thursday.
“In a few short days — in fact, possibly as early as tomorrow — the president is going to announce in more detail the plan that he has put together to push out 80 million vaccines around the world that we have at our disposal,” Blinken said Wednesday during his remarks at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica.
A day before, the top U.S. diplomat pledged no political strings would be attached when providing U.S. vaccines to other countries.“Among other things, we will focus on equity — on the equitable distribution of vaccines. We’ll focus on science. We’ll work in coordination with COVAX. And we will distribute vaccines without political requirements of those receiving them,” Blinken said during a joint press conference with Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado on Tuesday.
Asked if he was worried that getting Chinese vaccines would come with certain conditions, Alvarado said there should be “no strings attached.”“Our condition is that those vaccines that we buy or receive as donations should be qualified by a strict agency,” he said.In May, the United States said it would share an additional 20 million coronavirus vaccine doses with other countries, in addition to the 60 million it has already committed. Officials said the U.S. will distribute according to need and not to curry favor.US to Distribute 80 Million Vaccine Doses Globally, on Basis of Need Sharing is caring: US distribution of vaccines is, president says, a case of ‘the fundamental decency of American people’ Blinken also attended a regional meeting of the Central American foreign ministers held Tuesday under the auspices of the Central American Integration System, where collaborating on migration challenges, combating the COVID-19 pandemic, improving economic growth, as well as reinforcing democratic institutions, were said to be high on the agenda.VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Президент Польщі нагородив трьох українців за допомогу полякам в ХХ столітті
Медалі отримали Петро та Марія Базелюк, а також Петро Грудзевич
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By Gromada | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Trump Shuts Down Blog, Nearly Erasing Online Presence
With his online presence all but obliterated since leaving office in January, former U.S. President Donald Trump has permanently shut down the webpage blog that he started less than a month ago. His blog, From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, has been scrapped from the webpage of the former U.S. leader, senior aide Jason Miller told CNBC on Wednesday. Miller said the blog, on which Trump commented on U.S. political and social issues and foreign affairs, “will not be returning.” “It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” Miller said, but he offered no timeline for any new Trump online site. Trump once drew tens of millions of social media followers, with multiple pronouncements almost daily when he was president. He was a prolific poster on social media platforms, pillorying the Democratic political opposition, endorsing Republican candidates he liked and trashing those he didn’t, and offering his commentary on the events of the day. FILE – President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed is photographed on an Apple iPad in New York, June 27, 2019.But both Facebook and Twitter banned him from posting on their sites. Their decisions came after he urged his supporters to “fight like hell” to confront lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as they were certifying the Electoral College outcome. Trump had lost the November election to Democrat Joe Biden, who was inaugurated as president two weeks later. Trump and his political allies have long accused social media companies of being hostile to conservative viewpoints. Trump assailed Facebook as “a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our country” when an internal review panel recently upheld the ban against him, pending further review. FILE – Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, speaks to media at Trump Tower in New York, Nov. 16, 2016.Trump’s blog at first was billed as a new “communications platform.” Trump aide Miller called the Desk page “a great resource” to find the former president’s statements. But Miller also acknowledged it was “not a new social media platform.” Now it is apparent that Trump’s efforts to reengage online with followers have fallen flat, with The Washington Post reporting that social engagement around Trump — online comments and reactions about him — has plunged 95% since January, to its lowest level since 2016, when he won the presidency. Trump has never called Biden to formally concede the election and has continued to claim that voting irregularities cost him another four-year term in the White House. He says he is considering running for another term in the 2024 election but won’t decide until after the 2022 congressional elections. Since leaving office, he has lived at his coastal mansion in Florida and made just a handful of political appearances, although he is planning more in the coming weeks. He has granted interviews to some conservative-leaning media outlets, and several Republican lawmakers have traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to visit with him and talk politics. Meanwhile, reports surfaced this week that Trump has been telling some supporters that he expects to be reinstated as president by the end of August, as he encourages rogue reviews of the vote counts in key states where election authorities have long since ruled that Biden legitimately won. There is no legal mechanism in the U.S. by which Trump could reclaim the presidency while Biden is in office. Biden’s term ends in January 2025. FILE – Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.But Trump maintains wide influence in Republican political circles, even if his online presence has all but disappeared. In line with his wishes, a big majority of Republican lawmakers recently voted against creation of an independent congressional commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol in which hundreds of Trump supporters rampaged into the building, smashed windows, occupied both chambers of Congress and scuffled with police. Five people were left dead, and more than 400 protesters were arrested and are awaiting adjudication on an array of criminal offenses. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved creation of the commission, but Democrats failed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against the legislation in the Senate.
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By Polityk | 06/03/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
УЗ відновлює на літо сполучення Чернігова із західними та центральними областями
Йдеться про продовження маршруту двох поїздів №43/44 та № 118/117
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By Gromada | 06/02/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Кабмін скасував обов’язкову виплату пенсій на картки – «Укрпошта»
Доставка соціальних виплат через пошту збережеться принаймні до 1 січня 2023 року
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By Gromada | 06/02/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
«Це символічна перемога» – Ройтбурд про рішення Верховного суду про незаконність його звільнення
П’ятирічний контракт Ройтбурда, підписаний у 2018 році, завершиться в 2023 році. Наразі художник не вирішив, чи має намір очолювати Одеський художній музей після того терміну
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By Gromada | 06/02/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Biden’s $6 Trillion Budget Sidesteps Some Campaign Pledges
When Democrat Joe Biden ran for vice president in 2008, he delivered a speech in which he repeated a saying he attributed to his father: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”At the time, it was delivered as a criticism of the policies of Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee for president who was running against Biden’s ticket-mate, Barack Obama. Last week, though, when Biden unveiled the first budget request of his own presidency, some of his supporters in the more liberal corners of the Democratic Party may have found themselves wondering about Biden’s values.While the $6 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2022 proposes significant spending on many of the party’s priorities, including education, support for families, clean energy and more, there are zero dollars allocated for a number of things Biden campaigned on heavily during his presidential run, including student loan forgiveness, a public option for health insurance and reform of the unemployment insurance system.FILE – Rep. Pramila Jayapal, (D-WA), speaks during a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on Capitol Hill, in Washington on July 29, 2020.Democratic criticism mutedReaction from Democrats on the party’s left flank to the Biden budget was muted, but members plainly noticed the absence of key proposals.Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Pramila Jayapal, two prominent progressives among House Democrats, published an essay in Newsweek the day after the budget release that pointedly called for some of the items missing from the Biden proposal.“Alongside expanded social welfare programs and unemployment insurance, we’re calling for a national, universal single-payer health care program that puts people before profits,” they wrote.FILE – In this Oct. 24, 2019, file photo students walks in front of Fraser Hall on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kan.Student loan debtOn the campaign trail, Biden came around to a call from activists to institute debt forgiveness for people struggling under the burden of student debts. But he has never been willing to go as far as some in the party who have demanded blanket cancellation of student loans.Still, he has called for forgiveness of up to $10,000 in loans for individuals earning less than $125,000 per year.In an interview with The New York Times published on May 20, Biden said he didn’t support such an expansive program, saying that students who elect to go to pricey private universities ought not be subsidized by the public.“The idea that you go to Penn, and you’re paying a total of 70,000 bucks a year, and the public should pay for that? I don’t agree,” he told columnist David Brooks.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a primary election night rally, March 3, 2020, at Eastern Market in Detroit.Second disappointmentThe Biden administration’s decision not to include student debt relief in the budget was the second major disappointment for activists seeking debt relief. The administration had originally signaled it wanted to include $10,000 in student debt relief in its COVID-19 relief package, but no such provision was in the final bill.Activists have been muted in their criticism, because many do not want Biden to go through Congress at all, preferring that he simply sign an executive order eliminating student debt. It’s a position that some in the party, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, loudly embrace.”Student loan cancellation could occur today,” Warren told the publication Insider last week. “The president just needs to sign a piece of paper canceling that debt. It doesn’t take any act of Congress or any amendment to the budget.”This image shows the main page of the HealthCare.gov website on Feb. 15, 2021.Public option for health insuranceBiden also campaigned on a promise to expand access to health care by adding a “public option” to the health insurance policies sold on the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act signed into law by Obama. Biden repeatedly described such a move as “building on” the existing foundation of the ACA, and rejected calls to create a nationwide government-funded health insurance program — “Medicare for All” — advocated by others in the Democratic Party.Last week’s budget request restated his commitment to “providing Americans with additional, lower-cost coverage choices by: creating a public option that would be available through the ACA marketplaces; and giving people age 60 and older the option to enroll in the Medicare program with the same premiums and benefits as current beneficiaries, but with financing separate from the Medicare Trust Fund.”But the administration set aside no additional funding for such a program.“Health care is a right, not a privilege,” according to the budget document. “Families need the financial security and peace of mind that comes with quality, affordable health coverage. In collaboration with the Congress, the president’s health care agenda would achieve this promise.”A hiring sign shows outside of restaurant in Prospect Heights, Illinois, March 21, 2021.Unemployment insurance reformCampaigning during a pandemic that cost millions of Americans their jobs, Biden also pledged to create a more responsive unemployment insurance program that would be less variable from state to state, would automatically expand during economic downturns to prevent relief being blocked by partisan fighting in Washington, and would be more resistant to fraud.However, as with debt relief and the public option, the administration set aside no funds for that, either. Instead, the administration argued that the pandemic relief efforts already passed have amounted to “setting the stage for broad changes to modernize the program.”This and other omissions from the budget frustrated more than just the Democratic left. Budget hawks concerned about the deficit found the addition of items to the Biden agenda without identified spending to pay for them troubling.Other spending“The budget doesn’t include all parts of the agenda,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Leaving the cost of other administration priorities out of the equation presents a distorted version of what the administration plans to spend, he said.“We know there’s interest in health care, there’s interest in student debt changes. So, this is a lot of money, and a lot of borrowing.”While he said he is pleased that Biden is offering measures to pay for some of his biggest proposals, Goldwein pointed out that there are no “pay-fors” associated with these additional agenda items, such as unemployment insurance, public option for health care and student loan forgiveness.
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By Polityk | 06/02/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
