Garland appoints special counsel for Biden classified documents probe

 Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that he has appointed a special counsel to investigate President Biden’s handling of classified documents after the end of the Obama administration.

Why it matters: The appointment of Robert Hur, former U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, is designed to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The move comes as former President Trump faces a separate special counsel inquiry over his hoarding of hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Key details regarding the volume of documents, methods of discovery, and reaction by Biden and Trump distinguish the two cases.

But the revelations about Biden’s documents — especially the latest discovery of “a small number” of classified records at his Delaware home — present a new political headache for the president.

What they’re saying: “I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. But under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland said at a press conference Thursday.

“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. And to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” he added.

White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement: “We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”

Background: Hur, currently a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, was nominated by Trump to serve as U.S. attorney in Maryland in 2017.

His former office has experience handling classified information cases due to its proximity to the National Security Agency.

How we got here: Garland revealed at the press conference that on Nov. 4, the National Archives notified the Justice Department that documents with classified markings had been identified at a private office at Biden’s think tank in Washington. The National Archives was made aware of the issue by the White House.

On Nov. 14, Garland ordered Trump-appointed U.S. attorney John Lausch to conduct an initial fact-finding review to determine whether a special counsel was warranted.

On Dec. 20, Biden’s personal counsel informed Lausch that additional classified documents from his Biden’s time as vice president had been found in the garage of his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

On Jan. 5, Lausch briefed Garland on the investigation and advised him that a special counsel was warranted.

On the morning of Jan. 12, Biden’s personal counsel called Lausch and informed him that an additional document with classified markings had been found at the Delaware home. Garland’s announcement came hours after news of the second set of documents leaked.

How it’s playing: Republicans in Congress have seized on the unfolding controversy to accuse Biden, the Justice Department and the National Archives of a double standard, vowing to use their new House majority to investigate.

The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate and House Intelligence committees, respectively, have called for the director of national intelligence to provide a “damage assessment” on both the Biden and Trump documents.

Between the lines: Biden says he did not know about the presence of classified documents and pledged full cooperation.

Trump, meanwhile, is under investigation for obstruction of justice after refusing to return the documents for over a year, resulting in a court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago by FBI agents.

Special counsel Jack Smith has been tasked with investigating both Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Source Zachary Basu

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Macron will not seek Algeria’s ‘forgiveness’ for colonialism

 Macron has prodded and soothed over the French occupation throughout his political career.

President Emmanuel Macron says he will not “ask forgiveness” from Algeria for French colonisation, but hopes to continue working towards reconciliation with his counterpart, Abdelmajid Tebboune.

“It’s not up to me to ask forgiveness, that’s not what this is about, that word would break all of our ties,” he said in an interview for Le Point magazine, published late on Wednesday.

“The worst thing would be to decide: ‘We apologise and each go our own way,’” Macron said.

“Work on memory and history isn’t a settling of all accounts,” he added.

He expressed hope that Tebboune “will be able to come to France in 2023”, to return Macron’s own trip to Algiers last year, and continue their “unprecedented work of friendship”.

But some on social media denounced the French president’s decision.

The French PhD candidate Rim-Salah Alouane said on Twitter: “On step forward, 10 steps backwards. I don’t wanna tell you that I told you so, but I told you so.”

France’s 100-year colonisation of Algeria and the viciously fought 1954-62 war for independence have left deep scars, which Macron has prodded and soothed over his political career.

In 2017, then-presidential candidate Macron dubbed the French occupation a “crime against humanity”.

A report he commissioned from historian Benjamin Stora recommended in 2020 further moves to reconcile the two countries while ruling out “repentance” and “apologies”.

In 2021, Macron admitted for the first time that French soldiers murdered a top Algerian independence figure and then covered up his death, in the latest acknowledgement by Paris of its colonial-era crimes.

But the French leader has also questioned whether Algeria existed as a nation before being colonised, drawing an angry response from Algiers.

“These moments of tension teach us,” Macron told the Algerian writer Kamel Daoud in the Le Point interview.

“You have to be able to reach out your hand again and engage, which President Tebboune and I have been able to do,” he added.

He backed a suggestion for Tebboune to visit the graves of Algerian 19th-century anti-colonial hero Abdelkader and his entourage, who are buried in Amboise in central France.

“That would make sense for the history of the Algerian people. For the French people, it would be an opportunity to understand realities that are often hidden,” Macron said.

Algeria and France have maintained enduring ties through immigration, involvement in the independence conflict and post-war repatriations of French settlers, touching more than 10 million people living in France today.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Breaking: AMAA founder, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe dead

One of the pillars of the entertainment industry in Nigeria and the Founder of the prestigious AMAA Awards, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe is dead.

She reportedly gave up the ghost at St. Nicolas Hospital, Lagos after being in a coma since Saturday.

While colleagues and close friends, some of whom went to see her at hospital wouldn’t believe news of her demise, maintaining that she was merely in the ICU, notable movie maker, Zik Zulu broke the news.

“Our President, Peace, has passed. As at Saturday, she was reported to be in coma at Saint Nicholas. But now her family has confirmed her transition. May the memory of her life be a blessing. Rest in peace, dear Peace, he writes on a Nollywood platform.

Award-winning producer, Obi Emelonye also confirmed her passing-on on his social media handles even though the family was trying to be courteous with releasing the information.

The industrious woman would be remembered as one of those who shaped the face of the new Nollywood, as her contributions to the industry can not be overemphasized.

Peace Anyiam-Osigwe was not only the Founder of the African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, she was also the President of the Association of Movie Producers, AMP and one of the most prominent figures in Nollywood.

Source vanguardngr

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Benin opposition wins seats in parliament, first time in 4 years

The main opposition party, the Les Democrates, wins 28 seats in the 109-seat parliament, preliminary results show.

Benin’s opposition has returned to parliament after a four-year absence, winning 28 seats in elections dominated by President Patrice Talon’s allies, according to preliminary results.

Sunday’s election was a test for the West African state where Talon has promoted development, but critics say his programme has come at a cost to Benin’s once thriving multiparty democracy.

The main opposition party Les Democrates won 28 seats, while the Republican Bloc (BR) and Progressive Union for Renewal (UP-R) parties allied with Talon together won 81 seats, the CENA electoral authority said on Wednesday.

None of the remaining four parties competing for the 109 seats gathered enough votes to meet the 10 percent threshold for parliamentary representation.

Final results are expected on Friday after a vote that went ahead peacefully and in line with the regulations, according to election observers from the regional bloc Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS.

Voter turnout in the polls was a low 38.66 percent, the electoral commission said, despite analysts predicting it would be higher as more parties were involved.

Four years ago, opposition parties were effectively barred from participating in a legislative ballot due to a tightening of election rules, resulting in a parliament dominated by Talon supporters.

Most of Talon’s key opponents have also been jailed or forced into exile after the cotton magnate was elected in 2016 and later re-elected in 2021.

The 2019 legislative vote was marred by deadly clashes in an opposition stronghold, historic low turnout and an internet blackout.

On Sunday, seven parties – including three allied to the opposition – were allowed to participate.

Opposition leaders had hoped their parties would gain seats in preparation for the 2026 presidential election, when candidates will need the backing of lawmakers to be registered.

The mandate of the Constitutional Court also ends this year and, three years before the presidential ballot, the court’s composition is key as it oversees decisions on elections.

Four judges are appointed by lawmakers while three are chosen by the president.

Les Democrates, linked to Talon’s predecessor and rival Thomas Boni Yayi, also said it would seek to push an amnesty law in parliament to free jailed colleagues and allow the return of exiles.

In December 2021, Reckya Madougou was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a charge of “terrorism”, while Joel Aivo – another opposition leader and academic – was jailed for 10 years for alleged conspiracy against the authority of the state.

Both were tried by a special court dealing with “terrorism” and economic crimes, known as the CRIET. Critics say the court, opened by Talon’s government in 2016, has been used to crackdown on his opponents.

Sunday’s legislative vote took place as Benin and other Gulf of Guinea coastal countries, Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast, face a growing threat from violence spilling over their northern borders with the Sahel.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Benin opposition rejects parliamentary vote results

 The main opposition party in Benin, Les Democrates, has rejected provisional results from Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Benin’s electoral commission said the party won 28 seats in the 109-member parliament.

It would be the first time its members have been represented in the chamber in four years.

But a party spokesman accused the commission of falsifying results in order to minimise the opposition’s parliamentary representation.

Allies of President Patrice Talon secured 81 seats in the vote.

Final results are expected later this week.

Benin’s opposition was in effect barred from running in the 2019 legislative elections with most of Mr Talon’s opponents jailed or exiled.

Source BBC

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US, Japan agree to strengthen security ties amid China worries

US and Japan say China is their ‘greatest shared strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific and beyond’.

The United States and Japan have unveiled plans to strengthen security cooperation in the face of shared worries about China.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday in Washington, DC after talks between the US and Japanese foreign and defence ministers, the two countries said China presented an “unprecedented” threat to international order and pledged to position their alliance to “prevail in a new era of strategic competition”.

“China’s foreign policy seeks to reshape the international order to its benefit and to employ China’s growing political, economic, military, and technological power to that end,” said the statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Yasukazu Hamada.

“This behavior is of serious concern to the alliance and the entire international community, and represents the greatest strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.”

The four men agreed to adjust the American troop presence on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa in part to enhance anti-ship capabilities that would be needed in the event of a Chinese incursion into Taiwan or other hostile acts in the South or East China seas.

They also added a formal mention of outer space in the longstanding US-Japan security treaty, making clear that “attacks to, from and within space” could trigger the mutual defence provisions of the treaty. That had previously been outside the scope of the agreement.

In addition, the US space agency NASA plans to sign a cooperation deal with Japan on Friday, they said.

Blinken said the agreement reflects the two nations’ effort to deepen cooperation “across all realms”, including space, cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

He said the US-Japan alliance has “been the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, ensuring the security, the liberty and prosperity of our people and people across the region”.

Wednesday’s discussions will be followed by a meeting on Friday between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida where they will underscore the importance of the relationship.

Kishida, on a weeklong trip to visit allies in Europe and North America, signed a defence agreement with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday that strengthens military ties between the two countries, also in response to China.

Austin noted that the agreement affirms the US’s “ironclad commitment to defend Japan with a full range of capabilities, including nuclear” and underscores that Article 5 of the mutual security treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands.

The disputed islands outside Japanese territorial waters are also claimed by Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyu Islands.

The changes in the US deployment on Okinawa will transform the 12th Marine Regiment into a smaller, more rapidly mobile unit – the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, which will be designed to be better equipped to fight any adversary and defend the US and its allies in the region.

Austin said the regiment will bring “tremendous” capabilities to the region as a “more lethal, more agile, more capable” military unit.

US officials said the decision will not increase the number of marines on the island and does not come with any significant change in weapons capability. Reinforcement of military capability or troops is a sensitive issue for Okinawa, the site of one of the bloodiest ground battles at the end of World War II. The island hosts more than half of the US troops based in Japan, and Okinawans want that number reduced.

A littoral regiment is made up of roughly 2,000 marines and includes a combat team with an anti-ship missile battery, a logistics battalion and an air defence battalion. The current marine regiment on Okinawa that it would essentially replace includes about 3,400 marines and sailors.

Wednesday’s agreements follow Japan’s announcement last year that it would increase its defence spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over five years. That would make its defence budget the world’s third-largest – a dramatic shift in Tokyo’s priorities that reflects growing concerns about North Korea and potential Chinese military action against Taiwan.

Asked about the Japanese reforms, Blinken said: “It’s very simple, we heartily welcome the new strategies especially because there is … a remarkable convergence between our strategy and strategies and Japan’s.

“We applaud the commitment to increase investment, to enhanced roles, missions and capabilities … to closer cooperation not only between the United States and Japan but as well with other allies and other partners,” he said. “We already have a strong foundation that’s only going to grow.”

Austin noted ramped-up Chinese military activities near the Taiwan Strait, but said he seriously doubted they were a sign of plans for an imminent invasion of the island by Beijing.

China claims Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, as its territory and last year carried out exercises seen as a test run for an invasion after a defiant visit to Taipei by Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives.

“I won’t second-guess Mr Xi but what I will tell you that what we are seeing recently is some very provocative behaviour on the part of China’s forces,” Austin said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“We believe that they endeavour to establish a new normal but whether or not that means that an invasion is imminent, you know, I seriously doubt that,” he said.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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German police begin clearing coal mine protest camp in Luetzerath

 The expansion of a lignite mine has highlighted tensions around Germany’s climate policy during the energy crisis.

Police in riot gear have begun evicting climate activists from a condemned village in western Germany that is due to be demolished for the expansion of a coal mine.

Some stones and fireworks were thrown on Wednesday as officers entered the tiny hamlet of Luetzerath, which has become a flashpoint of debate over the country’s climate efforts.

Police spokesman Andreas Mueller said the attacks on officers were “not nice” but noted that most of the protests so far had been peaceful.

He said police would stick to their tactic of trying to avoid any escalation by offering to let any activists who leave on their own accord to do so without facing further police measures or prosecution.

“I’m really afraid today,” Petra Mueller, a 53-year-old local who had been at the site for several days, said from a top-floor window of one of the few remaining houses. Mueller said she still held out hope of preserving what is left of Luetzerath “until nothing is left standing; hope dies last”.

Environmentalists say bulldozing the village to expand the nearby Garzweiler coal mine would result in huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The government and utility company RWE argue that coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security.

However, a study by the German Institute for Economic Research calls into question the government’s stance. Its authors found other existing coal fields could be used instead, though the cost to RWE would be greater.

Another alternative would be for Germany to increase the production of renewable power, cut demand through energy efficiency measures, or import more coal or gas from abroad, the study found.

Some activists expressed particular anger at the environmentalist Green party, which is part of the regional and national governments that reached a deal with RWE last year allowing it to destroy the village in return for ending coal use by 2030, rather than 2038.

“I think climate protection and protests need symbols but the empty hamlet of Luetzerath, where no one lives any more, is the wrong symbol from my point of view,” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, a Green who is Germany’s economy and climate minister, told reporters in Berlin.

Climate campaigners counter that expanding a massive open-cast coal mine goes against Germany’s international commitments to reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The country is expected to miss its ambitious targets for the second year in a row.

Source aljazeera

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