U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team began presenting counterarguments Saturday in the Senate after House impeachment managers wrapped up three days of closing arguments in Trump’s historic Senate impeachment trial.White House Counsel Pat Cipollone began presenting Trump’s defense by declaring the Democratic House managers failed to achieve their objective.“We don’t believe that they have come anywhere close to meeting their burden for what they’re asking you to do,” Cipollone said.Cipollone also reiterated an often-repeated criticism of the Democratic-led impeachment proceedings that they would nullify Trump’s 2016 election win and reduce choices for voters before the upcoming November presidential election.“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we cannot allow that to happen,” Cipollone said. “It would violate our Constitution. It would violate our history. It would violate our obligations to the future. And, most importantly, it would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you.”Saturday’s defense of Trump amounts to a preview of the arguments that will be laid out in further detail next week.During his presentation, White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura played a video clip of lead House manager Adam Schiff embellishing the conversation Trump had with Ukraine’s president on July 25 phone call that is central to the impeachment probe.“That’s fake. That’s not the real call, that’s not the evidence,” Purpura said in an attempt to discredit Schiff and other Democrats.Schiff acknowledged after the hearing, during which he recounted the phone call, that his comments were “in character with what the president was trying to communicate.”Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Trump and his lawyers were invited to appear before the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment inquiry, but declined.U.S. Democratic lawmakers closed out their final arguments against the president Friday, arguing that if Trump is not removed from office he will continue to abuse power.“At the heart of Article Two, obstruction of Congress, is a simple troubling reality: President Trump tried to cheat, he got caught, and then he worked hard to cover it up,” said Hakeem Jeffries, one of seven House Democrats serving as managers of the trial.Jeffries said Trump administration officials were aware of the president’s alleged misconduct last year and called the situation in the White House a “toxic mess.”Schiff told lawmakers, “You cannot leave a man like that in office.” He argued that the president will not change and his actions will remain the same. “You know it’s not going to stop. It’s not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.””He has shown neither remorse nor acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” said Schiff.  “Do you think if we do nothing, it’s going to stop now?”In his final argument, Schiff urged senators to “give America a fair trial,” saying, “she’s worth it.”Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached and tried before the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 because of a post-Civil War dispute over states that seceded from the union.  Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to a grand jury over a sex scandal. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted and remained in office until the end of their terms. 
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A blueprint the White House is rolling out to resolve the decades-long conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is as much about politics as it is about peace.President Donald Trump said he would likely release his long-awaited Mideast peace plan a little before he meets Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival Benny Gantz. The Washington get-together offers political bonuses for Trump and the prime minister, but Trump’s opponents are doubting the viability of any plan since there’s been little-to-no input from the Palestinians, who have rejected it before its release.“It’s entirely about politics,” Michael Koplow, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum, said about Tuesday’s meeting. “You simply can’t have a serious discussion about an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and only invite one side to come talk about it. This is more about the politics inside Israel and inside the U.S. than it is about any real efforts to get these two sides to an agreement.”Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and the president’s son-in-law, has been the architect for the plan for nearly three years. He’s tried to persuade academics, lawmakers, former Mideast negotiators, Arab governments and special interest groups not to reject his fresh approach outright.People familiar with the administration’s thinking believe the release will have benefits even if it never gets Palestinian buy-in and ultimately fails. According to these people, the peace team believes that if Israeli officials are open to the plan and Arab nations do not outright reject it, the proposal could help improve broader Israeli-Arab relations.For years, the prospect of improved ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors had been conditioned on a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the administration believes that a change in regional dynamics – due mainly to rising antipathy to Iran – will boost Israel’s standing with not only Egypt and Jordan, which already have peace deals with the Jewish state, but also Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf nations, these people say.There have been signs of warming between Israel and the Gulf states, including both public displays and secret contacts, and the administration sees an opening for even greater cooperation after the plan is released, according to these people.Trump, for his part, told reporters on Air Force One this week that “It’s a plan that really would work.” He said he spoke to the Palestinians “briefly,” without elaborating.Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, says that’s not true.“There were no talks with the U.S. administration — neither briefly nor in detail,” he said. “The Palestinian position is clear and consistent in its rejection of Trump’s decisions regarding Jerusalem and other issues, and everything related to the rejected deal.”Abbas ended contacts with the administration after it recognized disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital two years ago. The Palestinians’ anger mounted as Trump repeatedly broken with the international consensus around solving the conflict and took actions seen as biased toward Israel’s right-wing government.The White House has cut off nearly all U.S. aid to the Palestinians and closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington. In November, the Trump administration said it no longer views Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as a violation of international law, reversing four decades of American policy. The Palestinians view the settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace, a position shared by most of the international community.Tuesday’s meeting offers benefits to both leaders while they are under fire at home.The meeting allows Trump to address a high-profile foreign policy issue during his impeachment trial, while Democrats are arguing for his ouster. Moreover, if the plan is pro-Israel as expected, Trump hopes it will be popular with his large base of evangelicals and maybe sway a few anti-Trump Jewish voters his way.According to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the American electorate, 79% of white evangelical voters in the 2018 midterms approved of the job Trump was doing as president, while 74% of Jewish voters disapproved.Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of the 8 million-member Christians United for Israel, said in a statement that Trump “has shown himself to be the most pro-Israel president in U.S. history, and I fully expect his peace proposal will be in line with that tradition.”For Netanyahu, the meeting allows him to shift press coverage Tuesday when Israel’s parliament convenes a committee that is expected to reject his request for legal immunity from charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes.“The ‘Trump peace plan’ is a blatant attempt to hijack Israel’s March 2 election in Netanyahu’s favor,” tweeted Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper and the author of a biography of Netanyahu.Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival ahead of the election. The decision to bring Gantz along is likely aimed at forestalling any criticism that the U.S. administration is meddling in the election. But in Israel, the meeting and the unveiling of the plan will be widely seen as a gift to the prime minister. The prime minister has noted that it was his idea to invite Gantz, putting his rival in a position where he could not say no to a meeting that could make him look like a bystander at the White House event.In Congress, Trump’s announced release of his Mideast plan has caused hardly a ripple against the backdrop of the impeachment drama.Asked on Friday what he thought about the expected rollout, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said: “I’m on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and we’ve not heard anything about it.”Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, the committee chairman, defended the administration’s work on a plan.“I think the people who are working on this are working on this in good faith,” Risch said in the halls of Congress, shortly before Trump’s impeachment trial resumed. “I think the people who are trying to do it really are acting in good faith, hoping they can come up with a solution.”
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У Кабінеті міністрів України 25 січня повідомили про перше засідання робочої групи з обговоренню деталей майбутньої співпраці «Укрзалізниці» із найбільшим німецьким залізничним оператором Deutsche Bahn. 

«Нам важливо, щоб підписаний на початку лютого документ про співпрацю із Deutsche Bahn враховував всі важливі аспекти, включаючи безпекову та соціальну складову. Ми усвідомлюємо, що «Укрзалізниця» це стратегічно важливий для країни об’єкт. Тому зараз проводимо консультації з усіма зацікавленими сторонами, щоб почути всі думки», – сказав прем’єр-міністр Олексій Гончарук. 

Повідомляється, що до складу робочої групи увійшли представники Міністерства інфраструктури, «Укрзалізниці», профільного транспортного комітету Верховної Ради, ключових бізнес-асоціацій та профспілок.

Найближчим часом має відбутись засідання транспортного комітету Верховної Ради із запрошенням всіх зацікавлених сторін для проведення ґрунтовного обговорення майбутньої співпраці, повідомили в уряді.

Прем’єр-міністр Олексій Гончарук запевнив, що українська залізниця залишається під повним контролем держави. 

«Наразі українська сторона продовжує переговори з німецькими колегами для визначення самої моделі подальшої співпраці. Про більш детальні подробиці буде відомо на початку лютого, коли українська сторона підпише з німецькою компанією угоду про стратегічне партнерство», – йдеться в повідомленні уряду.

Раніше Олексій Гончарук  повідомляв, що Україна підпише «Угоду про стратегічне партнерство» з Deutsche Bahn 5 лютого.

22 січня Міністерство інфраструктури підписало «Меморандум про взаєморозуміння» із залізничним оператором Німеччини Deutsche Bahn. Прем’єр пояснював, що німецькі фахівці реформуватимуть управлінські механізми «Укрзалізниці». При цьому Україна повністю збереже за собою контроль над підприємством.

Наступного дня Гончарук заявив, що Україна хоче «віддати» свою залізницю в управління Deutsche Bahn на 10 років. Deutsche Bahn у відповідь на запит Deutsche Welle заявила, що консультуватиме «Укрзалізницю», а не керуватиме нею.

 
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The United Nations is condemning the deadly attack on a village in the disputed oil-rich area of Abyei between Sudan and South Sudan Wednesday.  It is calling for calm in the wake of the attack by armed gunmen, which left dozens dead and scores injured.Armed gunmen reportedly killed 32 people, injured 25 and went on a rampage, burning homes and causing other devastation in the Dinka village of Kolom.  Spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs Jens Laerke tells VOA the attack on Kolom, about 9 kilometers northwest of the town of Abyei, which straddles both sides of the Sudan-South Sudan border, sent people fleeing for their lives.  He says the village reportedly has been emptied of its inhabitants.“I cannot say for sure who instigated the attack,” said Laerke.  “We were not there to witness what happened.  We know it is a Dinka village and that people have left … but we have assessed since the attack that some 500 people are now in Abyei town where they are sheltering, I believe in some schools there.”In the aftermath of the attack, the U.N. Interim Security Force in Abyei issued a statement saying suspected nomadic Misseriya herders from Sudan attacked Kolom.  This is the latest clash between the Arab Misseriya tribe to the north of the border and the Ngok Dinka to the south since November.  This oil-rich region has been in dispute since South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011.Laerke says humanitarian organizations on the ground are providing healthcare, including emergency surgical operations, to the survivors of the attack.“OCHA is coordinating humanitarian responders in Abyei and we are working to dispatch an interagency needs assessment team to the area shortly…The continued intercommunal tensions, population movements—including during last year’s flooding—and the absence of public institutions and services have resulted in high humanitarian and recovery needs,” said Laerke. Laerke says the U.N. and humanitarian organizations aim to provide aid to 200,000 people in the Abyei area this year.  Priority needs include health, nutrition, food and water as well as protection for  people at risk of sexual and gender-based violence and protection for children.
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Tens of thousands of people poured into a central Baghdad square on Friday morning, calling for the US military to leave Iraq.  VOA’s Heather Murdock and Halan Akoy have more from Baghdad.
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Pakistan’s bid to mediate a de-escalation of conflict between the U.S. and Iran is driven largely by its concerns about potential domestic fallout from hostilities between its two longtime partners, analysts say.Islamabad’s peace effort, launched this month after the U.S. and Iran traded rare military blows in their decades-old tense relationship, also is rooted in its longstanding neutrality toward regional conflicts involving Iran or Iranian proxies, they say.“We are not going to repeat our mistakes of getting involved in others’ wars. Pakistan will become a country which will make peace among states,” FILE – Pakistani Shiite Muslims protest the killing of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, outside the U.S. consulate in Lahore, Jan. 7, 2020.The Iranian attack, which left dozens of U.S. forces with concussion-related injuries but killed no one, was Tehran’s retaliation for what the U.S. called a self-defense strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport Jan. 3.“I have told U.S. President Donald Trump that Pakistan is ready to mediate between Iran and the U.S. to resolve differences between them,” Khan said in his public remarks, adding that he also wanted to resolve longstanding tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a military ally of Washington.Since then, Khan has dispatched Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to Tehran, Riyadh and Washington to urge them to exercise restraint and warn them that further hostilities could destabilize the region.US-Pakistan relationsPakistan has generally enjoyed a close relationship with the United States for decades, according to the FILE – Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, left, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, meet in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 12, 2020, in this photo released by official website of the Office of the Iranian Presidency.Islamabad has sought to mediate between the U.S. and Iran rather than take sides as it fears an escalation of their conflict could draw in U.S. ally Saudi Arabia and worsen Sunni-Shiite sectarian divisions in Pakistani society, according to political scientist Rasul Bakhsh Rais of Lahore’s LUMS University.A 2018 State Department report said about 80% to 85% of Pakistan’s Muslim population is Sunni, while Shiites make up about 15% to 20%.“One segment of Pakistani society supports (Sunni-majority) Saudi Arabia, while another feels closer to (Shiite-majority) Iran,” Rais said in a VOA Urdu interview.Radicalized supportersSaudi Arabia and Iran have radicalized their Islamist supporters in Pakistan for years by quietly funding thousands of Sunni and Shiite seminaries in Pakistan, respectively. Some Sunni and Shiite graduates of those seminaries have carried out violent attacks on members of the other sect, fueling Pakistan’s long-running sectarian tensions.Pakistan also opposes letting U.S. forces use its territory for military action against Iran because of concerns about a potential domestic backlash from militants who would be angered by such cooperation, former Pakistani Interior Minister Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Moinuddin Haider told VOA Urdu in another interview.In recent weeks, Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi repeatedly has said his nation will not allow its territory to be used in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran.Policy of neutralityIn the years after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., Islamabad allowed U.S. forces to use an airbase in Baluchistan province to conduct drone strikes against Taliban-allied militants along the Pakistani-Afghan border, Wilson Center analyst Michael Kugelman told VOA. He said the Pakistani government ordered an end to such cooperation in 2011 as U.S.-Pakistani tensions intensified, especially following a NATO airstrike that inadvertently killed about two dozen Pakistani soldiers in the region.Taliban-allied militants retaliated for the Pakistani-assisted U.S. drone strikes by carrying out suicide bombings across Pakistan. Former Pakistani Interior Minister Haider said Islamabad worries that if it helps the U.S. to attack a neighboring country such as Iran, a similar violent backlash would result.Former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Najmuddin Sheikh told VOA Urdu that Islamabad’s push for peace between Iran, the U.S. and U.S. ally Saudi Arabia also reflects a pattern of Pakistani neutrality toward conflicts involving Muslim-majority nations.Pakistan’s then-president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq publicly expressed a neutral position regarding the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. More recently, then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif first declared neutrality in Yemen’s ongoing conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and Iranian-backed Houthi militants in 2015. Sharif’s successor, Prime Minister Khan, has continued that approach.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. It was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Urdu Service and Extremism Watch Desk.
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ELAZIG, TURKEY — A powerful earthquake has killed at least 20 people and injured more than 1,000 in eastern Turkey, as rescue teams searched through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors Saturday.At least 30 people were missing following the magnitude 6.8 quake Friday night, which had its epicenter in the small lakeside town of Sivrice in the eastern province of Elazig.“It was very scary, furniture fell on top of us. We rushed outside,” 47-year-old Melahat Can, who lives in the provincial capital of Elazig, told AFP.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said all steps were being taken to aid people affected by the quake, which caused widespread fear.“We stand by our people,” Erdogan said on Twitter.Some of the damage to the village Cevrimtas near the lakeside town of Sivrice where the 6.8 magnitude quake was centered in the province of Elazig. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)The Turkish government’s disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD) said the quake hit Sivrice around 8:55 p.m. (1755 GMT). Turkey lies on major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes.Turkish television showed images of people rushing outside in panic, as well as a fire on the roof of a building.Interior, environment and health ministers, who were in the quake zone, said the casualties were in Elazig province and in the neighboring province of Malatya to the southwest.At least 20 people died and 1,015 others were wounded, according to AFAD.“There is nobody trapped under the rubble in Malatya, but in Elazig search and rescue efforts are currently under way to find 30 citizens,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Friday.Rescue teams were searching for survivors trapped in a five-story collapsed building in a village about 30 kilometers from Elazig, according to AFP journalists at the scene. One person was pulled alive from the rubble.Turkish officials and police try to keep warm at the scene of a collapsed building following a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Elazig, eastern Turkey, Jan. 24, 2020.Emergency staff and people waiting at the scene lit fires in the streets to stay warm in freezing temperatures.Sports centers, schools and guest houses had been opened to accommodate quake victims in Malatya.Sivrice, a town with a population of about 4,000 people, is situated south of Elazig city on the shores of Hazar lake, one of the most popular tourist spots in the region and the source of the Tigris River.The lake is home to a sunken city with archaeological traces dating back 4,000 years in its waters.The tremor was felt in several parts of eastern Turkey near the Iraqi and Syrian borders, the Turkish broadcaster NTV reported, adding that neighboring cities had mobilized rescue teams for the quake area.Ramazan Emek surveys the damage in Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, where the quake struck just before 9 p.m. Friday local time. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)“Everybody is in the street, it was very powerful, very scary,” said Zekeriya Gunes, 68, from Elazig city, after the quakes caused a building to collapse on her street.“It lasted quite long, maybe 30 seconds,” added Ferda, 39. “I panicked and was undecided whether to go out in this cold or remain inside.”Greece offers aidThe U.S. Geological Survey assessed the magnitude as 6.7, slightly lower than AFAD, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian Fault in an area that has suffered no documented large ruptures since an earthquake in 1875.“My wholehearted sympathy to President @RTErdogan and the Turkish people following the devastating earthquake that has hit Turkey. Our search and rescue teams stand ready to assist,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter.In Athens, the Greek premier’s office said later that Mitsotakis had spoken by phone to Erdogan.“The Turkish president … said Turkish teams had the situation under control for now and that it would be re-evaluated in the morning,” his office added.A calf stands next to its mother, which has a broken leg, in the village of Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, Elazig, Turkey, Jan. 25, 2020. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)Quake-prone TurkeyIn 1999, a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Izmit in western Turkey, leaving more than 17,000 people dead including about 1,000 in the country’s largest city Istanbul.Last September, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook Istanbul, causing residents to flee buildings.Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate the city of 15 million people, which has allowed widespread building without safety precautions.
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