Day: December 5, 2017

White House Denies Reports Trump Financial Records Subpoenaed

The White House on Tuesday strongly denied that the special prosecutor looking into alleged Russian interference in last year’s election has asked a German bank for records relating to accounts held by Donald Trump and his family members.

“We’ve confirmed this with the bank and other sources” that it is not true, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during the daily briefing. “I think this is another example of the media going too far, too fast and we don’t see it going in that direction.”

A member of the president’s legal team, Jay Sekulow, issued a statement that “no subpoena has been issued or received.”

Deutsche Bank

However, Deutsche Bank appears to be acknowledging there has been a related request, saying it “takes its legal obligations seriously and remains committed to cooperating with authorized investigations into this matter.”

The bank received a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain transactions and key documents have already been handed over, according to the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt.

Similar details also were reported Tuesday by the Bloomberg and Reuters news agencies, as well as the Wall Street Journal.

According to the Financial Times newspaper Deutsche Bank has begun sending information about its dealings with Trump to U.S investigators.

A person with direct knowledge of the German bank’s actions told the newspaper this began several weeks ago.

“Deutsche could not hand over client information without a subpoena,” said a second person with direct knowledge of the subpoena, according to the newspaper. “It’s helpful to be ordered to do so.”

The subpoenas concern “people or entities affiliated with President Donald Trump, according to a person briefed on the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reported in an update to its story.

“I would think it’s something more than a fishing expedition,” says Edwin Truman, a former U.S. Treasury Department assistant secretary for international affairs.

“At a minimum, they know there’s some fish in this pond and they want to know whether they’re nice fish or bad fish,” Truman, a nonresident fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Affairs, tells VOA.

If the reports are true, “this is a significant development in that it makes clear that Mueller is now investigating President Trump’s finances, something that the president has always said would be a red line for him,” says William Pomeranz of the Wilson Center, who teaches Russian law at Georgetown University.

“The substance of any potential charges remains unclear, but Deutsche Bank already has paid significant penalties in a Russian money laundering case, and I am sure that it does not welcome further investigations into its Russia operations,” says Pomeranz, who as a lawyer advised clients on investment in Russia and anti-money laundering requirements.

Relationship with family

The bank has a longstanding relationship with the Trump family, previously loaning the Trump organization hundreds of millions of dollars for real estate ventures.

Trump had liabilities of at least $130 million to a unit of the German bank, according to a federal financial disclosure form released in June by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

“Special counsel Mueller’s subpoena of Deutsche Bank would be a very significant development,” says Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. “If Russia laundered money through the Trump Organization, it would be far more compromising than any salacious video and could be used as leverage against Donald Trump and his associates and family.”

Congressional Democrats, in June, asked the bank to hand over records regarding Trump’s loans, but lawmakers say their request was rebuffed, with the financial institution citing client privacy concerns.  

 

A U.S. official with knowledge of Mueller’s probe, according to Reuters, said one reason for the subpoenas was to find out whether the bank may have sold some of Trump’s mortgage or other loans to Russian state development bank VEB or other Russian banks that now are under U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Deutsche Bank, in January, agreed to pay $630 million in fines for allegedly organizing $10 billion in sham trades that could have been used to launder money out of Russia.

Red line

Trump earlier this year, when asked if examining his and his family’s finances unrelated to the Russia probe would cross a red line, replied, “I would say yeah. I would say yes.”

 

Trump, unlike previous U.S. presidents dating back four decades, has refused to make public his U.S. tax returns that would show his year-to-year income. Trump, a billionaire, is the richest U.S. president ever, although some analysts have questioned whether Trump’s assets total $10 billion as he claims.

Before he became president last January, Trump, who still owns an array of companies, turned over the day-to-day operation of the Trump Organization to his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and a longtime executive at the firm.

more

Uzbekistan Seeks Eventual Sea Access With Afghan Railway Deal

Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement Tuesday to extend a railroad connecting the two countries in a move that may eventually give Uzbekistan a direct link to seaports.

Landlocked Uzbekistan’s access to marine shipping is very limited.

In 2011, the Uzbek state railway company, Ozbekiston Temir Yollari, built a short link between Hairatan, a town on the Uzbek-Afghan border, and Mazar-i-Sharif, a major city in northern Afghanistan.

Tashkent has since expressed interest in extending that line to Herat, another Afghan city in the northwest, and a gateway to Iran. 

Another link, already under construction, will connect Herat to Iran, which may eventually enable Uzbekistan to send cargoes to and from its Persian Gulf ports.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s office said in a statement that he and visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had signed an agreement on the construction of the Mazar-i-Sharif-Herat railroad. It provided no details, such as cost and funding.

The original, short link was almost fully financed by the Asian Development Bank, which has also financed studies for the expansion project.

Mirziyoyev and Ghani also signed 20 other deals, including an agreement on the construction of a new electric power line and deals for supplies of Uzbek agricultural products, medicines and other goods to Afghanistan.

more

EU Names, Shames 17 States Deemed International Tax Havens

The European Union named and shamed 17 states that it accuses of being tax havens Tuesday, and put another 47 countries on notice that they risk being blacklisted, too, unless they start tackling tax evasion.

The blacklist was agreed on after 10 months of investigations and diplomatic wrangling, but transparency activists say it doesn’t go far enough.

After a meeting in Brussels, EU finance ministers announced the blacklist.

The list doesn’t include any European countries, but does name several Caribbean islands, including former British colonies Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago — a reflection, analysts say, of Britain’s reduced political clout in the European Union.

Completing the list are American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Countries on the list could lose access to EU funds and face further as-yet-undetermined sanctions from the economic bloc.

“To be on a blacklist is, in itself, bad enough and, of course, there will be consequences for these countries,” said Luxembourg’s finance minister, Pierre Gramegna.

Immediate consequences will be felt by multinationals that do business with any of the blacklisted jurisdictions, as they will face additional and burdensome financial disclosure requirements.

The EU move, part of a broader effort to tackle tax evasion, comes less than a month after the publication of the so-called Paradise Papers, an investigation by nearly 100 media outlets into a leak of 13.4 million files from two offshore service providers.

British officials drew comfort from the exclusion of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda from the list; but their omission prompted an outcry from transparency activists, who dubbed the exercise a “whitewash.”  Other transparency campaigners, including Oxfam, argue the blacklist should have included well-established EU tax havens: Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Malta, as well as Switzerland.

Another 47 jurisdictions were included Tuesday in a “grey list.” Among those are other British-tied jurisdictions, the Isle of Man and Jersey. The finance ministers deemed them as not currently compliant with EU standards, but all have formally committed to changing their tax rules.

Critics of list

The Tax Justice Network, an advocacy group that campaigns against tax avoidance and corruption, said the European Union had flunked the tax haven test, arguing it had missed an opportunity.

“The list appears to be a politically-led list, that includes only the economically weak and politically unconnected,” it said. The blacklist is hard to take seriously, it added, saying, “EU members like the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg are the greatest procurers of global profit-shifting, but are excluded.”

Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, dismissed the complaints, describing Tuesday’s naming and shaming as a vital “first step.”

“This list represents substantial progress. Its very existence is an important step forward,” he said, adding, “It is the first EU list; it remains an insufficient response to the scale of tax evasion worldwide.”

Toomas Toniste, Estonia’s finance minister, agreed that the list was an important step.

“This initiative is already proving its value, as numerous countries have worked to meet the deadline for making commitments on the basis of our criteria,” he said.

Pushing for change

In the past few weeks, countries at risk of inclusion have been scrambling to promise reforms. To remain off the list, countries had to promise to implement “fair tax rules,” which Brussels defines as not offering preferential treatment for companies enabling them to move profits to avoid taxes elsewhere. They also had to pledge to meet international transparency standards of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD.

Hours before the list was announced, officials from Panama, Samoa, Guam and the Marshall Islands said they thought they had done enough to escape being blacklisted. Several of the named Caribbean islands appealed for exclusion on the basis of the devastation they suffered this year from hurricanes. Several other hurricane-impacted Caribbean islands have been put on probation and their cases will be addressed in February.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers in Britain accused the British government of being weak on tax avoidance, criticizing London’s diplomatic efforts to persuade EU finance ministers to go easy on the Caribbean islands. Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable accused Downing Street of helping the super-rich hide their cash.

Cable argued the British government had a long history of “dragging its heels” when it comes to tax havens, saying he witnessed a lack of action when he was in government.

“Some Caribbean islands in particular were operating to very poor standards, sometimes to the cost of the British government,” the former business secretary said.

British officials dismiss such accusations, saying London is at the forefront of tackling avoidance and ensuring tax transparency.

more

‘Smart Bags’ May Not Fly If Battery Cannot Be Removed

“Smart suitcases” may be able to charge mobile phones or be easily found if misplaced, but unless their battery can be removed they risk being sent packing by the world’s airlines.

Global airlines body IATA said it could issue industry-wide standards on the new luggage soon, after some U.S. airlines issued their own restrictions on smart bags, whose manufacturers include companies such as BlueSmart, Raden or Away.

These contain GPS tracking and can charge devices, weigh themselves or be locked remotely using mobile phones, but they are powered by lithium ion batteries, which the aviation industry regards as a fire risk, especially in the cargo hold.

“We expect guidance to be issued potentially this week,” Nick Careen, IATA senior vice president of airport, passenger, cargo and security, told a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, when asked about restrictions placed by some airlines.

U.S.-based carriers American Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines all said last week that as of Jan. 15, 2018, they would require the battery to be removed before allowing the bags on board.

Careen gave no details of any potential industry-wide standards, but said he expected others could quickly follow the example of the U.S. carriers.

Away and Raden say on their websites that batteries in their bags can be easily removed.

Concerns over the risk of a lithium ion battery fire were highlighted during the electronics ban temporarily imposed earlier this year on some flights to the United States.

more

YouTube Says Over 10,000 Workers Will Help Curb Shady Videos

YouTube says it’s hiring more people to help curb videos that violate its policies.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says “some bad actors are exploiting” the Google-owned service to “mislead, manipulate, harass or even harm.”

She says Google will have more than 10,000 workers address the problem by next year, though her blog post Monday doesn’t say how many the company already has.

Wojcicki says YouTube will also use technology to flag “problematic” videos or comments that show hate speech or harm to children. It’s already used to remove violent extremist videos.

YouTube is also taking steps to try to reassure advertisers that their ads won’t run next to gross videos.

There have been reports of creepy videos aimed at children and pedophiles posting comments on children’s videos in recent weeks.

more

Obama, Chicken Nugget Guy Among Most Retweeted in 2017

What do a former U.S. president, LeBron James and a guy who really, really likes chicken nuggets have in common? They all made the biggest splash on Twitter this year.

Twitter on Tuesday released its top trending people and topics for 2017, ranging from sports to politics to Korean boy bands. It was a year in which almost every sector of society was mashed together or clashing on social media, with the “Tweeter in Chief,” President Donald Trump, leading the way.

The top retweet came from fast food lover Carter Wilkerson, who begged people to retweet him so that he could get a year’s worth of free chicken nuggets from Wendy’s. He fell short of the 18-million retweet bar set by the fast-food chain, but Wendy’s gave Wilkerson the nuggets anyway for the effort.

President Barack Obama , with 1.7 million retweets in August, was second. Obama took three of the top 10 spots on the list. Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James was seventh, with a tweet that criticized President Donald Trump over his decision to rescind Stephen Curry’s invitation to the White House to celebrate the Golden State Warrior’s NBA championship.

Curry, and others on the team, said that he didn’t want to visit Trump in the White House.

While he did not make the most retweeted list, Trump took the top spot for the most tweeted about elected world leader. He also came in No. 1 for top tweeted U.S. elected officials, with Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan taking second and third. PBS’ special live coverage of Trump’s inauguration day was the most viewed live stream broadcast of the year.

With the media in Trump’s crosshairs, it was also in the sights of Twitter users. The top three tweeted news outlets were Fox News , CNN and The New York Times .

Some other highlights: #halamadrid was the top sports hashtag, @NFL was the top sports handle and the most tweeted about musicians were Korean boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys.

more

Ireland to Start Collecting $15 Billion in Tax From Apple

Ireland has struck a deal with Apple to collect up to 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in back taxes and hold it in an escrow account pending an appeal before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The government said in a statement Monday that an agreement had been reached “in relation to the framework of the principles that will govern the escrow arrangements.”

The European Commission had ordered Ireland to collect the money after concluding that two Irish tax rulings allowed Apple to pay less tax than other businesses — thus giving them an unfair advantage. The Commission ordered Ireland to collect back taxes for the years 2003-2014, which it estimated to be as much 13 billion euros plus interest.

Ireland disagreed with the Commission’s analysis and appealed the decision.

Apple said in a statement that it remains confident the court will overturn the commission’s decision once it has reviewed the evidence.

“The Commission’s case against Ireland has never been about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government gets the money,” Apple said in a statement. “The United States government and the Irish government both agree we’ve paid our taxes according to the law.”

more

Clinton Returns to New Hampshire for Book Signing

Hillary Clinton is returning to New Hampshire for the first time since just before the 2016 presidential election.

The former Democratic presidential candidate is signing copies of her new book, “What Happened” on Tuesday in Concord. Clinton won New Hampshire’s four electoral college votes in last year’s election, though President Donald Trump — without offering evidence — blames voter fraud for his loss in the state.

Clinton also is heading to Boston, where she will be honored with the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston’s “Believe in Girls” award for working to improve the lives of women and girls.

Greater Boston chapter president and CEO Deb Re says Clinton embodies the resilience and self-confidence the group hopes to inspire in young women.

more

Breeding Cleaner Cattle Could Slow Climate Change

As greenhouse gases go, methane is one of the worst. Pound for pound, it is much more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. And a good portion of it is emitted by domesticated cattle. Scientists have been working for some time on ways to cut that methane production as a way to help reduce global warming. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.

more

For Opioid Addicts, Recovery Is a Long Hard Road

The opioid crisis in the U.S. has destroyed the lives of thousands of people, tearing apart families and communities. For addicts, the road to recovery is long and hard and often fraught with many setbacks. It is estimated just three percent of substance abusers manage to stay clean for a lifetime. Jeff Swicord profiles one opioid user who is battling for her sobriety at a residential rehabilitation center in Miami, Florida

more

Organic Baby Food Companies Enter Market Promising Healthier Meals

Market research estimates the U.S. baby food industry took in $53 billion in 2015. That market is expected to reach $75 billion by 2050. But baby food has not changed much in the past few decades, leading a small California startup to enter the market with what they say is a new choice for working families. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.

more

Chris Stapleton’s Bold But Simple Plan: To Put Music First

These last few years, Chris Stapleton is often surprised by early-morning texts of congratulations from his friends. Take, for instance, last week, when the Grammy Award nominations were announced.

 

“That’s how I usually find out. People go ‘Congratulations’ and I go ‘What for?”’ Stapleton said. He eventually discovered that he was nominated for three awards, including best country album, best country song and best country solo performance.

“That’s usually what happens to me because I usually don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

 

Since his sensational debut solo album, “Traveller,” was released in 2015, he’s won two Grammy Awards and scores of Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Awards. The album continued to dominate the country album sales chart this year and has been certified double platinum.

 

He released two new albums this year — the Grammy-nominated “From A Room: Volume 1,” which came out in May, and “From A Room: Volume 2,” which came out Dec. 1.

 

His success lies in his bold simplicity: His recordings are cut live in the studio with his band; his wife, Morgane, sings harmony; and his producer is Dave Cobb. Stapleton isn’t verbose and neither are his lyrics, so it’s no surprise that everyone from Adele to Luke Bryan has recorded his songs. “Either Way,” which is nominated for best country solo performance, is literally his voice and a guitar.

“I think simple is harder to do than making overly complicated things,” Stapleton said. “Much in the way that I think lyrically in songwriting less words can mean more, the same can be true of music. If you can, for lack of a better term, sell a song without putting in extraneous instrumentation … then that’s what serves the song the best.”

 

His touring is an extension of the idea of putting the music first. On his arena tour this year, he plays on a stage shaped like a half-circle band shell with lights.

“While it looks like some science fiction piece, it’s a giant diffuser that controls frequency and stage volume,” Stapleton explains.

 

He doesn’t use in-ear monitors, those ear buds that allow artists to hear the music, preferring monitors placed on the stage; the stage allows him to better project his music to the seats in the back of the arena.

 

“I am not trying to make the biggest, most elaborate, pyrotechnic show,” Stapleton said. “I am trying to make the show that sounds the best, or best represents what we do onstage. It’s all from a sound perspective for me and then the visual has to fall in line.”

 

Singer-songwriter Kendall Marvel met Stapleton 15 years ago, back when the Kentucky-bred Stapleton was a clean-shaven new songwriter with a short, flattop haircut. They have written some 60 songs together, including songs cut by Blake Shelton, Lee Ann Womack and Josh Turner.

 

Marvel, who co-wrote “Either Way” as well as two other songs on Stapleton’s “From A Room: Volume 2,” said the husband-and-wife harmony is key to their music. Morgane Stapleton, who is also a songwriter, adds just the right touch of sweetness and softness to his volume and range.

 

“When you take her out of the equation, he would not be Chris Stapleton,” Marvel said. “She is to him and his guitar playing what harmonica player Mickey Raphael is to Willie Nelson.”

Stapleton gives a lot of credit to his wife for knowing all the songs in his catalog and picking songs that fans can connect to, like “Broken Halos,” another Grammy-nominated song.

 

That song, which talks about not always understanding why loss happens, has become a tender, comforting moment for many fans, especially after the mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas earlier this year. Stapleton said he wants his fans to attach meaning to his songs that he didn’t always intend when he wrote them.

 

“I want them to have ownership in it because they do,” Stapleton said. “The songs don’t really mean as much without them and without people listening to them and investing in them.”

more

Lawmaker: Support for Brazil’s Pension Reform More Organized

The government of Brazil’s President Michel Temer is far from assembling the coalition needed to pass a landmark pension reform, but potential supporters of the measure are now more organized, a key legislator said on Monday.

“We’re still enormously far (from having the needed votes), but we have a party leader committed, a party president committed, one party that’s set to commit,” Brazil’s lower house speaker, Rodrigo Maia, told journalists after an event in Rio de Janeiro.

Pension reform is the cornerstone policy in President Temer’s efforts to bring Brazil’s deficit under control. But the measure is widely unpopular with Brazilians, who are accustomed to a relatively expansive welfare net.

In order to curry support from Congress, Temer and his allies watered down their original proposal in November, requiring fewer years of contributions by private sector workers to receive a pension.

According to several government sources, Temer’s allies have grown more optimistic in the last week about the reform’s chances.

However, speed is essential for the bill’s passage. A congressional recess begins on Dec. 22, and lawmaking thereafter will be hampered by politics, as lawmakers ramp up their campaigns for 2018 elections.

more

Olympics Committee Faces Tricky Decision Over Possible Russia Ban

Under intense pressure from all sides, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide Tuesday whether to ban Russia from next year’s Winter Olympics over alleged institutionalized doping.

Anti-doping agencies and many athletes want Russia to be completely excluded from Pyeongchang, but Moscow has vehemently denied state involvement and complained of political manipulation.

Facing the same decision ahead of the Rio Summer games 18 months ago, the IOC stopped short of imposing a blanket ban and instead left decisions on individual athletes’ participation to the respective sports federations.

Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) has been suspended since a report by a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commission headed by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren in 2015 found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia and accused it of systematically violating anti-doping regulations.

A further WADA report by McLaren in 2016 found that more than 1,000 Russian competitors in more than 30 sports had been involved in a conspiracy to conceal positive drug tests over a five-year period.

In the last month, the IOC’s own commission has banned more than 20 Russian athletes from the Olympics for life over doping violations at the 2014 Winter Games that Russia hosted in Sochi, while WADA has said that Russia remains “non-compliant” with its code.

The options facing the 15-member IOC Executive Board, which meets Tuesday, include a blanket ban on Russia or allowing Russian athletes to compete in South Korea as neutrals. This would mean that they could not participate under Russia’s flag and the Russian anthem would not be played at medal ceremonies.

The IOC could also do what it did at Rio and defer the decision to the international sports federations. Although Russia was barred from athletics and weightlifting, it was able to send around 70 percent of its original 387-strong squad after other sports’ federations accepted its athletes.

Delicate decision

IOC President Thomas Bach said at the time that the decision balanced “the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete.”

The IOC could argue that the fundamental situation has not changed since then despite the evidence produced from the Sochi games and the publication of the second part of the McLaren report.

“The IOC has a delicate decision to make,” sports marketing expert Patrick Nally said. “On the one hand, it needs to show WADA and the world’s media that it is chastising Russia, but at the same time it needs to be temperate in its approach. … Banning them outright will, I think, be too negative a step.

“A compromise is necessary if the IOC wants to maintain stability. It can withstand media criticism but it can’t withstand an all-out war with one of its influential members.”

Last week, Joseph de Pencier, head of the iNADO umbrella group of national anti-doping agencies, said allowing Russia to take part in Pyeongchang would raise doubts about sport’s willingness to root out drug cheats.

Russian officials have said their country is the victim of a politicized dirty tricks campaign designed to besmirch its reputation and curb its sporting success.

On Monday, two Russian Olympic medalists urged the IOC to allow Russian athletes to compete.

“I passionately believe that it is not the answer to ban innocent, clean, young Russian athletes from competing under the Russian flag in Pyeongchang,” said Svetlana Zhurova, who won Olympic gold in speed skating in 2006.

Evgeni Plushenko, a four-time Olympic figure skating medalist, said making Russians compete as neutrals would be “unfair on them and all their competitors who in some way would feel that the competition and Olympic spirit would have been devalued.”

more