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Across the capital, Tehran, long lines of cars waited for hours at pumping stations following the changes in energy policy, which state media announced around midnight without any prior warning to the public. The U.S. withdrew from Tehran’s 2015 nucle…
November 15, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Airbus SE Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury said the latest Brexit deal between Britain and European Union should pave the way for the aerospace giant to carry on making plane wings in the U.K.The British division, which employs 14…
November 15, 2019Read More
Even as Ms. Yovanovitch was testifying about “the smear campaign against me,” President Trump hurled insults at her on Twitter.
November 15, 2019Read More
Rather than crush protests, the Lebanese military has actually become popular with anti-government protesters. But the White House is hesitating to continue aid to the military.
November 15, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming under pressure from her own party to impose an outright ban on Chinese equipment supplier Huawei Technologies Co. from the country’s 5G network.The demand is part of a motion signed by 500 of her…
November 15, 2019Read More
KYIV—When Deputy Secretary of State George Kent spoke at the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment hearings this week, he painted a powerful picture of Ukrainian bravery in the face of Russian aggression. In 2014, when “Russia invaded Ukraine” and occupied 7 percent of its territory, Ukraine’s state institutions were “on the verge of collapse,” he said. But “Ukrainian civil society answered the challenge. They formed volunteer battalions of citizens, including technology professionals and medics. They crowd-sourced funding for their own weapons, body armor, and supplies. They were the 21st century Ukrainian equivalent of our own Minutemen in 1776, buying time for the regular army to reconstitute.”But Kent most likely did not have in mind the most famous—and infamous—of those volunteer units, the Azov Battalion, which 40 members of Congress have asked the State Department to designate as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Some of its members are neo-Nazis, white supremacists and avowed anti-Semites.Are the Azov fighters, in fact, “Minutemen” or monsters, freedom fighters or terrorists? Or in some cases both? The Frightening Far-Right Militia That’s Marching in Ukraine’s Streets, Promising to Bring ‘Order’Angry demonstrations here in Kyiv about those congressional efforts to get Azov declared an “FTO” suggest just how complicated and treacherous the political and military landscape has become in this nation fighting for survival. It is another factor—along with the extortionate, allegedly impeachable games played by the Trump administration—weakening the position of President Volodymyr Zelnsky as he struggles to achieve an equitable peace with Putin.The congressional letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and pushed by freshman Democratic Rep. Max Rose from Staten Island, portrays Azov as part of an ultra-right-wing “global terrorist network” analogous to al-Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State, but one bent on attacking Muslims, Jews, and people of color. The letter notes that the man who carried out the mosque massacres in New Zealand last March, killing at least 50 worshippers, claimed he trained with the Azov. His live-streamed slaughter then inspired murderers in the United States who targeted a synagogue in Poway, California, and Hispanic shoppers in El Paso, Texas.The October 16 letter quoted a tweet a week before by Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence and a Daily Beast contributor, after the synagogue attack in Halle, Germany, on October 9. Katz noted “the similarity between this video” in Halle and the New Zealand attacker’s, concluding it was “another installment from a global terrorist network, linked together via online safe havens much like ISIS.” Symbolically, at least, Azov has become a rallying point for the neo-Nazi international community.The State Department response to the letter was non-committal, denying that its failure to designate various foreign groups as terrorist organizations had anything to do with “ideology or motives.”* * *In many ways Oleksandr Konibor, a self-professed admirer of far right movements in Europe, is typical of the Ukrainians who heeded the call to fight for their country by joining the Azov battalion in 2014. “It was a tragic time for our country and in some ways a wonderful time for us,” said Konibor, a 34-year-old teacher. To be sure, some members of Azov wore swastikas their uniforms and a patch associated with the unit looks like a variation on Nazi symbols. Other members were fringe Pagan worshipers, former convicts, unemployed men or merely adventure seekers. In those early “Minuteman” days, nobody was very picky about who picked up a gun to fight the Russians. The Azov fought shoulder-to-shoulder with a unit of Chechen Islamist fighters, who had their own reasons to come to the front. What united them, in fact, was not so much far right ideology as a willingness to be in the trenches. Konibor said he joined not for reasons of ideology but to defend his country and because he liked spending time with men from the soccer clubs he belonged to. In Ukraine, in the years since the fighting began, the Azov has come to be viewed as a unit of misfits whose flaws, however obvious, were cleansed by the crucible of combat.After the congressional letter was reported here last month, Azov soldiers staged protests in Kyiv. Veterans with stern faces, their wives and girlfriends holding roses in their hands, gathered in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They held signs saying, “Ukraine’s defenders are not terrorists.” Ukrainian officials and Members of Parliament pushed back against the initiative on Capitol Hill. They concede Azov includes marginal figures but it is now also formally part of Ukraine’s armed forces, having been incorporated into the National Guard, and should not be identified as a terrorist group. The letter to Pompeo was pretty unequivocal, however, and notes that Congress specifically prohibited the Azov from receiving arms, training or other assistance from the United States in 2018.“I am sure that the congressmen who wrote the appeal had not seen a single Azov soldier,” Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Geraschenko told The Daily Beast, adding that some members of Congress have been invited to Ukraine. Geraschnko insisted that there was “no proven evidence” of any connection between Azov and the Christchurch shooter, even though the shooter had painted an Azov insignia on one of his rifles.The unit’s supporters here argue that accepting the letter’s characterization is bending to Russian propaganda, which casts all Ukrainian soldiers as neo-Fascists. And Russian media rejoiced at the congressional letter: the American establishment is getting tired of Ukraine, reports said. The battalion’s founder, Adriy Biletskiy has a two-decade history in far-right movements and has spent time in prison for murder—on trumped-up charges, he says. In the past, he played a leading role in the far-right Patriot of Ukraine and Social National Assembly. When the war began in 2014, as George Kent noted, Ukraine’s army was in miserable condition and authorities did not stop Azov from using banners and chevrons featuring Nazi symbols, including the wolfsangel insignia associated with the Nazi SS. This is a tragic reminder of Ukraine’s past. Some 1.5 million Jews were killed here during World War II. “Ukraine is where the Holocaust began,” Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece a week after President Zelensky’s inauguration. “The new government in Ukraine should also play a more expansive role in acknowledging the Holocaust as part of its national history.”For now, however, when Azov members publicly admire Hitler, authorities are reluctant to condemn them.* * *Last year Zaborona media group reported on the lives of Azov soldiers in eastern Ukraine. “One day we saw a flag of Nazi Germany in the window at the Azov military base in the city of Mariupol,” Zaborona founder, Yekateryna Sergatskova, told The Daily Beast. “Before the war, many of the Azov guys sympathized with Russia’s neo-Nazi groups; I still wonder why Azov is fascinated with Hitler, it could be that the worshipping of Nazi Germany’s ideology is their revolt against Stalinism, against the Communist regime.” Last year battalion founder Biletskiy personally took an oath from hundreds of Azov veterans and far-right activists joining his National Corps militia—a far-right political movement promising “to establish order in Ukraine.”Some Azov veterans see their mission in the most radical way. According to an investigative report by Bellingcat, Ukrainian supremacists translated the hate-filled manifesto by the Christchurch shooter into Ukrainian and sold the pamphlets for $4 a piece at Azov’s literature club.Is America Training Neonazis in Ukraine?“Several American and European citizens have served in Azov, and even more Russian citizens joined the battalion in 2014-2015,” Vyacheslav Likhachev, Ukraine’s leading expert on far-right movements told The Daily Beast. “Yes, numerous Azov soldiers share neo-Nazi ideology but the U.S. congressmen cannot blacklist the entire regiment of the interior forces, it would be the same as to accuse the state of Ukraine of terrorism.” To make their point, Azov veterans and their supporters started “A Veteran is Not a Terrorist” campaign, criticizing Max Rose for initiating the letter to Pompeo. Yelena, a slim, rather gloomy looking waitress waiting for her boyfriend, an Azov soldier, to come home from the war told The Daily Beast, “I am sure Rep. Rose is sitting in his office, he has not smelled any gunpowder.” (In fact, Rose is a decorated combat veteran of the U.S. Army who served as a platoon leader and was wounded in Afghanistan.) “Right at this very moment my husband and other Azov guys are defending Ukraine from Russian aggression,” said Yelena. “They are heroes and not terrorists like ISIS.”Authorities in Kyiv say they will stand by veterans, and hope to talk the U.S. government out of any designation of Azov as a terrorist organization. Those opposed to this labeling think of soldiers as heroes, no matter how far right their ideology. One volunteer, Natalia Voronokova and her team have been providing medicine, food and ammunition for Azov soldiers since the early days of the war. “I have seen Azov on the battlefield,” she said. They endured hardships and losses. “And as for their sub-culture, that is their choice.”Anna Nemtsova reported from Kyiv. Christopher Dickey reported from Paris.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
November 15, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — A five-day standoff between protesters and police at Chinese University of Hong Kong ended Friday as the activists evacuated their makeshift fortress and left the campus.On Saturday morning workers had cleared the debris from Tolo Highwa…
November 15, 2019Read More
1.The first two witnesses gave “devastating” public testimony in the House’s impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, providing “evidence of bribery” and abuse of power by President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a news conference Thursday. “The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections,” she said, referring to how Trump seemingly conditioned Ukraine aid on an investigation targeting Democrats. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called Pelosi’s bribery allegation “ridiculous,” saying the aid was released despite “a justified concern” that top Ukrainian officials opposed Trump and favored Hillary Clinton in 2016. State Department official George Kent and longtime diplomat William Taylor testified Wednesday. Ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch appears Friday. [NBC News, The Hill] 2.A gunman opened fire on fellow students at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, on Thursday, killing two students and wounding three others. Authorities said security video showed the suspect, a 16-year-old male student, pull a .45-caliber handgun out of his backpack and shoot five people around him before shooting himself in the head. He was hospitalized in grave condition. Two law enforcement sources identified the suspect as Nathaniel Berhow, 16. Authorities identified the deceased students as a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. Two of the wounded students are 14 years old, and the other is 15. “We send our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those tragically lost,” President Trump tweeted, “and we pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded.” [Los Angeles Times, Fox News] 3.The Senate on Thursday confirmed White House counsel’s office lawyer Steven Menashi, one of President Trump’s most controversial judicial nominees, to serve on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 51 to 41, with moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine joining Democrats voting no. Democrats criticized Menashi for his early writings at Dartmouth and elsewhere that he said he regretted because of their “lack of balance and provocative tone.” The Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), questioned Menashi over his work with Trump adviser Stephen Miller on the administration’s hardline immigration policy. Menashi provoked bipartisan frustration by refusing to answer key questions. His confirmation flipped a key court to a conservative majority. [CNN, Politico] 4.President Trump on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to step in to block the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation of his personal finances. Trump wants the justices to prevent Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. from enforcing a grand jury subpoena seeking eight years of Trump’s tax returns from his accounting firm, Mazars USA. Trump’s legal team says that prosecutors can’t demand the documents because sitting presidents are immune from investigation. A lower court ruled that the subpoena for the returns was proper and ordered Trump’s accounting firm to comply. In a separate case on Wednesday, an appeals court ruled that Congress should have access to the records. Trump’s lawyers said after that ruling that they were considering taking it to the Supreme Court, too. [The Washington Post] 5.Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) on Thursday conceded the state’s gubernatorial election to Democrat Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s attorney general. Beshear declared victory last week after the initial vote count showed him up by roughly 5,000 votes, but Bevin refused to give in, demanding a statewide recanvassing. After the state’s 120 counties reviewed the vote count and confirmed Beshear’s victory, Bevin held a news conference and said he would not contest the count, recognizing that “the actual number is going to fluctuate somewhat, but not so significantly that it’s going to change the outcome of this election.” Bevin had been facing calls from Republicans in the state to concede. President Trump endorsed Bevin and held a rally in support of him the day before the election. [CNN] 6.A second U.S. Embassy staffer in Kyiv overheard a cellphone call Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, had with President Trump about the need for Ukraine to conduct “investigations,” The Associated Press reported Thursday. The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, William Taylor, first reported the July 26 call on Wednesday during the first public hearing in the House’s impeachment inquiry. He said one of his staffers overheard the call and told him about it after he gave his recent closed-door deposition to House impeachment investigators. The call occurred the day after the controversial call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch investigations targeting Democrats. That call was reported by a whistleblower and triggered the impeachment investigation. [The Associated Press] 7.North Korea made an implicit threat to resume banned long-range missile and nuclear tests, saying it felt “betrayed” that the U.S. was continuing joint air drills with South Korea. Pyongyang called the exercises an “undisguised breach” of an agreement President Trump struck with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last year. North Korea said it was no longer bound by its commitment to hold off on further tests until the end of this year so the U.S. could develop proposals to resume talks on exchanging curbs to North Korea’s nuclear program for sanctions relief. “We, without being given anything, gave things the U.S. president can brag about but the U.S. side has not yet taken any corresponding step,” North Korea’s State Affairs Commission said. [The Washington Post] 8.Amazon said Thursday it is contesting the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft a cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion. President Trump has frequently criticized Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos. Trump also bashes The Washington Post and notes that Bezos owns it. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy said it would be hard for a federal agency to be fair in its contracting process when the president is attacking one of the companies competing for the deal. “Numerous aspects of the (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud) JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias,” Jassy said. “It is important that these matters be examined and rectified.” The challenge was widely expected. [Reuters] 9.Attorney General William Barr on Thursday called for the Federal Communications Commission to bar rural wireless carriers that receive money from an $8.5 billion government fund from purchasing equipment or services from Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp. Barr said in a letter to the FCC released Thursday that the Chinese tech giants “cannot be trusted.” Barr said Huawei and ZTE posed a security threat by skirting the U.S. embargo on Iran. The U.S. also has warned Huawei gear could be used to spy for Beijing. The FCC is scheduled to vote on Nov. 22 on a proposal requiring carriers in the program to replace equipment from the two companies. Huawei and ZTE did not immediately release comments on Barr’s letter. [Reuters] 10.Italy declared a state of emergency in Venice on Thursday due to its worst flooding in more than five decades. High tides and a storm surge driven by strong winds raised flood levels to 6 feet, 2 inches on Tuesday, and 3 feet, 8 inches on Thursday. The high water caused extensive damage. The crypt at the thousand-year-old St. Mark’s Basilica filled with water, and a third of Venice’s raised walkways were destroyed. “It hurts to see the city so damaged, its artistic heritage compromised, its commercial activities on its knees,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday. More flooding is expected. Two people died on the island of Pellestrina, one of them electrocuted trying to start a pump in his home. [BBC News]More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
November 15, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — A traffic cop rode his motorcycle into a crowd of demonstrators. A group of officers pepper-sprayed a woman in the face. Riot police slammed a Citigroup Inc. staffer to the ground.This week saw a litany of alleged police abuses quickly g…
November 15, 2019Read More
From Elvis Costello & The Imposters to Fifth Third Bank’s ‘A Christmas Carol,’ And Alice Cooper there’s something for everyone this week in Louisville
November 15, 2019Read More
After an ugly loss to Miami, the Cardinals returned home with a lot at stake. The team is hoping that will help it bounce back.
November 15, 2019Read More
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