A senior pilot at Boeing said he might have unintentionally misled regulators, according to a series of internal company messages that were released Friday.

The revelation of the messages came as Boeing continues to struggle with the fallout from two fatal crashes that have grounded its 737 Max airplanes.

The transcript of the messages shows that in 2016 the 737 Max’s then-chief technical pilot, Mark Forkner, told a co-worker that the aircraft’s flight system, called MCAS, was “egregious” and “running rampant” while he tested it in a flight simulator.

The MCAS system has been tied to the crashes of the 737 Max airplanes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Forkner said in one text message, “I basically lied to the regulators [unknowingly].”

Boeing revealed messages

Boeing provided the internal messages to lawmakers, who are holding hearings this month on the 737 Max airplanes.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) called the newly released document “concerning” and demanded an explanation about why the company delayed before revealing the messages.

“I expect your explanation immediately regarding the content of this document and Boeing’s delay in disclosing the document to its safety regulator,” FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson wrote in a letter Friday to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg.

Muilenburg, who was stripped of his chairman title by Boeing’s board last week, is scheduled to testify before Congress this month.

Forkner left Boeing last year and joined Southwest Airlines — the largest operator of the Boeing 737.

Forkner’s lawyer, David Gerger, said in a statement, “If you read the whole chat, it is obvious that there was no ‘lie.’ ” He said Forkner’s messages showed that the pilot thought the flight simulator was not working and “absolutely thought this plane was safe.”

Two fatal crashes

An Ethiopia Airlines 737 Max crashed just after takeoff in March, killing all 157 people on board. Five months earlier, the same type of plane flown by the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 189 people.

Investigators have focused on the MCAS system in the planes, a new automated flight system that was not included in previous versions of the 737. Investigators believe a faulty sensor in the MCAS system pushed the nose of each plane down and made it impossible for the pilots to regain control.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday that Turkish forces would intensify their operation into Syria if Kurdish militias failed to comply with an agreement struck with the United States. The warning was made as sporadic fighting continued and disputes emerged over the cease-fire terms.

On Thursday, Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence agreed that Turkey would end its operation against the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia if it withdrew 32 kilometers from the Turkish border.

Under the agreement, a 120-hour suspension of hostilities would be observed by Turkish forces to allow the militia to withdraw. Last week, Turkish forces allied with Syrian rebels launched an offensive against the YPG, which Ankara considers terrorists. The militia was a key ally in the Washington-led war against Islamic State.

But reports of heavy fighting continued between Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish armed forces and Syrian rebels, despite the temporary cease-fire.

“Turkish army forces and their affiliated jihadist groups indiscriminately continue airstrikes and artillery attacks on Serêkanîyê [Ras al-Ayn],” said SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali in an interview with VOA’s Kurdish service. The YPG is the main component of the SDF, which is a coalition of forces made up of Arabs and Kurds.

“Despite the cease-fire, clashes have not stopped in Serêkanîyê,” he added. “Our forces are responding to these attacks within the framework of legitimate self-defense.”

But Ankara downplayed the reports. “There are no clashes. These [reports of clashes] are disinformation,” Erdogan said to local reporters Friday.

‘Diplomatic win’

Analysts say Ankara has a vested interest in the deal with Washington succeeding, given its being heralded as a diplomatic triumph.

“We got everything we wanted. … It was as easy negotiation as we’ve ever had,” reported Turkish media, quoting an unnamed presidential official.

“The wording, the text of the statement is clearly a diplomatic win for President Erdogan — both on the home front and abroad as well,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in the region and Washington.

The U.S.-Turkey deal not only secures the withdrawal of the Kurdish militia but creates what Erodgan calls a “safe zone” in Syria under Turkish army control.

Safe zone

Turkey’s military operation into Syria aims to create a buffer zone, around 450 kilometers long and 30 kilometers deep. However, the published U.S.-Turkey agreement does not identify the size of the safe zone.

“For the U.S., the safe zone is 120 km by 30 km,” said Selcen, “whereas for Turkey, it is still the 450 km-by-30 km area from Jerablus to the Iraqi border.”

General Mazloum Kobani, head of the Syrian Democratic Forces, claims a much more limited withdrawal had been agreed to with Washington. With SDF forces withdrawing from Ras al-Ayn and Tel Abyad and the 100 km territory between the towns, Kobani is tying further withdrawals to more talks.

Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad witnessed the most severe fighting since the start of Turkey’s operation. The distance between the towns is about 100 km.

However, Erdogan issued a warning Friday: “If promises [given by the U.S.] are not fulfilled, our operation will continue the minute the 120th hour ends, and it will be intensified,” he said in comments to reporters.

Syrian Kurdish leaders are voicing concern about the lack of detail in the U.S.-Turkey agreement over the safety and security of people living in the proposed safe zone, especially, analysts say, as Pence ruled out any deployment of U.S. soldiers to administer the safe zone.

Syrian rebels 

Turkey’s heavy reliance on Syrian rebels as part of its operation is heightening SDF concerns.

“It is a fact that the militia has committed crimes, and the way it has been used against Turkey claiming Turkey is committing genocide in the area,” said Selcen. “It’s very hard to discipline and to make use of these jihadi groups on the ground.”

Ankara rejects claims of radical elements among the rebel forces. The government also insists any allegations of misconduct are investigated. Turkish officials repeatedly stress that the protection and safety of civilians is a priority.

Erdogan on Friday outlined plans to secure the proposed safe zone in a meeting with foreign reporters. The president said the Turkish army would protect the region, which would get 12 new observation posts.

Refugee resettlement

Erdogan said securing of the area would eventually allow up to 2 million refugees to return, with the building of new villages and towns.

But with Syrian regime forces moving into the area of Turkey’s proposed safe zone, after a military agreement with the SDF, analysts warn Erdogan’s refugee resettlement plan remains in doubt.

“There are many questions for security questions over resettling refugees,” said Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University,

“And of course the other issue with [Syrian leader] Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” he added. “The regime has to accept that Syrians will be deployed there in this area, as Turkey has foreseen.”

Erdogan on Friday sought to play down any tensions with Damascus, saying there would not be a problem posed by the presence of regime forces in the safe zone. But the Turkish president also warned Turkey would respond if Damascus “made a mistake.”

Analysts say Erodgan is walking a diplomatic tightrope given Damascus’ main backer is Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a crucial ally of Erdogan in the region in efforts to end the Syrian civil war.

Putin and Erdogan are due to meet Tuesday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. The meeting is predicted to be crucial to determining the success of Erodgan’s Syrian plans.

“All eyes are now on the Erdogan-Putin meeting in Sochi next Tuesday,” Selcen said.

Talks among the Sudanese government, the rebel SPLM-North faction and two smaller Sudanese rebel groups began Friday in Juba.  

After a three-hour meeting, mediators, Khartoum officials and the SPLM-North faction announced an agenda for the talks. Sudan government spokesman Mohammed Hassan Alteishi said the parties agreed to discuss several issues.

“The parties have agreed on categorizing and sequencing the negotiation issues as follows: one, political issues; two, humanitarian issues; three, security arrangements. Second, the parties have agreed on the necessity to agree on declaration of principles,” Alteishi told reporters at Juba’s Pyramid Hotel.

SPLM-North spokesperson Ajak Mahmoud called the agenda for the talks “a great achievement.”  

“The two parties embarked in direct engagement this morning since 9 o’clock and recently we made a very important breakthrough,” Mahmoud said.

The SPLM-North has been fighting Sudanese government forces in the Nuba Mountains for several years.

Tutkew Gatluak, the security adviser to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, is leading the talks.  He said the agenda gives the parties a clear direction to follow during the negotiations.

“We thank God. We had a meeting with our brothers in SPLM-North and we have reached an agreement, and the first agreement we agreed on is on the humanitarian issue, security and political issue and all the issues that will make us reach a final peace deal,” Gatluak said.

The optimism was a marked turnaround from Tuesday, when the SPLM-North faction said it was suspending the talks, accusing government forces of bombing villages in the Nuba Mountains and killing one person.

The government delegation denied playing a role in any attacks in the area and said the incident involved traders and cattle herders.

Separate talks, different rebels

On Thursday night, the government delegation held separate talks with Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) negotiators. Alteishi said the SRF and the government were expected to agree on an agenda soon.

“We walked through those issues.  We haven’t agreed yet for a whole agenda but we are nearly to reach that agreement,” Alteishi told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.

The South Sudan-sponsored talks in Juba are expected to last two months. Similar talks mediated by the African Union over the past 10 years failed to resolve the conflict between the rebels and the previous Sudanese government led by former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted by military leaders this year after months of protests.

Carol Van Dam contributed to this report.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday defended freeing the son of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, whom police let go during a shootout with drug gangs. 

Lopez Obrador said police “did well” to free Ovidio Guzman, contending that “capturing a criminal can’t be worth more than people’s lives.” 

Police briefly captured Guzman late Thursday but released him when cartel gunmen in the northwestern Mexican city of Culiacan surrounded authorities and opened fire across the city, sparking widespread gunbattles. 

Mexican Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval told a news conference in Culiacan on Friday that the operation had not been planned properly. 

“It was done hastily, the consequences were not considered, the riskiest part wasn’t taken into account,” he said. 

‘Failure’

Security Minister Alfonso Durazo, who also addressed the news conference, called the operation a “failure.” 

Mexican security forces have been criticized for releasing Guzman, giving the impression that the city is under the control of the drug cartel. 

Lopez Obrador insisted Friday that his security strategy for the country was working, saying, “We’re doing really well in our strategy.” He took office in December promising a less confrontational approach to fighting gangs that focuses more on tackling social ills instead of the use of force. 

Video footage posted on social media from Thursday’s violence showed panicked residents feeling gunshots. The violence also led to a large group of inmates at the city prison rioting and escaping from the building. 

The elder Guzman is serving a life sentence in the United States after being convicted in February of drug trafficking. He had previously escaped from prison in Mexico twice, in 2001 and 2015. 

After a thousand days of President Donald Trump in the White House, official Washington found itself consumed by the twin crises of impeachment and Syria this week.

Even as the president is trying to fend off congressional Democrats moving toward impeachment, he also faces a fierce backlash from Democrats and many Republicans over his decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria.

Trump is used to weathering political storms, but this one is particularly intense and comes at a time when he is looking ahead to a re-election campaign next year.

Syria flap  

From the start, Trump has been on the defensive over his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.

“We were supposed to be there for 30 days. We stayed for 10 years, and it is time for us to come home. We are not a policing agent, and it is time for us to come home,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the U.S. and Turkey had agreed to a cease-fire against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.  Trump welcomed the development during a trip to Texas, calling it “an amazing outcome.”

Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw from Syria drew fire from both opposition Democrats and several Republicans, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, often one of the presidents most loyal supporters.

“So this is the president exercising his judgment in a way that I think is out of line with the advice he has been given, dangerous, and I hope he will reconsider,” Graham told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday.

The Syria controversy erupted as Trump was already busy fending off a Democratic-led impeachment inquiry in Congress spurred by his request to Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden.

Trump has blasted the impeachment investigation as a partisan witch-hunt and vented to supporters last Saturday in a speech to the Value Voters Summit.

“Impeachment! I never thought I would see or hear that word with regard to me. Impeachment. I said the other day, it is an ugly word. To me it is an ugly word.”

There are signs the political pressure on the president over impeachment appears to be mounting, according to analyst John Fortier at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.

“The president’s removal [from office] and the president’s reputation afterward is something that clearly he must be thinking about. But in terms of the way the White House is reacting, I do think that they have a similar way of fighting all sorts of controversies, and it is not to back down.  It is to really stand up and push back and that is what we have been seeing.”

Expect to see more of that aggressive political pushback as the impeachment drama moves on, even as both sides in the impeachment inquiry keep a close watch on public opinion.

“Republicans have to be very careful not to be seen as defending the indefensible,” said Brookings Institution scholar William Galston. “And if they take the position of denying that the president did anything wrong, I think they are going to lose ground with the American people.”

Recent polls have shown growing public support for the impeachment inquiry. But the surveys also show Americans remain divided on whether Trump should ultimately be impeached and subsequently removed from office.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the House can impeach the president for treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. If a majority of the House votes impeachment, the president would face a trial in the Senate where a two-thirds majority is required for conviction and removal from office.

Trump the disrupter

Trump has proudly cast himself from the start as a political disrupter, and there could be more to come as the impeachment battle unfolds, according to University of Virginia historian Barbara Ann Perry.

“So far, he has bombarded and exploded all of the norms and all of the precedents of the previous 44 [presidential] administrations. So nothing to me seems out of bounds for this particular president,” Perry told VOA via Skype.

No matter how the impeachment battle turns out, one likely result is a deeper partisan divide, said Vanderbilt University Professor Thomas Schwartz.

“It will probably polarize the country even more. I think you will have a very divided country, in a way similar to what you saw in 1999 and 2000 after the Clinton impeachment and then the divisive election of 2000.”

All of this is coming as the country prepares for the next presidential election in 2020, with many political analysts predicting a record voter turnout amid intense interest and mobilization in both major political parties.

…

Separatist groups in parts of Cameroon have opened what they call community schools, to replace government-run schools that have been shut down for the past three years. However, the government is urging parents and students to stay away from the separatist-run facilities. 

Most schools in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions have been closed since November 2016, soon after professionals went on strike to protest what they called the marginalization of Anglophones by Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.

Armed separatist groups began fighting the government the following year.

This week, the separatists said they have opened nine community schools, which occupy empty public spaces while the separatists negotiate to take over abandoned school buildings owned by Christian denominations.

Farmer Paul Jua, 37, is happy his kids will able to attend school, though he says the community schools are not enough.

“I want to beg on them [separatists], the community schools cannot cover [are not enough for] the children who are back home. So, therefore, they should also try to encourage private institutions to open their doors,” Jua said.

The government, which opposes the separatist-run schools, insists the public schools that are open are protected and safe.

Wilfred Wambeng, Cameroon’s basic education chief for the English-speaking Northwest region, says the government has asked families to send their children only to public, private and religious schools recognized by the government, as only those schools have qualified teachers.

“We have had meetings, especially with our lay private education agencies. … We advise them to embark on an aggressive campaign [against separatist schools],” Wambeng sad.

The United Nations reports that at least 2,000 people have been killed and 500,000 internally displaced during Cameroon’s separatist war.
 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed U.S.-Israel ties and joint efforts to counter Iran, in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, amid concerns in Israel that Tehran could exploit a U.S. military pullback in Syria.

“We talked about all the efforts we’ve made to push back against the threat not only to Israel but to the region and the world from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we shared our ideas about how we can ensure Middle East stability together, and how we would further our efforts to jointly combat all the challenges that the world confronts here in the Middle East,” said Pompeo after his meeting with Netanyahu.

The meeting comes a day after a U.S. delegation, led by Vice President Mike Pence, reached an agreement with Turkey for Ankara to pause its military offensive against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria for five days.

“We hope things will turn out for the best,” Netanyahu said Friday, without elaborating, when asked about the cease-fire deal brokered by the United States, and if the cessation of hostilities will hold between Turkey and Syria’s Kurds.

Turkey’s incursion into northeast Syria came after a partial U.S. withdrawal of troops. Turkey views Kurdish fighters as terrorists, alleging their links to an insurgency group inside Turkey. But Kurdish fighters have fought alongside U.S. forces in the battle against the Islamic State terror group in Syria.

Israel has strongly condemned the offensive. Netanyahu has warned of an “ethnic cleansing” against the Kurds.  

Pompeo heads to Brussels for meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after the stop in Israel.

 

Official Washington finds itself consumed by the twin crises of impeachment and Syria this week.  President Donald Trump is trying to fend off congressional Democrats moving toward impeachment, even as he faces a fierce backlash from some Republicans over his decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria. Trump is used to weathering political storms, but this one is particularly intense, as we hear from VOA National correspondent Jim Malone.
 

The United States has sent some asylum-seeking immigrants off the mainland to Hawaii.

John Egan, the head of the Refugee and Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Hawaii Law School, told Hawaii Public Radio that there are not enough lawyers in Hawaii who can handle the cases on a pro bono basis.

“We have been seeing people arriving here in Hawaii quite often with no English skills whatsoever … they’re given a plane ticket and a notice to show in court,” Egan said.

Hawaii Public Radio reports that about 150 Central American migrants have been sent to Hawaii “to await their day in immigration court.”

According to the radio report, a 2018 Syracuse University study found 90% of asylum-seekers without a lawyer were denied asylum in 2017.

Egan and some of his students have taken on about a dozen of the immigration pro bono cases “because no one else can,” he said.

The University of Hawaii’s law school clinic has started a new program to recruit and train volunteer lawyers who are not immigration attorneys, but are willing to help the immigrants.
 

Every October, for the past 48 years, hot air balloons have been filling the skies over Albuquerque, New Mexico, giving spectators both on and off the ground a visual feast of rare beauty. VOA’s Julie Taboh visited the southwestern state’s largest city to see how a modest launch of 13 balloons almost five decades ago has evolved into the largest ballooning event in the world.
 

An intense gunfight with heavy weapons and burning vehicles blocking roads raged in the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state Thursday after security forces located one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons who is wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.

Mexican security secretary Alfonso Durazo said 30 members of the National Guard and army were patrolling in Culiacan when they were fired on from a house. They repelled the attack and inside the house apprehended Ovidio Guzman Lopez.

The house was then surrounded by heavily armed gunmen who had “a greater force” and authorities decided to suspend the operation, Durazo said. Security forces released Ovidio Guzman to protect lives, Durazo said, Reuters reported.

Indicted in Washington

Ovidio was not one of the jailed Mexican drug lord’s best-known sons — Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and Jesus Alfredo Guzman are known as “los Chapitos,” or “the little Chapos,” and are believed to run their father’s Sinaloa Cartel together with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

But Ovidio Guzman was indicted in 2018 by a grand jury in Washington, along with a fourth brother, for the alleged trafficking of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Following Thursday’s discovery of Ovidio, local media reported that armed civilians in trucks roared through Culiacan’s center shooting what appeared to be .50-caliber sniper rifles and machine guns. There was a heavy deployment of Mexican security forces.

Civilians panic, flee

Videos published on social media showed a scene resembling a war zone, with gunmen, some wearing black ski masks over their faces, riding in the back of trucks firing mounted machine guns as vehicles burned. People could be seen running for cover as machine gun fire rattled around them. Drivers drove in reverse frantically to move away from the clashes. Some drivers rolled under their stationary cars for cover.

Sinaloa public safety director Cristobal Castaneda told Milenio television the army launched the operation Thursday afternoon and soon afterward government surveillance cameras alerted authorities that gunmen in vehicles were circulating in Culiacan.

Castaneda said gunmen blocked streets with burning vehicles, a common tactic to make it difficult for security forces to maneuver. Simultaneously, some 20 to 30 prisoners escaped though some were quickly recaptured, he said.

State officials asked residents to avoid going out in parts of city.

Sinaloa’s soccer club Dorados announced that it had canceled its game Thursday because of security concerns.

Sinaloa home to cartel

Sinaloa is home to the cartel by the same name, which was led by “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in July. He has many children.

After Guzman’s third arrest in 2016, an internal battle for succession began playing out. The battle was resolved with the arrest of Damaso Lopez Nunez and his son Damaso Lopez Serrano, who led a rival faction.

Since then “Los Chapitos” and Zambada are believed to have run the cartel.

China’s economic growth slowed to a 26-year low in the latest quarter amid a tariff war with Washington, adding to deepening slump that is weighing on global growth.

The world’s second-largest economy expanded by 6% in the three months ending in September, down from the previous quarter’s 6.2%, data showed Friday. It was the lowest rate since China started reporting data by quarters in 1993.

The slump increases pressure on Chinese leaders to avert politically dangerous job losses as they fight a tariff war with President Donald Trump over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions.

“Pressure on economic activity should intensify in the coming months,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics in a report.

Global repercussions

The slowdown in China, the world’s biggest trader, has global repercussions. It is depressing demand for industrial components from Asian countries and prices of soybeans, iron ore and other commodities, hitting Brazil, Australia and other suppliers.

The International Monetary Fund cited the U.S.-Chinese tariff war as a factor in this week’s decision to cut its 2019 global growth forecast to 3% from its previous outlook of 3.2%.

Trump agreed last week to delay a tariff hike on Chinese goods and said Beijing promised to buy up to $50 billion of American farm goods. Officials say the two sides still are working out details.

Beijing has yet to confirm the scale of possible purchases of U.S. goods. It is unclear whether Chinese leaders want more steps including possibly lifting punitive tariffs already in place before purchases go ahead.

Cooling domestic activity

An even bigger impact on Chinese growth appears to come from cooling domestic activity including consumer spending and investment.

Retail sales growth declined to 8.2% over a year earlier in the first three quarters of 2019, down from the first half’s 8.4%, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.

Chinese leaders are in a marathon campaign to nurture growth based on domestic consumption and reduce reliance on trade and investment. But those plans call for maintaining the level of exports that support millions of jobs.

Factory output growth slowed to 5.6% in the January-September period, down from 6% in the first six months of the year.

China’s exports to the United States, its biggest foreign market, fell 21.9% in September from a year ago. That helped to drag down overall Chinese exports by 1.4%. Imports of American goods sank 15.7%.

The latest economic growth figure was the lowest since China began reporting data by quarters in 1993. Annual growth tumbled to 3.9% in 1990 but rebounded to 9.3% the following year.

An extended gunbattle with high-caliber weapons raged Thursday in the streets of the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state. 
  
Heavily armed civilians in trucks were firing in downtown Culiacan, with some shooting what appeared to be .50-caliber sniper rifles and truck-mounted machine guns, according to Culiacan-based news outlet Riodoce. 
 
Riodoce reported there was a heavy deployment of Mexican security forces and that gunmen had blocked entrances to the city with burning vehicles, a common tactic to make it difficult for security forces to maneuver. 

Sinaloa public safety director Cristobal Castaneda told Milenio television the army started an operation Thursday afternoon and soon afterward government surveillance cameras alerted authorities that gunmen in vehicles were circulating in downtown Culiacan. 

Simultaneously, 20 to 30 prisoners escaped, though some were quickly recaptured, he said. 

Castaneda did not state what the military’s objective was with the operation.  

State officials asked residents to avoid going out in parts of city. 

Sinaloa’s soccer club Dorados announced that it had canceled its game Thursday because of security concerns. 

Sinaloa cartel

Sinaloa is home to the cartel by the same name, which was led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in July. 

After Guzman’s third arrest in 2016, an internal battle for succession began playing out. The battle was resolved with the arrest of Damaso Lopez Nunez and his son Damaso Lopez Serrano, who led a rival faction. 

The cartel is currently led by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Guzman’s sons, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo, known as “los Chapitos,” or “the little Chapos.” 

As thousands of pro-independence protesters poured into the streets of Barcelona for a fourth straight day Thursday, the president of Spain’s Catalonia region vowed to push for a new independence referendum within two years. 
 
Quim Torra also condemned the violence that has marred the protests, saying the separatist cause was a peaceful movement. 
 
Catalan protesters, frustrated by the lengthy prison sentences handed to pro-independence politicians this week, have clashed with police, set fires and destroyed property. 
 
The Spanish Ministry of Interior said nearly 100 people had been injured, almost half of them police officers. More than 95 protesters have been arrested since Monday. 
 
“No criminal activity will go unpunished,” interim Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Thursday. 
 
The protests began after the Supreme Court sentenced nine pro-independence politicians to between nine and 13 years in prison for their roles in the 2017 referendum on Catalonia’s push to split from Spain. 
 
The Spanish constitution states that Spain is indivisible and anyone pushing a split is considered a criminal. 
 
The U.S. Overseas Security Advisory Council has warned Americans traveling to northeastern Spain to travel to Catalonia will likely be disrupted by a general strike that has been planned for Friday. It said travel to Barcelona from surrounding cities would be difficult because of “marches on major highways from Tarragona, Tarrega, Berga, Vic and Girona.”  It asked visitors to “exercise caution in the vicinity of demonstrations as they may occur with little or no warning.” 

Two businessmen pleaded not guilty Thursday of conspiring with associates of Rudy Giuliani to make illegal campaign contributions, as a prosecutor said evidence includes data from over 50 bank accounts and information gathered through 10 search warrants. 

David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin are among four men charged with using straw donors to make illegal contributions to politicians they thought could help their political and business interests, including committees supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans. 

Their next court date was set for Dec. 2, though U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken granted a request from Kukushkin to remain in California, where a $1 million bail package limits where he can go beyond home to work, legal visits and medical appointments. 
 
Two other men charged in the case, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, worked with Giuliani to try to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of Democrat Joe Biden. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, has said he had no knowledge of illegal donations. 

Prosecutors say Correia and Kukushkin teamed with Parnas and Fruman in a separate scheme to make illegal campaign donations to politicians in several states to try to get support for a new recreational marijuana business. 
 
Money for those donations was actually supplied, prosecutors say, by an unidentified foreign national with “Russian roots.” 
 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told the judge the indictment could be updated, but he made no mention of whether others might be arrested. 
 
It was fair, he said, “to characterize the government’s investigation as ongoing.” 
 
Besides the bank and search warrant records, Roos said, prosecutors have obtained emails and electronic records for over 10 accounts. 
 
The court hearing was finished in just over 15 minutes, and lawyers and their clients declined to speak afterward.  

Meanwhile, officials in California announced they would review the dozen state marijuana distribution licenses granted to a partnership involving Kukushkin to make sure there were no improprieties, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. 
 
“We always have concerns when something like that happens, so we want to do our due diligence and look at them,” said Lori Ajax, chief of the California Bureau of Cannabis Control. 
 
All the state licenses issued to the partnership of Garib Karapetyan and Kukushkin are provisional permits, Ajax said, pending detailed background checks and disclosure of major investors. 
 
Karapetyan’s attorney, Brad Hirsch, said his clients were in complete compliance with all regulations. 
 

Separately, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg called for an investigation of his city’s permit system to determine how Kukushkin and another businessman obtained nearly one-third of the licenses issued by the city. 
 
All the defendants are U.S. citizens, but Kukushkin and Parnas were born in Ukraine and Fruman in Belarus. 

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has notified the president that he intends to leave his job soon.

That’s according to an administration official who confirmed the news on condition of anonymity.

Perry was traveling with the president to Texas on Thursday when he shared the news aboard Air Force One.

Perry is under scrutiny over the role he played in the president’s dealings with Ukraine, which are currently the subject of an impeachment inquiry.

Perry had disputed reports that he was planning to leave the administration in an interview Wednesday with The Wall Street Journal. But he reportedly left the door open, saying he expected to be at the Energy Department at Thanksgiving, but giving a less definitive answer when asked whether he’d be there through the end of the year.
 

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate toured Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, where they are set to visit a cancer hospital previously visited by William’s mother, the late Princess Diana.
 
The hospital was started by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose first wife Jemima Goldsmith was a friend of the late princess.

The royal couple also played cricket with children and members of Pakistan’s cricket team at the National Cricket Academy.
 
Their day began with a birthday party at a charitable organization, SOS Children’s Village, and they were also set to visit the historic Badshahi mosque.

Since arriving, the royal couple have been advocates for girls’ education, visiting a girl’s school in Islamabad. They addressed climate change while in Pakistan’s northern region, where glaciers are melting at an alarming rate.

Keep him talking, don’t interrupt him and, no matter what, don’t ask why he killed his victims.

Those were the instructions Texas Ranger James Holland gave to the dozens of homicide detectives around the country when they got their moment with Samuel Little, hoping to solve decades-old cold cases and bring back answers to desperate families from the man the FBI identified this month as the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history.

Little ultimately spilled forth with chilling confessions, claiming he killed 93 women in all between 1970 and 2005 and smilingly recounting the details with startling clarity. But to get what they needed, detectives had to employ a certain amount of psychology, some of which made them uncomfortable, such as laughing along with him or putting up with his flirting.

Miami-Dade Police homicide detective David Denmark and his partner interviewed Little last October about two murders in the Miami area from the 1970s. Holland had told them what to expect.

“You have to change your attitude and you have to become his friend,” Denmark said. “And you have to laugh with him and make fun of his victims sometimes, sort of like, ‘Yeah, I guess at that point she deserved it.’ Even though you hate saying it. You want him to think, ‘These guys are pretty cool’ to keep him talking.”

For Denmark, Little recalled his first victim, 33-year-old Mary Brosley, saying that he would never again try to bury a body in Florida’s hard limestone soil and that he had to leave part of her leg exposed. He also confessed to killing 25-year-old Angela Chapman in 1976, saying he started to drown her, then pulled her out of the water and strangled her.

He remembered Brosley’s flowered sundress and how he played with her chain necklace and marveled at her beautiful neck before strangling her.

Brosley’s sister Clare Coppolino said she had no idea her sister had moved to Florida, describing it as “an absolute shock” when she heard from the detective after nearly 50 years. She said her initial reaction to Little’s crime was “anger, but then more pity for him than anything. Pity to think, ‘I don’t know what his background was,’ but to think this man ended up murdering all these women.”

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Little, 79, is now serving multiple life sentences for three killings in California. He also pleaded guilty to a 1994 murder in Odessa, Texas. Holland elicited scores of confessions from him last year in Texas and then set the guidelines for detectives who would later arrive in the state one by one with stacks of old case files from California to Florida. The detectives would visit him as if on an assembly line, with sometimes two or three agents a day going in.

The killer has also drawn remarkably detailed, color portraits of dozens of his victims that have proved helpful in cracking cases.

Police around the country have confirmed about 50 of his confessions so far and consider the rest credible.

As Little detailed his crimes, he showed no remorse, talked candidly, almost proudly, and seemed to be enjoying himself, detectives said.

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At one point, he smiled when recalling a murder, and Detective Mali Langton from Fort Myers, Florida, found the corners of her own mouth turn up — and was horrified.

“He was giddy. That’s what threw me,” Langton said. She said that Little also flirted with her and that Holland had braced her for that, telling her to “just let it happen.”

Holland also told detectives not to bombard Little with questions, just be patient and let him fill in the details. If he tilts his head to the side and scratches his neck with the back of his hand, don’t interrupt him; he’s going back in time and reliving the crimes. When he pats his leg a certain way, pretend not to notice; he’s getting aroused thinking about the killings.

“He’s really big on respect,” said Lubbock, Texas, Detective Brandon Price. “If he sees disrespect in the room, then sometimes that may end the interview.” He added: “If you showed emotion, you’re excited or get angry, then that could end the interview. We made sure to maintain a poker face.”

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Detective Sgt. Michael Mongeluzzo of Florida’s Marion County questioned Little about Rosie Hill , a 20-year-old woman who was picked up at a bar and strangled, her body left next to a pig pen in 1982. Mongeluzzo called the victim’s mother, Minnie Hill, and told her his last question to Little would be whatever had been weighing on her mind all these years.

“She said, ‘I just want to know why,’” the detective said.

Knowing he had to be careful how he phrased the question to the serial killer, Mongeluzzo remarked on how Little had gotten away with so many slayings over the years, and Little offered a glimpse into his motive.

“That’s when he started talking about God and how ‘When God made me, he knew what I would do,’” the detective said, adding that Little believed he was doing what he was “made to do.”

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday pushed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a cease-fire to end his military assault against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, an offensive Erdogan initiated after President Donald Trump withdrew nearly all American troops from the battlefront.

Pence, accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, met with the Turkish leader in the capital, Ankara.

The meeting came a day after Trump dismissed the importance of the outcome of the fighting, saying it “has nothing to do with us,” even as the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning his troop withdrawal. Trump instead disparaged the Kurdish fighters, who had fought alongside U.S. troops against Islamic State terrorists, as “no angels.”

Letter to Erdogan

Trump, in a letter last week to Erdogan, warned the Turkish leader, “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” to carry out the onslaught on the Kurdish fighters, but reports from Turkey said Erdogan threw the short note “in the bin.”

Trump said Erdogan risked being branded in history as a “devil” by carrying out the attack on the Kurdish fighters, whom he views as allied with Kurdish separatists that have been battling for autonomy inside Turkey for three decades.

But Erdogan vowed Wednesday to continue the offensive. With the U.S. troops withdrawn, Kurdish forces struck a deal with Syrian forces to return for the first time in years to northern Syrian outposts, with allied Russian soldiers entering the border town of Kobane.

Trump warned at a news conference Wednesday that economic sanctions he is imposing against Ankara “will be devastating to Turkey’s economy.”

The U.S. leader said he “didn’t give [Erdogan] a green light” for the attacks on the Kurdish fighters, but he was dismissive of the importance of the fighting to the United States.

“Syria may have some help with Russia, and that’s fine,” Trump said. “They’ve got a lot of sand over there. So, there’s a lot of sand that they can play with. Let them fight their own wars.”
 
Trump told reporters he has no regrets about having 26 to 28 U.S. military personnel inside Syria stand aside as the Turks moved across the border.

“Syria doesn’t want Turkey to take its land. I can understand that,” he said. “But what does that have to do with the United States of America if they’re fighting over Syria’s land? Are we supposed to fight a NATO member, in order that Syria, who is not our friend, keeps their land?”

The president also termed the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, as “worse of a terrorist threat than ISIS.”

Humanitarian crisis

The Syrian conflict, which began in 2011, had already created a humanitarian crisis in Syria with millions of people fleeing their homes and in need of aid.

An estimated 160,000 people have been displaced since the Turkish operation began last week, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

At the news conference Wednesday, Trump expressed deep concern about the Turkish offensive, noting the large number of civilian victims and warning it could lead to a resurgence of ISIS.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution Wednesday opposing Trump’s decision to end U.S. operations in Syria, calling on Erdogan to immediately cease military action and for the United States to continue supporting the Kurds.

It urges the White House to “present a clear and specific plan for the enduring defeat of ISIS.” A large number of Trump’s fellow Republicans voted for it.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s fears

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a usually reliable Trump ally, bluntly criticized the president’s latest comments about the region.

“I worry we will not have allies in the future against radical Islam, ISIS will re-emerge, & Iran’s rise in Syria will become a nightmare for Israel. I fear this is a complete and utter national security disaster in the making and I hope President Trump will adjust his thinking,” Graham said on Twitter.

Graham, who sits on the foreign relations committee, said Trump’s words “completely undercut” efforts by Pence and Pompeo to end the conflict.

Erdogan is scheduled to visit the White House on Nov. 13. But he said whether his trip to the United States will still occur depends on the outcome of the discussions in Ankara with Pence and Pompeo.

Trump already has hiked tariffs on Turkish steel imports and called off negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal with Turkey.

Trump on Wednesday also addressed concerns regarding the estimated 50 tactical nuclear weapons stored at a U.S. base in Turkey. The president’s response was that he is confident those weapons are secure.

“We have a great air base there,” said Trump. “It’s a large, powerful air base.”

European Union and British negotiators have agreed on an outline Brexit deal that still needs to be backed by EU member states and by the respective parliaments. 

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted “We have one! It’s a fair and balanced agreement for the EU and the UK and it is testament to our commitment to find solutions.” 
 
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that the two sides had struck a “great new deal” and urged U.K. lawmakers to ratify it in a special session on Saturday. 
 
Juncker said he would recommend the 27 EU nations to endorse the deal during their summit later Thursday.