The wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted to misuse of state funds and will have to pay $15,000 (£11,910). Sara Netanyahu was accused of spending $99,300 on outside catering while falsely declaring there were no cooks available at the PM’s residence. She was charged with fraud and breach of trust last year.

Her lawyer said the case had nothing to do with her and said it was an attempt to bring down her husband. Under a plea deal, Mrs Netanyahu will repay the state $12,490 and pay a fine of $2,777. She will have a criminal record though the charges she faced were reduced, the Jerusalem Post reported. Prosecutor Erez Padan said that the prosecution had made “significant concessions” that led to a “balanced and right plea deal.” He said the compromise had saved the court from calling on 80 witnesses. “The prosecution is aware there isn’t full correlation between the sum and the criminal offence, however in the framework of the legal procedure, a full correlation is not obligatory,” he said.

Last year, Mrs Netanyahu’s lawyers argued that she had not been made aware of the procedures about outside catering and that the meals had been ordered by the household manager and served to visiting dignitaries. Responding to the charges, Mr Netanyahu said in a statement: “Sara Netanyahu is a strong and honourable woman and there has never been any fault in her actions.”(BBC)…[+]

BRASILIA – Leaked personal messages published yesterday by a news website show the judge who led the corruption trial that jailed former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva advised prosecutors to influence public opinion against the leftist leader.

The Intercept posted what it said were social media chats from then judge Sergio Moro to the prosecution team, suggesting prosecutors make a public statement playing up what Moro said were contradictions in Lula’s testimony to undermine his claim to be a victim of political persecution. The exchange occurred after Lula’s May 10, 2017 deposition against charges that he took a beachside luxury apartment as a bribe. Lula left the court room to tell supporters that he was being “massacred” and was preparing to run for president again. Moro, who is now Brazil’s justice minister, questioned the authenticity of the messages and said he would not comment on texts obtained by hackers. “The supposed material, obtained in a criminal way, must be presented to an independent authority so that its integrity can be certified,” he said in a statement.(Reuters)…[+]

Venezuelan school teacher and desperate migrant Isabeth Moren, has a message for the women of Trinidad and Tobago. “We did not come here to take your husbands,” she said. Moreno, who also has a radio programme in her homeland, said she had fled a country plagued by a worsening economic and political crisis. And she was simply seeking a better life.

Standing in line at the migrant registration centre at Achievors Banquet Hall in San Fernando on Friday, Moreno said she was disappointed in the way Trinidadian women treated her kind. “We are insulted and degraded. I am a school teacher, my friend here is a doctor. Not every single Venezuelan woman you see is here for prostitution,” she said. Moreno, 50, arrived in Trinidad two months ago and has secured a job as a waitress.

“But the men in Trinidad thinks we are here for sex. That is not right. In many instances we have men coming into our bedrooms in our apartments asking for sex. Some of them ask for massages. That is wrong. We are not here for that. It is unfair that we have to be degraded like this,” she said. Moreno said she wanted to return to her homeland and be reunited with her family. “My country is beautiful. We don’t want to live here. We want to be allowed to stay and work and someday return home,” she said.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

The Pope has told oil company bosses that climate change threatens the future of the “human family”. The oil executives had been invited to the Vatican in Rome for an audience with the pontiff. Pope Francis said a radical energy transition is needed to save what he called “our common home”.

The head of BP agreed that the world must find urgent solutions to environmental problems – but said all must play a part. The Pope warned him and other bosses: “Civilisation requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilisation.” The oil bosses were brought to the Vatican alongside fund managers who invest in their stocks. The companies represented were believed to include Eni, Exxon, Total, Repsol, BP, Sinopec, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, and Chevron.

A small group of demonstrators gathered outside a Vatican gate. One held a sign reading “Dear Oil CEOs – Think of Your Children”. The executives were given a dressing down by the former Irish premier Mary Robinson. She said: “We should all salute the courage the Holy Father has shown on climate change when too many secular leaders have spurned their responsibilities.” Ms Robinson asked the oil bosses: “What could be more cynical than still seeking to exploit fossil fuel reserves when the scientific evidence is abundantly clear that we need to end all combustion of fossil fuels by 2050?”

She said the energy transition would require a massive shift of capital to clean energy and warned: “If some industries fail to adjust to this new word, they will fail to exist.” In a statement, BP said its CEO Bob Dudley was “honoured to participate at the Vatican“.(BBC)…[+]

SAO PAULO– The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled yesterday that homophobia should be criminalized under existing legislation until Congress creates a specific law for the subject, weighing in on a topic that has drawn the ire of President Jair Bolsonaro. Eight of 11 justices voted to treat homophobia in the same way as racism under Brazilian law, making it a criminal act.     “Sexual orientation and gender identity are essential to human beings, to the self-determination to decide their own life and seek happiness,” Justice Gilmar Mendes said, according to the court’s Twitter account.

During the court’s deliberations last month, as it became clear that most justices would rule in favor of criminalizing homophobia, Bolsonaro strongly criticized the court. He accused the justices of legislating from the bench and suggested it was time to appoint an evangelical Christian to the Supreme court. Evangelicals and other socially conservative Brazilians helped Bolsonaro win last year’s election as he promised to overturn years of liberal social policies, including more rights for same-sex couples.

Bolsonaro, a Catholic who was baptized by an evangelical pastor on a trip to Israel three years ago, had a history of making homophobic, racist and sexist public remarks before he took office in Jan. 1 He told one interviewer he would rather have a dead son than a gay son.(Reuters)…[+]

The moth­er of se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer Ri­car­do Dixon, 22, was on Thursday lost for words as she tried to come to terms with los­ing her sec­ond son in six years to vi­o­lence. Dixon left home at 5.20 am to pick up his first day of du­ties at Heller Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices but was shot dead mo­ments lat­er.

His moth­er, Camille Taitt, 40, was in a state of shock and dis­be­lief when she saw the body of her son, ful­ly clad in his se­cu­ri­ty uni­form, ly­ing on the road­way at Xeres Road in Carlsen Field. Dixon was shot six times but was able to tell a passer­by what hap­pened to him min­utes be­fore he suc­cumbed to his in­juries at the scene.

Po­lice found five spent .40 cal­i­bre shells on the ground near his body. Dixon was the fa­ther of a one-year-old girl. Speak­ing with the Guardian Me­dia on Thurs­day, Taitt said her son was very ex­cit­ed for his first day as a se­cu­ri­ty guard and was look­ing for­ward to tak­ing up du­ty. “I woke him up at 5 am and walked him to the road and looked at him walk­ing out for a taxi. I nev­er knew what hap­pened to him un­til I saw his body on Face­book”, she said.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

A US government oversight agency has said White House aide Kellyanne Conway should be fired for engaging in banned political activities while in office. The Office of Special Counsel said Mrs Conway violated the Hatch Act, which bans federal employees from campaigning for candidates while on the job.

The watchdog cited “numerous occasions” in which she violated the law, calling her a “repeat offender”. The White House dismissed the advice as “deeply flawed” and “unprecedented”. The allegations stem from statements Mrs Conway made on television during the 2017 Alabama special Senate election in which she advocated for and against certain individual candidates. The president, vice-president and some other high level officials are not bound by the 1939 Hatch Act. In a statement announcing the recommendation, the independent Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said that her “violations, if left unpunished, would send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act’s restrictions.

“Her actions thus erode the principal foundation of our democratic system – the rule of law.” The agency described one episode in which she appears to shrug off the Hatch Act, saying “if you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work,” and “let me know when the jail sentence starts”.

It is up to President Donald Trump whether or not to heed the recommendation and fire his former 2016 campaign manager. The office is run by Henry Kern, who the president nominated for the role. The White House rushed to defend Mrs Conway, calling the special counsel’s actions a violation of Mrs Conway’s rights to free speech. “Others, of all political views, have objected to the OSC’s unclear and unevenly applied rules which have a chilling effect on free speech for all federal employees,” said deputy White House press secretary Steven Groves in a statement to US media.(BBC)…[+]

WASHINGTON– A U.S. House committee voted yesterday in favour of holding two of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers in contempt of Congress for defying congressional subpoenas related to an effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census.

By a 24-15 bipartisan vote, the House Oversight Committee recommended the full House of Representatives find Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt. For Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement official, it was the second time a House panel had made such a recommendation against him. Trump earlier in the day asserted executive privilege to keep under wraps documents related to his administration’s push to add a citizenship question to the census, defying a subpoena from the committee, chaired by Democrat Elijah Cummings.

“The president’s assertion does not change the fact that the attorney general and the secretary of commerce are sadly in contempt,” Cummings said during a nearly seven-hour meeting of the Democratic-led investigative panel. A Justice Department spokeswoman said in a statement that the committee was playing “political games” and that the agency had tried for months to accommodate the committee’s demands for documents. Ross called the vote an “empty stunt.”(Reuters)…[+]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today announced that it will be suing the United States Coast Guard on behalf of four Jamaican fishermen who were held for five weeks in 2017 on suspicion of smuggling marijuana.  The Atlantic reported that according to the lawsuit filed today, the men, Robert Dexter Weir, Patrick Wayne Ferguson, Luther Fian Patterson, and David Roderick Williams went missing after setting out for sea from the village of half Moon Bay.

However, their quest for tuna and snapper was supposed to last about two days. Then they disappeared, the lawsuit said. Five weeks later the men re-emerged in Miami, covered in burns and blisters, according to ACLU. The union alleges that the US Coast Guard officers had snatched them off their boat on suspicion of marijuana smuggling, then held them at sea for more than a month, shuffling them among various vessels en route to the US to face trial. The ACLU claims that Coast Guard officers chained the fishermen up on decks exposed to the elements—even while sailing straight through Hurricane Maria—fed them little, and denied them contact with their loved ones.(Jamaica Observer) …[+]

An Indian businessman has been jailed for life after planting a fake hijacking letter in the toilet of a Jet Airways flight from Delhi to Mumbai. Birju Salla said he had hoped the air carrier would close its Delhi operations and his girlfriend – a Jet Airways air stewardess – would have to move to live with him in Mumbai.

He was also fined 50 million rupees ($720,725; £650,877). Salla is the first person to be tried under India’s new anti-hijacking laws. The legislation carries a minimum sentence of life imprisonment, and a death sentence at its most severe. The businessman confessed to writing and printing the threat note in his Mumbai office before catching the flight in October 2017. It said 12 hijackers and several explosives were onboard, and demanded that the flight be diverted into Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Salla was arrested after the plane made an emergency landing in Ahmedabad, 483 miles (778km) from its intended destination. At the time, he was having an extra-marital affair with an air stewardess from Delhi.(BBC)…[+]