Russia Incursion Into Ukraine Is Assault on Democracy

washington — 

Top U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine an assault on democracy.

“It’s stunning to see – in this day and age – a tyrant rolling into a country. This is the same tyrant who attacked our democracy in 2016,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference, recalling Putin’s interference in U.S. elections.

Pelosi and other top Democrats returning from participation in the Munich Security Conference this week praised President Joe Biden for working with European allies to maintain a united front in deterring Russia.

“The decision to essentially cancel the process of moving forward with the [Nord Stream 2] pipeline, I think, is a very strong indication of the solidarity of NATO and our other allies to punish Putin for this naked aggression and the prospect of further devastating sanctions,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters of the decision to cancel certification of the key pipeline delivering Russian gas to Europe.

Biden announced Tuesday that the U.S. also would sanction Russian officials and banks in response to Putin’s speech claiming Donetsk and Luhansk were independent of Ukraine. The White House is expected to announce additional sanctions this week.

Sequence of sanctions

Despite significant bipartisan unity for deterring Russian aggression in Ukraine, Democrats and Republicans have struggled to agree on how to sequence sanctions to discourage and penalize Putin for incursions into the independent eastern European nation.

An estimated 150,000 Russian troops have massed at the border with Ukraine in recent weeks. Putin’s claim that Donetsk and Luhansk were no longer a part of Ukraine opened the door for so-called Russian “peacekeeping” troops to go into those areas. The U.S. and its allies called this mission a false-flag operation to allow further incursion into Ukraine.

Congressional Republicans have criticized the White House’s approach to the crisis, calling the Russian leader’s move an invasion and accusing the Biden administration of waiting until it is too late to deter Putin.

FILE – Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., speaks during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, April 27, 2021, in Washington.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the first round of sanctions was “too little, too late. First, these sanctions should have happened before Putin further invaded Ukraine — not after. Second, economic sanctions now need to more aggressively target Putin’s oligarchs to make sure they feel real pain. Third, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that today’s incremental sanctions will deter Putin from trying to install a puppet government in Kyiv.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a top Capitol Hill ally of former President Donald Trump, had a direct message for Biden late Tuesday: “You said a couple years ago that Putin did not want you to win because you’re the only person that could go toe-to-toe with him. Well, right now, Mr. President, you’re playing footsie with Putin. He’s walking all over you and our allies.”

Working with allies

Democrats praised Biden, though, for working in concert with European allies and avoiding escalating the crisis.

“I think the administration handled this, given the Russian intentions, as well as it could be handled,” Schiff told reporters Wednesday. “They telegraphed in advance the punitive sanctions that would be applied if Russia invaded. I think it makes sense not to enforce those sanctions before Russia invaded. If you do that, then Russia loses its disincentive and figures, ‘Well, we’ve already been sanctioned. We might as well move forward with it.’ ”

Small minorities within both the Republican and Democratic parties have cautioned against escalating tensions with Putin.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 23, 2022, on Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“While we work in coordination with our European allies to respond and impose targeted sanctions, we must continue to do all we can to de-escalate and utilize the full power of diplomacy to find a negotiated solution to this crisis,” Democratic Representative Barbara Lee – the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – said in a statement Wednesday.

“I am confident in President Biden’s repeated commitment to keep U.S. military personnel out of any conflict in Ukraine itself,” Lee continued.

Several members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have expressed concern the U.S. could become mired in a ground war in Ukraine, despite Biden’s repeated statements that the U.S. would not commit troops to the conflict.

Senator Bob Menendez and Senator Bob Risch, the top-ranking Democrat and Republican, respectively, on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have separately introduced sanctions bills that would end Russian access to international banking transactions, provide hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, and cut off funding for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Congress is in recess this week and will be back in session at the end of the month.

Sexual Assault Reports Increase at US Military Academies

WASHINGTON — 

Reported sexual assaults at the U.S. military academies increased sharply during the 2020-21 school year, as students returned to in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

The increase continues what officials believe is an upward trend at the academies, despite an influx of new sexual assault prevention and treatment programs.

Comparing the totals over the past three years, however, is tricky. The number of reports dropped at all the academies during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 school year, when in-person classes were canceled and students were sent home in the spring to finish the semester online.

Although there were fewer reports that year than the previous year, one senior defense official said that based on trends the total likely would have shown an increase if students had not left early. In addition, the number of reported assaults in 2020-21 was also higher than the pre-pandemic school year of 2018-19.

According to the Pentagon report released Thursday, the overall jump in cases was driven by increases at the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There were 131 assaults reported by cadets or midshipmen in 2020-21, compared with 88 the previous year and 122 a year earlier.

Of the 131, cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado reported 52 assaults, compared with 46 at West Point in New York and 33 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland.

FILE – This May 10, 2007 file photo shows the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

During a visit to West Point earlier this month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth met with academy leaders, staff members and cadets and talked about the sexual assault problem. She said they talked about the so-called Trust Program, which is led by cadets and helps train them to address sexual assault and harassment and encourage intervention when they see questionable behavior.

“West Point is working hard to increase cadets’ trust in their reporting system while at the same time preventing events from happening in the first place,” Wormuth said, adding that West Point has increased resources for victims “to ensure the academy handles each case with care.”

Victims at the academies are encouraged to report assaults, and at times students will come forward to talk about unwanted sexual contact that happened in the years before they started school there. If those episodes of unwanted sexual contact are included, as well as those involving students but reported by individuals outside the schools, the total sexual assault reports for 2020-21 is 161. That also is an increase over the pre-pandemic year, when there were 148.

The latest increase comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other leaders struggle to curb sexual assaults across the military, amid escalating criticism from Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are demanding better prevention efforts and more aggressive prosecutions.

Austin and others have acknowledged that while they continue to study what works and what doesn’t, they haven’t yet found the answers.

Nate Galbreath, acting director of the Pentagon’s sexual assault prevention office, said the department is encouraged that students are more willing to come forward and report assaults, allowing victims to get help and perpetrators to be held accountable. But the leaders across the military said they are also very concerned that the trends are going in the wrong direction, and Galbreath said that while there is an unprecedented attention on the problem right now, there is “still much more work to be done.”

Galbreath acknowledged that prevention efforts have been under way for years, but he said programs that may have worked in the past do not necessarily work now. He said the department is using scientific studies to narrow down what programs actually are successful.

Officials also say it is difficult to determine what impact the pandemic may have had. Students returned to the academies in the fall of 2020 but faced widespread restrictions, random COVID-19 testing and a mix of online and in-person classes. In many cases bars, restaurants and other businesses around the campuses may have been closed or less accessible.

A planned anonymous survey of the students, which often can provide greater insight into the problem, was not conducted in 2020 due to the pandemic. The survey normally is done every two years, and officials believe it provides a more accurate picture of assaults, harassment and unwanted sexual contact. A survey will be conducted this spring, Galbreath said.

Prince Andrew Reaches Settlement With Sexual Assault Accuser

Britain’s Prince Andrew has settled a lawsuit from Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

News of the settlement came in a letter filed with a Manhattan court Tuesday by Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies.

Details of the settlement have not been disclosed, but the letter said Andrew “intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.”

FILE – In this Aug. 27, 2019, photo, Virginia Giuffre, center, who says she was trafficked by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York.

“Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks,” the letter reads. “It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.”

Giuffre, now 38, says she was trafficked by Epstein and his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell, who was recently convicted of sex trafficking.

Giuffre says the two forced her to perform sexual acts with Andrew. Andrew has denied the charges and did not admit to any of the accusations against him in Tuesday’s statement.

In 2019, Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail while he awaited another trial for sex trafficking. His death was ruled a suicide.

Last month, Andrew’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of all his military and royal duties.

Chinese Tennis Star Again Denies Accusing Government Official of Sexual Assault on Social Media

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai is again denying that she had accused a former Communist Party official of sexually assaulting her in a social media post late last year.

L’Equipe, a French daily sports newspaper, published an interview it conducted with Peng in its Monday edition.

“I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way,” Peng is quoted in the interview after she is asked directly if she actually wrote the post on her account on China’s Weibo social media platform.

In the November 2 post, Peng, a former Olympian who won titles at Wimbledon and the French Open, said former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli coerced her into sex before it evolved into an on-off consensual relationship. Her post was quickly deleted and she vanished from public view for several days. She eventually appeared at a tennis event and spoke by video with Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee president, during which she said she was safe.

Her public absence sparked concern among some of the world’s top tennis players, including Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King and Novak Djokovic, and the Women’s Tennis Association suspended all of its sponsored tournaments in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Peng told L’Equipe the initial post had caused a huge “misunderstanding” and that she did not want it to attract any more attention, and insisted that she had deleted it herself “because I wanted to.” She also explained that her “disappearance” was simply due to her being unable to respond “to so many messages.” Peng said her personal life since the controversy surfaced had been uneventful, and stressed that her private life and personal problems should not be mixed with sports and politics.

Peng also told the newspaper she was retiring from tennis.

She also said she had dinner with IOC President Bach Saturday, which the IOC confirmed in a separate statement Monday.

Bach told the Reuters news agency when asked about Peng’s interview that any communication “is up to her, it is her life, it is her story.”

The newspaper said it submitted the questions to Peng in advance and conducted the interview in Chinese. Wang Kang, the chief of staff of the Chinese Olympic Committee, accompanied Peng during the interview and translated her answers for the reporter.

WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon called for an open investigation into Peng’s initial accusations after a Chinese state-run media outlet released a statement it said was an email Peng had sent to Simon in which she denied the allegations and insisted she was not missing or unsafe, but just “resting at home.”

Peng issued a similar denial back in December during a virtual interview that was posted on the website of the Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

Barranquilla: sexual assault on a woman on a bus - Barranquilla - Colombia

With the intention that “it happens to no one else”, a woman denounced through social networks the way in which she was the victim of a sexual assault on a bus of public service of Barranquilla.

(Also read: The story behind the Barranquilla signal that generated controversy in Soledad)

According to Itze Rincón’s account, he left work on Tuesday night, when the Colombian National Team was still playing, and boarded the vehicle in the north of the city in the direction of his place of residence.

He told me no and started touching my leg. He went to my private parts. He obviously had my work uniform on and he started touching me

“I go alone on the bus and, when it passes by the Reina Catalina (clinic), a subject gets on and sits next to me. I noticed it strange, because the bus is totally free and he just sat next to me. It should be clarified that the bus driver had headphones on, spoke on the phone and did not look back, “said the young woman.

They both stayed in the row in the middle of the bus, suddenly the individual unsheathed a knife and placed it at the level of the victim’s ribs. Not saying a word, he thought it was a robbery and asked if he wanted the cell phone.

“He told me no and started touching my leg. He went to my private parts. He obviously had my work uniform on and he started touching me. I told him to leave me and he had me cornered,” Rincón said through tears.

He added that another woman got on the bus, but sat in the front. While imploring the driver to take his look in the rear view mirror to alert him to what was happening. However, that did not happen.

This is how the subject was dressed

When the bus was going to take the Circunvalar, he told me: ‘you don’t unbutton your pants and I’ll hurt you’

“He kept touching me and told me ‘loosen the button on your pants,’ but I told him no. I was praying to God at the time, so that he would not do anything. What a horrible feeling! It’s one of the worst experiences in my life.”

Rincón indicated that he did not dare to look at his victimizer’s face, but he did say that he had a cap and a National Team shirt. The subject said obscene words and insisted that he unbutton his pants.

A few meters later, the bus was approached by another passenger. The woman was excited that he did realize what was happening to him, but he also wore headphones and stood in front.

“When the bus was going to take the Circunvalar, he told me: ‘you don’t unbutton your pants and I’ll hurt you’. At that moment I wanted the bus to crash, for so many people to get on, I wanted millions of things,” Rincón said.

(You may be interested: Pull the ears to the CRA for garbage on the beaches of Puerto Colombia)

Rincón says that he jumped off the bus

She thought about getting up, but she was afraid it would hurt her and she remembered her mom. Therefore, she decided to stay quiet. However, when went through a CAI, told the subject that he was going to get off, but he did not let her.

“At the height of Alameda, I was opening my pants and I wanted to get off. I told him I lived there. Obviously I don’t live there, but I couldn’t take it anymore…”, the impotence that the young woman felt during that point in the story forced her to cut it off.

On the way, the complainant received a call from a friend in Medellín, but the individual threatened her if she answered until she convinced him to let her answer, passing the friend off as her boyfriend.

At that moment, he took advantage of a carelessness of the man, got up and rang the bell of the vehicle and, when he slowed down, “I practically threw myself” and a motorcycle almost runs over her.

The motorcyclist called her attention for having jumped and she explained what happened, generating the motorcyclist’s solidarity. Finally, he indicated that he thanks God for having come out of that situation alive and added that he filed the complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office to start the search for the accused.

BARRANQUILLA

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