Newly released emails provide details in White House pause of Ukraine aid - NBC News

Newly released emails regarding Ukraine defense aid held by the White House show that a request to withhold funds came less than two hours after President Donald Trump's July phone call with the Ukrainian president that has served as the backbone of the impeachment proceedings against him.

The Center for Public Integrity obtained 146 pages of heavily redacted emails through a Freedom of Information Act request and court order.

The nonprofit released the emails late on Friday, revealing a discussion between the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Pentagon over the defense aid owed to Ukraine just hours after Trump spoke to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"Based on guidance I have received and in light of the Administration's plan to review assistance to Ukraine, including the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, please hold off on any additional [Department of Defense] obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process," Mike Duffey, a political appointee serving as associate director for national security programs at the OMB wrote on July 25 to OMB and Pentagon officials.

Government officials raised concern over the much-discussed phone conversation as it appeared that Trump improperly asked Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden — one of Trump's chief political rivals in the 2020 election.

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The administration put a hold on critical defense aid for Ukraine as early as the week of July 18, one week before the phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy, at the direction of acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, two administration officials and a senior Democratic aide briefed by the State Dept. told NBC News in September.

The funds were eventually released on Sept. 11.

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In a statement to NBC News early Sunday the OMB sought to play down the significance of the new emails.

“It’s reckless to tie the hold of funds to the phone call," said spokeswoman Rachel Semmel.

"As has been established and publicly reported, the hold was announced in an interagency meeting on July 18. To pull a line out of one email and fail to address the context is misleading and inaccurate.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC News.

Dec. 21, 201902:11

It appeared that those involved felt the hold could be problematic, considering Duffey wrote to officials in his office and at the Pentagon to keep it all close their chest.

"Given the sensitive nature of the request," Duffey wrote on the afternoon of Trump's call with Zelenskiy, "I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction."

The emails also provide insight into administration officials' feelings once the funds are finally released, though their reasoning for distributing the aid suddenly appears to be redacted.

Elaine McCuskker, the Pentagon's comptroller, said there was "increasing risk of execution" in continuing to hold the funds.

Three House committees announced that they would launch a wide-ranging investigation into the allegations against Trump two days prior to the release.

On Sept. 11, Duffey shared his feelings of relief to McCusker a few hours after alerting her that he would be releasing all of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds.

"Glad to have this behind us," he said.

Duffey is one of the officials at OMB who has steadfastly refused to comply with House subpoenas for deposition in the impeachment inquiry, along with his boss, Russ Vought, OMB’s Acting Director. However, another OMB official, Mark Sandy, did appear for a deposition after being subpoenaed.

The House voted to impeach Trump on Wednesday. He is only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

A trial in the Republican-controlled Senate to decide whether Trump will remain in office is expected to begin January, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that he has reached an “impasse” with Democratic leaders over moving forward with the rules governing the trial.

It is likely Trump will be acquitted, as it would require a two-thirds majority for a conviction.

Winston Wilde

Phil McCausland

Phil McCausland is an NBC News reporter focused on the rural-urban divide.

Hans Nichols contributed.

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2019-12-22 10:20:00Z
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Trump wanted Ukraine-aid details weeks before Zelensky call: documents - New York Post

President Trump prodded staffers for details about US military aid to Ukraine five weeks before his July 25 phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, a heavily redacted batch of internal administration documents reveal.

Emails sent between officials at the Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget show that the hold on the aid was placed just hours after the two leaders spoke.

Michael Duffey of the OMB told the Pentagon to freeze the payments “in light of the Administration’s plan to review assistance to Ukraine.”

Democrats said the documents, posted online by the Center for Public Integrity late Friday, proved Trump’s “direct involvement” in the Ukraine matter.

“Frankly it’s just the 77th piece of evidence confirming the same thing,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted Saturday.

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2019-12-22 01:11:00Z
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'Everything is Burning': Australian Inferno Continues, Choking Off Access to Cities Across Country and - Common Dreams

Australia is on fire. 

The country on Saturday saw delayed flights on the second day of a national state of emergency due to raging brushfires near every major city and choked out smoke conditions. 

Australian reporter Saffron Howden used a map from the Government of Western Australia to show how the blazes have ringed the entire continent.

"My god," Howden tweeted.

The fires in Australia's southwestern state of New South Wales (NSW) were at the "catastrophic" level on Saturday, according to the BBC. 

"These fires are likely to continue to spread well past Christmas," said NSW Rural Fire Services Inspector Ben Shepherd.

Photos shared on social media showed hazy skies around the country. 

"Everything is burning," said one Twitter user. 

As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Australia just endured a heat wave that broke records for temperature in consecutive days. 

"I think this is the single loudest alarm bell I've ever heard on global heating," said Kees van der Leun, a director at the American consultancy firm Navigant.

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Temperatures dropped on the back of a cooling wind on Saturday, but, as The Guardian reported, the wind brings with it other problems:

A southerly change swept through at 5pm, making the fire even more erratic and changing the fire direction. Around this time, NSW authorities began warning of a bushfire-generated thunderstorm that had formed over Currowan and Tianjara fires in the Shoalhaven area, on the NSW south coast.

The fire service said this would lead to increasingly dangerous fire conditions. Such storms, known as pyroCB, can produce embers hot enough to spark new fires 30km from the main fire.

While his country was on fire, right-wing climate-denying Prime Minister Scott Morrison was on vacation in Hawaii. Morrison returned to Australia on Saturday after two firefighters died fighting one of three huge blazes near Sydney. Morrison's absence during the crisis pprovoked outcry from constituents. 

One Twitter user posted a picture showing from above the blazes around Sydney as Morrison was arriving in the city, reportedly after circling for an hour due to runway closures. 

A map of the city showed only two routes out of Sydney due to the fires. 

"Today has been an awful day," NSW Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmon told reporters. 

Fitzsimmon added that the fires were largely out of any meaningful control barring nature taking a hand. 

"We will not get on top of these fires until we get some decent rain—we have said that for weeks and months," said Fitzsimmon.

According to Reuters, the Australian Bureau of Meterology has reported there will be no significant rainfall in the country for at least the next two months.

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2019-12-21 18:17:12Z
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U.S. Sanctions Halt Work on Russia’s Gas Pipeline to Europe - The Wall Street Journal

The $10.5 billion Nord Stream 2 will run parallel to the existing Nord Stream pipeline and double the capacity for gas shipped directly from Russia to Germany. Photo: Alexander Demianchuk/Zuma Press

By

Bojan Pancevski

Bojan Pancevski
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @bopanc
• bojan.pancevski@wsj.com

Updated Dec. 21, 2019 11:13 am ET

BERLIN—U.S. sanctions have temporarily stopped the construction of a pipeline that is set to increase the flow of natural gas directly from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The sanctions would target all businesses and individuals participating in the construction of the pipeline and would effectively cut off those companies from doing business in the U.S. or with U.S.-linked companies. Washington has long opposed the project on grounds that it would increase Germany’s and Europe’s dependence on Russian energy and boost revenues for the Kremlin.

Allseas Group SA, the Swiss-based contractor that is building the pipeline on behalf of a consortium headed by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, said it would suspend activities on Saturday, hours after President Trump signed a bill that included a provision to unleash sanctions targeting any entities working on the subsea link.

The $10.5 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs parallel to the existing Nord Stream pipeline and will double the capacity for direct Russian gas exports to Germany, has long caused tensions between Washington and Berlin.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in parliament last week that she would raise the sanctions with Mr. Trump as the pipeline was of strategic importance for Germany and Europe.

“The federal government rejects such extraterritorial sanctions that affect German and European companies and interfere in our internal affairs,” a spokeswoman for Ms. Merkel said in a statement issued in reaction to the stoppage of the work on the pipeline.

Senior aides to Ms. Merkel said that the chancellor and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had been in touch over the sanctions. Those people said that they expected Russia would finish the pipeline despite the setback caused by the sanctions.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Washington’s sanctions wouldn’t stymie Russia’s economic projects and Moscow would move ahead with the natural-gas pipeline regardless of the U.S.’s intended obstacles. In a statement, the Russian officials accused Washington of seeking to force its pricey liquefied gas on Europe and stall the development of Europe’s economy while undermining its ability to compete.

“As a result, Europeans will lose on all fronts,” the statement said. “Washington decided that it shouldn’t spare anyone, even its closest allies in NATO, for the sake of its geopolitical ambitions and commercial profit.”

Allseas, a global leader in offshore pipeline construction, said it would stop work on the project in compliance with U.S. legislation.

Its ships Solitaire and Pioneering Spirit, the largest construction vessel in the world, will remain in the area but are no longer laying the pipes, a spokesman for Allseas said. He added that as of Thursday, when work ceased, the project was about one month from being completed.

Jens D. Mueller, a spokesman for Nord Stream 2’s parent company, said that the pipeline would be finished despite Allseas pulling out its fleet.

“Completing the project is essential for European supply security. We together with the companies supporting the project will work on finishing the pipeline as soon as possible,” Mr. Mueller told the Journal.

The pipeline is expected to boost trade relations between Russia and Germany and help turn Germany into a hub for gas exports in Europe.

In preparation for the sanctions, Gazprom has retrofitted its own ships as well as ships belonging to Russian contractors that don’t do business outside Russia and would therefore be immune to American sanctions, according to one official of the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

One contractor already involved in the project is the Russian subsea-pipeline construction firm MRTS JSC, a company that operates ships which could be used to complete the pipeline, according to Gazprom.

Gazprom is the majority owner of the pipeline, which has financial backing from five European companies: Austria’s OMV, the Dutch-British Shell, France’s Engie, and Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall.

Should the sanctions be expanded to western companies in the Nord Stream 2 consortium, Gazprom would buy out their stakes in the project and insulate the project from sanctions, the Gazprom official said.

David Bryson, Uniper’s chief operating officer, said the company was in contact with the German government regarding the sanctions. “Nord Stream 2 is an important project for gas security in Europe. We have declining sources in Europe, but increasing demand,” Mr. Bryson told the Journal.

The U.S. sanctions were a flagrant violation of international law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, but that they wouldn’t prevent the completion of the pipeline.

“We expect that this project would be completed,” Mr. Peskov said.

Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com

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2019-12-21 16:13:00Z
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'Catastrophic' Wildfires Continue To Rage Across Australia - NPR

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Rural Fire Service officers protect property from the Green Wattle Creek Fire along the Old Hume Highway near the town of Tahmoor in New South Wales. Dean Lewins/AP hide caption

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Dean Lewins/AP

A large portion of Australia is on fire after weeks of extreme heat, strong winds and drought that have created ideal conditions for hundreds of bushfires to thrive across the country. Several fires have been burning since November, particularly in the eastern state of New South Wales.

The fires threaten many of Australia's largest population centers, including Sydney, a city of more than 5 million, which has been cloaked in smoke. Blazes have destroyed hundreds of homes and almost 3 million acres of bushland, threatening the habitat of countless wildlife, including already endangered koalas. One fire in the state of Victoria has reportedly become large enough to generate its own weather.

The fires come after years of drought in parts of the country and record-breaking heat. Earlier this week, Australia had its hottest day on record — only to break that record the following day. And fire season has just begun, leaving many bracing for worse.

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Thick smoke from wildfires shroud the Sydney Opera House earlier this month. Rick Rycroft/AP hide caption

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Thousands of firefighters, many of whom are volunteers, are currently deployed. Several have been injured, and two died earlier this week when a fallen tree limb overturned their vehicle. Their deaths prompted Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to return early from a family vacation to Hawaii — a vacation that was largely criticized as tone-deaf by much of the public.

"I deeply regret any offence caused to any of the many Australians affected by the terrible bushfires by my taking leave with family at this time," Morrison said in a statement released Friday. Morrison was scrutinized for his unwillingness to link Australia's greenhouse gas emissions to extreme fire conditions last month.

The prime minister's return coincides with a new state of emergency issued for New South Wales, the country's most populous state, as "catastrophic" fire conditions were listed for the region, the highest fire danger rating possible in the country. Andrea Peace, a meteorologist for Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, said that Saturday could be the worst day for the area, as a front moves in from the south.

"What it's going to do is bring quite a strong, gusty southerly wind ... (which) creates a really dangerous period for the fire grounds because it rapidly changes the directions of the fires there," Peace said.

She said there could be gusts of up to 100 kilometers per hour, or about 62 miles per hour.

The strong southerly winds are likely to have a significant impact on a number of #NSW fire grounds over nxt few hours, especially north & nth-west of #Sydney. Multiple #fires at #Emergency levels tonight & properties have been lost today. Keep monitoring https://t.co/o2h2Cyg7YZ pic.twitter.com/MFiLdip9lT

— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) December 21, 2019

Julia Holman, a reporter for Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, told NPR's David Greene earlier this week that the fires are already overwhelming the area.

"New South Wales is an enormous state. It's bigger than the size of Texas. And the fires literally go from the top of the state right down to the bottom," Holman said.

She said fires are very common in Australia, but not like this.

"The problem is that it's so dry that we cannot put out these fires. And that's what's different this time around," she said.

"These fires are also in very dense bushland. They cannot be put out by human effort," Holman continued. "We're waiting for rain. But we're in the midst of the worst drought on record here in New South Wales. So there is no possible way that these fires can be put out no matter the enormous human effort that is going into it."

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2019-12-21 16:42:00Z
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UK: MPs approve first stage of PM Johnson's Brexit legislation - Al Jazeera English

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2019-12-21 04:35:40Z
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Hundreds arrested in India during days of protests over citizenship law - Reuters

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his council of ministers on Saturday to discuss security measures to end violent protests against a citizenship law, government sources said, in one of biggest crises yet for his Hindu nationalist government.

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators shout slogans behind a police barricade during a protest against a new citizenship law in Jafrabad, an area of Delhi, India December 20, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

At least 14 people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters since parliament passed the law on Dec. 11, with critics saying it discriminates against Muslims and undermines India’s secular constitution.

The backlash is the strongest show of dissent against Modi’s government since he was first elected in 2014.

Demonstrations continued on Saturday despite curfews and a draconian regulation to shut down protests.

India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has seen the worst violence with nine people killed so far and several more in critical conditions in hospital.

Rights activists in Uttar Pradesh said police had raided their houses and offices to prevent them from planning fresh demonstrations. Authorities also shut schools across the state as fresh protests erupted on Saturday.

Uttar Pradesh is ruled by Modi’s nationalist party and has long seen clashes between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.

In the capital city of Delhi, family members waited outside a police station seeking the release of dozens of detained protesters.

More demonstrations are planned in several parts of the country, including in the northeastern state of Assam, where residents are angry that the law makes it easier for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who settled in India prior to 2015 to obtain Indian citizenship.

Resentment against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh has simmered for years in Assam, one of India’s poorest states, where outsiders, Hindus or Muslims, are accused of stealing jobs and land.

“Thousands of women are participating in the protest across Assam. The movement against the act is gaining momentum by the day,” Sammujal Bhattacharya, a leader of the All Assam Students’ Union told Reuters.

In other parts of India, anger with the law stems from it being seen as discriminating against Muslims, and as it makes religion a criteria for citizenship in a country that has taken pride in its secular constitution.

“This piece of legislation strikes at the heart of the Constitution, seeking to make India another country altogether,” prominent historian Ramachandra Guha wrote in an Indian newspaper, The Telegraph.

“It is thus that so many people from so many different walks of life have raised their voices against it.”

FILE PHOTO: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks to the media inside the parliament premises on the first day of the winter session in New Delhi, India, November 18, 2019. REUTERS/Altaf Hussain

Guha was released from police custody after being detained for protesting against the law in the southern city of Bengaluru.

Political opposition against the law has swelled with state leaders from regional parties vowing to prevent its implementation in their states.

The government has said there is no chance the law will be repealed.

Reporting by Nigam Prusty and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Additional reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow, Zarir Husain in Guwahati; Writing by Rupam Jain; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-12-21 05:18:00Z
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