Trump, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden And Ukraine: 5 Questions Answered - NPR

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Then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, attend a basketball game in Washington in 2010. Joe Biden frequently dealt with the Ukrainian government and pressed the government to deal with corruption issues. At the same time, Hunter Biden was on the board of a leading gas company in Ukraine. President Trump and some of his supporters have called for an investigation. Nick Wass/AP hide caption

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President Trump's July 25 conversation this summer with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, flagged by a whistleblower, has sparked competing accusations between Republicans and Democrats.

The Democrats want to know if Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden.

But Trump claims the real issue is Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, and what they did in Ukraine a few years ago.

"The one who's got the problem is Biden," Trump told reporters on Monday at the United Nations. "Biden did what they would like to have me do, except one problem: I didn't do it. What Biden did is a disgrace. What his son did is a disgrace."

The Biden camp has argued that claims of wrongdoing are unfounded and have been debunked. "Trump's doing this because he knows I'll beat him like a drum," Biden told reporters on Saturday. "And he's using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me."

Here are five questions about the accusations and the facts behind them.

1. So what did Joe Biden do in Ukraine?

Ukraine had a revolution in February 2014, when the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and fled to Russia amid massive, sustained protests that focused on corruption in his administration.

A pro-Western president, Petro Poroshenko, took over. Then-President Obama's administration was prepared to work with the new government, a position shared with European governments and international institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But they were all concerned about the country's endemic corruption, which had plagued the country ever since it gained independence in the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Obama made then-Vice President Biden the point man, and he became a frequent visitor to Ukraine.

2. What role did Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, play in Ukraine?

In the spring of 2014, as Joe Biden began has trips to Ukraine, Hunter Biden took a position on the board of the country's largest private gas company, Burisma. He was reportedly paid up to $50,000 a month.

The question of a possible conflict of interest — with Hunter Biden profiting in a country where his father was actively working with the government — was raised publicly at the time.

Joe Biden said that he followed government ethics regulations and that his son was a private citizen who made his own decisions.

Also, the Obama administration actually supported an investigation into the gas company because the owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, was close to the ousted president and they had both fled the country.

3. Is there any sign of wrongdoing by either Joe Biden or his son, Hunter Biden?

This is what Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, are suggesting. But they have not provided evidence of illegal actions. Multiple fact checks have called Trump's accusations of corruption by the Bidens misleading.

....know the correct facts. Is he on our Country’s side. Where does he come from. Is this all about Schiff & the Democrats again after years of being wrong?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2019

Joe Biden has actually boasted about his work in Ukraine as a spokesperson for the White House and the West generally. He called for the ouster of the top Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, for what was widely seen as his failure to investigate corruption.

In March 2016, Biden made one of his many trips to Ukraine and told the country's leaders that they had to get rid of the prosecutor if they wanted $1 billion in U.S. aid. Biden told the story last year at the Council on Foreign Relations:

"I said, 'You're not getting the [$1 billion]. I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' Well, son of a b****. He got fired," Biden said.

4. How do Trump and his supporters see Joe Biden's work?

They argue that Joe Biden wanted the prosecutor ousted to protect his son from being investigated. But there has been no evidence of wrongdoing, and Joe Biden was tasked as vice president with helping to weed out corruption in Ukraine.

The key figure in pushing the corruption narrative appears to be Giuliani. He has been in contact with Ukraine multiple times and urged officials there to look into the Bidens. The story has been percolating for the past few months. Giuliani has repeatedly tweeted about it and discussed it on TV.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden stepped down from his post at the gas company this past spring as his term expired, saying he turned down an offer to have it extended. He recognized that it was going to be an issue in the 2020 campaign.

"My qualifications and work are being attacked by Rudy Giuliani and his minions for transparent political purposes," Hunter Biden said in a statement at the time.

5. What's next?

Democrats are demanding to see a transcript of Trump's July 25 conversation with Ukraine's president, which the White House has declined to release.

The inspector general of the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, reported the whistleblower complaint about the call to the House Intelligence Committee in a Sept. 9 letter.

But when Atkinson was called before a closed-door committee hearing last Thursday, he reportedly told members that he was being blocked from releasing the details of the complaint by Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence. Maguire has been called for the same committee this Thursday in a public hearing.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are talking about a new investigation of the president and whether they should pursue impeachment, a move that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has so far opposed.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/09/24/763502822/what-were-the-bidens-doing-in-ukraine-5-questions-answered

2019-09-24 09:01:00Z
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Greta Thunberg shows her displeasure with Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly - The Telegraph

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2019-09-24 07:45:14Z
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European Leaders Join U.S. in Blaming Iran for Saudi Oil Attacks, Urge New Deal - The Wall Street Journal

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, met with French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, second right, after the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019 on Monday. Photo: hayoung jeon/epa/Shutterstock

By

Laurence Norman and

Laurence Norman
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @laurnorman
• laurence.norman@wsj.com

Michael R. Gordon

Michael R. Gordon
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• michael.gordon@wsj.com

Updated Sept. 24, 2019 2:59 am ET

UNITED NATIONS—The leaders of Britain, France and Germany joined the U.S. in blaming Iran for this month’s attacks on Saudi Arabia and said the time had come for Tehran to start talks on a new, long-term agreement dealing with its nuclear, regional and missile activities.

In a joint statement on Monday, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, along with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, said they continue to support the 2015 nuclear deal but said the time has come for Iran to start talks on a longer-term, more comprehensive agreement, as Washington has urged.

While the statement marks a significant shift on Iran by Europe’s powers, those nations are still far from endorsing all of Washington's demands for a new agreement. The statement also didn’t suggest that Europe is prepared to follow Washington in tightening economic pressure on Iran.

President Trump said he welcomed moves for a broader agreement.

“Let’s do a better deal” with Iran, Mr. Johnson told NBC, making him the first European leader to suggest the 2015 nuclear pact could be reworked. “I think there’s one guy who can do a better deal…and that is the president of the United States. I hope there will be a Trump deal,” the prime minister added, while calling the president a “very, very brilliant negotiator.”

Related

• Iran Says British-Flagged Tanker Free to Leave, Ahead of U.N. Summit (Sept. 23)
• Yemeni Rebels Warn Iran Plans Another Strike Soon (Sept. 21)

The Europeans’ push for broader talks came amid growing fears that tensions in the Persian Gulf could quickly escalate following the alleged Iranian attack on Sept. 14 on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure. That could lead to a cutoff in oil supplies and even a major war in the region.

Iran has denied responsibility for the attack.

“It is clear that we need to re-establish deterrence,” said Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, in an appearance at the Asia Society in New York. “We are one missile strike away from a regional war.”

One of the cruise missiles fell short of the Saudi oil facilities, other U.S. officials disclosed, and its guidance and electronic systems are being examined as the U.S. seeks to reconstruct its flight path.

Iran has denied responsibility for the attack. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Monday on Twitter that the three European powers should muster the political will to forge “an independent path” instead of “parroting absurd U.S. claims” and making demands that are inconsistent with the nuclear deal.

There is no indication that Mr. Trump’s administration is planning in the near future to detail in public its evidence for blaming Iran. But the European statement makes clear that the countries are persuaded of Iran’s role, and U.S. officials seem confident that their conclusions will be borne out by U.N. investigators. France has sent experts to Saudi Arabia to investigate the attack.

European officials acknowledged they shared information in reaching their own separate conclusions on Iran’s involvement but didn’t provide details.

The prime minister’s remarks come as the U.K. is looking to deepen ties with Washington while navigating an acrimonious exit from the European Union.

Speaking to Sky News during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Mr. Johnson said the international community faced tough questions over how to respond “to what the Iranians plainly did in blowing up those Saudi Arabian oil fields.”

British officials later said the U.K. continues to support the 2015 nuclear deal. A government spokesman said that with Iran currently not complying with some of the nuclear pact’s limits, the U.K. was open to different ways to bring Tehran back into line.

Until now, the European Union and its three biggest member states, Britain, France and Germany, have strongly defended the 2015 deal, which lifted most international sanctions on Iran in exchange for strict but temporary limits on its nuclear activities.

However, France has been in talks with Iran and the U.S. about ways of de-escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington. The French have been working up proposals, so far rejected by Washington, that would see the U.S. ease sanctions in return for Iran’s full compliance with the deal and possibly other concessions.

France has in the past called for a supplemental agreement that would build on the 2015 nuclear deal and more permanently shut off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.

Iran has rejected any such changes to the nuclear pact and there could be major differences between the Europeans and Washington over what Iran should be offered to induce Tehran to consider such a proposal.

European countries in the past have condemned renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran, warning they threatened to drive Tehran away from the deal.

Iranian leaders have said they won’t hold talks with Washington until the U.S. drops its renewed sanctions. It threatened to take fresh steps away from the nuclear deal in November.

Mr. Macron was meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran on Monday night.

The Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal in May 2018, with Mr. Trump saying the accord failed to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon in the future and didn’t press Iran to curtail its ballistic-missile tests or its aggressive behavior in the region. Washington has since imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran.

“We seek comprehensive negotiations that are truly comprehensive,” Mr. Hook said. “This includes the nuclear file but also Iran’s role in the region, its missile development, support for terrorism, and wrongful detention of dual and foreign nationals, including many American citizens.”

In his appearance at the Asia Society, Mr. Hook reiterated that Mr. Trump’s administration was open to diplomacy with Tehran. However, he confirmed there are currently no back-channel talks between U.S. and Iranian officials.

He said the administration would continue to step up the economic pressure on Iran to meet its demands while expressing concern that Iran might again mount attacks against U.S. allies in the region.

Mr. Hook said the range and sophistication of the weapons used in the Saudi attack went beyond the capabilities of the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and confirmed that none of the drones or cruise missiles used in the strike were fired from Iraqi territory.

U.S. officials have asserted that all of the drones and cruise missiles used in the attack were launched from Iranian territory.

The comprehensive approach sketched out by Mr. Hook would end Iran’s support for militant groups in the region, constrain its missile program, end “hostage-taking” or the detention of U.S. and other Western citizens and impose more stringent nuclear curbs than the 2015 accord.

—Sune Engel Rasmussen
and Vivian Salama
contributed to this article.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com and Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com

Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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2019-09-24 06:59:00Z
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US, Afghan forces kill over 20 Al Qaeda fighters in southern Afghanistan raid, officials say - Fox News

U.S. special operations forces, including an American gunship, backed Afghan commandos in a predawn raid on a building filled with dozens of Al Qaeda fighters in southern Afghanistan, killing over 20 of the militants, officials said Monday.

A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship leveled the building in the volatile Helmand Province after a suicide bomber detonated his vest during the joint operation, according to a U.S. official.

TALIBAN VIOLENCE IN AFGHANISTAN RAMPS UP AS SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS AT LEAST 20

Helmand police chief Col. Ehsamudin Helmandi said Afghan special forces killed 22 Taliban militants in addition to the Al Qaeda fighters. At least 14 other militants were wounded and some were taken prisoner as a result of the operations.

Helmandi said six Al Qaeda terrorists were also arrested in the operation, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi citizens.

No U.S. forces were wounded, according to American officials. Some Afghan special forces were wounded in the fight, though exactly how many was not immediately clear.

Dozens of Afghan civilians were also wounded and some killed in the crossfire and by the detonation of the Al Qaeda suicide bomber.

TWIN SUICIDE BOMBINGS TARGET AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENT'S RALLY, KABUL DOWNTOWN; 48 DEAD

The police chief blamed the Taliban and Al Qaeda for causing the civilian casualties in Musa Qala district because they used the local residents as human shields. The exact number of civilians killed is not immediately clear.

The joint operation destroyed a major Taliban hub in Helmand, which was also a gathering point for Al Qaeda fighters moving through the area. The Al Qaeda fighters were discovered as a result of communication intercepts, U.S. officials said, declining to elaborate because of the sensitivity of the intelligence.

Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, a coalition service member thwarted a so-called “insider attack” on an armored vehicle carrying U.S. troops in the Kandahar Province.

'ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE MISSION': THE 8,000-MILE NONSTOP FLIGHT TO SAVE A US SOLDIER'S LIFE

The fast-acting response from the service member, whose nationality was not immediately clear, saved the lives of all onboard the vehicle, according to a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

No U.S. or allied troops were injured in the attempted attack, which took place off base, an official said. The shooter, a member of the Afghan army, was killed.

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The incidents come after President Trump scrapped a meeting at Camp David with top Afghan and Taliban leaders days before the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

A Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday the U.S. military had not been ordered to reduce any of the 14,000 troops currently serving in Afghanistan.

This year, 17 U.S. troops have been killed fighting in Afghanistan and 104 have been wounded, according to the Pentagon.

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2019-09-23 15:17:07Z
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Iran Says British Tanker Is Free to Go After 2 Months of Detention - The New York Times

A British-flagged tanker that Iran seized in July is now free to leave, Tehran said on Monday, more than a month after the British authorities released an Iranian tanker that had been detained off Gibraltar.

The news offered a rare hint of easing tensions for Iran, at a time when the country has been in an escalating cycle of confrontation with its Persian Gulf neighbors and with the United States, including the shooting down of drones, the seizure of tankers and, most recently, an attack on major oil installations in Saudi Arabia.

Officials of the United States and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s chief rival in the region, have blamed Tehran for the Sept. 14 attack on oil facilities in the kingdom, raising the prospect of retaliatory strikes and even war. But so far, the only apparent action they have taken against Tehran is a tightening of economic sanctions.

Iran had accused the British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, of violating maritime regulations in the Strait of Hormuz, but the seizure on July 19 was widely seen as retaliation for the detention of the Iranian vessel.

The legal proceedings against the Stena Impero have concluded, and Iran has decided to waive alleged violations, an Iranian government spokesman, Ali Rabiyee, said at a news conference, according to Iranian and Western news agencies that were present.

The ship had not left Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, as of midday, and it was not clear how quickly it would set sail. Erik Hanell, chief executive of the tanker’s owner, the shipping company Stena Bulk, told SVT, a Swedish television station, that he hoped it would be a matter of hours.

Iran detained the 23-member crew along with the ship. It released seven of them this month, but the others have remained with the vessel.

The decision to release the ship comes a little more than a week after the attack on the Saudi oil installations. Iran has denied any responsibility for the attack, a sophisticated operation involving some two dozen drones and cruise missiles. The aerial strikes damaged infrastructure and temporarily cut Saudi oil production in half, sending tremors through world markets, but they caused no reported casualties.

The Houthi rebel faction in Yemen’s civil war, a group that is known to use weapons supplied by Iran, has said it carried out the attack against Saudi Arabia, which has been bombing in Yemen for more than four years, killing thousands of people.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said early on Monday that there was “a very high degree of probability” that Iran was responsible for the strikes in Saudi Arabia, and he did not rule out British participation in military retaliation.

In May and June, several tankers operating near the Strait of Hormuz were damaged in what the United States said was sabotage by Iranian forces — which Iran also denied. Iran also detained several ships for varying periods of time, notably the Stena Impero.

Analysts have characterized the attacks — whether carried out by Iran or by one of the armed factions it supports in the Middle East — and ship seizures as Tehran’s demonstration that it has the power to cut off a large part of the world’s energy supplies.

Iran wants relief from punishing sanctions imposed by President Trump since he withdrew the United States from a 2015 deal that restricted the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program. Relations have grown worse since then, as the United States has steadily added more economic penalties, seeking to choke off Iran’s oil sales, the life blood of its economy. In recent months, Iran has taken a series of steps to go beyond the limits imposed by the nuclear accord.

The direct confrontation with Britain began on July 4, when British marines and Gibraltar port officials seized an Iranian tanker, Grace 1, which has since been renamed the Adrian Darya 1. They said the ship was carrying oil to Syria, in violation of a European Union embargo.

Iran denied the allegation and accused the British of concocting the story to act against Tehran at the behest of Washington, though Britain formally opposes the American sanctions.

The government of Gibraltar, a semiautonomous British territory, released the ship six weeks later, and said that it had assurances that the Iranian tanker would not go to Syria. American officials asked that the ship be turned over to them, but the Gibraltar government rejected the request.

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2019-09-23 12:03:00Z
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Iran Says British Tanker Is Free to Go After 2 Months of Detention - The New York Times

A British-flagged tanker that Iran seized in July is now free to leave, the Iranian government said on Monday, more than a month after British authorities released an Iranian tanker that had been detained off Gibraltar.

The news offered a rare hint of easing tensions, at a time when Iran has been in an escalating cycle of confrontation with its Persian Gulf neighbors and the United States.

Iran had accused the British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, of violating maritime regulations in the Strait of Hormuz, but the seizure on July 19 was widely seen as retaliation for the detention of the Iranian tanker.

The legal proceedings against the Stena Impero have concluded, and Iran has decided to waive alleged violations, an Iranian government spokesman, Ali Rabiyee, said at a news conference, according to Iranian and Western news agencies that were present.

The ship had not left the Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, as of midday, and it was not clear how quickly it would set sail. Erik Hanell, chief executive of the tanker’s owner, the shipping company Stena Bulk, told SVT, a Swedish television station, that he hoped it would be a matter of hours.

Iran detained the 23-member crew along with the ship. It released seven of them earlier this month, but the others have remained with the vessel.

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2019-09-23 10:30:00Z
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Civilians killed in Afghan forces' anti-Taliban operation - Aljazeera.com

A number of civilians have been killed in an air raid and ground assault on a Taliban hideout by Afghan special forces in the southern Helmand province.

There were conflicting reports on the number of people killed and wounded in the operation on Sunday night in Musa Qala district, which is under Taliban control.

Officials said the civilians killed were part of a wedding procession that came under fire during the operation targeting a house used by the Taliban.

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Omar Zwak, the provincial governor's spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Monday at least 14 fighters including six foreigners were killed, adding that authorities were investigating reports on civilian casualties.

"We know there have been civilian deaths in this raid but we don't have a number yet," he said. "However, we are investigating to find out more."

Attaullah Afghan, a member of the Helmand provincial council, told Reuters news agency that 35 civilians were killed and 13 wounded.

Abdul Majed Akhund, deputy provincial councilman, told The Associated Press news agency authorities were investigating reports that at least 24 people attending a wedding died in the raid.

Afghanistan's security forces have been heavily criticised for inflicting civilian casualties during night-time raids.

Afghan and allied international forces, including NATO, have killed more civilians in the first three months of this year than the Taliban and fighters from other armed groups, a UN report said in April.

At least 305 civilians have been killed by pro-government forces between January and March, 52.5 percent of all deaths in that period, according to findings from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

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In one of the most condemned incidents earlier this month, four brothers were killed in a raid conducted by the CIA-trained and funded 02 Unit of Afghanistan's spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

On Friday, the US confirmed carrying out a drone attack on September 19 that killed at least 30 farmers in Nangarhar province. At least 40 others were wounded in the attack in Wazir Tangi area of Khogyani district.

The United States and the Taliban began peace talks last October in Qatar, with the aim of ending the almost 18-year-old war in Afghanistan.

But in a surprise move, US President Donald Trump announced last month after the nine round of talks that negotiations were cancelled without a deal.

A week after the talks were cancelled, Trump said in a tweet that the Taliban have "never been hit harder".

"After Trump cancelling the peace deal with the Taliban, there has been increase in drone attacks and ground operations, that is causing increase in civilian casualties,"  Faizullah Zaland, a political analyst based in Kabul, told Al Jazeera.

"It wil deepen mistrust among people in the Afghan government and will deepen the current crisis,"

"US must play a more responsible role in ending the meaningless war and prevent Afghan civilian casualties with immediate effect," he said.

Afghanistan will hold its fourth presidential elections on September 28 since US-led forces toppled the Taliban from power in 2001.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2019-09-23 10:05:00Z
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