Category: Foreign

PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has told CNN that he has been “very supportive” of his continued efforts to dig up dirt on Democrats in Ukraine, including his most recent trip to the Eastern European country.

The admission bolsters a central Democratic argument of the impeachment proceedings: that the President has allowed his personal attorney to push Ukraine for investigations that benefit Trump’s political agenda.
U.S. lawmakers gathered yesterday to set the rules of the debate and vote on the President’s impeachment on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The House rules committee will lay out the framework for the vote, including the length of time for arguments.
Depending on the outcome, a full vote by all members of the House could take place today or tomorrow.
In a phone conversation with CNN yesterday, Giuliani suggested that Trump has been well aware of everything he has done in Ukraine, though he declined to say if Trump directed him to go on his most recent trip there.
“We’re on the same page,” Giuliani said of Trump.
Visiting Ukraine earlier this month, Giuliani claimed he gathered evidence of a wide-ranging conspiracy to prevent his and the President’s efforts to uncover years of corruption there. In Giuliani’s view, that corruption chiefly involves Trump’s domestic political opponents, including Joe Biden as well as Hillary Clinton.
Unprompted, Giuliani emphasised that he and the President are “on offence” when it comes to pursuing dirt on Democrats.
“Just in case you think we’re on defence, we’re not,” Giuliani said. In recent days, he has given a series of interviews about his Ukraine exploits to national news outlets, including The New York Times, Fox News and the New Yorker. Giuliani’s comments come as Democrats in the House prepare to vote on articles of impeachment against the President.
In his interview with CNN, Giuliani spoke at length about former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was removed from office earlier this year and has become a central figure in the impeachment inquiry. Giuliani claimed Yovanovitch perjured herself during her congressional testimony last month and that she should be charged with obstruction of justice.
He declined to offer specific evidence that would back up his claim, though he insisted he has it.
“I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,” Mr Giuliani also told the New Yorker.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, rejected a Democratic proposal to call four witnesses in the trial in the upper chamber.
Among the people the Democrats want to hear from is John Bolton, the former national security adviser, and White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

McConnell, who said he is coordinating his moves with the White House, denounced the Democrats’ strange request to have witnesses, calling it a fishing expedition.
“The House is poised to send the Senate the thinnest, least thorough impeachment in our nation’s history,” McConnell argued on the Senate floor.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s visit to Zimbabwe has been hailed as a step in the right direction towards a resolution of the political and economic problems bedeviling the country, an official said.

Mbeki brokered the accord that led to the establishment of an inclusive government in 2009, following disputed elections pitting former President Robert Mugabe.

The inclusive government lasted four years with Mugabe remaining President while MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai became Prime Minister.

He was also due to meet MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe and other opposition officials Lovemore Madhuku, Priscilla Misihairabwi and Lucia Matibenga, according to government spokesperson Nick Mangwana.
Mbeki comes in as many Zimbabweans call for the two political adversaries to discuss issues that have led to lack of international and local political and economic goodwill for the country.

Academic Nhamo Mhiripiri yesterday said Mbeki’s visit was very important, given the significant relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa going back to the pre-independence days.

“Whenever we’re at our most intense moment of problems you see the South Africans coming in.

“When things reach this extent (political and economic crisis) it means there’s need for mediation,” Mhiripiri said.
He urged Chamisa to be more engaging and admit that Mnangagwa’s legitimacy as President had been decided by the courts, so he could no longer use any other constitutional means to dislodge the incumbent president.
“That one is gone, unless he has another constitutional provision that he may want to use. On other pertinent issues, dialogue should be held with the critical opposition, the one people voted for.
“Let us not pretend that POLAD is the opposition,” the Midlands State University lecturer said.
POLAD, acronym for Political Actors Dialogue, was launched by Mnangagwa early 2019 bringing together all presidential candidates in the 2018 harmonised elections.

Speaking to newsmen after meeting Mnangagwa, Mbeki echoed Mhiripiri’s statement on legitimacy saying that the matter had already been resolved by the courts of law.

“Well, normally, I would say we must all of us respect the view of the people.

“If people have queries, they must go to the courts because all the countries in the region have that provision that people can go and lodge their complaints about elections to the judiciary.

“And once the courts have made a ruling then we have got to accept that,” he said.

THE Pope has declared that the rule of “pontifical secrecy” no longer applies to the sexual abuse of minors, in a bid to improve transparency in such cases.

The Church previously shrouded sexual abuse cases in secrecy, in what it said was an effort to protect the privacy of victims and reputations of the accused.
But new papal documents yesterday lifted restrictions on those who report abuse or say they have been victims.
Church leaders called for the rule’s abolition at a February Vatican summit.
They said the lifting of the rule in such cases would improve transparency and the ability of the police and other civil legal authorities to request information from the church.
Information in abuse cases should still be treated with “security, integrity and confidentiality”, the Pope said in his announcement. He instructed Vatican officials to comply with civil laws and assist civil judicial authorities in investigating such cases.

The Pope also changed the Vatican’s definition of child pornography, increasing the age of the subject from 14 or under to 18 or under.

Charles Scicluna, the Archbishop of Malta and the Vatican’s most experienced sex abuse investigator, called the move an “epochal decision that removes obstacles and impediments”, telling Vatican news that “the question of transparency now is being implemented at the highest level”.

The Church has been rocked by thousands of reports of sexual abuse by priests and accusations of cover-ups by senior clergy around the world. Pope Francis has faced serious pressure to provide leadership and generate workable solutions to the crisis, which has engulfed the Church in recent years.

Pontifical secrecy was designed to protect sensitive information such as communications between the Vatican and papal embassies – in a similar fashion to the secrecy applied to diplomatic cables. But it was also applied over the years to judicial cases, to protect the privacy of victims and the identities of those accused.

THE United Kingdom (UK) government is to add a new clause to the Brexit bill to rule out any extension to the transition period beyond the end of next year.

The post-Brexit transition period – due to conclude in December 2020 – can currently be extended by mutual agreement for up to two years.

But an amended Withdrawal Agreement Bill the Commons is set to vote on this week would rule out any extension.

The PM told MPs it would put an end to years of “deadlock, dither and delay”.

As the House of Commons assembled for the first time since the election, Johnson said his priority was to “get Brexit done”. He also promised to seek “common ground” and to approach politics with a “new and generous spirit” after the rancour of recent years.

Jeremy Corbyn congratulated the Conservative leader on his victory but said he would be “judged” on whether he delivered on the “many, many promises” he made during the campaign, including to longstanding Labour voters.

The UK is set to leave the EU on 31 January, more than three and a half years after the public backed Brexit in a referendum.