Israel’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought “total and complete” control over his media image, his ex-spokesman told the graft trial of the veteran leader on Monday.

“If we use the term ‘control freak,’ he is much more than that,” said Nir Hefetz. “In everything relating to the media, he demands to know everything, down to the smallest detail.”

The testimony of Hefetz, seen as a key prosecution witness in Israel’s highest-profile trial, had been postponed from last week at the request of Netanyahu’s legal team.

Netanyahu — who was Israel’s longest serving prime minister, including a record 12-year tenure from 2009 to 2021, and now head of the opposition — has been charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

The indictments collectively accuse him of accepting improper gifts and illegally trading regulatory favour with media moguls in exchange for positive coverage.

Hefetz said in his district court testimony that Netayahu’s “control over everything relating to media matters and his social media channels could not be higher”.

“Netanyahu spends at least as much as his time on media as he spends on security matters, including on matters an outsider would consider nonsense.”

The session focused on Netanyahu allegedly granting favours to Shaul Elovitch, then-head of Israel’s largest telecom company, Bezeq, in exchange for favourable coverage by its Walla news website.

Netanyahu is accused of offering regulatory benefits that could have been worth millions to the company in return for the politically advantageous coverage.

Hefetz said that in 2015, shortly before elections, Elovitch contacted him regularly to lobby for governmental approval of his group’s merger with cable TV operator Yes, and to find out who would be the next communications minister.

“I think he (Elovitch) was thinking at the time: who knows who will win; so the Yes deal had to be signed first,” Hefetz said.

Netanyahu left after the first few hours of testimony Monday after receiving permission from the court.

Source: AFP

A Russian fleet of tankers, carrying the most substantial amount of diesel to the United States in recent years, is heading to the US East Coast to help alleviate a fuel shortage that has led to the soaring of prices in the country to a seven-year high.

A fleet of four tankers laden with 2 million barrels of Russian diesel are set to arrive in New York, New Haven, and Connecticut next week, Bloomberg reported, citing data from energy cargo-tracking agency Vortexa.

“Russia is better positioned to supply diesel than other refiners in Europe because of its access to cheap natural gas,” said Clay Seigle, a managing director for Vortexa in Houston.

“It’s very rare we’d see volumes this large coming to the East Coast,” he added.

The Russian shipment of diesel is heading to the US at a time when stockpiles in the East Coast, the largest US importing region, are close to the lowest seasonally since 2017.

US imports of European gasoline hit a nine-month low in October. The price of diesel and other fuels have skyrocketed across the globe since energy demand has been back with the world economy reopening but supply simply has not kept up.

Deliveries of European gasoline to the US plunged last month by 51% month-on-month to about 202,000 barrels per day, the lowest monthly tally since January.

Europe is also facing an energy crisis as natural gas prices have more than tripled there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that his country could help ease Europe’s natural gas shortage. But Russian supplies have so far not been enough as a Russian pipeline, the Nord Stream 2, is held up by permitting delays in Germany. Germany on Tuesday suspended the approval process for the pipeline project.

Source: Presstv

The body of a woman was recovered from one of the mudslides caused by extremely heavy rainfall in the Pacific coast Canadian province of British Columbia, authorities said Tuesday.

Police said search and rescue personnel were continuing to look for other possible victims from Monday’s slides.

David MacKenzie, the Pemberton District Search and Rescue manager, said his team came across seven vehicles at the slide site on Highway 99 near the town of Lillooet and police were trying to determine if there were any other bodies.

“It is a significant amount of debris. It makes it very difficult for our search crews. The mud is up to their waist. I can’t recall our team being involved in anything like this in the past,” he said.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said the total number of people and vehicles unaccounted for had not yet been confirmed. She said investigators had received reports of two other people who were missing but added that other motorists might have been buried in the slide.

Jonathan Gormick, spokesman for the Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team, said that while the roadway had been cleared of potentially trapped vehicles or people, they would now be searching the slide’s debris field.

About 300 people spent Sunday night in their vehicles and were helicoptered to safety Monday.

Elsewhere in the province, Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said impassable highways were creating havoc in his city as police and firefighters tried to get people to evacuation centers.

“It breaks my heart to see what’s going on in our city,” Braun said.

Sunny skies followed two days of torrential storms that dumped the typical amount of rain that the city gets in all of November, but the mayor said the water was still rising and Highway 1 would be cut shut down for some time.

Braun said he was worried about getting enough information from officials in Washington state about water levels that have risen dramatically from the overflowing Nooksack River and over the Sumas dike.

“When are we going to crest? When is it going to level off here? It’s like a full cup of coffee. Once it’s full, it keeps flowing over the sides,’ he said.

Abbotsford Police Chief Mike Serr said officers removed some people from the roofs of cars awash in flood waters Monday night but left some motorists in semi-trucks because they were higher above the water.

“I was out there last night. You could not see where the side of the road was. We had one member put on a life-jacket and swim out towards a car that was overturned to bring someone back. And that was on a regular basis for about two hours,” Serr said.

About 1,100 homes had been evacuated in Abbotsford, adding to others in various parts of British Columbia, including in Merritt, where the entire town of 7,000 people was forced to leave after the sanitation system failed.

Multiple roadways have been closed because of flooding or landslides, including sections of Highway 1A, Highway 3, Highway 5, Highway 11, Highway 12 and Highway 91.

Source: AP

The United States reopens its land and air borders Monday to foreign visitors fully vaccinated against Covid-19, ending 20 months of restrictions on travel from around the globe that separated families, hobbled tourism and strained diplomatic ties.

The ban, imposed by former president Donald Trump in early 2020 and upheld by his successor Joe Biden, has been widely criticized and become emblematic of the upheavals caused by the pandemic.

The restrictions were particularly unpopular in Europe and US neighbors Canada and Mexico.

In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, US borders were closed after March 2020 to travelers from large parts of the world, including the European Union, Britain and China, India and Brazil. Overland visitors from Mexico and Canada were also banned.

The months of restrictions affecting hundreds of millions of people helped fuel both personal and economic suffering brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s been so hard,” Alison Henry, 63, told AFP. “I just want to see my son.”

The British woman plans to fly Monday to see her son in New York, after 20 months of separation.

Families on both sides of the Atlantic are eager to finally reunite with their loved ones.

Although travel from the United States to Europe has been possible since the summer, foreign US residents holding certain visas have had no guarantee of being able to reenter the country.

To cope with surging demand, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights and plan to use larger planes, as they work their way out of the pandemic crisis.

Along the border with Mexico, many cities in the US states of Texas and California have faced economic struggles due to anti-Covid trade restrictions.

Meanwhile, Canadian seniors will be able to resume their annual car trips to Florida to escape the bitter northern winters.

But the cost of the PCR tests Canada is requiring for cross-border travel — up to $250 a pop — can be prohibitive.

Ann Patchett, an Ontario resident, told the Ottawa Citizen that it will cost $500 for her and her husband to go south to visit family.

“Do you want to hug your children? Do you want to tuck your grandchildren into bed?… It’s very frustrating,” she said.

New York congressman Brian Higgins, whose district touches the Canadian border and includes the US side of Niagara Falls, plans to hold a news conference Monday with mayors from both countries to urge Canada to drop its testing requirement.

Some restrictions remain

Lifting the travel ban will affect more than 30 countries. But entry into the United States will not be totally unregulated: US authorities plan to closely monitor travelers’ vaccination status and will still require them to present negative Covid-19 tests.

The United States, from Monday, will require air passengers to be fully vaccinated and be tested within three days before travel. Airlines will be required to put in place a contact tracing system.

The land border opening will happen in two phases.

Starting Monday, vaccines will be required for “non-essential” trips — such as family visits or tourism — although unvaccinated travelers will still be allowed into the country for “essential” trips, as they have been for the last year and a half.

A second phase, beginning in early January, will require all visitors to be fully vaccinated to enter the United States by land, no matter the reason for their trip.

US health authorities have said all vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization would be accepted for entry by air.

At the moment, this includes the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Covaxin, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.

The United States has not yet commented on the increase in Covid-19 cases in Europe.

The WHO has expressed “grave concern” over the rising pace of infections in Europe, warning that the current trajectory could mean “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February.

But speaking for the United States, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday on ABC that he’s “cautiously optimistic about where we are,” while adding: “We can’t take our foot off the accelerator until we’re at the finish line.”

But in Berlin, 51-year-old Elisabeth Zours is ready to hit the gas — or as Mick Jagger would say, the “gas, gas, gas.”

A lifelong Rolling Stones fan, Zours had to miss a St. Louis show by the rock supergroup in September due to Covid-19 restrictions and was “frustrated” by the slow US reopening.

Now she plans to make up for lost time. “I’ve got tickets for four (US) concerts,” she said.

“Their music,” Zours added, “is like a good friend.”

Source: AFP

France has denounced Australia’s “very inelegant” move to leak a private text message from President Emmanuel Macron to the Australian premier about a submarine deal that Canberra later unilaterally dropped, deeply dismaying Paris and sparking a diplomatic row.

Several Australian media outlets reported that Macron had texted Prime Minister Scott Morrison two days before the announcement of a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and Britain, which led to the cancellation of a decade-old multi-billion-dollar Australian deal with France.

“Should I expect good or bad news for our joint submarine ambitions?” reads Macron’s text message.

Canberra had signed the deal with France to receive conventional diesel-electric submarines, but it scrapped the contract after secretly negotiating and signing the new partnership with the US and Britain, which is known as AUKUS and would allow Australia to acquire American nuclear-powered submarines.

The development has sent diplomatic relations between Canberra and Paris into free fall since September. France has accused both Australia and the US of betraying it, and Macron has hit out at Morrison for lying to him.

The leaking of Macron’s text message to Morrison has raised speculation that the French president was less surprised by the cancellation than he has claimed.

A source close to Macron, however, said that the text did not undermine Paris’ narrative. “On the contrary, this SMS shows that the president did not know that they were going to cancel the contract,” AFP quoted the source as speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“We knew that the Australians had some issues, but they only concerned technical aspects and the timetable, as with every big contract like this one,” the source added.

French Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thébault also reacted to the leak on Tuesday, saying that it had been a setback “in terms of truth and trust.” He said the text “demonstrates that until the last minute, we didn’t know where things were heading to.”

“You don’t behave like this on personal exchanges of leaders who are allies. But maybe it’s just confirmation that we were never seen as an ally,” Thébault said.

Thébault also warned world leaders that “there will be leaks, and what you say in confidence to your partners will be eventually used and weaponized against you one day.”

There were also reports that suggested the text message leak could have been engineered by Morrison’s office in retaliation for Macron’s “lying” charge.

Speaking to reporters in Dubai on Wednesday, Morrison did not dispute a suggestion that his office had leaked the text message, simply saying, “Claims had been made and those claims were refuted… what is needed now is for us to move on.”

He also said he would “never make any apologies” for scrapping the French contract, which he said was “not going to do the job that Australia needed to do.”

Source: Presstv

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday asked Pope Francis to visit India, a significant opening towards the head of the Catholic Church who has long sought an official invitation to the Hindu-majority country.ADVERTISING

Modi, 71, invited Francis during a meeting at the Vatican on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome.

“Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India,” Modi said on Twitter after the talks.

The pope, 84, has been on record saying that he wants to visit India. The Vatican had even drafted a schedule for a papal trip several years ago, according to religious news website Crux.ADVERTISING

“Thank you very much for your visit. I’m happy, I’m very happy,” a smiling Francis said as he grasped Modi’s hand at the end of the visit, according to footage released by the Vatican.

Modi replied: “I would like to see you in India.”

Francis, leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, is hoping to push the defence of religious freedom in the world’s second most populous country.

Activists say that religious minorities in India have faced increased levels of discrimination and violence since Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

While Muslims, who make up around 14 percent of the population, have borne the brunt, Christians, who account for just over two percent, have also suffered a rise in reported violent attacks.

The last papal visit to India was made by Pope John Paul II in 1999.

‘Cordial’

Saturday’s Vatican visit was Francis and Modi’s first meeting. A senior official in the prime minister’s office told AFP the “very warm” talks — scheduled to last 20 minutes — went on for nearly an hour.

In an unusually short note, the Vatican described it as “a brief conversation” in which “the cordial relations between the Holy See and India were discussed”.

Modi’s office said the leaders discussed “fighting climate change and removing poverty”. There was no mention of the red-button issue of religious freedom.

Under the pretext that Christians are seeking forcibly to convert Hindus, more than 300 violent incidents have been recorded this year, according to a report by a group of NGOs released this month.

This included a reported attack on a prayer house by around 200 members of the BJP and Hindu groups in the northern state of Uttarakhand in early October.

The local head of the BJP said the prayer house held “suspicious gatherings”.

At least three states run by the BJP have passed legislation aimed at preventing “forced conversion” and dozens of people have been arrested.

Others plan to follow suit including Karnataka, where priests have come out in protest.

Modi’s government denies having a Hindu agenda and insists that people of all religions have equal rights.

Source: AFP

Queen Elizabeth II has cancelled her planned engagement at the U.N. climate conference, accepting doctors’ advice to rest, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday.

The 95-year-old monarch has “regretfully’’ decided that she will no longer travel to Glasgow to attend the reception on Nov. 1 — a move that will dash the hopes of Britain’s Conservative government, which is anxious to show the importance of the session to the fate of the planet. The climate conference runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 and her appearance was meant to kick it off in style and splendour.

“Her Majesty is disappointed not to attend the reception but will deliver an address to the assembled delegates via a recorded video message,’’ the palace said.

The news came after the sovereign held virtual audiences Tuesday at Windsor Castle — the first since revelations that her doctors ordered her to rest last week. The sovereign greeted the ambassador of the Republic of Korea during her first technology-aided appearance since she was driven to London’s King Edward VII’s Hospital on Oct. 20 for “preliminary investigations.” She returned to her Windsor Castle home at lunchtime the next day.

The queen underwent the medical tests after she canceled a scheduled trip to mark 100 years since the creation of Northern Ireland, and the palace said she had “reluctantly” accepted advice to rest for a few days. The matter was not related to COVID-19.

Her doctors ordered rest last week after a hectic few days in which a monarch who likes to be seen by the people carried out a hectic series of events. She held audiences with diplomats, had a reception at Windsor Castle for global business leaders and attended the horse races at Ascot.

Her hospital visit last week came amid general disquiet about Elizabeth’s health. Days earlier, she was seen using a walking stick at a Westminster Abbey service marking the centenary of the Royal British Legion, an armed forces charity. Though she had used a cane in 2003, it was after she underwent knee surgery.

The queen’s husband, Prince Philip, died in April 2021 at age 99. Though Elizabeth has enjoyed robust health throughout her life, she is Britain’s longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch. She is due to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee — 70 years on the throne — next year.

Source: AP

Former US president Donald Trump announced plans Wednesday to launch his own social networking platform called “TRUTH Social,” which is expected to begin its beta launch for “invited guests” next month.

The long-awaited platform will be owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which also intends to launch a subscription video on-demand service that will feature “non-woke” entertainment programming, the group said in a statement.

“I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the Capitol insurrection carried out by his supporters on January 6 this year, was quoted as saying in the statement. 

“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable,” he continued.

The Trump Media & Technology Group will merge with blank check company Digital Acquisition Corp to make TMTG a publicly-listed company, the statement said.

“The transaction values Trump Media & Technology Group at an initial enterprise value of $875 Million, with a potential additional earnout of $825 Million in additional shares (at the valuation they are granted) for a cumulative valuation of up to $1.7 Billion depending on the performance of the stock price post-business combination,” it stated.

Ever since he was banned from the world’s dominant social networks as punishment for stirring up the mob that ransacked Congress on January 6, Trump has been looking for ways to reclaim his internet platform.

In May he launched a blog called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” which was touted as a a major new outlet.

But Trump, who was also banned from Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat in the wake of the Capitol mayhem, canceled the blog just a month later.

Former Trump aide Jason Miller launched a social network called Gettr earlier this year, but the former president has not yet joined it.

(AFP)

Colin Powell, a US war hero and the first Black secretary of state who saw his legacy tarnished when he made the case for war in Iraq in 2003, has died from complications from Covid-19. He was 84.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the family said in a statement posted to social media on Monday.

The retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served four presidents made his reputation as a man of honor distant from the political fray — an asset in the corridors of power.

“General Powell is an American hero, an American example, and a great American story,” George W. Bush said as he announced the nomination of Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants who became the Republican president’s secretary of state in 2000.

“In directness of speech, his towering integrity, his deep respect for our democracy, and his soldier’s sense of duty and honor, Colin Powell demonstrates… qualities that will make him a great representative of all the people of this country.”

But he found it hard to live down his infamous February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council about the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — the evidence he presented was later proven to be false.

“It’s a blot… and will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now,” Powell said in a 2005 interview with ABC News.

Tributes nevertheless poured in from Congress, where Democratic Senator Mark Warner praised Powell as “a patriot and a public servant,” while House Republican Peter Meijer described him as a rarity in the modern age: “a true soldier statesman.”

The family statement said Powell had been fully vaccinated.

Source: AFP

The United States announced Friday that it will allow entry to foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, by both land and air, starting November 8.

“This policy is guided by public health, stringent, and consistent,” tweeted White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz in announcing the news.

In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, US borders were closed after March 2020 to travelers from much of the globe, including the European Union, Britain and China, India and Brazil. Overland visitors from Mexico and Canada were also banned.

The months of restrictions led to both personal and economic suffering.

Under the new policy that was outlined last month, vaccinated air passengers will need to be tested within three days before travel, and airlines will be required to put in place a contact tracing system.

Earlier this week, a White House source said the land border opening would happen in two phases.

Initially, vaccines will be required for “non-essential” trips — such as visiting family or tourism — though unvaccinated travelers will still be allowed into the country for “essential” trips as they have been for the last year and a half.

A second phase beginning in early January 2022 will require all visitors to be fully vaccinated to enter the United States by land, no matter the reason for their trip.

Source: AFP