Striking ceremonies have been taking place around the world as many Christians marked Good Friday. Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday, the Bible says, and was resurrected on Easter Sunday. Images show people taking part in processions and re-enactments of Jesus Christ's last journey before he was crucified. In Jerusalem people carried a large wooden cross into a church. In Paris, crowds attended a "Stations of the Cross" procession along the banks of the River Seine, within sight of the fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral. An Indian Christian woman prays at a cathedral in New Delhi, India. Hundreds of worshippers can be seen attending a procession in Nairobi, Kenya. In England, pilgrims carried crosses to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland. The image above is from Banda Aceh in Indonesia where a man portraying Jesus is tied to a cross. Around 350 people re-enacted the Passion of Jesus in Spain's Basque Country. The procession above took place in Amritsar, India. In the Czech Republic, around 70 people wearing masks and pushing wooden rattles walked through the streets of Ceske Budejovice. Penitents stand next to an election poster of Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. They wear hoods in a tradition that dates back to the 15th Century and allows sinners to repent without being identified. All photos copyright.

In the past several days, Mr. Trump has forced out Kirstjen Nielsen, his homeland security secretary, and several other top immigration officials for being too timid about shutting down the border and changing asylum rules to deny entry to migrants seeking protection in the United States.One of those officials, Ronald D. Vitiello, the acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resigned on Wednesday after Mr. Trump pulled back his nomination for the permanent position, saying he wanted someone tougher. In a statement issued on her last day in office, Ms. Nielsen called Mr. Vitiello “an unwavering advocate for the dedicated men and women who enforce our immigration laws.”A top administration official said Tuesday that the staffing changes were meant to make way for more aggressive immigration actions.[Sign up for Crossing the Border, a limited-run newsletter about life where the United States and Mexico meet.]But the president faces challenges of his own. His campaign promises have mostly gone unfulfilled. He has largely failed to build the “big beautiful wall” along the southwestern border as he promised. And the recent surge of migrant families from Central America is a vivid demonstration of his inability to stop what he has called an “invasion.”There was also significant evidence during the 2018 midterm elections that the president’s immigration attacks backfired in some Republican districts around the country. For example, several House Republicans, including some of the party’s leaders in Congress, complained to Mr. Trump that his announcement right before the election that he was considering an executive order to end birthright citizenship might have cost several moderate Republicans their seats.And as he sets out for the re-election campaign, Mr. Trump is certain to face several challengers among the Democrats who are determined to make the president’s immigration agenda a key part of their reason for running. In February, Beto O’Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso who has since declared his own candidacy for president, outlined his opposition to Mr. Trump’s immigration policies at a rally held at the same time the president spoke in that Texas border city.

Mr. Yu, an award-winning photographer and vice chairman of the Hubei Photographers Association, has visited Africa more than 20 times. He did not return several calls seeking comment.A curator at the exhibit, Wang Yuejun, said the decision to hang the photos of people and animals together was his own idea, and not that of Mr. Yu.“The target of the exhibition is mainly a Chinese audience,” Mr. Wang said in a statement, adding that comparisons between people and animals are common in China and often a compliment.Mr. Wang said many Chinese people relate to their animal familiars assigned by the Chinese zodiac and “in Chinese proverbs, animals are always used for admiration and compliment.”Once it was brought to his attention, Mr. Wang said, that “putting the photos of African tribespeople and animals together hurt the feelings of the African tribespeople,” and to “show respect for our African friends’ opinions,” the offending pictures were removed.On social media, the exhibit received mixed reviews. Edward E. Duke, a Nigerian Instagram user, posted video of the exhibit, which was first published by the website Shanghaiist. The museum, he wrote in a post that was later removed, “put pictures of a particular race next to wild animals why?”A Chinese user of Weibo, a popular blogging platform, said she was blown away by the photos in that section.“When Yu Huiping’s photos were projected on the big screen, I was shocked by the children’s gaze and the primal state of the animals,” wrote the user, identified as Ailuxixi, adding that she liked the section “very much.”

Judge Kavanaugh has expressed strong support for executive power, hostility to administrative agencies, and support for religious freedom and for gun rights. Democrats will press him on all of these topics, but are expected to drill especially deeply into his assertion, in a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, that sitting presidents should be “excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship,” including responding to civil and criminal lawsuits.Those comments are especially relevant in light of the special counsel investigation being led by Robert S. Mueller III. Democrats want Judge Kavanaugh to commit to recusing himself from ruling on matters involving that inquiry — a commitment he will undoubtedly avoid making.But perhaps the most blistering accusation Democrats will levy is that Judge Kavanaugh was untruthful during his 2006 testimony, when he told the judiciary panel that he was “not involved in the questions about the rules governing” the treatment of terror suspects. A White House spokesman, Raj Shah, has said the testimony “accurately reflected the facts.”An email, recently made public as part of a trove of Bush records, shows that while working in the Bush White House Counsel’s Office, the future judge volunteered to prepare a senior Bush administration official to testify about the government’s monitoring of conversations between certain terrorism suspects and their lawyers.Democrats, led by Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, had questioned Judge Kavanaugh’s veracity even before that email’s release. In an interview, Mr. Leahy drew a comparison between Judge Kavanaugh and Judge Jay S. Bybee, who was confirmed to the federal appeals court in 2003 — years before the release of memos showing that, as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, he had given the C.I.A. its first detailed legal approval for waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques.“Had that come out before the confirmation,” Mr. Leahy said, “I doubt very much that he would have been confirmed.”In a narrowly divided Senate — 50 Republicans, 47 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats — the Kavanaugh nomination could be defeated if all Democrats hang together and one Republican votes no.

Yet a Sept. 17, 2001, email showed that Judge Kavanaugh — then a White House lawyer, not staff secretary — asked John Yoo, a Justice Department lawyer, whether there were “any results yet” on the Fourth Amendment implications of warrantless surveillance for counterterrorism purposes. Later that day, Mr. Yoo completed a memo on a “hypothetical” warrantless wiretapping program that evolved into a more extensive memo that Mr. Yoo signed on Oct. 4, 2001, the day the program secretly started.Insisting that his testimony had been “100 percent accurate,” Judge Kavanaugh said that in the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, White House lawyers worked on many things related to national security, but he had never been “read into” the existence of the surveillance program. Mr. Yoo corroborated that account.Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, grilled Judge Kavanaugh about his testimony over his involvement in Bush administration policy for the handling of captured terrorism suspects. As an appeals court nominee, Judge Kavanaugh turned aside questions about torture by saying that he was “not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants” and portrayed his portfolio as focusing on “civil justice issues” like terrorism insurance.It later emerged that when the Bush administration was internally debating whether American citizens being held as “enemy combatants” should have access to lawyers, Judge Kavanaugh had advised that the Supreme Court justice Anthony M. Kennedy would probably rule that they had a right to them. An email also showed that in September 2001, he volunteered to prepare a senior Bush administration official to testify about the government’s monitoring of conversations between federal terrorism inmates and their lawyers.But Judge Kavanaugh said that “my testimony then was accurate and was the truth.” He said he had understood Mr. Durbin’s question in 2006 to be about the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation program,” which he was not involved in. As for the signing statement about the torture ban, he said his role as staff secretary was to hand papers to the president that had been prepared by others.On Wednesday, Judge Kavanaugh told Ms. Feinstein that he considered the 1972 abortion rights ruling, Roe v. Wade, to be a “settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court entitled the respect under principles” of a legal doctrine that justices should not lightly reopen already decided issues.But a 2003 White House email by Judge Kavanaugh — which emerged into public view on Thursday morning — showed that he had objected to a line in a draft opinion article stating that “it is widely accepted by legal scholars across the board that Roe v. Wade and its progeny are the settled law of the land.” He proposed deleting that line, writing: “I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since court can always overrule its precedent, and three current justices on the court would do so.”Although his email stopped short of saying what he personally believed, Democrats and abortion rights advocates portrayed that as a contradiction that suggested he was being evasive and did not believe Roe was settled. But Judge Kavanaugh told Ms. Feinstein on Thursday that he had only meant that the line inaccurately overstated the position “of legal scholars” and reiterated that Roe was a precedent that had been reaffirmed repeatedly.

(Reuters) - Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes’ investigation into whether Obama administration officials used classified intelligence reports to discredit Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team could backfire on the congressman - and the president, sources familiar with the reports said. File Photo: Devin Nunes speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts The reports contain no evidence that any aides to former Democratic President Barack Obama acted improperly, the sources said, but they do indicate some Trump associates may have violated an obscure 1799 law, the Logan Act, which prohibits unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with a foreign government that has a dispute with the United States. The spying reports also are relevant to the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia worked to tilt last November’s election in Republican Trump’s favor, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mueller’s office declined to comment. Russia, under U.S. sanctions for rights abuses and its 2014 annexation of Crimea, has repeatedly denied allegations of election meddling. Trump has denied any possible collusion between his campaign and Moscow, an issue that has loomed over the new presidency. Nunes, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee and a Trump ally, met secretly earlier this year with a White House intelligence aide and then accused Obama officials of having requested the names of U.S. citizens seen in intercepts of communications with Russians and other foreigners. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. The names would have been routinely censored from intelligence agency intercepts, but Nunes charged that Obama’s aides had leaked the information to try to undermine Trump while he was running for president. A spokesman for then-United Nations ambassador Samantha Power, whom Nunes and other Republicans accused of digging for political dirt, said she read intelligence reports only as part of her normal duties. A spokesman for former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, whom Republicans also accused of misusing intelligence, did not respond to requests for comment. Mueller is investigating meetings and conversations between Trump associates and Russian and other foreign officials and businessmen. They include Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner; the president’s eldest son Donald Trump, Jr.; former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “An obvious question is how all these meetings and conversations were set up,” said one of the sources. “Who set them up? What was their purpose? What were the agendas? Who approved them? Who was briefed on them afterward? Signals intelligence might shed some light on that.” Representatives for the Trump associates did not respond to requests for comment. Democratic lawmakers have said that Nunes and others have made the assertions about the leaks to distract attention from two congressional investigations and Mueller’s probe into the Russian matter. The National Security Agency masks the names of U.S. citizens in intercepts, but officials with the necessary security clearances can request them for intelligence purposes. “Unmasking Americans is extremely sensitive, and unmasking political opponents is really problematic,” said a congressional official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. If Obama officials asked for the names or failed to justify any requests, that warranted investigation, the official said. Asked for hard evidence that Power or other aides misused intelligence for political purposes or leaked such information to the media, the official declined to comment. Reporting by Mark Hosenball in London; additional reporting by John Walcott in Washington; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An official document seen by Reuters shows that at least 131 Russian citizens died in Syria in the first nine months of this year, a number that relatives, friends and local officials say included private military contractors. A death certificate of Russian private military contractor Sergei Poddubniy number 131 reading he died in Tiyas, Homs province, of "carbonization of the body" on September 28, which was issued by the Russian consulate in Syria, is pictured in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia October 21, 2017. Picture taken October 21, 2017. REUTERS/Maria TsvetkovaThe document, a death certificate issued by the Russian consulate in Damascus dated Oct. 4, 2017, does not say what the deceased was doing in Syria. But Reuters has established in interviews with the families and friends of some of the deceased and officials in their hometowns that the dead included Russian private military contractors killed while fighting alongside the forces of Moscow’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The presence of the Russian contractors in Syria - and the casualties they are sustaining - is denied by Moscow, which wants to portray its military intervention in Syria as a successful peace mission with minimal losses. The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to detailed questions submitted by Reuters. Requests for comment from the Russian consulate in Damascus did not elicit a response. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement provided to Reuters on Friday: “We do not have information about individual citizens who visit Syria. With that, I consider this question dealt with.” Reuters sent questions to a group of Russian private military contractors active in Syria through a person who knows their commanders, but did not receive a response. The official death toll of military personnel in Syria this year is 16. A casualty figure significantly higher than that could tarnish President Vladimir Putin’s record five months before a presidential election which he is expected to contest. A Reuters count of the number of Russian private contractors known to have been killed in Syria this year, based on interviews with relatives and friends of the dead and local officials in their hometowns, stands at 26. Russian authorities have not publicly released any information this year about casualties among Russian civilians who may have been caught up in the fighting. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in response to Reuters questions, said the consulate in Syria was fulfilling its duties to register the deaths of Russian citizens. It said that under the law, personal data obtained in the process of registering the deaths was restricted and could not be publicly disclosed. In August, Igor Konashenkov, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, said in response to a previous Reuters report that information about Russian military contractors in Syria was “a myth”, and that Reuters was attempting to discredit Moscow’s operation to restore peace in Syria. A Russian diplomat who has worked in a consulate in another part of the world, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the figure of 131 registered deaths in nine months was unusually high given the estimated number of Russian expatriates in Syria. Although there is no official data for the size of the community, data from Russian national elections shows there were only around 5,000 registered Russian voters in the country in 2012 and 2016. “It is as if the diaspora is dying out,” he said. High numbers of deaths are usually recorded by Russian consulates only in tourist destinations such as Thailand or Turkey, he said. Russian consulates do not register the deaths of military personnel, according to an official at the consulate in Damascus who did not give his name. The consular document seen by Reuters was a “certificate of death” issued to record the death of Sergei Poddubny, 36. It was one of three death certificates seen by Reuters. Poddubny’s certificate, which bears the consulate’s stamp, lists the cause of death as “carbonization of the body” - in other words, he was burned. It said he was killed on Sept. 28 in the town of Tiyas, Homs province, the scene of heavy fighting between Islamist rebels and pro-Assad forces. Several Russian contractors were killed in the area earlier this year, friends and relatives told Reuters. Poddubny’s body was repatriated and buried in his home village in southern Russia about three weeks later. He had been in Syria as a private military contractor, one of his relatives and one of his friends told Reuters. Poddubny’s death certificate had a serial number in the top right corner, 131. Under a Justice Ministry procedure, all death certificates are numbered, starting from zero at the start of the year and going up by one digit for each new death recorded. The Russian diplomat confirmed that is the procedure. Reuters saw two other certificates, both issued on Feb. 3. The numbers - 9 and 13 - indicate certificates for at least five deaths were issued on that day. They were both private military contractors, according to people who know them. The death of a Russian citizen would have to be registered at the consulate in order to repatriate the body back to Russia via civilian channels, according to the Russian diplomat. A death certificate from the consulate would also help with bureaucracy back home relating to the dead person’s assets, the diplomat said. The bodies of Russians fighting on the rebel side are not repatriated, according to a former Russian official who dealt with at least six cases of Russians killed in Syria and the relatives of four Russian Islamists killed there. A few thousand Russian citizens with Islamist sympathies have traveled to rebel-held areas since the conflict began in 2011, according to Russian officials. Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin; Editing by Sonya HepinstallOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo’s election board has postponed a long-anticipated presidential vote scheduled for Sunday by one week until Dec. 30 after a fire destroyed voting materials. Already delayed repeatedly since 2016, the poll is meant to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila, stepping down after 18 years in what would be Congo’s first democratic transition. Following a meeting with candidates in the capital, the electoral commission (CENI) said it was unable to provide sufficient ballot papers for Kinshasa after a warehouse blaze last week destroyed much of the capital’s election material. “We cannot organize general elections without the province of Kinshasa, and without the Kinois voters - who represent 10 percent of the electoral body,” CENI president Corneille Nangaa told journalists. “The presidential, legislative and provincial ballots will take place on Dec. 30 2018.” The decision may further stir the volatile and violent nation of 80 million people after several government crackdowns on opposition rallies in the run-up to the vote. After the announcement, a crowd outside CENI headquarters started shouting in protest. Police pushed them back. Security forces have killed dozens of people in the past two years demonstrating against Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate officially expired in December 2016. Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Kinshasa on Thursday, protesting any delay to the vote. Civilians react after the announcement by Congo's election board to postpone a presidential vote scheduled for Sunday by one week, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, December 20, 2018. REUTERS/Kenny KatombeMany Congolese hope the election can help draw a line under decades of conflict and economic stagnation. Millions died in two wars around the turn of the century and dozens of militia remain active near the eastern borders, where they fight over ethnic rivalries and natural resources. Earlier on Thursday, opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, one of the frontrunners, told Reuters it would be unacceptable for the election to be pushed back. “The CENI president said there will be an election, rain or shine, on the 23rd of December,” Fayulu said. “We cannot accept a change of Mr. Nangaa’s position today.” Explaining the CENI’s decision, Nangaa said 5 million additional ballot papers had been ordered from the provider in South Korea to replace those destroyed in Kinshasa, but only 1 million had arrived so far. The last of the ballot papers are scheduled to arrive on Saturday night. The postponement caps a chaotic week, which saw more than 100 people killed in fights between ethnic groups in northwestern Congo and clashes between police and opposition supporters in Kinshasa. Those protests erupted after Kinshasa’s governor ordered a halt to campaigning over security fears. International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda warned in a statement on Thursday that her office would not hesitate to take action if large-scale crimes were committed around the elections. Campaigning had been due to end at midnight on Friday in what has boiled down to a race between Kabila’s preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, and two main challengers, Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi. Slideshow (9 Images)Shadary has a big advantage due to sizeable campaign funds and ruling party control of many media outlets. However, a rare national opinion poll in October had Tshisekedi leading the race with 36 percent, well ahead of Shadary’s 16 percent. Fayulu had 8 percent. Additional reporting by Sofia Christensen and Aaron Ross; Writing by Aaron Ross and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew CawthorneOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked to the world of digital currency to circumvent U.S.-led financial sanctions, announcing on Sunday the launch of the “petro” backed by oil reserves to shore up a collapsed economy. The leftist leader offered few specifics about the currency launch or how the struggling OPEC member would pull off such a feat, but he declared to cheers that “the 21st century has arrived!” “Venezuela will create a cryptocurrency,” backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, Maduro said in his regular Sunday televised broadcast, a five-hour showcase of Christmas songs and dancing. The petro, he said, would help Venezuela “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade.” Opposition leaders derided the announcement, which they said needed congressional approval, and some cast doubt on whether the digital currency would ever see the light of day in the midst of turmoil. The real currency, the bolivar, is in freefall, and the country is sorely lacking in basic needs like food and medicine. Still, the announcement highlights how sanctions enacted this year by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are hurting Venezuela’s ability to move money through international banks. Washington has levied sanctions against Venezuelan officials, PDVSA executives and the country’s debt issuance. Sources say compliance departments are scrutinizing transactions linked to Venezuela, which has slowed some bond payments and complicated certain oil exports. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly radio and TV broadcast "Los Domingos con Maduro" (The Sundays with Maduro) in Caracas, Venezuela, December 3, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERSMaduro’s pivot away from the U.S. dollar comes after the recent spectacular rise of bitcoin, which has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world. The announcement bewildered some followers of cryptocurrencies, which typically are not backed by any government or central banks. Ironically, Venezuela’s currency controls in recent years have spurred a bitcoin fad among tech-savvy Venezuelans looking to bypass controls to obtain dollars or make internet purchases. Maduro’s government has a poor track record in monetary policy. Currency controls and excessive money printing have led to a 57 percent depreciation of the bolivar against the dollar in the last month alone on the widely used black market. That has dragged down the monthly minimum wage to a mere $4.30. For the millions of Venezuelans plunged into poverty and struggling to eat three meals a day, Maduro’s announcement is unlikely to bring any immediate relief. Economists and opposition leaders say Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, has recklessly refused to overhaul Venezuela’s controls and stem the economic meltdown. He could now be seeking to pay bondholders and foreign creditors in the currency amid a plan to restructure the country’s major debt burden, opposition leaders said, but the plan is likely to flop. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly radio and TV broadcast "Los Domingos con Maduro" (The Sundays with Maduro) in Caracas, Venezuela, December 3, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS“It’s Maduro being a clown. This has no credibility,” opposition lawmaker and economist Angel Alvarado told Reuters. “I see no future in this,” added fellow opposition legislator Jose Guerra. Maduro says he is trying to combat a Washington-backed conspiracy to sabotage his government and end socialism in Latin America. On Sunday he said Venezuela was facing a financial “world war.” Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Mary MillikenOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

India is gearing up for a massive digital transformation of its vast hinterland.In three years from now, the Narendra Modi government plans to lay down the necessary infrastructure—including one million kilometres of optical fibre network—to bring digital connectivity to the country’s 239,000 gram panchayats (village-level administrative units).As part of this rollout, the government on Nov. 13 announced the second and final phase of the BharatNet project—the flagship programme that will provide broadband connectivity across India’s villages—at a cost of Rs34,000 crore. The first phase will be completed by December this year and will cover 100,000 panchayats in the country.Under the programme, the government will provide optical fibre to telecom players at 75% lower tariffs, which can be utilised to provide affordable services to rural users. “We expect telecom operators to provide at least 2 megabit per second (Mbps) speed to rural households,” India’s telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Nov. 12.By bringing internet access to many far-flung hamlets of Asia’s third-largest economy, the project is estimated to add over Rs4.5 lakh crore ($68 billion) to its GDP.Initiated by the Manmohan Singh government in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network, the project had an excruciatingly slow start, adding only 350-odd kilometres of network by 2014.In 2015, the Modi government renamed it BharatNet, with the target of turning it into the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre. Since then, some 267,000 km of optical fibre has been laid in 121,429 village panchayats, mostly executed by the state-run Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL) through three public sector units—BSNL, Power Grid Corporation, and RailTel. In all, wi-fi hot spots for up to 100 million people will be provided, of which 15,000 hotspots are already in place.“When the project started it didn’t take off as planned…It was no fun for anyone,” India’s telecom minister Manoj Sinha said on Nov. 13. ”BharatNet won’t be a medium to generate money, it’s not a business, it’s a medium for broadband penetration under the PM’s Digital India initiative.”Over the past few years, there’s been a tremendous expansion of internet access in India, mostly driven by cheap smartphones and affordable mobile internet plans. The country’s smartphone-using population is expected to touch 530 million by 2018, while the total number of internet users is currently pegged at between 450 million and 465 million, the world’s second-largest such user base.Yet, digital access remains poor in India’s villages, which represent a large, untapped business opportunity. Now, companies are making a beeline to use BharatNet to fill that gap.On Nov. 12, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile service provider, paid BBNL, the provider of fiber in the first phase, to take connectivity to over 30,000 villages each. Others like Vodafone and Idea Cellular are also expected to join in. The government is offering $550 million in subsidies to private providers joining the programme as many areas may not be commercially viable.“India, at present, has 38,000 wi-fi hotspots. Under BharatNet phase 2, around 600,000 to 700,000 hotspots will be added with 2-5 hotspots in each panchayat. Some of the hotspots may not be commercially viable initially. So, we will provide viability gap funding of around $550 million to telecom operators,” Sundararajan said.Some of the world’s largest tech companies are working to bring rural India online. Google, for instance, is currently partnering with the government to roll out Google Loon, a communication network using large balloons in the earth’s stratosphere. This, too, is specifically to provide internet connectivity to Indian villages.

A suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a compound belonging to the Afghan intelligence agency in Kabul on Monday, killing six civilians, officials said.The attacker struck at a time when workers were arriving at their offices. It comes a week after militants stormed a National Directorate of Security (NDS) training centre in the Afghan capital.Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said six civilians in a car were killed when the attacker detonated himself.“Six people were martyred and three others were wounded,” Danish said.“They were hit when they were passing the area in their Toyota sedan vehicle. We still do not know the target of the attack but it happened on the main road.”The health ministry confirmed the death toll but put the number of wounded at one.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in Kabul which in recent months has become one of the deadliest places in the war-torn country for civilians.An Agence France-Presse reporter at the blast site said the attack happened outside the main entrance to an NDS compound. Security forces swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the building.Ambulances were seen leaving the scene, apparently taking casualties to hospitals in the city.“Our initial information shows a blast took place near an intelligence headquarters in Shash Darak neighbourhood of Kabul,” deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.Last week’s attack on the NDS was claimed by the Islamic State, which has expanded its presence in Afghanistan since it first appeared in the region in 2015.It has scaled up its attacks in Kabul, including those on the country’s Shia minority.The resurgent Taliban and increasingly Isis are both stepping up their assaults on security installations and mosques.On Friday, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed Humvee into a police compound in the southern province of Kandahar, killing at least six officers and destroying a building.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn ambush.Afghan forces, already beset by desertions and corruption, have seen casualties soar to what a US watchdog has described as “shockingly high” levels since Nato forces officially ended their combat mission in 2014 and began a training and support role.Morale has been further eroded by long-running fears that the militants have insider help – everything from infiltrators in the ranks to corrupt Afghan forces selling equipment to the Taliban. Topics Afghanistan South and Central Asia news

Donald Trump said the former FBI director James Comey was not fired because of the Russia investigation in a tweet early on Wednesday, in a direct contradiction of statements he had made previously.“Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems),” Trump tweeted.The statement does not square with Trump’s comments during a televised NBC News interview in May 2017 when he listed “this Russia thing” as one of the primary reasons he decided to fire Comey.Trump also told Russian officials in the Oval Office that firing Comey had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a New York Times report from the same month.Trump and Comey have been at loggerheads ever since the former FBI head was fired on 9 May 2017, but the spat has escalated over the past week with the release of Comey’s new book and a televised interview in which Comey called Trump, among other things, “morally unfit” to be president.Despite Trump’s own utterances on the topic, the White House has mostly maintained that Comey was fired for mishandling an inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails and that Trump had been losing confidence in him since the election.The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, had also composed a memo criticising Comey in the same vein around the time that the FBI director was fired but Rosenstein and Trump have maintained that the president made the decision before he read any such memo. Topics Donald Trump James Comey Trump-Russia investigation news

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning will remain in jail after a federal appeals court on Monday denied her request to be released on bail, and upheld a lower court’s decision to hold Manning in civil contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning speaks to reporters outside the U.S. federal courthouse shortly before appearing before a federal judge and being taken into custody as he held her in contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Ford Fischer/News2Share/File PhotoThe ruling is a blow to Manning, who has been detained since March after she declined to answer questions in connection with the government’s long-running investigation into Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. In a comment released by a spokesman, Manning said that while disappointing, the appeals court ruling will still allow her to “raise issues as the government continues to abuse the grand jury process.” “I don’t have anything to contribute to this, or any other grand jury,” Manning added. Assange was arrested on April 11 at Ecuador’s Embassy in London, after U.S. prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia unsealed a criminal case against him alleging he conspired with Manning to commit computer intrusion. The Justice Department said Assange was arrested under an extradition treaty between the United States and Britain. The U.S. government alleges that Assange tried to help Manning gain access to a government computer as part of a 2010 leak by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of U.S. military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and American diplomatic communications. It is not clear if the alleged collaboration between Manning and Assange led to a successful intrusion into any U.S. government computer. Assange plans to fight the U.S. extradition request. Such cases, when challenged, can take years before they are resolved. Manning was convicted by court-martial in 2013 of espionage and other offenses for furnishing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Former U.S. President Barack Obama, in his final days in office, commuted the final 28 years of Manning’s 35-year sentence. Manning has tried to fight the grand jury subpoena in the Assange case, citing her First, Fourth and Sixth Amendment rights under the Constitution. Manning’s lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, suggested prosecutors were abusing “grand jury power,” and that “the likely purpose of her subpoena is to help the prosecutor preview and undermine her potential testimony as a defense witness for a pending trial.” Her lawyers have also argued that the courtroom was improperly sealed during substantial portions of the hearing. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit did not agree with those claims. “The court finds no error in the district court’s rulings and affirms its finding of civil contempt,” they wrote. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Susan Thomas and Bill BerkrotOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

编者按：Google 创始人之一拉里·佩奇在公众心目中一贯就是沉默、低调的形象，这本来似乎是一个加分项。但对于 Google 面临的众多争议，在 Google 的一些危机关头，他仍然不出现、不表态的做法引发了越来越多的质疑。尤其是最近佩奇缺席参议院听证会，引发了更多的口诛笔伐。拉里·佩奇（Larry Page）平时就不怎么露面。这位 Google 的联合创始人以及当之无愧的领导者因其对空中出租车以及太空电梯的疯狂押宝而为人所乐道，但近来他并没有如期出现在华盛顿—哥伦比亚特区。9 月 5 日，参议院外国选举干预情报委员会在国会山举行听证会，佩奇本该与 Twitter 首席执行官杰克·多尔西(Jack Dorsey)以及 Facebook 首席运营官谢乐尔·桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)一起出现在听证会现场，但他最终并未出席。在听证会现场，我们可以看到在多尔西和桑德伯格旁边为他预留的黑色皮椅，空空荡荡。在桌子上空白的记事本和消音麦克风前放置着“Google”标志的座位卡，似乎无时无刻不在提醒着与会者佩奇的缺席。与会的参议院议员对于佩奇的缺席行为一再表示谴责，佛罗里达州议员Marco Rubio 指责佩奇及 Google 态度“傲慢”，缅因州共和党人 Susan Collins 表示这种缺席行为让人“愤慨”。参与报道此次听证会的新闻媒体也时时将摄像机对准那个空落落的座位。距佩奇与谢尔盖·布林（Sergey Brin）两人共同创立 Google 至今已有二十年之久，现在的 Google 可能已经进入了最危险的发展阶段。诚然，公司收入保持不断增长的势头。诚然，自动驾驶汽车业务Waymo 以及 Google 公司“其他所有的押宝”拥有了他们寻求重磅突破性进展的所有所需资源。但Google 旗下不断增长的各种产业也正是 Google 所需要承担的最大责任之所在。全球各地都能找到对Google 持批判甚至贬低的人群，他们要求 Google 分拆搜索广告业务。今年夏天，欧盟对 Google 处以 51 亿美元罚款，原因在于 Google 涉嫌非法迫使智能手机制造商安装其应用程序：公司免费向手机制造商提供安卓移动手机操作系统，但将该系统与“排他性协议”捆绑。如果手机制造商想要使用 Google Play 应用商店，就必须安装 Google 的浏览器和搜索引擎。另外，由于俄罗斯涉嫌操纵 Google 旗下平台 YouTube 干预 2016 年美国总统大选，美国立法者也正在探求相关的管控措施。众多的挑战使得 Google 母公司 Alphabet 的未来蒙上了阴影，也是因为如此，在这场备受瞩目的听证会上，佩奇以及 Google 的缺席才更加让人感到惊讶。佩奇辞去 Google 首席执行官职位转任Alphabet 负责人之后，桑达尔·皮查伊（Sundar Pichai）担任起了最新的Google CEO一职，但他同样也拒绝出席这一听证会。来自弗吉尼亚州的一位民主党参议院 Mark Warner 希望佩奇能够出席听证会就 Google 当下存在的负面影响做出回应，他在接受彭博社采访时表示：“我不明白他们为什么这样做，缺席听证会会损害到他们的名誉，不仅仅是损害了他们在政策制定者心中的名誉，也会损害他们在许许多多Google 用户心中的名誉。他们到底有什么要隐藏的？”其实，不仅仅是在华盛顿的政策制定者们，在硅谷科技圈，人们也开始产生了这样的疑问：佩奇去哪里了？长久以来，佩奇似乎一直远离公众视线，保持着计算机科学家静静思忖各种技术问题的姿态。相比出现在聚光灯下，他更愿意将精力投入到各种疯狂的想法以及项目之中。佩奇与其他科技公司创始人或CEO （例如马克·扎克伯格）的风格不太相同，自 2013 年之后，他就再也没有出现在产品发布会现场或者是公司财报电话会议上，并且自 2015 年之后，他就再也没有接受过新闻采访。他将 Google 的日常决议权都交给了皮查伊和众多的公司顾问。但最近我们对佩奇的同事和一些亲信（其中大部分人都要求匿名处理，因为他们担心受到公司惩罚）进行了一系列采访，从他们对于佩奇的描述中我们可以发现现在的佩奇似乎比以往更加离群，接近于一种名誉退休状态，公司大部分人都看不到他的踪影。佩奇的支持者认为他仍然参与公司事务之中，只是他沉醉于未来的技术解决方案之中，无暇顾及 Google 当下所面临的问题。一位在 Google 工作多年的主管人员在离开公司后表示：“去年一年，Google 并没有就如何处理这些问题给出有力的答案，如何更加关注社会影响力，而不是一味地强调技术。”在这场参议院听证会召开之前，Google 其实已经躲过了当下堆积在社交媒体平台（尤其是针对Facebook）巨头身上的蔑视和鄙夷情绪。但其实，相比其他任何科技公司来说，在开辟前所未有的数据挖掘策略以及创建一个用户在线和离线信息以及状态都能被追踪的世界方面，Google 在这其中发挥的作用要更大一些。互联网泡沫破裂之后，搜索引擎从中脱颖而出，创造出了这样一种商业模式，即每次与其软件的互动都能为其计算大脑数据库以及收益提供支持。佩奇并不是出于这个原因才创立的Google，他只是将收入看作是促进人工智能等先进技术发展的一种手段，但他的成功确实为创建一个新系统铺平了道路。在这个系统之中，你可以对用户的兴趣和位置进行准确的定位。Roger McNamee早期曾参与投资过 Google 和 Facebook，但现在对两家企业却颇有微词，他说道：“到目前为止，Google 可以说是非常幸运，因为 Facebook 在这方面的失败已经成为公众关注的焦点，但其实两家企业都同样糟糕。Google 这次缺席听证会，对于 Facebook 来说是一件好事。如果你是 Google 的股东，那你应该大发雷霆才对。”Alphabet 在一份声明中表示，公司向听证会提议由公司全球事务负责人出席听证会，“佩奇需要专注于公司的其他事务和一些长期性的技术问题”。Alphabet 表示对于彭博社提出的问题，他们已经提交给公司城市基础设施部门 Sidewalk Labs 负责人 Dan Doctoroff（之前曾任《彭博商业周刊》母公司Bloomberg LP CEO 职位）。对于佩奇是否有责任出席听证会，就 Google 当下面临的一些紧迫性挑战发表公开言论这个问题，Doctoroff 拒绝回答，并表示他们还没有就本次参议院听证会所引发的问题进行讨论。在这之前，佩奇低调的态度以及鲜少露面的行为可以说是他的加分项，为他赢得了不少赞许的目光，也强化了他作为 Alphabet 主要带头人的正面光环，但他最近缺席听证会以及对公众的疏离却让人不得不开始质疑，谁才是引领 Google 度过这场危机的正确人选。多尔西和扎克伯格作为 Twitter 和 Facebook 的代表人都参与了这次听证会，之后也多次就他们平台所产生的这种意料之外的影响而反复道歉，并郑重表示解决这些问题是他们现在所面临的首要任务。相比之下，佩奇并没有发表任何的道歉声明，也没有公开表明公司计划如何解决当前所面临的这些问题。所以，大家现在所关注的一个问题是，无论是对于股东、对于公司员工还是对于这个社会来说，他是否有这样一个责任来重新回到聚光灯之下，回到舞台之上。那现在佩奇整日都在忙些什么呢？据认识他的人透露，现在他大部分时间都待在自己位于加勒比海上的一个私人小岛上。但这并不是说年仅 45 岁的他已经过上了退隐生活，他仍然负责监管 Alphabet 旗下各个子公司的发展，尽管他的参与具体达到怎样的程度、具体体现在哪些方面我们可能并不清楚。另外，据知情人士透露，佩奇偶尔会与另一位 Google 联合创始人布林（现任 Alphabet 总裁职位）一起出席公司在加利福尼亚山景城总部每周五举办一次的 TGIF（Thank God It's Friday） 会议上。据一些现任 Google 员工表示，佩奇有时会亲自回答员工提出的一些问题，但大多数时候他都是将这些问题交给皮查伊和其他公司领导来解决。现在的佩奇可以说只是将精力投入在了少数几个让他非常着迷的项目（例如在 Alphabet 的秘密研究实验室 Google X 中进行的一些类科幻式探索和尝试）之中。回想 2011 年，埃里克·施密特(Eric Schmidt)将 Google CEO 职位交给佩奇之时，佩奇仿佛是将这一挑战看作是一个工程难题去解决。他每周工作 80 个小时，如饥似渴地阅读大量的领导力书籍，并且研究那些管理学偶像的做法，例如 Bill Campbell 和沃伦·巴菲特。但是，慢慢地他对这种监督运营的乏味性感到厌倦，他的思维更适合用于研发，而不是研究公司损益盈亏。据最近从 Google 离职的一位高管回忆，在公司会议场合，当话题讨论中心从核心技术转向乏味的企业管理问题时，你会发现佩奇的眼神会变得有些“呆滞”。这位高管回忆道，有一次在会议上，当大家所谈的内容偏离了佩奇所关心的一个话题时，他曾这样说道：“你们说的这些真的很无聊。”除此之外，佩奇也没有兴趣就公司管理层形成统一的政治和管理理念而做出努力。据一位 Google 前高管回忆，之前在 Google“L 团队”（Google 员工对于佩奇执行管理团队的称呼）内部曾爆发过一次激烈的争论，必须要由佩奇亲自出面才能调解。但佩奇却对他的副手这样说道：“难道你们就不能自己解决这个问题吗？”据两位 Google 前副总裁表示，佩奇任职期间，Google 在人工智能和大型设施方面进行的投资策略都极具先见之明，有助于存储 Google 不断增长的数据储备信息，但这份工作也对他的健康状况产生了负面影响。20 世纪 90 年代，佩奇被诊断出患有声带麻痹，这是一种神经疾病，能够影响到声带的正常活动，最终可能只会发出嘶哑的低语。2013 年，佩奇在一篇帖子中写道：“谢尔盖说这样一来我可能会成为一名更优秀的 CEO，因为我遣词用句会更加谨慎。”也是从这一年开始，佩奇不再参加公司的电话财报会议。2015 年，公司重组，皮查伊晋升为 Google 首席执行官，佩奇转而担任 Google 母公司 Alphabet 的首席执行官。这也许是有史以来最聪明的退休计划：一方面可以保留对自己这一心血产物的控制权，另一方面他又不必承担大部分的责任，让自己可以更自由地专注于未来“疯狂”而又“天马行空”的科技研发之中。佩奇自己参与投资了三家致力于从事自动驾驶飞行设备的公司，另外他对 Alphabet 的各种机器人项目也非常痴迷。据之前参与过 Google 光纤（Google 公司在堪萨斯州和密苏里州试点光纤通信建造高速互联网基础设施的一项实验性项目）项目的一位经理人员透露，几个月以来，佩奇与 Google 光纤项目的相关负责人一直保持每周一次的见面和会谈频率，为找到实施这项服务的技术解决方案而集思广益。除此之外，还有一个始于 2015 年的代号为 Heliox 的臭鼬工厂项目对交通运输领域进行了童话般的重新构想。据三位知情人士透露，团队在美国宇航局之前位于湾区的一个机库内建造了一个相当于地铁车辆宽度的塑料管道，沿着一条环形轨道蜿蜒而过，旨在通过氧气和氦气涡旋快速向前推进那些骑行者。Heliox 就是那种能让佩奇痴迷其中的项目，体现的是一个充满想象力和奇妙的机械设计的太空时代概念：项目愿景是要将这一管道系统延伸到空中数百英尺高度的距离，以 Google 山景城总部园区地面入口，到旧金山以北 35 英里处的一个出口结束。这听起来很像是自行车版的 Hyperloop。但是，这其中许多项目，包括 Heliox 都已中途夭折或失败告终。有些投资者对于这些 Google 核心业务之外的投资项目感到焦虑，作为 Alphabet 的首席执行官，佩奇不得不做好这些人员的安抚工作。现在，Alphabet 几乎所有的支出都流向了 Google。几位知情人士透露，公司之前的 L 团队现在已经逐渐缩小成为一个名为“AlphaFun”的小圈子，佩奇近年来与 Alphabet 子公司的关系也变得越来越松散，在公司内部很难找到一个可以说是佩奇明确参与其中的新项目。Google X 实验室的一位前任经理人员表示，佩奇出现在办公场所的频率非常低，偶尔来一次感觉就像王室成员出访一样。但是，Sidewalk 实验室首席执行官 Doctoroff 对这一说法提出了质疑，并表示佩奇现在仍然“积极参与”公司事务，每周他们都会进行视频聊天，并且在 7 月份，佩奇刚刚造访了 Sidewalk 位于多伦多的一个项目现场。虽然佩奇有数月的时间没有到过 Sidewalk 的纽约总部了，但 Doctoroff 表示，尽管如此，他们之间一直没有间断交流，一直就包括“动态路面”和“交错层压木材”等各种各样的想法进行讨论。这段时间， Google 内部成员一直有这样一种感觉，那就是相对于公司未来主义项目的发展来说，解决公司目前面临的这些问题似乎更为紧迫。长期以来，Google 的对外事务一直都是由施密特承担，他在1 月份卸任执行总裁之前，也一直乐此不疲地面向国会和批评者为公司进行辩论。过去两年在一些关键性时刻，例如对于特朗普总统 2017 年移民禁令进行抗议以及今年春天 Google 与五角大楼在人工智能项目合同方面产生的分歧，出面解决的都是皮查伊和布林，而不是佩奇。对于佩奇这样一位创始人兼 CEO 来说，这样的做法似乎有些古怪，但相比马斯克在视频直播中的口无遮拦来说，佩奇的缄默不语不失为一种更为可取的做法。据一位佩奇的忠实拥护者表示，佩奇这种鲜少露面的高隐私度做法，不仅仅是他个人的选择，也是公司经过深思熟虑后达成的一项策略。21 世纪后期，Google 迅速崛起，在美国搜索市场份额占到了 70%，推出了你所能想象到的各种新业务。在这种时候，公司内部的一些人认为有必要对佩奇的对外形象进行适当的调整。因为他们留意到在微软公司长达三年的反垄断诉讼事件之中，比尔·盖茨成为各大媒体调侃和讽刺的对象，他们不希望佩奇成为类似的角色（既是公司的吉祥物，也会成为攻击公司的一个目标）。但从现在事态发展来看，这样一种公关策略已经过时了。总体来看，即便是最常被讽刺的首席执行官（扎克伯格）出现在公众面前也会对公司产生有利影响。这些佩奇的同行虽然现在还没能完全把控当下的评论风向，但勇敢地站出来、表达自己的态度也有助于事态朝着积极的方向发展。佩奇缺席本次参议院听证会，也使得各种批评与质疑的声音更加不绝于耳，参议员批评 Google 与中国打交道，专家们谴责佩奇此举是不爱国的表现。公司早期投资者 McNamee 表示，佩奇和皮查伊此次缺席听证会是一种推卸公民义务的行径。他说道：“现在参议员听证会邀请你去发言，去保护我们的民主，你的反应却是这样，整个世界都在关注着这件事，他们都在想，‘你们是怎么了？有什么毛病吧？’”这种谴责的声音无疑会损害佩奇以往在人们心目中友好的未来主义者形象。并且，由于他的半退休状态，加上他的健康问题，很容易让人联想到虚弱、衰老的状态，以至于人们都忘记了其实佩奇比他的继任者皮查伊还要年轻一些。截至目前，他最后一次公开路面是在 2014 年 TED 演讲的舞台上，佩奇看上去还是非常年轻、乐观的状态。他谈论了技术会如何伤害到人类以及数据滥用等问题，当时他的声音听上去已经低沉许多，深呼吸时还能听到一些嘶哑的声音。虽然他当时谈论的是爱德华·斯诺登所引发的硅谷间谍活动一事，但他也就公众在数字时代应该如何重新评估政府权力一事发表了自己的看法，这或许也可以为他应对当下 Alphabet 和 Google 所面临的挑战提供借鉴。他在演讲中说道：“我们还没有进行这方面的探讨，我们需要就此进行辩论，否则我们就无法实现有效的民主。”但是，要进行辩论的前提是，你需要先出现。编译组出品。编辑：郝鹏程

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.The former White House counsel Don McGahn talked Donald Trump out of trying to prosecute his 2016 election rival, Hillary Clinton, and the ex-FBI director James Comey, the New York Times has reported. Trump wanted to order the justice department to bring charges against Clinton and Comey, and discussed appointing a second special counsel to investigate them, the Times said. In a memo, McGahn warned the president that the consequences of pursuing his political enemies could include his impeachment. But, her emails. Trump has defended his daughter Ivanka after the White House admitted she sent hundreds of emails to government officials from a personal account, a similar offence to the one for which he frequently castigated Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. “They weren’t classified like Hillary Clinton … There was no server in the basement like Hillary Clinton had,” he said. After almost a year of negotiations over whether Trump would answer the special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions related to Russian election meddling, lawyers for the president have submitted his answers in writing. Last week Trump insisted he had written his own answers to the questions, which are reported to number “roughly two dozen”, focusing on five topics, all related to issues from before the 2016 election. Joke-free. Trump has said he may attend the White House correspondents’ dinner next spring, for the first time in his presidency, after the organisers said the historian Ron Chernow would speak in place of the traditional routine by a comedian. Trump has offered his unswerving support to Saudi Arabia and its ruling family amid the continuing controversy over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a statement released by the White House on Tuesday, the president insisted there was “nothing definitive” to link the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to the crime, despite the reported conclusions of the CIA. Trump also repeated his disputed claim that the kingdom had agreed to “spend and invest” $450bn in the US. G20 summit. Trump has said he will meet Prince Mohammed at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires later this month, should the Saudi crown prince attend as expected. Activists tortured. Amnesty International has said women who campaigned for the right to drive in Saudi Arabia have been detained and tortured, even though the ban on female drivers was lifted in June. South Korea’s Kim Jong-yang has been elected as the next president of Interpol, after the US and several European nations lobbied against his Russian rival for the post, Alexander Prokopchuk. Critics of Prokopchuk feared the veteran of Russia’s security services might abuse his leadership of the international police body to go after political opponents of the Kremlin abroad. Emergency election. Kim was elected by Interpol’s 94 member states after his predecessor, Meng Hongwei, went missing in his native China in September. Beijing later said Meng had resigned after being charged with corruption. A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a US law that bans female genital mutilation, thus removing the main charges against a doctor who performed the procedure on nine girls at a Detroit clinic. Contrary to his election promise that he would take troops off the street, the party of the Mexican president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has proposed a new combined military and police force to “combat crime across Mexico”. The US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, who is facing several official investigations into his conduct, has blamed the California wildfires on “environmental radicals”, in an interview with Breitbart. The Federal Agency of News, a Russian firm whose accountant was charged by US prosecutors with election meddling, has sued Facebook for blocking its account, claiming it is a legitimate news outlet. In 2010 a plane crash in Russia killed Poland’s president and plunged its then prime minister, Donald Tusk, into crisis. Agata Popęda and Daniel Boffey tell Anushka Asthana how the incident still haunts Tusk, who is now the president of the European council.Amazon Anonymous: dispatches from the fulfillment centerIn our new, fortnightly column, the Amazon Diaries, an anonymous Amazon “fulfilment associate” takes us behind the scenes of the world’s biggest internet retailer: “Management doesn’t regard us a crucial contributors to its success … They treat us like disposable parts.”Why is modern leisure so competitive?From ultramarathons to baking contests, we are filling our free time with competition, forever tracking, optimising and sharing the results of our leisure activities. Richard Godwin asks why hobbies became such hard work.Netflix goes hunting for OscarsAlfonso Cuarón’s acclaimed new film Roma is one of several recent Netflix productions to be granted a cinematic rollout. The streaming service has already gathered a vast audience, writes Mark Sweney – now it’s going after the awards.India’s biggest urban redevelopment: too good to be true?Mumbai’s bustling but dilapidated Bhendi Bazaar district is set to be transformed into a sleek new development of high-rise towers, glitzy shops and green public spaces, with 3,200 families rehoused for free. Marcello Rossi wonders: what’s the catch?Whatever happens with Brexit, writes Simon Jenkins, history shows the British have never turned their backs on Europe for long. The UK may leave the EU, but Britain can never leave the continent. A more likely scenario has Europe itself changing and dividing, as its economic space has to adjust to the changing politics, economies and cultures of its nations. A global survey of soccer fans has found that more than half have witnessed incidents of racist abuse at games. An average of 54% said they had seen such abuse. Supporters in Peru reported the highest incidence at 77%, and Dutch fans the lowest at 38%.Tiger Woods has never been universally embraced by African Americans, writes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But as the golfer enters his career twilight, he has the chance to be a role model for a different demographic: the ageing.The US morning briefing is delivered by email every weekday. If you are not already receiving it, make sure to subscribe.We’d like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. Topics US news US morning briefing news

Apple has taken a tip from China’s internet users.A recent update to the company’s global App Store Guidelines shows that Apple now permits users to send monetary tips to one another—a practice which, while widespread in China, the company had previously shown ambivalence towards. The revision shows that Apple is now accommodating China’s vast tip economy, and also highlights the power that Chinese social media giant Tencent has over China’s internet culture, as well as the foreign companies that operate in the country.Earlier this year, bloggers and media outlets in China bemoaned the news that WeChat, a chat app and popular publishing platform owned by Tencent, had removed a button inside its iOS app that let users tip bloggers using cash (as in real cash) stored inside WeChat’s virtual wallet.The feature’s removal likely stemmed from pressure by Apple. The company enforces a strict policy of taking a 30% cut on all transactions inside iOS apps whenever users buy virtual goods. It calls this practice “in-app purchases” (IAP). The widespread tipping inside WeChat, however, was occurring outside of Apple’s control, and the company received no cut any time a user made a donation to the creator of a WeChat post they enjoyed.In June, Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines to suggest that tipping would not be allowed unless users paid tips using virtual currency—implying that Apple, somewhere along the way, would take its cut. The update read:Apps may use in-app purchase currencies to enable customers to “tip” digital content providers in the app. Apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP.That line has stayed in the updated guidelines. However, the company added an additional section that permits tipping without Apple taking a fee. A new item in section 3.2.1 reads:Apps may enable individual users to give a monetary gift to another individual without using in-app purchase, provided that (a) the gift is a completely optional choice by the giver, and (b) 100% of the funds go to the receiver of the gift. However, a gift that is connected to or associated at any point in time with receiving digital content or services must use in-app purchase.That suggests a tip given out of appreciation after reading a post will be allowed. Questions nevertheless remain: Will WeChat’s tip button come back? Does “digital content” include a WeChat post or video? Neither Apple nor Tencent responded immediately to Quartz’s questions about the policy change.Regardless, China’s online tipping economy—which occurs not just among WeChat writers, but in livestreaming apps and in restaurants, has placed Apple in a position where it has no choice but to take a side. Nearly 11% of WeChat users have used its tip feature, and among that group, 37% say they give five to 10 yuan ($0.72 to $1.45) every month (link in Chinese). It’s not uncommon for some popular WeChat bloggers to make hundreds of dollars a day just from tips.In part due to WeChat’s 963 million users (pdf, p. 3), Tencent has a chokehold on China’s social media and games industries. Some have even speculated that WeChat’s popularity in China could cause iPhone sales to slow there, as users will be content with cheaper handsets so long as they allow for doing everything they want to do in WeChat.This means that Apple will have to foster a close relationship Tencent. Already, it appears to be getting started. In its most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook called Tencent one of Apple’s “biggest best developers” and added the company is “looking forward to working with them even more to build even greater experiences for our mutual users in China.”Earlier this month, a photograph circulated on Chinese social media showing Cook standing beside Tencent founder Pony Ma and WeChat mastermind Allen Zhang.

FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal/File PhotoPARIS (Reuters) - France said on Thursday it had imposed sanctions, including travel bans, on 18 Saudi citizens linked to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and said more could follow depending on results of an investigation. The foreign ministry did not name the individuals but said in a statement that the move was in coordination with European partners, notably Germany. Berlin on Monday also banned 18 Saudis and moved to halt all arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The bans bind all members of the European Union’s passport-free Schengen zone, it said. “The murder of Mr Khashoggi is a crime of extreme gravity, which moreover goes against freedom of the press and the most fundamental rights,” the ministry statement said. France expected a transparent, detailed and exhaustive response from Saudi authorities, it said. “These are interim measures that may be reviewed or extended depending on the progress of ongoing investigations,” it said. French reaction has been relatively guarded given it is keen to retain its influence with Riyadh and protect commercial relations spanning energy, finance and weapons sales. Saudi’s deputy public prosecutor said on Nov. 15 that Riyadh was seeking the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects charged with Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. “It (France) recalls its opposition, in all places and in all circumstances, to the death penalty,” the ministry said. Reporting by John Irish, Editing by Leigh ThomasOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) - Residents devastated by a mining dam burst in Brazil that may have killed more than 300 people reacted on Thursday with indifference and in many cases anger to miner Vale SA’s pledges to pay victims’ families and improve safety. Members of Brazil's Homeless Workers' Movement (MST) protest against Brazilian mining company Vale SA in Brumadinho, Brazil January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado“Too Late” read newspaper Estado de Minas in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, after Vale, the world’s largest iron ore miner, said it would take up to 10 percent of its production offline and spend 5 billion reais ($1.36 billion) to decommission 10 dams like the one that collapsed at its Corrego do Feijao mine last Friday. With 110 people confirmed dead and another 238 missing, according to firefighters’ count on Thursday evening, the tailings dam collapse in the town of Brumadinho may be Brazil’s deadliest-ever mine disaster. In recent days, Vale has vowed to keep paying taxes on the paralyzed mine and donate 100,000 reais to the family of each victim. For some people mourning loved ones, those pledges looked derisory. “It’s shameful for Vale,” said Dilson Menezes de Oliveira, 58, who stood looking at the spot where his 32-year-old cousin lies buried after the inn where he was staying at was engulfed by a wave of mud and toxic waste. “So many innocent people died. And now this compensation of 100,000 reais. It’s nothing.” On Thursday, state labor courts froze more than 800 million reais ($219 million) of Vale’s assets as compensation for victims. That followed court orders over the weekend freezing 11.8 billion reais ($3.1 billion) in assets to cover rescue efforts and damages. The company had around 24 billion reais in cash and equivalents at the end of the third quarter. A ministerial task force convened by President Jair Bolsonaro began drawing up a unified legislative plan to improve safety, oversight and the licensing of dams. A person with direct knowledge of the proceedings said the proposals would likely include executive orders and bills in Congress and take at least seven to 10 days to prepare. Residents in the devastated town of Brumadinho were still learning of the fallout from the deadly mud flow. Minas Gerais’ state government said on Thursday that initial tests of the Paraopeba River, which was contaminated by the toxic mud, indicated that “the water poses risks to human and animal health.” It added that locals should not use Paraopeba River water for any purpose. On Wednesday, United Nations human rights experts urged an official investigation into the incident. Federal and state prosecutors have already said they are seeking to make the matter a criminal case. After a meeting with Brazil’s top prosecutor, Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman told journalists that he had no reason to think the company’s executives would go to prison. Schvartsman said the company was focused on paying families as soon as possible, and he had also discussed environmental issues with federal prosecutors. He has said the miner built its facilities to code and equipment had shown the dam was stable. Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani said Vale planned to pay some 80 million reais to the municipality of Brumadinho over the next two years, in lieu of tax payments on the mining operations that had been suspended. Along the mudslide that was once part of the hamlet of Corrego do Feijao, from which the mine takes its name, residents concentrated on trying to put their lives back in order. “The focus of everything is looking for my brother,” said Pedro Ferreira dos Santos, as he dug into the dirt, looking for his sibling’s body. “My greatest desire is that he be found.” Slideshow (19 Images)In another setback for Vale, the city of Mangaratiba, in Rio de Janeiro, has temporarily shuttered the company’s Ilha Guaíba (TIG) iron ore terminal, CBN radio reported on Thursday. According to the report, Vale was also fined 20 million reais for failing to submit environmental licenses. The company said it had all necessary licenses and it would take all legal measures needed to resume operations there. Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Leanardo Benassatto in Brumadinho and Jake Spring in Brasilia; Editing by Christian Plumb, Brad Haynes, Lisa Shumaker and Frances KerryOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced the creation of a new virtual currency in a bid to ease the country's economic crisis.He said the Petro would be backed by Venezuela's oil, gas, gold and diamond wealth.Opposition lawmakers, however, poured scorn on the plan.Venezuela's economy has been hit by falling oil revenue and the plummeting value of its existing currency, the bolivar.President Maduro has also railed against US sanctions which he describes as a "blockade".In a televised announcement on Sunday, Mr Maduro said the new crypto-currency would allow Venezuela "to advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade"."The 21st Century has arrived!" he added to cheers from supporters. Venezuela: To default or to pay Venezuela in crisis He gave no details on how, or when, the new currency would be launched.The move follows increasing global interest in the crypto-currency Bitcoin.A US regulator recently said it would let two traditional exchanges begin trading in Bitcoin-related financial contracts, although the digital currency continues to prove volatile.Venezuela owes an estimated $140bn (£103bn) to foreign creditors and economists suggest Mr Maduro is looking to try to pay them with Petros as he seeks to restructure the country's debt. Opposition lawmakers insisted the proposed currency would need the backing of the National Assembly, and some doubted it would ever happen."It's Maduro being a clown. This has no credibility," opposition lawmaker and economist Ángel Alvarado told Reuters news agency. Venezuela has historically relied on its oil wealth to support its economy but a decline in oil prices has sent the country into economic and political crisis.The US and European Union have imposed sanctions, citing repressive policies by the government.Last month, Russia agreed to restructure $3.15bn (£2.4bn) in debt owed by Venezuela. The deal allows Venezuela to make "minimal" repayments on its Russian obligations over the next six years.