Month: April 2019

A transcript of a tape recording of murdered Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s final minutes has been leaked, in which one of the alleged killers is heard calling him a “traitor”.

The 11-minute audio, the contents of which are revealed for the first time, was released on Monday evening by Turkish news website Haberturk.

"Let my hand go. Who do you think you are? Why are you doing this?" the report quotes Khashoggi as saying, as  several members of an alleged 15-man “hit squad” accost him as soon as he enters the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2.

"You traitor! Your day of judgment has come!" a man alleged to be Maher Mutreb, the suspected oordinator of the mission who worked for some time in the kingdom’s embassy in London, is quoted as replying to the Washington Post columnist.

Khashoggi and four members of the squad are heard quarrelling for at least seven minutes before the audio goes quiet.

The report adds that a later recording captures another “hitman”, Mustafa al-Madani, who was used as a body double to Khashoggi, saying: "It’s really creepy that I am wearing the clothes of someone who was killed minutes ago."

He is also reportedly heard saying that Khashoggi’s shoes are too tight for his feet. In CCTV video footage taken from the back entrance of the consulate Madani is seen several hours after the murder wearing Khashoggi’s clothes but with his own trainers.

The tapes have been leaked by the Turkish government to a number of local media outlets, however none have published the reportedly gruesome audio.

Devlet Bahceli, a politician in Turkey’s main nationalist party, warned on Tuesday that “the circle is tightening” around Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

They have been played to a number of Saudi’s allies, including the US and the UK.  Gina Haspel, CIA Director, has listened to them, but President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that he did not want to listen to them himself.

"It was very violent, very vicious and terrible," he said.

Over the weekend, the US president called reports that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing "premature." He said that it was "possible" and that it was also possible that people will never know the truth.

Mr Trump faces increasing pressure to take tougher measures against Riyadh, amid a growing consensus that the crown prince, who has unchallenged power in the ultraconservative kingdom, must have known about the operation.

France’s top diplomat said Monday that his country was mulling sanctions against Saudi Arabia. Germany on Monday announced that it has banned 18 Saudi nationals from entering Europe’s border-free Schengen zone because of their suspected connections to the killing.

German officials, who earlier banned new weapons exports to Riyadh, also said they are halting previously approved arms exports.

Late last week, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced legislation that calls for suspending weapons sales to Saudi Arabia; sanctions on people who block humanitarian access in Yemen or support the Houthi rebels; and mandatory sanctions on those responsible for Khashoggi’s death.

"There must be a transparent, credible investigation into Khashoggi’s murder," New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in introducing the bill with two Democratic and three Republican colleagues.

The tiny five-year-olds, dressed in pink tutus and bright, sequined shirts, were angelic as they sang in perfect chorus at the end of a half hour performance at the Changgwang kindergarten in downtown Pyongyang.

Singing in harmony and clapping in unison, the smiling infants performed their catchy melody: “Our father is General Kim Il Sung…our home is our party…We envy nothing in the world.”

Visitors to the modern and well-equipped boarding school leave with an image of idyllic childhood after seeing pupils light up at the chance to show the few foreigners allowed to enter the country their high-tech game machines, sports classes, ballet performances, and immaculate artwork.

But the demonstrations…

The melodramatic appearances of North Korea’s most famous television broadcaster may soon be consigned to the past as the regime’s state-controlled channel, KCTV, undergoes a modern makeover. 

Ri Chun-hee, 75, dubbed the “pink lady” after her distinctive pink traditional Hanbok dress, has been the face of the pariah state for decades, entrusted to announce its most historical developments, including key nuclear tests and the deaths of leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il, during which she openly wept. 

But Ms Ri’s wavering, passionate tones appear to no longer fit with the high-tech image the country’s young leader Kim Jong-un, who is still in his 30s, wants to project. 

In keeping with his pursuit of modernisation – alongside the development of online shopping and a Netflix-style streaming app for indigenous smartphones – KCTV is reportedly undergoing a revamp, introducing younger, trendier reporters and a flashier, better-equipped studio. 

Ms Ri, known for both her exuberant support for the Kim family dynasty and occasional vitriolic outbursts at the West, has been seen less on state TV, although this is also attributed to her semi-retirement. 

According to a report in ABC news, a younger generation of anchors, dressed in neon suits, has ditched traditional, authoritarian reporting styles to find more modern, conversational ways to tell stories and engage their audience. 

"The main motto of Kim Jong-un’s new era is to catch up with the new century and its trends. We could say that change in direction has been reflected on to programme productions," Kang Dong-wan, a professor at Dong-A University in Seoul, told the news channel. 

As North Korean viewers become more exposed to outside television programmes, the old top-down style of reading news does "not sink in anymore,” Mr Kang explained. 

Instead, programming has switched from pure ideology about the achievements of the country’s “great leaders” to include more field reporting and diversity, focussing on improvements in living standards such as students on their mobile phones or restaurant customers enjoying pizza. 

TV shows are remaining on message, however. While they may include soundbites from regular citizens, interviewees are still certain to express their gratitude at every opportunity to Kim Jong-un.  

Nine people have been burned to death as California’s most destructive fire in at least a century engulfed the town of Paradise, while celebrities fled fast-moving fires in the south of the state. 

Only a day after it began the so-called "Camp Fire" spread to over 140 square miles in size and levelled the town, which has a population of 30,000. More than 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze, which destroyed more than 6,700 homes and businesses.

Captain Scott McLean, of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said: "Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed. It’s that kind of devastation.

"There was really no firefight involved, these firefighters were in the rescue mode all day yesterday."

He said thousands of buildings had been lost in Paradise, about 180 miles northeast of San Francisco.

Jody Jones, the mayor of Paradise, said the hospital, a McDonald’s restaurant, and many other businesses had been engulfed.

She said: "I think we lost a high school and at least one of the elementary schools."

Residents evacuated in panic with some crashing their cars.

Mark Bass, a police officer, said the evacuation was "just a wall of fire on each side of us, and we could hardly see the road".

Officials said all the victims were found in Paradise, including four who died inside their vehicles. Another 35 people had been reported missing and three firefighters had been injured.

With fires burning in both Northern and Southern California 157,000 people have been evacuated, including much of the city of Malibu. 

Among the evacuees was Kim Kardashian West, the reality television star, who was forced to flee her Southern California home in Calabasas, near Los Angeles.

Kardashian West posted on social media a video from an aircraft window showing fires raging below.

She shared another video along with the caption: "Pray for Calabasas. Just landed back home and had 1 hour to pack up & evacuate our home. I pray everyone is safe."

She also posted a clip from the ground showing fire fighters driving past.

Smoke from the fire could be seen from the site of a mass shooting in nearby Thousand Oaks that left 12 people dead on Wednesday night.

Caitlyn Jenner’s home in Malibu burned down, TMZ reported, although her publicist said that had not been confirmed. The reality TV star had already evacuated.

Actor Charlie Sheen said he had been unable to contact his Hollywood star father Martin Sheen and mother Janet.

He wrote on Twitter: "i cannot get ahold of my parents, Martin and Janet Sheen. they are in the group, at the staging ground near Zuma Beach.

"If anyone has eyes on them, please let me know that they are safe and sound in the middle of this horrific scenario."

Cher, who said she had lived in Malibu since 1972, tweeted that the wildfire was coming close to her home, although she said she was not on the property.

"Friends houses have burned. I can’t bear the thought of there being no Malibu," the singer posted.

Lady Gaga posted a video on her Instagram account saying she had evacuated her Malibu home on Friday, and showing images of dark billowing smoke overhead.

Other celebrities evacuated included Oscar-winning film director Guillermo del Toro, who tweeted that he had abandoned his vast "Bleak House" museum collection of fantasy and horror memorabilia.

"Bleak House and the collection may be endangered but the gift of life remains," tweeted del Toro, director of Oscar best picture winner "The Shape of Water."

Orlando Bloom tweeted a photo from his street showing the wildfire.

The Paramount Ranch, a Hollywood filming location for decades that was recently used by the HBO series "Westworld", was also destroyed. 

The ranch served as a location for productions ranging from 1938’s "The Adventures of Marco Polo" to TV shows "The Mentalist" and "Weeds." The set in the mountains west of Los Angeles dates to 1927 when Paramount Pictures leased the ranch and began making films there.

Actress Alyssa Milano said her home was "in jeopardy" amid her attempts to safely evacuate her five horses. The actress ultimately got the help she needed and tweeted that her horses were safe. "My children are safe. … Everything with a heartbeat is safe."

The singer Melissa Etheridge also evacuated.

The entire 12,000 population of Malibu, which stretches 27 miles along the Pacific Ocean, was placed under mandatory evacuation on Friday.

Concerned about producing a generation of children with hunched backs and other spine problems, India has denounced schools for making students carry heavy school bags and giving young children homework.

The government has issued weight guidelines for school bags depending on a child’s age, citing studies that show how the load can affect soft, developing spines.

One survey done by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India found that 68 percent of pre-teen children might suffer from mild back pain, which can develop into chronic back pain, and later into a hunchback.

The study, which covered more than 2,500 children and 1,000 parents in major cities, found that more than 88 percent of children from seven to 13 carry more than 45 percent of their body weight on their backs.

Rashmi Tapke, a mother of two, said heavy school bags reflect poor time-table planning and said she supports the federal initiative.

"If they (schools) plan, they can repeat the subjects taught and thus reduce the load. My kids find it difficult to carry so many books," Tapke, whose children attend a private school in Mumbai, said.

The state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, mandates that the weight on the bag should not exceed 10 percent of the child’s body weight. Many schools there have started using white boards and projectors to ensure text books are not required to be carried to school.

But in large parts of rural India, children have to walk great distances, weighed down by school bags. Children have been known to ford rivers, some with books on their heads, to get to school.

"My frail daughter has to haul about 4-5 kgs of books in her school bag and also carry her lunch box and water bottle in a separate bag," said driver Rajinder Shukla, whose child attends a school in most populous Uttar Pradesh state.

The federal circular also suggests that no home work be assigned to kids in grades 1 and 2 which will also ensure they don’t need to carry books home. 

Mexico’s new president has unveiled a plan to address US-bound migration, signing an agreement with Central American leaders within hours of donning the presidential sash.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, sworn in on Saturday, was always expected to hit the ground running – but even so, the speed of the announcement surprised.

In a deal that will likely delight Donald Trump, Mr Lopez Obrador agreed with the presidents of Honduras and Guatemala, and the vice-president of El Salvador, to create a fund to stem the US-bound flows of migrants.

Leaders of the four countries have agreed to ask their finance ministries, in the first quarter of 2019, to come up with a plan which includes “programmes, projects, and specific actions, for the sake of jobs generation and poverty fight in the region.”

The programmes will be supported by an “integral development plan”, aimed at making the Central American nations a better place to live, and thus reduce the number of those leaving. It will be backed by CEPAL – the economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The deal was Mr Lopez Obrador’s first official act, and a highly significant one, likely to curry favour from his northern counterpart.

And Mr Lopez Obrador continued his conciliatory tone throughout the ceremonies on Saturday, thanking Mr Trump for sending his daughter Ivanka to represent him as a gesture of goodwill, and thanking Mike Pence, the vice president, for being there.

He then moved on to thank King Felipe of Spain and the assembled presidents for their presence – then giving a special mention to Jeremy Corbyn, his friend and ally of many years.

"Present today is my friend Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party of Great Britain," Mr Lopez Obrador told the packed Chamber of Deputies, as Mr Corbyn stood up from his seat behind Ms Trump to wave and accept the applause.

More controversial to the assembled deputies and dignitaries was Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who was forced to stay away from the ceremony owing to massive protests. When his name was mentioned, politicians yelled “dictator!” and marched to the front of the podium, unfurling a banner which read: “Nicolas Maduro, you are not welcome”.

Mr Maduro did, however, attend the lunch at the National Palace after the ceremony – arriving with a huge entourage, who were not permitted to enter, and then scuffled with security outside the building.

Inside the National Palace, Mr Maduro took a happy photo seated beside Cuba’s leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and Evo Morales of Bolivia – who earlier on Saturday held a bilateral meeting with Mr Corbyn.

The VIPs then feasted on huitlacoche soup – a classic Mexican fungus – followed by ribs with corn, Mexican spices and plantain, and a selection of Mexican desserts.

While the official celebrations were continuing, another of Mr Lopez Obrador’s policies was being enacted.

The presidential palace, Los Pinos, flung open its wrought-iron green gates and, for the first time in 80 years, was opened to the public.

Mr Lopez Obrador fulfilled his promise to turn it into a cultural centre – he will not live there, unlike his predecessors – and the sound of traditional music and orchestras flowed through the sprawling compound. Mexicans poured in to pose in front of the imposing gates, besides flower signs welcoming the public. Queues snaked through the lush gardens to get into the house where, until the day before, Enrique Pena Nieto and his family had lived and worked.

“I mean, I know they have to live well,” said one woman, entering the atrium beneath a huge chandelier. “But this is ridiculous.”

With more than a passing resemblance to the Iraqis who wandered freely through the deposed Saddam Hussein’s palace, Mexicans, jaws agape, passed through what was Mr Pena Nieto’s office, poked their head into his now unfurnished suite of bedrooms, and took selfies in his kitchen.

“This place is so huge, if I were hungry I’d faint before I reached the kitchen,” a little girl told her mother.

The new president proudly mentioned the development in his Saturday afternoon speech, addressing tens of thousands in Mexico City’s main plaza, the Zocalo.

“From this morning we’ve opened the doors of Los Pinos, which has ceased being a presidential palace, and is now a cultural space,” he said. “On Monday, the presidential jet is going. And all the flotilla of helicopters.”

He then listed the multitude of ways in which, from now, public servants will be held to account. His entire, extensive, social welfare plan is based on the simple idea of ending corruption.

“A lot of people are asking where we are going to get the money from,” he said. “We are going to free up so much funds, because corruption is over. There will no longer be luxury in government.”

Trips abroad will be strictly curtailed, and chauffeurs removed for all but the most senior officials. Bodyguards will only be provided to those working in security; there will be no more private medical care, and computer systems and furnishings of offices can not be updated for at least the first year.

“No public servant can have servants paid for by the state,” he said. “No public servant can close streets, or park where they want,” he added – to rapturous applause.

Before beginning his 90 minute speech, he received a blessing from representatives of Mexico’s indigenous communities – an unprecedented and profoundly moving gesture.

He promised Mexicans he would not let them down.

But, he urged them to give him time.

“Have patience, and trust me,” he said. “Because they are handing me a broken country.”

Speculation is mounting that Hillary Clinton could launch a bid for the US presidency in 2020 after two former advisers in as many months floated the idea of a remarkable political comeback. 

Mark Penn, who worked with the Clintons for 13 years, co-wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday headlined ‘Hillary will run again’ which predicted a new campaign. 

He said Mrs Clinton would reinvent her public image once again, this time as a lifelong liberal, claiming she had learned the lessons of her painful 2016 defeat to Donald Trump. 

“Expect Hillary 4.0 to come out swinging", wrote Mr Penn and Andrew Stein, a former Democrat politician, adding that she may leave it late to join the race.  

“They [Democrats] will see her now as strong, partisan, Left-leaning and all-Democrat – the one with the guts, experience and steely-eyed determination to defeat Mr Trump."

The piece reignited debate about whether Mrs Clinton really is considering a comeback and if she would have any chance of defeating Mr Trump a second time round. 

Mrs Clinton, aged 71, is younger than Mr Trump, 72, former vice president Joe Biden, 75, and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, 77. Mr Biden and Mr Sanders are expected to run in 2020. 

Mr Penn worked on Mrs Clinton’s Senate campaigns in 2002 and 2006 and her presidential campaign in 2008, but fell out of favour in Democrat circles during Barack Obama’s presidency. 

He now regularly appears on Fox News and writes for The Hill, a US political newspaper with right-leaning editorial pages, which has raised suspicions about his motives – though he insists he remains a moderate Democrat. 

Mr Penn is not alone, however. Philippe Reines, described as Mrs Clinton’s gatekeeper when she was in the US Senate and the State Department, recently played up the same idea. 

“It’s curious why Hillary Clinton’s name isn’t in the mix – either conversationally or in formal polling – as a 2020 candidate,” Mr Reines was quoted as saying in a Politico article published last month. 

“She’s younger than Donald Trump by a year. She’s younger than Joe Biden by four years. Is it that she’s run before? This would be Bernie Sanders’ second time, and Biden’s third time. Is it lack of support? She had 65 million people vote for her.”

Mr Reines added of the chance she could run in 2020: “It’s somewhere between highly unlikely and zero, but it’s not zero.”

Mrs Clinton sent mixed messages about a possible bid during a question and answer session last month. Asked if she wanted to run for the White House again, Mrs Clinton said “no”. 

But when the questioner noted there was a pause, Mrs Clinton added: “Well, I’d like to be president”.  She added: “I think hopefully when we have a Democrat in the Oval Office in January of 2021 there’s going to be so much work to be done.”

With up to two dozen Democrats expected to throw their hats into the ring for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, a bid from Mrs Clinton is widely considered as unlikely at this point. 

She has fallen short in two presidential campaigns to date – losing out to Mr Obama for the Democrat nomination in 2008 and being defeated by Mr Trump in 2016. 

Many of the weaknesses Mr Trump ruthlessly exploited, namely how many voters see Mrs Clinton as the embodiment of the Washington establishment they despise, remain in place. 

Mr Trump’s supporters still chant “lock her up” at rallies, a reference to his suggestion that Mrs Clinton should be jailed over the scandal of a private email server she kept while in office.

Responding to Mr Penn’s comments that Ms Clinton would run in 2020, Kellyanne Conway, a White House adviser, tweeted:

The CIA has a recording of a phonecall in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave instructions to "silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible", a Turkish news website has reported.

Gina Haspel, CIA director, is said to have revealed the existence of a wiretapped call between Prince Mohammed and his brother Khaled bin Salman, who is Saudi’s ambassador to the US, to Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara last month, according to Hurriyet.

“It is said that the crown prince gave an instruction to silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible and this instruction was captured during the CIA wiretapping,” Hurriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote on Thursday. “The subsequent murder is the ultimate confirmation of this instruction.”

The brothers are reportedly heard talking about the "discomfort" caused by the Washington Post columnist’s criticism of the kingdom’s administration.

A Turkish official contacted by Reuters said he had no information about such a recording.

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Prince Mohammed, was killed on Oct. 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

If confirmed, the wiretap could call into question Washington’s official claim that they have found no evidence to support accusations the murder was ordered by the prince, Riyadh’s de-facto leader, himself.

The leak comes days after President Donald Trump signalled his support for Prince Mohammed, in a statement which declared he would not further punish Saudi for the murder.

In an extraordinary statement subtitled "America First!" Mr Trump said on Tuesday that "our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!"

Speaking to reporters at his Florida resort on Thursday, President Trump doubled down, saying the CIA had not come to a conclusion over whether the order came from the top. “I hate the crime…I hate the coverup. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do,” he said.

The president has since faced calls from members of his own party to re-evaluate ties with the ultraconservative kingdom, but Mr Trump has said the benefits of a good relationship outweigh the possibility its own prince ordered the killing.

The Turkish media has published a drip-drip of leaks of information since the news of the Khashoggi’s death in early October, designed to put pressure on both Riyadh and the US to respond.

Riyadh initially remained silent about the 59-year-old columnist’s disappearance, before claiming that he left the consulate after a short meeting with officials.

They then changed their story several times, later claiming that Khashoggi was killed by mistake in a “fistfight” gone wrong. They admitted earlier this month that he was killed and dismembered after attempts to persuade him to come home failed. 

Saudi today warned criticism of the prince was a "red line".

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the BBC that calls for MBS, as he is nicknamed, to be held accountable for the killing, "would not be tolerated", nor would discussion of "anything disparaging".

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s top diplomat, said on Thursday all those "really responsible" for the murder of journalist Khashoggi have to be held accountable.

"Those responsible, really responsible for this terrible murder have to be accountable," she told a news conference in Ankara.