As Trump Heads to E. Asia, Tillerson Takes More Forceful Tone Towards Beijing

STATE DEPARTMENT — 

After what U.S. officials said was several months of deliberation among President Donald Trump’s national security team, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently took a rather strident tone towards China in a major speech that came just weeks before Trump’s first state visit to China.

“The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries and disadvantages the U.S. and our friends,” said Tillerson in a major policy speech on Oct. 18 at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS.)

The remarks, which also hit China’s continuing reclamation in the South China Sea, are seen as a reflection of U.S. impatience that Beijing is not ceasing its aggressive actions in the South China Sea, a crucial trade route for the world’s largest economies.

“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms” that the United States stands for, added Tillerson.

The top U.S. diplomat’s forceful remarks came as Trump is getting ready to embark on his first travel to Vietnam and the Philippines, two claimants of disputed areas of the South China Sea, attending summit meetings where leaders from Southeast Asia gather.

On Monday, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai pushed back, saying Washington should not try to interfere in regional efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea.

In a press briefing, Cui said maybe it would be better for the U.S. to let the regional countries to “find a way of managing the situation.”

South China Sea

For years, the United States has been calling for an expeditious conclusion of an effective and binding Code of Conduct between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the South China Sea.

China has angered four Southeast Asian states by expanding its coast guard and military presence in the South China Sea, a 3.5-million-square-kilometer tract of water rich in fisheries and fuel reserves. Claims by Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines overlap that of China, which calls nearly the whole sea its own.

While the United States is not a claimant to the sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea, Washington said it is vital to its national interests that various claimants pursue their claims peacefully.

With international attention focused on North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats, tensions in the South China Sea have slipped from the headline in recent months.

Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, told VOA Tuesday “sadly, the South China Sea will get very little bandwidth during Trump's trip to Asia — one clear way of how China benefits form North Korea’s recent missile and nuclear advances.”

Positions to fill before trip

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is preparing to fill positions that focus on Asia policy, as the U.S. president departs for East Asia.

The Senate recently confirmed the appointment of Daniel Krintenbrink, a career diplomat, as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.

Another highly-anticipated nomination is Randall Schriver, a well-respected China hawk, who was tapped last week for the top Asia policy job at the Pentagon. Trump announced his intent to nominate Schriver as assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs.

Schriver has advocated for a strong U.S.-Japan alliance and high-level engagement with Taiwan, which he said “serves the U.S. national interests and values.” Schriver also has argued the political and security environment in East and Southeast Asia has changed a great deal since 1979, the year that Washington broke diplomatic ties with Taipei and recognized Beijing.

“Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy and willing security partner to the United States. China’s assertiveness threatens peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea,” said Schriver.

China claims democratically ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has never renounced the use of military force to bring the island under Beijing’s control.

In a letter to Trump on Oct. 26, co-chairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus voiced the importance of a value-based strategic partnership with Taiwan.

“Taiwan is one of our closest allies in the region, and congressional support of Taiwan remains strong and bipartisan. Our two peoples share many of the same values, and a commitment to democracy and the rule of law,” said Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who serves in the House Committee on Appropriations along with fellow Republican Gregg Harper and Democrats Albio Sires and Gerry Connolly.

Krintenbrink named U.S. ambassador to Vietnam

Former White House National Security Council Senior Director for Asia Affairs Daniel Krintenbrink was confirmed last Thursday as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.

Krintenbrink told Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a nomination hearing that one of the U.S. policy priorities is to strengthen maritime security cooperation with Vietnam and to “resist coercion” in the disputed South China Sea.

Wilder, who worked at the White House National Security Council for former President George W. Bush, said it was important to have Krintenbrink confirmed before Trump’s visit there.

“The president's trip to East Asia, the longest trip to East Asia by any U.S. president that I remember, will go a long way to addressing the incorrect notion some have had that the United States is withdrawing from the region,” said Wilder, adding “the new commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific Region shows just how committed the U.S. is to this whole area of the globe.”

Mapping the U.S. strategy from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, a senior State Department official recently laid out Washington’s vision to deepen security cooperation with three other democratic allies: Japan, Australia, and India.

China, a non-democratic society, was not in U.S.’ strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region.

In response, Chinese Ambassador Cui said on Monday, “I don't think any attempts to form exclusive clubs in the region” would help anybody.

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California Governor Heads to Europe for Climate Talks

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — 

California Governor Jerry Brown is continuing his international fight against climate change with an 11-day trip to Europe starting Saturday that includes stops at the Vatican and a U.N. conference in Germany.

Brown is a chief adversary to Republican President Donald Trump in the battle over U.S. climate policy, promising to help the country reach its emissions reductions targets even as Trump withdraws from an international climate accord. He's been named the special adviser for states and regions at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.

"While the White House declares war on climate science and retreats from the Paris Agreement, California is doing the opposite and taking action," Brown said in a statement announcing the trip. "We are joining with our partners from every part of the world to do what needs to be done to prevent irreversible climate change."

The nonprofit California State Protocol Foundation, which accepts donations from private businesses, pays for Brown's international travel. Travel for Brown's staff members will be partially covered by money from the nonprofit Climate Registry and the Climate Action Reserve, a program that deals with carbon offset projects, spokesman Evan Westrup said.

Summit next year

Brown's November trip follows visits to China and Russia earlier this year to promote international collaboration on climate change. Next year, he plans to host a summit in San Francisco.

He will give a speech Saturday to the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences symposium. During the week, Brown will address European Parliament leaders and the state parliament in Baden-Wurttemberg Germany, meet with representatives from national scientific academies and serve on several panels at the U.N. conference.

Governors Kate Brown of Oregon, Jay Inslee of Washington and Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, all Democrats, will join him on a panel about states' roles in fighting climate change. California Senate leader Kevin de Leon, also a Democrat, is scheduled to speak Friday at a Vatican workshop on climate.

The trip ends November 14.

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US Trade Panel Recommends Varying Solar Panel Import Restrictions

Members of the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday made three different recommendations for restricting solar cell and panel imports on Tuesday, giving President Donald Trump a range of choices to address injury to domestic producers.

The recommendations range from an immediate 35 percent tariff on all imported panels to a four-year quota system that allows the import of up to 8.9 gigawatts of solar cells and modules in the first year. The president's ultimate decision could have a major impact on the price of U.S. power generated by the sun.

Both supporters and critics of import curbs on solar products were disappointed by the proposals, which were unveiled at a public meeting in Washington.

Trade remedies were requested in a petition earlier this year by two small U.S. manufacturers that said they were unable to compete with cheap panels made overseas, mainly in Asia. The companies, Suniva Inc and the U.S. arm of Germany's SolarWorld AG, said Tuesday's recommendations did not go far enough to protect domestic producers.

"The ITC's remedy simply will not fix the problem the ITC itself identified," Suniva said in a statement. The company, which is majority owned by Hong Kong-based Shunfeng International Clean Energy, filed the rare Section 201 petition nine days after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. It had sought a minimum price on panels of 74 cents a watt, nearly double their current cost.

One analyst said the stiffest remedy recommended, a 35 percent tariff on solar panels, would add about 10 percent to the cost of a utility-scale project but would have a negligible impact on the price of residential systems because panels themselves make up a small portion of their overall cost.

"It's not nearly the doomsday impact we were potentially expecting," said Camron Barati, a solar analyst with market research firm IHS Markit Technology.

But the top U.S. solar trade group, the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement on Tuesday that any tariffs would be "intensely harmful" to the industry. The group has lobbied heavily against import restrictions on the grounds that they would undermine a 70 percent drop in the cost of solar since 2010 that has made the technology competitive with fossil fuels.

Recommendations

The ITC will deliver its report to Trump by Nov. 13. He will have broad leeway to come up with his own alternative or do nothing at all. Since only two members agreed on the same restrictions, there was no majority recommendation from the four-member commission.

"There is still plenty to be worried about," said MJ Shiao, who follows the U.S. solar market for GTM Research.

Trump has vowed to protect U.S. manufacturers from low-priced imports, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has talked about tariff-rate quotas as a flexible way to protect some industries, allowing imports in as needed, but only up to a certain level before high tariffs kick in.

Commissioners David Johanson and Irving Williamson urged the president to impose an immediate 30 percent tariff on completed solar modules, to be lowered in subsequent years, and a tariff-rate quota on solar cells. Imports of cells in excess of one gigawatt would be subject to a 30 percent tariff that would decline after the first year.

ITC Chair Rhonda Schmidtlein recommended an immediate 35 percent four-year tariff on imported solar modules, with a four-year tariff rate quota on solar cells. This would impose a 30 percent tariff on imports exceeding 0.5 gigawatts and 10 percent on imports below that level. These tariffs would decline over a four-year period.

In the most lenient recommendation, Commissioner Meredith Broadbent said the president should impose a four-year quota system that allows for imports of up to 8.9 gigawatts of solar cells and modules in the first year.

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Pruitt to Put New Members on EPA Science Panels

WASHINGTON — 

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that he would replace the outside experts who advise him on science and public health issues with new board members holding more diverse views.

In announcing the changes, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt suggested that many of those previously appointed to the panels were potentially biased because they had received federal research grants. The 22 boards advise EPA on a wide range of issues, including drinking water standards and pesticide safety.

"Whatever science comes out of EPA shouldn't be political science," said Pruitt, a Republican lawyer who previously served as the attorney general of Oklahoma. "From this day forward, EPA advisory committee members will be financially independent from the agency."

Pruitt has expressed skepticism about the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are the primary cause of global warming. He also overruled experts who had recommended pulling a top-selling pesticide from the market after peer-reviewed studies showed it damaged children's brains.

Pruitt said he would name new leadership and members to three key EPA advisory boards soon: the Science Advisory Board, Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Board of Scientific Counselors.

As part of his directive, Pruitt said he would bar appointees who were currently in receipt of EPA grants or who were in a position to benefit from such grants. He exempted people who work at state, local or tribal agencies, saying he wanted to introduce more "geographic diversity" to the panels.

Corporate funds

The five-page policy Pruitt issued Tuesday didn't mention other potential conflicts of interest, such as accepting research funding from corporate interests regulated by EPA.

Tuesday's announcement came after Pruitt in May said he would not reappoint nine of the 18 members of the Board of Scientific Counselors to serve a second three-year term, as had been customary.

Current board Chairwoman Deborah Swackhamer said the members were already required to follow rules intended to prevent conflicts of interests.

"It obviously stacks the deck against scientists who do not represent corporate special interests," said Swackhamer, a retired professor who taught environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota. "It speaks volumes that people funded by special interests are OK to be advisers, but not those who have received federal grants."

Environmentalists that Pruitt would now select board members with financial ties to the fossil fuel and chemical industries.

The EPA's "continued attack on science will likely be one of the most lasting and damaging legacies" of President Donald Trump's administration, said Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that approves EPA's funding. "Pruitt is purging expert scientists from his science boards — and replacing them with mouthpieces for big polluters."

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Trump Predicts Passage of Tax Plan by Christmas

WASHINGTON — 

One day before the big reveal, President Donald Trump intensified his lobbying Tuesday for a tax overhaul plan whose shape was still under negotiation by congressional Republicans. The president predicted a grand signing ceremony before Christmas at “the biggest tax event in the history of our country.”

“The process is complicated but the end result will not be that complicated. It’s going to be: People are going to pay less tax by a lot, companies are going to pay less tax by a lot — that’s a big difference — and companies are going to start rebuilding and they're going to stay here,” Trump said in the Roosevelt Room, where he was joined by the heads of more than a dozen business and trade allies.

Officials staying behind

Trump said he’s directing Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn and other administration officials to stay behind when he heads for Asia on Friday so they can help sell the tax proposal. The White House said Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, had canceled plans to accompany the president to China and South Korea to help push the package.

Trump and congressional Republicans are seeking the first major tax overhaul in three decades, eager for a significant legislative achievement after being stymied in their attempts to repeal the Obama-era health care law. Enacting a tax package is seen as critical to helping Republicans maintain their majorities in the 2018 elections.

The president said he was hopeful the House will approve the tax bill by Thanksgiving and that he can sign it into law by Christmas. But his overly optimistic timetable didn't address the concerns of lawmakers from states such as New York and New Jersey who have opposed a proposal to eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes, arguing it would hurt their constituents and subject them to being taxed twice.

One day before the plan was to be unveiled, legislators still were engaged in high-stakes negotiations over what deductions will stay and what will go.

'Stay tuned'

The head of the House tax-writing committee, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, hinted at the ongoing fluidity, telling reporters, “There's going to be a lot of speculation on different issues and different areas. Stay tuned; you’ll know the details very soon.”

Even after the proposed legislation is put forward, Brady said, “We will continue in listening mode.”

Brady has said that taxpayers will be able to continue to deduct local property taxes on their federal returns but the deduction for state income taxes would be repealed. The change means there would be three itemized deductions retained: for home mortgage interest, charitable donations and local property taxes.

The National Association of Home Builders, meanwhile, has withdrawn its support for the plan because it does not believe it contains enough tax benefits for home owners.

Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told Trump that the business groups would continue to “work on it. We're going to have some differences amongst the business community on what should be the takeaways and the adds.”

“I think your planning is really quite good: You're off to Asia and everybody else gets it worked out,” Donohue said to laughter.

Double standard deduction?

GOP tax writers are considering phasing in the planned cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent currently to 20 percent by 2022. The White House rebuffed that suggestion on Monday, and Trump reiterated his opposition on Tuesday. And a battle continues over contributions to 401(k) retirements accounts. The financial industry and some Republican lawmakers insist that the GOP plan not change the tax benefits of the popular savings vehicles, as has been floated by GOP leaders.

The current Republican plan calls for nearly doubling the standard deduction used by most average Americans to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families, and increasing the per-child tax credit. In addition to slashing the corporate tax rate, it also seeks to repeal inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, a big break for the wealthy.

The number of tax brackets would shrink from seven to three or four, with respective tax rates of 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and one to be determined.

Ivanka Trump to return after event in Japan

Democrats, excluded from the closed-door work on the plan, continued to attack it. The Republicans “made a big deal about how they were going to double the standard deduction — that's $12 grand for a middle-class family,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview. “But if you have four people in the family, or say five people in the family, and you get your 12 grand but you lose the personal and dependent-care exemptions — and then on top of it, you lose your state and local (tax deduction), that middle-class family is going to go in the hole.”

The White House said Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, would hold tax events around the country during her father’s trip to Asia.

The first daughter is going to Japan for a speech Friday, but she has canceled plans to continue on to China and South Korea and will return to the U.S. over the weekend.

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Trump Administration to Defend Cuba Embargo at UN, Reversing Obama

The Trump administration will defend America's decades-old economic embargo on Cuba in a United Nations vote this week, the State Department said Tuesday, in a reversal from the Obama administration that reflects deteriorating U.S.-Cuban relations.

Every year the U.N. votes to condemn the embargo, and for years the U.S. predictably voted "no." But last year, under President Barack Obama, the U.S. abstained for the first time, as Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved forward with the historic warming of relations.

A "no" vote Wednesday from U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley will return the United States to a place of extreme isolation within the global community over its policy toward Cuba, potentially undermining the Trump administration's broader goals for engagement with Latin America. The U.S. embargo on Cuba is almost universally opposed throughout the world.

The vote comes as an ongoing crisis over U.S. government workers in Havana harmed by invisible "health attacks" has created a new rift between the U.S. and Cuba, putting the restoration of ties in jeopardy. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did not mention the attacks in announcing the "no" vote, instead emphasizing the need to promote rights and democracy in Cuba.

"For far too long, Cuba has engaged in human rights abuses — human rights abuses that perhaps past administrations have turned and looked the other way," Nauert said. Still, she said the U.S. would continue pursuing engagement with the island that advances American interests.

Proponents of improved ties with Cuba had urged the Trump administration to abstain instead of voting "no." In a letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, 10 Democratic senators said U.S. international credibility would suffer if it continued pushing an "outdated" policy seen as harmful to the Cuban people.

"Reflexive and baseless, and a regrettable mistake," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a prominent voice on U.S.-Cuba relations, after the planned "no" vote was announced.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding and unenforceable. But the annual exercise has given Cuba a global stage to demonstrate how little support America's commercial, economic and financial embargo enjoys.

Unpopular stance

The yearly vote condemning the U.S. embargo has reliably passed overwhelmingly. Voting "no" means the U.S. will once again be pitted against almost every other nation.

In 2015, the last year that the U.S. voted "no," close ally Israel was the only country to join in opposition, leading to a 191-2 vote to condemn the embargo — the highest number of votes ever for the measure. The United States lost its only other ally in the vote, Palau, in 2013, when the Pacific island nation abstained rather than joining the U.S. in voting "no."

Since taking office, Trump has taken steps to partially roll back the rapprochement with Cuba, but has preserved many other changes put in place by Obama. Yet Cuba has complained bitterly about the U.S. response to the health attacks, which has included pulling most American diplomats out of Havana and suspending visa processing for Cubans at the embassy there.

"To Cuba, it is unacceptable and immoral that the U.S. government has decided to take political decisions that harm the Cuban people," he said.

Havana attacks

At least 24 U.S. government workers and their spouses are "medically confirmed" to have been affected by the unexplained attacks in Havana, the State Department has said. The victims suffered a range of medical conditions including permanent hearing loss and mild traumatic brain injury, known as concussion.

Cuba vehemently denies any knowledge of involvement. The U.S. has not blamed Cuba for perpetrating the attacks and says it doesn't know who is responsible, but has nonetheless faulted Castro's government for failing to keep American diplomats safe in his country.

The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned U.S. "no" vote.

In late 2014, Obama and Castro announced plans to restore relations, and the following year embassies were re-opened in Washington and Havana more than half a century after ties were cut in 1961.

Although the Obama administration eased travel and commerce restrictions on Cuba, allowing direct commercial flights between the countries to resume, Obama was unable to persuade Congress to repeal the formal embargo. The Republican-led Congress has continued to support the far-reaching sanctions.

The Obama administration's decision last year to abstain rather than vote "no" was cheered in the 193-member General Assembly. Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. at the time, said the United States remained opposed to some of the Cuban government's practices and policies but was pursuing a new approach to engagement with the island.

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Social Media Firms' Lawyers Downplay Magnitude of Russian Efforts to Tilt US Election

Attorneys for Twitter, Facebook and Google downplayed the magnitude of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election in congressional hearings on Tuesday.

Sean Edgett, Twitter's general counsel, said the company studied all tweets posted from September 1 to November 15, 2016, and found that election-related content posted by automated Russian troll accounts "was comparatively small." He said the Russian troll accounts made up "around 1/100th of a percent of total Twitter accounts" during the time studied, and were responsible for "one-third of 1 percent of election-related tweets" during that time period.

"Twitter believes that any activity of that kind regardless of magnitude is unacceptable and we agree we must do better to prevent it," he said. Twitter has taken action against the suspected Russian trolls, suspending 2,752 accounts and implementing new dedicated teams "to enhance the quality of the information our users see," Edgett said.

Facebook lawyer Colin Stretch spoke similarly about the $100,000 worth of divisive ads posted on the social media website by a group with alleged ties to the Russian government.

"In aggregate, these ads and posts were a very small fraction of the overall content on Facebook, but any amount is too much," he said.

Audience of 126 million

Facebook said Monday that its investigation of the matter had found Russian-backed operatives published about 80,000 posts on the social network that reached 126 million Americans over a two-year period. In response to the internal investigation, Stretch said, Facebook will hire more ad removers, put in place tighter ad restrictions and require more info from political ad buyers.

"We know bad actors aren't going to stop their efforts," he said. "We know we'll all have to keep learning and improving to stay ahead of them."

Facebook has turned the alleged Russian ads over to Congress, and earlier this month, the company's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, said she "absolutely" supported the public release of the advertisements.

In releasing the ads to Congress, Sandberg said, "it's important that [the investigators] get the whole picture and explain that to the American people."

Misuse 'can be serious'

During his testimony Tuesday, Richard Salgado, Google's director of law enforcement and information security, called Russian use of its platforms "relatively small," but said "any misuse of our platforms for this purpose can be very serious."

In a Monday post on its blog, Google said it found "limited activity" on its platforms coming from potential Russian actors, but vowed to launch "several new initiatives to provide more transparency and enhance security."

According to Google, the extent of potential Russian misuse of its platforms during the 2016 election cycle consisted of about 1,000 videos posted on 18 YouTube channels "likely associated" with Russian actors and a total of $4,700 spent on Google ads.

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Countries in Manafort Indictment Known to Laundering Experts

NEW YORK — 

The three countries named in the indictment of former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort span three separate continents but all have something in common: They're island nations with a legacy of relatively lax oversight of offshore entities and a known history of being a conduit for suspicious money.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates of using shell corporations located in the three countries — Cyprus, the Seychelles, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — as a way to hide assets and keep from paying taxes.

"They don't ask questions about what their banks know about their customers, which is a basic requirement to stop money laundering," said Ted Truman, a fellow at the Peterson Institution for International Economics and an expert on money laundering.

The Mediterranean island country of Cyprus plays an outsized role in Manafort's indictment. The country is listed as the domicile for a dozen of Manafort's shell corporations and the alleged source of millions of dollars in wire transfers in and out of the country.

Cyprus has been a focus for anti-money laundering officials going back to the 1990s, but is probably best known for its alleged ties to money flowing in and out of Russia. The country had been accused in the past of providing lax oversight to potential money laundering, as well as providing ways for Russian and Ukrainian officials to hide assets abroad.

"Russia has become the primary source for investors in Cyprus, usually through banks or companies set up as trusts. Most of the money that goes into Cyprus is then invested back in Russia," said James S. Henry, an economist and former journalist with the Tax Justice Network, which studies offshore tax havens.

Cyprus and Russia have a favorable tax treaty, which has resulted in Cyprus having a cottage industry of bankers and lawyers on the island who primarily exist to set up shell corporations and trusts to help money move in and out of Russia, Henry and other experts said.

Its role has drawn scrutiny from other members of the European Union as well, particularly after Cyprus joined the bloc in 2004. When Cyprus suffered its own financial crisis in 2012 and 2013 and requested a bailout, German intelligence reportedly estimated that Russians had roughly $26 billion in deposits in Cypriot banks. EU authorities, worried that any bailout package would ultimately be going to help out Russian multimillionaires, insisted on tough anti-money laundering laws and regulations as part of any rescue deal. Cyprus banking officials have in recent years started taking tough action and asking uncomfortable questions to suspicious clients, desperate to rebuild confidence in the banking system."

"Since its entry into the European Union in 2004 and especially after the 2013 banking collapse, Cyprus has done much to clean up its act," said Sofronis Clerides, professor and chair of the economics department at the University of Cyprus. "Unfortunately, it takes a long time for the stigma to wash off."

Federal prosecutors became interested in Manafort's activities in Cyprus years ago as part of a broad investigation to recover stolen Ukrainian assets after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych there in early 2014. No U.S. criminal charges were filed in that case.

It's worth noting that setting up foreign companies and bank accounts is not illegal, however using them to evade taxes or hide proceeds from ill-gotten gains is. Manafort and his business partner pleaded not guilty in district court Monday.

The Seychelles

The other two countries in the Manafort indictment play decidedly smaller roles in both Manafort's alleged operations and international money laundering overall.

Located at least a thousand miles from any major continent in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is primarily used by French and African investors as a place to discreetly park money. The country was repeatedly named as a domicile for offshore tax havens in last year's Panama Papers investigation.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

While not historically an offshore tax haven like the Bahamas or the British Virgin Islands, the Caribbean island nation Saint Vincent and the Grenadines recently has been considered an at-risk place for money laundering. In the indictment, Manafort allegedly had at least two offshore corporations based in the Grenadines.

The Financial Action Task Force, an international watchdog organization for money laundering, placed Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on its so-called "black list" back in 2000 for its lack of money laundering controls, but it was taken off that list a few years later. The Tax Justice League listed Saint Vincent as one of the more secretive places to park money.

Delaware

There's a fourth country worth noting that gets listed repeatedly in the Manafort indictment: the United States, particularly the state of Delaware. Investors and companies have long used Delaware as a place to set up shell corporations to take advantage of Delaware's loose corporate regulations. Manafort himself allegedly had at least nine corporate entities set up in Delaware.

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FEMA Chief: Agency Didn't Approve Whitefish Contract

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had nothing to do with approving a pricey no-bid contract to restore the power grid in Puerto Rico, the head of the agency told Congress on Tuesday.

FEMA Administrator Brock Long told the Senate homeland security committee there was "a lot wrong" with the controversial $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy Holdings, a tiny Montana company from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown.

Long testified that FEMA officials only learned about the deal after it had already been signed by the board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority last month, just days before Hurricane Maria slammed into the territory. The head of the troubled utility, Ricardo Ramos, said Sunday he would seek to cancel the contract, amid scrutiny from multiple federal and congressional investigations.

"There's no lawyer inside FEMA would have ever agreed to the language in that contract," Long said.

He said no federal dollars had yet been provided to pay for the repairs. Long said his agency has serious concerns that some of the prices listed in the document are competitive.

A price list attached to the Whitefish contract reviewed by The Associated Press sets rates for workers and equipment to be paid by the utility: $20,277 an hour for a heavy lift Chinook helicopter, $319 an hour for a journeyman lineman and $286 an hour for a mechanic. Each worker also gets a daily allowance of $80 for food and $332 for a hotel room.

Whitefish Energy Holdings is headquartered in Whitefish, Montana, which has a population of about 7,200. Zinke, a former Montana congressman, knows Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski but has denied playing any role in helping the company land the big deal.

Whitefish has also denied any wrongdoing.

$200 million a day

Long said his agency is now spending about $200 million a day on the ongoing emergency response to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as well as a recent spate of devastating wildfires.

About 25 million Americans had been affected by natural disasters in the last 50 days, he said, with more than 4 million now registered for emergency aid. Long told the senators more money may eventually be needed than the $52 billion in emergency relief allocated so far.

Pressed by members of the committee on how FEMA would ensure that electricity service on Puerto Rico is restored as quickly as possible, Long said he would need additional legal authority from Congress to spend federal funds to rebuild the island's power grid better than it was.

About 67 percent of the residents on the island are still without power, while nearly 1 in 5 Puerto Ricans still don't have reliable access to drinking water.

Maj. Gen. Donald Jackson, who oversees work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Puerto Rico, told the senators the current goal is to have electricity restored to at least half the island by the end of November.

About 450 soldiers are assigned to the effort, he said, with about 400 government generators now providing power to such critical facilities as hospitals and water treatment plants.

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White House Backs Chief of Staff Kelly on Confederate Monuments

WASHINGTON — 

The White House is backing chief of staff John Kelly's defense of Confederate monuments and his assertion that the Civil War was caused by a failure to compromise.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Tuesday that Kelly's calling Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee “an honorable man” was an attempt to point out that “history isn’t perfect.”

Sanders cited historian Shelby Foote to back up Kelly’s claim that the “lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War.”

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., criticized Kelly, saying he “needs a history lesson” for minimizing the role of slavery in bringing about the Civil War.

Kelly also said in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that aired Monday night that the removal of monuments to the Confederacy shows “a lack of appreciation of history.” The retired Marine Corps general was responding to a question about a Virginia church’s decision to remove historical markers for Lee and George Washington.

Kelly said that applying current thinking on social issues to figures in history is “very, very dangerous.” He said the Civil War was sparked by “the lack of the ability to compromise.”

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White House: Trump Has 'Warm Rapport' with Philippines' Duterte

WASHINGTON — 

The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has developed a “warm rapport” with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte even though the Manila leader has verbally attacked the United States in profane terms.

A senior Trump administration official, talking about details of Trump's five-nation Asia visit that starts Friday and includes a stop in Manila, said Trump and Duterte have become friendly during telephone conversations and exchanges of letters.

“I think there’s a warm rapport there and he’s very much looking forward to his first in-person meeting with President Duterte,” the official said. Their meeting is scheduled on the last stop of Trump’s 12-day trip that includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Anti-drug campaign praised

Duterte has alleged that the U.S., despite its long-standing alliance with the Philippines, has treated it “like a dog,” and a year ago, before Trump assumed power, announced a “separation” from the U.S. The Philippine leader was angered that the administration of former President Barack Obama voiced objections to the country’s extrajudicial killings of people involved in drug transactions.

But Trump, in a May call to Duterte, praised his anti-drug campaign, saying Duterte was doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

The White House official said, “The amount of cooperation that’s taking place below the leader level, made possible by our long-standing relationship and alliance with the Philippines, is still very robust. And that expands to areas like counter-terror, all of the close people-to-people ties between the countries, and human rights as well. The president will have frank and friendly discussions in his first meeting with Mr. Duterte.”

Elsewhere on his trip, Trump is planning to advance efforts to force North Korea to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and pushing countries in the region to adhere to United Nations sanctions to limit trade with Pyongyang that it needs to fund its missile and nuclear tests.

No DMZ visit

But the White House official said Trump, unlike some other U.S. presidents, “is not going to visit the DMZ,” the heavily armed buffer zone between North and South Korea.

He said, “There's not enough time in his schedule. It would have had to be DMZ or Camp Humphreys,” a military base south of Seoul, the South Korean capital, to highlight the military cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea.

“No president has visited Camp Humphreys, and we thought that that made more sense in terms of its messaging, in terms of a chance to address families and troops there,” the official said.

“It’s becoming a little bit of a cliche, frankly” to visit the DMZ, the official said, noting that Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all visited the buffer zone this year.

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AP Fact Check: Trump Marginalizes Adviser Snagged in Probe

WASHINGTON — 

President Donald Trump is working to discredit and marginalize an adviser to his 2016 campaign who took steps to get “dirt” on Hillary Clinton from a Russian source close to the Kremlin. Trump branded George Papadopoulos “low level” and a “liar” Tuesday, a turnaround from describing him as an “excellent guy” when he joined his campaign team.

It's become harder for Trump to speak dismissively of the Russia investigation now that his former campaign chief is under house arrest and Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying about his Russian interactions. But he's trying.

A look at statements by Trump and spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders after the special counsel's investigation unsealed criminal charges against Paul Manafort and his business associate and revealed Papadopoulos' plea:

Trump tweet Tuesday: “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.”

The Facts: Papadopoulos, though not senior, was not obscure. Trump named Papadopoulos to his foreign policy advisory council in March 2016, where he joined a short list of experts helping the candidate with international affairs.

“He's an oil and energy consultant,” Trump told The Washington Post at the time. “Excellent guy.” Trump tweeted a photo of his March 31 advisory council meeting, with Papadopoulos among several advisers at the president's table. Jeff Sessions, then a senator and now attorney general, was helping Trump's campaign and attended at least two meetings of the advisory council with Papadopoulos also there.

Papadopoulos was based in London at the time but did not operate in a bubble.

In April 2016, he met a Russian professor close to the Russian government for breakfast in London and was told Moscow had “dirt” helpful to Trump, namely Clinton emails. Investigators said Papadopoulos emailed a Trump campaign policy adviser the next day, saying “Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.”

Court filings say the adviser met later with an unidentified Russian woman who claimed to be related to Russian President Vladimir Putin and a third person who claimed connections with the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry. The two men then exchanged emails about a possible meeting between Trump campaign aides and Russian government officials.

Altogether, this episode has provided evidence in the first criminal case connecting Trump's team to alleged intermediaries for Russia's government. Papadopoulos is cooperating with investigators.

His lie? He told the FBI his Russian interactions came before he joined Trump's team. These steps came after he joined.

Trump tweet Monday: “Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign.”

The Facts: Not true, according to the indictment.

Manafort and his associate Rick Gates are charged with criminal activities that go back to 2006 but extend to February of this year. The charges do not refer to Manafort's activities with the campaign but rather accuse him of laundering money and conspiratorial acts before, during and after he was campaign chairman.

Manafort and Gates face 12 counts, which do deal largely with activities from 2006 to 2015, before Manafort joined the campaign in March 2016.

But both are charged with conspiring together and with others to knowingly and intentionally defraud and commit crimes against the U.S. from 2006 to this year.

And both are charged with conspiring together to make false statements and conceal crimes against the U.S., and to causing others to do so, from November 2016 to February 2017.

The indictment alleges that Manafort and Gates acted as unregistered agents of Ukraine's former pro-Russia leader, government and party from 2006 to 2015. The indictment says that “from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, MANAFORT and GATES laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts.”

Manafort was hired in late March 2016 as the campaign's manager for the Republican convention in July. He was promoted to campaign chairman in mid-May, after he had essentially assumed control, and then was pushed out August 19 when questions intensified about his lobbying for Ukraine interests.

This indictment emerged from the broad investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. It does not go to the heart of that matter.

Sanders: “Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity.” - briefing Monday.

The facts: It's true that Trump himself isn't wrapped up in the charges, but his campaign adviser is.

Sanders said Papadopoulos' work for the campaign was “extremely limited. It was a volunteer position.”

Yet investigators said his position was significant to those who wanted to pass on information helpful to the campaign. The allegations unsealed Monday state “the professor only took interest in defendant PAPADOPOULOS because of his status with the Campaign.”

Sanders: “What the Clinton campaign did, what the DNC did was actually exchange money .... actually paying money for false information.” - briefing

The facts: She is right that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party hired a firm that came up with sensational allegations about Trump's connections to Russia. The material is unverified. That doesn't necessarily mean it's false.

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Trump Disparages Ex-aide Cooperating with Prosecutors in Russia Probe

U.S. President Donald Trump disparaged one-time foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos on Tuesday, a day after it was disclosed that he pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents but has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the U.S. election.

A year ago, Trump described Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old energy and oil consultant, as an "excellent guy." But in a new Twitter comment from the White House, Trump said, "Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!"

Trump said, "The Fake News is working overtime," referring to mainstream U.S. news outlets' widespread coverage of Papadopoulos' guilty plea in early October and the indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his protege Rick Gates on money laundering and conspiracy charges linked to their multimillion-dollar lobbying effort for one-time Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych. Trump's campaign was not implicated in the charges against Manafort and Gates.

"As Paul Manafort's lawyer said, there was 'no collusion' (between Trump aides and Russia) and events mentioned took place long before he came to the campaign," Trump tweeted.

He added, "I hope people will start to focus on our Massive Tax Cuts for Business (jobs) and the Middle Class (in addition to Democrat corruption)!"

In a statement of facts underlying Papadopoulos's guilty plea, special counsel Mueller detailed several emails Papadopoulos sent to high-level Trump aides during the height of the election campaign about his efforts to set up a meeting between Trump campaign and Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin. The meeting never occurred.

The statement did not name the Trump aides Papadopoulos emailed about his overseas contacts involving Russia, but The Washington Post said that it had identified Manafort, Gates, national campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis and one-time campaign chairman Corey Lewandowski as the recipients. Clovis called Papadopoulos's efforts "great work."

The documents also say one of the contacts told Papadopoulos in April 2016 that the Russians had "dirt" about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." Starting in July 2016, WikiLeaks released thousands of Democratic National Committee emails, with many of them showing embarrassing behind-the-scenes efforts by Democratic operatives to help Clinton win the party's nomination. She has partly blamed her loss on the disclosure of the emails.

Monday's allegations and disclosure of the Papadopoulos guilty plea have left Washington speculating where Mueller's investigation is headed next, but legal experts expect more charges to be filed.

Mueller has been investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia and Turkey in recent years, ahead of his brief White House tenure at the outset of Trump's presidency. Flynn was an outspoken campaigner for Trump last year, but Trump fired him as national security adviser as news surfaced that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and others about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to Washington in the period before Trump took office in January.

Mueller is also probing whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired then-Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey last May while he was heading the agency's Russia investigation before Mueller, over Trump's objections, was named to take over the probe. Monday's allegations against Manafort and Gates and disclosure of the Papadopoulos guilty plea were the first charges Mueller has brought in his five months as special counsel.

The White House says Trump has no intention of firing Mueller or pardoning the campaign aides charged so far.

Trump's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, told ABC News on Tuesday, "The president has not indicated to me or to anyone else that I work with that he has any intent on terminating Robert Mueller."

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a report made public in January that Putin personally directed a campaign to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the allegations, saying there is no evidence of election meddling in the United States or other countries.

Both Manafort and Gates turned themselves in to the FBI in Washington for processing and later pleaded "not guilty" in a federal court. A judge ordered both placed under house arrest.

The indictment against them alleged that Manafort, who was Trump's campaign manager from June to August last year and was a key figure in the campaign before then, enriched himself with his lobbying for the Ukrainian leader before he was forced from power by a popular uprising in 2014 and fled to Russia.

Mueller alleged that Manafort hid his assets in accounts in Cyprus, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines and the Seychelles and then "spent millions of dollars on luxury goods" to "enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States."

The 12-count indictment alleged that more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, with Manafort laundering more than $18 million to buy property and goods in the United States and Gates sending more than $3 million to accounts he controlled.

Mueller charged that Manafort and Gates conspired to carry out the scheme between 2006 and this year, failed to register as foreign agents and then offered "false and misleading" statements to federal agents about their activities.

In addition to Mueller's investigation, there are three separate congressional probes into Russian meddling and possible links between Trump's campaign and Russia.

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Mattis and Tillerson: No New War Authorization Needed

WASHINGTON — 

A new war authorization is “not legally required'' to conduct combat operations against terrorist groups across the globe, top administration officials said Monday.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the current authorization should not be repealed, even if Congress approves a new authorization of force to cover the fight against Islamic State.

“The United States must retain the proper legal authorities to ensure that nothing restricts or delays our ability to respond effectively and rapidly to terrorist threats to the United States,” Tillerson said.

Both leaders have said on multiple occasions that the current law, created after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, covers the authorization needed to fight terror groups.

Mattis welcomed continued congressional support but expressed concern to lawmakers that should Congress decide to repeal the current law, coalition partners and America’s enemies might view that as “backing away” from the fight.

Tillerson added that Congress should not restrict the geography of any new war authorizations because the fight against terrorists can quickly move from continent to continent.

“This is the nature of the enemy we’re confronted with today,” Tillerson said.

The hearing comes as many in Congress have demanded a new authorization for the use of military force. Both Republicans and Democrats at the hearing Monday argued that the 16-year authorization is not tailored to the current counterterrorism fight.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is sponsoring legislation for a new war authorization, said Monday that a new authorization may not be needed legally, but it’s “certainly needed politically.”

“We’ve got to have a conversation where the Congress is more involved here,” Flake said.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) warned that the post-9/11 authorization has become “so convoluted that it’s hard to trace a path” between its original purpose and its military use today.

Members of Congress argue that Islamic State is an enemy that did not exist 16 years ago, and the group has taken the counter-terror battle to countries that the original American war authorization did not anticipate fighting in.

Niger Pushes Limits

The demand for a new authorization was pushed to the political forefront after a deadly ambush in Niger killed four American soldiers and four members of Niger’s security forces.

The United States has about 800 service members in Niger to provide support for the U.S. embassy and counter-terrorism training for government forces battling Islamist militant groups. Several hundred more American troops are in other African countries.

Some lawmakers pushed Mattis on why so many troops were in Niger at the time of the attack. Mattis said that Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump sent troops there because “as the physical caliphate (of Islamic State) is collapsing, the enemy is trying to move somewhere.”

He added that the French have played a big role in building up militaries in West Africa, and the United States also has been “trying to prepare” these militaries in case their countries come under attack when the Islamic State caliphate falls apart.

Officials said the mission of the soldiers ambushed in Niger had been considered “low risk.” One U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told VOA that soldiers involved in the incident had said their meeting with local leaders had run late, and some suspected that the villagers were intentionally delaying their departure," the official said.

Various Islamist militant groups operate in Niger. Nigeria-based Boko Haram has carried out attacks in eastern Niger, and Algeria-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operates in the west, along with pockets of Islamic State fighters.

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Lobbying, Political Worlds of Paul Manafort Merge in Indictment

For nearly 40 years, Paul Manafort has been one of Washington's top lobbyists, paid millions of dollars to represent controversial figures from around the globe who needed to burnish their standing in the U.S. capital, including the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire's military dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and most recently Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych.

At the same time, he has been a Republican political operative, advising and serving an array of the party's presidents since the 1970s. Just last year, he briefly was campaign chairman for the upstart candidacy of real estate mogul Donald Trump on his eventually successful run to the White House.

Now the lobbying and political worlds of the 68-year-old Manafort have achieved a merger of sorts.

A federal grand jury in Washington indicted him in a money-laundering scheme linked to his lobbying for Moscow-supported Yanukovych before the Kyiv leader was ousted in 2014 and fled to Russia in exile. The charges came as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election aimed at undermining U.S. democracy and help Trump win.

By the end of Monday, Manafort was under house arrest, awaiting resolution of charges that could, if convicted, land him in prison for years.

The indictment against Manafort did not describe his tenure as Trump's campaign chief and was related solely to lucrative lobbying transactions that predated the Trump campaign.

Trump was quick to note, "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign."

After Manafort pleaded not guilty to the charges, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, told reporters, "I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Mr. Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians and ... was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukraine come closer to the United States and the EU."

Downing said, "Those activities ended in 2014 over two years before Mr. Manafort served in the Trump campaign."

But Manafort was at the top of the Trump campaign for three months in 2016 and Mueller's investigators are in the midst of a months-long investigation of trying to determine who had contacts with Russia in the long run-up to Trump's upset win in the November election over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One person they could look to for answers is Paul Manafort.

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US Russia Probe Takes Dramatic Turn with Indictments, Plea Deal

The special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia took a dramatic turn Monday with criminal indictments of two former Trump campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed that a former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in connection with the Russia probe. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

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Indictment Against Manafort, Gates Details Elaborate Scheme

The indictment against Donald Trump's former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, and a longtime business associate alleged the two carried out an elaborate scheme that involved the use of a little-known outfit to mask years of lobbying on behalf of Ukraine's former president, his pro-Russia political party, and the Ukrainian government.

Manafort and his former business partner, Rick Gates, are charged in a 12-count indictment including conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements. The two could faces decades in prison if convicted, and both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The allegations do not include collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign.

The indictment was approved by a federal grand jury on Friday and unsealed after Manafort and his right-hand man and former Trump campaign adviser, Gates, turned themselves in to the FBI. It represents the first charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Manafort's consulting work for Ukraine started in 2006 when the Republican political strategist was retained by Ukraine's pro-Russian Party of Regions to "advance its interests" in Ukraine. In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych, the party's candidate, was elected president. Four years later, he fled to Russia following popular protests.

Eight-year lobbying campaign

The indictment alleges that during the eight-year period, Manafort and Gates "engaged in a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign" in the U.S. on behalf of Yanukovych, the Party of Regions, and the Ukrainian government. The two hid their activities from U.S. authorities and used offshore accounts to launder millions of dollars in Ukrainian payments.

As part of their effort to mask their lobbying from U.S. authorities, the pair used a little-known outfit called the European Center for Modern Ukraine. The Brussels-based outfit called itself "an advocate for enhancing EU-Ukrainian relations" but in reality served as "a mouthpiece" for Yanukovych and his Party of Regions, according to the indictment. Manafort and Gates used the nonprofit to carry out lobbying and public relations campaigns, according to court records.

Manafort and Gates then hired two Washington, D.C., firms to lobby members of Congress about Ukrainian sanctions, the "validity" of Ukraine elections, and the "propriety" of Yanukovych's imprisonment of his political rival, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

"Manafort and Gates did so without registering and providing the disclosures required by law," the indictment alleges.

The two lobbying firms are Podesta Group Inc. and Mercury LLC, the Associated Press reported last year. The Podesta Group is headed by Tony Podesta, the brother of John Podesta, who was campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton. Politico reported on Monday that Tony Podesta was stepping down from the firm.

To conceal the lobbying effort, Manafort and Gates allegedly arranged for the two lobbying firms to be ostensibly working for the European Center for Modern Ukraine, which in fact was "under the ultimate direction" of Yanukovych, the Ukrainian government and the Party of the Regions, according to the indictment.

Manafort and Gates are also accused of using their offshore accounts to secretly pay $4 million for a report about Tymoshenko's trial commissioned by the Ukrainian government.

Ties to Trump

Manafort and Gates joined the Trump campaign in March 2006. Gates was later promoted as deputy campaign manager and Manafort served as campaign chairman. He was fired in August after reports of his lobbying for pro-Russia interests in Ukraine.

The Department of Justice began looking into Manafort's and Gates' lobbying for Ukraine last year. The indictment says the two partners told investigators in 2016 that they merely "provided an introduction" between the Brussels center and the Washington lobbying firms, and that their efforts "did not include meetings and outreach within the United States."

In fact, according to the indictment, Manafort and Gates were deeply involved in the scheme. They had weekly phone calls and email communications with officials of the two companies, directed them on "specific lobbying steps," received regular reports from them, and updated Yanukovych about the lobbying activities. For their efforts between 2012 and 2014, the firms were paid $2 million.

Charges

The charges against Manafort and Gates include conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, failure to report foreign bank holdings to the U.S. Treasury Department, lobbying for a foreign government without registering with the Justice Department, and making false statements about their lobbying efforts.

Manafort and Gates are accused of serving as unregistered foreign agents of Ukrainian interests in violation of Department of Justice registration requirements.

Between them, Manafort and Gates controlled 17 domestic entities, 12 Cyprus-based entities and 3 other foreign entities, according to the indictment. In all, $75 million passed through the offshore accounts. Manafort is alleged to have laundered more than $18 million. Gates is accused of laundering more than $3 million from offshore accounts.

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White House Distances Trump from Mueller Probe Indictments

WHITE HOUSE — 

The White House went on the defensive Monday, distancing President Donald Trump from charges filed against two former campaign aides by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with the probe into Russia's attempt to influence last year's presidential election.

The pair, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and longtime business associate Rick Gates, were named in a 12-count indictment Monday charging money laundering, tax evasion and other violations. They pleaded not guilty Monday in a federal court in Washington.

At Monday's White House briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders emphasized that the indictment made no mention of Trump or of any collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia.

"Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity," Sanders said. "We've been saying from day one there's no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all."

Sanders also said the White House has been given an indication that Mueller's Russia probe would end soon.

The press secretary rejected a reporter's suggestions that the activities of a volunteer Trump foreign policy adviser could be seen as evidence of collusion.

The adviser, George Papadopoulus, pleaded guilty in July to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. He could face up to five years in jail.

Sanders on Monday called Papadopoulus a low-level unpaid campaign volunteer whose illegal activities were not campaign-related. "It has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign, it has to do with his failure to tell the truth. That doesn't have anything to do with the campaign or the campaign's activity," she said.

Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing, in a statement after his client's arraignment, noted that the indictment made no mention of Trump, Russia or collusion. "I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct," Downing said. "There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government."

Downing argued that his client's activities were legal and aimed at helping a nation struggling to establish democracy after being freed from the Soviet Union.

"Mr. Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainian government. And in that, he was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukraine come closer to the United States and the EU," Downing said. "Those activities ended in 2014, over two years before Mr. Manafort served in the Trump campaign."

'No collusion'

Trump tweeted "There is NO COLLUSION!" shortly after the indictment was unsealed Monday morning.

Another Trump tweet noted that the allegations contained in the indictment against Manafort involve activities that took place before he was briefly head of Trump's campaign last year. The tweet also pointed an accusative finger at Trump's opponent in the election, asking "Why aren't Crooked Hillary and the Dems in the focus?????"

Veteran observers say the indictment's lack of any links to Trump, his campaign or collusion could be seen as an encouraging sign for the president and his administration.

"There is nothing in the indictment that says anything about any kind of collusion, and the truth is this indictment doesn't have anything to do with Russia, it has everything to do with Ukraine," said Bill Mateja, who headed the Justice Department's white-collar crime division under James Comey during the George W. Bush administration.

In comments to VOA, Mateja said he finds it significant that Mueller's indictment targeted only Manafort and Gates.

"A number of people thought there might be additional charges against other people coming right out of the gate," he said. "I think they would have put everything they had evidence for out in the open right here and now. Obviously, they haven't done that."

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Rick Gates Built a Life as Paul Manafort Protege But Now Indicted, Too

WASHINGTON — 

Rick Gates has long been a key aide to Washington lobbyist Paul Manafort and on Monday also found himself indicted, with both accused of a money laundering scheme linked to their lobbying for one-time Ukraine leader Viktor Yanukovych before a 2014 uprising toppled Yanukovych and sent him fleeing to exile in Russia.

The 45-year-old Gates met Manafort more than two decades ago when he interned for Manafort's lobbying firm. Years later, one of their clients was Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who had close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with others in Putin's orbit, including Yanukovych.

When Manafort joined the Republican presidential campaign of real estate mogul Donald Trump in 2016, so did Gates, working as Manafort's deputy when Manafort served as Trump's campaign chairman from June to August of last year. One picture showed Gates standing alongside Trump as the presidential nominee prepared to address the party's national convention in Cleveland last year.

Gates stayed on with the campaign even after Trump ousted Manafort when news surfaced of large payments Manafort had received for his extensive lobbying efforts for Yanukovych.

Gates served as the Trump campaign’s link to the Republican National Committee, an at times contentious relationship as establishment political figures tried to adapt to the freewheeling ways and constant controversies that enveloped Trump and his campaign.

Gates left the campaign before Election Day in November, but later helped plan Trump’s January inauguration and joined other Trump aides in launching America First Priorities, a pro-Trump group where he worked for awhile.

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Source: Trump Likely to Pick Fed's Powell to Lead Central Bank

WASHINGTON — 

President Donald Trump is likely to pick Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the next head of the U.S. central bank, a source familiar with the
matter said on Monday, prompting investors to push down yields on Treasury notes.

The Republican president, who is considering Powell, current Fed Chair Janet Yellen and three others for the top central bank job, will announce his decision on Thursday, a White House official said separately.

By picking Powell, a soft-spoken centrist and Fed governor since 2012, Trump would get the combination of a leadership change and the continuity offered by somebody who has been a part of the Yellen-run Fed that has kept the economy and markets steady in recent years.

Powell, 64, has supported Yellen's general direction in setting monetary policy, and in recent years has shared her concerns that weak inflation justified a continued cautious approach to raising interest rates.

"Powell has not offended people, and that's a huge advantage in Washington. He's the kind of guy who can get through Senate confirmation, and this administration has so many other problems to deal with," said John Silva, chief economist at Wells Fargo.

The main challenger to Powell is Stanford University economist John Taylor, a favorite of conservative Republicans who believe monetary policy has been too loose under Yellen and want the central bank to rely more on rules when setting rates. Taylor has spent the last two decades refining and pushing for wider use of a rule that sets out where rates should be, given certain conditions of inflation and the broader economy.

His rule implies they should be higher than they are now.

Critics say that a Taylor-run Fed would run the risk of tightening monetary policy too fast and choking off the recovery from the 2007-2009 financial crisis and recession.

The race for the Fed job has shifted between Yellen, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama to a one-year term in 2014, Powell and Taylor in recent weeks. Financial markets had pushed Treasury yields higher on talk Taylor would get the job.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were yielding 2.37 percent in mid-afternoon trading on Monday, down from 2.43 percent on Friday.

The Fed, which is holding a two-day policy meeting this week, has lifted rates twice this year and is expected to do so again in December.

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China Warns Against Attempts to Contain Beijing Before Trump Visit

China's ambassador to Washington said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to Beijing next week was a historic opportunity to boost cooperation between the world's two largest economies, but warned against attempts to "contain" Beijing.

Cui Tiankai also stressed the urgency of efforts to find a negotiated solution to the crisis over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and warned of a "more dangerous" situation if tensions between the United States and Pyongyang continued.

Cui sought to play down differences over China's massive trade surplus with the United States, saying Beijing was looking for ways to cut this and he was confident of "significant outcomes" from Trump's Nov. 8 to 9 visit on the trade and economic fronts.

Speaking after senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, outlined an Asia-Pacific strategy involving greater cooperation between Japan, India and Australia in the face of China's rise, Cui said relationships should not be seen as a "zero-sum game" at the expense of another county.

"I don't think it will really serve the interests of these countries if their aim is to sort of contain China ... I don't think anybody would be able to contain China," he said.

Cui said Washington should not try to "interfere" in regional efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea, a vital strategic waterway that China claims, most of which is contested by several Asian countries.

"Maybe it would be better for the U.S. to let the regional countries ... find a way a way of managing the situation."

Cui was asked about a call on Friday by a senior U.S. State Department official for revival of four-way dialogue between the United States, Japan, India and Australia to deepen security cooperation and coordinate alternatives for regional infrastructure financing to "predatory" Chinese options.

"I don't think any attempts to form exclusive clubs in the region ... would help anybody," he said. "When people are saying these things about China, they might just look into the mirror ... it might be describing themselves."

Despite the cautionary words, Cui said he was sure the summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be successful, following their first meeting in Florida in April.

"This is a historic opportunity," he said.

Cui reiterated China's call for Washington to return to talks, while stressing Beijing's willingness to step up pressure on Pyongyang through U.N. sanctions.

"We are ready to take up more cost and make greater efforts if there are more Security Council resolutions," he said.

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Court Blocks Trump's Ban on Transgender Military Service

A U.S. court has blocked President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military.

"The effect of the Court's Order is to revert to the status quo with regard to accession and retention that existed before the issuance of the Presidential Memorandum," the order filed by United States District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly read, referring to policies in place before Trump's June 30 executive order banning transgenders from serving in the military.

The judge did, however, dismiss plaintiffs' motion to block a ban on funding for sex reassignment surgery.

The case was brought by a group of transgender service members who asked the court to block the ban while it considers whether it violates their constitutional rights.

In August, the Trump administration sent a memo to the Department of Defense directing it to implement the ban.

The policy would give the Pentagon the ability to expel military members based on a standard of whether they could be deployed to war zones or take part in other missions. It would also deny admittance to new transgender people who want to join the military, and would end spending for medical treatment related to sexual reassignment for current transgender service members.

Trump, in his tweets, based his decision on what he said were the "tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

The move came a year after the Pentagon under former President Barack Obama announced transgender military members would be allowed to serve openly.

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Energy Consultant Lied to Authorities About Trump Campaign Role

WASHINGTON — 

When real estate mogul Donald Trump was running for the U.S. presidency, a young foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, attempted to arrange a meeting between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign. Trump, in an interview at the time, described Papadopoulos as "an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy."

The would-be Trump-Russia meeting never occurred. But on Monday, however, special counsel Robert Mueller disclosed that Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the timing and importance of his contacts with "an overseas professor." He understood this person to have "substantial connections" to Russian officials that had "dirt" on Trump's election challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton, and to communications with "a certain female Russian national" believed to be a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Papadopoulos, according to his guilty plea to a criminal information, told FBI agents in a January 27 interview that his contacts with the London professor came before he joined the Trump campaign and that his contacts with the Russian woman were casual and inconsequential, both of which prosecutors said were lies.

The prosecution's statement of the case against Papadopoulos said he "made numerous false statements and omitted material facts" about his contacts with the professor and the Russian woman and a connection with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Papadopoulos guilty plea "is just the latest in a series of undisclosed contacts, misleading public statements, potentially compromising information, and highly questionable actions from the time of the Trump campaign that together, remain a cause for deep concern and continued investigation."

Papadopoulos graduated in 2009 from DePaul University in Chicago with a bachelor's degree in political science and government, then earned a master's degree from University College London and the London School of Economics. He later worked for the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, from 2011 to 2015 before joining the unsuccessful Republican presidential campaign of Dr. Ben Carson, whom Trump later named as his housing secretary.

After Trump took office, Papadopoulos worked as an independent oil, gas and policy consultant.

With his guilty plea, Papadopoulos faces up to five years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, but his sentence could be substantially less if he testifies about his contacts with Trump campaign officials that are described in the statement of his actions.

WATCH: What is an indictment?

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Trump Tweets 'No Collusion!' After Mueller Probe Indictments

WHITE HOUSE — 

“There is NO COLLUSION!” tweeted President Donald Trump shortly after his former campaign manager Paul Manafort was indicted as part of a special counsel's probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

The president fired off a pair of Monday morning Twitter posts within hours after news broke that Manafort and a longtime associate were indicted five months after Special Counsel Robert Mueller began investigating Russian interference in last year’s U.S. presidential election.

The indictments unsealed Monday charge Manafort and colleague Richard Gates with multiple counts of tax evasion, money laundering and conspiracy against the United States.

Trump’s initial tweet noted that the allegations contained in the indictment involve activities before Manafort was briefly the head of Trump’s campaign last year. It also points an accusative finger at Trump’s opponent in the election, Hillary Clinton, asking “Why aren’t Crooked Hillary and the Dems in the focus????”

As anticipation and speculation raged Sunday about the content of the indictments, Trump used his Twitter account extensively to ridicule the idea that his campaign had colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the election, and to express frustration that news headlines were focusing on the pending Mueller probe indictments and less on investigations into allegations against his perceived enemies and political opponents.

"The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's [Republicans] are now fighting back like never before," Trump wrote. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!"

He went on to say that the Russia investigations had diverted public attention from Republican efforts on tax reform. "Is this coincidental? NOT!" Trump said.

Ty Cobb, a member of Trump's legal team, said in a statement that Trump's comments were not related to the developments in Mueller's investigation.

"Contrary to what many have suggested, the President’s comments today are unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," Cobb said.

The White House did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comment on the allegations contained in the indictments. But CNN quoted an unidentified White House source as saying “These guys were bad guys when they started, they were bad guys when they left. This has nothing to do with Russia.”

Various sources have been quoted as saying the president has been briefed fully on the indictments. He has several meetings with top administration officials on his schedule today, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders faced a barrage of questions during her regular daily news briefing in the afternoon. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is slated to make an appearance on Fox News this evening.

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Mueller Indictments Explained

What happened Monday?

Political consultant Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates were indicted on charges including conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, tax fraud and failure to register as lobbyists for the former government of Ukraine.

The two men, who worked on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, held offshore bank accounts through which more than $75 million flowed, according to the indictment. They are the first charges Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller has made public in his five-month probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

Separately, the Justice Department announced that Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has pled guilty to making false statements to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia-linked individuals who claimed to possess damaging information on Trump's election opponent, Hillary Clinton. There is no indication that Papadopoulos, an international energy lawyer with very little foreign policy experience, ever received such information.

How does this relate to investigations into Russia’s alleged interference in the last U.S. presidential elections?

Manafort served as Trump’s presidential campaign chair before resigning last August after media reports investigating his ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian political groups.

Rick Gates held a series of positions inside the Trump campaign. None of the charges in Monday’s indictment appear to directly involve their work as Trump aides, although some of the alleged crimes were said to have taken place during their time on the campaign.

Although Papadopoulos' position in the campaign was more minor compared to Manafort's, his case could be more serious. That's because it involves possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Moscow, which is the main focus of Mueller's investigation.

What are Manafort, Gates, and Papadopoulos accused of doing?

The indictment lists a series of charges largely relating to Manafort's and Gates' work lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian political groups from 2006 to 2015. The men allegedly hid millions of dollars in payments using offshore bank accounts, failed to disclose their lobbying work on behalf of foreigners to U.S. officials, and later lied to federal investigators about their relationship with foreign groups. Both men have previously denied any wrongdoing.

Papadopoulos pled guilty in early October to lying to FBI agents about his contacts and communications with Russian intermediaries during his time working for the Trump campaign. His guilty plea was unsealed Monday, after the Manafort and Gate's indictments had been announced.

According to a DOJ statement, Papadopoulos told FBI agents he had been in touch with an unnamed foreign professor who claimed to have "dirt" on Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." Papadopoulos also initially downplayed the nature of the professor's contacts with Moscow, saying he "was a nothing." But according to the indictment, Papadopoulos understood that the professor had "substantial connections to Russian government officials," and the professor had met with some of those officials immediately prior to telling Papadopoulos about the "dirt" on Clinton.

How serious are these charges?

The indictment against Manafort and Gates may fall short of what many Democrats had predicted or hoped, since they don't prove, or even allege to show, collusion. But still, a president's former campaign chair being indicted on multiple felony counts, including allegedly conducting a secret campaign to influence U.S. politics in a pro-Russia direction, is no small matter.

It's unclear, however, what the indictments signal about the direction of Mueller's Russia probe. Some legal analysts have suggested that Mueller may try to use the charges against Manafort and others to compel them to testify about other alleged crimes. In this respect, the Papadopoulos case may be crucial, since a DOJ statement indicates he already may be cooperating as a witness.

How has the White House reacted?

In a Twitter post, Trump said: "Sorry but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" In a follow-up tweet, he said: "..."Also, there is NO COLLUSION!"

WATCH: What is an indictment?

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Central Americans Fear Trump May End Immigration Program

LOS ANGELES — 

Iris Acosta has spent the last two decades enrolled in an immigration program that has helped her get a work permit, put three children through school in her native Honduras and obtain health insurance to cover her cancer treatment.

Now, the 51-year-old hotel housekeeper from Los Angeles fears it could all come to an abrupt halt.

Acosta is one of about 400,000 immigrants who have been allowed to remain here under a little-known humanitarian program that could be on shaky ground in President Donald Trump's administration as it comes up for renewal in the coming months for many of its recipients.

The beneficiaries — many who came to the country illegally from Honduras and El Salvador — worry the administration will phase out their access to the program and deport them to countries where they haven't lived in years.

"I don't know what I'd do in my country," said Acosta, who has lived nearly half her life in the United States. "I have nothing there."

The program known as Temporary Protected Status is geared toward countries ravaged by natural disasters or war. It is a temporary fix for immigrants without legal status, much like the more widely known Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to protect from deportation immigrants brought to the U.S. as children — an initiative Trump recently ended.

Ten countries are currently designated for the program, with more than 70 percent either from El Salvador or Honduras, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The program was created by law but the White House decides which countries should participate and for how long.

When the federal government taps a country for the program, its citizens already in the United States are allowed to remain and work here, regardless of how they came. They can't bring family to join them and immigrants who arrive later are not allowed to sign up.

The U.S. government offered the status to Hondurans and Nicaraguans after their countries were decimated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and to Salvadorans after a deadly 2001 earthquake. The idea was to let immigrants work and send money back to help relatives recover from the damage and not burden the countries with a large number of deportees.

While the status was meant to be temporary, it was repeatedly renewed by the Bush and Obama administrations over concerns the countries could not shoulder the return of so many people. As a result, some immigrants have been allowed to stay in the U.S. for 20 years.

Decision expected within weeks

The program is up for renewal again in the coming months, with decisions on Honduras and Nicaragua expected by early November.

Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have not said what the administration plans to do. The Homeland Security Secretary will review country conditions and make a decision at least 60 days before each country's status expires.

The Trump administration has stepped up immigration enforcement and signaled it could take a harder line on the program.

Since taking office, Trump has ended the program for Sudan and issued a shorter-than-usual renewal for Haiti, which was designated after a devastating 2010 earthquake.

Immigrant advocates are trying to raise awareness about the program and pressure lawmakers to lobby the administration to keep it. Unions and immigrant rights groups held rallies and a vigil this week in Washington and Los Angeles.

Still, the program has received scant attention compared to the soon-to-expire DACA program for young immigrants — many of whom are college-educated, American-raised, politically connected and internet-savvy. In contrast, those with temporary protected status often work in housekeeping or construction and lack the political clout of their DACA counterparts.

"This is working population through and through," said Cecilia Menjivar, a professor of sociology at University of Kansas, who has done research on those covered by the program.

Acosta came to the United States illegally in 1992 after she couldn't make ends meet at her job at a pool hall in Honduras. She started as a housekeeper in different homes, but once she had a work permit she got a formal job with steady pay and benefits.

She was also able to help her mother and children recover from the hurricane. They were evacuated before the storm hit but lost most of their belongings when their Tegucigalpa apartment flooded.

Erick Midence, a 58-year-old in Oxnard, California, said the program helped him grow his construction business and stop living in fear of immigration authorities.

"Though some suffered misfortune, others of us were helped by Hurricane Mitch," said Midence, also from Honduras.

Options

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said the program needs to be overhauled so it can be returned to its temporary nature. One alternative, he said, would be to let immigrants who have had the work permits a long time remain but place legislative checks on how the program is used in future crises.

"It is the only way you can avoid this absurd situation where people are here temporarily for 20 years," Krikorian said.

As immigrants in the program brace for changes, some are taking advantage of favorable rulings in two U.S. circuit courts that let them apply for green cards. The rulings apply to those who are married to Americans or who have adult children who are U.S. citizens.

Midence, for one, is exploring the idea since his children are now in their 20s and 30s and have U.S. citizenship.

But for many, it's not an option. Salvadoran immigrant Edwin Murillo relies on the status to run his construction business and raise his 10- and 4-year-old daughters in Dallas.

"We don't know what will happen tomorrow," said Murillo, 42, who has lived in the United States for nearly two decades. "But we are really afraid."

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