World
B2
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor / Jimbo Gulle, Issue Editor
CHEMICAL ARMS MEET SEES CLASH OF MAJOR POWERS THE HAGUE, Netherlands—Global powers are set to clash next week as the world’s chemical arms watchdog meets for the first time since it was rocked by allegations of Russian spying. The Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in The Hague faces difficult talks over a new investigative team that will start work next year to apportion blame for attacks in Syria. Moscow has warned the OPCW risks becoming a “sinking Titanic” over new powers which would also allow it to probe incidents like the Salisbury nerve agent attack on a Russian double agent. But the darkest shadow over the meeting will be the expulsion of four Russians accused by Dutch authorities in October of trying to hack into the watchdog’s computer system. New OPCW director-general Fernando Arias admitted in an interview with AFP on Monday that the watchdog was “going through a difficult moment” given recent events. Key member states including Russia, the United States, Britain and France will all be able to have their say during the meeting, as will all 193 countries involved in the body. Former Spanish diplomat Arias, who took over as chief earlier this year and will give the opening address at the meeting on Monday, insisted however that the toxic arms body was “more needed than ever.” Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013, the OPCW is responsible for upholding the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention to end the use of all toxic arms. AFP
BOLSONAROS MAKE BRAZILIAN POLITICS A FAMILY AFFAIR
RIO DE JANEIRO—With Jair Bolsonaro president-elect, and his three sons in elected office—Flavio in the Senate, Eduardo in the Congress and Carlos on Rio de Janeiro’s city council—politics in Brazil is something of a Bolsonaro family affair. Last week, three of Bolsonaro’s five children joined him at the Congress in Brasilia for a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the country’s constitution. Carlos wasn’t there, but Flavio, Eduardo and their younger brother Renan, still a student, were among those invited to the president-elect’s meeting with Supreme Court chairman Dias Toffoli. Toffoli was noticeably cool towards Eduardo, who mocked the court during the campaign, telling supporters that if the court tried to remove his father from power, it would take just two soldiers to shut it down. The hint at a military coup rankled with the judiciary. Eduardo, along with Flavio and Carlos, all campaigned fiercely for their father—who takes office on January 1—backing his extreme rightwing views during the campaign, and are constantly at his side during the transition period. “It’s the first time that we will have a president who will have a son in the Chamber and another in the Senate,” said Sylvio Costa of politics website Congresso em Foco. AFP
ARGENTINE SUB WRECK FOUND ONE YEAR AFTER BUENOS AIRE—The wreckage of an Argentine navy submarine that exploded and disappeared one year ago was located in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, said the navy, crushing the last hopes for relatives of the 44 crew. There has been “positive identification of the ARA San Juan,” at a depth of 800 meters (2,600 feet), a statement on Twitter from the navy said. The Seabed Constructor, a vessel owned by US search firm Ocean Infinity, which set out in September on the latest attempt to find the San Juan, made the discovery. The navy lost contact with the submarine on November 15 last year, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) from the Argentine coast. It was on its way back to base from Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina. “I still had hopes that they could be alive,” Luis Niz, the father of one of the missing sailors, told reporters, even though the government of President Mauricio Macri had earlier declared that there were no survivors from the San Juan. “We are with the other relatives. They are going to show us the photos. They say that our youngsters are inside,” said Yolanda Mendiola, the mother of crewman Leandro Cisneros, 28. AFP
TIGHTROPE WALL. A migrant, who claimed not to be part of the Central American migrants moving towards the United States in hopes of a better life, walks on the US-Mexico border fence in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday he will visit the US-Mexico border, where thousands of active-duty soldiers have been deployed to help border police prepare for the arrival of a “caravan” of migrants. AFP
W
CIA: SAUDI ‘MBS’ HAD KHASHOGGI KILLED
ASHINGTON—The US Central Intelligence Agency has concluded Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US media reported Friday, citing people close to the matter. The Unites States’ assessment directly contradicts the conclusions of a Saudi prosecutor one day prior, which exonerated the prince of involvement in the brutal murder. But The Washington Post, which broke the story, said the CIA found that 15 Saudi agents flew on government aircraft to Istanbul and assassinated Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate. Queried by Agence France-Presse, the CIA declined to comment. Khashoggi, a Post columnist, had gone to the consulate to obtain documents necessary to marry his Turkish fiancee. Saudi Arabia—which quickly dismissed the reported CIA findings— has repeatedly changed its official narrative of the October 2 murder, first denying any knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts and later saying he was killed when an argument degenerated into a fistfight. In the latest version presented by the Saudi prosecutor on Thursday, a 15-member squad was formed to bring Khashoggi back from Istanbul “by means of persuasion” -- but instead ended up killing the journalist and dismembering his body in a “rogue” operation.
The CIA examined multiple intelligence sources, the Post said, among them a phone call between the prince’s brother— the Saudi ambassador to the United States—and Khashoggi. The ambassador reportedly told the late journalist that he would be safe to go to the consulate in Istanbul and get the papers he needed. But a Saudi embassy spokesperson said that Ambassador Khalid bin Salman had never discussed “anything related to going to Turkey” with Khashoggi. “Amb Prince Khalid bin Salman has never had any phone conversations with (Khashoggi),” the statement posted on the ambassador’s Twitter account said. “The claims in this purported assessment is false,” it said. The US intelligence agency also said in determining the crown prince’s role it considered him a “de facto ruler” of Saudi Arabia: “The accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved,” the Post quoted an official as saying. That official dubbed Prince Mohammed a “good technocrat” -- but also someone unpredictable who “goes from zero to 60, doesn’t seem to understand that there are some things you can’t do.” The New York Times later reported that the CIA findings were also based on calls from the kill team to one of the crown prince’s senior aides. But the paper said that while the intercepts showed Prince Mohammed was working to lure Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, the crown prince had not said in the calls that he wanted Khashoggi killed. The Times cited officials as saying US and Turkish intelligence so far have not found direct evidence connecting the prince to Khashoggi’s killing. AFP
MISSING IN CALIFORNIA ‘CAMP FIRE’ SOARS TO 1,000 PARADISE, California—The number of people listed as missing in a devastating northern California wildfire soared past 1,000 on Friday as the remains of eight additional victims were found by rescuers. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters that the number of people unaccounted for had jumped from 631 to 1,011 in the last 24 hours as authorities receive more reports of people missing and as emergency calls made when the fire broke out are reviewed. “I want you to understand that this is a dynamic list,” he told reporters. He said that on a positive note, 329 people who had been
listed as missing since the fire broke out had so far been accounted for. “The information I am providing you is raw data and we find there is the likely possibility that the list contains duplicate names,” he said, adding that some people who had escaped may also be unaware that they have been listed as missing. The eight additional sets of human remains found bring to 71 the total number of dead from the so-called Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive in California history. The inferno erupted November 8, laying waste to the town of
Paradise at the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and sending thousands fleeing. President Donald Trump is set to visit the region on Saturday to survey the damage and meet victims of the fire that has devoured an area roughly the size of Chicago. In an interview with Fox News ahead of his visit, Trump doubleddown on his earlier claim that mismanagement of California’s forests was to blame for the fires. But he acknowledged that climate change may have contributed “a little bit” to the wildfires. “You need forest management. It has to be,” Trump told Fox. “I’m
not saying that in a negative way, a positive -- I’m just saying the facts.” Authorities said the Camp Fire has burned 146,000 acres (59,000 hectares) and was 50 percent contained Friday. They added that 47,200 people had been evacuated because of the fire and nearly 1,200 were living in shelters. Smoke from the fire forced the closure of public schools in San Francisco on Friday and the shutdown of the city’s iconic cable cars as the Air Quality Index soared to 271, comparable to Dhaka, Bangladesh and worse than Kolkata, India. AFP
FRANCE BRACES FOR ROAD WOES VIA ‘YELLOW VESTS’ PARIS—French drivers seething over high fuel prices have vowed to snarl traffic across the country Saturday in a widely supported protest that could prove the trickiest so far for President Emmanuel Macron. The “yellow vests” movement, named for the high-visibility jackets worn by supporters, erupted on social media last month with calls for mass blockades of roads and highways. Anger over fuel costs, blamed on taxes imposed by Macron to fight pollution, has been simmering for months, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas where public transport is patchy. “Nobody thinks about the people on the city fringes, in the provinces, in rural areas,” said Priscillia Ludosky, a business manager in a Paris suburb who launched an online petition last May which now
has more than 850,000 signatures. “They tell them to use alternative transportation but the reality is that’s not possible. They have no other choice but to pay up,” she said. But analysts say the movement now represents more widespread frustration over stagnant spending power under Macron, a former investment banker who promised economic revival and to restore people’s trust in government. Critics accuse him of neglecting the needs of the poor and the provinces in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy and other policies which mainly help well-heeled urbanites. A poll by the Elabe institute this week found that 73 percent of respondents backed the “yellow vests”, and 70 percent wanted the government to rescind the fuel tax hikes, which are slated to continue through 2022. AFP
BREXIT PROTEST. Anti-Brexit campaigners unfurl a banner on Westminster
bridge on Thursday in front of the Houses of Parliament in London. British Prime Minister Theresa May gave a press conference that afternoon amid intense criticism from lawmakers over her Brexit deal. AFP