Giuliani was not working alone in Biden Ukraine probe - Fox News

Rudy Giuliani was not the only attorney trying to get damaging information on Joe Biden from Ukrainian officials, and President Trump’s decision to withhold aid from Ukraine this summer was made in spite of several federal agencies supporting the aid, Fox News’ Chris Wallace revealed on “Fox News Sunday.”

In addition to Giuliani, Washington, D.C., lawyers Joe DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing worked alongside the former New York City mayor. According to a top U.S. official, the three attorneys were working "off the books" -- not within the Trump administration -- and only the president knows the details of their work.

REPUBLICANS WANT WHISTLEBLOWER’S SOURCES, AS INCONSISTENCIES IN COMPLAINT EMERGE

DiGenova and Toensing have been staunch supporters of President Trump, and were close to joining his legal team during Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. That ultimately did not happen due to conflicts, as Toensing had previously represented witnesses who had already spoken to Mueller’s team.

A whistleblower complaint citing “multiple U.S. government officials” accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden in a July 25 phone call. Democrats claim that Trump used military aid as leverage over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, although Zelensky insists there was no pressure at all.

Trump claims that while he did delay aid to Ukraine, it was because he was pushing for European nations such as Germany to provide additional aid to Ukraine, and that he eventually did provide the aid.

Fox News has learned that the Pentagon, State Department, and National Security Council were “unanimous” in supporting the aid to Ukraine, and that Trump acted alone in withholding the aid over the summer.

Giuiani has gone on record saying that his investigation began as a probe of possible Ukrainian collusion with the Democratic Party in the 2016 election, which led to him looking into Biden as well. In his call with Zelensky, Trump did reference Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm that had worked on an investigation of a hacked Democratic National Committee server. Trump also claimed that the server itself, which the FBI never acquired, may currently be in Ukraine.

The former New York City mayor asserts that Hunter Biden engaged in improper activity related to his business dealings with energy company Burisma Holdings, and claims that then-Vice President Joe Biden used his office to pressure the Ukrainian government into firing top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.

Biden has acknowledged this in the past, stating that he threatened to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine if they did not fire Shokin. Biden denies wrongdoing, and has not stated that he did this to protect his son, as Shokin had been accused of corruption.

Genova and Toensing have publicly called out Biden, accusing him of acting on behalf of his son, and disputing claims that Shokin was corrupt.

INTEL CHIEF DEFENDS HANDLING OF TRUMP CALL COMPLAINT, SPARS WITH SCHIFF IN TENSE HEARING

A memo released by the White House containing the substance of the call showed that the two leaders discussed U.S. aid to Ukraine as well as the Biden investigation. There was no overt link or reference to a quid pro quo, but Democrats claim the pressure was implied.

Speculation that Trump may have sought campaign assistance from a foreign government -- and the allegation that he used military aid as leverage – has increased demand from Democrats that Trump be impeached, where the party had been split on the issue in the past. While figures such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., have long touted efforts to investigate Trump for the purpose of impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been hesitant to support such a move, out of fear that the move would be politically divisive if the American people did not support it.

After news of the whistleblower complaint came out, however, Pelosi called for a formal impeachment inquiry.

Republicans, meanwhile are criticizing the complaint because the whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge of the call. Top Republicans have been pushing for the identity the whistleblower’s government sources.

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Republicans specifically questioned why the whistleblower's sources in the White House didn't file a complaint themselves -- especially given that relevant whistleblower procedures did not protect second-hand complaints until just days before the whistleblower filed the complaint against Trump. (The New York Times reported that the whistleblower is a CIA officer detailed to the White House. Fox News has not confirmed The Times' report.)

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News' "Shepard Smith Reporting" on Thursday that the administration had an apparent "leak problem," adding, "if they're leaking something that's supposed to be classified, then ... that probably is criminal in nature."

Fox News’ Gregg Re, John Roberts, and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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2019-09-29 13:05:49Z
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Ugly Clashes as Hong Kong Protesters Battle Police Ahead of China Anniversary - The Wall Street Journal

Hong Kong police fire tear gas toward protesters on one of the fiercest days of clashes since the movement began. Photo: mohd rasfan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

By

Natasha Khan and

Natasha Khan
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @natashakhanhk
• natasha.khan@wsj.com

Chun Han Wong

Chun Han Wong
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @ByChunHan
• chunhan.wong@wsj.com

Sept. 29, 2019 7:33 am ET

HONG KONG—Tens of thousands of protesters poured onto Hong Kong’s streets Sunday, with the fiercest battles in weeks breaking out as demonstrators faced off with police and shouted anti-China slogans ahead of Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China.

The protesters had planned to march to the government headquarters in the center of the city under the theme “Global Anti-Totalitarianism Rally.” The police broke up the march at about 4 p.m., an hour or so after it began, engaging the protesters in urban street battles in several districts amid clouds of tear gas and bursts of rubber bullets. They made multiple arrests.

Protesters waved flags from different countries and international institutions, including the U.S. and the United Nations, appealing to the global community to stand with the city’s antigovernment movement. Rallies were taking place or planned in dozens of cities around the world in solidarity with Hong Kong’s protesters.

Hong Kong is in its 17th straight weekend of demonstrations, originally sparked by opposition to a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed suspects to be tried in the mainland’s more opaque legal system. Although the city’s government formally withdrew the bill earlier this month, the continuing protest movement, which has widened to include other demands, has revealed deep-seated fears of China’s tightening rule in the city.

Thousands participated in an unpermitted march through Hong Kong. Photo: nicolas asfouri/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The sustained size of the movement and the intense violence of the front-line confrontations with police threaten to mar China’s anniversary celebrations. The movement is the highest-profile public challenge to President Xi Jinping since he rose to power in 2012.

The Hong Kong government has signaled its desire for reconciliation through dialogue in past weeks and hosted a public forum with Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Thursday. But the continued volume and ferocity of the protests suggest the government’s strategy is doing little to quell the unrest.

The organizers of Sunday’s march, who didn’t identify themselves publicly, didn’t apply to the police department for permission, as organizers have for many previous rallies. Police tried to quell the demonstration in the early afternoon, even before it began, firing tear gas and pepper spray in the center of the shopping district of Causeway Bay. Protesters—many dressed in black and some wearing Guy Fawkes masks—began to march anyway, holding a giant yellow banner that said “Restore Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time.”

As they marched down one of the city’s longest roads, they chanted slogans while periodically breaking into song. The protest anthem’s lyrics include the lines: “Lift up your head and speak up, our voices will ring loud, in the hope that freedom will return here....The sons and daughters march together for justice, a revolution of our time.”

A 15-year-old student, who gave his name as John, marched with a placard featuring an image of the anonymous “Tank man,” who stood alone before a column of Chinese army tanks in the aftermath of the deadly crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

“We are not radicals, we just want to fight for a better future,” said John, who took the placard from other protesters who were distributing anti-China paraphernalia. He said the placard, captioned “CCP Evil Dictatorship Party,” reflected his misgivings about Communist rule and its impact on civil liberties in Hong Kong. “We want to tell the world that the evils committed by the Communist Party could happen here too,” he said.

Along the demonstration route, protesters vandalized facades of mainland Chinese businesses, including outlets of state-owned banks, plastering them with anti-Communist Party placards and spray-painting protest slogans.

Police on Sunday appeared to be employing different crowd-control strategies than in previous weeks. They fired tear gas even before the rally was to begin, even though nonparticipants were milling around the busy shopping area. And, in contrast to previous instances in which police chased protesters, large groups of police in riot gear waited at intervals along the expected march route.

As police can hold arrested people for 48 hours without charge, those arrested Sunday could still be off the streets for Tuesday’s national day public holiday.

In some confrontations, the police retreated. At around 4:30 p.m., police and protesters engaged in a long standoff outside the luxurious Pacific Place mall. The small contingent of police was surrounded by hundreds of protesters gathering on either side and eventually overwhelmed. One officer could be heard yelling repeatedly, “Team Two, where are you?” into her walkie-talkie, as she looked around following a skirmish with protesters. Police fired multiple rounds of tear gas, then ran to the nearby Admiralty metro station and into waiting police vans. Hundreds of protesters chased the vans, hurling bricks and umbrellas at them as they drove away.

In other districts, protesters vandalized subway stations and other structures, continuing an outburst of anger against the city’s subway company, MTR Corp. In the Wan Chai station, protesters smashed the glass of an elevator and threw objects into the underground station from the street level. Police kept guard inside the station and from an overpass, firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the protesters, who built a defense line behind umbrellas. Sirens, from police vehicles and from alarm systems, were heard throughout the afternoon across the city.

Protesters used umbrellas and gas masks to withstand police tear gas and other forceful measures. Photo: mohd rasfan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Hundreds of protesters advanced on the government complex and bombarded its perimeter with bricks and Molotov cocktails, breaking glass panels and setting small fires outside the government buildings.

Police responded by firing tear gas and water cannon, before scores of officers in riot gear came storming out of the complex, firing pepper bullets and more tear gas to disperse the crowds, and making at least a dozen arrests.

One group of protesters was trapped outside a closed entrance to nearby subway station. A dozen or so middle-aged people dressed in yellow vests formed a human chain to protect the protesters from a waiting line of police officers, in a tense standoff.

Rallies in solidarity with Hong Kong’s protest movement were also planned in dozens of cities Sunday, including New York, Tokyo, Warsaw and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

One of the day’s first was in Sydney. Hundreds of people marched through the downtown of the Australian city, many holding anti-China signs and chanting the same slogans and songs that protesters in Hong Kong have used in recent weeks.

March organizers said the turnout—possibly more than 1,000—was better than the 200 or 300 people expected.

Summer Chu, a 21-year-old nursing student, said she drove two hours with her partner to Sydney to attend Sunday’s rally. She said it was important to send a message to her fellow Hongkongers back home that she supports the protest movement even though she is overseas.

“It’s the responsibility for every Hong Kong people, if we don’t stand up right now, we have no chance to do it in the future,” said Ms. Chu, who has been in Australia for about three years.

Ms. Chu said she was concerned that pro-Beijing counter protesters might show up on Sunday. In Australia, there is “just more freedom, and the life is more easy,” said Ms Chu. “I really don’t think there is any future in Hong Kong.”

—Mike Cherney in Sydney, Wenxin Fan and Andrew Dowell contributed to this article.

Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com and Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com

Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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2019-09-29 11:33:00Z
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5 Ways Impeachment Could Play Out - POLITICO

Jeff Greenfield is a five-time Emmy-winning network television analyst and author.

If you’re looking at history to provide a guide to the impending impeachment saga … don’t. With only three past examples, involving three very different controversies, there’s thin gruel that will provide little nourishment. So let’s turn to a different tool: the concept of an infinite number of universes, where events play out in different ways, depending on everything from consequential decisions to random chance. Modesty forbids asserting that any of the outcomes listed below will happen; only that they might.

Some of these universes may seem improbable or even fanciful, I know. But before you dismiss them all, ask yourself this question: Would the universe we are living in now have seemed any less fanciful three years ago?

Story Continued Below

IN UNIVERSE ONE

The House provides a forum for a deliberate look at a narrow set of facts. The template is the Senate Watergate Committee, which began poking into Watergate and other “presidential campaign activities” in the spring of 1973. It was a select committee of seven members, with nary an ideologue in sight. (Chairman Sam Ervin was a conservative Democrat; ranking member Howard Baker was a moderate Republican.) Over 319 hours, the nation learned of John Dean’s “cancer on the presidency” and the revelation that there was a taping system inside the White House. Notably, much of the questioning was done by staff counsel, which made for less political bloviation and more targeted inquiry.

So in this scenario, instead of having six committees channel their findings to the Judiciary Committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi changes her mind, and creates a similar select committee, where staff lawyers do the lion’s share of the questioning, focused on the issue raised by the whistleblower: Did the president withhold desperately needed military aid to pressure Ukraine into damaging a potential political opponent.

In this universe, there is at least a chance of laying out the facts in a clear frame, enabling the public to grasp the essence of the case for impeachment. That in turn moves public opinion to the point where some Congressional Republicans begin to recalculate the benefits and cost of a pro-impeachment vote.

IN UNIVERSE TWO

Pelosi sticks to her original plan to have six (count ‘em six) committees feed their conclusions to the House Judiciary Committee. These committees are already investigating everything from Trump’s taxes to payoffs to mistresses to the origins of Trump’s wealth.

Judiciary itself is among the most polarized of Congressional bodies. Several Democrats have been pushing for impeachment, while Republicans on the panel include Jim Jordan, Matthew Gaetz and Louis Gohmert, who devote much of their time to revisiting the “deep state” theory of an anti-Trump coup, as well as raising questions about the financial and personal travails of Hunter Biden. (Just Friday, Senator Tom Cotton and conservative columnist and talk show host Hugh Hewitt tweeted about a paternity suit involving Hunter Biden.)

In this format, barely controlled chaos is the order of the day. Witnesses either refuse to testify, or confront the Democrats with furious denunciations. (See the exchange between former ICE Director Thomas Hohman and Rep. Jamila Jayapal for a preview of what is to come.) The hearings feature each of the 40 members engaging in five minute soliloquies, ending in a party-line vote on impeachment.

As the committee descends into bitter partisan warfare, Trump’s media firewall goes to Defcon 1, with nightly, even hourly assaults on the Democrats’ attempted coup. And public opinion—which had been moving toward impeachment in the wake of the whistleblower’s complaint—now begins to swing toward “it’s the same old political noise” view. Trump’s job approval ratings stabilize, and when impeachment reaches the Senate, Majority Leader McConnell moves to dismiss the counts so that “we can get back to doing the people’s business”—meaning that there won’t even be vote. (I know McConnell has said there has to be a trial, but he has never in the past been bound by consistency.)

IN UNIVERSE THREE

As the Judiciary Committee’s hearings provide a steady dose of ever-more damaging evidence—aided by an intelligence community and ex-White House aides turned whistleblowers, cracks begin to widen in the Republican-conservative firewall that has been protecting Trump from the 2016 campaign on. Mitt Romney’s “deeply troubling” view of Trump’s behavior, and similar comments by Senator Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey, persuade a handful of House Republicans—many of whom like Texas Will Hurd have already announced their retirements—to vote for impeachment.

Similar cracks widen in the media; the Drudge Report continues to feature damaging stories about Trump on its front page. At FOX News, the war between the journalists and the advocates intensifies; an attempted “debate” between Andrew Napolitano and Joseph diGenova turns into chaos, as the principals almost come to blows.

When impeachment comes to the Senate, after a contentious House process where there are divides among the Republicans, half a dozen GOP senators vote to convict, leaving Trump in office, but seriously damaged. In February, 2020, Trump barely wins a majority of votes in the New Hampshire primary, with New Hampshire native Bill Weld coming in second.

IN UNIVERSE FOUR

As the Judiciary Committee meets, the fortunes of Joe Biden begin to worsen as committee Republicans and the media—both right wing and mainstream—put the former veep into the spotlight. The lengthy, deeply reported New Yorker story from July about Hunter Biden’s troubled life gains new visibility, as do accounts of Joe Biden’s six-figure speaking fees and post-vice-presidential wealth.

By Thanksgiving Day, Biden withdraws from the race, and a muddled Democratic primary field heads toward a lengthy, divisive primary, with faint signs that Sherrod Brown, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore and Michael Bloomberg are “reassessing” their prospects.

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings—as they have after every past controversy—stabilize in the low 40s, and the prediction markets peg his re-election chances at 50 percent.

IN UNIVERSE FIVE

As the evidence mounts against Trump, and the Judiciary Committee becomes the setting for a steady drip of damaging evidence against the president, he becomes more and more unmoored, launching into lengthy monologues about the spies and traitors inside his own administration. In response, onetime members of Trump’s administration—Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, H.R. McMaster—begin to express their concern about the president’s stability. As the president’s mental health becomes increasingly worrisome, a delegation including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs and Rudy Giluiani go to the White House and urge that Trump resign. Trump orders them thrown out of the White House and Tweets a stream of accusations about backstabbers; he also urges all FOX viewers to boycott the network, and speculates that Rupert Murdoch may never have actually become a U.S citizen.

Those with long memories note that, during the last days of Nixon’s presidency, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger told the Joint Chiefs of Staff not to execute any presidential order involving military force without first checking with him. Unfortunately, with no one in any semblance of authority at the White House or anywhere in the administration, there is no one to check Trump. The president’s effort to divert attention from his troubles results in armed military conflict in Iran, North Korea, the South China Sea and Venezuela. The year ends with the very real prospect of one or more of these conflicts “going nuclear.”

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2019-09-29 10:55:00Z
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British PM Johnson vows to stay put to hit Oct 31 Brexit deadline - Reuters UK

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Boris Johnson vowed on Sunday to stay on as Britain’s prime minister even if he fails to secure a deal to leave the European Union, saying only his Conservative government can deliver Brexit on Oct. 31 no matter what.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears on BBC TV's The Andrew Marr Show in Salford, Manchester, Britain, September 29, 2019. Jeff Overs/BBC/Handout via REUTERS

At the beginning of his party’s annual conference in the northern city of Manchester, Johnson wants to rally his party with the “do or die” message that he will deliver Brexit by the end of October, with or without a deal.

But there are hurdles to clear, not least of which is what Johnson calls “the surrender act” - the law parliament passed to force the prime minister to request a Brexit delay if he has not ssecured a deal with Brussels by an Oct. 17-18 EU summit.

Johnson again declined to explain how he plans to circumvent that law and deliver on his Brexit promise, deepening uncertainty Britain’s biggest trade and foreign policy shift for more than 40 years.

“People can feel that this country is approaching an important moment of choice and we have to get on and we have to deliver Brexit on October the 31st ... I’m going to get on and do it,” he told BBC television.

Asked if he would resign to avoid having to ask for a delay, Johnson said: “No, I have undertaken to lead the party and my country at a difficult time and I am going to continue to do that. I believe it is my responsibility.”

Opposition lawmakers have been highly critical of Johnson’s reference to “the surrender bill”, saying his language is stirring even more division in a country that his remained split since the 2016 referendum on EU membership.

Though the option of bringing a vote of no confidence in Johnson has been mooted in some quarters, Labour’s education policy chief Angela Rayner said the party wants to “get no deal off the table” before it does anything else.

But time is running out on efforts to avoid a potentially chaotic departure from the EU, which many businesses say could hurt the economy and tip the country into recession.

The government is expected this week to present proposals aimed at overcoming the main stumbling block in talks - the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. So far the two sides have failed to agree how to prevent the return to a hard border if a any future deal fails to maintain frictionless trade.

Johnson said he is still hopeful of securing a “good deal” but added that he would not pretend it will be easy.

“It is certainly true that other EU countries also don’t want this thing to keep dragging on, and they don’t want the UK to remain in the EU truculent and mutinous and in a limbo and not wishing to cooperate in the way that they would like,” he said.

“There is a strong view across the EU that it is time to move on.”

Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Kylie MacLellan and William James; Editing by David Goodman

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-09-29 10:03:00Z
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Austria votes in snap election after video sting scandal - BBC News

Voting has started in Austria's snap general election, after a video sting scandal in May collapsed the coalition government.

Opinion polls suggest former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservative People's Party is on track to win the most votes - but will need a coalition partner.

The Social Democrats, the far-right Freedom Party, the Greens and the liberals are also in the race.

Coalition talks are widely expected to be difficult, and may last for weeks.

• Sebastian Kurz: Why young favourite could turn to Greens
• Austria chancellor calls for snap election after corruption scandal

Polling stations across Austria will open at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and close at 17:00.

What was the video sting scandal?

The scandal toppled Mr Kurz's government, and the former leader of his coalition partner the Freedom Party (FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Mr Strache, Austria's Vice-Chancellor, was caught on video promising government contracts to a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch.

• Austria lawyer says he was part of far-right sting

The scandal was labelled "Ibiza-gate", after the Spanish island where the video was recorded.

What are the options?

The FPÖ, under new leader Norbert Hofer, is hoping to renew the coalition with Mr Kurz, who still leads the conservative People's Party (ÖVP).

But while Mr Kurz shares a tough anti-migrant line with the FPÖ, the former chancellor may opt for a three-way pact with the Greens and the liberal Neos party - a first in Austria.

A grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) is considered unlikely because of the bad relations between Mr Kurz and the centre-left leadership, the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna says.

Who is Sebastian Kurz?

The son of a secretary and a teacher, he became active in the ÖVP at the age of 16. As a law student in Vienna he was elected chairman of the People's Party youth wing. He quit his studies in 2011 to become a junior interior minister, rising to foreign minister in 2013 at the age of 27.

Two years later he presented a 50-point plan to improve the integration of immigrants. However, he was full of praise for Hungary's populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and claimed credit for closing the Balkan migrant route in 2016.

Elected chairman in May 2017, he rebranded the party as the Turquoise Movement then served as chancellor from December 2017 to May 2019, when the Ibizagate brought down the coalition.

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2019-09-29 03:53:16Z
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Police Watchdog Is Asked to Review Boris Johnson’s Ties to U.S. Businesswoman - The New York Times

LONDON — A monitor at London’s City Hall has referred Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain to a police watchdog for a possible investigation of claims that he unduly favored an American entrepreneur while mayor of the city, intensifying a politically risky scandal as he faces a hostile Parliament and a looming Brexit deadline.

The official said the claims about Mr. Johnson’s ties to the entrepreneur, Jennifer Arcuri, who joined several of the mayor’s international trade missions and whose businesses were awarded tens of thousands of pounds in government money, were a “conduct matter” — essentially “an indication” that he may have committed “a criminal offense.”

The government’s response was fierce and dismissive: A cabinet minister from Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party, Theresa Villiers, told the BBC on Saturday that it was “an obviously politicized complaint.”

Several British news outlets earlier quoted an unnamed government source as calling the referral “a nakedly political put-up job,” one done without warning to Mr. Johnson and without following due process.

Both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Arcuri have denied any wrongdoing.

The referral does not necessarily mean the prime minister will be investigated. The Independent Office for Police Conduct confirmed that it had “received a referral from the monitoring officer of the Greater London Authority regarding a conduct matter against Boris Johnson.”

But it added in a statement, “This will take time to thoroughly assess and consider before any decision is taken as to whether it is necessary to investigate this matter.”

Image

Boris Johnson and Jennifer Arcuri in London in 2013, when he was mayor of London.CreditVicki Couchman/Shutterstock

The referral letter was attributed to the Greater London Authority’s monitoring officer, Emma Strain, a career official who worked at City Hall in other roles during Mr. Johnson’s tenure as mayor.

A City Hall spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

The letter said she was legally obligated to refer Mr. Johnson to the police watchdog because she had been made aware of accusations that, if true, could amount to an offense of misconduct in public office.

“During this time it has been brought to my attention that you maintained a friendship with Ms. Jennifer Arcuri, and as a result of that friendship allowed Ms. Arcuri to participate in trade missions and receive sponsorship monies in circumstances where she and her companies could not have expected otherwise to receive those benefits,” the letter said.

But the letter added that it was not the monitoring officer’s role “to investigate or determine whether any offense has been committed. Similarly, I do not investigate the veracity of the allegations or whether they are substantiated.”

The letter did not mention who had passed on the accusations to the monitoring officer.

On Tuesday, the elected London Assembly asked Mr. Johnson to explain his relations with Ms. Arcuri, and earlier on Friday he said he would comply.

Ms. Arcuri, a former model, was 27 when her path first crossed Mr. Johnson’s in 2012.

According to The Sunday Times of London, which first reported the matter last weekend, Mr. Johnson also made afternoon visits to the apartment where Ms. Arcuri then lived in Shoreditch, in East London, while on breaks from his duties as mayor. The article was illustrated with a photograph of Ms. Arcuri using a dancing pole fitted in her home.

A subsequent explanation for the visits — that the mayor had been receiving technology lessons — prompted mockery on Twitter and in Parliament.

One of Ms. Arcuri’s businesses, Hacker House, was awarded a central-government grant of 100,000 pounds, about $120,000, in February, before Mr. Johnson became prime minister.

Matt Warman, a junior culture minister, told lawmakers that Mr. Johnson had no role in the awarding of that grant. But the national Department for Culture, Media and Sport is reviewing the grant following reports that Ms. Arcuri had moved back to the United States and her business might not be sufficiently British-based to qualify for the money.

Mr. Johnson told a reporter from the broadcaster ITV, “Absolutely everything was done with full propriety and in accordance with proper procedures.”

But that has done little to tamp down speculation about Mr. Johnson, whose sometimes turbulent personal life has frequently made headlines in Britain.

Boris Johnson Faces a New Scandal, and ‘People See Blood in the Water’

Sept. 23, 2019

Boris Johnson, Political Escape Artist, Lands in Hot Water. Again.

June 26, 2019

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2019-09-28 14:58:00Z
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Afghanistan presidential election: All the latest updates - Aljazeera.com

Polls have closed in Afghanistan's presidential election, the fourth since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Incumbent President Ashraf Ghani is seen as the frontrunner in the 14-man race, with Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive, considered his main rival.

Security forces are on high alert due to threats from the Taliban to attack polling stations.

Here are all the latest updates:

Polls close 

Polls closed in Afghanistan's presidential election amid widespread complaints of irregularities and violence in parts of the country.

Voters complained that lists were incomplete or missing and biometric identification machines intended to reduce fraud were not working properly or people were not adequately trained on how to use them.

"I couldn't vote because the voting sticker I have on my ID is not registered in the polling station I went to. This happened to so many different people. This sticker was put on my ID in Abdul Shukoor Reshad High School by the election commission themselves."

Preliminary results are not expected before October 17 and final results not until November 7. If no candidate gets 51 percent of the vote, a second round will be held between the two leading candidates

First time voter: 'I want to see a peaceful Afghanistan'

Najmia Popal, 18, a first-time voter wants a peaceful Afghanistan [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera] 

Najmia Popal, 18, headed to a polling centre in Kabul with her mother to cast a ballot for the first time.

"It was my first time and I was excited," she told Al Jazeera.

"I voted because I want to see a peaceful Afghanistan, a place with no more terrorist attacks, no more bomb-blasts.

"I want to live in a secure country, something new and great, I hope that it happens. Long live Afghanistan!"

Low turnout reported in parts of Afghanistan 

Voter turnout was low in certain parts of Afghanistan amid lingering concerns over security threats and logistical challenges.

"In the city of Jalalabad [the capital of Nangarhar provincial], the turnout was low in the morning, until at least 10am. In the districts there are also fewer people than in previous elections," Nabiullah Baz, a member of parliament from the district of Chapliyar, told Al Jazeera.

"As the hours passed, I started to see more mobilisation among the people – hopefully, as the day goes on, more people will come out especially, as the heat starts to settle."

Obaid Ali, a Kabul-based analyst at Afghanistan Analysts Network, who visited several different voting sites in Takhar, said voting was relatively low in the northern province.

"In all of the polling centres I went to, the turnout has been extremely low. Even when compared to the parliamentary elections in [October] 2018".

Low turnout was also reported in Herat province.

Low voter turnout was reported across the country [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera]

Voters across Afghanistan cast their ballots

Afghans voted in presidential elections amid tight security.

Check out our photo gallery

Election extended by two hours

The Independent Election Commission extended voting by two hours, with polls now set to close at 5pm (12:30 GMT).

"There was always a contingency for the polling stations to be open to facilitate the last-minute surge of people coming in to vote," Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reported from Kabul.

"They were due to be closed by now but they happen to be open for further two hours - it does seem as though it is giving people in other parts of Afghanistan a chance to vote if they have not already voted."

No contact with hundreds of polling centres

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) said it had lost contact with 901 of the country’s 5,373 polling centres.

Habib-Ur-Rahman Nang, head of the IEC secretariat, said the commission was not able to communicate with polling centres in the provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz and Baghlan, where telecom services were not active, local media TOLO News reported.

In addition, 464 polling centers in 17 provinces were closed, including 33 centres which lacked election materials, election commissioner Mawlana Mohammad Abdullah said.

'Trying to take my vote'

Shahla was not able to cast her ballot as IEC workers refused to help her cast a vote [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera]

A voter named Shahla said electoral workers at Naderia High School in Kabul's Kartei Parwan neighbourhood refused her permission to cast her ballot because the system showed she had already voted.

"I've voted here before with the same ID. If I had already voted once today, why isn't my finger marked with ink?"

"I'm not illiterate, why would I do such a thing? They are trying to take my vote with a ridiculous, baseless claim," Shahla told Al Jazeera, expressing her anger and disappointment.

'In and out very quickly'

Mustafa Azizi said he did not face any problems voting at a school at Chelsetoon, in west Kabul.

Mustafa Azizi, 27, voted at a school in Kabul's Chelsetoon area [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera]

"Everything was orderly, I was in and out very quickly," he said.

"I didn’t see anyone complaining but I've heard reports of issues at [Kabul's] Habibia [area]."

Problems reported with biometric devices

Dozens of people were turned away or had to wait for hours to vote at Kandahar’s Sayeed Jamaluddin High School due to problems with two biometric devices, according to reports.

Some 600 people were registered at this centre.

Similar issues were reported in Kunar province.

Afghan president hails landmark polls 

Ghani cast his ballot in Kabul, hailing the election as a sign of strengthening democracy in Afghanistan.

"It is a moment of pride for me that a major part of the election expenses have been paid by the Afghan government," he said.

Ghani also stressed the need for fairness and urged election observers to monitor the process.

Ghani, right, casts his vote at Amani high school, near the presidential palace in Kabul [AP/Rahmat Gul]

Voting delays, heavy security

Independent Election Commission staff showed up late at a polling station in Kabul's Herati Masjed, delaying the voting process by almost an hour.

Shah Bolbol's name did not appear in the electoral roll and was turned back [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera]

At least four people were turned away after voting started amid problems with voters' names appearing in the electoral roll.

"The IEC is hiring incapable, illiterate people, this is why it's happening," Shah Bolbol, who waited for three hours to vote, told Al Jazeera.

He was asked to go to the IEC offices as his name did not appear on the voter list.

However, others were able to vote without any problems.

"The services were good, the security was good. I was very happy to go and vote. No one was afraid," Mohammed Wahid, a Kabul resident, told Al Jazeera.

Low turnout reported in Kabul

Reporting from a polling station in Kabul at 10am local time, Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley said the turnout appeared to be low compared with the 2014 presidential polls.

"Five years ago, when presidential elections were held there were lines of people here and now I have barely seen 200 people who have voted here in the last two hours," he said.

"It's either because of the security situation or because people here become very disillusioned with the political situation. Five years ago, they were promised big changes, such as the economy and security will be improved, but none of that happened. So people here think if they vote it's going to be more of the same."

Birtley said there were reports of explosions in Kandahar and in the north of Kabul, while a mortar was reportedly fired in Helmand province.

Blast at Kandahar polling station wounds 15

At least 17 people were wounded when a bomb exploded outside a polling station in the southern city of Kandahar, a hospital official said, hours after the polls opened.

Naimatullah, the head of a regional hospital who only has one name, told AFP news agency that "15 people - all men - were injured and were brought to the hospital".

Voting under way across Afghanistan

Polls opened across Afghanistan in the country's fourth presidential election since the Taliban was removed from power in 2001 in a US-led invasion.

Voting stations are scheduled to close at 5pm (12:30 GMT). 

Read more here.

Security tops voters' concerns

In the lead-up to the vote, the precarious security situation and the struggling economy seemed to be dominating voters' concerns.

"In Afghanistan, from the moment you wake up to when you put your head down to sleep, you are in danger," Kabul resident Farooq Saidzada said.

Read more here.

All you need to know about the polls

Who are the candidates? What are the main issues? What is being done to ensure security?

Go here to find out the answers to these questions - and much more.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/afghanistan-presidential-election-latest-updates-190928051301257.html

2019-09-28 12:58:00Z
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