| Iran's Rouhani warns Macron of looming nuclear step Posted: 31 Aug 2019 04:57 PM PDT  President Hassan Rouhani spoke with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron Saturday, warning him Iran would take the next step in reducing its nuclear commitments unless Europe lives up to to its own undertakings. Tensions have spiked in the Gulf since May last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers -- known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Macron has been leading efforts to de-escalate the situation and he expressed hopes of bringing together Rouhani and Trump for a meeting during a G7 summit days ago.
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| Britons protest Johnson's Brexit 'coup' move Posted: 31 Aug 2019 03:23 PM PDT  Protesters wielding pro-democracy placards and EU flags rallied on Saturday in dozens of British cities against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's controversial move to suspend parliament just weeks before Brexit. "I'm absolutely disgusted by what's happening here," said attendee Maya Dunn, 66, a Dutch citizen living in Britain, who accused Johnson of "riding roughshod over everybody". The demonstrations come ahead of an intense political week in which Johnson's opponents will go to court to block his move to suspend parliament from mid-September and legislate against leaving the European Union without an agreement.
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| Johnson Sets Out Election Platform in Warning to Rebel Lawmakers Posted: 31 Aug 2019 03:14 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged billions of pounds for education, social care and transportation, and warned Conservative lawmakers to get behind his Brexit plan or face losing their party affiliation.The proposals to be unveiled in the coming week will be the "biggest, most generous spending review" since the Labour Party under Tony Blair came to power in the late 1990s, Johnson said. In an interview with the Sunday Times, he refused to rule out calling a general election."We need to put a tiger in the tank, put our pedal to the metal, foot to the floor," he said. "We're putting a huge amount into social care, into schools, into transport and education."Johnson, in office since late July, outraged some in Parliament this week by declaring a one-month suspension of lawmaking just ahead of the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline. Rebel lawmakers will try during the week to pass a law that would force Johnson to seek an extension of the deadline for departing.The Times said Johnson and his senior aides will discuss on Sunday whether to deny party affiliation to Tory members who join with Labour's Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to block a no-deal Brexit."Are you going to side with those who want to scrub the democratic verdict of the people -- and plunge this country into chaos?" Johnson said, referring to Corbyn. "Or are you going to side with those of us who want to get on, deliver on the mandate of the people, and focus with absolute, laser-like precision on the domestic agenda? That's the choice."Johnson declined to rule out packing the House of Lords with hundreds of peers to defeat the rebel bill, asking the Queen not to give royal assent if it passes, or calling a general election. To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| EU's Barnier says Brexit deal cannot be changed Posted: 31 Aug 2019 03:05 PM PDT  EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Saturday the bloc will not change the divorce deal agreed with Britain and that he is "not optimistic" of avoiding a no-deal outcome. Barnier said the most contentious element of the agreement, the so-called backstop mechanism aimed at keeping the Northern Irish border open in all circumstances, must remain. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who took power last month, has called for the provision to be scrapped in order to reach a new deal ahead of the country's latest October 31 departure date.
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| France's Macron talks to Iranian president, urges restraint Posted: 31 Aug 2019 02:26 PM PDT ![France's Macron talks to Iranian president, urges restraint]( "France's Macron talks to Iranian president, urges restraint") French President Emmanuel Macron has talked with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and urged Tehran to show restraint amid rising tensions in the region. The tense standoff between Israel and Iran around Lebanon has pushed the bitter adversaries closer toward open, armed conflict in recent weeks. The office says Macron also pushed again for Iran to adhere to its nuclear agreement, after trying earlier to arrange a U.S.-Iran meeting.
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| Hong Kong Masses Defy Police, Show China They’re Ready to Fight Posted: 31 Aug 2019 02:05 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's masses swarmed downtown areas in defiance of a police ban on Saturday, showing they're ready to resist harsher measures by local authorities and Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests that have raged for almost three months.Demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and bricks, and set aflame a massive road block in the city center after tens of thousands marched and vowed to drag out disruptive anti-China protests until their demands were met. Some train stations were shuttered and subway services interrupted, while police warned the public to stay indoors and keep their windows shut in some areas as they use "appropriate force" to disperse demonstrators. Two warning shots were fired by police officers.It's the 13th straight weekend of historic political unrest in the Asian financial center as rallies over a now-suspended bill to allow extraditions to China widened into a push for greater democracy. The violence came after police denied permission for the mass rally and arrested several prominent pro-democracy activists, warning others could also be detained for taking part in unauthorized assemblies.Numerous protesters on Saturday said those arrests -- which included Joshua Wong, who led an earlier wave of protests in 2014 -- had angered many and drawn people to the streets as they fight to preserve democratic freedoms. Some vowed to continue protests in coming days and said they were resorting to increasingly radical tactics, including targeting the city's busy international airport, because the government didn't listen after peaceful rallies of almost 2 million people."Hopefully they will hear us if we do these kind of aggressive actions," said Cheung, a 23-year-old protester clad in goggles and a gas mask, who only gave his surname. "There've been lots of peaceful protests and there was no response from the government. That's why we're being more aggressive and trying to disrupt the Hong Kong economy," he said as police fired tear gas nearby at protesters pelting the city's Legislative Council complex with eggs and bricks.Police ApprovalThe rally, called by the organizer of some of the city's biggest protests, was canceled after failing to get police approval. It was originally planned to coincide with a decree from Beijing five years ago that dashed the hopes of many for true democracy in the former colony and helped set off the Occupy protest movement in 2014."We're here to protest that decision and to tell the Chinese government we do not agree with anything that is a barrier to our democracy, our universal suffrage," said a 21-year-old student protester, who only gave his first name, Hugo.On Saturday, the Hong Kong government issued a formal statement on the issue, repeating that universal suffrage is the "ultimate aim," but that election reforms will take place "in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress."The ongoing unrest represents the biggest threat to Beijing's oversight of Hong Kong since the return to Chinese rule in 1997, and is a geopolitical embarrassment for President Xi Jinping as his government gets set to celebrate 70 years of communist rule on Oct. 1.As demonstrations drag out, protesters and the Hong Kong administration are being driven further apart. The government of Chief Executive Carrie Lam is refusing to rule out using a colonial-era emergency powers law, while demonstrators are ramping up disruptive protests as authorities stand firm on rejecting their demands for greater democracy.Flaming RoadblockThe clashes on Saturday were some of the most tense so far, with police spraying water tinted with blue dye from water cannons. Tear gas fired at protesters in gas masks and hardhats were lobbed back at officers, along with petrol bombs and bricks.Protesters later assembled a massive roadblock of plastic barricades and metal railings, as well as stands and fencing from a nearby park, before setting it on fire in the middle of Hennessy Road, a main thoroughfare that cuts through the city's Wan Chai area. The fire sent thick plumes of black smoke into the air before firefighters extinguished the blaze."The main objective of the fire is, first, to show that we are willing to fight," said a university student who only gave his surname, Lau, as the fire blazed a block away. "The second objective is that we've formed a very major barricade for the police to overcome before they can charge toward us. This will give our frontline fighters more time to leave because a lot of protesters are being arrested already."The gunshots were fired minutes apart shortly after 9 p.m. Hong Kong time as there were "serious threats" to the lives of its officers, Yolanda Yu, a police senior superintendent, said at a briefing early Sunday morning.Many demonstrators who participated in a peaceful march through the city left as clashes started. They came out in the pouring rain despite the police ban that exposed many of them to potential arrest."They are trying to scare us, but I'm ready to be arrested," said Philip, a 60-year-old pastor who only gave his first name and marched with his wife and two children. He said that he didn't want to see clashes between protesters and police.Ronny Tong, a member of Lam's advisory Executive Council, said in an interview on Friday that many Hong Kongers want to see demonstrators punished for the more violent protests that have occurred throughout the ongoing unrest."We are a very pluralistic society and there's been a very loud cry from different sectors of the community who have called for the arrest of the ringleaders of people who have been rioting in the streets, you know, committing arson and assaulting police officers," he said.\--With assistance from Chloe Whiteaker.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Aaron Mc Nicholas in Hong Kong at amcnicholas2@bloomberg.net;Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iran's Rouhani warns Macron of looming nuclear step Posted: 31 Aug 2019 01:41 PM PDT President Hassan Rouhani spoke with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron Saturday, warning him Iran would take the next step in reducing its nuclear commitments unless Europe lives up to its own undertakings. Tensions have spiked in the Gulf since May last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers -- known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Macron has been leading efforts to de-escalate the situation and he expressed hopes of bringing together Rouhani and Trump for a meeting during a G7 summit days ago.
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| Hezbollah leader: We have no missile factories in Lebanon Posted: 31 Aug 2019 11:59 AM PDT  The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah on Saturday categorically denied Israeli claims about his group having factories to produce precision-guided missiles in Lebanon, saying such "lies" were an attempt to justify Israeli attacks against the country. In a speech to hundreds of his followers who gathered in the group's stronghold in southern Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah said his group possessed precision-guided missiles but not the factories to produce them. "We do not have factories to produce precision-guided missiles in Lebanon," he said.
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| Cease-fire brings temporary calm to Syria's Idlib Posted: 31 Aug 2019 09:42 AM PDT  Government airstrikes and artillery attacks ceased Saturday following a unilateral cease-fire in the northwestern province of Idlib, a Syrian war monitor said. The U.S. military, meanwhile, said it struck an al-Qaida leadership facility north of Idlib, marking the first American strike inside the war-torn country since July . The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported a missile attack on a meeting of militants in Idlib province that it said killed at least 40 militants.
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| Erdogan vows Syria operation if US falls short in safe zone Posted: 31 Aug 2019 09:18 AM PDT  Turkey's president threatened Saturday to launch a unilateral offensive into northeastern Syria if plans to establish a so-called safe zone along Turkey's border fail to meet his expectations, including a demand that Turkish soldiers control the corridor. Speaking to graduates of a military academy in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the U.S. had up to three weeks to satisfy Turkish demands. Earlier in August, Turkish and U.S. officials agreed to set up the zone east of the Euphrates River.
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| Sudan court accepts corruption charges against al-Bashir Posted: 31 Aug 2019 08:23 AM PDT  A Sudanese court said Saturday it accepted prosecutors' corruption-related charges against autocratic former president Omar al-Bashir, who appeared in court in a cage for the third time this month. Al-Bashir has been in custody since being ousted by the military in April after months of mass protests against his three-decade authoritarian rule. Al-Bashir was accused of money laundering after millions of U.S. dollars, euros and Sudanese pounds were seized in his home shortly after his ouster.
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| Anti-Putin Opposition Marches Through Moscow in Peaceful Protest Posted: 31 Aug 2019 08:11 AM PDT ![Anti-Putin Opposition Marches Through Moscow in Peaceful Protest]( "Anti-Putin Opposition Marches Through Moscow in Peaceful Protest") (Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of Russians marched through the streets of Moscow in what appeared to be the most peaceful unauthorized rally in a summer of demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin.The Interior ministry, which usually understates the scope of protest activities, put the number of march participants at 750 people, according to Interfax. No detentions were reported, but there was a heavy police presence on the streets around the march.The "march against political repression" through the center of the capital took place eight days before Moscow city council elections that have become the focus of a revived opposition movement against Putin. Thousands of people have been detained by riot police at a series of demonstrations called after authorities declined last month to register dozens of opposition and independent candidates for the Sept. 8 vote."We have the legal right to do it and we are just obliged to do it, for the sake of the future of our country," opposition leader Lyubov Sobol said in a video posted on YouTube, urging people to join the march. The demand to allow independent candidates on the ballot "is simple, legal and just," she said.Sobol, who went on a month-long hunger strike to protest against the rejection of her candidacy, filmed riot police breaking into her election office to detain her during the last major demonstration on Aug. 10. As many as 60,000 people attended the sanctioned rally that day, the largest anti-Kremlin demonstration since the 2011-2012 wave of unrest against Putin's return to the presidency after four years as prime minister.The confrontation between the authorities and the opposition may be the prelude to a more significant struggle over 2021 parliamentary elections. The Kremlin is determined to lock in its control of the lower house of parliament ahead of potentially vital decisions that could extend Putin's rule beyond the end of his term in 2024.Several opposition politicians, including Ilya Yashin, remain behind bars after being repeatedly detained for encouraging participation in previous unauthorized protests. Sobol was doused in filth outside her home by an unidentified assailant Thursday after publishing the video announcing plans for the march.Even as the protest plans seem certain to trigger another round of detentions, the opposition's most prominent leader, Alexey Navalny, is calling on people to work within the system to break the ruling United Russia party's grip on the Moscow council.Navalny, who was released last week after a 30-day prison term he received for urging supporters to attend a July 27 protest, set up a website to encourage "smart voting" in the elections, whereby voters will be directed to back the strongest non-United Russia candidate in any given district.To contact the reporter on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Rachel GrahamFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Merkel Calls for Compromise as East-West Gap Risks Social Fabric Posted: 31 Aug 2019 06:01 AM PDT ![Merkel Calls for Compromise as East-West Gap Risks Social Fabric]( "Merkel Calls for Compromise as East-West Gap Risks Social Fabric") (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a better exchange of ideas between different parts of Germany as social tensions in the former communist east look set to contribute to bruising electoral losses for the parties in her coalition.Speaking after receiving an honorary degree from a university in Leipzig, where she was a student, Merkel cautioned that finding common ground was key to counter the risk of populism tearing at the country's social fabric."Without compromise, society cannot hold together," said the chancellor, who grew up in eastern Germany.Her trip to Leipzig coincides with two state elections in Germany's east on Sunday. In Brandenburg and Saxony, support for Merkel's Christian Democrats and her junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, is expected to drop sharply amid high turnout for the far-right AfD party. The results could be another blow to Merkel's fragile government and lead to its collapse, creating political instability as Europe's largest economy faces the specter of recession.While people in the east grappled with existential crises in the aftermath of reunification 30 years ago, the west was largely stable. Merkel said people in the east and west need to understand each other's histories better in order to reach a "true understanding of one another for the future."To contact the reporters on this story: Kristie Pladson in Leipzig at kpladson@bloomberg.net;Piotr Skolimowski in Leipzig at pskolimowski@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Schaefer at dschaefer36@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Rachel GrahamFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Bolsonaro’s Defiance, Loving Trump, Upheaval in Italy: Weekend Reads Posted: 31 Aug 2019 05:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's resistance to international pressure stems from his deeply rooted beliefs regarding the Amazon. Italy's Matteo Salvini was the week's big political loser. And Donald Trump's trade war isn't costing him as much support from a crucial voting bloc as you might guess.Dig into these and other aspects of the latest political developments in this edition of Weekend Reads.Ambition and Betrayal Sink Italy's Puppet Master Salvini was at the apex of his political dominance less than a month ago as go-go dancers gyrated to the national anthem while he improvised as a DJ at a beach bar. John Follain charts how it all went wrong.U.S. Farmers May Be Angrier, But Their Trump Love Is GrowingFarmers have never been this critical of the Trump administration's trade war with China. But, as Isis Almeida writes, their love for the president seems to be growing anyway. A $12 Billion Gas Project Could Make or Break This Young NationJason Scott reports from Timor-Leste, where birthing pains are still evident 20 years after a referendum brought independence from Indonesia following a brutal conflict that killed an estimated 100,000 people.There May Be a Fortune Buried in a Forgotten Corner of EuropeEurope's largest reserves of lithium — the metal used for batteries — could be in Serbia. But as James Gomez and Misha Savic report, the hard part might be getting it out. And read more about how the biggest territorial dispute in the Balkans, which has hampered Serbia's and Kosovo's integration with the EU, has gone global. The Most Undiplomatic of Diplomats Is Trump's Man in Middle EastAs the top U.S. envoy to one of the world's most volatile regions, David Friedman is anything but diplomatic. Trump's ambassador to Israel broke the mold of non-partisan predecessors by outraging Palestinians with comments that the Jewish state has a right to annex some areas of the West Bank. Ivan Levingston and David Wainer take a closer look. Here's Why Trump and Rouhani Have Little Incentive to MeetIranian President Hassan Rouhani -- beset with an unhappy populace struggling under an economy crippled by U.S. sanctions -- has made clear that he's not interested in sitting down with Trump. As David Wainer and Glen Carey write, Trump, too, has reasons to avoid direct talks. French Businesses Waking Up to the Reality of a No-Deal BrexitJean-Marie Fabre began traveling to London from southern France about five years ago to sell his red wine, and Britain now accounts for around a fifth of his exports. A no-deal Brexit threatens to undo all his work. Ania Nussbaum reports on the reality that's slowly setting in among French merchants.Take Our Quiz: Trump or Biden—Who Said It?Trump and Democratic front-runner Joe Biden disagree on a lot. But they often sound alike. The 2020 White House rivals share more than a few verbal tics, including an outspoken appreciation of beautiful women, large crowds and their own IQs. See if you can guess who's who. And finally… On the 150th anniversary of the periodic table's formulation by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, it's more important than it's ever been. Joanna Ossinger explains why in the introduction to a special edition of Businessweek dedicated to the stuff that makes up our universe. To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Halpin at thalpin5@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Officials say Gaza man dies of wounds from Israeli gunfire Posted: 31 Aug 2019 03:22 AM PDT ![Officials say Gaza man dies of wounds from Israeli gunfire]( "Officials say Gaza man dies of wounds from Israeli gunfire") Gaza's Health Ministry says a Palestinian man has died of his wounds sustained from Israeli gunfire the previous day at protests along the perimeter fence. The ministry said Saturday that Badr Abu Moussa, 25, was being treated at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, after a bullet hit him in the head. The Israeli military said a soldier was lightly injured and an army vehicle was damaged as the demonstrators threw grenades at the fence.
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| Mysterious Iran rocket blast draws Trump tweet, Tehran taunt Posted: 31 Aug 2019 02:59 AM PDT  The unexplained explosion of a rocket at an Iranian space center grew more mysterious Saturday as President Donald Trump tweeted what appeared to be an American surveillance photo of the site and Tehran showed off a satellite meant to be launched. Trump's tweet showing the aftermath of Thursday's explosion at the Imam Khomeini Space Center drew a taunting tweet from Iran's Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi. Thursday's explosion marked the third failure involving a launch at the center, which has raised suspicions of sabotage in Iran's space program.
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| North Korea berates Pompeo, says hopes for talks fading Posted: 31 Aug 2019 02:56 AM PDT  A senior North Korean diplomat on Saturday berated U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his comments describing North Korean behavior as "rogue" and warned that Pyongyang's hopes for talks with Washington are fading. In a statement carried by state media, North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Pompeo's "thoughtless" comments increased North Korean people's animosity toward Americans and made it harder for working-level nuclear dialogue between the countries to resume. North Korea is extremely sensitive to outside criticism about its authoritarian leadership.
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| A Creepy Look Inside Ammon Bundy’s Oregon Occupation Posted: 31 Aug 2019 02:20 AM PDT  Rick Bowmer/APAs December wore on, more denizens of Ammon's and Ryan's patriot's FaceWorld were trickling into the county. Some of these folks were of considerably different temperament than mild-mannered Ammon. Jon Ritzheimer was one of the more widely known and more troubling of these newcomers. Before coming to Burns, the young Iraq War veteran had ended up on the national news for leading an armed protest outside a Muslim community center in his home state of Arizona. At the rally he'd sported a fuck islam shirt, the principal product of his online business, Rogue Infidel. In the coming months he'd recant on the shirts and claim, in emotional videos posted to the internet, to regret the whole thing. It wasn't that he'd mellowed, exactly; around the same time he'd also been making threats to personally arrest a Michigan senator who'd supported the Iran nuclear deal, an act he promised to follow up with more arrests, including a citizen's arrest of the president if necessary. A scroll through his internet videos reveals, unsurprisingly, an emotionally volatile man. Sometimes he's ranting, angry and shirtless, at the camera, but in other videos you can find him in happier moods, like the one where he cheerily shoots up a Koran—with a pink rifle, for the added humiliation factor—alongside his friend Blaine Cooper. Cooper, originally named Stanley Hicks, had made his own contribution to the mini-genre of social media Koran-desecration videos; in his, he'd wrapped some Koran pages in bacon and "roasted" them. Next he shot the whole book with a compound bow and burned that too. By December, both these men were being seen regularly around town. Ritzheimer was spotted following a BLM employee in the Safeway; his unidentified companion shouted threats of following her home and burning down her house. Dave Ward reported being followed by Ritzheimer and Cooper around another store; at the time, the sheriff was Christmas shopping with his eight-year-old son.Ammon Bundy Starts Wingnut Woodstock in OregonWhile Ritzheimer seemed to cause plenty of turmoil in person around town, the true focus of his public engagement remained where all the real action was, in the new incubator of all America's ugly and unruly feelings: the World Wide Web. In the weeks between his arrival in town and the Bundy Revolution's big strategic move into the Harney Basin, he shot a number of videos. These were some of the strangest, most emotionally extravagant, and, in the case of one video in particular, most watched documents of the entire occupation saga. This is no small feat; he had a tremendous amount of competition. The hours of web documentation shot at Malheur, if anyone were ever really able to gather all the footage and splice it end to end, would likely rival or even surpass the actual event in total duration.A video from late December went viral and made Jon Ritzheimer a favorite target of comedians and internet wits during the early days of the occupation. His gift for high drama made him irresistible; that gift is on display from the moment he hits record. Even before he begins speaking, he's pulling back his head, breathing in deeply, trying to contain all the emotion. He's in the cabin of his truck, so the sonic effects of all this feeling—and all this breathing—are amplified. (Parked cars make excellent impromptu sound booths and are a favored location for Patriot video-missives.) "This is going to be one of the tougher videos I've had to make," he begins, already struggling to get the words out, eyes already tearing up. As we "eavesdrop" on this video he's posted for the wide world to watch, Ritzheimer directly addresses his family, telling his wife how proud he is "of the mother you've become" and explaining to his daughters how "Daddy swore an oath," which is why he's been away so long. "You are only three and five now, and you have no idea," he says, shaking his head with the weight of it all. There's more silence, more tears, a heavy, dramatic sigh, and another look away before he turns back to the camera and brandishes his pocket Constitution. "Your daddy swore an oath," he repeats, wagging the pamphlet in the foreground. "He swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. And that's why he couldn't be with you on Christmas."It can be hard not to laugh when he lands on Christmas—hard not to laugh at all the staged feeling, no matter how genuine it may also have been. As Ritzheimer's holiday message found its pathways through the ether, many would be laughing—a lot—and passing it on. Some people didn't just laugh. The internet responded rapidly with the giddy malice of parody; the imitable form of Ritzheimer's video made it all too easy. In early 2016, men responding to the hashtag DaddySworeAnOath hopped in their own cars to make their own oaths: pledges to be a better lover "to your mother," to return books to the library, or to go down to the strip club "to give these dollars to Sinnamon with an S." The parodies were heavy on the silences, the breathing in, the tearing up. Across America, thanks to Ritzheimer, men were sitting alone in their cars and pretending to have feelings.Parody aside, the level of overwhelming emotion in Ritzheimer's many online communiqués makes it hard to be a witness to him: it's a little like watching a stranger in desperate mourning, or a child in the throes of feelings he can't control or understand. It's easy to imagine Ritzheimer as a child. He's a small man physically, overtaken at times by tears, storms of rage, spasms of righteousness, and puerile obscenity. His shiny, egg-shaped skull adds to the impression; it seems a full size too large for his body, like many a screen actor's. And while Ritzheimer may not be the most articulate speaker, his many silences are pure theater. Throughout his "Daddy Swore an Oath" video, his face shifts in anguish or disgust as words fail him yet again, or as he performs the full weight of the failure of language to express the size of what he has to say to us. Sometimes it's simply because he seems to never have learned all that much about what was actually behind the particular cause he'd so forcefully embraced. He runs out of details very quickly. It didn't really matter though. He had just enough talismanic syllables—Freedom, BLM, Tyranny, Oath—to get him out of his sinkholes of silence and on to what seemed to be his true point: his death. I'm ready to lay down my life was the main message I heard in Ritzheimer's Malheur missives. I'm ready to die. Are you?* * *It's disorienting to recognize how, in writing this book, I've become entirely used to watching men publicly declare their readiness, even eagerness, to die. Sometimes, as I peruse the hours and hours of video of the occupation, I don't even notice that it's happened again—the pledge is so constant. Ritzheimer supplements the weight and meaning of his own oath with the oath from the final lines of the Declaration of Independence, the part right before the unrolling of all those glorious, foundational white men's names: "We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor," he reads. Having joined his troubled American life, ritually, to those of the most magically significant of all Americans, he stares again in silence at the camera, eyes reddened, before closing the pamphlet and turning away.I asked David Ward about all the oath-taking going down in Harney County that fall. He's a man familiar with oath magic. As a sheriff and a military veteran, he's taken some very solemn oaths, but in the fall of 2015, all this oath-taking had started to seem to him like the liturgical magic of some kind of death cult. The Bundyites, he thought, "were setting up Ammon as a prophet." As a devout Christian, he'd begun to find this very troubling. While he had still taken all the official oaths in question, something about it all didn't seem right to him theologically. One passage in particular from the scriptures gnawed at him. He quoted some of it to me, and later I looked up the rest. It was from the Gospel of St. Matthew:But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply "Yes" or "No"; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.He'd also tried to remind Bundy supporters—who often harangued him about his oaths as a sheriff and soldier—that, leaving points of Christian doctrine aside, the oaths in question didn't really say exactly what Ammon and Ryan said they did. For one, the military oath of service included a key passage about swearing to heed the orders of the president. "Those guys didn't like Barack Obama, so they leave that part out."* * *The Great Unfuck* * *There's another, less-known video of Ritzheimer's from around this time that I actually enjoyed watching. The more I watched this one, the stranger it got—I found it had effects well beyond Ritzheimer's patriot intentions. Its lack of deathly oath magic was a plus—nobody swears any oaths or promises to die. Also, Jon's outdoors in this one, and that seems to be a good thing for his mood.He's pulled his truck out into the desert and parked it under an especially craggy and regal-looking butte, its coating of snow only adding to its aloof, aristocratic air. Dressed in desert combat fatigues, Jon has an assault rifle slung across his back. He's not alone this time; another camo'd-out dude is standing in the snowy sagebrush holding up a big colorful map of the United States—yellow, pink, green, and blue. A third compatriot, Arizona militiaman Joe O'Shaughnessy, watches in the foreground, bemused, as Ritzheimer launches into his routine. Let's call it the Great American Unfuck, because that—unfucking, as he'll explain—is what he and the boys are here to do.First, though, he needs to locate himself, and all of us, on the earth and on the map. To unfuck, you've got to know where you stand. He's pointing at the sky, seeming to use the sun to orient himself in relation to the map, even as we see the sun is shining dimly behind him, smeared and grayed by a thin layer of cloud. "We're here," he says. "Yeah, we're here in Oregon, and the mission is to UNFUCK allllll of this."As he says this, his gloved hands sweep diagonally southeast across the continent. "So... I'm hoping the rest of the militiamen and everyone out there is ready cuz, uh," he concludes, "we're going to initiate this mission."Next, pleased with himself, he just does it all over again. "We're here in Oregon," he repeats, to the chuckles of his buddies, pointing to the sky again and then, again, the map. "Yep," he says, as if confirming that they definitely aren't lost. "We're here in Oregon, and we're gonna unfuck ALLLLLLLL this." Again, his dark-gloved hands move like cloud shadows across the map, gliding west to east across the continent, pulled by his elongation of "ALL" until the spell is complete, punctuated by the sibilant precision of "this."I say "spell" because, however improvised and dumb whatever it is Ritzheimer and friends are doing, and it is both, this is some kind of rite, and all who watch are participants in its hokey witchery. Magic is always at least a little hokey, but the more I watch, the more it occurs to me that whatever is meant by unfucking has also got to be some seriously occult stuff. An undoing of the fucked?—it certainly sounds elemental. Then there's this: in the movement Ritzheimer traces across the map, he's recapitulating, in reverse, the arc of Manifest Destiny, the path of Ammon's Beautiful Pattern, the old route of the Oregon Trail. What would unfucking this entail—its dis-conception? I know he means something else, maybe the opposite—more like a reenactment, a restoration of Ammon's Beautiful Pattern, but it's not really what he's done.At this point my cinema-colonized imagination takes over: all those would-be pioneers who died out there along the way—do they spring back to life in some other universe, reassemble out of the dust into coherent flesh, walking backward, zombied-out, to the east, as Jon traces the great messianic reversal, and rewinds America, erasing it? As I hit play again and again, another witchy thing is happening to me. It takes a while for me to notice, but with each viewing, the silent world around Ritzheimer and his friends gets more present. Soon my attention is riveted to the craggy rim of the basalt bench. That butte lurking above them begins to leak in from the background to take over the whole frame. By my fifth or sixth time through the clip, I'm not listening to Ritzheimer at all anymore. More than that, it's like I actually can't hear him, or even see him. Fucked or unfucked, all I see is stone.Excerpted from Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff by Anthony McCann. Copyright © Anthony McCann, 2019. Published by Bloomsbury USA. Reprinted with permission.Anthony McCann is the author of the poetry collections Thing Music, I Heart Your Fate and Moongarden. He currently teaches creative writing at the California Institute of the Arts and in the Low-Residency MFA program of the University of California, Riverside. Born and raised in the Hudson Valley, McCann now lives in the Mojave Desert.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| UPDATE 1-UK finmin Javid says he has fantastic relationship with PM Johnson Posted: 31 Aug 2019 01:24 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-UK finmin Javid says he has fantastic relationship with PM Johnson]( "UPDATE 1-UK finmin Javid says he has fantastic relationship with PM Johnson") Britain's finance minister Sajid Javid on Saturday he had a "fantastic" relationship with Boris Johnson after reports of a furious argument with the prime minister after the sacking of one of his aides. British media had reported that Javid was "livid" about the firing of his press aide by Johnson's top adviser Dominic Cummings, who was looking into whether government officials had helped opponents of the premier's Brexit plans. Javid said that though it would be inappropriate to directly discuss personnel issues, his views were "well understood" after the media reports.
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| US blacklists Iranian tanker in Mediterranean Posted: 31 Aug 2019 01:11 AM PDT  The United States has blacklisted the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, saying it had "reliable information" it was transporting oil to Syria in defiance of wide-ranging sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Previously known as Grace 1, the vessel was seized in July by British Royal Marines and held in Gibraltar for six weeks on suspicion it was delivering oil for Tehran's ally Damascus. The British territory released the ship -- despite US protests -- after it said it had received written assurances from Iran that the vessel would not head for countries under European Union sanctions.
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| Beware America: Iran is Now a "Globally Superior Military Power" Posted: 31 Aug 2019 12:00 AM PDT  Major General Hossein Salami, who commands the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—the shock troops that constitute a parallel military in Iran—said that Iran is a globally superior military power.Did you know that Iran's navy has always defeated the United States?Did you know that Iran's army is so invincible that no country can win a ground war against it?Welcome to the megalomaniacal world of Iranian media, where the impossible is still impossible —but makes for great propaganda."Americans have always been the ultimate and full-scale losers in all their encounters with the IRGCN [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy], and the most notable cases of their defeats were on April 14, 1988, and January 12, 2016 before their drone was shot down on June 20," said IRGCN commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi.Fadavi was presumably referring to three incidents: the April 1988 incident where an Iranian mine badly damaged the U.S. frigate Samuel B. Roberts, Iran's seizure in January 2016 of two American riverine boats and ten sailors after the boats strayed into Iranian waters, and the downing in June 2019 of a MQ-4C Triton drone by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.Fadavi said "that all failures and defeats of the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf are illustrative of the Americans' desperation, frustration, and agony in the face of the Iranian nation in the past 40 years," according to Iran's state-controlled Fars News Agency.Meanwhile, Iran is unbeatable on the ground, boasts an Iranian army general. "For at least the next 10 years, no regional or trans-regional country is able to counter or fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran in ground warfare," said Brigadier General Mehdi Rabbani, deputy chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces."The general reminded that Iran did not lose even a span of its territories during the Iraqi-imposed war in the 1980s when the army of Saddam Hussein was backed by dozens of world states and powers," according to Fars News."Let alone now that we are much more capable than before," he added. "Now our defensive depth has stretched to the Mediterranean Sea and our front has extended to the borders of the Zionist regime [of Israel]."Major General Hossein Salami, who commands the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—the shock troops that constitute a parallel military in Iran—said that Iran is a globally superior military power."The IRGC Ground Force is enjoying the capacities and capabilities to turn into a superior power on a global scale," Salami said while inspecting Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province, where government forces are battling Sunni rebels.Where does one start with these claims? Regarding Iran's naval "victories" over the United States, it is true that Iran successfully laid a minefield, captured two small boats manned by hapless American sailors and shot down a drone. That's not exactly defeating the U.S. military.But let's now look at what happened when the U.S. military decided to take on Iran. On April 18, 1988, in retaliation for the mining of the Samuel B. Roberts, the United States launched Operation Praying Mantis. The United States deployed a powerful force that included the carrier USS Enterprise, eight cruisers, destroyers and frigates, SEAL commandos, Marine amphibious troops and Cobra attack helicopters.The American task force first destroyed an armed Iranian offshore oil platform. When Iran retaliated with speedboat attacks that damaged Western oil tankers, U.S. A-6 bombers from the Enterprise destroyed or damaged several boats. When the Iranian fast attack boat Joshan launched a Harpoon missile at American warships and missed, U.S. ships sank it with Harpoons and gunfire. The frigate Sahand fired missiles at the A-6s, before being sunk by aircraft and surface ships. The frigate Sabalan was crippled by A-6s dropping laser-guided bombs.Fortunately, Washington and Tehran de-escalated the conflict. But Iran's navy had been pummeled without being able to inflict damage in return. Operation Praying Mantis was certainly a victory—but not Iran's.As for the superiority of Iranian ground forces, that's hard to determine. Iranian troops haven't seen much combat in the last thirty years, except for perhaps advisory operations supporting the Syrian government against rebels. But Iranian land forces did fight an eight-year war against Iraq from 1980 to 1988, after Saddam Hussein invaded and seized Iranian territory. Iran is estimated to have suffered as many as one million dead, due to tactics such as sending human waves of poorly-trained and ill-equipped young soldiers across minefields to storm Iraqi fortifications.Observers likened the Iran-Iraq War to First World War slaughters such as the Somme and Verdun. And Iran didn't even win. In the end, Iran and Iraq had to make peace due to mutual exhaustion.That's hardly a sign of a globally superior military power.Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook.Image: Reuters.(This article originally appeared last month and is being republished due to reader interest.)
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| Handful of nuts twice a week can cut chance of dying from heart disease by almost a fifth, study finds Posted: 31 Aug 2019 12:00 AM PDT  Eating a handful of nuts at least twice a week could cut the risk of dying from heart disease by almost a fifth, research has found. Experts said they were a good source of unsaturated fat, containing polyphenols which help to prevent heart attacks and strokes. More than 5,000 adults, aged 35 and over, with no history of heart disease, were quizzed about their diet in detail, every two years. Over the 12 years that followed, there were 751 cardiovascular events, including 179 deaths. The study found that those who consumed at least two portions of nuts a week had a 17 per cent lower risk of death from heart disease, compared with those who only ate them once a fortnight. Nuts consumed included walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and seeds. Researchers said the findings, presented at the European Society for Cardiology congress in Paris, showed a "robust" link even when other factors, such as exercise levels, were taken into account. They said that nuts appeared to confer particular benefits because of the combination of nutrients they contained, including polyphenols which reduce stress on the heart and phytosterols which lower cholesterol. Guidelines from the society suggest eating 30 grams of unsalted nuts every day. Heart disease is a leading killer in the UK Study author Dr Noushin Mohammadifard, of Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Institute, Iran, said: "Nuts are a good source of unsaturated fat and contain little saturated fat. They also have protein, minerals, vitamins, fibre, phytosterols, and polyphenols which benefit heart health." He said eating raw nuts was best. "Nuts should be fresh because unsaturated fats can become oxidised in stale nuts, making them harmful." Heart disease is Britain's biggest killer, with deaths from heart attacks, strokes and circulatory diseases accounting for 160,000 deaths in the UK every year. More than 7 million people are living with heart and circulatory diseases. The research examined the association between nut consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease and death in the Iranian population. A total of 5,432 adults aged 35 and older with no history of cardiovascular disease were randomly selected. Participants or family members were interviewed every two years until 2013.
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| Millions May Be Left Stateless in India’s Citizenship Crackdown Posted: 30 Aug 2019 11:30 PM PDT ![Millions May Be Left Stateless in India's Citizenship Crackdown]( "Millions May Be Left Stateless in India's Citizenship Crackdown") (Bloomberg) -- About 1.9 million people risk losing their Indian citizenship as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pushes its Hindu nationalist agenda to target so-called "illegal migrants" in the northeastern state of Assam.As authorities updated the list of so-called "genuine citizens" on Saturday, millions who've resided in Assam for decades now fear they'll be unable to vote in elections, access welfare programs or own property. Instead they could be forced to live in detention camps or be deported to neighboring Bangladesh.The state's Bengali-speaking Muslims -- who'll be most affected by the government's actions -- fear "foreigner's tribunals" will be used to strip them of Indian citizenship and change the state's demographics in favor of the Hindu majority. Since a draft of the list was released last year, it has divided families, forced as many as 1,000 people into detention camps and triggered a rash of suicides. There's also reports of people being left off the list due to clerical errors or declared a foreigner and kept in detention over a mistaken identity.Bangladesh has already said it cannot accept a sudden influx of people, while India's government can't permanently house those declared foreigners in camps, said Prabhat Patnaik, an economist and emeritus professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi."The move is just pointless -- it's making people unnecessarily agitated and tense, causing an enormous amount of distress and panic," said Patnaik. "The exercise is basically meant to terrorize Muslims."Now there are concerns the process will be rolled out in other states across India.Identity ProofThose excluded from the National Register of Citizenship will have to prove their identity as citizens of the world's most populous democracy. Many citizens already living below the poverty line have had to mortgage agricultural lands, sell their livestock or their only means of income, such as auto-rickshaws, to meet the expenses of attending the tribunal hearings, the New Delhi-based Rights & Risks Analysis Group said this week.About 31 million people were found eligible in the final citizenship list released on Saturday, according to a statement from home ministry. "Any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of the claims and objections can file appeal before the Foreigners Tribunals," it said. "The entire process of NRC update has been meticulously carried out in an objective and transparent manner."Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was "using communal politics by targeting Muslims and taking political advantage by dividing communities," said Ainuddin Ahmed, working president of the All Assam Minority Students' Union by phone on Friday.The Supreme Court-monitored exercise is aimed at determining who was born in the state of Assam and who might be a migrant from Muslim-majority Bangladesh or other neighboring regions. It counts as Indian citizens those who can prove they were residents of Assam up to midnight on March 24, 1971 -- a day before Bangladesh declared its independence from Pakistan, leading to a war that killed hundreds of thousands.During those violent months, many families fled across the border into India to live in Assam.Five decades later, their fate is again uncertain. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told a local television channel on July 13 the country was already home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees. "We can't take anymore. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country on the planet."'Like Termites'Illegal migration has been a source of ethnic conflict and political unrest in the tea-producing state for decades.The stripping of statehood from minorities is part of the BJP's Hindu nationalist program that propelled Modi into a second term in government in May with an even greater mandate. Amit Shah, the president of the BJP and now home minister told a rally in September his government would remove every "infiltrator" from the voters' list. "The infiltrators have eaten the country like termites."Politicians from Modi's party want to replicate the citizenship register nationwide -- it was a key plank in its election manifesto -- which could lead to a surge in sectarian violence at a time when India's economy is slowing and investor confidence is weak.The government has separately tried to push controversial legislation that seeks to provide citizenship to so-called illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian heritage. Modi's political opponents say it's a move to shelter non-Muslim refugees and further push its Hindu nationalist ideology.Backlash FearsThe developments in Assam have drawn comparisons to other countries who've acted against citizens or long-term migrant populations, such as U.S. President Donald Trump's policy on the so-called "dreamers" brought to America illegally as children and the military attacks that led to more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh in 2017.The move is the second major government policy this month involving Muslims, after Modi scrapped seven decades of autonomy in Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan.Fearing a backlash, the federal government and the BJP-run state government in Assam have assured people that those left off the list won't face detention immediately and can appeal the decision.Human rights bodies have criticized the NRC exercise, with the United Nations warning it could lead to the "wrongful exclusion" of two million names "without a prior investigation and trial."It "must not become a means to target and render stateless the Muslim community in northeastern India," said Anurima Bhargava of the U.S Commission on International Religious Freedom, in a statement on Aug. 27. "Proposed policies that suggest that Muslims – and Muslims alone – will face a higher burden for verification, along with worrisome rhetoric, create a negative and potentially dangerous climate for the Muslim community in northeastern India."(Updates with number of people excluded in the first paragraph.)\--With assistance from Anurag Kotoky and Kartik Goyal.To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Shamim AdamFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Your History Book Is So Wrong: We Don't Really Know When World War I Ended Posted: 30 Aug 2019 11:30 PM PDT  The conflicts that remained unresolved with the 1918 armistice or the 1919 treaty meant that World War I did not end until some time later.At least ostensibly, World War I ended first with the cessation of armed hostilities between the warring powers at the famed "11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month," that is November 11, 1918. The official, or diplomatic, end of World War I came later at the Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919.Conflict Rages on in RussiaHowever, the conflicts that remained unresolved with the 1918 armistice or the 1919 treaty meant that World War I did not end until some time later. The political and ideological upheaval that gripped Russia for at least a decade prior to World War I did not cease when the new Bolshevik government of that nation made a separate peace with Germany, signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, and exiting the war.Germany had facilitated the return of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionary leader, to Russia to foment civil unrest and knock Russia out of World War I. Although the German tactic succeeded, the Russian Revolution began in late 1917, and on the heels of the seizure of power in the country by the Bolsheviks a civil war was underway. The Russian Civil War did not end until 1922.Recommended: Air War: Stealth F-22 Raptor vs. F-14 Tomcat (That Iran Still Flies)Recommended: A New Report Reveals Why There Won't Be Any 'New' F-22 RaptorsRecommended: How an 'Old' F-15 Might Kill Russia's New Stealth FighterThe End of the German Colonial EmpireFurther, following the end of hostilities in 1918, the German colonial empire was dismembered. In the South Pacific, German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Nauru came under Australian mandate, while German Samoa was ceded to New Zealand. Of primary importance, Japan took control of the Marshall, Caroline, Mariana, and Palau island groups, encouraging Japanese imperialistic and territorial ambitions in the region. The Japanese established permanent installations and military fortifications on a number of these islands, which became the scenes of violent combat with American forces during World War II.What the Treaty and Versailles Meant for GermanyAt the same time, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles placed the blame for the coming of World War I squarely on Germany, stripped the country of European territory that was rich in natural resources, and placed severe restrictions on the German military while compelling the weak German government to pay millions of dollars in war reparations. During the 1920s and 1930s, Germany was wracked by civil and political unrest. The Nazi Party and its charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler, seized upon the perceived injustice of the Versailles Treaty to galvanize German nationalistic fervor. With the general support of the German people, Hitler led the nation into World War II, or as some might contend, a continuation of the Great War. In considering this series of events inevitable due to unresolved issues between the nations of the world, it is plausible that World War I did not end until 1945, when Hitler and the Nazis were defeated in Europe and Imperial Japan was subdued in the Pacific."This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years."French Marshal Ferdinand Foch characterized the political environment that prevailed with the Treaty of Versailles by saying, "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years." Foch missed his prediction by only two months. German tanks and troops streamed across the Polish frontier, igniting World War II, on September 1, 1939, roughly nineteen years and ten months after the treaty was signed.Through the lens of history, an extended perspective is indeed provocative. In 1945, Germany was partitioned, and relations between the former Allied nations became fractured and polarized, giving rise to the half-century long Cold War, an era of unprecedented political and ideological rivalry between the United States and Great Britain on one hand and the Soviet Union on the other, that was arguably underway before the guns fell silent during World War II. The rival nations waged proxy wars and exerted tremendous global influence during the period.Finally, one of the primary factors that influenced Imperial Russia's entry into World War I was its long-held desire for a warm water port, free of ice year-round to facilitate trade. In 2014, pro-Russian separatists initiated conflict in the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, territory belonging to the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Subsequently, the Russian government announced its annexation of the Crimea. When did World War I end?This article by Mike Haskew originally appeared on Warfare History Network.Image: Wikimedia Commons
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| North Korea Says Hopes for Talks with U.S. Fade on Pompeo Remark Posted: 30 Aug 2019 11:06 PM PDT ![North Korea Says Hopes for Talks with U.S. Fade on Pompeo Remark]( "North Korea Says Hopes for Talks with U.S. Fade on Pompeo Remark") (Bloomberg) -- North Korea criticized U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo's remark that Pyongyang was guilty of "rogue behavior," saying hopes for talks with Washington are fading and the U.S. should not put its patience to the test any longer.Choe Son Hui, North Korea's vice foreign minister, said Pompeo's remark made planned working-level talks between the two countries more difficult and North Korea is "being pushed to re-examine all the measures" it's taken so far, the official Korean Central News Agency cited Choe as saying in a statement.Pompeo said on Aug. 27 in a speech to the national convention of the American Legion that "we recognized that North Korea's rogue behavior could not be ignored."Choe said in the statement that Pompeo's remark is "just improper language, for which the U.S. administration will surely regret."Separately, North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho won't attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this September, NK News reported on Aug. 29, citing multiple informed sources. Ri's possible trip to New York had led to hopes for a meeting between him and Pompeo, the news agency reported.(Updates with NK News report in last paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Kyungji Cho in Seoul at kcho54@bloomberg.net;Shinhye Kang in Seoul at skang24@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley James, Ken McCallumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| N. Korea hits out at Pompeo, warns hopes for US talks 'disappearing' Posted: 30 Aug 2019 10:24 PM PDT  North Korea Saturday lashed out at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his comments on Pyongyang's "rogue behaviour" and warned its expectations for nuclear talks with Washington are "gradually disappearing". Pyongyang's angry words come as working-level talks with Washington remain gridlocked, despite an agreement in June between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump tokickstart the process. Instead no progress has been made in recent weeks, as the reclusive state launched a series of weapons tests in protest at joint military exercises between the US and South Korea.
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| The drama surrounding Google and Huawei's new phone – explained Posted: 30 Aug 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Mate 30 won't have licensed access to any Google apps, thanks to ongoing dispute between US and the Chinese smartphone makerAttendees visit a Huawei exhibition stand during the Consumer Electronics Expo in Beijing. Huawei's upcoming flagship Mate 30 smartphone will launch next month without key Google apps. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty ImagesHuawei, the number two smartphone maker in the world, will launch its next flagship device without licensed access to the number one smartphone operating system in the world – Google's Android – or any of Google's ubiquitous apps.The 5G-capable Mate 30 will be revealed at a 19 September event in Munich, Germany, CNBC reported on Friday. But the launch by a company that saw its share of the European smartphone market soar by 55.7% in 2018 is approaching under a cloud of uncertainty, thanks to the actions of the US government.Here's what you need to know about the dispute between the US and Huawei. What is Huawei?Huawei is a Chinese telecommunications company, founded in 1987, whose early history included updating China's telephone infrastructure and helping the nation transition away from relying on importing foreign-made technology. It has since expanded internationally and launched its own product lines, including smartphones that are increasingly competitive with Samsung and Apple. Why is it controversial?US intelligence services are suspicious that Huawei has close ties to the Chinese military and fear the company could provide the Chinese government with a backdoor into foreign communications networks. The US has pressured its allies not to use Huawei components in the 5G networks they are building, saying it may discontinue intelligence sharing if they continue to work with the firm. The US also arranged for the arrest of the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of its founder and chairman, in Canada in December 2018, on allegations of bank and wire fraud to violate US sanctions against Iran.In May, the Trump administration escalated its attacks on Huawei with twin moves: an executive order that allows the government to ban technology from "foreign adversaries" if they are determined to pose "unacceptable risks" to national security, and the placement of Huawei on a commerce department "entity list" that bans it from acquiring components or technology from US companies without government approval.The commerce department has since granted Huawei two 90-day reprieves to allow it to maintain existing infrastructure and provide support to existing Huawei devices. The latest temporary agreement is set to expire on 19 November. What does this have to do with Google?As a US-based company, Google is required to comply with the government's decision to blacklist Huawei. Soon after Huawei was placed on the entity list, a number of American chipmakers confirmed that they would stop supplying Huawei with their products, including Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom. The ban also extends to software products and services, such as Google's Android, the operating system used by Huawei's smartphones.An open-source version of Android is available, but the blacklist will bar Huawei from access to licensed versions that include technical support and pre-installation of Google's apps, such as Google Maps and Gmail.While the 90-day temporary licenses granted by the US commerce department have allowed existing Huawei smartphones to keep up to date on Android, the temporary license does not apply to new products, which means the Mate 30 cannot be sold with a licensed version of Android or any of Google's apps installed. So how will the phones operate?It's unclear. Huawei recently launched its own operating system, which it is calling HarmonyOS. But according to CNBC, the company does not plan to use HarmonyOS on the Mate 30, in part because it doesn't want to damage its relationship with Google. A company spokesperson told CNBC that Android is still Huawei's "first choice".If Huawei uses the open source version of Android on the phones, users in some parts of the world could be able to download Google apps themselves, but the apps will not come pre-installed. However, uncertainty remains.
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| Brexit Showdown Looms for Pound as Divided Parliament Returns Posted: 30 Aug 2019 10:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. Pound traders are braced for action as lawmakers return from holidays to battle Prime Minister Boris Johnson's move to suspend Parliament.Sterling may recover some ground if efforts to fight Johnson's Brexit strategy have any success, strategists say. Traders will be watching court challenges from Tuesday, when lawmakers will reconvene in the House of Commons to combat a no-deal Brexit before the month-long suspension kicks in."This is a make or break week for the opposition parties here," said Peter Chatwell, a strategist at Mizuho International Plc. "Parliamentary arithmetic, and the speaker, should allow them to make progress and I expect there to be a small rally in the pound."The U.K. currency hit the lowest since January 2017 earlier this month, and has seen some big swings since then as the new prime minister makes his mark. A measure of sterling volatility over the next three months, covering the Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union, has surged to the highest this year.Lawmakers hope to block no-deal by forcing Johnson to ask the EU for an extension in the event an accord has not been agreed by end-October. Chatwell warns it is "highly unlikely to be plain sailing." The last time Parliament attempted to find alternative solutions in March, none of the Brexit options got a majority and the deadlock continued.The pound has stabilized at around $1.22 after slumping on news of the Parliament's suspension from Sept. 12 to Oct. 14. A frantic series of court proceedings in Edinburgh, London and Belfast will try to overturn that, while more event risk comes in the form of testimony from Bank of England policy makers plus services data that will show the latest impact of Brexit on the U.K. economy.While trading continues to be "held hostage by politics," a lot of the options from here are positive for the pound, according to Jordan Rochester, an analyst at Nomura International Plc. He is recommending going short on euro-sterling, with either a court ruling against Johnson or a successful bid by MPs to prevent no deal set to boost sterling.Jeremy Stretch, head of G-10 currency strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, also thinks market sentiment will improve."While the time is short, I would expect something to pass through the House, prior to the start of the prorogation period," said Stretch. "That should encourage markets to pare back hard-exit expectations, boosting sterling in the process."To contact the reporters on this story: Charlotte Ryan in London at cryan147@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ven Ram at vram1@bloomberg.net, Neil Chatterjee, William ShawFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| These 5 Russian Military Aircraft Keep Europe Awake At Night Posted: 30 Aug 2019 10:00 PM PDT  The Su-27 can carry a range of air-to-air weapons including the R-27R1, a versatile medium-range missile with semi-active radar homing warheads. The Flanker airframe has also been repeatedly refitted to take on new roles.When it comes to air power, it's no secret that the United States and the West have often held an edge over Russia.This dates at least as far back to World War II, when the United States and Britain were allied with Russia. While Russia supplied much of the manpower that ultimately defeated Nazi Germany, it was the United States and UK that took the lead in the strategic bombing campaigns against Germany. These trends largely continued during the Cold War, when the Warsaw Pact was numerically superior to NATO but the latter held the technological advantage, including in terms of aircraft. And even today, Russia's Air Force doesn't yet boast anything comparable to the latest American fifth-generation fighter jets like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).(This first appeared years ago.)The fact that Russia hasn't reached parity with the most advanced air force in the world should not detract from the fact that Moscow has produced some formidable aircraft over the years. Moreover, Moscow has proved willing to sell its aircraft to nations both large and small that the United States and Europe have shunned. And since many countries around the world don't have a need for the most advanced technologies that Western planes boast, Russian aircraft often is an attractive, cheaper alternative to purchasing planes from the United States or European powers.(Recommended: Can China Rise Peacefully?)As a result, many air forces around the world are built around Soviet and Russian-made planes, or derivatives from them. And, with Russia undertaking a massive military modernization program in the coming years, this is likely to be true to a large extent for decades to come (albeit, Russia is likely to face greater competition from emerging defense exporters like China). As such, any serious observer of air power around the world must have an appreciation of Russia's top military planes. Here are five of the most dangerous ones:Sukhoi Su-27Sukhoi's Su-27 (NATO reporting name "Flanker") was the Soviet's answer effort to then-new American aircraft like the F-15 and F-16. The plane conducted its maiden flight in the late 1970s and was introduced into service in the Soviet Air Force in 1985.(Recommended: Russia and America - Destined for War?) The Su-27 is primarily intended for air superiority missions and boasts a combat radius of 750 km. While outmatched by its NATO competitors in this area, the Flanker jumps ahead of the F-16 and F/A-18 in terms of speed, hitting 2,525 km/hour (compared to the F-16's 2,200 km/hour and the F/A-18's 1,900 km/hour).The Su-27 can carry a range of air-to-air weapons including the R-27R1, a versatile medium-range missile with semi-active radar homing warheads. The Flanker airframe has also been repeatedly refitted to take on new roles. For example, the Su-34 "Fullback" variant fills the fighter-bomber niche, boasting an array of air-to-ground and anti-ship weapons. A navalized Flanker variant also exists, the Su-33 "Flanker-D," which is used aboard Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov carrier.(Recommended: America's Worst President Ever)A host of air forces around the world fly the Su-27 or their derivatives. Both India and China have purchased the Su-27 as well as secured licenses to produce the fighter indigenously. In India, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. produces the Su-27 while China's Shenyang Aircraft Corporation assembles the aircraft under license as the J-11. Indonesia and Vietnam also fly the Su-27 in Asia. The Soviet Union's collapse left the air forces of several ex-Soviet republics with Su-27s of their own, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Ukraine's Air Force also flies the Su-27 and in fact has deployed the fighter in the ongoing War in the Donbass, albeit in a limited capacity.MiG-29Small, short-range, and widely produced, Mikoyan's MiG-29 (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum") might accurately be described as the TIE Fighter of the former U.S.S.R. Entering service for the Soviet Union in 1983, the MiG-29, much like the Su-27, was designed to compete with the F-15 and F-16.While the MiG-29 is smaller than the Su-27, and cannot compete with it in terms of range, speed, and quality, it compensates in one critical area: maneuverability. In fact, post-Cold War tests carried out by the German Luftwaffe revealed that the Mikoyan jet was more agile than the F-16.The MiG-29 is also a multirole fighter and can be equipped with air-to-air missiles like the AA-8, designed for use at close range, and air-to-ground weaponry like the AS-12 missile. The Fulcrum proved to be a highly dynamic platform, and since 1983, has been adapted for a wide array of more specialized roles.The MiG-29 is still in service with the Russian military as well as with several other ex-Soviet states. The aircraft was widely exported during the Cold War and its aftermath, meaning the Fulcrum has seen combat in a range of theaters. For example, Yugoslavia used the Mig-29 in the Balkan Wars of the 1990s., and the plane is seeing limited use in the ongoing War in the Donbass. The Syrian government still employs the MiG-29, and Russia intends to deliver a new batch of planes to its embattled Middle Eastern ally in 2016.-2017 Cuba, Iran, and North Korea are also among the MiG-29's numerous users. The MiG-29 even served in NATO air forces after the Western alliance expanded to encompass former Warsaw Pact members.Sukhoi Su-35While technically a variant of the Su-27, the Sukhoi Su-35's impressive modernizations easily merit this multirole fighter plane its own spotlight. The Su-35 was built to meet the challenges of the post-Cold War era. It still undergoing testing but is expected to enter into operational service later this year.Demonstrating its role as a bridge between fourth and fifth-generation fighters—Sukhoi calls its a 4++ generation plane—the Su-35 employs engines comparable to those designed for the PAK FA (see below). The Su-35 can achieve a top speed of 2,390 km/hour, slightly slower than the original Su-27. However, the Super Flanker's vastly improved combat radius of 1,600 km or greater compensates for this considerably.Armament systems also received an upgrade. For starters, the Su-35 has 12 weapon stations and 8,000 kg. It is also a versatile platform, deploying air-to-air missiles like the ramjet-powered K-77ME and air-to-ground weapons like the Kh-59 missile. Justifying its 4++ generation designation, he Su-35 employs radar absorbent materials (RAM) in its structure, giving the plane some stealth qualities.The Russian Air Force is currently the Super Flanker's only user, and— as mentioned above— it hasn't actually entered into active service yet. Nonetheless, other governments are already actively considering purchasing the plane once it is available for sale abroad. Most notably, while China is developing new models of the J-11 (Beijing's domestically manufactured Su-27), the country is also advancing plans to purchase its own fleet of Su-35s.Sukhoi T-50/PAK FAThe MiG-29, Sukhoi Su-27, and their derivatives are at least intended to match the capabilities of American and European fourth generation fighter models like the F-15, F-16, Dassault Rafale, & Eurofighter Typhoon. Sukhoi's PAK FA multirole stealth fighter flies in a league of its own as Russia's only direct answer to U.S. fifth generation designs like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.With a maximum speed of 2,600 km/hour, the PAK FA leaves its Cold War cousins in the dust, and its range is also reported to exceed its predecessors. Some U.S. defense officials even speculate that the new Sukhoi fighter is more agile than the American-built F-35 (albeit, the F-35 wasn't built for this purpose).As a multirole fighter, the PAK FA will be fitted with both air-to-air and air-to-ground systems, including R77 air-to-air missiles and two 1,500 kg anti-ship bombs. The age of dogfights may be long over, but the PAK FA will carry two 30mm Gsh-30-1 cannons capable of firing up to 1,800 rounds per minute—just in case.The PAK FA has hit some bumps in the road in producing and testing the PAK FA, but the Russian Air Force is expected to receive the jets by the end of the year for further testing. At least for the foreseeable future, the Russian Air Force is likely to be the only user of the jet. Russia has also reduced the number of aircraft it plans to purchase, but is still aiming to have around 55 PAK FAs by 2020.Tupolev Tu-160Russia's fighter fleet provides an array of dynamic platforms that can be refitted and updated to conduct an array of missions. Nevertheless, a fighter platform can only be stretched so far, and the Soviet Union, like the United States, designed strategic bombers to carry out long-range campaigns with a heavy weapons supply.For exactly this purpose, the Russian Federation recently announced it will resume production of the Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers (NATO reporting name "Blackjack").The Tu-160 is incredibly fast for a strategic bomber, achieving a maximum speed of 2,220 km/hour. This far outpaces the American strategic bombers like the B1-B Lancer (1,448 km/hour) and the B-52 (1,000 km/hour). The Blackjack boasts an impressive 7,300 km combat radius and made its first transatlantic flight from Murmansk to Venezuela in 2008. The Tu-160 is equipped to carry nuclear and conventional weapons. The turbofan-propelled Kh-55MS missile can be launched from the Tu-160 carrying a 200 kt nuclear warhead with an incredible range of 3,000 km.As of 2015, Russia is the only country to fly Tupolev's Blackjack. Russia is expected to build fifty additional Tu-160s under the new plans. The newly built strategic bombers will be upgraded models, dubbed the Tu-160M2. Production is expected to commence after 2023. Moscow intends to simultaneously initiate production of the PAK DA stealth bomber, also a Tupolev design.Evan Gottesman is a former editorial assistant at The National Interest.Image: Reuters.(This article first appeared several years ago and is being republished due to reader interest.)
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| AP Interview: Guatemala graft body's chief happy despite end Posted: 30 Aug 2019 09:05 PM PDT  Although he did not head the anti-corruption mission in Guatemala starting with its creation in 2007, Iván Velásquez became known internationally about a half decade ago due to the high-impact cases he was able to uncover during his leadership. The Colombian lawyer took over the U.N.-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala in 2013, though he has been forced to live outside the Central American nation due to tensions with President Jimmy Morales since 2018. For Velásquez the pressure put on Guatemala's government was what led Morales to end the mandate of the commission, whose last day of operation is Tuesday.
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| China tells Philippines it won't recognize ruling on sea row Posted: 30 Aug 2019 06:41 PM PDT  Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Philippine counterpart that Beijing will not recognize an international arbitration ruling that has invalidated most of China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, the Philippine leader's spokesman said. The row over the disputed waters — a major global shipping route thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves — has for years marred China's relationship with the Philippines and other neighboring countries with rival territorial claims. Beijing has transformed a string of disputed reefs into missile-protected island bases.
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| Half of Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter Fleet Went Airborne—What Happened? Posted: 30 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Rather, the unprecedented decision to utilize six of Russia's most advanced fifth-generation fighters—approximately half of the currently available roster—in a VIP escort mission is the latest step in Russia's ongoing Su-57 branding campaign. Several weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin's IL-96-300PU presidential plane was flanked by no less than six Su-57 stealth fighter jets while en route to the 929th Chkalov State Flight-Test Center in southwestern Russia.(This first appeared in May 2019)Video footage of the flight shows the Su-57 fighters grouped in what better resembles a parade column than an escort formation, suggesting a soft-power intent behind Putin's trip. There are several factors at play. First and perhaps least significant, this footage of six functional Su-57's heads off any and all speculation that the 2019 Victory Day Parade airshow was called off for any reason other than the Defense Ministry's cited weather concerns.Other coverage has focused on the political connotations, noting that the Chkalov Center trip took place shortly before Putin's Sochi meeting with Pompeo. While partially convincing, this line of reasoning cannot explain the timing. If Putin wanted to stage a diplomatic show of force, why now and not during his prior meetings with President Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton? After all, Russia's strategic approach vis-a-vis the US has remained largely consistent over the past several years.Rather, the unprecedented decision to utilize six of Russia's most advanced fifth-generation fighters—approximately half of the currently available roster—in a VIP escort mission is the latest step in Russia's ongoing Su-57 branding campaign. Unsurprisingly, Putin has repeatedly showered the Su-57 with adulation over the past several years; it was only several months ago that he referred to it as the best fighter in the world. But as high-stakes Su-57 export talks with Turkey, India, and China continue to unfold, Putin is adopting what appears to be an increasingly proactive role in advertising the Su-57 to prospective buyers.Upon his arrival at the flight test center, Putin discussed the merits of the Su-57 with several of its test pilots; one called it a "great leap into the future," while others suggested that certain technical details are still being worked out. "We need it [the Su-57] to be the best in the world," Putin told the pilots, while encouraging them to provide Su-57 engineers with all the relevant feedback that they can. "We are very much counting on you, on your professionalism."As underscored by this interaction, certain technical aspects of the Su-57 are still being worked out. Perhaps the most crucial among them are the fighter's ongoing engine troubles. The Su-57 was designed with the powerful Izdeliye 30 engine, allowing for 28,000lbs of dry thrust and 42,000lbs of afterburning. But Izdeliye 30 was delayed due to engineering setbacks, and pre-production models were equipped with the weaker Al-41F1 engine as a temporary stopgap measure. It remains to be seen if the upcoming serial production models—including one to be delivered later this year—will ship with the new engine.On the one hand, Putin's heightened personal involvement signals just how heavily invested the Kremlin has become in the Su-57's commercial success. But on the other, Putin's willingness to tie his personal reputation to Russia's fifth-generation flagship fighter may speak to his growing confidence in its long-term viability.Mark Episkopos is a frequent contributor to The National Interest and serves as research assistant at the Center for the National Interest. Mark is also a PhD student in History at American University.Image: Reuters.(This first appeared in May 2019 and is being republished due to reader interest.)
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| History Forgot About the Dogfights Over Pearl Harbor Posted: 30 Aug 2019 02:04 PM PDT  Incongruously, scant attention has been paid to the drama of swirling air-to-air combat over Oahu on December 7.The night before, Lt. Col. Clay Hoppaugh, signal officer for the Hawaiian Air Force, had contacted Welby Edwards, manager of KGMB, and asked that the station remain on all night so a flight of Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers flying from California could home in on the station's signal. Actually, it was a less than well-kept secret that whenever the station played music all night, aircraft flew in from the mainland the next morning.Being nondirectional, however, that same music also drifted into the radio receivers in the operations rooms of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's six Japanese aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku, located roughly 300 miles north of Oahu. Nagumo's task force monitored the station throughout the night for any hint of a military alert on Oahu, and at approximately 7 am on Sunday Lt. Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida, leading his formation toward Oahu, also tuned in KGMB to guide his 183 aircraft to their destination. While Fuchida homed in on KGMB's signal, 18 U.S. Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers took off from the aircraft carrier Enterprise 200 miles west of Oahu and tuned in radio station KGU to get some homing practice of their own. Shortly after 8 am, the three converging formations, each tracking inbound on the same innocent radio beams, collided in brutal and deadly aerial combat that would plunge the United States into World War II. The date was December 7, 1941.Recommended: China's H-6K: The 'Old' Bomber That Could 'Sink' the U.S. NavyRecommended: Why an F-22 Raptor Would Crush an F-35 in a 'Dogfight'Recommended: Air War: Stealth F-22 Raptor vs. F-14 Tomcat (That Iran Still Flies)The story of the Japanese surprise attack on Perl Harbor is, of course, much broader and more nuanced than just the events surrounding the devastating strike against the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. In the over 70 years since the attack, there has been no shortage of books and articles detailing events on the "Day of Infamy," yet most accounts focus almost exclusively on what happened to the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor.Incongruously, scant attention has been paid to the drama of swirling air-to-air combat over Oahu on December 7. For the most part, the aerial battles and dogfights are relegated to footnotes or to a few obscure paragraphs scattered among dozens of sources. Yet the clashes in the air are as compelling, electrifying, and powerful as any actions at Pearl Harbor. Although new sources, American and Japanese, have clarified and in some cases altered the facts about a few iconic episodes, the handful of airmen who fought, and in some cases died, that Sunday morning were truly American heroes who willingly flew to the sound of battle and carried the fight to a determined enemy. Their fight adds a vital missing dimension to the long-established Pearl Harbor story."Tora! Tora! Tora!"The aerial saga began at approximately 6:15 am on December 7, as Commander Minoru Genda, principal planner of the Pearl Harbor attack, watched anxiously aboard the carrier Akagi as his close friend and Eta Jima Naval Academy classmate Mitsuo Fuchida led the first wave of aircraft into the gray dawn. Both men were seasoned carrier pilots and combat veterans from China. Genda had also served a tour in London in 1940 as assistant naval attaché. He had been extremely impressed by the British carrier-based torpedo plane attack that sank or damaged several ships of the Italian Navy's Mediterranean fleet at the harbor of Taranto, so he felt confident that Fuchida would accomplish a similar feat at Pearl Harbor.Confidence also permeated the thoughts of the strike commander. As he flew south in his Nakajima B5N2 Kate bomber, a flamboyant Fuchida wore red underwear and a red shirt, reasoning that blood would not show if he were wounded and therefore would not demoralize the other fliers. So it was in that frame of mind as he approached Oahu's North Shore that Fuchida observed a tranquil, peaceful panorama before him; his first wave had achieved complete surprise. He gave the attack order at 7:40 am, unleashing 43 Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters, 49 high-level Kate bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 Val dive bombers, and 40 Kate torpedo bombers into battle. Then, at 7:53 he sent his infamous message confirming total strategic and tactical surprise: "Tora! Tora! Tora!"The first-wave fighters wasted no time. Ironically, the opening aerial combat of the Pearl Harbor attack involved a civilian aircraft. One minute after Fuchida's "Tora!" message, several Zeros from the carrier Akagi stumbled across a Piper Cub flown by solo student Marcus F. Poston. Unable to resist the temptation, the Zeros opened fire with their two 20mm cannon and two 7.7mm machine guns, ripping the Cub's engine from its mount. The startled but lucky student pilot leaped unhurt from his plane for his first and only parachute jump. Zero pilots Takeshi Hirano and Shinaji Iwama shared the kill.Running Into a WarGenda's brilliant and bold plan, executed to perfection by Fuchida's first wave, unfolded without a hitch. Between 7:55 and 8:10 a host of Val dive bombers escorted by Zeros laid waste to the two major military air bases on Oahu. Attacking from different quadrants, 25 Vals dropping 550-pound bombs turned Wheeler Field into a raging inferno. The Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk fighters on the tarmac of the 14th Pursuit Wing offered a particularly inviting target. By order of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of the Hawaiian Department, all aircraft at Wheeler and Hickam Fields were parked wingtip to wingtip in precise rows, ostensibly to facilitate guarding against sabotage.Rampaging Vals and strafing Zeros found easy pickings. They destroyed 58 fighters on the ground and damaged another 37. At Hickam only 19 of 58 bombers from the 18th Bombardment Wing survived the attack. Simultaneously, huge columns of black smoke boiled above Pearl Harbor where Type 91 Model 2 Japanese torpedoes had already smashed into the battleships Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arizona, and California.Into this maelstrom of devastation and confusion stumbled the 12 B-17s of the 38th and 88th Reconnaissance Squadrons, led by Major Truman H. Landon. Contrary to a widespread contemporaneous view, they did not make the 13-hour trip in formation; each of the four B-17Cs and eight B-17Es flew and navigated separately, their flights beginning at Hamilton Field, California, about 25 miles north of San Francisco.Emphasizing the importance of the mission to the Philippines by way of Honolulu, no less a personage than Chief of the Army Air Forces General Henry "Hap" Arnold was there to see them off. Interrupting a quail hunting trip to address the crews, he warned them, "War is imminent. You may run into a war during your flight." Armed with that admonition but nothing else, the big bombers began taking off at 10:30 pm. The prevalent feeling was that a war would not erupt until after they reached the Philippines. Therefore, none of the ships carried armor or ammunition; they were stripped down and packed to the brim with every gallon of fuel they could carry for the long hop from California to Hawaii. The B-17 Flying Fortresses did in fact carry their potent arsenal of .50-caliber machine guns, but they were boxed, stowed away, and packed in Cosmoline.As Major Landon's B-17E approached Oahu from the north at approximately 8 am, he observed a group of planes flying toward him. His first thought was, "Here comes the Air Force out to greet us." Seconds later the unidentified aircraft dived on Landon, cannon and machine guns blazing. Over the intercom the crew heard someone say, "Damn it, those are Japs!"Landing Under FireTo evade the attackers, Landon skillfully flew into a nearby cloud bank, then took up a heading for land. As Landon maneuvered his bomber on the short final run to the Hickham runway, the tower operator advised, "You have three Japs on your tail!" In spite of the hail of fire coming his way, somehow Major Landon managed to get his bird down in one piece. Following right behind Landon, another B-17E appeared through the heavy smoke and touched down. Not believing his eyes, the pilot, Lieutenant Karl T. Barthelmess, thought it was the most realistic drill he had ever seen.Captain Raymond T. Swenson and crew were not so lucky. After one aborted approach, the pilot positioned his B-17C for a second attempt at Hickam's runway. At that point a Zero piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Shigeru Itaya riddled the aircraft at point-blank range, sending several bullets into the radio compartment and igniting a bundle of magnesium flares. The Flying Fortress was engulfed in flames when it touched down, and halfway through the landing roll the incinerated fuselage broke in half just behind the wing root. The crew jumped from the burning wreck and ran across the field for cover. All made it except one. The squadron flight surgeon, Lieutenant William R. Schick, was gunned down by a strafing Zero. He died the following day at Tripler Army Hospital.After repeated Japanese fighter attacks, 1st Lt. Robert H. Richards gave up trying to land in the shambles at Hickam and headed east. Dangerously low on fuel with three wounded crewmen aboard and heavy damage to the ailerons of his B-17C, Richards guided his aircraft in for a downwind landing on the short runway at Bellows Field, a fighter strip on Oahu's southeast coast. Richards flared out and touched down at approximately midfield on the short strip. Realizing he would not be able to stop, he retracted the wheels and slid off the runway over a ditch and into a sugarcane field bordering Bellows. Maintenance crews counted 73 bullet holes in the plane.First Lieutenant Frank P. Bostrom also discovered that Hickam, under heavy dive bombing and strafing attacks, was a less than inviting choice for landing. After his B-17E was harassed by nine Zeros, he headed west for Barbers Point, only to be driven off by more Japanese fighters. Desperate to land anywhere and sincerely believing that necessity really was the mother of invention, Bostrom finally set his damaged B-17 down on a fairway at the North Shore's Kahuku Golf Course. In addition to one Flying Fortress on the golf course and one at Bellows Field, two other B-17s slipped into Haleiwa's small fighter strip. The remaining eight staggered into Hickam, although one Flying Fortress apparently landed at Wheeler before relocating to Hickam. All were on the ground by 8:20 am. To a man, each crewmember vividly recalled General Arnold's prophetic warning: they had indeed run into a war.SBDs Take on the ZerosWhile Major Landon and his B-17s were mixing it up with Japanese aircraft over Hickam Field, 18 U.S. Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers in nine flights of two aircraft each approached Oahu's west coast. The aircraft from Scouting and Bombing Squadrons Six had launched from the carrier Enterprise at 6:18 that morning en route to Ewa and Ford Island. Their mission was to scout ahead of the Enterprise on a 90-degree sector search from 045 degrees to 135 degrees for 150 miles, then practice navigation by homing in on radio station KGU's signal. Between 8:15 and 8:30 am, they flew directly into the gunsights of marauding Zeros from the carrier Soryu. An ominous radio transmission from one of the SBDs set the tone. Over their radios most of the squadron members of Scouting Six and Bombing Six heard the voice of Ensign Manuel Gonzales shout, "Do not attack me. This is Six Baker Three, an American plane!" Gonzales and his radioman/gunner, Leonard J. Kozelek, were never seen again.Although the SBD Dauntless was no dogfighter, it did have some teeth. It sported two .50-caliber machine guns in its nose cowling and a .30-caliber machine gun manned by the radioman/gunner in the rear cockpit. Ensign John H.L. Vogt armed his guns and unhesitatingly flew his SBD-2 into a group of first-wave aircraft forming up for the return flight to their carrier. Marines on the ground at Ewa watched in amazement as Vogt tangled with a Zero in a twisting, turning fight from 4,000 feet down to just 25 feet above the ground. Marine Lt. Col. Claude Larkin, commander at Ewa, witnessed the battle. According to Larkin, during one of the abrupt turns the Dauntless and the Zero collided. Vogt and his radioman/gunner, Sidney Pierce, managed to bail out, but they were too low. Both perished when their parachutes failed to fully deploy. Subsequent investigations of Japanese combat records revealed that there was a near miss but no collision; only three first-wave Zeros were lost and none in the vicinity of Ewa. Vogt's SBD-2 apparently went down under the guns of a Soryu Zero piloted by Shinichi Suzuki.At that point another Enterprise flight of SBDs was approaching Barbers Point from the south. Lieutenant Clarence E. Dickinson and his wingman, Ensign John R. McCarthy, were cruising at 4,000 feet when McCarthy spotted two Zeros. He slid under Dickinson so his gunner could get a better shot at the approaching fighters, but that move placed his aircraft in the direct line of fire. McCarthy's SBD-2 instantly began smoking and crashed, killing his radioman/gunner, Mitchell Cohn. McCarthy managed to bail out, suffering a broken leg when he landed.Now without a wingman, Dickinson was attacked by four enemy planes. He managed to get in two short bursts from his guns when a Zero overshot, and his backseater, William C. Miller, damaged one of the Zeros while the others hammered his plane from the rear. Miller apparently died or was incapacitated in the deadly exchange. With his left fuel tank on fire and his controls shot away, Dickinson attempted a hard turn to the right away from his attackers, but the SBD-3 went into a spin. He "hit the silk" at approximately 1,000 feet. Fortunately, he landed unhurt on a dirt embankment just east of Ewa. From there the resourceful naval aviator, dragging his parachute, walked to the main road and hitched a ride with Mr. and Mrs. Otto Hein, who happened to be driving by in their blue sedan. They had no idea that a battle was raging above them. The middle-aged couple turned around and drove Lieutenant Dickinson to Pearl Harbor.Two more SBDs went down during the first wave. Over Barbers Point, Zeros pounced on Ensign Walter M. Willis and his gunner, Fred J. Ducolon. No trace of either man has ever been found. The final victim was Ensign Edward T. Deacon, shot down by friendly ground fire from Army troops stationed at Fort Weaver near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. Deacon ditched in shallow water several hundred yards from the beach. He and his radioman/gunner were rescued.The Pineapple Air ForceThe Japanese attack had caught the Hawaiian Air Force, affectionately known as the Pineapple Air Force, completely by surprise. General Short had received a war warning message on November 27 from Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall advising, "Hostile action possible at any moment…" and further directing Short "to undertake such reconnaissance and other measures as you deem necessary." At that point all Hawaiian Army units went on full alert and languished there for a week. By the morning of December 6, General Short elected to stand down and give his men the weekend off.Marshall's war warning proved prophetic. When the attack materialized 10 days later and caught the chain of command napping, a handful of individual Army Air Force pilots got airborne on their own initiative and engaged the enemy, but there was no coordinated defense. The few serviceable aircraft were launched piecemeal as pilots arrived to fly them.Just before 8 am, when the first Japanese bombs exploded among the parked aircraft at Wheeler Field and shattered the Sunday morning calm, two second lieutenants, "brown bars" only a few months out of flight school, sprang into action. Kenneth M. Taylor from Hominy, Oklahoma, and George S. Welch from Wilmington, Delaware, were still a little groggy from a round of Saturday night partying. Sporting tuxedos and white dinner jackets, the lieutenants had begun the evening at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel before moving on to a dance at the Hickam Officers' Club. From there they adjourned to the Wheeler Officers' Club for a late-night poker game before turning in around 3 am.At the sound of the first bombs, Taylor staggered out of bed and hastily dressed in the nearest apparel, tux trousers and formal shirt. Immediately he ran into the street and met Welch, who shouted, "What the hell is going on? Those son-of-a-bitches are bombing the hell out of us!"Both young lieutenants realized that a war had started, but they were not exactly sure with whom. Dumbfounded by the catastrophe unfolding before his eyes, Taylor eventually had the presence of mind to call Haleiwa, the auxiliary field on the North Shore where his squadron's P-40B fighters had been bedded down, and direct them to get the planes ready for immediate launch. With that, both men jumped into Taylor's red Buick and raced to Haleiwa about 10 miles away. The field had been fortuitously overlooked in Genda's attack plan.America's First Aerial VictoryOn arrival the Army pilots hurriedly strapped into their P-40s and took off. Right behind them, 2nd Lt. John Dains arrived in another car and took off in the next available P-40. Although many historians and newspapers credit Taylor and Welch with America's first aerial victory of World War II, there is a strong possibility that Dains may own that honor. Early in the second wave, radar operators at Ka'a'awa on the windward coast watched as Dains engaged in a vicious dogfight with a Val piloted by Satoru Kawasaki and shot his opponent down. Unfortunately, as Dains returned to Wheeler from his second sortie, this time flying a P-36 fighter, trigger-happy gunners at Schofield Barracks opened fire and killed him.When Taylor and Welch took off from Haleiwa, for unknown reasons only the four wing-mounted .30-caliber machine guns in each plane were loaded. The plane's two .50-caliber machine guns were not. Although estimates vary widely, the two lieutenants probably got airborne around 8:55 with instructions to patrol over Barbers Point. Finding nothing there, Welch, nicknamed "Wheaties," spotted about a dozen aircraft circling over the Marine airfield at Ewa.Using Taylor's nickname, Welch shouted, "Hey Grits, I see Jap bombers down there just like sitting ducks." With that, both pilots put their P-40s into screaming dives and closed on the circling Val dive bombers. The novice fighter pilots simply dropped into line behind the wagon wheel formation, picked individual targets, and began firing. Welch lined up a Val in his sights. With only three of his four guns firing, he sent a long burst into his opponent and watched as the smoking Val tumbled out of control and fell to earth.In an interview shortly after the fight, Welch described the action over Ewa: "Their rear gunner was apparently shooting at the ground—because they didn't see us coming. I got him in a five-second burst—he burned up right away." Welch was credited with the victory, but years later further investigation indicates that in the chaotic combat Hiroyasu Kawabata's Val recovered on the deck and was able to limp back to the Hiryu.Taylor brought down the first plane he engaged. He noted, "It was a short burst but the guy immediately exploded into flames and rolled over. All I could see were those two fixed landing gear sticking up. He crashed very close to Ewa."Confusion in the Fog of WarAfter watching the first Val plummet toward the ground, Welch went vertical by executing a loop and lined up another D3A in his sights. Welch explained, "I left him and got the next plane in a circle which was about one hundred yards ahead of him. It took about three bursts of five seconds each to get him. He crashed on the beach."While Welch's .30-caliber machine guns ripped Hajime Goto's Val apart, the rear seat gunner returned fire, forcing Welch to break off. At that point Japanese sources claim that Taylor opened fire on the same Val, wounding the gunner and scoring more hits on the enemy plane.In the confusion and unaware of Welch's duel with Goto, Taylor's account of the action stated, "With my first burst I killed his rear gunner, and then began to pour it into the Jap. Black smoke began to stream out of him and he started to lose altitude fast. I didn't want to get too far out to sea, so I headed for Wheeler Field, and I didn't see this fellow crash."Army officials saw it differently. In view of the fact that Welch's deadly fire had raked Goto's Val and that he observed the aircraft crash, they assigned credit for the victory to Welch.The duo of Taylor and Welch latched onto other Vals and saw them smoke but never witnessed the crashes. Low on ammunition, Grits and Wheaties broke off the engagement and individually set course for Wheeler.Over the years the exact time and details of the Taylor and Welch combat over Ewa have been repeatedly analyzed and in some cases questioned. Clearly the proverbial "fog of war" and lax record keeping contribute to the confusion, but the two pilots inadvertently fed the fires of controversy themselves. In testimony on December 26, 1941, before the Roberts Commission investigating the Pearl Harbor attack, Taylor related somewhat confusing details about what happened on December 7.Taylor testified that after getting airborne from Haleiwa, "Lieutenant Welch and myself started patrolling the Island. There wasn't any .50-caliber ammunition, so we landed at the field [Wheeler]."Taylor never mentioned the battle over Ewa. Moreover, both pilots' descriptions of combat to the Roberts Commission focused on their second sortie, leaving the impression that all the action had occurred after the wild launch out of Wheeler. Any inconsistencies were officially put to rest when the citations awarding Taylor and Welch the Distinguished Service Cross included the Haleiwa to Ewa combat sequences.Rearming For a Second SortieAfter landing at Wheeler, Taylor and Welch quickly climbed back into their rearmed P-40s for a second mission. They got airborne just as a Japanese second-wave formation bored in on the field, and according to eyewitnesses Taylor began firing his guns while still on takeoff roll. Once in the air, Taylor immediately began pouring machine-gun fire head-on into a Val, only to be jumped from behind by a second Val piloted by Saburo Makino. One of Makino's bullets shattered Taylor's canopy and went through his left arm, hit the metal trim tab, and then sent a dozen pieces of shrapnel into his legs.Taylor broke into a high G turn in an effort to lose his foe, and then Welch came to the rescue. To keep from overshooting Makino's Val, Welch resourcefully lowered his flaps and began pummeling his opponent with .50-caliber machine-gun fire. Mrs. Paul Young, standing in the door of her house in Wahiawa, watched as Welch blasted the Val. Makino's D3A pitched down, shearing off the top of the eucalyptus tree in her backyard before it crashed into a nearby pineapple field. This was Welch's third confirmed kill of the day; a few minutes later he downed a Zero off Barbers Point.With his 6 o'clock clear, Taylor engaged a Val flown by Iwao Oka. In spite of a blistering volley from the rear-seat gunner and wounds to his arm and legs, Taylor attacked Oka's aircraft mercilessly, sending the Val crashing into the ground near the entrance to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp.Attack on Kaneohe Naval Air StationAt Haleiwa Lieutenants Harry W. Brown and Robert J. Rogers of the 47th Pursuit Squadron each took off in obsolete P-36s, an earlier version of the P-40 fitted with a radial engine. They headed for Kaena Point, the westernmost tip of Oahu, where Rogers encountered a mixed flight of Japanese aircraft. When two enemy planes singled Rogers out, Brown, from Amarillo, Texas, dived into the fight, shooting down one of the attackers. Rogers poured a long stream of tracers into the other aircraft, which smoked and fell away, but he did not see it crash. Brown then joined up with Lieutenant Malcolm A. Moore's P-36 and engaged two departing Zeros. Neither enemy fighter was seen to crash, but neither made it back to its carrier.On the opposite side of the island, the battle turned tragic for the P-40 pilots of the 44th Pursuit Squadron. A flight of nine Zeros led by Lieutenant Fusata Iida had just wreaked havoc on Kaneohe Naval Air Station before moving south to Bellows. Several of the Marine ground crews at Kaneohe extracted a measure of revenge when they poured multiple Browning automatic rifle magazines into Iida's fuel tank. Realizing he could never make it back to his carrier, Iida elected to dive his Zero into the Kaneohe base armory. Instead, his plunging aircraft struck a glancing blow on a street and then skidded into an earthen embankment. Later, Iida's mangled remains were removed from the wrecked aircraft and placed into a garbage can—not out of disrespect but because that was the only thing available. Iida's body, along with the bodies of 16 Americans, was left outside the sickbay entrance.Then, at 9 am, as three young pilots sprinted for any undamaged parked aircraft on the Bellows tarmac, the remaining Zeros from Iida's group strafed the ramp, killing 2nd Lt. Hans Christenson as he climbed into his P-40B. Two other lieutenants from the 44th Pursuit Squadron, George A. Whiteman and Samuel W. Bishop, gunned their engines on a hair-raising takeoff scramble. Before Whiteman got 100 feet into the air, a Zero piloted by Tsuguo Matsuyama blasted the vulnerable fighter with a burst right into the cockpit; the P-40 crashed into the sand dunes at the end of the runway and exploded. Bishop's P-40 attained 800 feet of altitude before a Zero literally pounded it into the ocean. Bishop crashed about a half mile off shore but got out of the wreckage and was able to swim to the beach.Four P-36s at WheelerBack in the shambles at Wheeler, Lieutenant Lewis M. Sanders of the 46th Pursuit Squadron found four serviceable P-36s and a ragtag collection of pilots to fly them. Second Lieutenants Phillip M. Rasmussen, John M. Thacker, and Gordon M. Sterling each jumped into the cockpit of a P-36. As he strapped in, Sterling, from West Hartford, Connecticut, handed his wristwatch to the crew chief and said, "See that my mother gets this. I won't be coming back."At approximately 8:50, Lieutenant Sanders got his flight airborne between the first and second waves and headed east toward the naval air station at Kaneohe. From his altitude of 11,000 feet, Sanders spotted a formation of enemy aircraft, six Soryu Zeros about to join up with the same Hiryu Zeros that had ravaged Bellows. With no hesitation, the Americans dived into the numerically superior force.At 9:15 Sanders opened fire on the leader and observed his tracers tear into the Zero's fuselage. The plane nosed up then fell off to the right smoking. After executing a fast clearing turn, Sanders saw Gordon Sterling in a near vertical dive pouring deadly fire into a Zero. But a second Zero latched onto Sterling's tail and peppered him with 20mm cannon fire. Sanders executed a diving turn with plenty of angle-off and engaged that Zero at maximum range.In a terrifying scene, the line of four aircraft—Zero, Sterling's burning P-36, Zero, Sanders—disappeared into an overcast. In his combat report Sanders stated, "The way they had been going, they couldn't have pulled out, so it was obvious that all three went into the sea." Ultimately, however, Japanese records showed that only Sterling went into Kaneohe Bay. The two Zeros, although badly damaged, made it back to the Soryu.11 Japanese Aircraft DownedArguably, the title of luckiest pilot of the day belonged to Lieutenant Phil Rasmussen, a native Bostonian. As he dived into the dogfight as part of Lew Sanders's flight, Rasmussen, flying in purple pajamas, charged his machine guns only to have them malfunction and begin firing on their own. At that precise moment a Zero passed directly into his runaway machine-gun fire and exploded. Only a minute or two later Rasmussen was jumped by two Zeros that laced his P-36 with a volley of devastating machine-gun and cannon fire. The enemy barrage tore off his tail wheel, severed his rudder cables, and shattered his canopy. Rasmussen only escaped by ducking into a convenient cloud.A handful of other Pineapple Air Force pilots saw action on that Sunday morning before Commander Fuchida rounded up the second wave and departed around 10 am. The 19 Army Air Force pursuit pilots who got airborne during the attack downed 11 Japanese aircraft, claimed five probables, and damaged at least two others. The Japanese confirmed losing 29 aircraft over Oahu and were forced to jettison an additional 19 aircraft from their carriers because of extensive battle damage. On December 11 the Honolulu Star Bulletin published an article attributed to General Short declaring that Army fliers downed 20 Japanese aircraft during the attack.Four to One Against the ZerosWithout question the American pilots and airmen who squared off against the Japanese in aerial combat at Pearl Harbor faced overwhelming odds, danger, and mass confusion. In spite of the chaos and turmoil, the relatively small number of inexperienced young lieutenants gave better than they got, and ironically nobody told them not to dogfight with nimble Zeros or Vals. Instead, they tackled their opponents in classic one-on-one air battles.Many historians accept as a matter of faith that early in the war the Mitsubishi Zero maintained a high victory ratio against mediocre American fighters like the P-40 Warhawk. The statistics in general and Pearl Harbor in particular suggest a different conclusion. Although George Whiteman and Sam Bishop both fell prey to the vaunted Zero, they were on takeoff leg and in no position to bring their guns to bear. Lieutenant Gordon Sterling was the only pursuit pilot actually brought down in air-to-air combat with a Zero, whereas the American pilots flying supposedly inferior equipment downed at least four Zeros and two probables, thereby punching the first holes in the Zero's aura of invincibility.Unfortunately, most Americans have no knowledge of these meager yet significant aerial victories and remember Pearl Harbor only as an unmitigated naval disaster. Perhaps a comment by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, commander of the Pacific Fleet on December 7, best captures that gloomy sentiment. Watching the attack from his office window, Admiral Kimmel flinched when a spent bullet crashed through the glass, striking him on the chest and leaving a dark smudge on his white uniform. Picking up the bullet, he muttered, "It would have been merciful had it killed me."There was no such negative sentiment among the surviving American fliers of that Sunday morning. A more appropriate mind-set for the fliers who battled above Pearl Harbor is captured in Winston Churchill's epic observation, "If you're going through hell, keep going!" They did. The Army Air Force crews and naval aviators engaged in aerial combat over Oahu, while unable to change the course of the battle, wrote the first American chapters in the World War II handbook on war in the air. They set the bar high and defined the aggressive spirit of American warriors who kept fighting in the face of overwhelming odds.This first appeared in Warfare History Network, authored by Tom Yarborough, here. Image: Creative Commons.
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