| PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Sept. 26 Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:04 PM PDT ![PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Sept. 26]( "PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Sept. 26") - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to take any blame for his defeat in the Supreme Court and paved the way for an acrimonious "people versus parliament" general election with a defiant defence of his Brexit strategy. - Saudi Arabia's oil production has rebounded to more than 8 million barrels a day, still leaving the kingdom's output at least 1.5 million barrels a day below the level it was before the attacks on its energy infrastructure earlier this month. - SoftBank Group Corp is in talks with WeWork to increase a $1.5 billon investment it agreed to put into the office leasing company next year, with the Japanese group considering promising an extra $1 billion or more to change the terms of a warrant agreement it struck this year with WeWork.
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| Pelosi, Trump and impeachment: How the speaker got to 'yes' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:38 PM PDT  With those two words, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered Donald Trump one last chance to avoid becoming only the fourth president in office to face impeachment proceedings . Pelosi's decision to launch an impeachment inquiry Tuesday was set in motion even before that early morning phone call, the inevitable response to an administration that repeatedly defied Congress before refusing to turn over a whistleblower's complaint against the president. Trump pleaded innocence when he called Pelosi, D-Calif., shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday, dashing to deliver his address at the United Nations.
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| They said it: Leaders at the UN, in their own words Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:36 PM PDT  Here, The Associated Press takes the opposite approach and spotlights some thoughts you might not have heard — the voices of leaders speaking at the United Nations who might not have captured the headlines and the airtime on Wednesday, the second day of 2019 debate. "The peoples of the world have seen the movement of globalization nurture in them this common dream of seeing the Earth become a genuine global village. "More than most, island nations must have faith in the multilateral international order.
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| No UN breakthrough: Iran rules out talks as US intensifies sanctions Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:23 PM PDT  Iran's president on Wednesday closed the door on meeting Donald Trump despite last-minute European efforts to ease tensions as the United States again ramped up punishing sanctions. French President Emmanuel Macron had shuttled between his US and Iranian counterparts over two days at the United Nations, trying to arrange a historic encounter that he hoped could reduce the risk of all-out war in the Middle East.
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| Trump and Ukraine's Zelensky: a political tragicomedy in one act Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:15 PM PDT  As an impeachment storm rages in Washington, to say that Donald Trump's tete-a-tete with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was hotly anticipated would be the understatement of the week. Trump met a dozen world leaders during his trip to the Big Apple for the annual United Nations General Assembly. A summer telephone conversation between the two men is at the center of a political firestorm in the US capital, and prompted opposition Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry against POTUS 45.
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| UPDATE 1-Trump takes steps to bar some Iranian officials from U.S. Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:12 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Trump takes steps to bar some Iranian officials from U.S.]( "UPDATE 1-Trump takes steps to bar some Iranian officials from U.S.") President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave the State Department the authority to bar senior Iranian officials and their family members from entering the United States as immigrants or nonimmigrants, the White House said in a proclamation. The proclamation, posted on the White House website and bearing Wednesday's date, repeated U.S. accusations that Iran sponsors terrorism, arbitrarily detains American citizens, threatens its neighbors and carries out destructive cyber attacks.
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| Trump closes out UN visit with pair of New York fundraisers Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:51 PM PDT  Bracing against an impeachment inquiry in Washington, President Donald Trump is closing out his visit to the United Nations with a pair of New York fundraisers that are expected to rake in an estimated $8 million for his reelection and other GOP campaigns. Wednesday night's fundraiser was at the home of John Paulson, who runs a New York-based investment firm he founded in the mid-1990s. According to Forbes magazine, Paulson has a net worth of more than $4 billion.
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| Trump Tried to Talk His Way Out of Impeachment. It Didn’t Work Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:49 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump tried to squelch the latest threat to his presidency with the release of a transcript of his call with Ukraine's president. It's a trick that's worked for him before, allowing him to claim exoneration and take the attack to Democrats.Yet this time, the gambit backfired. Trump didn't anticipate that, even in the absence of an explicit quid pro quo, his transactional approach to foreign policy and willingness to solicit political help from another country -- laid bare in a five-page transcript -- would embolden his critics and fan the flames of a nascent impeachment inquiry.The president maintains the supreme belief he can talk his way out of any tight spot. But his own words in the transcript provided an easy road-map for Democratic foes who accuse him of abusing the power of his office. In the call, Trump repeatedly implores Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose country is heavily dependent on U.S. aid, to help him smear former Vice President Joe Biden, who at the time was the clear Democratic frontrunner."There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great," the transcript quotes Trump as saying.Some Democrats say those words clearly show an impeachable abuse of power and grounds for an impeachment query, even if Trump didn't explicitly link the investigation to military aid. Trump, however, dismissed the complaints as a "joke" and much ado over "a wonderful phone conversation."Impeachment BattleThe impeachment fight now turns to the House, where the acting director of national intelligence will appear before a committee at 9 a.m. Thursday to discuss the complaint filed by an unidentified whistle-blower.Republicans who have rallied to Trump's defense in the past now face a choice of how closely they can stick with him this time around. As the party began to shape its rebuttal -- that Trump did nothing that rises to the level of impeachment -- three GOP senators stepped forward to express their misgivings about his actions.At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump questioned the information from the unnamed administration official, noting that it was based on second-hand information. But he insisted: "I fully support transparency on the so-called whistle-blower."Moreover, the White House signaled it would allow the whistle-blower to meet with Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and has already privately transmitted the written complaint to lawmakers ahead of the hearing featuring acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.Trump also said he's willing to release notes detailing a second, earlier phone call with Zelenskiy, as well as those involving Vice President Mike Pence and the Ukrainian leader.The president's willingness to cooperate with the probe -- and his assertion that the media is "corrupt" and complicit with Democrats -- indicated that the transcript release hadn't had its desired impact.Trump and his allies had initially claimed total vindication, gleefully noting there was no explicit offer of U.S. assistance in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation into Biden, and that the president at no point mentioned his days-earlier decision to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid.A Justice Department review of Trump's conduct found no criminal behavior or violation of election law. The call's contents fell far short of early media reports that Trump harangued Zelenskiy eight times for an investigation, or made a promise to the Ukrainian leader in exchange for his cooperation.'Real Scandal'As if to underscore the winning hand Trump thought he held, a dozen Republican lawmakers were invited to the White House to review the transcript with White House counsel Pat Cipollone before its release. The White House sent talking points suggesting lawmakers argue the "real scandal" was false accusations carried in media accounts. The White House spin was mistakenly sent to some Democratic lawmakers.Even before the release of the transcript, the Trump campaign was trying to raise money off the controversy."I've done nothing wrong. Trust me, you saw the transcript," the Trump fundraising email said. In a subsequent tweet, campaign manager Brad Parscale said $5 million has been raised in the 24 hours since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry.Earlier in Trump's presidency, as investigations unfolded into ties between his campaign and Russia, Trump benefited from partial disclosures of information -- particularly when speculation of wrongdoing has outpaced the facts at hand.His son, Donald Trump Jr., preempted a report about meetings he tried to set up with a Kremlin-connected lawyer by tweeting an email exchange with publicist Rob Goldstone in which he says he would "love" incriminating material about Hillary Clinton -- lessening the impact of the revelation.Attorney General William Barr's summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report allowed the White House to celebrate findings that the investigation had discovered no evidence of attempted collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia weeks before the full report was released. The final document included accounts of presidential efforts to interfere with the investigation.'I Can't Push Anyone'In the Ukraine episode, Trump not only asked Zelenskiy during the July call to "look into" the former vice president and his son, but suggested he do so in concert with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Barr. And while Trump didn't explicitly link assistance to the Biden investigation, he repeatedly said the U.S. "has been very, very good to Ukraine."Moreover, Trump responded to Zelenskiy's interest in purchasing new military equipment by asking him "to do us a favor," and search for information hacked from a Democratic National Committee server ahead of the 2016 election. Trump disparaged the "performance" of Mueller's Capitol Hill testimony, and appeared gracious when Zelenskiy tried to ingratiate himself by noting a recent stay at a Trump property in New York.The problematic ambiguity of the call was apparent as Trump and Zelenskiy met Wednesday in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The Ukrainian leader took pains to say he couldn't pressure independent prosecutors in his country and didn't want to be involved in American elections, even as Trump appeared to again encourage an examination of the Bidens."We have an independent country," Zelenskiy said, speaking non-native English. "I can't push anyone. That is the answer," he said, adding "I didn't ask him. I didn't push him."Trump followed up by saying he applied "no pressure" on Zelenskiy.'Mafia Boss'The response from Democrats was not the muted resignation that followed the release of the Mueller report, which found no evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but instead righteous indignation.Clinton tweeted her support for impeachment and accused the president of betraying the nation. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said he was "shocked" by a call that proved worse than he thought it would be, saying the dialogue was "how a mafia boss talks." Pelosi accused Trump of trying to "shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign.""The president has tried to make lawlessness a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad," Pelosi said.Even moderate Democrats from swing districts and states reluctant to back an impeachment inquiry issued statements critical of Trump's conduct. Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said that while he still thought talk of impeachment was premature, "any allegation of misconduct with a foreign country must be investigated."Republican UnityStill, while the episode may have unified Democrats and produce tough headlines for the president, the transcript likely didn't do enough to spur Republican defections.Republican allies noted that a Justice Department investigation concluded that Trump didn't violate campaign finance laws in the course of the call, and that intelligence whistle-blower didn't have first-hand knowledge of the conversation. The intelligence community's inspector general also said there was some indication the person has a "political bias" in favor of one of Trump's political rivals.And while Senator Mitt Romney said the Ukraine situation "remains deeply troubling," most Republicans jumped to the president's defense. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, told reporters it would have been better if Trump hadn't mentioned Biden's name but said it doesn't rise to the level of an impeachment and overturning an election. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said that the conversation was "inappropriate" but "does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.""If you are underwhelmed by this transcript, you are not alone or 'crazy,'" Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said Wednesday. "Those willing to impeach the president over this transcript have shown their hatred for President Trump overrides reason."\--With assistance from Chris Strohm and Billy House.To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump takes steps to bar some Iranian officials from U.S. Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:26 PM PDT ![Trump takes steps to bar some Iranian officials from U.S.]( "Trump takes steps to bar some Iranian officials from U.S.") President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave the State Department the authority to bar senior Iranian officials and their family members from entering the United States as immigrants or nonimmigrants, the White House said in a proclamation. The proclamation, posted on the White House website and bearing Wednesday's date, repeated U.S. accusations that Iran sponsors terrorism, arbitrarily detains American citizens, threatens its neighbors and carries out destructive cyber attacks. "Given that this behavior threatens peace and stability in the Middle East and beyond, I have determined that it is in the interest of the United States to take action to restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of senior government officials of Iran, and their immediate family members," Trump said in the proclamation.
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| Trump pressed Ukraine leader to investigate Biden, memo reveals Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:26 PM PDT  US president asked Volodymyr Zelenskiy for 'a favor' and to 'look into' Biden as impeachment inquiry launched against Trump * Trump-Ukraine scandal: follow live updatesDonald Trump with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the UN on Wednesday. Democrats said the transcript of the pair's call represented a 'devastating' betrayal of America. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesDonald Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to work with the US attorney general to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, a damning White House memo revealed on Wednesday, raising the stakes in an acrimonious and polarising impeachment inquiry.Democrats said the US president's conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy detailed in the five-page rough "transcript" was a devastating betrayal of his country that merited their investigation, while Republicans claimed it showed no quid pro quo and offered complete vindication.The disclosure came a day after Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, announced an official impeachment inquiry following a whistleblower's complaint regarding alleged violations by Trump, setting the stage for a long and rancorous fight in the run-up to next year's presidential election.In a rambling press conference late on Wednesday afternoon, while wrapping up his visit to the United Nations general assembly in New York, Trump dismissed the growing Ukraine scandal as "a big hoax" and said he "didn't threaten anybody".The whistleblower's complaint was handed over to the US Congress around the same time. The details remained classified by early evening in Washington but the House intelligence committee chairman, Adam Schiff, said he would do everything in his power to protect the whistleblower."I think that what this courageous individual has done has exposed serious wrongdoing," said Schiff, a Democrat, calling the whistleblower's allegations "deeply disturbing" and "very credible" without giving details.The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, called for its contents to be made public. "Having read the whistleblower complaint, I am even more worried about what happened than when I read the memorandum of the conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky," he said in a statement on Wednesday evening.Article 1 of the United States constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to initiate impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try impeachments of the president. A president can be impeached if they are judged to have committed "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" – although the constitution does not specify what "high crimes and misdemeanors" are.The process starts with the House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment. A simple majority of members need to vote in favour of impeachment for it to pass to the next stage. Democrats currently control the house, with 235 representatives.The chief justice of the US supreme court then presides over the proceedings in the Senate, where the president is tried, with senators acting as the jury. For the president to be found guilty two-thirds of senators must vote to convict. Republicans currently control the Senate, with 53 of the 100 senators.Two presidents have previously been impeached, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Andrew Johnson in 1868, though neither was removed from office as a result. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before there was a formal vote to impeach him.Martin BelamEarlier, some observers expressed surprise that the White House had agreed to release such a damaging memo detailing the 30-minute call between Trump and Zelenskiy on 25 July. Though not a verbatim transcript, it showed that, after being congratulated on his victory in the Ukrainian election, Zelenskiy thanked the US for its military support and said he was almost ready to buy more American weapons.Trump replied "I would like you to do us a favor, though" and went on discuss possible joint investigations. Later in the conversation, he told Zelenskiy he should work with Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and the US attorney general, William Barr, to look into unsubstantiated allegations that Biden, the former vice-president, helped remove a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his son, Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.Protesters outside the White House on Tuesday, the day a formal impeachment inquiry was announced. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/APTrump said: "There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it."He added: "It sounds horrible to me."The previously unknown connection to Barr was a potentially grave development for Trump because it shows he sought to involve the US government with a foreign country to seek dirt on a potential election rival. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden, the current frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.Trump and Zelenskiy came face to face on the sidelines of the UN general assembly on Wednesday and the awkward body language was plain. The Ukrainian president told reporters: "I think you read everything. I think you read text. I'm sorry, but I don't want to be involved to democratic, open elections of USA. No."Zelenskiy added: "Sure, we had, I think, good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I – so I think and you read it that nobody pushed me."Trump commented: "In other words, there was no pressure and you know there was no pressure."On 25 July, US president Donald Trump called Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. During the course of the call he reportedly asked the Ukrainian leader eight times to investigate former US vice-president Joe Biden and Biden's son Hunter. It is additionally reported that Trump ordered his staff to withhold nearly $400m in aid to Ukraine days before the call took place. Biden is one of the frontrunners to win the Democratic nomination and take on Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump confirmed he discussed the Bidens with Zelenskiy, and accused the pair – without offering any evidence – of corruption.A US intelligence community whistleblower filed a report after becoming alarmed at Trump's behaviour in the matter. The White House refused to release the substance of the whistleblower complaint, setting up a confrontation with Congress over the release of information. Complaints of this nature are usually reported to Congress within seven days.Trump's personal lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, has admitted asking the Ukrainians to investigate the Bidens. It is illegal for a political campaign to accept a "thing of value" from a foreign government. Democrats say an investigation into a political opponent – for which Trump appears to have been pushing – would amount to a thing of value.But Democrats seized on the memo's contents, saying it showed Trump used his powers not for America's national security but to hurt Biden and help his own re-election.Biden said in a statement: "It is a tragedy for this country that our president put personal politics above his sacred oath. He has put his own political interests over our national security interest, which is bolstering Ukraine against Russian pressure."It is an affront to every single American and the founding values of our country. This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. It is a national security issue. It is a test of our democratic values."Pelosi condemned Trump for using taxpayer money to "shake down" other countries for the benefit of his campaign. "The transcript and the justice department's acting in a rogue fashion in being complicit in the president's lawlessness confirm the need for an impeachment inquiry," she said. "Clearly, the Congress must act."Schiff told reporters: "The notes of the call reflect a conversation far more damning than I and many others had imagined."He added: "This is how a mafia boss talks. And it's clear that the Ukraine president understands exactly what is expected of him."But the alternative realities that have pervaded American politics for the past three years were still in evidence. Trump and his allies sought to paint a very different picture, insisting that the memo proved his innocence.The Trump re-election campaign fired off emails seeking to raise funds off the "smear job" by soliciting donations for an "Official Impeachment Defense Task Force".Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager, suggested the impeachment move will boost Trump's chance of re-election. He said: "Because of their pure hatred for President Trump, desperate Democrats and the salivating media already had determined their mission: take out the president."Parscale went on: "The facts prove the president did nothing wrong. This is just another hoax from Democrats and the media, contributing to the landslide re-election of President Trump in 2020."There was little sign of Republicans breaking ranks, meaning that even if Trump is impeached by the House, he would not be convicted and removed from office by the Republican-controlled Senate. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump loyalist, said: "Impeachment over this? What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger. Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President Trump."John Cornyn of Texas said on the Senate floor: "This is a continuation of the election in 2016 where our Democratic friends can't believe that Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump."One of the few dissenting voices was Senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who said: "My reaction was the same as I had a few days ago, which is this remains deeply troubling and we'll see where it leads. But my first reaction is it's troubling."Trump had confirmed that he ordered the freezing of nearly $400m in military aid to Ukraine a few days before the call, claiming the US was paying more than its fair share – rather than any threat of blackmail or quid pro quo. The aid was eventually released under pressure from Congress.The Ukraine scandal erupted after an intelligence community whistleblower came forward. Democrats have been demanding details of the whistleblower's complaint, but the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, has refused to share that information, citing presidential privilege. He is to testify before the House on Thursday.On Wednesday it also emerged that the intelligence community's inspector general told the acting director of national intelligence that the call could have been a federal campaign finance violation. But the justice department determined the president did not commit a crime after prosecutors reviewed a rough transcript.The justice department also denied that Trump had sought to involve Barr.
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| AP Explains: Libya's instability a focus of concern at UN Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:17 PM PDT  Libya's Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj represented only part of the country when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday. With a long coastline on the Mediterranean, Libya also has become a major transit point for migrants seeking to escape conflict, persecution and poverty. Thousands are hoping to reach the shores of Europe despite reports of systematic abuse by traffickers in Libya, including beatings and sexual violence.
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| From focus to forgotten: Why no N. Korea spotlight at UN? Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:16 PM PDT  Two years ago, Donald Trump used the spotlight of the annual U.N. conclave of world leaders to insult North Korea's leader ("Rocket Man") and threaten his nation with annihilation. Last year, Trump basked in the glow of diplomacy that suggested a genuine chance for detente with the North, a surreal notion in a corner of the world that has been in a technical state of war since the 1950s. North Korea warranted no more than a passing mention in Trump's address, and, aside from his hints to reporters of another possible summit with leader Kim Jong Un, the issue has been largely overshadowed by other standoffs and scandals: Iran, for instance, and talk of Trump's impeachment.
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| Schumer Wants Whistle-Blower Claim Released: Impeachment Update Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:14 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- House Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump over his interactions with a foreign leader. The proceedings threaten to slow work in Washington on other crucial policy matters and overshadow the 2020 election. The White House Wednesday released a rough transcript of a call between the president and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that is at the center of the controversy.Read more: White House releases rough transcript of Trump July call with ZelenskiyHere are the latest developments:Schumer Wants Whistle-Blower Claim Released (7:12 p.m.)Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for a whistle-blower's secret complaint to be made public immediately."Having read the whistle-blower complaint, I am even more worried about what happened than when I read the memorandum of conversation between President Trump and President Zelenskiy," Schumer said in a statement. "There are so many facts that have to be examined.""The public has a right to read the whistle-blower's complaint for themselves," he said.Schiff Says Whistle-Blower Claim 'Disturbing' (6:33 p.m.)House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said after reading the whistle-blower's complaint, "I've found the allegations deeply disturbing" and that they expose "serious wrongdoing.""I've found them very credible," he said. The Democrat said the information "certainly provides information for his committee to follow up with other witnesses and documents."Schiff called it "a travesty" that the complaint was initially withheld from Congress because "it is an urgent matter and there was simply no basis to keep this from the committee."Members of the House and Senate Intelligence panels viewed the classified complaint in a secure room Wednesday.Pelosi Weighs Narrowing Impeachment Inquiry (5:30 p.m.)Speaker Nancy Pelosi is weighing suggestions from Democratic colleagues to limit the House's impeachment investigation to issues surrounding Trump's interactions with the government of Ukraine, according to a Democratic leadership official.The official said numbers House Democrats have brought the suggestion to Pelosi and she's discussing it with other members of the party's leadership.Some members have argued that unlike other subjects of the multiple investigations of Trump -- including aspects of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's findings in his Russia investigation -- revelations that Trump urged Ukraine's president to investigate Joe Biden and his son are more clear-cut targets of presidential wrongdoing.Representative Elissa Slotkin told reporters she and other moderate Democrats have urged Pelosi to focus inquiries on Trump's dealings with Ukraine because, "It's a story that people can understand." -- Billy House'I Thought We Won,' Trump Laments of Impeachment (5:11 p.m.)Trump said he didn't like the precedent created by releasing a memorandum of his telephone call with Zelenskiy and indicated he was surprised Democrats have moved to impeach him."I thought we won, I thought it was dead," he said. "The Mueller report -- no collusion, no obstruction."He complained that Mueller's investigation had ruined the lives of people he interviewed. "They came to Washington because they wanted to make the United States and the world a better place and they went home and they were dark," he said."And yet they don't interview Joe Biden and his son?" he said. "If you're a Democrat you have automatic protection."He spoke in a slow and low tone of voice throughout his news conference."I used to get great press before I ran for politics," he said. "My family used to be treated great."Trump suggested that Representatives Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairmen of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, respectively, have been disingenuous in their public criticism of him."Smart guy, by the way," he said of Schiff. "Then they go into a room with Nadler, they must laugh their asses off." -- Jordan FabianTrump Dodges Question on Propriety of Call (4:56 p.m.)Trump didn't directly answer a reporter's repeated questions about why Americans should consider it appropriate for the president to seek information on a political rival from a foreign leader.Asked how he would have responded if President Barack Obama had sought such information on him, Trump said, "That's what he did, isn't it, when you think about it." Obama's administration investigated early reports of Russian interference in the election but the focus on Trump intensified after he became president.Trump complained about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and boasted of his victory against Hillary Clinton."There are a lot of very dishonest people," he said. "We're the ones who played it straight."He then invited Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to make remarks.Trump Says Democrats Should See More Calls (4:46 p.m.)Trump invited congressional Democrats conducting an impeachment inquiry to seek records of earlier calls he and Vice President Mike Pence held with Zelenskiy."The word is they're going to ask for the first phone conversation," Trump said in his news conference. "You can have it anytime you need it. And also Mike Pence's conversation. They were perfect, they were all perfect."He then pivoted to discussing the wall he's ordered built on the Mexican border. "The wall is going up, many miles a week."'I Didn't Do It,' Trump Says, Defending Call (4:37 p.m.)President Donald Trump again defended his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, now a central focus of a House impeachment inquiry."I didn't do it," he said in a news conference to conclude his participation in the United Nations General Assembly. "I didn't threaten anybody. No push, no pressure, I didn't do anything."Burr Says Whistle-Blower Complaint Delivered (4:29 p.m.)Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters that the whistle-blower complaint was hand-delivered to Congress on Wednesday. -- Steven T. DennisCongress to Receive Whistle-Blower Complaint (3:14 p.m.)The Trump administration will give Congress a whistle-blower complaint involving Trump's call with Zelenskiy on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.The complaint, made to the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community, concerns a sequence of events including the call. Up to now, the administration had prevented the inspector general from briefing Congress on the complaint or providing it to lawmakers.Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is scheduled to testify to the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday and is expected to face questions about the complaint. -- Chris StrohmBiden Says Trump Call Shows Abuse of Power (3:10 p.m.)Joe Biden said the document describing the phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy shows the president abused his power, but he stopped short of calling for impeachment.The summary released by the White House shows that after withholding military aid Trump "implored the president of Ukraine to work with his personal attorney to manufacture a smear against a domestic political opponent, using a malicious conspiracy theory that has been universally debunked by every independent outlet that has looked at it," Biden said in a statement Wednesday.The political opponent is Biden, one of the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. The former vice president previously said he would support impeachment if the White House stonewalled Democrats' demand for documents. He renewed his call for the White House to release the full whistleblower complaint and any other documents related to the matter."Congress must pursue the facts and quickly take prompt action to hold Donald Trump accountable," Biden said in the statement. -- Tyler PagerTrump Raising Money on House Probe (2:45 p.m.)President Donald Trump is trying to raise money off House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's opening of an impeachment inquiry."I've done nothing wrong," the solicitation to campaign donors says, "Trust me, you saw the transcript." It goes on to describe the impeachment effort as baseless, calling it a "witch hunt," a phrase he also used to describe the now concluded investigation into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election. He's asking for contributions of $5 and up.It's not the Trump campaign's first attempt to raise money off impeachment. Minutes after Pelosi finished speaking on Tuesday, the campaign sent a text message to supporters asking them to join his impeachment defense team by making a donation. And in an email pitch sent to donors Tuesday, billionaire Tom Steyer, who funds the Need to Impeach effort, asked donors to contribute $1 to his presidential campaign. -- Bill AllisonGraham Says Whistle-Blower Should Testify (2:25 p.m.)Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said the whistle-blower who filed a complaint over the president's actions should be allowed to testify in Congress.Graham, a former Trump critic who is now one of the president's staunchest defenders, added that if the House impeaches Trump, he expects the Senate to hear the case and vote -- though he'll oppose conviction if the case is based on Trump's call with the Ukrainian president.He also said he doesn't want the Judiciary Committee to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's activities in Ukraine, adding that someone removed from politics -- someone like Robert Mueller -- should look at such issues. -- Steven T. DennisTrump Called GOP Allies From New York (1:40 p.m.)White House counsel convened a meeting with six Republican senators and House members at 8 a.m. on Wednesday to review and discuss talking points before the public release of the transcript of Trump's call with Zelenskiy, according to Senator Ron Johnson, who attended the meeting.About 30 minutes into the meeting, Trump phoned in from New York -- where he's attending the United Nations General Assembly -- to tell the lawmakers that there wasn't anything improper about his call with Zelenskiy."We certainly saw no quid pro quo," Johnson said. Instead, the transcript showed Trump was "very gracious" with the Ukrainian leader, the Wisconsin Republican added.Others present included Senators Jim Risch of Idaho, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, David Perdue of Georgia, and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota; as well as Representatives Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Devin Nunes of California, John Ratcliffe of Texas, and Matt Gaetz of Florida. -- Laura LitvanWhite House Talking Points Sent to Democrats (1:12 p.m.)The White House on Wednesday sent congressional Democrats a helpful list of "Myth" versus "Fact" talking points about Trump's call with Zelenskiy, according to a copy of the email obtained by Bloomberg.That's right -- the talking points went to impeachment-focused Democrats, not Trump-supporting Republicans. The recipients included rank-and-file moderates from House districts where Trump is popular, as well as the leaders of committees investigating the president's activities.The talking points make several arguments:There was no "quid pro quo" dangled for Ukraine to get U.S. military aid in exchange for investigating former Vice President Joe Biden or his son.The president's statements were was "entirely proper" -- and he didn't even mention Rudy Giuliani until after Zelenskiy brought his name up first.The whistle-blower complaint was handled "absolutely by the book" and officials properly determined that no further action should be taken. -- Billy HouseSchiff Compares Trump in Call to 'Mafia Boss' (12:31 p.m.)Democrat Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Trump attempted to "shake down" the Ukrainian president to prompt an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.Republicans have defended Trump by arguing there was no quid pro quo sought during the conversation, but Schiff said the U.S. was withholding military aid and Ukrainian officials "understood exactly what was being asked of them.""Like any Mafia boss, the president did not need to say what a nice country you have, it would be a shame if anything happened to it," Schiff said at a news conference. "Here we have the president of the United States engaged in a shake-down of a foreign president." -- Billy HousePelosi Says Call Shows Need for Impeachment Inquiry (12:15 p.m.)House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the rough transcript of the Trump-Zelenskiy call confirms the need for an impeachment inquiry."The release of the notes of the call by the White House confirms that the president engaged in behavior that undermines the integrity of our elections, the dignity of the office he holds and our national security," Pelosi said in a statement. -- Billy HouseTranscription Used Voice Recognition Software (11:58 a.m.)The Trump-Zelenskiy transcript was developed with assistance from voice recognition software along with note takers and other experts who were listening, according to a White House official.The transcript didn't say whether Zelenskiy spoke in English or Ukrainian.There are ellipses in parts of the document, which the official said doesn't indicate missing words or phrases. Instead, it represents a voice trailing off or a pause, the official said.The transcript itself includes a cautionary note: It's not a verbatim transcription. Instead, it "records the notes and recollections" of those assigned to listen and write it. "A number of factors can affect the accuracy of the record, including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent and/or interpretation," according to the note. -- Justin SinkJustice Says Complaint on Call Is Secondhand (11 a.m.)The whistle-blower report on Trump's phone call with the president of Ukraine is based on secondhand reports from unnamed "White House officials," according to a just-released Justice Department opinion.The indirect nature of the information could suggest that the whistle-blower report, if turned over to Congress, would not reveal much beyond what is in the transcript released Wednesday."The complainant alleged that he or she had heard reports from 'White House officials' that, in the course of a routine diplomatic communication between the president and a foreign leader, the president had made statements that the complainant viewed as seeking to pressure that leader to take an official action to help the president's 2020 re-election campaign," Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel said. "Having heard about the president's reported statements, the complainant expressed an intent to report this information to the intelligence committees."Engel, who heads the Office of Legal Counsel, told the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that the whistle-blower report did not have to be submitted to Congress because it related to the conduct of the president, and not intelligence agencies. Congressional Democrats disagree and say the Inspector General Act requires it to be turned over. -- Gregory KorteRomney Says Transcript Underscores Concerns (10:50 a.m.)Senator Mitt Romney said the transcript of the Trump-Zelenskiy call underscored concerns he raised earlier about the president's comments."I remain deeply troubled," the Utah Republican said after release of the transcript. He wouldn't say whether Trump's actions were an abuse of power or an impeachable offense. -- Steven DennisZelenskiy Mentioned Trump Tower Stay (10:45 a.m.)The rough transcript of the July phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy offers an example of how foreign governments use stays at Trump properties to ingratiate themselves with the U.S. president.Before Zelenskiy got off the phone, he made a point of dropping in his accommodation arrangements during a recent visit."Actually last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower," Zelenskiy said, according to the transcript.Critics of the president have filed lawsuits pressing the case that Trump's decision to keep his stakes in his global business, the Trump Organization, raised the question of whether he is violating what's known as the "emoluments clause" of the Constitution. -- Mike DorningHouse Panel Seeks Whistle-Blower Complaint (10:30 a.m.)House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff asked Attorney General William Barr to turn over any Justice Department legal opinion on a contentious whistle-blower complaint by Friday.In a letter to Barr, the California Democrat also is requesting any information on FBI action pertaining to the "underlying conduct of the complaint," and all DOJ communications with the White House related to the complaint, by Oct. 1.He argues that the law requires the complaint be turned over to congressional intelligence committees. -- Billy HouseUkrainian Leader Addresses UN Amid U.S. Furor (10:15 a.m.)The Ukrainian leader at the center of the latest crisis facing Trump was the first speaker at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy focused his 15-minute speech on Ukraine's continuing conflict with Russia, saying his country's citizens are still paying the price for Moscow's support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.Zelenskiy renewed calls for international support to confront Moscow. U.S. aid for Ukraine's fight with Russia was at the heart of the almost $400 million package Trump said he held up before speaking with Zelenskiy in July. At one point the 41-year-old president held up a bullet that he said was similar to the one which killed a popular opera singer -- one of 13,000 Ukrainians killed so far -- who volunteered to fight Russian separatists.Ukraine "keeps losing its citizens," he said, citing 13,000 killed and 1.5 million displaced. "Every year these figures are growing." -- Daryna KrasnolutskaTrump-Call Summary Set for Release (9:20 a.m.)A rough transcript of President Donald Trump's July 25 call with his Ukrainian counterpart is expected to be released Wednesday as the nation awaits the next steps in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to launch a formal impeachment inquiry that may determine whether the president heads into re-election damaged or emboldened.Trump is also expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in person on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly before holding a news conference Wednesday, as the investigation gets underway into whether Trump leaned on Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.U.S. stocks rose amid mixed reactions to the prospect of an impeachment investigation and news China is preparing to buy more U.S. pork. In notes to clients, Wall Street analysts compared the events to proceedings against Bill Clinton in the 1990s, which failed to topple a popular president. Other events had more of a market impact then, and might now, too.Key EventsPelosi on Tuesday said the House would begin an official impeachment inquiry stemming from a complaint from a whistle-blower in the intelligence community over Trump's interaction with a foreign leader.Trump's private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told Fox News on Wednesday morning that the president didn't mention military aid or any "quid pro quo" during his call with Zelenskiy. Giuliani said he hadn't seen a transcript of the call but "let's say it was read to me."The House plans to vote Wednesday on a resolution pressuring the intelligence community to release details of the whistle-blower complaint.The House and Senate Intelligence committees are set to question Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire this week about the whistle-blower complaint. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence panel, said the whistle-blower's lawyer told them his client would like to speak to the committee.\--With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Bill Faries, Justin Sink, Mike Dorning, Steven T. Dennis, Gregory Korte, Jordan Fabian, Laura Litvan, Bill Allison, Tyler Pager, Chris Strohm and Erik Wasson.To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| American asylum pact with Honduras seals 'Northern Triangle' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:02 PM PDT  The Trump administration signed a deal Wednesday with a third Central American country that would effectively seal off the region, preventing asylum-seekers traveling through from entering the United States. The latest agreement, signed on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, paves the way to send asylum-seekers to Honduras, one of the world's most violent countries, like its neighbors.
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| The Latest: Libyan prime minister rules out talks with rival Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:01 PM PDT  Sarraj used much of his time before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to deride Khalifa Hifter and his supporters as "coup plotters" and blame them for Libya's continued instability. Libya was thrown into chaos during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
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| Trump meets with opposition Venezuela delegation at UN Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:50 PM PDT  President Donald Trump showed his support for the Venezuelan opposition Wednesday as he met with its delegation to the U.N. General Assembly instead of the official government delegation and called for an end to the "horrible and brutal oppression" of President Nicolas Maduro. Trump has pointedly refused to rule out a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, but he said at the meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering that his first objective is to help secure a peaceful political transition from Maduro to opposition leader Juan Guaido.
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| Trump Bans Entry of Senior Venezuelan Officials, Their Families Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:47 PM PDT ![Trump Bans Entry of Senior Venezuelan Officials, Their Families]( "Trump Bans Entry of Senior Venezuelan Officials, Their Families") (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation suspending the entry of senior Venezuelan officials and their families to the U.S., the latest in a series of efforts to oust Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro.Members and immediate relatives of Venezuela's rubber-stamp constituent assembly, as well as military, police and national guard officials at the rank of colonel or above will be halted from entering the U.S. The ban will also apply to those who act on behalf or support Maduro's regime or derive significant financial benefit from it, according to White House statements."To combat the malice, corruption of both the Venezuelan and Iranian dictatorship, today I issued proclamations suspending the entry into the United States of senior regime officials and their families," Trump said in a press conference from the United Nations General Assembly in New York."We have it under control," Trump said in regards to Venezuela when asked after his prepared remarks. "It's all going to be fine. We're very much involved," Trump said.\--With assistance from Alex Vasquez.To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Laya in Caracas at playa2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net, Walter BrandimarteFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iran president warns of a region 'on the edge of collapse' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:43 PM PDT  President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States of engaging in "international piracy" against his country by re-imposing economic sanctions after Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran "will never negotiate with an enemy that seeks to make Iran surrender with the weapon of poverty," Rouhani said in his highly anticipated speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
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| Boris Johnson Comes Out Fighting and Demands a Brexit Election Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:20 PM PDT ![Boris Johnson Comes Out Fighting and Demands a Brexit Election]( "Boris Johnson Comes Out Fighting and Demands a Brexit Election") (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson sparked uproar during angry exchanges in the House of Commons after he was dragged back to Parliament to explain why he broke the law and tried to suspend the legislature in the run-up to Brexit.The defiant premier refused to resign or even apologize. Instead, Johnson came out fighting. He challenged his political opponents to trigger an election through a no-confidence vote, and accused them of cowardice for twice rejecting one. He also declared that the Supreme Court judges who overturned his decision to suspend Parliament were simply "wrong.""This Parliament must either stand aside and let this government get Brexit done or bring a vote of confidence and finally face a day of reckoning with the voters," Johnson told a noisy House of Commons on Wednesday.Asked if he had any remorse for his actions, Johnson replied: "The straight answer to that is 'No.'" He also repeatedly called legislation passed by his opponents seeking to stave off a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 as a "surrender bill."His language drew criticism from MPs in the chamber. Labour's Paula Sherriff demanded the premier stop using "pejorative" and "dangerous" terms that she said incited violence and death threats against lawmakers.She pointed to the plaque behind her for Jo Cox, the pro-Remain Labour MP murdered during the 2016 Brexit referendum. Johnson replied: "I have never heard so much humbug in all my life," triggering cries of "shame" and "disgusting" in the chamber and anger from Cox's widower.Sherriff's colleague Anna McMorrin said Johnson's behavior and choice of words were affecting people around the country, leading to an increase in abuse on social media.Deadlock, DeadlineNevertheless, in the heated atmosphere inside the chamber, the premier's belligerent approach seemed initially to bolster his own position as head of the ruling Conservative Party. Tory members burst into applause and cried "more" after he attacked the opposition Labour Party.But the impact on Britain's tortured three-year divorce from the European Union is less clear.As things stand, Brexit remains deadlocked in London. Without a majority in Parliament, Johnson cannot get a deal through a vote, or win authorization for leaving the EU without a deal, or trigger the early election he wants.Britain is due to leave the bloc of 28 countries on Oct. 31. Johnson said he's making progress toward a deal, saying in an ITV interview that the most contentious part governing border arrangements with Ireland was "now under serious negotiation."Nevertheless, the premier has doubled down on a vow to complete the split on time, even if that means doing so without an agreement to soften the impact.Most members of Parliament disagree with this approach and have passed a law aimed at stopping the premier forcing the U.K. out of the bloc without a deal. But Johnson insists he will go ahead anyway and expects to fight for his strategy in court yet again next month.Parliament's Return, TacticsIn a highly contentious decision, Johnson told Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament for five weeks earlier this month. His critics argued this was an attempt to thwart them in their efforts to restrain him.But in a crushing defeat for Johnson, the Supreme Court in London ruled Tuesday that this suspension of the legislature was not lawful and amounted to a severe blow to Britain's democracy. The judges ordered that members of Parliament return to work immediately.On Wednesday, as MPs regrouped in Westminster to plot their tactics again, Johnson refused to give an inch of ground."I think the court was wrong to pronounce on what is essentially a political question at a time of great national controversy," Johnson said.In other developments as Parliament resumed scrutiny of the government:Members of Johnson's own Tories turned their fire on Dominic Cummings, the prime minister's senior aide, saying he should lose his job for his role in the suspension of Parliament; Johnson told ITV that "of course" Cummings has his full confidence.Attorney General Geoffrey Cox stirred controversy, calling the current Parliament "dead," suggesting the government is looking for wriggle room in the law seeking to rule out a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 and saying that in future, politicians could vet judges. The latter point, Johnson told ITV, is "jumping a long way down the track."Johnson's office said the Conservative Party conference will go ahead as planned Sept. 29-Oct. 2, and that Johnson will deliver a speech there, even if opposition parties don't agree to a recess.The European Commission briefed national diplomats that the U.K.'s latest ideas for the post-Brexit Irish border aren't acceptable. In New York, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney called Britain's proposals "fanciful."(Updates with details of Parliamentary atmosphere starting in first paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Where Pakistan’s Tenacity Is on Full Display Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:00 PM PDT ![Where Pakistan's Tenacity Is on Full Display]( "Where Pakistan's Tenacity Is on Full Display") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- While Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is visiting my country, I have been enjoying his. Khan's trip is diplomatic and includes meetings with President Donald Trump and at the United Nations; mine was to attend a business conference in Karachi and, more to the point, satisfy my curiosity about the world's fifth-most-populous nation.(1)I came away optimistic, but not for the reasons I was expecting. Karachi has world-class food, a lively music scene, and some of the warmest hospitality I've encountered in any large city. But it cannot compete as a tourist destination until it cleans up its act, quite literally speaking.Pakistan's urban infrastructure is worse than I had imagined. It raises the question: Which is easier, making a city cleaner or safer?The downside of Karachi is evident immediately upon leaving the airport: It has perhaps the worst sanitation problems I have seen in any city, and I have visited some leading contenders for the title. Piles of garbage and crumbling concrete blocks seem to be the two iconic sights of the city. The beaches on the Arabian Sea are unswimmable and often ugly.Most recently, the city has been beset by a plague of flies — a "bullying force," says the New York Times, "sparing no one." The swarm of flies, which I was fortunate enough to miss, was the result of monsoon season, malfunctioning drainage systems clogged with solid waste, and slaughtered animals from the Muslim celebration of Eid. (The same monsoon season, by the way, led to power blackouts of up to 60 hours.) On a livability index, Karachi ranks near the bottom, just ahead of Damascus, Lagos, Dhaka and Tripoli.There is no subway, and a typical street scene blends cars, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes and the occasional donkey pulling a cart. It's fun for the visitor, but I wouldn't call transportation easy.And yet to see only those negatives is to miss the point. Markets speak more loudly than anecdotes, and the population of Karachi continues to rise — a mark of the city's success. This market test is more important than the aesthetic test, and Karachi unambiguously passes it.Pakistanis have been pouring into Karachi for decades, mostly for greater opportunity. After the partition of British India and the creation of an independent Pakistan in the late 1940s, Karachi was still a backwater. These days it is by far Pakistan's largest city, with an estimated population of about 20 million and growing. It may soon end up as the world's third-most-populous city, with 30% growth projected through 2030. The city accounts for more than half of Pakistan's federal tax revenue.One of my biggest takeaways from five whirlwind days in Karachi is that "urban agglomeration externalities" — the economist's fancy term for the benefits of living in a city — are larger than I had thought. Urbanization improves human lives more than its aesthetics would indicate. Unfortunately, this same logic helps explain why it is so hard to fix malfunctioning megacities such as Karachi: Improving them encourages more people to come, and overcrowding will make some of the core problems worse.Around town the visitor sees signs describing Karachi, one of which reads "Karachi: The Place to Be." That is the bottom line, no matter how improbable it might seem on arrival. I also saw "Karachi: Epitome of Resilience" and "Karachi: Pakistan in Miniature," both of which are appropriate — and slightly double-edged.Karachi feels like a city without a clearly defined past, or at least not one that has carried over into the present. In the 1950s it was known as the "Paris of the East," but that impression has not aged well. In 1941, before partition, the city's population was about 51% Hindu. Now it is virtually 0% Hindu, obliterating yet another feature of the city's history. It is currently a mix of Pakistani ethnicities, including Sindhis (the home province), Punjabis, Pashtuns, the Baloch and many more — indeed, Pakistan in miniature.In addition to the benefits of urbanization, the generally peaceful nature of the city made a big impression on me. I was told by many people that Karachi was a kind of war zone, and that was to some extent true in the 1990s. The city was overwhelmed by money from trade in drugs and armaments, and the rapid arrival of so many newcomers.But remarkable progress has been made in the last half decade or so, a testament to the city's dynamism and ingenuity. According to one crime index, Karachi is now less dangerous than Houston, New Delhi or Sao Paulo. Maybe you don't trust the data, but my casual impressions walking around are consistent with those rankings. It's not Tokyo or Zurich, but if you have traveled widely and are thinking you might want to come, do not let fear of crime put you off. (Plus, you always can escape to the country's idyllic north.)Concrete measures of particular crimes show similar progress. There were 965 targeted killings in 2013, but by 2018 there were only 51. Incidents of kidnapping were 174 in 2013, and 13 in 2018. If nothing else, Karachi has shown it can make huge progress on at least one of its major problems.What other problems might be next? What about the economy, in Karachi and Pakistan as a whole?The immediate news is not great. A recent IMF forecast predicted a growth rate of 2.4% for the next fiscal year, down from an earlier range of 4% to 6%. In a part of the world where Bangladesh often has achieved growth rates of 8% or higher, that just isn't good enough.Still, that number is not the right way to understand the growth potential of Pakistan. For centuries, the region (now a country, of course) has been no poorer than most of the rest of historic India, and arguably for a long period of time it was somewhat wealthier. So Pakistan is not doomed by its culture. It simply needs more of a single-minded focus on economic growth.I spoke to numerous involved persons about the venture capital and startup scene in Pakistan, and their impressions were mixed. But at least there is a scene to disagree about. "Reminds me of Indonesia about 10 years ago" was one informed response I heard. Is that good or bad news? Either way, it's something to build on.One of my frustrations with the policy dialogue I heard in Karachi was how much of it centers on India and what Pakistan should do to counter its geopolitical influence. This discussion strikes me as premature; in order to have more clout internationally, Pakistan first needs to get much wealthier. In the meantime, the country should make domestic policy more of a priority.The best economic news for Pakistan is simply that there is a lot to be gained from instituting various relatively straightforward improvements, starting of course in Karachi but hardly ending there.One set of big but (mostly) fixable problems involves public health. Dengue is a new scourge, and Karachi has the usual ailments of a poor megacity, such as malaria, typhoid, chikungunya virus and respiratory disorders. Some 26% of the country suffers from diabetes. Education could also stand a great deal of improvement, even if there is no simple, quick fix.Most of all, I am impressed by the tenacity of Pakistan. Before going there, I was very familiar with the cliched claim that Pakistan is a fragile tinderbox, barely a proper country, liable to fall apart any moment and collapse into civil war. Neither my visit nor my more focused reading has provided any support for that view, and perhaps it is time to retire it. Pakistan's national identity may be strongly contested but it is pretty secure, backed by the growing use of Urdu as a national language — and cricket to boot. It has come through the Afghan wars battered but intact.Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge are scheduled to visit Pakistan next month. As a recent visitor, I highly recommend that they spend some proper time in Karachi — and hope that many more will follow in their footsteps.(1) Disclaimer: My trip was paid for by the Nutshell Conference,and many Pakistanis treated me to meals, against my insistence I might add.To contact the author of this story: Tyler Cowen at tcowen2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include "Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UK's Johnson defiant after bombshell court ruling Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:55 PM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson challenged opposition MPs to try to remove him Wednesday in a defiant response to the Supreme Court's ruling that his suspension of parliament was unlawful. Britain's highest court on Tuesday found the Conservative leader acted illegally in suspending, or proroguing, parliament for five weeks in the run-up to Brexit. To cheers from his Conservative MPs and roars of outrage from the opposition benches, he condemned the court ruling as "wrong".
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| Prospects of war and chances for peace dominate UN speeches Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:47 PM PDT  Prospects for war and peace from the Middle East to Europe, Africa and Latin America dominated the second day of the annual gathering of world leaders Wednesday, reflecting the complex global landscape where conflicts persist and terrorism is spreading. The recent attack on key Saudi oil installations — which the U.S., France, Britain and Germany blame on Iran — has exacerbated the threat.
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| UN report says climate change is wreaking havoc on Earth’s oceans Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:32 PM PDT 
Stressed by overfishing, pollution and, most of all, climate change, the world's oceans have hit a tipping point, with potentially dire consequences for humans. A new report published by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the latest look at the health of the planet's oceans. With some 7,000 studies referenced in the report, it's almost among the most comprehensive to date. The report warns that if climate change is not addressed, millions of humans could be negatively affected by rising sea levels, diminishing fish populations and more erratic weather.
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| Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:13 PM PDT ![Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound]( "Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A reminder: Amid all the hubbub in Parliament, Boris Johnson is still the U.K.'s prime minister and the country is still due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, deal or no deal, unless someone does something to change it.The Supreme Court's decision, barely a decade after its forming, to invalidate Johnson's attempt to use monarchical privilege to close Parliament may well prove to be Britain's Marbury v Madison; but it still leaves Johnson in power, and the EU leaving date unchanged. Yet the pound is somehow barely shaken by this hectic premiership. Immediately after the supreme court's stunning ruling, it was back to $1.25, stronger than when he took office. Even the pound's dive Wednesday – which owed more to strength in the dollar than anything else – still left sterling near where it was when Johnson took over from Theresa May.What is going on? It is customary to view the Brexit saga as some kind of Shakespearean tragedy of betrayal, from the playing fields of Eton to the dreaming spires of Oxford and thence to the corridors of power in Westminster. The better Shakespearean analogy, however, might be "The Comedy of Errors." Players on all sides have made egregious errors in the Brexit process since Johnson took over as prime minister. The market judges that these errors render it much less likely that Britain exits the EU with no deal – considered the "nightmare scenario." That may be the biggest mistake of all.Here are some of the key tactical errors:Johnson's strategy to force through a "no-deal" exit by closing Parliament and denying MPs the opportunity to come up with an alternative backfired spectacularly. As a result, so many of his Conservative Party's MPs have either resigned or been expelled that he no longer has a majority. And he has now, of course, suffered a defeat at the hands of the courts. Johnson's team also misjudged the difficulty of the Irish border issue, which proved an insuperable obstacle for Theresa May. His proposal to allow agricultural goods to flow freely across the Northern Irish border appears to have been poorly thought out. Leaks that Johnson expressed surprise when EU interlocutors informed him that his plan would still require intensive physical border checks were damaging and made him look under-prepared. Without a resolution to the Irish border issue, the U.K. needs to stay in the EU customs union – which realistically makes it impossible to reach a negotiated settlement that Parliament can accept. Opponents of Brexit made what may be a critical mistake by leaving Johnson in power as prime minister, rather than forcing him out with a vote of no-confidence, or acceding to his wish for a general election. As the executive, he still has great power – he is the one who will negotiate with the EU. Johnson's refusal to tone down his language, even after the Supreme Court defeat, and his decision to instead come out fighting harder than ever in remarks to Parliament Wednesday riled up the opposition in a visceral way and will make it that much harder to find a compromise. The stratagem that opponents of a "no-deal" Brexit used against Johnson may also backfire. Under the legislation that passed the Commons, Johnson must present a letter to the EU asking for a three-month extension. No reason is given for such an extension, and there is no hint as to how the U.K. might use the extra time. Previous letters by May asking for an extension went into great detail. This might look like a nasty piece of internal British politics to EU eyes. Many are inclined to get the issue over with and let the U.K. leave without a deal. Any extension must be cleared unanimously by the EU's remaining 27 members. It is quite possible that one of them will refuse. Last week's dramatic set piece, the decision by Luxembourg's prime minister to continue with a press conference next to an empty podium and a British flag, after Johnson had decided not to attend due to nearby protesters, almost certainly backfired. It came across as rude and unnecessary, and gratuitously disrespectful from the leader of a far smaller nation than the U.K.; it played to all the worst British stereotypes of the EU. The U.K. opposition to a no-deal Brexit has no common strategy. The Liberal Democrats (current slogan: Bollocks to Brexit) would now cancel Brexit altogether should they win a general election, rather than call a second referendum. Other opposition parties strongly disagree. Labour wants a second referendum, on a deal that does not yet exist but that it hopes to negotiate. Some Labour MPs are trying to thrash out a new deal to leave the EU (without another referendum). A general election within months still appears inevitable, and the anti-Brexit vote will be deeply divided – which gives Johnson a strong chance to win a mandate for "no-deal." Finally, the issue has morphed from Britain's long-vexed relationship with Europe, to the far deadlier terrain of Britain's unwritten constitution. Both sides have accused the other of a constitutional "coup." The referendum was a poorly thought through experiment in direct democracy, but it now allows Brexiteers to position themselves as defenders of "the people." The home page of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party doesn't mention Europe, but instead implores: "Democracy is under threat, support the fightback … Stand up for democracy and the future of British politics." The party says that it intends to "make the people sovereign," implying that they aren't already. Add all these errors together, and the risk of a "no-deal" Brexit remains potent. The possibility of a populist insurrection that changes the nature of one of the world's most politically stable countries has also risen greatly. Among many more important consequences, these outcomes would be bad for the currency. Sterling is holding up far too well.To contact the author of this story: John Authers at jauthers@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at bewilliams@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.John Authers is a senior editor for markets. Before Bloomberg, he spent 29 years with the Financial Times, where he was head of the Lex Column and chief markets commentator. He is the author of "The Fearful Rise of Markets" and other books.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:13 PM PDT ![Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound]( "Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A reminder: Amid all the hubbub in Parliament, Boris Johnson is still the U.K.'s prime minister and the country is still due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, deal or no deal, unless someone does something to change it.The Supreme Court's decision, barely a decade after its forming, to invalidate Johnson's attempt to use monarchical privilege to close Parliament may well prove to be Britain's Marbury v Madison; but it still leaves Johnson in power, and the EU leaving date unchanged. Yet the pound is somehow barely shaken by this hectic premiership. Immediately after the supreme court's stunning ruling, it was back to $1.25, stronger than when he took office. Even the pound's dive Wednesday – which owed more to strength in the dollar than anything else – still left sterling near where it was when Johnson took over from Theresa May.What is going on? It is customary to view the Brexit saga as some kind of Shakespearean tragedy of betrayal, from the playing fields of Eton to the dreaming spires of Oxford and thence to the corridors of power in Westminster. The better Shakespearean analogy, however, might be "The Comedy of Errors." Players on all sides have made egregious errors in the Brexit process since Johnson took over as prime minister. The market judges that these errors render it much less likely that Britain exits the EU with no deal – considered the "nightmare scenario." That may be the biggest mistake of all.Here are some of the key tactical errors:Johnson's strategy to force through a "no-deal" exit by closing Parliament and denying MPs the opportunity to come up with an alternative backfired spectacularly. As a result, so many of his Conservative Party's MPs have either resigned or been expelled that he no longer has a majority. And he has now, of course, suffered a defeat at the hands of the courts. Johnson's team also misjudged the difficulty of the Irish border issue, which proved an insuperable obstacle for Theresa May. His proposal to allow agricultural goods to flow freely across the Northern Irish border appears to have been poorly thought out. Leaks that Johnson expressed surprise when EU interlocutors informed him that his plan would still require intensive physical border checks were damaging and made him look under-prepared. Without a resolution to the Irish border issue, the U.K. needs to stay in the EU customs union – which realistically makes it impossible to reach a negotiated settlement that Parliament can accept. Opponents of Brexit made what may be a critical mistake by leaving Johnson in power as prime minister, rather than forcing him out with a vote of no-confidence, or acceding to his wish for a general election. As the executive, he still has great power – he is the one who will negotiate with the EU. Johnson's refusal to tone down his language, even after the Supreme Court defeat, and his decision to instead come out fighting harder than ever in remarks to Parliament Wednesday riled up the opposition in a visceral way and will make it that much harder to find a compromise. The stratagem that opponents of a "no-deal" Brexit used against Johnson may also backfire. Under the legislation that passed the Commons, Johnson must present a letter to the EU asking for a three-month extension. No reason is given for such an extension, and there is no hint as to how the U.K. might use the extra time. Previous letters by May asking for an extension went into great detail. This might look like a nasty piece of internal British politics to EU eyes. Many are inclined to get the issue over with and let the U.K. leave without a deal. Any extension must be cleared unanimously by the EU's remaining 27 members. It is quite possible that one of them will refuse. Last week's dramatic set piece, the decision by Luxembourg's prime minister to continue with a press conference next to an empty podium and a British flag, after Johnson had decided not to attend due to nearby protesters, almost certainly backfired. It came across as rude and unnecessary, and gratuitously disrespectful from the leader of a far smaller nation than the U.K.; it played to all the worst British stereotypes of the EU. The U.K. opposition to a no-deal Brexit has no common strategy. The Liberal Democrats (current slogan: Bollocks to Brexit) would now cancel Brexit altogether should they win a general election, rather than call a second referendum. Other opposition parties strongly disagree. Labour wants a second referendum, on a deal that does not yet exist but that it hopes to negotiate. Some Labour MPs are trying to thrash out a new deal to leave the EU (without another referendum). A general election within months still appears inevitable, and the anti-Brexit vote will be deeply divided – which gives Johnson a strong chance to win a mandate for "no-deal." Finally, the issue has morphed from Britain's long-vexed relationship with Europe, to the far deadlier terrain of Britain's unwritten constitution. Both sides have accused the other of a constitutional "coup." The referendum was a poorly thought through experiment in direct democracy, but it now allows Brexiteers to position themselves as defenders of "the people." The home page of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party doesn't mention Europe, but instead implores: "Democracy is under threat, support the fightback … Stand up for democracy and the future of British politics." The party says that it intends to "make the people sovereign," implying that they aren't already. Add all these errors together, and the risk of a "no-deal" Brexit remains potent. The possibility of a populist insurrection that changes the nature of one of the world's most politically stable countries has also risen greatly. Among many more important consequences, these outcomes would be bad for the currency. Sterling is holding up far too well.To contact the author of this story: John Authers at jauthers@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at bewilliams@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.John Authers is a senior editor for markets. Before Bloomberg, he spent 29 years with the Financial Times, where he was head of the Lex Column and chief markets commentator. He is the author of "The Fearful Rise of Markets" and other books.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump says he doesn't like precedent of releasing details of calls with foreign leaders Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:04 PM PDT ![Trump says he doesn't like precedent of releasing details of calls with foreign leaders]( "Trump says he doesn't like precedent of releasing details of calls with foreign leaders") U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he decided to release a summary of a controversial phone call with Ukraine's leader because "horrible things" were being reported about it, but that he did not like the precedent of releasing details of such calls. "I don't like the precedent," Trump said at a news conference on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.
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| Duterte Rejects Millions of Dollars in Aid to Defend Drug War Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has forgone helicopters, weapons and a proposed train line through Manila worth millions of dollars -- all in defense of his deadly drug war.Duterte rejected the loans and grants from nations critical of his policy -- the latest includes the U.K., Australia and 16 other countries that favored a U.N. resolution urging a probe into the government's campaign that's claimed thousands of lives over the last three years. Japan, the Philippines' top source of foreign aid, abstained from the U.N. vote."The President will not compromise the nation's dignity over any amount of foreign loan, aid or grant," said Duterte's spokesman Salvador Panelo, describing criticism of the drug war as foreign intervention. Most citizens support the drug war, according to a recent survey.Still, not everyone in the government agrees with Duterte's decision. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said his department will ask to be exempted from the directive, as it is affecting the country's military modernization plans which tap foreign aid.Duterte's rejection of foreign aid shows "hypersensitivity" to opposition to the drug war, said Malcolm Cook, senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "Most populist leaders play this same sovereignty card when criticized by foreign governments."Below is a list of foreign deals and assistance rejected by Duterte:A plan to buy 26,000 firearms from the U.S. was scrapped in 2016, after Democrat Senator Ben Cardin sought to block the weapons sale due to concerns over drug killings.A $235-million deal between Canada and the Philippine military to buy 16 helicopters was canceled last year following Ottawa's order to review the purchase on human rights concerns.A total of 6.1 million euros ($6.7 million) in trade assistance from the European Union -- whose parliament has called for an end to drug-related killings -- was also waived by Duterte's government.Talks with France and Germany for $69 million in loans will be halted after they sponsored the U.N. resolution on the drug war, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said Wednesday. Some 200,000 euros ($220,040) from Spain will be affected based on figures released by Dominguez, who said suspended talks "will not have a significant impact on the country."Duterte's reaction to foreign nations' opposition to the drug war will discourage future aid, said Professor Maria Ela Atienza, University of the Philippines political science department chairwoman. "There appears to be more damage than benefits for the Philippines in the long run."To contact the reporter on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Ruth PollardFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| EU will move on Irish backstop in Brexit talks- PM Johnson Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:00 PM PDT ![EU will move on Irish backstop in Brexit talks- PM Johnson]( "EU will move on Irish backstop in Brexit talks- PM Johnson") The European Union will move on the thorny issue of the backstop, designed to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday. Johnson is seeking to remove the backstop from the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in a bid to secure a new deal which can command the support of lawmakers.
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| Secretary of State Pompeo says U.S. wants peaceful resolution with Iran Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:57 PM PDT ![Secretary of State Pompeo says U.S. wants peaceful resolution with Iran]( "Secretary of State Pompeo says U.S. wants peaceful resolution with Iran") U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States wants a peaceful resolution to tensions with Iran but that rests with Tehran. "We want a peaceful resolution with the Islamic Republic of Iran, we're hoping we can get that way. In the end, it will be up to the Iranians to make that decision," Pompeo told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
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| Johnson Tries Again to Force U.K. Election: Brexit Update Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:51 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing the biggest political crisis of his career, is addressing Parliament for the first time since Britain's Supreme Court ruled his decision to suspend the legislature was illegal.He has offered all opposition political parties the chance to trigger a formal vote of no-confidence in his government, a move that would put Britain on course for a potential general election. Speaking to the Commons, Johnson criticized the court judgment, and said voters wanted politicians to deliver Brexit by the end of October -- without a deal if necessary.Key Developments:Johnson offers to make time for opposition parties to hold a vote of no-confidence in his government on ThursdayJohnson says public wants Brexit with a deal if possible and without one if necessaryJohnson: Supreme Court was wrong to pronounce on suspension of ParliamentCabinet minister Michael Gove sees progress in Brexit talks, but European Union says British proposals unsatisfactoryThe Pound fell 1%The Day After Brexit: What a Crash Out of the EU Might Look LikeJohnson Faces Backlash Over 'Humbug' Remark (9:30 p.m.)In the House of Commons, opposition members of Parliament have been outraged by Boris Johnson's description of the law -- dubbed the Benn-Burt bill after the MPs who proposed it -- to prevent a no-deal Brexit as a "surrender bill." Pressed to change his language, he called it a "capitulation" bill, and said it has weakened his negotiating position with the European Union.Labour MP Paula Sherriff then demanded he stop using "pejorative" and "dangerous" language that, she said, incited violence and death threats against lawmakers. She pointed to the plaque behind her for Jo Cox, the pro-Remain Labour MP murdered during the 2016 Brexit referendum.Johnson replied: "I have never heard so much humbug in my life," adding the best way to cool tensions in the country is to get Brexit done. That has triggered widespread anger on Twitter from politicians and his widower, Brendan Cox.No Sign of Opposition Seeking Confidence Vote (9 p.m.)There's no sign yet of any of the opposition parties taking Boris Johnson up on his offer for them to propose a vote of no confidence in his government. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he wants an election, but will not countenance one until a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 has been ruled out.The Scottish National Party's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, suggested to the House of Commons that he wanted to "unite" the opposition "to trigger a vote of no confidence to bring this chaotic government down," but later issued a statement laying out a position broadly in line with Corbyn.Liberal Democrat Party Leader Jo Swinson made no mention of the offer in an intervention demanding Johnson apologize to the House of Commons over the Supreme Court ruling. The party's Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, said in a text message the Liberal Democrats are "focused on securing the extension before any other option such as a confidence motion."Johnson: Still 'Difficult Issues' in Border Talks (8:15 p.m.)Boris Johnson said he discussed so-called alternative arrangements for the post-Brexit border with Ireland with his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, on Monday -- but warned that there's still work to do."It would be over-optimistic to say that that alone can solve the problem," Johnson told the House of Commons. "There remain difficult issues about customs and we must make progress on that issue.""Alternative arrangements" is the term for methods including trusted trader programs and checks away from the border designed to replace the contentious backstop provision in the Brexit withdrawal agreement.Johnson Won't Quit If He Loses Confidence Vote (7:50 p.m.)Prime Minister Boris Johnson won't stand down if his government loses a no-confidence vote, his spokesman James Slack told reporters. "I have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that the prime minister would resign," he said.Under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, if the government loses such a vote, the premier and other parties have 14 days to win another confidence vote. If no one does so, a general election is triggered. Another spokesman declined to say how Johnson's Conservatives would vote, stressing that while they had confidence in the premier, the vote could be tactical.The spokesman also wouldn't rule out the government suspending Parliament again. He also said the Conservative Party conference will go ahead next week, and that Johnson will speak at it, even if opposition parties refuse to heed convention and approve a parliamentary recess.PM Challenges Opposition to Call Confidence Vote (6:44 p.m.)Prime Minister Boris Johnson challenged the opposition parties to call a vote of confidence in his government as he sought again to force a general election.Johnson threw down the gauntlet to opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, telling him he has until the Commons closes for business on Wednesday to propose a motion of no confidence in the government. He also told minor opposition parties that they too could do so, and the government would ensure there was time to debate it.After opposition parties twice rejected an attempt by Johnson to force an early general election, a confidence vote would offer Johnson another path to national poll.If he loses such a vote, the House of Commons will have 14 days in which to form an alternative government, and if it fails to do so, an election will follow."This parliament must either stand aside and let this government get Brexit done or bring a vote of confidence and finally face a day of reckoning with the voters," Johnson told the Commons on Wednesday.Johnson Attacks Supreme Court as 'Wrong' (6:37 p.m.)Johnson said the Supreme Court was asked to intervene in this process of suspending Parliament for the first time ever. The premier insisted he meant no disrespect to judiciary, before slamming the judges' ruling. "I think the court was wrong to pronounce on what is essentially a political question at a time of great national controversy," Johnson said.Johnson Says EU Talks are Advancing (6:35 p.m.)Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the house of Commons that he's made progress in the talks.Sixty-four days ago, he said, "I was told that Brussels would never reopen the Withdrawal Agreement. We are now discussing the Withdrawal Agreement." He added that the he's now discussing with EU counterparts alternatives to the Irish backstop, and arrangements that aren't permanent, contrary to warnings he'd been given when he started the job.EU Says U.K. Ideas Unacceptable (6 p.m.)The British government's latest ideas for the post-Brexit Irish border aren't acceptable, the European Commission said on Wednesday at a confidential briefing of national diplomats.Last week's three discussion documents, and an additional one looking at how to deal with goods between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, are unsatisfactory and insufficient to replace the so-called backstop, according to officials at the meeting.In truth, very little has happened in the negotiations over the past couple of weeks -- the Commission's criticism of the U.K. ideas hasn't changed in that time. It wants the British government to put forward more concrete proposals sooner rather than later.Johnson to Address Tory MPs on Thursday (5:25 p.m.)Boris Johnson will address the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative members of Parliament at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, a U.K. official said.Gove Swerves Questions About No-Deal Planning (4.20 p.m.)Michael Gove, the minister in charge of no-deal Brexit planning, has swerved question after question in the House of Commons about the details.Whether it was on shortages of medical supplies or the fears that queues of trucks will block the roads, he replied by assuring Parliament that the matter was in hand, and stopped there.He was also asked repeatedly at what point the government stopped referring to the no-deal forecasts revealed earlier this month as "base case" and started calling them "worst case," something he refused to say.Gove Sees 'Significant Progress' in Brexit Talks (3:25 p.m.)Michael Gove, the minister in charge of no-deal Brexit planning, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that there has been "significant movement over recent weeks" in the negotiations with the European Union."Until recently the European Union has maintained that the Withdrawal Agreement was sacrosanct: now they have acknowledged it can be changed," Gove said. "Up until this point the European Union have also said that the Backstop was inviolable. But again, European leaders have said that they are not emotionally attached to the backstop."His optimism appeared at odds with comments from Guy Verhofstadt (see 3 p.m.) and Simon Coveney (see 2 p.m.).Verhofstadt Slams U.K.'s Backstop Ideas (3 p.m.)Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit coordinator, says U.K. discussion papers about replacing the Irish border backstop don't go far enough and are only a "partial response."The documents, which were sent to EU negotiators, are "not a fully fledged legally operable alternative," the former Belgian prime minister told the European Parliament. "It's not acceptable to say the backstop can fall and we put this partial proposal in place of this full backstop."Technical negotiations are continuing in Brussels this week but EU officials say little progress has been made.'Johnson Did Nothing Improper' Over Funding (2:10 p.m.)Matt Warman, on his first appearance as a culture minister in the House of Commons, found himself defending publicly-funded grants given to a business run by a friend of Boris Johnson's.Members of Parliament also asked about reports in the Sunday Times newspaper that Johnson had arranged for U.S. businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri, a technology entrepreneur, to join him on trade missions. Warman said a review of the funding process is underway."There's no evidence that the prime minister did anything improper," Warman said. "We are having a review and we will make that public."The SNP's Brendan O'Hara said the allegations add to "a stench of sleaze and scandal currently engulfing the prime minister."U.K. Border Proposals 'Fanciful,' Irish Say (2 p.m.)Speaking in New York, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the U.K.'s proposals to break the Brexit deadlock have been "fanciful," according to a tweet from Elaine Loughlin, a reporter with the Irish Examiner.Coveney appeared to be striking a tougher tone than that of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who last night appeared to offer some glimmer of hopes that progress was being made after his meeting with Boris Johnson.Election Motion Coming 'Shortly,' Cox Says (1:10 p.m.)Asked by Scottish National Party MP Patricia Gibson why the prime minister won't resign, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox replied that she'll soon have a chance to get her wish.He then may have inadvertently let slip part of Boris Johnson's plans, when he said members of Parliament will soon get the chance to vote on an election motion."Can I encourage her to vote for the election motion that will be coming before the house shortly," he said. "That way she can ensure that what she hopes, what she thinks, no doubt will take place."Cox: Politicians Could Vet Judges in Future (1 p.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox risked escalating the war of words between the government and the judiciary over Brexit. He said the Supreme Court had made new law in its ruling on Tuesday -- and then suggested Parliament may decide it needs to vet the appointment of judges in future."I do think that we are going to have to look again at our constitutional arrangements," Cox said. "One matter may very well be whether there will need to be parliamentary scrutiny of judicial appointments in some manner."He said he is "not enthusiastic" about the prospect of such a development taking place over the months and years ahead. The backlash from lawyers and judges is likely to be far stronger.Cox Suggests Wriggle Room on Brexit Law (12:50 p.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox suggested there may be wriggle room around the law requiring Boris Johnson to delay Brexit if he can't get Parliament to either approve a deal or a no-deal departure from the European Union."There is a question as to precisely what obligations the law might require of the government," Cox said. "But once those obligations are ascertained with clarity, and I'm not saying that they aren't clear, I'm just saying that it's a legitimate consideration the government must go through, the government will obey them."Cox was responding to a question about whether the government was seeking to break the law, which was passed by Parliament earlier this month. He refused to say if he's been asked to provide the government with legal advice on the matter, saying attorneys general "cannot disclose either the fact or content of any advice."Tories Turn their Fire on Johnson's Aide (12.30 p.m.)After Johnson's Supreme Court defeat, MPs in his own party are turning their fire on Dominic Cummings, the prime minister's senior aide. Two former cabinet ministers – and an adviser to a third -- told Bloomberg Cummings should go for his role in the prorogation of Parliament that the court ruled unlawful.One of them noted that after Theresa May's gambit of calling a snap election in 2017 deprived her of the Tory majority, her top two aides lost their jobs. Neither former minister thought Johnson himself should quit.Cox Suggests Simple Law to Call Election (12:20 p.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox offered the opposition Labour Party the opportunity to force an election through a short bill requiring just a simple majority in Parliament."All we need -- I offer this to the front bench of the Labour Party -- all we need is a one-line bill that we could put through with the speaker's help, fixing the date of a general election by a simple majority, and we could have the election," Cox told the House of Commons.It's the first time a Government minister has openly voiced the idea, which has been circulating around Westminster for the past month.The plan would circumvent the only other paths to a general election under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act: Either through a vote requiring a 2/3 majority in Parliament, or following a government losing a confidence vote and no one else being able to form a new administration within two weeks.Cox Says Current Parliament is Dead (12:10 p.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox launched a scathing attack on opposition MPs for failing to pass Theresa May's Brexit deal and then refusing to have a general election."This Parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these green benches," he told the House of Commons. "This Parliament should have the courage to face the electorate, but it won't."While Cox concentrated his fire on the Labour Party, there were current cabinet members who also refused to back May's deal earlier this year.Cox: Any further Suspension Will Comply With Law (12 p.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said if the government does choose to suspend Parliament again, it will comply with the law. "There will be no prorogation that doesn't comply with the terms of the judgment of the Supreme Court," he told the House of Commons.He was responding to a question from former minister Oliver Letwin seeking a guarantee that the government won't suspend Parliament between now and the current Oct. 31 Brexit deadline "save potentially a few days before a Queen's Speech."It's a strong hint that the government plans to suspend Parliament again in order to set out a new legislative agenda before the end of next month – albeit this time for only a few days rather than the 5-week period declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.Cox Defends Independence of Courts (11:50 a.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox added his voice to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland (see 9:55 a.m.) as he defended the independence of the judges in the Supreme Court."I don't think it was a constitutional coup," he said in response to a question about the reported comments of Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was sitting alongside him as he answered questions from MPs. He said the comments were "rhetorical and poetical license.""Judges are both impartial and independent and they are entitled to reach the view that they have reached," he told the House of Commons.And in a robust defense of the legal system and his advice to ministers, he reminded lawmakers that good lawyers often find themselves on the losing side. He had won in a number of courts before the cases reached the Supreme Court, he said. "The fact of the matter is this advice was sound advice at the time."Cox Says Government Accepts Court Decision (11:40 a.m.)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said the government accepts the "definitive and final" ruling of the Supreme Court. "At all times the government acted in good faith," he told the House of Commons, to jeering from the opposition benches.Cox said he is considering whether to publish the advice given to the government on suspending Parliament. "I will consider over the coming days whether the public interest might require a greater disclosure of the advice given to the government on this subject," he said.A leaked version of the advice, reported by Sky News on Tuesday, showed Cox saying that the move was lawful.Johnson to Set Out Next Steps (11:10 a.m.)Boris Johnson will set out his next steps -- including whether he still wants to hold a Queen's Speech on Oct. 14 -- when he addresses lawmakers in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon, his spokeswoman Alison Donnelly told reporters in London.Johnson's team are still considering the implications of the Supreme Court judgment and the prime minister "absolutely" still has confidence in Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, Donnelly said.Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow has granted two urgent questions, according to Labour business managers, so Johnson's statement is now not likely to happen until about 5 p.m.Johnson to Address MPs as Storm Rages (10:45 a.m.)Boris Johnson will make a statement to Parliament later on Wednesday after flying in from New York overnight.When Parliament resumes at 11:30 a.m. there will first be a statement on the collapse of Thomas Cook by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, followed by a statement from No-Deal Brexit Minister Michael Gove, according to business managers from the opposition Labour Party.Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will then update the House on Iran before Johnson appears before MPs. After Johnson, Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg will make a statement on future business, the Labour Whips said on Twitter.Johnson Lands, Readies For Hostile Reception (10:20 a.m.)Boris Johnson has arrived back at Heathrow airport, where a motorcade was waiting to whisk him into central London.Less than eight hours earlier, he was addressing a polite late-evening audience at the United Nations on the subject of the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence. The reception in Parliament is likely to be significantly more hostile.Rebuke for Ministers Straying Off Message (9:55 a.m.)Disagreements among Boris Johnson's top team were laid bare when Justice Secretary Robert Buckland reminded his colleagues of the need to support the judiciary, after a series of attacks on Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling."We must all remember that our world-class judiciary always acts free from political motivation or influence and that the rule of law is the basis of our democracy, for all seasons," Buckland said Wednesday on Twitter. "Personal attacks on judges from any quarter are completely unacceptable."Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg told a cabinet conference call on Tuesday the ruling amounted to a constitutional coup, according to two people familiar with the conversation. On Wednesday, Michael Gove told BBC radio that respectable lawyers say the court was wrong (see Earlier).Glimmers of Hope on Brexit Deal? (9:30 a.m.)It may not be all doom and gloom for Boris Johnson. A few hours after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that he'd broken the law by suspending Parliament, the British prime minister held his second meeting within a month with his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar.On the surface, little seems to have changed, with Varadkar saying the gap between the two sides remains wide.But he also said the encounter was "good" and that the pair would meet again "very soon," suggesting the pace of engagement is quickening. The thorny question of how Northern Ireland might be given a say in any Brexit deal was discussed, pointing to some potential movement.Ultimately, the discussions may lead nowhere -- and Tuesday's court decision gives Ireland little reason to offer concessions anytime soon. But Varadkar's tone suggested all is not lost just yet.Corbyn to Pursue Election Once No-Deal Risk Over (8:30 a.m.)Opposition Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn said he would be prepared to support Boris Johnson's demand for an early general election, but only after the government has applied for a Brexit extension, per legislation passed by Parliament, in the event he can't reach a deal with Brussels. Under the law, an election would follow 25 working days later."I'm very happy to have a general election when we've taken no-deal off the table," Corbyn told BBC Radio 4. If the government applies for an extension and is granted one by the EU, that would "be a step forward," he said.Parliament resumes in London on Wednesday, but by convention, the legislature would be in recess while the Conservatives hold their annual conference in Manchester next week. Corbyn, who delivered the keynote speech to his own party's conference on Tuesday, said he would refuse to allow another suspension of Parliament for the Tories to hold theirs.Corbyn also called on Johnson to apologize to Queen Elizabeth II for giving her unlawful advice to suspend Parliament, "but more importantly apologize to the British people for what he's done in trying to shut down our democracy at a very crucial time, he said.Gove: Respectable Lawyers Say Court Is Wrong (Earlier)Michael Gove, the U.K. minister in charge of no-deal Brexit planning, said there is respectable legal opinion that disagrees with the ruling of the Supreme Court on the suspension of Parliament."It's perfectly possible to disagree with with some of the reasoning but to respect the rule of law," Gove told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday. His comments come after fellow Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg attacked the ruling on a conference call with Boris Johnson and other ministers, calling it a constitutional coup, two people familiar with the matter said.Significantly, Gove also didn't rule out the possibility of another suspension to allow a new session of Parliament to begin, saying the government wants to pursue its domestic agenda. He said the government would lay out its proposals to Parliament on Wednesday.SNP Indicates Support for Corbyn as Interim PM (Earlier)Ian Blackford, Westminster leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party -- which is pushing the most strongly for an immediate general election -- suggested in a BBC radio interview he could support Jeremy Corbyn as a temporary, interim prime minister to oversee an election.Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat Deputy leader Ed Davey proposed veteran MPs Harriet Harman for Labour, or Ken Clarke for the Tories, as a temporary solution for a cross-party government of national unity. For his part, Clarke told BBC radio that rather than discussing candidates, Parliament should be focusing on what any interim leader is trying to achieve.Earlier:Johnson Flies Into His Gravest Crisis After Brexit Court DefeatBoris Johnson's Big Brexit Gamble Has Plainly Failed: EditorialThe Day After Brexit: What a Crash Out of the EU Might Look LikeBoris Johnson Caught in the Supreme Court's Constitutional Web\--With assistance from Thomas Penny, Dara Doyle, Kitty Donaldson, Ian Wishart, Jessica Shankleman and Robert Hutton.To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UK PM Johnson says he will not ask for Brexit extension Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:40 PM PDT ![UK PM Johnson says he will not ask for Brexit extension]( "UK PM Johnson says he will not ask for Brexit extension") British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he would not seek an extension to Brexit even if the conditions of a recently passed bill were met, forcing him to do so. Opposition parties recently forced through a new law requiring the government to ask for a delay to Brexit beyond the deadline of Oct. 31 if it fails to secure a deal by Oct. 19, or the support of parliament to leave without one.
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| The Truth About Trump’s Insane Ukraine ‘Server’ Conspiracy Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:38 PM PDT  Saul Loeb/GettyDonald Trump asked for more than a criminal investigation of his political opponent's son in his call with Ukraine's president. Trump also sought help in reviving a long-ago debunked conspiracy theory that challenges the basic underpinnings of the U.S. intelligence community's findings on Russia's 2016 election interference, in a bizarre spectacle that sees an American president trying to conscript a foreign leader into undermining his own intelligence agencies."I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike," Trump said, according to a compilation of notes on the call released by the White House. "I guess you have one of your wealthy people. The server, they say Ukraine has it."To those not versed in fringe-right canon, it's a curious thing to say. "It almost sounds like he was babbling to the president of Ukraine," said Robert Johnston, CEO of Adlumin, who led the DNC breach investigation while at Crowdstrike. "I imagine it would have confused the Ukranian president. Like, 'What are you talking about?'"Conservative websites are spinning the odd exchange as a reference to a Justice Department investigation ordered by William Barr into the origins of the Mueller probe. "It is unclear specifically what Trump was referring to with Crowdstrike," reads one article in this vein on The Federalist. In truth, it's actually quite clear. Trump is referencing a conspiracy theory pushed by Russian trolls and far-right pundits that imagines the Democratic National Committee fabricating all the evidence in Russia's 2016 breach of the DNC network. The hoax has its roots in a GRU persona, "Guccifer 2.0," created to cast doubt on Russia's culpability in the DNC hack. Today it's buttressed by deceptive blog posts, memes, and putative forensic analysis of metadata in documents leaked from the DNC and John Podesta intrusions, and has spun out several related theories and offshoots, including the Seth Rich hoax that blames the hack on a slain DNC staffer with previously-unknown hacking skills.Crowdstrike enters the picture because it's the security firm the DNC hired to investigate the breach back in 2016, and the first of many to identify Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, as the perpetrator. A publicly-traded company headquartered in California, Crowdstrike has nothing to do with Ukraine, except in conspiracyland, which pretends that Crowdstrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch is Ukrainian, and that he framed Russia for election interference both on the DNC's orders and to punish Putin for invading his homeland.In real life, Alperovitch is an American citizen born in Russia who escaped to the U.S. with his family during the Soviet era. But Trump has shown a pronounced preference for the pretend version. "Why wouldn't Podesta and Hillary Clinton allow the FBI to see the server?" Trump asked the AP in 2017. "They brought in another company that I hear is Ukrainian-based… I heard it's owned by a very rich Ukrainian, that's what I heard."The "server" in the conspiracy is the hacked DNC server that the Democrats, the claim goes, won't let the FBI examine because it would expose their elaborate plot. "What is the server saying?" Trump asked in one tweet last year. That part's made up, too. The DNC turned down one unusual FBI request early in the hack investigation. The bureau wanted access to the DNC's network while the Russians were still in it, most likely to stage a counter operation against the GRU. The DNC declined, perhaps reluctant to have two intelligence agencies playing capture-the-flag in their systems five months before a presidential election. The DNC later authorized Crowdstrike to share full copies of the hacked servers with the bureau, giving the FBI access to the same evidence Crowdstrike had. "With regards to our investigation of the DNC hack in 2016, we provided all forensic evidence and analysis to the FBI," Crowdstrike said in a statement Wednesday. "As we've stated before, we stand by our findings and conclusions that have been fully supported by the US Intelligence community."EXCLUSIVE: 'Lone DNC Hacker' Guccifer 2.0 Slipped Up and Revealed He Was a Russian Intelligence OfficerIn truth, Crowdstrike's findings were never controversial among security experts, and they were later confirmed by FBI agents with access to the same evidence, as well as additional evidence Crowdstrike never had. In October 2018, Robert Mueller indicted 12 GRU officers for the DNC intrusion and hacks targeting John Podesta and the DCCC.Today the secret server hoax is mostly confined to the very edge of the conservative fringe, though it's made an appearance in court. Indicted former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone has been using the theory to try and get evidence against him thrown out of court, even filing an affidavit written by William Binney, one of the conspiracy theory's most dogged advocates. Last week the federal judge overseeing Stone's obstruction of justice case rejected his motion without ruling on the conspiracy theory itself.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Space launch includes 1st flyer from United Arab Emirates Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:29 PM PDT  A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off at 6:57 p.m. (1357 GMT) from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome to lift a Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft into orbit. It was the third spaceflight for Skripochka and the first for Meir and al-Mansoori, who flew to the station was on an eight-day mission under a contract between the UAE and Roscosmos.
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| Everything You Need to Know About the Youth Activists Taking on the Climate Crisis at the UN Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:11 PM PDT ![Everything You Need to Know About the Youth Activists Taking on the Climate Crisis at the UN]( "Everything You Need to Know About the Youth Activists Taking on the Climate Crisis at the UN") Sixteen teen and tween activists are suing Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey for violating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, each with heartbreaking stories of how climate change has affected them.
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| Trump’s impeachment will embolden Iran to stand its ground over diplomatic crisis Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:57 PM PDT  There is no chance of a meeting between Donald Trump and Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations this week in New York.Trump is not willing to give up his maximum pressure on Iran before he gets a meeting, and Mr Rouhani is not willing to meet before the pressure is lifted.
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| Trump Escalates Political Jeopardy With Release of Ukraine Call Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:50 PM PDT (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump placed himself in deeper political jeopardy by ordering the release of a confidential memorandum recounting his July 25 call with Ukraine's president, a document showing the president imploring the leader of a country dependent on U.S. aid to help him smear a political rival.Read the memorandum here. The memorandum -- which amounts to a rough transcript of the call -- reveals Trump wielding his powers as the country's chief executive to his personal benefit, either indifferent or oblivious to any consequences.In a single phone call, Trump sought to enlist a foreign government's aid in his re-election campaign by investigating a person who was at the time the front-runner to challenge him; use his own personal lawyer to sidestep diplomatic channels; and deploy the top law enforcement officer in the U.S. to assist a patently political endeavor.The call also illustrates the extent to which clever foreign leaders seek to ingratiate themselves with a U.S. president who made his fortune and reputation running a business built on his personal brand. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, noted to Trump that the last time he visited New York, he stayed at Trump Tower.Trump's allies said the transcript clears the president because he didn't explicitly link U.S. aid to his request that Ukraine investigate his rival. And Zelenskiy said in a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that "nobody pushed it" in their phone call."We had, I think, good phone call," Zelenskiy said in English. "It was normal. We spoke about many things."He later switched to Ukrainian and told reporters: "I don't owe anyone anything, you all understand." He said that the country's new prosecutor-general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, "should investigate whatever the cases. What kind of promises can there be?"What Trump said during the 30-minute exchange with Zelenskiy has become central to an impeachment inquiry House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday. Lawmakers are probing whether Trump pressured Ukraine to re-open a criminal inquiry linked to former Vice President Joe Biden's family in exchange for restoring U.S. military aid that Trump halted prior to the call.@realDonaldTrump Read the rough transcript, just released by the White House, of the call between Trump and the president of Ukraine https://t.co/TdNtNrOjxH pic.twitter.com/ltjF2wuHaT— Bloomberg (@business) September 25, 2019 The memorandum shows that Trump did pressure Zelenskiy to re-open the Biden investigation. All that remains in dispute is whether Zelenskiy understood Trump's demand to be a quid pro quo: dirt on Biden in exchange for further U.S. aid."I respect the responsibility of the president to engage with foreign leaders as part of his job," Pelosi said in a statement on Wednesday. "It is not part of his job to use taxpayer money to shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign.""Clearly, the Congress must act," she said.The Trump administration has reversed course and on Wednesday will provide Congress an unnamed intelligence official's whistle-blower complaint concerning a sequence of events including Trump's Zelenskiy call, a person familiar with the matter said. The complaint, filed Aug. 12, sparked an investigation by three House committees that has developed into the impeachment inquiry.The person asked not to be identified discussing plans to distribute the confidential document.'Deeply Troubled'Some Republicans have indicated they are also uneasy about Trump's interactions with Zelenskiy. "I remain deeply troubled," Senator Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters on Wednesday, after the memorandum was released.The memorandum holds implications not only for Trump but also Attorney General William Barr, whom the president said he wanted Zelenskiy to speak to about the Biden investigation, and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has sought to investigate and amplify allegations about Biden's activities in Ukraine.Trump mentioned Biden several times during the call as he described claims that, as vice president, Biden pushed to oust Ukraine's top prosecutor to help a company that employed his son Hunter Biden -- allegations that are disputed by officials and documents in Ukraine.https://t.co/lZCUyp40hL pic.twitter.com/Hod65VRU32— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) September 25, 2019 "There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that. So whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great," Trump told Zelenskiy, referring to Barr.Zelenskiy, whose country is dependent on U.S. military aid, told Trump he would try to accommodate him. The Ukrainian leader, who was elected in April, told the U.S. president that after he appointed a new chief prosecutor, "he or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue."But Trump, speaking Wednesday to reporters in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said the transcript showed "there was no pressure whatsoever" on Ukraine and called the House inquiry "the single greatest witch hunt in American history."Confidential ConversationsConversations between U.S. presidents and their foreign counterparts are generally confidential, and the memos documenting them are closely-held secrets. Trump expressed reticence about releasing the Zelenskiy transcript out of concern about setting a precedent. The president ordered the document declassified after mounting pressure from Democrats as well as some Republicans.The Zelenskiy memorandum was originally labeled "secret," "eyes only" and "do not copy," but a notation on the publicly released version reads: "Declassified by order of the President," dated Tuesday. The transcript was developed using voice-recognition software along with note-takers and experts who were listening.The memo states that the call was 30 minutes long, but a note at the bottom of the first page cautions readers that it "is not a verbatim transcript."Trump did not explicitly tell Zelenskiy that future U.S. military assistance would be conditioned on an investigation of Biden, and he brought up Biden after Zelenskiy first mentioned wanting to meet with Giuliani -- two points the White House is certain to argue are exculpatory.And while the president told Zelenskiy early in the call that the U.S. "does a lot for Ukraine," that comment was in the context of complaining about Germany, which Trump said "does almost nothing for you."Trump also never specifically mentioned a military aid package he froze shortly before his call with the Ukrainian leader. Early in the call, Zelenskiy thanked Trump for U.S. assistance and said he's preparing to order more U.S.-supplied Javelin anti-tank missiles -- an indication he wasn't aware that the aid had been halted.But Trump responded: "I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it." That remark sparked a conversation between the two men about various investigations Trump wanted pursued, including the Biden probe.The president said Tuesday that he had withheld the military aid to Ukraine over a previously unknown dispute with Europe.DNC, Biden InvestigationsTrump first asked Zelenskiy for help probing the 2016 hack of a Democratic National Committee computer server and an ensuing investigation by the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, which was also involved in tracking Russian interference in the the last presidential election."The server, they say Ukraine has it," Trump told Zelenskiy, according to the White House document. "There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation."Zelenskiy responded that "it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned." He told Trump that he had recalled Ukraine's former U.S. ambassador and would appoint a new one "who will work very hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer," and offered to meet with Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer."All the investigations will be done openly and candidly," Zelenskiy assured Trump.Trump responded: "Good, because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved."In 2016, Biden led an Obama administration effort -- in concert with other Western nations -- to pressure Ukraine to remove its former prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, who was considered ineffective and had been publicly accused of corruption by his deputy. Shokin had opened an investigation into a company connected to Biden's son, Hunter Biden, but the probe had gone dormant well before the Obama administration sought his ouster, the deputy told Bloomberg News in an interview earlier this year.Trump told Zelenskiy in the call: "Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... it sounds horrible to me." Zelenskiy agreed to re-open an investigation, promising that the prosecutor general he appointed "will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue."Trump also disparaged Special Counsel Robert Mueller's testimony on Capitol Hill as "an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started in Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible."Zelenskiy repeatedly tried to ingratiate himself to Trump in the call, at one point telling the president that the "last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower."Whistle-Blower ComplaintThe whistle-blower complaint to the intelligence community's inspector general, Michael Atikinson, led him to suggest Trump may have violated campaign finance law. The inspector general referred the matter to the Justice Department and FBI for investigation.Democrats demanded a copy of the complaint after becoming aware it had been filed, but the Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire objected, with the support of the Justice Department.The Justice Department conducted an investigation and concluded last week that Trump didn't violate campaign finance laws in the course of the Zelenskiy call, department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement. But the Justice Department didn't take into consideration that Trump was withholding military aid to Ukraine at the time of the call, one official said. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.The intelligence whistle-blower didn't have first-hand knowledge of the call, and Atkinson determined there was some indication the person has a "political bias" in favor of one of Trump's political rivals, the Justice Department said in a legal opinion.The department's Office of Legal Counsel also determined that the complaint from the intelligence official didn't fall under a law requiring it to be provided to Congress.Although Trump talked about involving Barr in an investigation into Biden, Barr has not recused himself from the matter, the Justice Department official said. Kupec said Barr never discussed the matter with Trump or Giuliani and hasn't been in contact with Ukraine.Lawmakers are still seeking additional information about Trump's actions, including the whistle-blower complaint.But many Republicans said the transcript should exonerate Trump."There was no quid pro quo and nothing to justify the clamor House Democrats caused yesterday," House Judiciary's top Republican Doug Collins of Georgia said of the transcript. "The real danger here is that Democrats keep using baseless accusations in hopes of crippling a successful presidency."\--With assistance from Billy House, Steven T. Dennis and Polly Mosendz.To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net;Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, ;Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Justin BlumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump, with Ukraine's president by his side, defends call to investigate Biden Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:49 PM PDT  Amid mounting calls for President Trump's impeachment over his July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump met face-to-face with Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
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| Entangled in US scandal, Ukraine's president speaks at UN Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Abruptly cast into the center of a political storm in the United States, Ukraine's president steered clear of the controversy Wednesday as he made his debut at the United Nations, focusing instead on the horrors of war and on his country's ongoing conflict with Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskiy's address at the U.N. General Assembly came less than a day after a formal U.S. House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump was launched — a development that was sparked partly by a July 25 phone call between the two leaders. It has come under scrutiny because Trump prodded Zelenskiy to investigate Trump rival and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
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| Johnson offers words of praise to Egypt's leader despite repression Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:43 PM PDT  Banning of BBC and crackdown on protests seemingly not on agenda at PM's talks with SisiBoris Johnson and Egypt's President Sisi say they want to build on talks at the G7 summit in August. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/ReutersThe prime minister, Boris Johnson, lavished praise on Egypt at a bilateral meeting with its president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in New York, hours before the UK hosted a global media freedom conference with Amal Clooney, the UK's special envoy on media freedom.Sisi has just instigated a fresh massive crackdown on journalists following the outbreak of protests against corruption in Egypt.As part of the repression, the Egyptian government has added the BBC and the US-based Arabic language Alhurra news channel to 513 websites already blocked in Egypt. In addition, online messaging applications have been disrupted to thwart further protests. The Egyptian government has also sent advisory warnings to foreign reporters on how they must cover the protests.Civil society groups, including the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, said so far 1,003 people had been arrested including prominent academics.Johnson and Sisi held their bilateral meeting on the margins of the UN general assembly hours before the UK hosted a high-profile event designed to drive home its support for a campaign to develop new laws that will defend journalists' rights.But the president's spokesman Bassam Radi reported after the meeting with Johnson that the UK was "keen to praise Egypt's economic performance noting that the Egyptian economy is witnessing an obvious improvement".The presidential spokesperson also said the two leaders discussed efforts to curb terrorism and extremism, enhancing the exchange of information and preventing funding for terrorist activities.The bland Downing Street read-out of the meeting also made no mention of the crackdown on protests. It simply said "the leaders recalled their constructive meeting at the G7 Summit in Biarritz and reconfirmed their commitment to work together to build on the positive progress in our bilateral relationship".It added "They discussed our two countries' economic ties and the importance of building on this after the UK leaves the EU".Officials said the media crackdown may have been raised privately with Sisi. But the absence of any criticism of the assault on press freedom in the read-out raises questions about whether the UK government is willing to hold repressive autocrats to account in public about issues of media freedom, especially if commercial ties might be threatened.Pressed at the media freedom summit in New York on whether ministers are prepared to make its case directly to resistant world leaders, Lord Ahmad, the human rights minister, said the UK government often raised human rights issues in private as well as public. He insisted this private pressure had an effect.The UK held a high-profile media freedom conference in the summer and Clooney, a champion of threatened journalists, has helped established a high-level panel of legal experts to examine what global laws are needed to defend press freedom globally.At the meeting in New York, Ahmad reaffirmed the UK's intention, after Brexit, to establish a UK global human rights sanctions regime to hold those who commit serious violations of human rights to account, including when journalists, whistleblowers and human rights defenders are targeted. He said a statutory instrument would be introduced as soon as possible.Clooney, the leading lawyer defending journalists under threat, said: "If democracy is to have any chance of survival we need leaders who believe in liberal values to step up."She said journalists were made incredibly vulnerable by the rising drumbeat of senior officials vilifying the media and creating a toxic environment.She said the current international treaties defending freedom of expression were ineffective, adding the team of senior legal experts created two months ago and chaired by former supreme court president Lord Neuberger set up by the UK Foreign Office was drawing up model laws needed to embed a genuine free press.She favours five new tools including targeted sanctions regimes, freezing bank accounts and entry bans against state officials that abuse media freedom, deployment of a team of international lawyers capable of investigating attacks, a commitment to transparency when a journalist is arrested, enhanced consular advice and a system of visas for reporters suffering persecution.
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| Trump Says He Hopes Zelensky and Putin Can Be BFFs Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Saul Loeb/GettyQuestions about the nature of President Donald Trump's relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have prompted the House of Representatives to launch an impeachment inquiry. But in his first in-person appearance with the leader he allegedly pressured to investigate his political rivals, Trump appeared more interested in matching Zelensky up with another unlikely ally: Russian President Vladimir Putin."I really hope that Russia—because I really believe that President Putin would like to do something—I really hope that you and President Putin can get together and solve your problem," Trump said at the United Nations on Wednesday, as Zelensky sat stone-faced. "That would be a tremendous achievement, and I know that you're trying to do that.""You've really made some progress with Russia," Trump added, telling Zelensky that "it'd be nice to end that whole disaster."The prospect of such a friendship is, in a word, unlikely. Ukraine and the Russian Federation have been engaged in a slow-motion war since Putin's invasion and subsequent occupation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014, which has resulted in the displacement of 1.5 million Ukrainians and thousands of deaths. Speaking at the United Nations, Trump said that while he thought that Ukraine should possess Crimea, he blamed the loss of the region on President Barack Obama."It's just one of those things," Trump said of the annexation. In freewheeling remarks that occasionally dipped into ranting conspiracism, Trump defended himself allegations of impropriety in a July phone call with Zelensky, in which he asked the newly elected Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice president and Trump's potential re-election opponent. In the phone call, a putative transcript of which was released on Wednesday morning, Trump offered Zelensky the assistance of personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr in his quest for dirt on Biden and his son."A lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great," Trump said at the time. "Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."Inside the Call: How Trump Pushed Ukraine to Probe BidenThat phone call—as well as the existence of a whistleblower complaint filed with the intelligence community's inspector general allegedly regarding Trump's attempts to obtain information on a political rival—has prompted a flood of congressional Democrats to come out in support of launching an impeachment inquiry against the president. Those efforts culminated on Tuesday evening with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing that she would back such an inquiry.Zelensky, looking uncomfortable, issued a weak denial in response to a question about whether he felt pressured to support an investigation into Biden in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally appropriated military aid to the country, which Trump had withheld ahead of their phone call."I'm sorry, but I don't want to be involved in democratic open elections, elections of USA," Zelensky said. Of the phone call, Zelensky called it "normal.""I think, and you read it, that nobody pushed me," Zelensky added."In other words, no pressure," Trump interjected. "I appreciate the answer."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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| Central Park interactive art installation promotes climate awareness Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:34 PM PDT  A public art installation in New York's Central Park is inviting thousands to contribute a blue brush stroke to a massive canvas, art symbolic of the breaths shared by humanity that aims to heighten environmental awareness. The Danish artist Jeppe Hein installed the canvas measuring nearly 600 feet (180 meters) long by 10 feet high, and painted its first four lines that are intended to visualize an inhale and exhale. The installation entitled "Breathe With Me," timed with the recent United Nations Climate Summit, is now open for the public to leave its mark.
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| Former rebel stronghold in Syria begins to rebuild Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:17 PM PDT  Portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad adorn a few buildings still intact after years of fighting and Russian soldiers hand out food and other supplies to residents of this Syrian town that was recently captured by the Syrian army. Khan Sheikoun, which holds a strategic position in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, fell to Assad's forces last month following weeks of a massive offensive by Syrian troops backed by Russian military support.
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| 6 Key Moments in the Trump-Ukraine Phone Call Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:56 AM PDT  President Donald Trump declassified and released on Wednesday a reconstructed transcript of his 30-minute conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine. The five-page document reveals the discussion between the two men that took place on July 25. A group of National Security Council officials referred to as "notetakers" transcribed the call from the White House Situation Room. Trump appears to have spoken to Zelenskiy from his residence.There is a note of caution in the transcript: a footnote says it is not verbatim, and its text contains ellipses.1\. Trump asked for an investigation into the Bidens.Trump: "The other thing. There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me."In this passage, Trump pushed the new Ukrainian president to get his country's prosecutor to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. In May, Ukraine's top prosecutor had said there is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens to investigate.When he was vice president, Biden had pushed the Ukrainian government in 2015 to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was widely seen as an obstacle to reform because he failed to bring corruption cases. At the time, Biden's son sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, that was the subject of an investigation that Shokin's office had long left dormant.In 2018, Biden talked about his effort to get Shokin removed -- carrying out the Obama administration's policy -- at a Council on Foreign Relations event, and Trump's supporters have used a brief video clip from those remarks as part of their insinuations that the vice president was trying to protect Burisma Holdings from prosecution. Biden did not portray his effort to get Shokin out as stopping any prosecution of Burisma Holdings.2\. Trump alluded to U.S. aid, while not explicitly linking his request to unfreezing it, the document shows.Trump: "I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time."At the time of this call, Trump was holding back hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine that Congress had appropriated to help that country fend off Russian aggression. The two leaders did not directly refer to Trump's freezing of the aid or whether he would unfreeze it. However, Trump referred to large-scale U.S. assistance to Ukraine in this passage, and several sentences later, Trump added:Trump: … "but the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal, necessarily, because things are happening that are not good. But the United States has been very very good to Ukraine."At this point in the call, Trump brought up the idea of reciprocity, suggesting that the United States has been good to Ukraine even though something Ukraine has done is not good. The next thing Trump said -- after Zelenskiy responded to this statement -- was to ask for investigations.3\. Zelenskiy agreed to pursue an inquiry into the Bidens.Zelenskiy: "Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate who will be approved by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country."In May, Ukraine's top prosecutor at the time had said there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens for him to investigate. In this passage, Zelenskiy promises to do what Trump is asking -- launch an investigation into the Bidens -- but also asks Trump if he can provide any information for Ukrainian investigators to look at.4\. Trump said Barr would call the Ukrainian president about another investigation.Trump: "I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation in Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike … I guess you have one of your wealthy people … The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do it's very important that you do it if that's possible."Trump appears to be referencing an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory pushed by Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, that Ukraine had some involvement in the emails stolen from Democratic National Committee.Giuliani said in a previously unpublished portion of an interview with The New York Times in April that he was in touch with people "who said that the Ukrainians were the ones who did the hacking," then participated in an effort to blame the Russian government and link it to the Trump campaign.The special counsel's report, which Trump disparages here, made clear that Russian military officers hacked the DNC mail server. There is no evidence that the Ukrainians were involved. But in May, Attorney General William Barr launched his own investigation into the Russia investigation and its origins.5\. Trump cast aspersions on Western Europe and Germany as Ukrainian allies.Trump: "Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it's something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn't do anything. A lot of European countries are the same way so I think it's something you want to look at but the United States has been very good to Ukraine."The geopolitical fate of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, has been up for grabs. Zelenskiy has expressed interest in having his country join NATO, and many in Ukraine want their future to be oriented toward Western Europe. But Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, has been trying to bring it back into Moscow's orbit.In recent years, Russia has annexed Crimea and invaded Ukraine's eastern territory, where many Ukrainian citizens are ethnically Russian and where pro-Russian separatists are strong. In this portion of the phone call, Trump suggests Ukraine cannot count on Europe and casts aspersions on German assistance.6\. Trump portrayed Giuliani, his personal lawyer, as an envoy.Trump: "Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news I just want to let you know that."Here the president is pushing Zelenskiy to deal directly with Giuliani, his personal lawyer and close ally, while disparaging the United States' Senate-confirmed ambassador.Giuliani has repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories about the Bidens and encouraged the Ukrainian government to ramp up investigations into them. He told The New York Times in May that he was doing so "because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government."At the time of this call, Giuliani had recently spoken on the phone with a top representative of the new Ukrainian president, and would soon meet him in person in Madrid. Giuliani has said he was acting on his own as a private citizen, but with the knowledge and assistance of the State Department.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Israel's Netanyahu given chance to form new government Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:46 AM PDT  Israel's president on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government, giving the longtime leader the difficult task of breaking a post-election deadlock that has paralyzed the country's political system. After a divisive campaign, Netanyahu called for a "broad unity government" with his chief rival former military chief Benny Gantz. President Reuven Rivlin announced his decision late Wednesday after a second meeting aimed at brokering a unity deal between Netanyahu and Gantz ended without an agreement.
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| Netanyahu Asked to Form Government With Few Signs He Can Succeed Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:06 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Benjamin Netanyahu was tapped to form Israel's next government, with no clear indication he'll be able to pull that off and end months of political stalemate.The decision late Wednesday by President Reuven Rivlin to hand Netanyahu first crack at building a coalition in parliament grants the Israeli leader a political lifeline just a week before he faces a crucial hearing on the corruption allegations that have clouded the last three years of his tenure."Netanyahu's ability to form a government is higher at this moment," Rivlin said at a news conference in Jerusalem.Netanyahu's Likud party slightly trailed former military chief Benny Gantz's Blue and White in the Sept. 17 election, but he had the slimmest lead when factions were asked to recommend their choice for premier. In the eight days since the election, no visible progress has been made toward ending the political impasse it produced.Rivlin attempted to glue the two big parties together in a power-sharing deal, but his failure to do so forced him to choose one man over the other. Netanyahu said after he was chosen that he "will do all I can" to form a broad national unity government, but Gantz rejected the notion out of hand."Blue and White doesn't agree to sit in a government whose potential leader is facing a serious indictment," Gantz said in a statement.'All or Nothing'If Netanyahu fails to put together a government, Rivlin will turn to Gantz or someone else. The prime minister will have at least four weeks, and possibly six, to try to complete the task.The lack of a decisive victory undercut the aura of invincibility that Netanyahu had promoted. To build a parliamentary majority, he'll either have to clinch a power-sharing pact, peel off lawmakers from the opposing camp or win the endorsement of former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, whose refusal to join his coalition after an April election catalyzed the election do-over. Liberman hasn't lined up behind anyone so far."It's all or nothing for Netanyahu," pollster Mitchell Barak said. "Either he succeeds and he's the prime minister in an unprecedented victory or he fails and he's out of politics."Indictment HearingIsrael has been gripped by political turmoil since Netanyahu first dissolved parliament in December, then disbanded it again after coalition talks following the April 9 election collapsed over Liberman's insistence on scaling back ultra-Orthodox military draft exemptions.The policy paralysis that's ensued is liable to continue through the end of the year as diplomatic and regional security challenges mount -- and Netanyahu faces the prospect of being brought to trial.Next week, Netanyahu will try to persuade Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit to back away from his plan to indict the prime minister in three corruption cases. The Israeli leader claims he's the innocent victim of a political witch hunt by leftists and journalists bent on thwarting his nationalist agenda. He wouldn't have to step down if charged, only if he's convicted and has exhausted all avenues of appeal.Netanyahu's legal entanglements have given him added incentive to stay in power: He's been trying to push through a new law that would shield an incumbent leader from prosecution, and the coalition-building fiasco got in the way. His hearing before Mandelblit is scheduled for two days beginning Oct. 2, and Israel television reported that the attorney-general is angling to render a decision sometime in November.The Israeli leader received expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen and is accused of reshaping the country's communications landscape to benefit a media mogul to win sympathetic coverage. If he manages to build a coalition, the distraction of criminal charges could badly hamper his ability to govern.Back-to-back elections have already held up the Trump administration's release of its blueprint for Middle East peacemaking and delayed efforts to narrow Israel's widening budget deficit. Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip are posing continuing challenges to Israel's security.(Updates with president's comment in third paragraph, Netanyahu in fifth.)To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Teibel in Jerusalem at ateibel@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Yaacov Benmeleh, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Lawyers: 3 Egyptian activists detained amid wave of arrests Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:57 AM PDT  Egyptian security forces arrested three political activists known for their outspoken criticism of Egypt's government and president, defense lawyers said Wednesday, amid an intensified crackdown on dissent following small but rare anti-government protests over the weekend. Police quickly dispersed the protests, but they signified a startling eruption of street unrest.
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| There’s Plenty of Impeachment-Worthy Evidence in the Ukraine Call Transcript Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:45 AM PDT ![There's Plenty of Impeachment-Worthy Evidence in the Ukraine Call Transcript]( "There's Plenty of Impeachment-Worthy Evidence in the Ukraine Call Transcript") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A White House memo recording Donald Trump's July phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy is damning.Trump's request that the president of Ukraine initiate a corruption investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter wasn't incidental. On the contrary, it appears to have been the point of the call, along with an additional request to investigate the origins of the Russian collusion allegations against Trump. Trump brought up the investigations nearly every time he opened his mouth. Zelenskiy responded positively, suggesting he got the point.There is more than enough evidence here to support an allegation that Trump was not merely asking the president of Ukraine "to do us a favor," as he put it, but rather proposing a quid pro quo in which U.S. aid for Ukraine would be reinstated in exchange for an investigation into the Mueller investigation, and into Biden. That would constitute an abuse of power by the president of the United States for his own benefit, since Biden was and is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in 2020.Such an abuse, if proven, would almost certainly qualify as an impeachable offense. It might even constitute a federal crime of extortion, depending on whether political assistance to Trump in beating Biden would count as something valuable under the relevant statutes.The first proof that the quid pro quo arrangement was the whole point of the call is that the call occurred at all. As Zelenskiy pointed out to Trump in the beginning of the call, he hadn't just won his presidential election, as Trump seemed to think. Rather, his party had won parliamentary elections. Trump had already called Zelenskiy a different time to congratulate him on his presidential victory.Zelenskiy seemed a little surprised at the attention conferred by the extra call. After explaining to Trump that "you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election," he quipped: "I think I should run more often so you can call me more often."Congratulatory phone calls to new presidents of allies are not at all uncommon. But calls to congratulate a politician when his party wins a parliamentary vote are not standard operating procedure. Zelenskiy's joke about getting so many calls from Trump suggests, in context, that Zelenskiy was trying to figure out why the president was bothering to call him over parliamentary elections.Trump didn't keep him in suspense for long. After Zelenskiy buttered up Trump by telling him that he was "a great teacher," Trump jumped in say that "we do a lot for Ukraine." He left no doubt that he was referring to financial aid. Angela Merkel, he said by way of contrast, "talks Ukraine but she doesn't do anything." Clearly Trump was saying that U.S. aid to Ukraine was greater than that given by other countries.Zelenskiy responded to show he understood they were talking about money. "Technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union and I am very grateful to you for that," he said. The word "technically" seems in context to mean that the U.S. gave more aid to Ukraine than the EU did.In the same response, Zelenskiy added: "I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense." This was an explicit reference to military aid — which Trump had frozen several days earlier. Zelenskiy then assured him that "we are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps" and specifically mentions buying Javelin anti-tank missiles "from the United States for defense purposes." This context matters tremendously because of what happened next. The memo indicates Trump immediately responding by saying "I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it." Then he asked for an investigation connected to CrowdStrike, an American company that investigated the Democratic National Committee email hacks in 2016, but that Trump seems to think is Ukrainian. After cryptically mentioning a missing server, he adds "I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday" — July 24 — "that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller … but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible."Trump was talking at this point about an investigation into the Mueller investigation. But Zelenskiy may have thought he was talking about an investigation into Biden. He assured Trump "we are ready to open a new page on cooperation" between the U.S. and Ukraine, and then spontaneously brought up Rudy Giuliani, who apparently had been trying to reach Zelenskiy to discuss the Biden matter: "One of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently," he said, "and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine."Astonishingly, Trump hadn't yet brought up Giuliani at all when Zelenskiy did. But he went with it, praising Giuliani and then saying "The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me." Trump then brought up Giuliani and Attorney General Barr several more times in subsequent parts of the exchange, saying "We will get to the bottom of it. I am sure we will figure it out." Trump's defenders will say this evidence is all circumstantial. But circumstantial evidence is not weak evidence: it's simply evidence based on the circumstances in which an act of wrongdoing is committed — such as the license plate of a car that speeds away from a bank just after that bank is robbed. Criminals are convicted on such evidence all the time. They will also say that there's no explicit quid pro quo proposal here. But as I wrote yesterday, "even when a corrupt deal is struck implicitly, the government can still prosecute extortion on a quid pro quo basis. Circumstantial evidence can be enough to prove a criminal exchange."In the absence of an explicit quid pro quo over restarting aid, the context and circumstances are what will become the focus of the investigation. There is enough here to support impeachment. Whether it is also enough to convince Republicans and lead to removal is another matter.To contact the author of this story: Noah Feldman at nfeldman7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah Green Carmichael at sgreencarmic@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include "The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President." For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| There’s Plenty of Impeachment-Worthy Evidence in the Ukraine Call Transcript Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:45 AM PDT ![There's Plenty of Impeachment-Worthy Evidence in the Ukraine Call Transcript]( "There's Plenty of Impeachment-Worthy Evidence in the Ukraine Call Transcript") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A White House memo recording Donald Trump's July phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy is damning.Trump's request that the president of Ukraine initiate a corruption investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter wasn't incidental. On the contrary, it appears to have been the point of the call, along with an additional request to investigate the origins of the Russian collusion allegations against Trump. Trump brought up the investigations nearly every time he opened his mouth. Zelenskiy responded positively, suggesting he got the point.There is more than enough evidence here to support an allegation that Trump was not merely asking the president of Ukraine "to do us a favor," as he put it, but rather proposing a quid pro quo in which U.S. aid for Ukraine would be reinstated in exchange for an investigation into the Mueller investigation, and into Biden. That would constitute an abuse of power by the president of the United States for his own benefit, since Biden was and is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in 2020.Such an abuse, if proven, would almost certainly qualify as an impeachable offense. It might even constitute a federal crime of extortion, depending on whether political assistance to Trump in beating Biden would count as something valuable under the relevant statutes.The first proof that the quid pro quo arrangement was the whole point of the call is that the call occurred at all. As Zelenskiy pointed out to Trump in the beginning of the call, he hadn't just won his presidential election, as Trump seemed to think. Rather, his party had won parliamentary elections. Trump had already called Zelenskiy a different time to congratulate him on his presidential victory.Zelenskiy seemed a little surprised at the attention conferred by the extra call. After explaining to Trump that "you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election," he quipped: "I think I should run more often so you can call me more often."Congratulatory phone calls to new presidents of allies are not at all uncommon. But calls to congratulate a politician when his party wins a parliamentary vote are not standard operating procedure. Zelenskiy's joke about getting so many calls from Trump suggests, in context, that Zelenskiy was trying to figure out why the president was bothering to call him over parliamentary elections.Trump didn't keep him in suspense for long. After Zelenskiy buttered up Trump by telling him that he was "a great teacher," Trump jumped in say that "we do a lot for Ukraine." He left no doubt that he was referring to financial aid. Angela Merkel, he said by way of contrast, "talks Ukraine but she doesn't do anything." Clearly Trump was saying that U.S. aid to Ukraine was greater than that given by other countries.Zelenskiy responded to show he understood they were talking about money. "Technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union and I am very grateful to you for that," he said. The word "technically" seems in context to mean that the U.S. gave more aid to Ukraine than the EU did.In the same response, Zelenskiy added: "I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense." This was an explicit reference to military aid — which Trump had frozen several days earlier. Zelenskiy then assured him that "we are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps" and specifically mentions buying Javelin anti-tank missiles "from the United States for defense purposes." This context matters tremendously because of what happened next. The memo indicates Trump immediately responding by saying "I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it." Then he asked for an investigation connected to CrowdStrike, an American company that investigated the Democratic National Committee email hacks in 2016, but that Trump seems to think is Ukrainian. After cryptically mentioning a missing server, he adds "I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday" — July 24 — "that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller … but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible."Trump was talking at this point about an investigation into the Mueller investigation. But Zelenskiy may have thought he was talking about an investigation into Biden. He assured Trump "we are ready to open a new page on cooperation" between the U.S. and Ukraine, and then spontaneously brought up Rudy Giuliani, who apparently had been trying to reach Zelenskiy to discuss the Biden matter: "One of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently," he said, "and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine."Astonishingly, Trump hadn't yet brought up Giuliani at all when Zelenskiy did. But he went with it, praising Giuliani and then saying "The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me." Trump then brought up Giuliani and Attorney General Barr several more times in subsequent parts of the exchange, saying "We will get to the bottom of it. I am sure we will figure it out." Trump's defenders will say this evidence is all circumstantial. But circumstantial evidence is not weak evidence: it's simply evidence based on the circumstances in which an act of wrongdoing is committed — such as the license plate of a car that speeds away from a bank just after that bank is robbed. Criminals are convicted on such evidence all the time. They will also say that there's no explicit quid pro quo proposal here. But as I wrote yesterday, "even when a corrupt deal is struck implicitly, the government can still prosecute extortion on a quid pro quo basis. Circumstantial evidence can be enough to prove a criminal exchange."In the absence of an explicit quid pro quo over restarting aid, the context and circumstances are what will become the focus of the investigation. There is enough here to support impeachment. Whether it is also enough to convince Republicans and lead to removal is another matter.To contact the author of this story: Noah Feldman at nfeldman7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah Green Carmichael at sgreencarmic@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include "The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President." For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UK will respect the law and leave EU on Oct. 31- PM Johnson Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:37 AM PDT ![UK will respect the law and leave EU on Oct. 31- PM Johnson]( "UK will respect the law and leave EU on Oct. 31- PM Johnson") The British government will both respect the law and leave the European Union as scheduled on Oct. 31, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a TV interview on Wednesday. Lawmakers have voted against a no-deal Brexit and Johnson says he will reach an agreement with the European Union but is prepared to take Britain out of the bloc without a deal.
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| Benjamin Netanyahu given first chance to form Israeli government after stalemate election Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:33 AM PDT  Benjamin Netanyahu has been given the first chance to form Israel's government after last week's election stalemate, offering the prime minister a difficult but not impossible path to continue holding on to power. Mr Netanyahu's Likud party emerged from last week's election slightly behind Blue & White, the centrist party led by former general Benny Gantz, but neither side has a clear path to forming a majority government. Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, attempted to broker a power-sharing agreement between the two sides but said on Wednesday that those efforts had broken down and therefore he was offering Mr Netanyahu the first chance to form a government. Mr Netanyahu immediately repeated the call for a unity government and hinted he was open to a deal where he and Mr Gantz could take turns as prime minister, an arrangement not seen in Israel since the 1980s. "I am talking about a joint leadership," he said. Mr Netanyahu said the threat of Iran and the opportunities offered by Donald Trump's pro-Israel White House justified setting aside differences and creating a coalition. "All this requires a broad national unity government and it is needed now," he said. But such a deal would require Mr Gantz to abandon his core election promise: that he would not serve in government with Mr Netanyahu and would instead drive the prime minister from office after 13 years in power. Blue & White signaled that it would hold its ground and refuse to serve with Mr Netanyahu. "Blue and White will not sit in a government whose leader is under indictment," said Mr Gantz, referring to the looming criminal corruption case against the prime minister. Mr Netanyahu will face an initial hearing next week and prosecutors will make a final decision early next year whether to bring formal charges on allegations that he changed media rules in return for more favourable press coverage and illegally accepted lavish gifts from businessmen. Mr Netanyahu denies wrongdoing. Israel's constitution gives Mr Netanyahu until October 24 to try to cobble together a 61-seat majority government. If he is unable to strike a deal on a unity government then his only hope is to try to form a Right-wing majority like the one that held up his last administration. He already has the backing of 55 Right-wing and ultra-Orthodox MPs but would need to convince Avigdor Lieberman, his estranged former defence minister, to rejoin his coalition to get to a majority. Mr Lieberman, a secular nationalist, says he will not serve with Mr Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox allies and is demanding a unity government between Likud, Blue & White, and his own Yisrael Beiteinu party. If Mr Netanyahu cannot form a majority by October 24 he can ask the president for a two-week extension, which Mr Rivlin can grant or deny. Once Mr Netanyahu's time is up, Mr Rivlin will give Mr Gantz two weeks to form a majority of his own. If neither side is able to get a majority, Israel could plunge back into a third election in less than a year. Mr Rivlin sternly warned both sides not to let that happen. "The people of Israel do not want additional elections, no matter their political opinions," he said. Israel last saw a rotating premiership in the 1980s between Labour leader Shimon Peres and Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir. To the surprise of many Israelis, and despite personal animosity between the two men, the agreement held and the government lasted four years.
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