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Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow’s Ukraine offensive but has recently come under more intense, increased attacks.
The post Russia Says Three Ukrainian Drones Targeting Crimea Bridge Destroyed first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Amini’s death sparked months of nationwide protests.
Last November, Iranian officials acknowledged that more than 300 people died in those demonstrations. But human rights organizations say the death toll was much higher.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group and the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency issued a report in January that put the number of dead at more than 500.
Amnesty International says “thousands of people were arbitrarily detained and/or unfairly prosecuted solely for peacefully exercising their human rights.”
Those protests were the inspiration for Persian artist Kiana Honarmand’s exhibition “A Shadow in the Depth of Light,” which was showing at the VisArts Gallery in Rockville, Maryland.
“Just watching the violence was absolutely devastating to see so many people, including men, women, children, getting killed, and thousands arrested,” she told VOA.
Rising hands
Nearly 300 3D-printed hands made from red plastic polymer appear to rise from the gallery floor, each bearing the name of people killed in the protests.
“Each hand represents a human being who has sacrificed everything for the cause of justice, and for women’s rights, for human rights,” Honarmand said.
The installation, which has now closed, included long locks of synthetic hair, representing Iranian women who started cutting off their hair in protest of Amini’s death, which caught on with women around the world who began cutting their hair in solidarity.
The popular protest slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” is printed in Persian across the exhibit’s windows.
“I just had to talk about this because it’s the largest and most significant feminist movement of our time and it’s not talked about as much as it needs to be,” Honarmand said.
“My first response seeing this exhibition was that the hands coming from the ground looked like a scene from a horror movie,” said Gabriel Soto, visitor services coordinator at the VisArts gallery. “It really reminded me of the living dead coming from the ground.”
“It’s a very horrifying thing to imagine that these hands represent people that have been murdered by the state of Iran for [supporting] women’s rights.”
Soto also says the exhibition served as a “wakeup call” to keep the media spotlight on the protests and the response from the Iranian state, “to make sure that people understand that this is still going on, the morality police are still operating, and women are still being brutalized in Iran.”
“What resonated for me here was seeing the ‘bloody’ hands and how much blood there is for Iranian women in their struggle for freedom,” said visitor Andrea Barron.
An advocacy and outreach program manager at the U-S based nonprofit group Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, which works to end the practice of torture internationally, Barron says she was especially moved by the long strands of hair.
“That was such an important symbol in the recent protests of the women against the morality police after Mahsa was killed,” she said. “Even though these Iranian women are not in the news anymore, I think we need to keep thinking about them and their struggle for freedom.”
Simple acts of disobedience
Honarmand says it’s more important than ever to stand up for women’s rights everywhere, “including Iran, Afghanistan, in South America.”
“It’s been absolutely inspiring to watch what women in Iran are doing even now, every day, with the simple acts of disobedience, such as just going outside not wearing their compulsory hijabs. … They are very courageous, and I am just in awe of that.”
Going forward, Honarmand says she wants to keep making hands for every confirmed death of an Iranian protester.
The post Artist Pays Tribute to Iranian Women Protesters first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
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The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped, a live broadcast on the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) website showed.
The broadcast was watched by nearly 500,000 viewers, while thousands gathered at a viewing gallery near the launch site to see the liftoff of the probe, which will aim to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on Earth commonly seen as auroras.
Named after the Hindi word for the sun, the Aditya-L1 launch follows India beating Russia late last month to become the first country to land on the south pole of the moon. While Russia had a more powerful rocket, India’s Chandrayaan-3 out-endured the Luna-25 to execute a textbook landing.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to travel about 1.5 million kilometers over four months to a kind of parking lot in space where objects tend to stay put because of balancing gravitational forces, reducing fuel consumption for the spacecraft.
Those positions are called Lagrange Points, named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
The mission has the capacity to make a “big bang in terms of science,” said Somak Raychaudhury, who was involved in the development of some components of the observatory, adding that energy particles emitted by the sun can hit satellites that control communications on Earth.
“There have been episodes when major communications have gone down because a satellite has been hit by a big corona emission. Satellites in low earth orbit are the main focus of global private players, which makes the Aditya L1 mission a very important project,” he said.
Scientists hope to learn more about the effect of solar radiation on the thousands of satellites in orbit, a number growing with the success of ventures like the Starlink communications network of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“The low earth orbit has been heavily polluted due to private participation, so understanding how to safeguard satellites there will have special importance in today’s space environment,” said Rama Rao Nidamanuri, head of the department of earth and space sciences at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.
Longer term, data from the mission could help better understand the sun’s impact on Earth’s climate patterns and the origins of solar wind, the stream of particles that flow from the sun through the solar system, ISRO scientists have said.
Pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has privatized space launches and is looking to open the sector to foreign investment as it targets a five-fold increase in its share of the global launch market within the next decade.
As space turns into a global business, the country is also banking on the success of ISRO to showcase its prowess in the sector.
The post After the Moon, India Launches Rocket to Study the Sun first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
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In the past few years, countries in Eastern Africa have been ravaged by drought, putting more than 20 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
Last year, Nigeria was hit with floods that uprooted more than 1 million people and heightened food insecurity.
Migration from affected areas, growing competition over natural resources and water scarcity due to changed rainfall patterns have also increased the risk of violence and conflict in Africa.
These examples underline the urgency driving this weekend’s Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA) and the Africa Climate Summit that takes place Monday in Kenya.
Attendees from the African Union, the African Development Bank and other institutions will discuss ways to combat the effects of climate change that are causing major problems in many parts of the continent.
Hanan Morsy is the deputy executive secretary and chief economist at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, which explores strategies to advocate for Africa’s specific needs and solutions in addressing the climate change crisis.
“It will be important to establish a strong African position and to advance the call for action globally on what is required to fix the situation,” Morsy said. “Some of the things mentioned in terms of the need for ensuring sufficient financing to meet the demands for green transition and to pay attention to the particular nature of green transition for Africa.”
In 2019, the World Meteorological Organization released a report drawing attention to the risks that climate change brought to Africa’s well-being and food and water resources.
Forecasts, which turned out to be correct, showed increased temperatures and reduced rainfall in Africa’s northern and southern regions.
Next week, as Kenya hosts the Africa Climate Summit, leaders are expected to address the continent’s harsh weather conditions— which have contributed to poor health, food shortages, and governments spending at least 5% of their GDP to manage the situation.
The conference is an opportunity for Africans to face the impact of climate change and improve people’s lives, said Wanjira Mathai, an environmental expert with the World Resources Institute, based in Nairobi.
“This has to be an opportunity to transform people’s lives and livelihood across the continent and what’s special is talking about African leadership in the process and how does Africa show up as a hub for climate solutions to address our problems, our needs— but in so, doing also [to] address global climate needs and we have a lot of things going on for us,” Mathai said.
Africa is the continent most affected by climate change, but it produces the fewest greenhouse emissions.
The summit on Monday will bring together government officials, organizations and experts to support sustainable green growth and climate financing solutions for Africa.
“We expect that many of these minerals the continent is abundant in, the demand for them will increase massively,” Morsy said. “The demand for lithium is expected to increase 40-fold. Demand for cobalt is expected to increase 25-fold. This really presents solid opportunities for the continent to build on these natural resources.”
The conference reports will shape a statement for African heads of state at the upcoming global COP28 meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
The post Pre-Africa Climate Summit, Leaders Strategize on Climate Change Solutions first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn endorsed a new cabinet, including real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin as the country’s new prime minister and finance minister, according to a Royal gazette published on Saturday, months after the May elections.
Srettha’s Pheu Thai party, backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family, will oversee defence, transport, commerce, health and the foreign ministry portfolios.
Thailand has had a caretaking government since March, and the Move Forward party, winners of the May elections, have struggled to form a government without support from conservative lawmakers over its progressive agenda.
The second-place Pheu Thai broke off an alliance with Move Forward and brought on rival parties aligned with army generals that ousted Shinawatra-linked parties in 2006 and 2014 coups.
The announcement of the new cabinet comes weeks after Srettha, former president of luxury property developer Sansiri, (SIRI.BK) won a parliamentary vote in August to become prime minister.
On the day of the vote, Pheu Thai figurehead Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand in a dramatic homecoming after living abroad for 15 years in self-exile to avoid an 8-year prison sentence. On his first night back, Thaksin was transferred to a police hospital over chest paints and high blood pressure. He later submitted a request for a royal pardon.
On Friday, the king commuted the sentence to one year, citing his loyalty to the monarchy and his poor health.
Srettha’s rapid ascent to power, Thaksin’s smooth return and a coalition between Pheu Thai and former rivals fuelled speculation about an agreement between Thaksin and his foes among the country’s powerful conservative and royalist army. Thaksin and the Pheu Thai party say that is not the case.
The new cabinet has Pheu Thai controlling ministries overseeing the economy ministries, which will be crucial in implementing its policies, including a 10,000 baht ($285.63)handout in the form of digital currency.
Its largest coalition partner, Bhumjaithai, best known for advocating the use of medical cannabis, will oversee the education, interior and labour ministries.
Conservative and pro-military parties will lead the energy and environment ministries.
Srettha and his cabinet of 33 ministers will swear an oath before an audience with the king, then deliver a policy statement at parliament before they start work this month.
Srettha had said the first cabinet meeting would tackle cost of living problems by reducing electricity and gas prices, and relaxing visa entry rules for Chinese arrivals to boost tourism.
($1 = 35.0100 baht)
The post Thailand“s King endorses new cabinet months after elections first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
The law was allowed to kick in after a court ruling Thursday, part of a flurry of action across the country on policies aimed at transgender people and their rights. A separate Texas ruling blocked a law that drag show performers feared would shut them down.
Here’s a look at the latest developments and what’s next.
Texas gender-affirming care ban takes effect
In its ruling Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court allowed a law banning gender-affirming care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors.
The ruling is not final, but allows enforcement of the law while courts determine whether it’s constitutional. The decision is also a reversal of a lower court from the week before, when a state judge had said the law should be put on hold while it’s sorted out.
Since 2021, 22 Republican-controlled states have passed laws restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors. At least 13 states, meanwhile, have adopted measures intended to protect access.
Several of the bans are so new that they haven’t taken effect yet. Missouri’s kicked in earlier this week. Enforcement of the laws in Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana are currently on hold.
There are legal challenges to the policies across the country, and there isn’t a clear pattern for how courts handle them. None have reached a final court decision.
Courts in three states hold hearings on care restrictions
Two court hearings on the matter Friday did not immediately change the status quo in three states but showed how thorny the legal issues can be.
In Florida, a judge declined to take steps to immediately ease access to gender-affirming treatment for children or adults. Both age groups were affected by a ban which, unlike other states, also has a provision that restricts access to care for adults. The ban on treatment was signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
District Judge Robert Hinkle said that he would consider changes for adult plaintiffs if he sees medical evidence on how going without treatments could be harmful.
He has a trial scheduled for February on the constitutionality of the Florida law.
But he noted that with similar cases moving through courts across the country, whatever he decides won’t be the final word.
Also Friday, a three-judge panel from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court heard arguments on whether states can ban puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors in both Kentucky and Tennessee, as lawsuits challenging the statutes makes their way through the courts. The appellate judges did not make a ruling but noted that a key factor would be determining which side was being more compassionate.
Alaska moves to restrict sports participation for transgender girls
The Alaska state board of education on Thursday voted in favor of a policy that would keep transgender girls out of girls sports competitions.
The board’s action is a major step, but not the final one for the policy.
It’s up to Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor to decide whether to implement it. The attorney general, like the school board, was appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has called for such a ban.
At least 24 states have adopted laws restricting sports participation, including four where courts have put enforcement on hold.
Kansas no longer has to change birth certificates
A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas officials no longer have to change transgender people’s birth certificates to match their gender identities.
The ruling undoes a 2019 federal consent agreement that required the state to make the changes when asked. The reason for the change is a new state law that defines male and female as the sex assigned at birth.
The ruling puts Kansas among a small group of states, including Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee, that bar such birth certificate changes. Under a separate legal filing from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in July, the state is among a few that do not allow people to change the sex on their driver’s licenses.
Texas law that drag performers feared is put on hold
Not all the latest developments are losses for transgender people.
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new Texas law that drag show artists feared would be used to shut them down or put them in jail.
The law, which expands the definition of what’s considered an illegal public performance of sexual conduct in front of children, was scheduled to take effect on Friday.
But a group of LGBTQ+ rights advocate and drag performers sued to block it. U.S. District Judge David Hittner agreed with their contention that it likely violates the First Amendment and paused enforcement while he prepares a more permanent order in the case.
Judges have also blocked enforcement of bans on drag performances in Florida and Tennessee.
This week, advocates filed a lawsuit in Tennessee trying to stop a local prosecutor who said he intends to enforce the law there despite the federal court ruling. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that law enforcement officials cannot use the limits to interfere with a local Pride festival in Blount County this weekend.
Canada responds with a travel advisory
Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., alerting members of the LGBTQ+ community that some states have enacted laws that could affect them.
The advisory doesn’t single out states and it doesn’t go as far as telling Canadians not to travel to the neighboring nation. Instead, it tells them to check local laws.
Non-government groups have issued similar warnings. In June, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S.-based group devoted to LGBTQ+ rights, declared a state of emergency for community members in the U.S.
And in May, the NAACP issued a travel advisory about Florida citing policies and laws including bans on gender-affirming care for minors, requirements that transgender people use school bathrooms that don’t match their gender, and restrictions on drag performances — although those were later put on hold.
The post Things to Know About the Latest Court and Policy Action on Transgender Issues in US first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
The elephants are mostly found in a large conservation area, the Kavango Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area, or KAZA.
KAZA covers 520,000 square kilometers across Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and contains the world’s largest elephant population.
Presenting the census results Thursday, survey coordinator Darren Potgieter said the outcome shows a stable population.
“Overall, across KAZA, the elephant population appears to be stable,” he said. “However, there is some variation within the different regions. Some areas have shown possible increases in elephant numbers, most remained stable while for some areas, potentially decrease in elephant numbers.”
However, he raised concern about the number of dead elephants encountered during the counting exercise. More than 26,000 carcasses were reported.
“That’s a high number, higher than what one would like to see, and it may be indicative of high mortality,” he said. “It is important to raise this as a red flag for the health of the population. It is important to conduct further investigation to understand the underlying reasons for this high level of mortality.”
Potgieter said the reason for high mortality could be poaching, lack of habitat, an aging elephant population or diseases.
In 2019, Botswana recorded more than 300 deaths due to elephants drinking water contaminated with bacteria.
Malven Karidozo, representing the African Specialist Group, said the survey confirms their early predictions on the elephant numbers in southern Africa.
“The results confirm the African Elephant Specialist Group preliminary population trends report of stable to increasing,” Karidozo said. “They further confirm the 2021 red list assessment of African elephants that reported a stable or growing KAZA elephant population and the largest single population of the savannah species on the continent.”
The census shows Botswana has the largest elephant population, accounting for 58% of elephants in the KAZA region.
Botswana’s Minister of Environment and Tourism Philda Kereng said the survey will help in decision making, particularly as the country faces growing human-elephant conflict.
“What this report will do (is it) will help us enhance and intensify the protection of both people and wildlife, balanced together,” Kereng said. “We are also talking about habitat, which I think is also important. We will know how better to drive more beneficiation from this resource to our people.”
The survey was conducted during the dry season between August and October of last year, using seven fixed-wing aircraft.
While southern Africa has seen an increase in the elephant population, elsewhere on the continent, the numbers are declining due to loss of habitat and poaching.
The post Southern Africa Elephant Population Increases Amid Concerns Over Mortality Rate first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Mother Jones illustration; Theodore Parisienne/Getty; Wikimedia
It was big news when Rudy Giuliani, once hailed as America’s Mayor, was indicted last month by a district attorney in Atlanta for allegedly being part of a criminal enterprise led by Donald Trump that sought to overturn the 2020 election results. Giuliani was back in headlines this week when he lost a defamation suit filed against him by two Georgia election workers whom he had falsely accused of ballot stuffing. Giuliani’s apparent impoverishment, caused by his massive legal bills, and even his alleged drinking have been fodder for reporters. But another major Giuliani development has drawn less attention: An FBI whistleblower filed a statement asserting that Giuliani “may have been compromised” by Russian intelligence while working as a lawyer and adviser to Trump during the 2020 campaign.
That contention is among a host of explosive assertions from Johnathan Buma, an FBI agent who also says that an investigation involving Giuliani’s activities was stymied within the bureau.
In July, Buma sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a 22-page statement full of eye-popping allegations, and the document leaked and was first reported last month by Insider (after a conservative blogger had posted it online). According to Buma’s account, Giuliani was used as an asset by a Ukrainian oligarch tied to Russian intelligence and other Russian operatives for a disinformation operation that aimed to discredit Joe Biden and boost Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Moreover, Buma says he was the target of retaliation within the bureau for digging into this.
The FBI declined to comment on Buma’s claims.
Buma’s revelations may only be the start. A source familiar with his work tells Mother Jones that other potential FBI whistleblowers who participated in the investigation involving Giuliani have consulted the same lawyer as Buma and might meet with congressional investigators in coming weeks. That attorney, Scott Horton, declined to comment.
Giuliani faces a heap of legal and financial problems, including those felony charges in Georgia. He is also an uncharged co-conspirator in the federal case in which Trump was indicted for his efforts to retain power after losing the 2020 election. He has been sued by a former assistant for rape. And apparently Trump has not helped the supposedly broke Giuliani cover his legal bills, though the former president did agree to headline a fundraiser for Giuliani.
Still, Buma’s statement suggests that Giuliani has been lucky to avoid deeper trouble over his attempt during the 2020 race to deploy made-in-Ukraine disinformation to sully Joe Biden.
It is widely known that Giuliani tried mightily to unearth and disseminate dirt on Biden in Ukraine—particularly regarding the unfounded allegation that as vice president Biden squashed an investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company for which his son Hunter was a director. This smear campaign led to Trump’s first impeachment and resulted in a federal investigation into whether Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutors ended that probe last year.
But Buma’s allegations that FBI and Justice Department officials blocked his efforts to investigate these Giuliani activities and the work of suspected Russian agents who may have influenced the former New York City mayor could spark a new dust-up on Capitol Hill. As Republicans keep trying to gin up a controversy over the Bidens, Burisma, and other matters, Buma’s statement reinforces the case that this supposed Biden-Ukraine scandal was egged on or orchestrated by Russian intelligence. And it contradicts the narrative pushed by Trump and his defenders that the FBI and Justice Department have been in cahoots with Democrats.
Giuliani’s role in Trump’s coup attempt and his string of public humiliations may overshadow the Ukrainian chapter in Giuliani’s downfall. But, according to Buma and various US intelligence findings, Giuliani apparently was a dupe—a useful idiot—for suspected Russian operatives and propagandists. And the bureau, Buma says, investigated this—until it didn’t.
Buma’s statement highlights Giuliani’s relationship with Pavel Fuks, a wealthy Ukrainian developer, who in 2017 hired Giuliani and paid him $300,000. Fuks once told the New York Times that he had retained Giuliani to lobby in the United States for the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where Fuks then lived. Giuliani has denied that he was paid to lobby for Kharkiv, insisting he only provided advice regarding security to the city. And Fuks has changed his tune. Through a spokesperson, he told Mother Jones that Giuliani’s work was limited to advising the city.
In his statement, Buma says that the FBI assessed Fuks to be a “co-opted asset” of Russian intelligence services, meaning a person who Russian intelligence used to advance its goals. Buma’s complaint does not name a specific Russian intelligence agency, but a person who spoke to agents involved in this investigation says that the FBI believes Fuks worked for the FSB, the successor to KGB. All this raises the possibility that Giuliani, a former Republican presidential candidate who became a close adviser to Trump, received a large payment directly from a Russian asset.
Buma alleges that Fuks has carried out various tasks for Russian spies, including laundering money for them. Fuks also reportedly paid locals to spray-paint swastikas around Kharkiv in the weeks before Russia’s invasion. Buma says Fuks did so to bolster Vladmir Putin’s claim that the invasion aimed to achieve the “de-Nazification of Ukraine.”
Fuks denies these claims. “Mr. Fuks has never cooperated with Russian intelligence,” his spokesperson says.
Buma maintains that his investigative work led to Customs and Border Patrol in 2017 revoking Fuks visa for travel to the United States and that the FBI assessed that Fuks constituted “a national security threat,” a finding that caused Fuks to be placed on an organized crime watch list. Buma also says that he sent the Treasury Department a recommendation that the United States sanction Fuks. To date, the US government has not done so.
Ukraine has sanctioned Fuks, and it is reportedly investigating him for fraud and tax evasion. Fuks now lives in London, according to recent media reports.
In his statement, Buma says that he developed suspicions that Giuliani, through his relationship with Fuks, was “compromised by the RIS,” meaning the Russian Intelligence Services. That is a striking claim—an allegation that Russian spies may have obtained influence over a top adviser to the US president.
It’s a new piece of information to add to a pile of public indications that Giuliani left himself wide open to manipulation by Russian agents, while he was dredging Ukraine in search of derogatory information about Hunter and Joe Biden.
Giuliani has previously asserted that his work for Fuks ended before he joined Trump’s legal team in April 2018. And Fuks’ spokesperson also says that Fuks’ dealings with Giuliani finished in 2018. But Buma suggests that Fuks may have maintained an indirect connection to Giuliani by hiring in 2019 Andriy Telizhenko, a former low-level Ukrainian diplomatic official, to mount a public relations effort for him in the United States. Buma says that a source told him that Fuks retained Telizhenko to help him “establish contacts with US politicians.” Telizhenko went on to work with Giuliani, feeding him information on the Bidens.
Telizhenko, in a recent interview with Mother Jones, maintained that his work for Fuks and his contacts with Giuliani were unrelated.
But Telizhenko’s interactions with Giuliani raise serious questions about whether this Trump adviser, wittingly or not, played. a part in a covert Russian operation to discredit Biden. In 2021, the Treasury Department sanctioned Telizhenko for promoting Russian “disinformation narratives that U.S. government officials have engaged in corrupt dealings in Ukraine.” Telizhenko denies advancing disinformation or aiding Russia. He says the sanctions resulted from an FBI informant making false claims about him.
Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine placed him in contact with several Ukrainians since sanctioned for allegedly assisting Russian disinformation efforts. The most prominent was Andriy Derkach, the son of a former KGB officer and then a Ukrainian legislator, who supplied Giuliani with unsubstantiated information about the Bidens’ supposed activities in Ukraine. After making a trip to Ukraine in the summer of 2020, Giuliani told the Washington Post that he kept in touch with Derkach and called him “very helpful.”
Trump’s Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach in 2020, calling him an “active Russian agent for over a decade.” In March 2021, a declassified report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that Putin in 2020 signed off on a Russian intelligence effort to use proxies to feed prominent US individuals “influence narratives” aimed at hurting Biden’s campaign and helping Trump. The report cited Derkach, asserting that Putin “had purview” over his activities. Though the report did not name him, Giuliani was obviously one of the Americans the ODNI believed had been manipulated by the Russians. Last year, federal prosecutors hit Derkach with criminal charges for his alleged attempts to evade sanctions.
In his statement, Buma says he investigated Giuliani’s use of “funds he collected from political influencers to travel and conduct a series of interviews with former Ukrainian officials”—a reference to Giuliani’s campaign to gather opposition research on the Bidens. But he adds that “Giuliani was himself never considered a subject” of that part of his probe, which focused on “foreign organized crime figures and intelligence service assets or agents who chose to deal with him.”
Giuliani has admitted to meeting Ukrainians subsequently cited by the US government as Russian operatives. But he has defended his actions by arguing he had to deal with questionable people to seek information on what he has referred to as alleged Biden crimes. (No evidence has surfaced to prove Biden acted improperly in Ukraine to help his son.)
Buma reveals in his statement that he also probed whether Russian operatives or assets were involved in a 2020 Giuliani effort to make a film about Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine and elsewhere. As Mother Jones reported, the GOP activists behind this venture noted in legal documents that they were considering seeking foreign financing for the film. The anti-Biden film was to include commentary from Konstantin Kulyk, a former Ukrainian prosecutor who Treasury sanctioned in 2021 for working with Derkach to spread “fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations” about Biden. That is, this project was to feature information from sources who the US government later deemed were connected to a disinformation campaign linked to Russian intelligence.
Giuliani played a key role in trying to line up investors for the movie. His lawyer, Robert Costello, denied that Giuliani solicited money from foreign investors. The investors Giuliani did help find were two brothers, David and Kable Munger, who own a large blueberry producing company in California and have donated generously to GOP candidates. The movie never came close to being made, and people involved in the endeavor told Mother Jones the project was disorganized and incompetently managed.
The Mungers recently sued two GOP activists involved in producing the film, Tim Yale and George Dickson, along with a company they formed. Giuliani was not named as a defendant in the suit. The Mungers say that Giuliani helped persuade them to invest $1 million by saying that they would receive a share of the film’s profits. The brothers also claim that Yale and Dickson told them the movie would be “more profitable than Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.” Giuliani, Dickson, and Yale also said, according to the Mungers’ lawsuit, that they possessed “smoking guns” revealing Joe Biden was corrupt.
Giuliani and his colleagues possessed no such material. The Mungers allege that Dickson and Yale stole their investment. In a text message to Mother Jones, Yale insisted that the lawsuit is “total hogwash.” He declined to comment further. Dickson did not respond to requests for comment.
Giuliani, according to the lawsuit, was paid $300,000 for his participation in the film project. A lawyer and a spokesperson for Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment.
Buma’s disclosures spell new trouble for Giuliani. They further implicate him in a covert Russian operation to tilt the 2020 election toward Trump. They also raise the possibility that Giuliani was protected by FBI officials. (After the 2016 election, the Justice Department investigated whether Giuliani had improper contacts with FBI agents during that race regarding the bureau’s investigation of Hillary Clinton, and it found no evidence Giuliani had been leaked information.) Buma’s statement offers an investigative roadmap for inquiries that could soil Giuliani’s already tarnished reputation. But the down-and-out Giuliani may get lucky: With all the controversy and scandal swirling about him, there just may not be much room in the Giuliani coverage for the allegation that he was a puppet for Putin.
The post A New Rudy Scandal: FBI Agent Says Giuliani Was Co-opted by Russian Intelligence first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.