South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Trump tells Congress of plans to close last 2 consulates in Russia
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has notified members of Congress that it plans to close the last two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia.
In a letter dated Dec. 10, the State Department said it plans to close the consulate in Vladivostok, a major port city in far-east Russia, and temporarily suspend its operations at the consulate in Yekaterinburg, east of the Ural Mountains.
The closure of these consulates would leave the United States with one remaining diplomatic outpost in Russia — the embassy in Moscow — amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
The State Department notification was sent days before reports emerged of a suspected Russian cyberattack against numerous federal agencies and companies.
According to the notification to Congress, the consulates are being closed because of caps imposed by Russian authorities in 2017 on the number of American diplomats allowed to work in the country.
Ten diplomats assigned to the consulates will be reassigned to the embassy in Moscow, according to the State Department notification. Thirty-three locally-employed staff members will be laid off.
The consulate in Vladivostok has been closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The exact timing of the closures was not disclosed, and it is unclear if they will happen before President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20.
China makes threats:
China threatened to impose countermeasures after
Washington decided to blacklist more than 60 Chinese companies, a sign that tensions between the world’s two biggest economies may further escalate during the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The U.S. has “abused” export controls to suppress enterprises, institutions and individuals of other countries, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Saturday.
The U.S. Commerce Department cited national security and human rights violations as reasons for blacklisting the Chinese companies in an announcement on Friday. Shanghai-based chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Shenzhen-based drone giant SZ DJI Technology Co. were among the companies that were punished.
Epstein associate
charged: A former French modeling agent who was a close associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment, the Paris prosecutor said Saturday.
The associate, Jean-Luc Brunel, 74, is also under investigation on suspicion of human trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, according to the Paris prosecutor, Rémi Heitz.
“He is suspected of having committed rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment on various victims, both minors and adults, and in particular of having organized the transportation and lodging for girls and young women on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein,” the prosecutor said.
French law criminalizes sex between an adult and a minor under the age of 15. A sexual relationship between an adult and a minor over age 15 is legal unless accusations of sexual abuse can be supported by specific circumstances such as the use of coercion.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell last year at age 66. He was awaiting trial on charges of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls and young women at his mansion in Manhattan, New York; his estate in Palm Beach, Florida; and other locations.
Brexit talks: Negotiators for the European Union and Britain continued their lastditch talks for a post-Brexit trade deal on Saturday, with less than two weeks to clinch an agreement.
Talks are ongoing, according to a European Commission spokesperson.
So far, the two sides have not announced any plans for leaders’ talks to take stock of the negotiators.
The European Parliament named Sunday as a deadline, saying this was the last chance to wrap up an agreement and allow for lawmaers to give it proper scrutiny.
Britain formally left the EU at the end of January, but remains in the bloc’s single market and customs union during a transition period that expires at the end of the month.
LA’s DA backtracks: Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said he would backtrack on one of the sweeping changes he had announced when he took office earlier this month.
Gascon said on Friday that he would allow his office to seek harsher sentencing for hate crimes, child abuse, elder abuse, sexual assault, sex trafficking and some financial crimes.
Gascon had long argued that sentencing enhancements lead to inflated prison terms and target Black and Latino defendants.
Armenian protests: Both opponents and supporters of Armenia’s prime minister rallied Saturday as the nation paid tribute to the thousands who died in fighting with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Critics demanded that the leader resign and tried to pelt him with eggs.
The Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh in six weeks of hostilities that ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal on Nov. 10 that saw Azerbaijan reclaim large parts of the separatist region and surrounding territories.
The loss of lands that had been controlled by ethnic Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century has traumatized Armenians, triggering weeks of protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
On Saturday, thousands of protesters rallied near the Yerablur military memorial cemetery on the outskirts of the Armenian capital of Yerevan as Pashinyan visited it to honor the soldiers killed in the latest fighting. The nation is observing a threeday mourning period for the dead.
The prime minister’s opponents, shouting “Nikol, you traitor!,” engaged in scuffles with his supporters and police.
Police dispersed t he protesters to clear the way for Pashinyan and his security guards covered him with shields and umbrellas as protesters attempted to hit him with eggs.
Turkey fire: Nine people were killed Saturday after a fire broke out at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients in southern Turkey, state news agency Anadolu reported.
An oxygen cylinder exploded at the privately-run Sani Konukoglu Hospital in the city of Gaziantep, the report said.
Eleven patients at the unit were transferred to other hospitals for the duration of the investigation into the explosion, Gaziantep Governor Davut Gul said on Twitter