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U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart urged the World Anti-Doping Agency to reinstate the ban on Russia, calling the country’s return to the sports fold “a total joke.”

“The situation is a total joke and an embarrassment for WADA and the global anti-doping system,” Tygart said in a statement on Tuesday, after Russia missed a December 31 deadline to hand over data from its anti-doping laboratory in Moscow.

The deadline was set in September, when WADA lifted a ban on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, paving the way for Russian athletes to return to competition across all sports after a report which uncovered a state-sponsored doping program in Russia.

“In September, WADA secretly moved the goal posts and reinstated Russia against the wishes of athletes, governments and the public,” Tygart said. “In doing this WADA guaranteed Russia would turn over the evidence of its state-supported doping scheme by today.

“No one is surprised this deadline was ignored and it’s time for WADA to stop being played by the Russians and immediately declare them non-compliant for failing yet again to meet the deadline.”

WADA personnel traveled to Russia in December but were unable to extract all of the promised data.

WADA said at the time its team could not complete its mission “due to an issue raised by the Russian authorities that the team’s equipment to be used for the data extraction was required to be certified under Russian law.”

With WADA waiting and the December 31 deadline looming, RUSADA chief Yury Ganus had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene to stave off another ban that put Russia “on the brink of the abyss”.

However, the Kremlin said RUSADA’s concerns bout new sanctions were “without foundation.”

 
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The partial U.S. government shutdown is in its 11th day at the dawn of 2019, with lawmakers and President Donald Trump remaining at odds over his demand for money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Democrats in the House of Representatives say that when they assume control of the chamber on Thursday, they plan to quickly approve legislation to reopen the quarter of government operations that have been closed since Dec. 22, although passage in the Senate is uncertain.

The Democrats’ spending plan includes no money for Trump’s border wall, which the U.S. leader is deriding.

“The Democrats will probably submit a Bill, being cute as always, which gives everything away but gives NOTHING to Border Security, namely the Wall,” Trump said in a New Year’s Eve Twitter comment.

As the calendar turned to the new year, Trump said, in an all-caps tweet, that Americans would have a good year, if they weren’t obsessed with opposing him.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA! 2019 WILL BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR THOSE NOT SUFFERING FROM TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” he said. “JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE, GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR OUR COUNTRY!”

The House Democrats’ budget plan would fund most shuttered agencies through the end of September, while approving funding for the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8.

In Twitter comments, Trump has continued to push for wall funding, $5 billion as a down payment on the barrier that could cost more than $20 billion, while Democrats have offered to approve $1.3 billion for other border security efforts, but not the wall.

In one tweet Monday, Trump said, “Without the Wall there can be no Border Security.”

House speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement Monday calling for Republican support for the new funding legislation.

“It would be the height of irresponsibility and political cynicism for Senate Republicans to now reject the same legislation they have already supported,” the statement said.

Trump and Democratic lawmakers have not held any negotiations for days over the dispute.  The ongoing shutdown of a quarter of U.S. government operations means 380,000 government workers are furloughed while another 420,000 are still working, but will not be paid until the funding dispute is resolved.
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President Donald Trump’s most prominent GOP critics on Capitol Hill are days away from completing their Senate careers, raising the question of who — if anyone — will take their place as willing to publicly criticize a president who remains popular with nearly 9 in 10 Republican voters.

Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee engaged in a war of words with the president on myriad issues over the past 18 months, generating headlines and fiery tweets from a president who generally insists on getting the last word. Those battles put them on the outs with many in their own party, and they paid a price. Both decided to retire rather than take on a difficult re-election campaign.

Flake was far and away Trump’s most consistent critic among Senate Republicans. Corker weighed in less often, but his description of the White House as an “adult day care center” rankled the president, who dubbed him “Liddle’ Bob Corker.” The feud continued as Corker headed for the exits, with Trump asserting that Corker’s promise to serve only two terms was not the real reason he retired. Rather, Corker “wanted to run but poll numbers TANKED when I wouldn’t endorse him,” Trump tweeted.

Corker replied: “Yes, just like Mexico is paying for the wall… #AlertTheDaycareStaff.”

For now, don’t expect any Republican senator to take their place as chief agitator when the new Congress convenes Thursday, said Rory Cooper, a GOP strategist who helped lead the “Never Trump PAC” during the 2016 Republican primary. He said publicly criticizing the president makes Republican votes back home unhappy and earns the ire of the president. Meanwhile, Democratic voters and the media give them too little credit, he said.

“There is not an incentive structure for senators who disagree with or oppose the president to speak out right now, but that could change if the (Robert) Mueller investigation continues to move in the direction it has been or the economy churns negative,” Cooper said.

Two other Republicans, Sen.-elect Mitt Romney of Utah and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, have both had their public run-ins with the president.

Throughout his Senate campaign, Romney insisted that he would agree with Trump on some issues and not be shy about disagreeing on others. Romney appears to have more room with GOP voters in Utah to take on the president. Most voters in Utah — 64 percent — would like to see the senator confront the president, according to data from AP VoteCast, a survey of midterm voters.

But Cooper said he doubts that’s a mantle Romney wants to take on, at least not right away. After serving as governor of Massachusetts, Romney will be focused on proving that he’s an advocate for Utah, Cooper said.

“I think that’s where his head will be at the outset,” Cooper said.

Sasse has frequently criticized Trump for what he considers the president’s uncivil rhetoric. Sasse has also said he “regularly” considers leaving his party and becoming an independent. He is up for re-election in 2020 and has said he’ll decide by the summer whether to seek a second term. It would be tricky terrain for Sasse to publicly battle with Trump, who won the state in 2016 by 25 percentage points.

Senate Republicans chafe at the notion they are unwilling to take on a president whose statements and policy positions often run counter to traditional conservative positions.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he raised his concerns about trade policy privately with the president.

“I want results,” Rounds said, “instead of hardening positions.”

Rounds said he rode with Trump after meeting him at the airport when the president visited South Dakota during the midterm election season, telling him the state’s soybean farmers were facing losses of some $500 million because of retaliatory tariffs. He said Trump told him: “We’re going to have a better deal for them. If they hang with me, we’re going to make this better.”

Rounds said his job is to make things better and “that doesn’t mean I have to be out there in front fighting with someone.”

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said “there’s all sorts of active disagreements that go on” with the White House behind the scenes.

“I support the president as well as anybody. Behind closed doors, there are things on tariffs and things like that where we’ve offered a differing opinion. But I support this president in terms of what he’s trying to do. This agenda is working,” Perdue said, citing strong economic growth and low unemployment.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he suspects the 2020 elections will prompt more Republican senators to confront Trump when they disagree with him, and that may already be happening, citing recent actions on Saudi Arabia.

The Senate passed a measure that blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and called on Riyadh to “ensure appropriate accountability.” Senators also passed a separate measure calling for the end of U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The resolutions showed senators seeking to assert oversight of Trump administration foreign policy and the relationship with Saudi Arabia.

“Almost half of their caucus is up for re-election. They just saw what happened in 2018,” Durbin said of Republicans, who lost the House majority to Democrats. “I think, once they do polling back home, not all of them, but many of them will find that independence is being rewarded.”

 
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Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is using his annual report on the federal judiciary to highlight the steps the branch has taken to combat inappropriate conduct in the workplace.

In December 2017, Roberts asked that a working group be put together to examine the judiciary’s workplace conduct policies. His request followed news reports about prominent federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski, who retired following accusations by women, including former law clerks, that he had touched them inappropriately, made lewd comments and shown them pornography.

The working group of judges and judiciary officials that Roberts asked be convened issued a report in June, finding that inappropriate conduct is not widespread among the judiciary branch’s 30,000 employees but also is “not limited to a few isolated instances.” The group offered a range of recommendations for further action.

Roberts, in his New Year’s Eve report, endorsed those recommendations, which focus on revising the codes of conduct the judiciary has for judges and employees, streamlining the process for identifying and correcting misconduct, and expanding training programs aimed at preventing inappropriate behavior.

Roberts did not say anything in the report about the sexual assault allegations that nearly derailed the confirmation of the court’s newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh. In testimony before senators in September, psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that a drunken Kavanaugh groped her and tried to take off her clothes at a party decades ago when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied the allegations.

Roberts noted that the working group did not give the judiciary branch “a completely clean bill of health” and that it concluded that when misconduct happens it is “more likely to take the form of incivility or disrespect than overt sexual harassment” and “frequently goes unreported.”

Changes following report

Roberts noted that since the working group’s report was issued, changes to the judiciary’s code of conduct and disciplinary procedures have been proposed, including enlarging the definition of workplace misconduct. Other changes include lengthening the time that employees have to report misconduct.

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts, which oversees the day-to-day operation of the federal courts, has also created an Office of Judicial Integrity to monitor workplace conduct issues. Individual federal courts have also been studying their workplaces and adopting changes, and Roberts said the Supreme Court would also add to its existing policies and training programs.

The working group Roberts instituted will remain in place for the next year to monitor progress.

“The job is not finished until we have done all that we can to ensure that all of our employees are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect,” Roberts wrote.
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Arizona authorities said Monday they sent prosecutors the results of an investigation into a now-shuttered shelter for immigrant children where videos showed staffers dragging and shoving kids.  

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office investigated incidents that took place on three days in September. Prosecutors will now decide whether to file charges.

The videos first obtained by The Arizona Republic are blurry but show staffers dragging children on the ground and shoving a boy against a door. In one video, a staffer is seen sitting at a conference room table, fidgeting with her hair, while another staffer drags a child into the room. The treatment continued even after the child falls to the ground. 

Facility closed in October

The shelter, known as Hacienda del Sol, was operated by Southwest Key and located in the metro Phoenix area before it was closed in October. It held immigrant children who came to the U.S. without a parent or in some cases were separated from family.

Southwest Key has been under fire in Arizona after a series of investigations into abuse of children in its care.

​The Texas-based organization is the largest provider of shelters for immigrant children in the country and agreed this year to give up licenses at two of its biggest Arizona facilities at a time when the U.S. government is holding more children in its care and for longer periods of time.

Before the investigations, Southwest Key had about 1,600 kids in 13 facilities in Arizona. That number was cut in about half by the end of the year. 

Shelter shuttered

Southwest Key was forced to shutter Hacienda del Sol in an agreement with the state health department after an investigation found the organization hadn’t properly done background checks on all of its employees. It also was required to take other steps to ensure the safety of children in its care.

Southwest Key spokesman Jeff Eller said Monday that staff members who monitored video at Hacienda del Sol immediately notified police and the government agencies about the incidents seen on the videos.

He said the organization cooperated with the investigation and quickly suspended, and later fired, the two employees in the video. 

“We wholeheartedly welcomed the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s decision to suspend operations at Hacienda del Sol and are working to thoroughly retrain our staff,” Eller said.

Southwest Key has also arranged an independent review of procedures, hiring and training at its Arizona shelters, he said.

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is in charge of caring for immigrant children, said its focus is on the safety and best interest of each child. 

“These are vulnerable children in difficult circumstances,” it said in a statement. “When any allegations of abuse or neglect are made they are taken seriously, investigated and swift action is taken.”

Sexual abuse allegations

Immigration facilities in Arizona have been targeted by numerous allegations of sexual abuse, including one by the government of El Salvador, which said it received reports of three children, 12 to 17, who were sexually abused at unnamed shelters.

In August, police arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl at the same Southwest Key shelter where just weeks earlier first lady Melania Trump had taken a tour.

In September, a former youth care worker was convicted of sexually abusing seven teenage boys at a Phoenix-area shelter for immigrant children.
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Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is giving some final advice to troops and the Defense Department’s civilian employees – maintain your faith in America and continue to stand by the country’s allies.

“Our Department’s leadership, civilian and military, remains in the best possible hands,” Mattis wrote in his official farewell message Monday, his last day on the job.

“I am confident that each of you remains undistracted from our sworn mission to support and defend the Constitution while protecting our way of life,” he continued. “So keep the faith in our country and hold fast, alongside our allies, aligned against our foes.”

Monday’s letter comes as Mattis prepares to relinquish his office to Deputy Secretary Pat Shanahan, who will become acting defense secretary as of January 1.

Unlike Mattis, who came to the Pentagon as a revered former Marine general who served in Afghanistan, Shanahan does not have any military experience. Shanahan came to the Defense Department from aviation giant Boeing, where he spent more than 30 years overseeing both civilian and military related programs. Shanahan was named deputy secretary in 2017.

Mattis resigned on December 20 following a White House meeting with Trump during which the two men disagreed over the president’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, where they have been helping in the fight against the Islamic State terror group.

While it was not the first time the two men disagreed on policy, for Mattis the Syria decision represented a breaking point.

“You have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects,” Mattis wrote to Trump at the time, adding he would stay on until the end of February 2019 to allow time for a successor to be found and so that he could represent the U.S. at a NATO Defense Ministerial meeting.

Stressing alliances

Mattis also warned the president that the U.S. “must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours,” naming both China and Russia.

And he further warned that the United States could not afford to alienate allies.

“Our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnership.”

Three days later, Trump announced via Twitter that Mattis would be leaving at the end of the year.

According to Pentagon officials, Mattis’ departure, at his own request, will not be marked by any of the fanfare normally seen to pay respect to an outgoing defense secretary.

Instead, the handover of authority from Mattis to acting Defense Secretary Shanahan will marked by a phone call, alerting all relevant government agencies to the change in command.

Shortly after the Pentagon released Mattis’ farewell message Monday, the Trump took to Twitter.

“I am the only person in America who could say that, “I’m bringing our great troops back home, with victory,” and get BAD press,” he wrote.

Mattis began his last message as secretary of defense by quoting from a telegram U.S. President Abraham Lincoln sent to Gen. Ulysses Grant in 1865, just over two months before the end of the U.S. Civil War.

“Let nothing which is transpiring, change, hinder or delay your military movements, or plans,” it read.
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Vietnam has earned a name as the chief haven for multinationals hoping to avoid the Sino-U.S. trade dispute of 2018. The Philippines, another Southeast Asian country that has pushed to pick up foreign investment, aims to follow suit.

The Philippines boasts young workers skilled in English, quick infrastructure upgrades and a tax system overhaul – though fuel prices and periodic political unrest may check progress, people familiar with the country say.

The government approved $17.2 billion in investments, up 47 percent over 2017, the Board of Investments announced on December 24. Those figures “blew past expectations,” the board said.

“We do have a market, a growing middle class and qualified workers, but there are economic and political factors that affect the level of confidence among investors, particularly foreign investors,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.

Perks in the Philippines

The Philippines would attract foreign investment in part because of its $169 billion infrastructure renewal, Atienza said. The rebuilding is set to run through 2022 and get funding partly by money from China and Japan.

“I’m sure the additional financing they’ve been offered is very helpful for them to develop their economy, and the Philippines knows it very much needs infrastructure development to become more competitive,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit.

Though too early to say, new infrastructure might help develop energy sources and lower electricity prices that otherwise deter investors, the professor said.

Multinationals also consider the English language ability and other skills among workers, she said. Another sought-after skill: training in healthcare. Minimum wages for most manufacturers as well as in the service sectors will rise to $9.50 per day, on par with some of China’s lower pay.

“The workforce is still young, so whatever the needs of the new economy will be, the Philippines can provide, given its young workforce,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro.

A tax reform bill, if implemented in Manila, will lead to an “influx” of investment in manufacturing, he said. He was referring to part two of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion, which would cut corporate income tax.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority further helps secure investment by offering “facilitation,” said Carl Baker, director of programs with Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu.

China, Japan try it out

China topped the list of foreign investors in the Philippines in 2018 with $927 million worth of commitments, up from just $10 million a year ago, the government board said. Like multinationals, companies in China are looking to other countries as an export base that will not trip U.S. tariffs.

Japanese companies also expressed particular interest in the past year, Ravelas said.

In 2017, Seiko Epson opened a $143 million plant south of Manila. The plant will make projectors and inkjet printers. Around the same time, Shin-Etsu Magnetic Philippines, which produces magnets for electronic devices, opened its eighth plant in the country.

Foreign investors that produce exports in China face U.S. import tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods, one result of a trade dispute that consumed the past year. U.S. President Donald Trump regards China as an unfair trading partner.

Philippine officials have been drumming up support for foreign investment over the past half-decade as manufacturing costs rise in China.

Deterrents to investment

Investors have kept away from the Philippines because of its archipelagic location – hard for transport – limits on foreign ownership, and utility rates.

Electricity prices, a reflection of underlying energy costs, deter some investors as they top the rest of Southeast Asia except Singapore at $0.11 per kilowatt hour. Government officials are trying to develop new energy sources, including renewables, Ravelas noted. Foreign investors can own no more than 40% cap of land parcels, Philippine-based corporations or public utilities.

Philippine workers are more likely to be unionized than in other Asian countries, Atienza said. They tend to be “more vocal” in demands for higher pay compared to other Southeast Asian countries, she added.

Localized violence that may erupt ahead of midterm elections in May as well as the government’s struggle against Communist rebels in the countryside could put off hopeful investors, she said.

Among south and Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines will “gain the least” from the Sino-U.S. trade dispute, investment bank Natixis said in a research report December 4. It cites “expensive” electricity and “weak” business infrastructure.

Vietnam has earned a name through cheap land and labor, government openness to foreign investment and a growing list of free trade agreements. “There is significant competition from other ASEAN countries for attracting investors looking for an alternative to China-based manufacturing,” Baker said.
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The origins of a suspected computer attack that disrupted the Los Angeles Times and Tribune Publishing newspapers remained unclear Sunday after causing delivery delays and being brought to the attention of federal investigators.

San Diego Union-Tribune Publisher Jeff Light described the incident as “what now seems to have been a malicious attack on the company by computer hackers” in a message posted to the newspaper’s website. He told readers the disruption had mostly seemed to have been brought under control.

The suspected attack prevented the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other papers from publishing paid death notices and classified ads Saturday. But Tribune Publishing has said no news websites were affected and no customer information was compromised.

Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in an email Sunday that the agency was “aware of reports of a potential cyber incident” affecting several news outlets. She said the department is “working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation.”

The Los Angeles Times, citing “several individuals with knowledge of the Tribune situation,” reported that the attack appeared to be in the form of “Ryuk” ransomware. Tribune Publishing sold the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this year for $500 million to biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, but the companies continue to share software, according to the newspaper.

An advisory by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ cybersecurity program earlier this year described “Ryuk” attacks as “highly-targeted, well-resourced and planned.”

Mark Weatherford, a former DHS deputy under secretary for cybersecurity who is now chief cybersecurity strategist at California-based vArmour, said Sunday that phishing links are the most common way such attacks gain entry.

“It’s fairly non-discriminatory. This could happen to anybody, although it seems to be more of a targeted attack,” Weatherford said. He added, however, that it was too early to draw conclusions.

Tribune Publishing also reported the attack to the FBI on Friday, the Chicago Tribune said. The FBI did not immediately return a message seeking comment Sunday.

 
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Retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal blasted U.S. President Donald Trump, calling him dishonest and immoral.

The former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan told ABC’s This Week news show, “I don’t think he tells the truth.”

Responding to Trump’s announcement that he will withdraw half of all U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, McChrystal said the move would reduce the incentive for the Taliban to negotiate a peace deal after more than 17 years of war.

He said, making the decision, Trump has “basically traded away the biggest leverage point we have.”

“If you tell the Taliban that we are absolutely leaving on date certain, cutting down, weakening ourselves, their incentives to try to cut a deal drop dramatically,” McChrystal said.

He was also highly critical of the president’s personal character. When asked if Trump is immoral, McChrystal responded: “I think he is.”

This is not the first time McChrystal has slammed a sitting president. He was forced to resign in 2010 after he criticized the Obama administration in an article in Rolling Stone magazine.

 
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The relationship between United States and China has grown increasingly tense since June, when Washington slapped tariffs on key imports from Beijing, and China returned the gesture. The Trump administration says it is trying to reset the country’s economic and strategic relationship with China, to put America first. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports on how the administration has confronted China in 2018.
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