Month: April 2019

The CIA had a top secret informant close to Vladimir Putin who confirmed the Russian president’s personal involvement in hacking the 2016 US election, it has been claimed.

According to the New York Times the source was giving information to the CIA during the Obama administration.

The information, and the source, were reportedly considered so sensitive that John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, gave details to Mr Obama in an envelope, separate from the daily presidential intelligence briefing that is delivered in the Oval Office, the New York Times reported.

Mr Brennan, accompanied by the head of the National Security Agency and Mr Obama’s director of national intelligence, were said to have briefed Donald Trump on the information in a meeting at Trump Tower two weeks before his inauguration.

Despite having been told about the source confirming Mr Putin’s personal involvement Mr Trump went on to repeatedly question whether Russia interfered in the election.

At a joint press conference with Mr Putin in Helsinki on Monday he declined to blame the Russian president.

It was unclear whether Mr Trump knew the identity of America’s Russian source, or what details of the person intelligence chiefs had given him at the Trump Tower meeting.

At the Helsinki news conference with Putin the US president was asked if he would denounce what happened in 2016 and warn Mr Putin never to do it again, and he did not directly answer. 

On Wednesday he was asked in Washington whether he believed Russia is currently targeting US elections and replied "No". The White House later said his answer had been misconstrued.

On Thursday Mr Trump wrote on Twitter that he was looking forward to a second meeting with Mr Putin.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence under Mr Obama, who was present when Mr Trump was briefed on Mr Putin’s personal involvement, said the incoming president had listened with "some scepticism."

Mr Clapper told CNN: "I do think there was scepticism from the get-go, from that day to this day, that indicated that anything that attacked the legitimacy, or questioned the legitimacy, of now-President Trump’s election, he just couldn’t get his head around."

The former intelligence chief added: "More and more I come to a conclusion after the Helsinki performance and since, that I really do wonder if the Russians have something on him."

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator, acknowledged on Thursday that Mr Trump has had a "bad week" on Russia.

He said: "I think it’s imperative that he understand that he’s misjudging Putin."

In a separate development the White House announced Mr Trump had rejected a proposal, made by Mr Putin in Helsinki, that Russian investigators be allowed to question US citizens.

Those citizens included Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Moscow, who the Kremlin accuses of "illegal activities".

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday that the idea was being considered.

That sparked a widespread backlash, including from Mr McFaul who called it "crazy".

On Thursday Mrs Sanders said: "It is a proposal made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it." 

The temperature rose to a record 41.1C in a city northwest of Tokyo on Monday, as a heat wave in Japan that has killed at least 23 people and sent thousands to hospital showed no sign of significant easing.

The temperature was recorded in Kumagaya, in Saitama prefecture, topping the previous high of 41C in the western prefecture of Kochi in August 2013, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Records go back to varying dates for different cities, with data for Kumagaya starting in 1896.

Japan has been battered by intense heat for close to two weeks but the mercury soared on Monday, breaking above 40 in one part of the broader Tokyo metropolitan area, while the centre of the capital marked a high of 39 in the early afternoon.

According to the Fire and Defence Management Agency, which issues weekly data, 12 people had died from the heat as of July 15, the latest available figures. Media reports say at least 11 more died this past Saturday alone, while thousands have been taken to hospital.

Among the dead was a primary school boy who collapsed after a field trip to a park 20 minutes’ walk from his school.

Temperatures in the ancient capital of Kyoto marked a record last week of seven straight days above 38 degrees, hitting 39.8 on July 19.

The heat prompted the city to cancel one of its biggest annual tourist events, a parade for the Gion Matsuri, on Sunday.

With the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020, concern has risen about the safety of athletes and spectators.

The heat, due to a layering of two high pressure systems over much of Japan, is expected to ease slightly this week but temperatures of around 33 are expected.

Indonesian villagers armed with knives, hammers and clubs slaughtered 292 crocodiles in revenge for the death of a man killed by a crocodile at a breeding farm, an official said.

Photographs released by Antara news agency showed bloodied carcasses of the crocodiles in a large pile in the Sorong district of the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua.

The head of Indonesia’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency in West Papua said that the 48-year-old victim had entered the crocodile farm and was likely picking grass for animal feed when he was attacked.

"An employee heard someone screaming for help, he quickly went there and saw a crocodile attacking someone," Basar Manullang said in a statement.

After the burial of the man on Saturday, villagers entered the farm and killed all the crocodiles, said Manullang.

Manullang said the farm had been given a licence to breed protected saltwater and New Guinea crocodiles in 2013 for preservation and also to harvest some of the animals.

But one of the conditions was that the reptiles did not disturb the community, he said.

"To prevent this from happening again, farming licence holders need to secure surrounding areas," said Manullang.

He said his agency was coordinating with police in their investigation.

"Crocodiles are God’s creatures that need to be protected too," Manullang said.

In a landmark move expected to ripple across an increasingly eco-conscious world, Hawaii has become the first state in the US to ban certain suntan lotions in an effort to protect its coral reefs from further chemical damage.

The legislative bill, signed by Hawaii Governor David Ige last week, prohibits the sale of sun cream that contains chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate, thought to cover as many as 80 per cent of brands. Tourists heading out to the sunny Pacific archipelago in the near future are advised to shop responsibly, but the law isn’t due to take effect until January 1, 2021.

“We are blessed in Hawaii to be home to some of the most beautiful resources on the planet,” Ige said at the signing of the bill. “But our environment is fragile and our own interaction with the earth can have everlasting impacts. This bill is a small first step worldwise to really caring about out corals and our reefs in a way that no one else anywhere in the world has done.”

The 12 boys rescued from a Thai cave were moved to tears as they paid tribute to the former Navy Seal who died ahead of their dramatic rescue.

The "Wild Boars" football team, who are recovering in hospital following 18 days spent inside the Tham Luang cave, wrote messages of thanks on a picture of Saman Kunan after they were told of the diver’s death for the first time since they emerged from their ordeal.

Images of the children in their hospital gowns with their heads bowed low were released on Sunday as British divers involved in the international rescue mission claimed the Thai Navy were “out of their depth” before their crucial intervention.

Doctors at the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital where the boys, aged 11 to 16, are being treated said on Sunday that they were in good health and are expected to be discharged on Thursday.

The health ministry said the overall condition for the players and coach was "normal", though many are still on a course of antibiotics after spending nine days in the damp and dark trapped underground.

But experts have urged caution amid the global intrigue surrounding the boys’ stories, saying they would all need to be monitored closely for signs of psychological distress that could take months to manifest and could be triggered by probing media interviews.

Medics said the boys were only considered mentally strong enough on Saturday to hear the news of Mr Kunan. When told how Mr Kunan died while installing oxygen tanks along the twisting passageways of the cave many of the boys cried before penning tributes on a drawing of the diver.

"All cried and expressed their condolences by writing messages on a drawing of Lieutenant Commander Saman and observed one minute of silence for him," Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary at the health ministry, said in the statement on Sunday.

"They also thanked him and promised to be good boys."

Attention had shifted away from the boys’ recovery in recent days to the team of British divers who discovered the missing football team and then helped lead an international rescue effort.

The divers were hailed heroes on their return to Britain, with more details emerging of the mission to extract the boys through murky waters and through narrow underwater passageways.

Reflecting on the mission, Jason Mallinson, 50, a father-of-one from Huddersfield, said the death of Mr Kunan was the wake up call to the Thai Navy that illuminated how crucial the British crew’s expertise would be.

“They realised they were way out of their depth and they had been lucky to get those guys into that last chamber with the boys and we were the only people who could remedy the situation,” he told the Mail on Sunday.

Mr Mallinson described how he was called to action by an emergency text message from the British Cave Rescue Council while at work in Scunthorpe and flew out to Thailand to help immediately.

Chris Jewell, another British diver who travelled to Thailand with Mr Mallinson to help, gave credit to the “brave” children who “showed no signs of panic” as he gently pushed them under the surface of the water in the cave system and guided them through the dark to safety.

He also described how he become lost in the dark underwater for four minutes while carrying a child to safety before finally finding the guideline and surfacing to complete the rescue. 

The boys were expected to watch a recording of the World Cup final on Monday morning after doctors ruled out allowing them to stay up late to view the match live on Sunday night.

"Given that the final will be broadcast quite late our time, and we want the boys to rest and not to be looking at screens too much, we will probably record the final and show it to them later," said the official the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital.

The world football governing body FIFA had invited the boys and their coach to attend the final in Moscow but they can not go for medical reasons.

Last week, Manchester United invited the "Wild Boars" to watch a match at their Old Trafford ground.

About 4,000 volunteers were on Sunday taking part in a clean-up of the area around the Tham Luang cave. A park area around the mouth got trampled by the hundreds of rescuers, and media workers, who flocked to help with the mission and to report on it.

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• Crimea, Iran and nuclear arms: What leaders want from talks

Donald Trump sided with Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence officials on Monday as he praised the Russian leader’s “extremely strong and powerful” denial over election meddling.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Helsinki, the US president said “I don’t see any reason why” the Kremlin would have interfered in the 2016 presidential race. …

President Emmanuel Macron of France is facing calls to fire a senior aide at the Elysée after prosecutors launched an investigation over a film of him beating up a protester.

The film shows Alexandre Benalla – in charge of Mr Macron’s security during his electoral campaign last year and now assistant to the president’s chief of staff – in a police helmet and armband but no uniform joining CRS riot police at a protest on 1 May.

The incident took place in a popular tourist spot at Place de la Contrescarpe in the fifth district of Paris.

In the film shot by a student activist, he grabs a woman by the neck, charging her down the street. Shortly afterwards he returns to the scene, drags a young man along the floor, grabs him by the neck and hits him.

Riot police present do not intervene to stop him.

The Paris prosecutor on Thursday launched a preliminary probe into “violence by a person with a public service mission, usurping a function and usurping signs reserved for public authority”.

Patrick Strzoda, Mr Macron’s principal private secretary, confirmed that Mr Benalla was the man in the clip, filmed by a bystander.

Mr Strzoda said he had authorised Mr Benalla to accompany police during the May Day demonstration as an “observer”. “When I saw the videos, I summoned him the same day and asked if it was him,” which he confirmed, he said.

The ex-security chief was then suspended for two weeks, demoted and threatened with dismissal if he did anything else untoward. He is still working at the Elysée and played a part in organising a huge garden party thrown for the victorious French football squad on Monday.

Elysée spokesman Bruno Roger-Petit said he had been handed “the most serious sanction ever pronounced against a project manager working at the Elysée” and that he had been “relieved of his duties in terms of the organisation and security of the president’s movements”.

A second man filmed at the protest called Vincent Crase, a gendarme reservist occasionally called to work for presidential security, was also filmed “overstepping the mark”, confirmed Mr Roger-Petit.

“All collaboration between him and the presidency has been terminated,” he said.

Calling their actions "unacceptable", Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, said he had asked the police’s internal investigative unit to "determine in which conditions" Mr Benalla and Mr Crase were authorised to take part in the May Day protest alongside security forces.

"These two people had no legitimacy to intervene. They had been authorised to act as observers, which is common practice," he said.

Despite the attempts at damage limitation, the incident sparked angry reaction from the opposition, which called for a parliamentary inquiry.

“Faced with this double fault and clear and unacceptable attack, (Mr Benalla) must resign,” wrote Socialist senator Rachid Ternal.

“Questions: why did the police let Alexandre Benalla go ahead? Why wasn’t justice seized? Why did Emmanuel Macron leave it at simply sidelining him? What’s this thug doing at the Elysée security anyway?,” asked Eric Coquerel of leftist group La France Insoumise (France Unbowed).

Laurent Wauquiez, head of the centre-Right party, The Republicans, called on Mr Macron to "speak out” on the matter, and answer questions over what Mr Benalla was doing at the demonstration and whether there were "attempts to hush up this affair”.

There were even calls from within Mr Macron’s party, Republic on the Move, LREM for Mr Benalla to resign.

MP Laurent Saint-Martin said: "My personal opinion is that after such acts, one can no longer work for the president, one can no longer work at the Elysée full stop". It was important to "prove that there can be no untouchable Republic", he told CNews.

This is not the first time Mr Benalla has been accused of unexplained brutality.

Public Sénat, the parliamentary TV channel, said it footage of him manhandling one of its reporters during Mr Macron’s presidential campaign. When contacted at the time about this "inappropriate behaviour", the campaign team declined to respond, the channel said.

Leaked emails between the Macron campaign team at the end of his campaign – which they later blamed on Russian hackers – uncovered an exchange in which aides expressed shock that Mr Benalla had asked to procure guns with rubber bullets and a stun grenade. The request was denied and dubbed "dangerous".

Christophe Barbier, political analyst on BFM TV, said: “This is the worst political scandal to hit Emmanuel Macron’s presidency”.

“We’re in a mature democracy in 2018. We’re not in Chile or Argentina in the 1970s and 80s.”

Asked if he had confidence in his bodyguard on Wednesday night, Mr Macron pointed to a member of his entourage, saying: "My bodyguard’s over there."

Uighur women in China have reportedly had their long tunics cut short by the authorities, in what appears to be the latest attempt to suppress the minority’s Muslim identity.

A series of pictures, which could not be independently verified by The Telegraph, show women in China’s western Xinjiang province being accosted by scissor-wielding officials who cut off their dress-like garments, worn over trousers, at the waist.

The photos issued by Radio Free Asia, a US-government funded outlet, show women apparently being stopped in the street by officials in plain clothes. In one image it appears that female scooter rider has been pulled over to have her clothing adjusted.

Activists claim the policy is another move to “Sinicise” the 15-million strong minority, which Beijing has long been accused of repressing.

The bizarre move follows previous restrictions prohibiting “abnormal” beards, the wearing of veils in public places and the refusal to watch state television. Surveillance is pervasive, with residents being monitored by a multitude of facial recognition cameras and biometric data.

According to RFA, Uighurs have claimed that the tunics are worn for comfort and not religious reasons, although similar garments are worn sometimes in Muslim cultures as a sign of modesty.  

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, a coalition of exiled Uighur groups, told The Telegraph that the act of slashing their clothes was an “insult” to local women and an intrusion on their personal lives.

The local authorities believed that the wearing of clothes to cover a women’s rear was “against modern civilization”, but actually their own practices were a form of “political discrimination,” he said, denouncing the situation as “ridiculous.”

The Chinese government strongly denies committing any abuses in Xinjiang and insists the legal, cultural and religious rights of Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, are fully protected. But it argues that strict policies introduced in recent years are an attempt to counter a rise in religious extremism.

At the extreme end of the scale, tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of Muslim Chinese citizens have been interned in mass re-education camps, the Associated Press reported in May, documenting the psychological pressure, beating, solitary confinement and food deprivation endured by inmates.

The reported abuses have not gone unnoticed abroad.

 “The increasing repression and persecution of the Uighurs is profoundly concerning. The Chinese government is pursuing severe violations of freedom or religion or belief and other grave violations of human rights in Xinjiang,” said Benedict Rogers, East Asia team leader for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a charity upholding religious freedoms.

“The international community should speak up before it is too late,” he said.

Donald Trump last night said he misspoke when he failed to blame Russia for interfering in the US election in 2016 during a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

Mr Trump said he had been surprised by the firestorm of criticism that followed his remarks, and that confusion had been caused by one misplaced word.

It was his second recent remarkable about turn following an apology to Theresa May in the wake of a newspaper interview in which he criticised her handling of Brexit.

At the Helsinki press conference Mr Trump said "I don’t see any reason why it would be" Russia that meddled in the US election, despite all his own intelligence agencies having concluded that it was.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump made a statement at the White House that he had meant to say the opposite.

The president said he wanted to "clarify a key sentence" he spoke in Helsinki. He said that sentence should have been "I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t be" Russia. He called the sentence he meant to say a "bit of a double negative".

Mr Trump added: "I used the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’. I think that probably clarifies things pretty much by itself."

The president said he thought the summit had gone well and was initially confused by the angry reaction, asking himself "What’s the big deal?"

He then looked at a transcript of his answers and realised he had misspoken, he said.

The president added that he had "full faith and support" in US intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusion that Russia was to blame.

He said his administration would move aggressively to repel any efforts to interfere in the US mid-term congressional elections in November.

While accepting that Russian election interference "took place" Mr Trump also added: "Could be other people also. A lot of people out there."

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, had publicly countered Mr Trump’s Helsinki comments just before he issued his clarification.

Mr McConnell said: "There is indisputable evidence that they tried to impact the 2016 election."

He also offered a direct message of support to America’s allies in Europe, calling Nato the "most significant military alliance in history".

Trump and Putin | In talks

Mr McConnell said:  "Make no mistake about it. I would say to our friends in Europe – we understand the Russian threat. That is the widespread view here in the US Senate . The European countries are our friends and the Russians are not.

"I think it’s important for our friends and allies to hear from us. These alliances, painstakingly made in the wake of World War II, are important and we want to maintain them."

Mr Trump had initially been buoyant after the press conference, believing his summit with Mr Putin to have been a success.

Donald Trump approval rating tracker

But when he saw television coverage on Air Force One on his way home he reportedly became furious and vented at aides about the lack of support he was getting even from his staunchest supporters.

Anthony Scaramucci, his former communications director, said Mr Trump made a "strategic mistake" and needed to "reverse course".

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker, called it "the most serious mistake of his presidency," which "must be corrected immediately".

A massive iceberg drifting near the coast of Greenland has triggered fears of flooding if it breaks up, leading the authorities to evacuate a high-risk zone.

The authorities have urged residents of the Innarsuit island settlement with houses on a promontory to move away from the shore over fears that the iceberg, which was spotted on Thursday, could swamp the area.

"We fear the iceberg could calve and send a flood towards the village," Lina Davidsen, a security chief at the Greenland police, told Danish news agency Ritzau on Friday.

The settlement in northwestern Greenland has 169 inhabitants, but only those living closest to the iceberg have been evacuated, Ritzau reported.

"The iceberg is still near the village and the police are now discussing what do to next," Kunuk Frediksen, a police chief in the Danish autonomous territory, told AFP.

The incident comes weeks after scientists at New York University shot and released a video of a massive iceberg breaking free from a glacier in eastern Greenland in June.

Last year, four people died and 11 were injured after an earthquake sparked a tsunami off another island settlement called Nuugaatsiaq, sending several houses crashing into the sea.