Nobel peace laureates to Suu Kyi: 'End Rohingya genocide or face prosecution' - Reuters

FEBRUARY 28, 2018 / 11:38 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Nobel peace laureates to Suu Kyi: 'End Rohingya genocide or face prosecution'

Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - Three Nobel peace laureates urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military on Wednesday to end the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims now or face prosecution.

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi walks towards her car after arriving at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi, India, January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

The United Nations and human rights organizations have collected evidence of widespread abuses by the Myanmar military against the largely stateless Rohingya, including murder, rape and arson, prompting nearly 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, and have called the crackdown ethnic cleansing.

“She (Suu Kyi) must stop turning a deaf ear to the persecution of the Rohingya or risk being complicit in the crimes,” Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman told a press conference in Dhaka after visiting refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar on the southern tip of Bangladesh.

“Wake up or face prosecution,” said Karman, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

“If she fails to do so, her choice is clear: resign or be held accountable, along with the army commanders, for the crimes committed,” she added.

Since coming to power in 2016, Suu Kyi - who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long pro-democracy fight - has failed to condemn abuses against the Rohingya which began on Aug. 25 after insurgents attacked police and military outposts.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar denies the abuse charges and says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against “terrorists” it blames for the attacks on the security forces.

Northern Irish activist Mairead Maguire said she heard accounts of women who had been raped repeatedly and families murdered and stories of children being thrown into fires and drowned in rivers.

“The torture, rape and killing of any one member of our human family must be challenged, as in the case of the Rohingya genocide,” said Maguire, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1976.

“This is genocide. We can’t remain silent. Silence is complicity,” she said.

The laureates called for those responsible to be brought before the International Criminal Court.

“With over a million Rohingya displaced, countless dead or missing, and rape and sexual violence being used as a weapon of war, it is well past the time for the international community to act,” said Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who in 2003 became the first Muslim woman to win the peace prize.

Replying to a question, Karman said the three planned to visit Myanmar and they had sent several messages to their friend Suu Kyi but she had not replied.

“We need to see what’s happening there.”

Reporting by Ruma Paul

BITCOIN: BILL GATES WARNS CRYPTOCURRENCIES 'CAUSE DEATH IN FAIRLY DIRECT WAY' - Independent

28/2/2018

BITCOIN: BILL GATES WARNS CRYPTOCURRENCIES 'CAUSE DEATH IN FAIRLY DIRECT WAY'

Microsoft co-founder tells Reddit AMA that unregulated electronic cash alternatives are prone to misuse and are enabling criminals online

JOE SOMMERLAD

@JoeSommerlad

Microsoft's billionaire co-founder Bill Gates has warned against investing in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, arguing they "caused deaths in a fairly direct way".

Gates told a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) session on Tuesday that the anonymous and unregulated nature of virtual currencies, which are decentralised and therefore do not answer to any government or central bank, means that they enable criminals to carry out black market peer-to-peer transactions, money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal financial exchanges.

The entrepreneur cited the example of fentanyl - a powerful pain medication - being bought online without proper supervision or oversight as evidence that people's lives were being placed in danger from the threat of overdosing.

Legendary Apple co-founder tricked by ‘easy’ bitcoin scam

"The main feature of cryptocurrencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing," he said.

"The Governments [sic] ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing.

"Right now cryptocurrencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way.

"I think the speculative wave around ICOs [initial coin offerings] and cryptocurrencies is super risky for those who go long," Gates added.

While the influential tech executive sees digital currencies' ability to sidestep conventional regulatory infrastructure as a negative, early adopters of electronic cash alternatives like bitcoin felt the opposite.

Bitcoin's idealistic cypherpunk originators, angered by the financial crash of 2008, saw it as a means of bypassing crony capitalist institutions in the same anti-establishment spirit of "taking back control" that inspired such movements as Anonymous, Occupy and WikiLeaks.

Gadgets and tech news in pictures

However, sites like Silk Road - which allowed illegal commodities to be bought and sold in cryptocurrencies - have since given the sector a notoriety it has found hard to shake off.

The lack of consumer protection cryptocurrencies offer and their vulnerability to misuse continue to make the likes of bitcoin a risky investment proposition in the eyes of many.

The Independent's bitcoin group on Facebook is the best place to follow the latest discussions and developments in cryptocurrency. Join here for the latest on how people are making money – and how they're losing it.

Kushner, Russia bombshells rock the White House - CNN Politics

Kushner, Russia bombshells rock the White House

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 0625 GMT (1425 HKT) February 28, 2018

Burnett presses WH spokesman on Kushner news

Jared & Ivanka silent after Charlottesville

WSJ: Kushner family business subpoenaed

White House adviser Jared Kushner with Benjamin Netanyahu

Kushner, Netanyahu meet in Tel Aviv

NYT: Trump Jr., Kushner met Russian lawyer

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to US President

Kushner: No other meetings with Russians

WH staff concerned about Kushner clearance

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner makes a statement from at the White House after being interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on July 24, 2017.

Kushner: My actions were proper

Jared Kushner

Kushner: I was warned of bureaucracy resistance

Cooper on Kushner's Russia meeting admission

Burnett presses WH spokesman on Kushner news

Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump, listens as Trump delivers remarks to auto industry executives at American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, Michigan on March 15, 2017.

What you need to know about Jared Kushner

Senate panel says Kushner documents incomplete

Background check chief: Never seen mistakes like Kushner's

Attorney: Kushner used private email account to talk to WH officials

Trump: Kelly to make call on Kushner clearance

Mueller investigators focusing on Kushner's role in Comey firing

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner makes a statement from at the White House after being interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on July 24, 2017.

Kushner didn't disclose personal email account to Senate

Jared & Ivanka silent after Charlottesville

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior aide to US President Donald Trump, looks on before a meeting of the House and Senate leadership with Trump in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2017. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

WSJ: Kushner family business subpoenaed

White House adviser Jared Kushner with Benjamin Netanyahu

Kushner, Netanyahu meet in Tel Aviv

White Senior Advisor Jared Kushner listens as US President Donald Trump speaks at a meeting with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2017. / AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

NYT: Trump Jr., Kushner met Russian lawyer

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, looks on during a meeting between Trump and Republican congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2017. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Kushner: No other meetings with Russians

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior aide to US President Donald Trump, looks on before a meeting of the House and Senate leadership with Trump in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2017. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

WH staff concerned about Kushner clearance

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner makes a statement from at the White House after being interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on July 24, 2017.

Kushner: My actions were proper

Jared Kushner

Kushner: I was warned of bureaucracy resistance

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, looks on during a meeting between Trump and Republican congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2017. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Cooper on Kushner's Russia meeting admission

Burnett presses WH spokesman on Kushner news

Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump, listens as Trump delivers remarks to auto industry executives at American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, Michigan on March 15, 2017.

What you need to know about Jared Kushner

BEIJING, CHINA - NOVEMBER 9: White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner attends bilateral meetings held by U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on November 9, 2017 in Beijing, China. Trump is on a 10-day trip to Asia. (Photo by Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images)

Senate panel says Kushner documents incomplete

Background check chief: Never seen mistakes like Kushner's

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to US President

Attorney: Kushner used private email account to talk to WH officials

Trump: Kelly to make call on Kushner clearance

Mueller investigators focusing on Kushner's role in Comey firing

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner makes a statement from at the White House after being interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on July 24, 2017.

Kushner didn't disclose personal email account to Senate

Jared & Ivanka silent after Charlottesville

Washington (CNN)A volley of stunning revelations over Jared Kushner and the Russia probe are rocking Donald Trump's inner circle and suggest a pivotal moment is at hand in the West Wing personnel wars that have raged throughout his presidency.

First, it emerged Tuesday that chief of staff John Kelly downgraded the top secret security clearance for the President's son-in-law in a bid to clear up a scandal over whether top administration players are qualified to access the most sensitive intelligence.

Then, The Washington Post published a bombshell report that at least four countries had discussed how to use Kushner's sparse experience, financial troubles and intricate business arrangements to manipulate him.

Hours later, CNN reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is asking questions about Trump's business dealings with Russia before the President's campaign, a potentially significant development in the investigation.

Triple blows

Mueller team asks about Trump's Russian business dealings as he weighed a run for president

Mueller team asks about Trump's Russian business dealings as he weighed a run for president

The triple blows at Trump's inner circle added to the already incredible personal, political and legal pressure heaped on the President and the strain on those staffing his turbulent presidency.

They come at a moment when Mueller's probe is gathering pace, cranking out indictments of Trump associates, and appears to be posing a more severe threat to the President, Kushner and other important associates.

The developments were more than a personal and public humiliation to Kushner, who has played an influential, if mysterious, role in the administration.

They put the sustainability of his role as a top foreign policy adviser to Trump in doubt because he will have access to far fewer government secrets and cannot see the Presidential Daily Brief, the collection of the spy community's treasures prepared for the commander in chief.

The downgrade appears to make it all but impossible for Kushner to do his job even though the White House and his lawyer say that is not the case.

But how for example can he carry out his duties running the Middle East peace process or liaising with top Gulf powers if he is not privy to the latest intelligence about his interlocutors or other key regional players like Iran?

Similarly, Kushner could find himself asked to leave sensitive meetings in the White House or force top intelligence or foreign policy officials to avoid the most sensitive subjects in meetings that he is in with the President.

"He can't see intercepted communications -- that's top secret, he's now downgraded to secret ... he can't see the most secret CIA information about their informants," said Phil Mudd, a former CIA and FBI official who is now a CNN national security analyst.

"He can't see some of the stuff our Western allies see," he added.

Ultimately, unless Kushner is cleared by the FBI to receive a permanent security clearance or gets a waiver from the President his diminished role will spur fresh speculation about his longevity as a White House staffer.

His departure and potentially that of his wife Ivanka Trump, who just controversially led a US mission to South Korea's Winter Olympics at a time of flaring nuclear tensions with North Korea, would mark a huge earthquake in Trump world.

As it is, the couple will see their "influence diminished," a GOP source close to the White House told CNN's Jim Acosta.

Fresh doubts over Kushner's position also risked reflecting poorly on Trump, given that the President made a close family member who was apparently unqualified or at risk of being compromised by foreign powers such a pivotal adviser.

After all, Trump pledged to hire the most qualified people in the world to serve in his administration, and made the alleged mishandling handling of classified material by his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton a key argument of his campaign.

Trump was already under ethical fire for breaking anti-nepotism conventions by hiring family members. Kushner's new troubles will make those questions even more acute.

"This is a stunning blow to President Trump," said CNN Presidential historian Timothy Naftali, noting that Kushner was one of the few senior advisers with whom Trump felt comfortable.

"This is a big deal ... he must be fuming," Naftali told CNN's Erin Burnett.

Foreign manipulations

Officials from four countries discussed exploiting Jared Kushner

Officials from four countries discussed exploiting Jared Kushner

The idea that key foreign countries, including Mexico, Israel, China and the United Arab Emirates had acted on conversations about how to manipulate Kushner, according to current and former US officials familiar with intelligence reports cited by the Post, is also a problem.

After all, the optics of a senior presidential adviser sitting down with leaders who have been publicly reported to have tried to compromise him would weaken his leverage and create a questionable optics.

The political implications of the Kushner news are less profound than the national security questions but no less intriguing.

The strike against Kushner is a bold move by Kelly who has worked to remove what he sees a distracting elements around the President -- such as former top political adviser Steve Bannon and former foreign policy aide Sebastian Gorka. But his decision to take on the President's son-in-law is the most significant and potentially risky coup yet.

Last week, Trump told reporters he would let Kelly decide what to do about his son-in-law's clearance but stressed that Kushner had done an "outstanding job." The comment was seen by many in Washington as a broad hint to Kelly that the President wanted Kushner kept in the loop.

Now any attempt by Trump to contradict Kelly's move would shatter the chief of staff's authority and make his position all but impossible. But if Kelly prevails, his decision on Kushner will be regarded as a gutsy political victory and would undercut speculation he cannot last much longer in the White House.

Signs that Mueller is looking into Trump's finances meanwhile add a layer of intensity to the drama surrounding his investigation.

The President has previously warned that he would not tolerate the special counsel seeking such information, so speculation about whether Trump will try to fire Mueller will be revived.

While there is no indication so far of any wrongdoing by Trump or collusion with a Russian election meddling effort, the report again poses the question of whether his past business dealings could have been a target for any Russian attempt to compromise him.

Any sense on the part of the President that the walls are closing in will not have been helped by Tuesday's testimony to a House committee by Hope Hicks, his communications director and close campaign aide.

CNN's Manu Raju reported that Hicks testified that she has sometimes had to tell white lies for the President, but had not lied about anything substantive.

Hope Hicks Only Tells White Lies for Trump, So We Can Definitely Trust Her Russia Testimony - Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )

28/2/2018

Hope Hicks Only Tells White Lies for Trump, So We Can Definitely Trust Her Russia Testimony

By

Margaret Hartmann

It takes two to lie, one to lie and one to listen. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

If anyone still takes the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe seriously even after Chairman Devin Nunes’s coordination with White House officials and hyping of his own dud memo in an attempt to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, testimony from Hope Hicks on Wednesday should set them straight. The White House communications director told House investigators that while her work for President Trump occasionally required her to tell white lies, she doesn’t lie about important things, like colluding with the Russians. The New York Times reported:

But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony.

The idea that anyone should trust Hicks’s assessment of white lies verses serious lies is absurd. Her statement would be an appalling admission from the person running the White House communications team if we weren’t so accustomed to the president himself spreading falsehoods on a daily basis.

The admission doesn’t make much of a difference in the House Russia probe, however. The far bigger issue is that Hicks, who’s been by Trump’s side since the earliest days of the campaign, refused to answer questions about the transition or her time in the White House, and House Republicans don’t appear inclined to do anything about it.

Hicks used a legal strategy pioneered by Trump officials like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and deployed in full by Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee in January. The idea is to refuse to answer questions because the White House might invoke executive privilege at a later date, without formally doing so. As Bannon’s attorney relayed questions to the White House counsel, he refused to answer questions about the transition, the White House, or even his discussions with Trump after his firing. While he was testifying voluntarily, Democrats and Republicans on the committee agreed to subpoena him on the spot. Bannon still refused to talk, and lawmakers have been mulling whether to hold him him in contempt ever since.

Hicks did not get the same aggressive treatment during her eight hours of private testimony. Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, said he and his colleagues pushed to subpoena her, but the Republicans who control the committee refused.

“That’s an overly broad claim of privilege that I don’t think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that,” Schiff said. “This is not executive privilege, it is executive stonewalling.”

Republicans claimed Hicks is different than Bannon because she is currently working in the White House, and answered some of their questions about the transition – though only after it was pointed out that she’d already discussed the topics before the Senate Intelligence Committee. There were many significant topics she wouldn’t go into, such as the drafting of a misleading statement from Donald Trump Jr. on his meeting with Russians during the campaign. Discussions about the statement reportedly left Mark Corallo, the former spokesperson for Trump’s legal team, with concerns that Hicks was considering obstructing justice.

GOP committee members say they don’t accept the White House’s interpretation of executive privilege, but they appear willing to let it slide. While some Republicans and Democrats think they must issue a contempt citation for Bannon to set an example for other witnesses, the decision depends on Representative Mike Conaway, who is leading the House Russia probe, and Speaker Paul Ryan. Conaway said on Tuesday that he’s yet to discuss the matter with Ryan – which is unsurprising, since Ryan has quietly refused multiple requests to rein in Nunes, and Trump’s abuses of power in general.

That doesn’t mean there’s no hope of ever getting Hicks to answer all the questions pertaining to the Trump team’s ties to Russia. White House officials can’t invoke executive privilege when they testify before the special counsel, who is also part of the executive branch. Both Bannon and Hicks have already submitted to hours of questioning by Mueller’s team.

Donald Trump once recoiled from a 'disgusting' man he thought was bleeding to death - Independent

Donald Trump once recoiled from a 'disgusting' man he thought was bleeding to death

Posted on 27/2/2018 by Mimi Launder in news

UPVOTE       

In the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School earlier this month, the US President said that he would have "run in there" to save school kids, even if he was unarmed.

Such grand claims are easily disputed – and, true to form, people were unconvinced of the boast Trump made to the gathering of governors at the White House on Monday. Many pointed in particular to reports that Trump had repeatedly draft-dodged.

But there is further, perhaps more shocking past behaviour from Trump that suggests he would not have actually run towards a shooting, but away from it.

Both during Trump's campaign and while in power, the now-notorious and remarkably unguarded nature of his interviews with Howard Stern have come back to bite him.

These damning excerpts include Trump bragging that he has 'felt up' his wife Melania in public and had sex with "some of the greats in history", as well as approving the radio host's request to call his daughter Ivanka a "piece of a**".

Another revelation was that when Trump, a self-described germaphobe, saw an 80-year-old man fall from the stage at a Mar-a-Lago ball, he looked away in disgust at all the blood.

This story that does not tally with his assertion that he would run head-first into a school shooting.

In the interview, Trump told Stern:

I was at Mar-a-Lago and we had this incredible ball, the Red Cross Ball, in Palm Beach, Florida.

And we had the Marines. And the Marines were there, and it was terrible because all these rich people, they’re there to support the Marines, but they’re really there to get their picture in the Palm Beach Post…

So you have all these really rich people, and a man, about 80 years old — very wealthy man, a lot of people didn’t like him — he fell off the stage.

He continued to describe the large amounts of blood spilling over his ballroom's marble floor.

So what happens is, this guy falls off right on his face, hits his head, and I thought he died. And you know what I did? I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away.

I couldn’t, you know, he was right in front of me and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him… he’s bleeding all over the place, I felt terrible.

You know, beautiful marble floor, didn’t look like it. It changed colour. Became very red.

And you have this poor guy, 80 years old, laying on the floor unconscious, and all the rich people are turning away. ‘Oh my God! This is terrible! This is disgusting!’ and you know, they’re turning away. Nobody wants to help the guy.

His wife is screaming — she’s sitting right next to him, and she’s screaming.

The Marines saved the situation, while Trump ensured his floor was clean.

What happens is, these ten Marines from the back of the room… they come running forward, they grab him, they put the blood all over the place — it’s all over their uniforms — they’re taking it, they’re swiping , they ran him out, they created a stretcher.

They call it a human stretcher, where they put their arms out with, like, five guys on each side.

I was saying, ‘Get that blood cleaned up! It’s disgusting!’ The next day, I forgot to call [the man] to say he’s OK.

HT The Daily Beast