US approves first transfer of seized Russian funds to Ukraine

The Biden administration has sought increased powers to send seized assets from Russian sanctions evaders to aid Kyiv.

United States Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorised the first transfer of funds seized from Russian oligarchs to aid Ukraine.

In a statement on Wednesday, Garland said the money seized from Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev will go towards the war-torn country, which Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.

“While this represents the United States’ first transfer of forfeited Russian funds for the rebuilding of Ukraine,” Garland said, “it will not be the last.”

Last year, the US Department of Justice charged Malofeyev with violating sanctions imposed on Russia. Prosecutors said he provided financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea, a peninsula the country annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

At that time, Garland also announced “the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a US financial institution traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations”.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Garland announced a new task force, dubbed Klepto Capture, that specifically targeted Russian oligarchs who sought to evade the deluge of US sanctions imposed against Russian entities.

“We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war,” Garland said at the time.

Among the assets seized by Washington was a fleet of superyachts, including a 106m (348-foot) vessel owned by Suleiman Kerimov valued at over $300m, which had been docked in Fiji.

US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, called on Congress last year to make it easier to transfer seized oligarch assets to Ukraine.

In December, Congress passed a law that allowed certain assets seized by the Justice Department to be funneled to Ukraine via the US Department of State.

In April, the Justice Department asked Congress to expand the assets that can be sent to Ukraine, particularly funds seized for violating export controls.

At the time, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Washington was “leaving a lot of money on the table”.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Biden warns ‘millions of jobs’ at risk if debt ceiling not raised

US president accuses Republicans of holding economy hostage by demanding spending cuts to raise debt limit.

United States President Joe Biden has warned the economy could enter a recession and shed millions of jobs unless Republicans agree to raise the country’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling before a fast-approaching deadline.

In a campaign-style speech in a swing district in New York state on Wednesday, Biden accused Republicans of holding the economy hostage by demanding “devastating” spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit.

“We’re bringing jobs back all across America,” Biden said at an event in Valhalla, New York, which is home to a congressional district that Republicans narrowly won in mid-term elections in November.

“This is no time to put all this at risk, to threaten a recession, to put at risk millions of jobs, to undermine America’s standing in the world.”

The Biden administration and congressional Republicans have struggled to find common ground on raising or suspending the debt ceiling in order to prevent the US from defaulting on its debt within weeks.

The US treasury department has indicated it may be unable to pay its bills as soon as June 1.

Republicans have insisted they will only support raising the debt limit if Biden agrees to retroactive spending cuts, while the president wants to negotiate the budget separately.

In April, House Republicans passed a plan seeking $4.5 trillion in deficit savings by cutting spending, scrapping tax breaks for clean energy, and reversing Biden’s plan to forgive student debt.

Biden and congressional leaders are to meet on Friday to discuss how to avert an impending default crisis after failing to reach a breakthrough earlier in the week.

Last week, White House economists estimated that a protracted default could cost up to 8 million jobs and wipe half the value off of the US stock market.

Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, earlier this week assured that Congress would not let a default happen, telling reporters: “The United States of America is not going to default.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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UK Court Jails 18-Year-Old Ghanaian For Pouring Boiling Water On Friend, Stabbing Her Over Boyfriend

 An 18-year-old Ghanaian woman, Princess Owusu Ansah, has been sentenced to three years in prison by a UK court for a violent attack on her friend. Princess is said to have poured boiling water over her friend and stabbed her, allegedly in response to cheating allegations involving her boyfriend.

The distressing episode unfolded when a video clip captured by Owusu Ansah on her mobile phone went viral on Snapchat. The footage depicted the victim cowering under a duvet, screaming in agony as Owusu Ansah threw a kettle of boiling water over her.

Moments prior to the assault, Owusu Ansah is heard accusing her friend of engaging in relationships with other people’s partners and acting as though she could escape the consequences. After delivering a series of punches, she proceeded to pick up a silver knife, striking it against a radiator before stabbing her victim in the leg.

The attack took place on February 2, 2023, at the victim’s residence in the Dog Kennel Estate, Dulwich. Eventually managing to escape, the injured woman fled into the street and was later treated at Kings College Hospital for non-life-threatening stab wounds.

Members of the public who had seen the disturbing video on Snapchat promptly alerted the Metropolitan Police. In March, Owusu Ansah, hailing from Royston, pleaded guilty to charges of grievous bodily harm and criminal damage during her appearance at Inner London Crown Court.

On May 9, during her subsequent court appearance, Owusu Ansah received a three-year prison sentence for the heinous assault.

Source: ghanaweb.com

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Trump appeals sexual abuse verdict, victim considers new lawsuit

 Former US President Donald Trump is appealing against a $5m award to a woman that a jury found he had sexually abused.

Former US President Donald Trump is appealing a New York jury’s verdict awarding $5m to a magazine columnist after the jurors concluded Trump had sexually abused her in the 1990s and defamed her last October.

A notice of appeal was filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the first step in a process that will move the civil case brought against Trump by writer E Jean Carroll to a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

The notice was signed by Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina, who said after Tuesday’s verdict that he believed there were multiple strong grounds for appeal.

The nine-person jury concluded after less than three hours of deliberations that Carroll had failed to prove it was more likely than not that Trump had raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in early spring 1996. But it did find that she had been sexually abused.

It also said in its verdict that Trump defamed Carroll in a social media statement last October.

Carroll sued Trump in November, minutes after a temporary New York state law took effect allowing sexual attack victims to sue their abusers even if the abuse occurred decades earlier.

Carroll is also considering new claims against Trump after he once again defamed her on prime time television this week.

At a televised “town hall” meeting on Wednesday broadcast by CNN, Trump repeated remarks that formed the basis of Carroll’s successful defamation claim, telling news anchor Kaitlan Collins that Carroll was a “wack job” who fabricated the assault – which was met with whistles and cheers by the Republican audience.

During the interview, Trump insulted well-respected Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over his case.

Asked whether she was considering more legal action in light of Trump’s latest remarks, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told the New York Daily News she was “thinking about it”.

Trump’s lawyer Tacopina declined to comment on the potentially new lawsuit.

In the notice of appeal filed in the lower court Thursday where Judge Kaplan presided over the trial, Trump’s lawyers wrote that “notice is hereby given that Defendant Donald J Trump appeals” to the 2nd Circuit.

Tacopina said in an email regarding the appeal: “Judge Kaplan has been overturned once already in Carroll v Trump. We are confident it will be twice after this appeal is heard.”

He was referencing Kaplan’s rejection of an attempt to substitute the United States for Trump as the defendant in an earlier defamation lawsuit filed by Carroll for statements Trump made while he was president. The 2nd Circuit later ruled that Trump was an employee of the government for purposes of the lawsuit, but the appeal has not been fully resolved.

Trump’s verdict was returned after a two-week trial in which Carroll testified that he had sexually attacked her in the luxury department store’s dressing room after a lighthearted and flirtatious chance encounter that took them from the store’s entrance to the desolate sixth-floor lingerie area, where Trump invited Carroll to help him shop for a gift.

She first publicly disclosed her experience in a 2019 memoir while Trump was still president. She said his public response was so harsh that it spoiled her reputation, cost her a 27-year job with Elle magazine and subjected her to mean social media attacks from his followers.

Trump, who is currently running for president as a Republican, did not attend the trial.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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South Africa Accused Of Supplying Arms To Russia

 The US ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of supplying weapons to Russia despite its professed neutrality in the war in Ukraine.

Reuben Brigety claimed that a Russian ship was loaded with ammunition and arms in Cape Town last December.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said it was disappointed by the claims and said no evidence has been provided to support them.

The country has maintained claims of neutrality in the invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Brigety said at a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday that Washington had concerns about the country’s stated non-aligned stance on the conflict.
He referred to the docking of a cargo ship in the Simon’s Town naval base between 6 and 8 December last year which he was “confident” uploaded weapons and ammunition “as it made its way back to Russia”.

The presence of the ship, the Lady R, had seemed curious at the time and raised questions from some local politicians.
“The arming of the Russians is extremely serious, and we do not consider this issue to be resolved,” Mr Brigety said, in a damning accusation that seems to have caught South Africa’s officials off guard.
In the wake of the allegations, the South African government announced the establishment of an independent inquiry led by a retired judge, a spokesman for the president’s office said.

The US has been critical for months about South Africa’s continued cosy relationship with Russia.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told journalists on Thursday that the US had previously raised concerns about the Lady R with numerous South African officials.
He said the US would speak out against “any country taking steps to support Russia’s illegal and brutal war in Ukraine”, but would not say whether there would be any repercussions for South Africa if the claims proved to be true.

Washington has also expressed concerns about South Africa’s participation in military exercises with Russia and China during the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

Source: BBC

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European Parliament Express Concern About Media Freedom in Algeria

 Media freedom and freedom of expression in Algeria, the case of journalist Ihsane El-Kadi

European Parliament (EP) adopted on Thursday, May 11, 2023, by a very large majority (536 votes in favor, 4 against, 18 abstentions), at an emergency resolution expressing concern about the significant deterioration of press freedom in Algeria since the Hirak protests in 2019 and the harassment of journalists.

With this resolution, the European Parliament urges the Algerian authorities to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained and charged for exercising their right to freedom of expression, including prominent journalist Ihsane El-Kadi.

Ihsane El-Kadi, a prominent Algerian journalist and manager of “Interface Médias”, one of the last independent media enterprises in Algeria, with the online outlets Radio M and Maghreb Emergent, was arrested without a warrant the night of 23-24 December 2022.

On 2 April 2023 an Algerian court sentenced El-Kadi to five years’ imprisonment, of which two suspended, a fine of 700 million Algerian dinars, the dissolution of his media company and the confiscation of its assets following his conviction on unfounded charges of “receiving funds for political propaganda” and “harming the security of the state”.

The resolution calls on the Algerian authorities to amend security-related charges in the country’s Penal Code used to criminalise the right to freedom of expression. It notes that, ever since the so-called Hirak protests in 2019, the situation of media freedom has taken a substantial turn for the worse in Algeria, with the authorities blocking more news sites and publications critical of the government.

The European Parliament calls for the EU’s institutions and Member States to raise El-Kadi’s case with Algeria’s authorities and openly condemn the crackdown on media freedom.

Parliament urges all EU institutions and member states to openly condemn the crackdown on media freedom in Algeria, while calling on the EU delegation and EU countries’ embassies on site to request access to imprisoned journalists and observe their trials.

Finally, MEPs want the Algerian authorities to guarantee visa and accreditation authorisation to foreign journalists and their freedom to operate.

Source: Peacefmonline

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