Washington’s Kennedy Center opened an unusual exhibition within the walls of its new art space,  a collection of paintings by former president George W. Bush. The total of 66 oil paintings of military veterans will be displayed in the center this fall. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. 
 

A fugitive financier will give up claims to hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury goods prosecutors say were purchased with money stolen from a Malaysian investment fund, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Under the settlement with U.S. prosecutors, the financier, Jho Low, relinquishes claims to assets that were seized by U.S. officials beginning in 2016, the person said. The settlement would also allow millions of dollars in fees to be paid to Low’s legal team.

The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The settlement comes about three years after the Justice Department moved to recover more than $1 billion that it said had been stolen. It had filed a civil complaint that sought the forfeiture of property, including a Manhattan penthouse, a Beverly Hills mansion, a luxury jet and paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet.

The Justice Department confirmed the settlement late Wednesday. U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said: “The message in this case is simple: the United States is not a safe haven for pilfered funds. Our strict anti-money laundering controls are effective, and we will seize assets used by criminals to conceal ill-gotten gains.”

Low issued a statement calling the settlement “the result of good faith discussions between the parties.”

Low was charged last year by federal prosecutors in New York. They accused him of being involved in a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions of dollars from the Malaysian investment fund. It was the first criminal prosecutions in the U.S. arising from the corruption scandal at the state investment fund known as 1MDB.

The indictment against Low, who is also known as Low Taek Jho, accuses him of misappropriating money from the state-owned fund and using it for bribes and kickbacks to foreign officials, to pay for luxury real estate, art and jewelry in the United States and to help finance Hollywood movies, including “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

The fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was set up in 2009 by then-Prime Minister Najib Razak to promote economic development. It relied primarily on debt to fund investment and economic development projects and was overseen by senior Malaysian government officials, according to court records.

Najib set up 1MDB when he took office in 2009, but it accumulated billions in debts, and U.S. investigators allege at least $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates.

Public anger over the corruption allegations contributed to the shocking election defeat of Najib’s long-ruling coalition in May 2018.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is lashing out at China’s Communist Party for being “truly hostile to the United States,” slamming Beijing for exporting an authoritarian system, pressuring American companies and using coercion to advance maritime claims.

“They threaten the free and open international order by making extrajudicial territorial and maritime claims in places like the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait,” said Pompeo in a speech at a Hudson Institute event in New York Wednesday.

The top U.S. diplomat’s speech on China comes days after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s hard-hitting speech on China that referred to Beijing as a strategic rival for its authoritarian approach to society, the rule of law and international commerce.

China has pushed back on the U.S. assertions, saying Washington is smearing Beijing’s policies.

Pompeo also laid out key areas of U.S. competition with China that included the economy, military, ideologies, and international orders.

Weeks before the world’s two leading economies are expected to seal a phase one trade deal to pause the months-long trade war, Pompeo said “we want to see a thriving Chinese business community that transacts with the rest of the world on fair and reciprocal terms.

“We don’t want a confrontation with the People’s Republic of China,” added the chief diplomat.

As of early Thursday, India lost one state and gained two federal territories as part of the government’s effort to take control of years of insurgency.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi split the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir into two territories to be ruled directly by New Delhi.

One will be Jammu and Kashmir, which will include the restive Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-majority Jammu. The second territory will include the high-altitude Buddhist enclave of Ladakh.

The split comes just months after Modi’s Hindu nationalist government stripped the former state of its semiautonomous status. Modi has defended the move, saying the special status had impeded the region’s progress, had given rise to terrorism and was used as a weapon by rival Pakistan to “instigate some people.”

India has long accused Pakistan of supporting and training militants to foment a separatist insurgency in Kashmir, charges Islamabad denies.

Modi won praise in several quarters for taking the bold, decisive step that they say in the long run may address the alienation in Kashmir and integrate it with the rest of the country. Critics, however, fear that it will deepen anti-India sentiment and could fuel insurgency among people worried about opening up the region to the rest of the country.

Hungary’s prime minster said Wednesday after hosting a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that good relations with Russia are a necessity because of his country’s geographical location.

Analysts see Prime Minister Viktor Orban as Putin’s closest ally in the European Union and Hungary has long advocated for the end of sanctions against Russia for actions in Ukraine, saying they hurt the Hungarian economy. Trade between Hungary and Russia increased in 2018 for the first time since sanctions were put in place.

“It’s a simple geographical fact: No country can change its address,” Orban said during a news conference with Putin about Hungary’s need to cooperate with Russia. “Every country is located where God created it. For Hungary, it means being in a Moscow-Berlin-Istanbul triangle.”

Orban mentioned Hungary’s membership in the European Union and NATO but said that it did “not rule out establishing political cooperation with Russia on certain issues.”

Orban said Hungary, which depends greatly on Russian gas and oil, was trying to cooperate with Russia on issues like preventing migration to Europe, stabilizing the Middle East and aiding Christian communities around the world.

TurkStream gas pipeline 

Orban also said it was a priority for his country to join the TurkStream gas pipeline to increase supply routes to Hungary for Russian gas.

Putin said that Russia expects to complete construction of the TurkStream pipeline to Turkey this year and build extensions to Bulgaria and Serbia the following year. He added that an extension to Hungary could be built quickly, and Orban welcomed the prospect.

Putin pointed to Hungary’s role as a top customer for Russian natural gas and as a key transit hub.

“Russian gas supplies to Western Europe go via Hungary, and its underground depots allow serving European customers when consumption peaks,” Putin said. “We view Hungary as a priority partner in the distribution of Russian natural gas in Europe.”

Protecting Christians

The Russian leader also praised Orban for organizing a meeting with representatives of Christian communities from the Middle East, saying that Russia sees the protection of Christians in Syria and other conflict areas as a top priority.
 
“The Middle East is the cradle of Christianity, and Christians are in peril there, facing persecution, being killed, raped and robbed. Russia will do everything to protect Christians in the Middle East. We must help them restore and preserve their holy sites, preserve their congregations,” he said.

Putin added that the Russian military in Syria is also helping restore mosques and assisting Jewish communities.

Speaking later at a meeting with Christian leaders from the Middle East, Putin said, “We are concerned with a massive exodus of Christians from the Middle East.”

“We are watching what’s happening to the Christians in the Middle East with tears in our eyes,” Putin said.
 

Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages. 
 
Facebook has taken fire since it disclosed earlier in October that it would not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook. 
 
The issue arose in September when Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from President Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.  

In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran an ad on Facebook taking aim at Zuckerberg. The ad falsely claimed that Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump for re-election, acknowledging the deliberate falsehood as necessary to make a point. 
 
Critics have called on Facebook to ban political ads. CNN chief Jeff Zucker recently called the policy of allowing lies ludicrous and advised the social media giant to sit out the 2020 election until it can figure out something better.  

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the change Wednesday , saying the company was recognizing that advertising on social media offered an unfair level of targeting compared with other mediums. 
 
The majority of money spent on political advertising in the U.S. goes to television ads. 
 
Twitter’s policy will start Nov. 22. 

The children’s rights group Save the Children says a high number of Rohingya refugee children are suffering from severe mental health problems. Dave Grunebaum visited one of the camps in Bangladesh and has the story.

Sudan has recently drawn down its forces taking part in a Saudi-led coalition at war with Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen, two senior Sudanese officials said Wednesday.

They declined to disclose how many troops have left Yemen, but say “several thousand troops,” mainly from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have returned over the past two months.

The officials stressed that Sudan isn’t quitting the Saudi-led coalition. The coalition was formed in 2015 to stem the advance of the rebels known as Houthis after they took over Yemen’s capital and the northern provinces in 2014, pushing out the internationally recognized government.

The officials say Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the RSF, agreed with Saudi Arabia that he would not replace returned forces as fighting on the ground has dwindled in recent months. They said a “few thousand troops” remain for training Yemeni government forces.

In past years Dagalo, who is also member of Sudan’s joint military-civilian Sovereign Council that will govern Sudan for just over a three-year transition, mobilized thousands of RSF troops to fight in Yemen on behalf of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the backbone of the coalition.

The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias used by former autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s.

The officials said the Sudanese troops reached over 40,000 at the peak of Yemen’s war in 2016-2017.

Yemeni military officials said Sudanese troops had centered mainly in Yemen’s border areas with Saudi Arabia to repel any attacks by Houthis on the Kingdom.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not answer calls seeking comment.

In July, the UAE said it pulled out several thousand troops in Yemen, describing the move as a “strategic redeployment.” Qatar and Morocco also pulled forces from Yemen in recent years amid a rift with Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led coalition has been at war in Yemen since 2015 to support the country’s internationally-backed government.

The war, sparked by the Houthis’ takeover of the capital in 2014, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, thrust millions to the brink of famine and spawned the world’s most devastating humanitarian crisis. Now it has ground into a long stalemate.

Iraqis took to the streets Wednesday in another day of protests over high unemployment, a lack of public services and alleged corruption. Some observers believe the ongoing demonstrations, which have left at least 250 people dead in recent weeks, could pave the way for real and badly-needed economic reforms in the oil-rich nation of nearly 40 million people.

Despite their country’s vast oil wealth, many Iraqis live in poverty or with limited access to basic services, as the nation struggles to recover from years of sectarian and Islamic State conflict. Some 7 million Iraqis reportedly live below the poverty line and the World Bank puts youth unemployment at 25 percent.

Analysts say corruption, economic mismanagement and runaway spending have eaten away at the potential prosperity Iraqis had hoped for. Also, a boost in government spending has yet to translate into jobs, even though the economy is projected to expand this year by 3.4 percent, buoyed by increased crude oil production, after two years of economic contraction.

Analyst Anthony Pfaff of the Atlantic Council and the U.S. Army War College tells VOA that there are no quick fixes to turn the economy around or bring about better services in the short term. Pfaff says if Baghdad is serious about reform and willing to make the necessary sacrifices, it likely will need initial economic help from outside sources such as the World Bank, Gulf Arab states, the United States and the United Nations to confront systemic woes.

“You can with a little leadership push through those kinds of things that will enhance (sic) its ability to provide services to the people, and open up and grow the economy and divest itself from state-owned enterprises and the other kinds of things it needs to do to diversify its economy and give everybody an equal voice,” he said. “Those are the kinds of things that can at least demonstrate the right intent, provide a little hope. But if it stops there, you are back to square one and more protests.”

Pfaff says that Iraq has begun to establish banks where individuals can get small loans for business start-ups, but the development is not widespread or well-known. He also urges Iraq to remove barriers to foreign investment.

“The regulations, visa requirements and the inability to move money in and out of Iraq in a transparent, accountable way make it very hard for large corporations or big investors to invest in Iraq,” he said. “That’s just one of the things they need to try to figure out and get rid of those barriers, the sometimes Byzantine and inconsistently applied regulations that just make licensing and other stuff very difficult.”

Jihad Azour, the director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, was quoted recently as saying Iraq needs more job creation and a boost in infrastructure spending.

Earlier in October, the Iraqi Cabinet issued a new reform plan to respond to the ire and demands put forth in protests that appeared to take authorities by surprise. The unrest has proved to be a major challenge for Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who formed his government a year ago.
 

Chile has cancelled climate and economic summits as anti-government protests continue, President Sebastian Pinera announced Wednesday.

The South American country was set to host the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November as well as the COP25 climate summit in early December.

The protests that began October 18 over a 4% increase in subway fares in Santiago have spread across the nation, inflamed by the frustration of ordinary Chileans who feel they have been left out of the prosperity of Latin America’s wealthiest country.

Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces on Monday – the same day President Pinera replaced eight cabinet members in an attempt to tame the country’s political crisis.  

While most of the protests have been peaceful, some have turned violent, leaving at least 20 people dead.

The protesters are seeking improved economic equality in the country, as well as reforms in the pension and medical systems.

Pinera, a center-right billionaire, last week offered a host of proposals to try to calm the protesters, including a raise in the minimum wage and pensions as well as lower prices for medicines and public transportation.

The news of the Lebanese prime minister’s resignation is fueling concerns about the future of the eastern Mediterranean country, bordering Israel and Syria. Prime Minister Saad Hariri handed in his resignation to President Michel Aoun on Tuesday, after nearly two weeks of nationwide protests, sparked by steep economic downturn, growing national debt and the rising cost of living. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Hariri’s departure creates a vacuum that could deepen the crisis, but some Lebanese people see it as an opportunity for improvement.

U.S. President Donald Trump has made protecting Syria’s oil reserves a top priority, and is deploying U.S. troops to the oil fields even as he pulled American forces out of the border area with Turkey, clearing the way for a Turkish military assault earlier this month on the Kurds.  Senior administration officials say the U.S. wants to keep the oil fields from falling back into the hands of Islamic State militants.  But as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, experts question Trump’s focus on the oil fields. 

An international conference has concluded in Brussels with the European Union pledging an additional 150 million euros [166 million USD] to address the Venezuelan migration crisis. The United States also contributed to the effort. Experts at the conference estimate that by the end of next year more than six million Venezuelans will have fled their country.  From Brussels, VOA reporter Celia Mendoza has more. 

Brazil’s Navy said Tuesday it is preparing for an oil spill to possibly reach one of the country’s largest coral reef systems, amid public outcry regarding the government’s early response to the spill.

Adm. Leonardo Puntel said three ships are already onsite at the reef with another two on the way, and that a helicopter will be conducting flyovers. They will work to spot any heavy crude and, if detected, deploy divers to retrieve the masses of dense crude before they can contaminate the protected area.

The Abrolhos Marine National Park, off the coast of Bahia state, is home to rare coral formations and is a popular scuba dive site. The mysterious spill started showing up on Brazil’s northeastern coastline on Sept. 2, and has now contaminated 254 beaches, mangroves and estuaries in nine states.

Tuesday’s press conference came as prosecutors, environmental experts and some politicians increased criticism of the government’s response to the environmental catastrophe, claiming it was initially too slow and insufficient. Footage on local television in recent weeks has shown hordes of volunteers removing oil along the 1,300 miles of affected coastline, often without government oversight or equipment

Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s most prominent scientists, said in an interview with the Associated Press that the government this year eliminated several committees and public bodies that collaborate with ministries to develop public policy. The committee that had drafted a national contingency plan for oil spills was among those cut, an error made evident in the wake of the spill, he said.

“When the first of this oil reaches the beaches of northeast Brazil in early September, there is no committee: these people which were organized and could immediately have taken action at federal level, state level, private-sector level.” Nobre said. “No organization. It was a total mess.”

Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva, also present at Tuesday’s press conference, denied any wrongdoing, and said the government acted as soon as the oil started showing up.

The crude moves beneath the ocean’s surface, only becoming visible as it nears the coast, which makes it extremely difficult to track by satellite, plane or helicopter, Puntel said. He told reporters the Navy can’t predict where it will hit next or how long it will continue to pollute Brazilian beaches.

In the last few days, the amount of oil reaching the coast has been diminishing, he added, without ruling out that it could pick up as currents change.

Brazil’s state-run oil company has determined the oil is Venezuelan, but Venezuela’s government denies it is the origin. Brazilian authorities continue to investigate the cause of the spill.

Nobre said he hopes the disaster serves as a “big lesson” to the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, as disasters can happen any time and in many areas.

Linda Hamilton set a new standard for female action heroes more than 30 years ago, but her return to the “Terminator” movie franchise prompted more than a little soul searching.

Hamilton, 63, reunites with Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron for “Terminator: Dark Fate,” out in U.S. movie theaters on Friday.

“I sort of had an existential crisis at the beginning of the film when I showed up and felt like ‘uh-oh,’” said Hamilton.

“I’ve never felt more alone in my life than when I started and that probably wasn’t a reflection to what was going on on set and around me. It was what was going on inside of me,” the actress said.

Set two decades after Hamilton played Sarah Connor as a muscular mother battling futuristic cyborgs to save her teenage son in 1991 film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” the new movie sees her teaming up with an enhanced human to save a Mexican factory worker from a terminator from the future.

Hamilton said she trained her body for a year for the role as well as “getting myself into Sarah’s head, her disappointments, her sorrows, her guilt, all the deep hard stuff.”

The actress, who was married to Cameron from 1997 to 1999, shrugged off the acclaim she won for her earlier work as Connor, which led the way for the portrayal of strong women on screen.

“That’s just an actress playing a part and it’s an accident of timing. It’s not that I didn’t do good work. It was that the world was ready to receive it too. So, I try to stay very, very balanced about it and never think of myself as an icon or having a legacy,” she said.

So balanced that Hamilton said she was looking forward to returning to what she called her “invisible” life at home in New Orleans.

“When this movie’s open, I’m just going to, like, go underground, be invisible for a while,” she said.

“I don’t want to be that person in my neighborhood. I want to be like, ‘Let’s talk about our dogs and our cats and the people around us being born.’ … I’ve established a very real, authentic life for myself and I don’t want that to change when I go home to it.”

Protests over a disputed presidential election convulsed Bolivia on Tuesday as police fired tear gas in the capital and the sitting president and opposition candidate wrestled over an audit of the results.

The brief suspension of publication of the results from an electronic count of the Oct. 20 presidential election has triggered protests and strikes that have closed roads, schools and businesses around the nation for more than a week.

President Evo Morales, a leftist seeking a fourth term, was eventually declared the winner, prompting accusations of fraud from opposition candidate Carlos Mesa and his supporters.

 In La Paz, opposition protesters mounted road barricades of rope, wooden boards and sheets of metal. Rows of helmet-clad riot police lined some streets, separating Morales’ supporters from protesters opposed to the president.

Tear gas was used in at least two locations to disperse protesters.

Morales, who has been in office nearly 14 years and is Latin America’s longest-serving leader, has said the Organization of American States (OAS) will audit the election and that he will go to a second round if fraud is found.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and Morales, 60, both deny any irregularities.

“We, in the most transparent and secure way, confident in the sovereignty of the people, have invited an international audit,” Vice President Alvaro Garcia told reporters early on
Tuesday.

“We have called on the OAS and brother countries so they can clear up any doubt with respect to the malicious campaign of the losing candidate, who refuses to accept the decision of the Bolivian people,” Garcia said.

“We want to ask Carlos Mesa, the losing candidate, to join the audit,” he added. “We await a speedy and affirmative response.”

With 84% of the votes counted on Oct. 20, polling showed Morales was likely headed to a runoff with Mesa. However, when reporting resumed after nearly 24 hours, it showed Morales had pulled off a razor-thin victory.

The final, legally binding vote tally gave him 47.08% of votes to Mesa’s 36.51%, less than a percentage point more than the 10-point margin needed to avoid a runoff.

Mesa told journalists in the industrial city of Santa Cruz he wanted assurances from the government that the results of any recount will be binding.

“Are they prepared to recognize the TSE’s final results?”

Mesa asked. “Is the government prepared to back down?”

“We will not accept a solution that mocks popular will. We will not accept a solution that turns its back on the Oct. 20 vote and we will not turn our backs on people who are fighting democratically and peacefully in the streets,” he said.

Protesters in the streets lobbed accusations of fraud at Morales.

“The audit doesn’t help now,” said Pamela Velez, 37, as police deployed gas at a barricade in the central part of the city. “(The Morales government) has had a week to fix up (the vote).”

Mesa, a former president, told Reuters in an interview on Monday that strikers would not accept negotiations to end protests.

Five protesters were injured by gunshots on Monday in Santa Cruz. Police have said they are investigating the incident.

A woman died in U.S. Border Patrol custody over the weekend, following nearly two weeks in the hospital.

The

The

The Trump administration has invited Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to a meeting in Washington on Nov. 6 to try to break the deadlock in negotiations over a giant hydropower dam on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, Egypt’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Cairo said it accepted a U.S. invitation to a meeting of foreign ministers over the project that is the source of an escalating spat between the two African countries.

It was not clear if the other two countries had agreed to attend.

“The U.S. administration invited the three countries to meet in the United States on Nov. 6 in the presence of representatives of the American administration to discuss breaking the deadlock in the ongoing negotiations,” Sameh Shoukry told a news conference with visiting German foreign minister Heiko Maas.

Egypt is worried that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), under construction near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, will restrict supplies of already scarce Nile waters on which it is almost entirely dependent.

In recent weeks, Egypt has called for an external mediator on the issue, saying three-way talks have been exhausted.

Addis Ababa has previously rejected the idea, accusing Egypt of trying to sidestep the process.

On Thursday, Egypt and Ethiopia’s leaders agreed to the immediate resumption of the work by a technical committee trying to agree on the operating terms of the Dam, an Egyptian presidency spokesman said.

There was no mention of a mediator in the statement.

Ethiopia is expected to start filling the reservoir behind the dam next year.

Move over, Rocky, there’s a new stairway to climb.

A set of outdoor steps in the Bronx has become a tourist attraction in recent weeks since the release of the movie “Joker.”

The stairs are between two buildings on Shakespeare Avenue, about a half-mile from Yankee Stadium.

In the movie, lead actor Joaquin Phoenix dances as he goes down the steps, wearing a bright red suit and clown makeup.

These days, neighborhood residents using the steps are being joined by tourists trying to recreate the scene.

The visitors have been taking selfies, and some have even shown up in costume.

Coming to the stairs is “really immersive,” said Oliver Bonallack, visiting from Brighton, England.

“You never really get to experience a film first-hand,” he said. “I feel like it is so iconic.”

Not everyone is thrilled with the upsurge in popularity.

“We live in the neighborhood, it’s taking up all of our time, we’re all being inconvenienced,” said Bronx resident Cathyrine Spencer. “Every day when I come down the stairs, I have to go through a barrage of people.”

The stairway joins the ranks of well-known movie settings, like that of the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art seen in “Rocky.”