World SECRET UBER SOFTWARE STEERS DRIVERS FROM STINGS SAN FRANCISCO, United States—Uber on Friday acknowledged the use of a secret software program to steer drivers away from trouble, including sting operations by local authorities to catch lawbreakers. In the latest in a streak of damaging news for the ridesharing giant, Uber came forward about its “Greyball” software after a New York Times report which said the program aimed to deceive authorities in markets around the world. According to an Uber statement, the tool was used in cities where it was not banned from operating, and the main intent was to protect drivers from disruption by competitors using the smartphone application to interfere instead of summon legitimate rides. “This program denies ride requests to fraudulent users who are violating our terms of service,” an Uber spokesperson said in an email reply to an AFP inquiry. “Whether that’s people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret ‘stings’ meant to entrap drivers.” Uber said the program was used in locations where drivers feared for their safety, and “rarely” to avoid law enforcement. The New York Times report, which said Greyball was used in several countries, cited interviews with current and former employees whose names were cloaked. According to the report, the program raised ethical and potential concerns, and had been a closely guarded secret in Uber’s toolbox as it expanded around the world, clashing with regulators and traditional taxi groups. AFP
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SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com
TRUMP DEFIANT AMID NEW RUSSIA TIES W
ashington—An avalanche of new revelations about ties between Donald Trump’s aides and Russia forced the White House back on the offensive Friday, overshadowing a presidential weekend trip to Florida and his well-received major speech. Before arriving at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the fourth time in five weeks, Trump accused his political foes of conducting “a total witch hunt” into links with Moscow, which he denies. The angry accusation came as Attorney-General Jeff Sessions—a close Trump confidant and the US government’s top law enforcement official—was forced to recuse himself from any Russia-related inquiries. After Sessions told senators under oath that “I didn’t have—did
not have communications with the Russians,” journalists uncovered he had actually met the Russian ambassador twice in the months before taking office. The meetings have raised red flags for Democrats, who have called for Sessions to resign and be investigated for perjury. Trump said he had “total” confidence in Sessions, who “could have stated his response more accurately” but “did not say anything wrong.” Trump lashed out at leading Sen-
ate Democrat Chuck Schumer. Trump tweeted an old picture of the senator with Russian President Vladimir Putin along with the caption: “We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!” He later demanded a “second investigation” into House Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Since US intelligence took the unprecedented step of publicly accusing Russia of trying to swing the November election in Trump’s favor, questions have swirled about whether some in Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow. Trump has repeatedly denied any personal ties to the Kremlin, and his aides have variously denied or played down contacts with Russian officials. But it has now emerged that a slew
of associates aside from Sessions and already fired national security advisor Michael Flynn met Moscow’s envoy to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, before Trump took office. US media reported that advisors JD Gordon and Carter Page met Kislyak and, separately, that Flynn and Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House aide Jared Kushner met Kislyak at Trump Tower in New York last December. Sessions’ own meetings with the envoy took place much earlier, in July and September, just as accusations of Russian interference in the election were mounting, according to The Washington Post. According to officials, US intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to investigate just how and how much Moscow intruded into US politics. AFP
EAST LIBYA STRONGMAN LOSES OIL EXPORT TERMINAL BENGHAZI, Libya—The forces of eastern Libya’s military strongman Khalifa Haftar have lost control of a key oil export terminal they had seized last year, a spokesman conceded on Saturday. Col. Ahmad al-Mismari said rival forces had overrun the main airfield in the oil port of Ras Lanuf and identified them as Islamists of the Benghazi Defence Brigades. An array of forces, most of them loyal to the UN-backed government in Tripoli, have been involved in efforts to oust Haftar from the oil ports, whose seizure enabled him to pose a major challenge to its authority. But the Tripoli government denied any involvement in the renewed offensive on the oil ports, condemning it as a “military escalation.” The forces involved in the latest assault are a mixture of Islamist militias, eastern tribes opposed to Haftar and members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard which controlled the ports before Haftar’s takeover. “The attackers were armed with modern tanks and a radar to neutralise our air force,” Mismari said. “But the battle is ongoing. The situation in the Oil Crescent remains under control.” AFP
FRANCE’S FILLON SUFFERS NEW BLOWS PARIS—French presidential candidate Francois Fillon suffered new blows to his scandal-hit campaign Friday, while veteran conservative Alain Juppe stood ready to replace him in the race. Fillon’s spokesman and campaign manager quit and the leader of a small centrist party confirmed it was withdrawing its backing over an expenses scandal. Pressure has been building on the rightwing former prime minister, who turned 63 on Saturday, since he revealed this week that he is to be charged over allegations he paid his wife Penelope hundreds of thousands of euros for fake parliamentary jobs. The 71-year-old Juppe, also an ex-premier and a one-time foreign minister, was beaten by Fillon in the conservative primary in November after beginning the contest as a clear favourite. Juppe has kept a low profile since. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has taken the lead in opinion polls and centrist Emmanuel Macron has also benefited from Fillon’s woes. AFP
Policemen with dogs take part in a parade to mark the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian police in Minsk on March 4. AFP
JACKMAN SLICES AND DICES ONE LAST TIME AS WOLVERINE LOS ANGELES, United States—After eight movies over 17 years, Hugh Jackman has returned for his final hurrah as Wolverine in “Logan,” an edgier, darker take on everyone’s favorite hairy, metal-clawed mutant anti-hero. Jackman, 48, had agreed with director James Mangold that if he was going to reprise his iconic role as the cigar-chomping loner one last time,
it should be the first R-rated outing in the “X-Men” franchise aimed at a more adult audience. “Hugh and I didn’t want to do it if we couldn’t do something very different,” Mangold said at a preview in Los Angeles of Twentieth Century Fox’s 2017 slate. “We both felt like we had made the last movie and we also felt like... there’s a slew of comic book-themed films, su-
perhero movies—whatever you want to call them—and I, for one, am feeling kind of an exhaustion watching them, generally.” “Logan,” which takes place more than 50 years after the events of “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014), sees Wolverine/Logan aging, weary and vulnerable. Sporting an unkempt gray beard, he drinks his days away on the Mexican
border, picking up black market drugs to treat the dying Professor X, played for a seventh—and also final—time by acclaimed British thespian Patrick Stewart. Logan is snapped abruptly out of his torpor when a mysterious woman begs him to protect a young girl – a stunning debut by English-Spanish newcomer Dafne Keen, 11 – who has powers remarkably like his own and is being pursued by dark forces. More of a blood-spattered road movie than a traditional superhero film, the latest installment earned its R rating mainly because of the unrelenting, visceral violence which plays out from the opening scene. It is expected to take $65 million over the weekend to top the domestic box office and $170 million worldwide. Jackman, a versatile Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning performer as comfortable in stage musicals as blockbusters, has long been open about the fact that “Logan” would be his last Wolverine movie. “He’s a warrior. He’s billed as a weapon, a killing machine, really. But as we say in the movie—it’s a quote from ‘Shane’—there’s no living with a killing. There’s a cost to violence,” Jackman told journalists at a screening in New York. AFP