| Johnson to Challenge the Queen to Fire Him, Sunday Times Reports Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:17 PM PDT ![Johnson to Challenge the Queen to Fire Him, Sunday Times Reports]( "Johnson to Challenge the Queen to Fire Him, Sunday Times Reports") (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is prepared to challenge Queen Elizabeth II to dismiss him rather than resign as he attempts to push through Brexit by the Oct. 31 deadline, the Sunday Times reported, citing senior aides.Johnson would not step aside if his Brexit proposals were rejected by the European Union, and even if members of the U.K. Parliament declare no confidence in his government and agree to a caretaker prime minister to replace him, according to the report.Failure to reach a deal would set the U.K. on a course for constitutional showdown with few precedents: Johnson has promised to pull the country out of the EU on Oct. 31 whether the talks succeed, while Parliament has already legislated to prevent him from taking U.K. out of the European bloc without a withdrawal agreement."Unless the police turn up at the doors of 10 Downing Street with a warrant for the prime minister's arrest, he won't be leaving," one senior Conservative said in the report.The last time a British monarch fired a prime minister was in 1834, it said.To contact the reporter on this story: Dominic Lau in Hong Kong at dlau92@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Naoto HosodaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| If Trump’s Rage Brings ‘Civil War,’ Where Will the Military Stand? Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:04 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily BeastEarlier this week Donald Trump, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, tweeted that his impeachment "will cause a Civil War" from which the country might never recover. Trump, picking up on remarks made by an evangelical pastor on Fox News, did not just say his removal would lead to a huge electoral defeat for the Democrats, or even mass demonstrations. He said, "civil war." Americans taking up arms against other Americans in his name. "Civil War 2" started trending on Twitter. So, for a time, did CivilWarSignup.In the modern era, real civil wars have been the great affliction of Third World countries—conflicts that split nations and societies along political, ethnic or religious fault lines. They are very often accompanied by martial law and resolved by military intervention. Is this what Trump has in mind? Where would the U.S. military stand in such a situation? A view from the inside indicates the armed forces are as divided as the rest of the country—and divided is a dangerous place for the U.S. military to find itself.Trump's 'Civil War' Tweet Didn't Come From Nowhere—in Fact, It Came From HereAfter spending 19 years in Washington with intelligence jobs in Congress, at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (focusing on counterterrorism and counterintelligence), I had the opportunity to join the Commander's Red Team at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida. Within a few years, however, CENTCOM's senior leadership told us Red Team's "alternative analysis" was "confusing" the commander. (Truth was, they really didn't want any competing analysis contradicting what the traditional intelligence analysts were selling.) I was told I would now be an Intelligence Planner. Intelligence Planners provide critical intelligence support to military operations. (CENTCOM has responsibility for most of the Middle East, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fight against ISIS.) I remained at CENTCOM for 12 years.Our republic rests on the important constitutional principle of civilian control of a non-politicized military. But the constant drumbeat of right-wing conspiracy theories and hateful political rhetoric has found its way into a sizable portion of the U.S. military's rank and file. Not too long ago, the majority of those serving in the military would have identified themselves as Reagan Republicans. But just as that brand of Republicanism has been replaced by Trumpism among civilian Republicans, so too has it seeped into the armed forces, and by these standards, even Ronald Reagan would be viewed as a socialist. Recent polling shows that among military veterans, approval ratings for Trump are higher than among the civilian population. In my experience, the support for Donald Trump among a large segment of the U.S. military is downright cult-like.None of this makes sense. Donald Trump is everything the U.S. military should despise: a draft dodger, adulterer, flabby, lazy, unread, a tabloid joke for decades, and TV reality show star. During the 2016 campaign, Trump sought to brandish his non-existent national security chops by insulting Obama's generals. "I know more about ISIS than the generals do. The generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where it's embarrassing for our country." He hinted that as president, he would fire them. "They'd probably be different generals," he said at NBC's pre-election Commander-in-Chief Forum. The man with a decades-long public record of immoral and unethical behavior, who had never served in uniform or undertook any public service to his country, tweeted juvenile insults about retired 4-star generals like Colin Powell, John Allen, Stanley McCrystal, Michael Hayden and Martin Dempsey. Several of these decorated, battle-hardened generals, were life-long Republicans who had devoted their lives to serving their country. Yet they believed so strongly that Trump was a national security danger they took the extraordinary step of breaking with military tradition to criticize him publicly.In normal times, this would have dealt a severe blow to any campaign and made a serious dent in support among the military. But the attacks by the generals, and Trump's willingness to return fire, only endeared him to the rank and file more. Why Can't the Most Lethal Military in History Win its Wars?These generals knew Hillary Clinton personally for years. They had worked with Hillary Clinton as both a Senator and as Secretary of State and had admired her seriousness and intellect. Once Trump had secured the Republican nomination, their panic led to a less-then-transparent attempt to help her candidacy by criticizing Trump's sophomoric approach to national security. It backfired supremely, and only strengthened Trump's support among the troops.And then there was the case of Michael Flynn. After a long military career, Flynn's anger and bitterness led him to hitch his star to Donald Trump. It would be his undoing. A retired 3-star general, Flynn was found guilty of lying to the FBI and is awaiting sentencing. His leading the chant of "Lock her up" at the Republican National Convention should have evoked disgust by anyone who ever served in uniform. It did not. This reputational carnage of highly decorated American generals associated with Trump continued as H.R. McMaster, John Kelly, and James Mattis all tried to bring coherence to Trump's policies. Instead they were subjected to his tantrums and humiliation, and ultimately left the administration. Never had access to decades of military and national security experience been so squandered and abused by an American president. Despite all this, the devotion to Trump by a large segment of the military was unwavering. Hearing military personnel, including Vietnam veterans, parrot Trump's attacks against John McCain, who spent five agonizing years as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, was shocking and unsettling. It was the rank and file, not the generals, Trump was courting with his calls for military parades.From Michael Flynn, the rogue retired general closest to him, Trump learned just how deep the military's disdain was for Democrats—and for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama specifically. Trump learned from Flynn that there were grievances and resentments within the military establishment to be exploited. Highly intelligent active duty and retired military officers with outstanding service records (not "deplorables") could be heard at CENTCOM repeating far right wing conspiracy theories like: "Hillary murdered a lot of people" and "Obama is a Kenyan Black Muslim," "The FBI and the CIA are corrupt," "The media is fake news." Trump's attacks and abuse of their former bosses, and even a Gold Star family, didn't seem to impact their opinion of him.Once Trump was elected, they wholeheartedly bought into his claims that the "deep state" and the "fake news media" were now plotting a coup against him. Some would call themselves "nationalists," not having the basic understanding of the difference between "nationalism" and "patriotism." (The political divide also cut across racial lines. African-Americans serving in the military had a deep admiration and affection for the first black Commander-in-Chief not shared by their white counterparts.) One Army major, an Iraq War veteran, gave voice to many others in the military, telling me, "The military hates Obama."CENTCOM's environment, and especially that of the Joint Intelligence Center (JIC) which houses all the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analysts, felt political the moment you walked through its doors. Televisions in the lobby, the reception areas, in private office spaces, and even in the employee and visitor's cafe—were tuned to FOX News. It was Orwellian in its pervasiveness. People at their desks were streaming FOX News while reading Drudge and Breitbart. (By 2018, more of the common areas began showing sports or weather channels to get away from the politics, which had made some uncomfortable.)It was the doggedness with which Trump went after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that made him their hero. The FBI couldn't be trusted any longer after letting "Crooked Hillary" off the hook, so anything the FBI and CIA revealed about Russian interference in the 2016 election automatically lacked any credibility. None of it was believed.This was especially alarming coming from intelligence analysts who were parroting Trump's insults of the former Intelligence Community chiefs who had sounded the alarms regarding the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians. A very senior NSA liaison intelligence officer said he had proof the hacking of Hillary Clinton's emails was "an inside job" and not really Wikileaks and the Russians. It was hard to understand why these military intelligence experts felt compelled to denigrate so vigorously the assessments of the rest of the intelligence community, specifically when it came to Trump—nor the ferocity with which they personally defended him. In their private time many watched internet trolls. "Did you see this! Hillary has Parkinsons' disease!" Were our military intelligence analysts a victim of the same Russian influence campaign that affected so much of the civilian population? Like a scene from the Manchurian Candidate, if you criticized Trump, they answered with "Hillary" did this, or "Obama" did that. It was almost as if programmed. The parroting of Trump took other disturbing turns. One also began to hear in casual conversation analysts at CENTCOM making disparaging remarks against the western coalition partners—the Canadians, Brits, French, Germans—and against NATO in general, as "deadbeats." Officers back from visits to Gulf States boasted how mutual the relief was in the region that Obama was gone, Hillary had lost, and there was "a new sheriff in town." The Arab Gulf states couldn't believe their luck—especially the Saudis. No one would bother them anymore about human rights. They would get the military assistance they wanted unconditionally, and, if they played their cards right, they could even get Trump to attack Iran.The Israelis were downright joyful over Trump's election. Even during the media outrage over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi hands, one analyst argued, "He wasn't even an American citizen," parroting what he had just heard Trump say over FOX News—as if that should have made a difference when chopping up a journalist.On an operational level, the (not totally without merit) criticism of Obama was that he had been the appeaser whose pullout from Iraq created ISIS, as did his last-minute refusal to go after Bashar Assad in Syria. But nothing stuck in the craw of the analysts and planners at CENTCOM more than the Iranian nuclear deal—The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was this deal they believed prevented the U.S. from giving Iran the long-overdue bloody nose it deserved. While the civilian national security establishment believed the JCPOA had pulled Iran back from the brink of nuclear weapons breakout capability that would lead to a regional nuclear arms race, the military saw it as inexcusable capitulation to the primary supporter of militancy and terrorism in the region. Most of the active duty and retired military officers at CENTCOM had served in Iraq at some point where, according to the Pentagon, Iranian backed Shi'a militia had killed 600 American soldiers. They had not forgotten or forgiven. During the Cold War, intelligence analysts had spent their entire careers planning for a war with the Soviet Union that, fortunately, never came. Many at CENTCOM had spent their careers doing the same regarding Iran. Military Planners understood there weren't any good military options when it came to war with Iran. But the nuclear deal had given Iran over $100 billion in hard cash. This amounted to a windfall that the Iranian regime would use not to improve the lives of its people, but to increase funding to Shi'a militias and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) who were now operating in close proximity to American soldiers in the fight against ISIS. (Time has proven this argument to be mostly accurate. But it is also true that the JCPOA provided protection to American troops from Shi'a militia and IRGC forces fighting in proximity to U.S. troops in the fight against ISIS.) CENTCOM viewed Trump's willingness to pull the U.S. out of the deal unilaterally as nothing short of heroic. The gulf between the civilian world and the military has been growing since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—wars that have touched more American families than at any time since Vietnam. Vietnam created a huge cultural divide in the U.S. that Richard Nixon successfully exploited earning him one of the largest electoral victories in American history. But something more sinister may be afoot as we approach the 2020 election. Trump has done what Nixon ultimately could not do. He has, so far, avoided real accountability to Congress. He has successfully blurred the lines between lies and truth in the minds of the American public. He has undermined the institutions that have kept the U.S. safe since World War ll. The extent of the visceral hatred much of the military feels for Democrats, the "deep state" and the "fake news media" is a new phenomenon. The belief that there is indeed a coup being orchestrated against President Trump is a weapon Trump has in his arsenal, depending how far down the road to authoritarianism he decides to go. But Trump would need to deeply fracture the military first, and that is something to watch for. Most members of the armed forces are honorable, patriotic Americans who would never take part in such a scheme, despite their support for Trump. But a significant portion just might. 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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| EU presses UK to resubmit Brexit plan as end-game looms Posted: 05 Oct 2019 03:22 PM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson started phoning EU leaders Saturday to sell his proposals for a managed Brexit, but he met with pressure to revise his offer -- and to do so quickly. Finnish counterpart Antti Rinne -- whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union -- said he told Johnson "it is important to find a solution within a week". The British leader was expected to call the leaders of other EU countries in the wake of his proposals being given short shrift by Brussels after they were submitted Wednesday.
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| Security forces kill more than 80 in 5 days of Iraq protests Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:53 PM PDT  Iraqi protesters pressed on with angry anti-government rallies in the capital and across several provinces for a fifth day Saturday, setting government offices on fire and ignoring appeals for calm from political and religious leaders. Security agencies fatally shot 19 protesters and wounded more than three dozen in a sustained deadly response that has claimed more than 80 lives since the upheaval began. The semiofficial Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, affiliated with the parliament, put the death toll at 94.
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| North Korea decries breakdown of talks US says were 'good' Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:41 PM PDT  North Korea's chief negotiator said Saturday that discussions with the U.S. on Pyongyang's nuclear program have broken down, but Washington said the two sides had "good discussions" that it intends to build on in two weeks. The North Korean negotiator, Kim Miyong Gil, said the talks in Stockholm had "not fulfilled our expectations and broke down.
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| North Korea says nuclear talks broke down; U.S. disagrees Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:35 PM PDT ![North Korea says nuclear talks broke down; U.S. disagrees]( "North Korea says nuclear talks broke down; U.S. disagrees") North Korea's chief negotiator said Saturday that discussions with the U.S. on Pyongyang's nuclear program have broken down, but Washington said the two sides had "good discussions" that it intends to build on in two weeks. The North Korean negotiator, Kim Miyong Gil, said the talks in Stockholm had "not fulfilled our expectations and broke down.
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| North Korea says new nuclear talks with US have broken down after one day Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:24 PM PDT  North Korea has said that talks with America about denuclearisation which had only just begun on Saturday have already broken down. Officials from both countries had gathered in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, this weekend in an attempt to make progress towards some form of deal. However Kim Myong Gil, North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, announced that the talks had stalled and pointed the finger of blame towards Washington. Mr Kim said: "The negotiations have not fullfilled our expectations and finally broke up... without any outcome. (It) is totally due to the fact that the US would not give up their old... attitude." But the US State Department insisted that "good discussions" had been had, disputing North Korea's public take on the negotiations. "The early comments from the DPRK delegation do not reflect the content or the spirit of today's eight-and-a-half hour discussion," department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. The acronym DPRK refers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is North Korea's official name. "The US brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts," Ms Ortagus added, in contrast to comments by the North's top representative who said Washington brought "nothing to the negotiation table." There has been little public progress towards denuclearisation for months despite three meetings between Donald Trump, the US president, and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. In the past the Trump administration has refused to lift any of its hard-hitting economic sanctions until North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons. Mr Trump is hoping to secure a deal before he faces re-election and the chance to win a second term in office in November 2020.
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| The Latest: North Korea says talks broke down; US disagrees Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:14 PM PDT  North Korea's chief negotiator says discussions with the U.S. on Pyongyang's nuclear program have broken down, but Washington says the two sides had "good discussions" that it intends to build on in two weeks. Speaking outside the North Korean embassy, he read a statement in Korean that a translator next to him read in English.
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| The Latest: Gunmen attack TV offices in Baghdad amid unrest Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:56 PM PDT  Unknown gunmen have attacked the offices of television stations in the Iraqi capital amid the unrest gripping the country. The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel says masked gunmen who arrived in black cars wearing black clothes stormed the offices of the station in Abu Nawas street Saturday evening, beat up some of the employees and smashed equipment before they fled. Majed Hamid, the channel's correspondent in Baghdad, said several colleagues were injured.
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| UN says 'this must stop' after Iraqi protest violence kills nearly 100 Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:55 PM PDT  The United Nations urged Saturday an end to violence in Iraq, after five days of anti-government rallies marred by the killing of nearly 100 people, mainly protesters. The demonstrations -- which have evolved from initial demands for employment and better services to the fall of the government -- carried on into the night in various neighbourhoods of Baghdad and southern Iraq, as authorities struggled to agree a response. Security forces broke up a mass rally in the east of Baghdad, where protesters faced volleys of tear gas and live rounds fired in their direction, witnesses said.
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| 3-country talks on Nile waters wrap up without agreement Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT  Irrigation ministers from three key Nile Basin countries wrapped up a two-day meeting Saturday in Sudan's capital without resolving differences over Ethiopia's soon-to-be-finished Blue Nile dam, with Egypt calling for international mediation to help reach a "fair and balanced" agreement. Sudan Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas told reporters in Khartoum that progress was made but differences on filling the giant reservoir and operating rules of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam remain unsettled.
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| US, Greece sign revised defense cooperation agreement Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:38 PM PDT  The United States and Greece on Saturday signed a revised defense cooperation pact, which Americans officials described as critical to responding to new security challenges in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The deal provides for increasing joint U.S.-Greece and NATO activity at Larissa, Stefanovikio, and Alexandroupoli as well as infrastructure and other improvements at the Souda Bay naval base. "Greece can play an important strategic role here in the region," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
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| Tens of thousands march for independence in Scottish capital Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of Scottish independence supporters marched in Edinburgh on Saturday, as calls grow for a fresh vote on Scotland breaking away from the United Kingdom with Brexit scheduled for within weeks. Independence" as the throng of people made its way up the city's famous Royal Mile. "Scotland is second class in this union," said Peter Johnston, 22, one of the organisers of the march.
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| Taliban meet US peace envoy for first time since 'dead' deal Posted: 05 Oct 2019 10:02 AM PDT  The Taliban met with a U.S. envoy in the Pakistani capital, a Taliban official said Saturday, the first such encounter since President Donald Trump announced a month ago that a seemingly imminent peace deal to end Afghanistan's 18-year war was dead. The official offered few details of Friday's meeting between peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement that was ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition. U.S. officials have been keen to say peace talks haven't resumed, at least not now in Islamabad.
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| Turkey threatens solo army operation into northeast Syria Posted: 05 Oct 2019 09:52 AM PDT  Turkey's president, in his strongest warning yet, threatened Saturday to launch a military operation into northeastern Syria, where U.S. troops are deployed and have been trying to defuse tensions between Washington's two allies — Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's threats were a warning that a U.S.-Turkish deal to secure Syria's troubled border with Turkey was faltering.
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| The U.S. appears to begin re-engaging with the Taliban and North Korea Posted: 05 Oct 2019 09:22 AM PDT ![The U.S. appears to begin re-engaging with the Taliban and North Korea]( "The U.S. appears to begin re-engaging with the Taliban and North Korea") The United States rebooted discussions on two crucial geopolitical fronts this week.First, U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday for the first time since President Trump declared peace negotiations to end the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan "dead" in September. Few details have been released about the meeting, which was described as informal, but there reportedly has not yet been a resumption of peace talks.Meanwhile, the State Department was less secretive on the North Korea front. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Saturday that officials from the U.S. and North Korean officials arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, to hold talks about Pyongyang's denuclearization process after the negotiations between the two sides broke down in February. North Korea had announced earlier this week they were ready to resume talks; one day later it fired an unidentified projectile into the sea.Pompeo said it's too early to know if the talks yielded anything substantial, but added that North Korea "came with spirit and willingness to move forward" in the negotiations.
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| 2nd Official Is Weighing Whether to Blow the Whistle on Trump's Ukraine Dealings Posted: 05 Oct 2019 09:14 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- A second intelligence official who was alarmed by President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine is weighing whether to file his own formal whistleblower complaint and testify to Congress, according to two people briefed on the matter.The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistleblower, whose complaint that Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistleblower, one of the people said.The inspector general, Michael Atkinson, briefed lawmakers privately Friday about how he substantiated the whistleblower's account. It was not clear whether he told lawmakers that the second official is considering filing a complaint.A new complaint, particularly from someone closer to the events, would potentially add further credibility to the account of the first whistleblower, a CIA officer who was detailed to the National Security Council at one point. He said that he relied on information from more than half a dozen American officials to compile his allegations about Trump's campaign to solicit foreign election interference that could benefit him politically.Other evidence has emerged to back the whistleblower's claim. A reconstructed transcript of a July call between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy released by the White House also showed Trump pressuring Ukraine. Trump appeared to believe that its release would quell the push for impeachment, but it only emboldened House Democrats.Because the second official has met with Atkinson's office, it was unclear whether he needs to file a complaint to gain the legal protections offered to intelligence community whistleblowers. Witnesses who speak with inspectors general are protected by federal law that outlaws reprisals against officials who cooperate with an inspector general.Whistleblowers have created a new threat for Trump. Though the White House has stonewalled Democrats in Congress investigating allegations raised in the special counsel's report, the president has little similar ability to stymie whistleblowers from speaking to Congress.The Trump administration had blocked Atkinson from sharing the whistleblower complaint with lawmakers but later relented.Trump and his allies have taken aim at the credibility of the original whistleblower by noting that he had secondhand knowledge. The president has also singled out his sources, saying that they were "close to a spy.""I want to know who's the person who gave the whistleblower the information because that's close to a spy," Trump told staffers at the U.S. mission to the United Nations. "You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now."Atkinson has identified some indications of "arguable political bias" that the whistleblower had in favor of a rival candidate. But the inspector general said that the existence of that bias did not alter his conclusion that the complaint was credible.Still, testimony from someone with more direct knowledge of Trump's efforts to use U.S. foreign policy for potential political gain would most likely undermine conservatives' attacks on the CIA officer's credibility.The House Intelligence Committee has taken the lead on the investigation into the whistleblower's claims as part of the impeachment inquiry into whether Trump abused his powers by using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal interests. Committee aides had sought to interview the whistleblower last week but have yet to sit down with him and it was unclear how soon they could.Democrats looking to keep up the momentum of their impeachment inquiry are seeing more results than they have in their examination of the findings of the inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia's election interference and Trump's efforts to impede investigators. Though Mueller laid out stark examples of Trump trying to interfere with the inquiry, the White House has fought Democrats' pursuit of eyewitness testimony.House Democrats have moved more quickly in scrutinizing Trump's use of power to solicit potential foreign help in his 2020 reelection campaign.Late Thursday, they released explosive texts exchanged by State Department officials and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani about pressuring the Ukrainians to commit to conducting the investigations that could help Trump politically.In one exchange, the Americans sought to have Zelenskiy issue a statement promising to investigate a Ukrainian natural gas company where Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, sat on the board.But the top American diplomat in Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr., raised concerns about the White House's decision to freeze $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine, tying it directly to the campaign to pressure the Ukrainians to develop dirt on the president's political opponents."As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Taylor wrote on Sept. 9 to Kurt D. Volker, the State Department's former special envoy for Ukraine, and Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union.The texts show a dispute among the men about whether the president was trying to use the security aid or a White House meeting with Zelenskiy as leverage -- a charge at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.Trump has denied that he held up the aid as a quid pro quo. "Listen to this: There is no pro quo," he told reporters Friday on the South Lawn of the White House in response to questions about the texts.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Second official reportedly considering whistleblower complaint against Trump Posted: 05 Oct 2019 08:08 AM PDT  Intelligence official was interviewed by watchdog to corroborate initial complaint about Trump's dealings with Ukraine, report saysDonald Trump has defended his open calls for foreign governments to investigate a political rival by repeating that there was 'no quid pro quo'. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/ReutersA second intelligence official is reportedly considering filing a whistleblower complaint about Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine as the Democrats' impeachment investigation into the president and his administration continues to escalate.The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, also failed to meet a subpoena deadline to turn over documents related to the investigation, as House Democrats broadened their subpoena request to the White House, demanding documents after the executive branch ignored requests to provide them voluntarily.At the heart of the impeachment inquiry is a whistleblower complaint outlining Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to launch a corruption investigation against the former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump has since publicly urged Ukraine, and China, to investigate Biden, without citing any evidence of any wrongdoing.The second official considering filing a whistleblower complaint about the president's dealings with Ukraine has more direct information about the events in question than the initial whistleblower and was interviewed by an intelligence watchdog to corroborate the first report, the New York Times reported late Friday, citing two anonymous sources.Elsewhere, the Washington Post reported accounts of a number of Trump's calls with foreign leaders, citing an anonymous former White House official. The paper said in one of his first calls with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Trump fawned over him, and in a call with the former UK prime minister Theresa May, Trump questioned British intelligence's conclusion that Putin's government was behind an attempt to kill a former Russian spy on British soil with a nerve agent.Trump on Saturday hit out at both papers.> The Media is "Fixed" and Corrupt. It bears no relationship to the truth. The @nytimes & @washingtonpost are pure fiction. Totally dishonest reporting!> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019The president has defended his open calls for foreign governments to investigate a political rival by repeating that there was "no quid pro quo". Text messages between US diplomats and an assistant to Zelenskiy released this week reveal that this was not the understanding of US diplomats dealing with Ukraine.In a tweet on Thursday, Trump said the presidency gave him "an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!" Pompeo: 'We'll do the things required by law'Speaking to reporters in Greece on Saturday, the secretary of state, Pompeo, did not reference Trump's admitted desire for Ukraine to investigate Biden, but said the investigation the US sought was related to Ukraine's possible interference in the 2016 US election.On Wednesday, Pompeo admitted he had been on a controversial July call with Zelenskiy in which the president pressured Ukraine, according to a reconstructed transcript released by the White House.Three congressional committees subpoenaed Pompeo after the state department failed to produce documents related to the Ukraine inquiry.He also missed a Friday deadline to turn over documents to the committees, which have scheduled depositions for five state department officials who have been mentioned in relation to the inquiry.In Greece, Pompeo said the state department responded to the subpoenas on Friday night, but did not say what the response was. "We'll obviously do the things we are required to do by law," Pompeo said, adding that these inquiries have "harassed and abused" state department employees.In an effort to shed light on these dealings, House Democrats subpoenaed the White House demanding documents related to Ukraine on Friday night. They have also formally requested documents from the vice-president, Mike Pence, who had a meeting with Zelenskiy on 1 September.Few congressional Republicans or commentators have spoken against Trump after the president urged two foreign governments, Ukraine and China, to investigate a political rival this week.Among those that have are Senator Mitt Romney, of Utah, who said Trump's dealings with Ukraine and China were "wrong" and "appalling".Trump's tweets on Saturday targeted Romney saying: "Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him my conversation was a congenial and very appropriate one."Meanwhile, the representative Will Hurd, of Texas, criticized Trump's suggestion that China should investigate the Bidens, but said there needed to be a full investigation of the Ukraine conversation, in an interview with CNN."I think some of these things are indeed damning, however I want to make sure we get through this entire investigation before coming to some kind of conclusion," Hurd said. "I think this is serious stuff. These are serious matters. This has long term implications on our foreign policy."
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| Trump Starts Impeachment Battle With Self-Inflicted Wounds Posted: 05 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT ![Trump Starts Impeachment Battle With Self-Inflicted Wounds]( "Trump Starts Impeachment Battle With Self-Inflicted Wounds") (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's battle against an accelerating impeachment inquiry is growing tougher after a week of damaging revelations and self-inflicted wounds that emboldened Democrats and put the White House on defense.The president added to the frenzy by publicly calling on Ukraine and China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, echoing the conduct that sparked the impeachment effort -- that the president is leveraging his power to target a political enemy. On top of that, closed-door depositions and the release of a series of text messages bolstered the case further. On Saturday, he lashed out against one of his few Republican critics.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to begin a formal impeachment inquiry has paid off so far. And now, the House effort is poised to intensify further in coming days as investigators seek to meet with diplomats, including the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine -- who was reportedly removed by Trump because she failed to facilitate an investigation of Biden.Trump even appeared resigned to the likelihood of his impeachment -- which would be the third in American history -- as he spoke to reporters on Friday."The Democrats, unfortunately, they have the votes," Trump said. "They could vote very easily."The House opened its inquiry with a probe of Trump's conduct in a July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. After freezing military aid to Ukraine, which is battling a Russia-backed insurgency, the American president asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, one of Trump's top Democratic rivals in the 2020 presidential contest.Trump claims that Biden improperly helped his son Hunter profit from business deals in Ukraine and China. The allegations related to Ukraine have been discredited, and those related to China aren't supported by publicly known details. Joe Biden's campaign has dismissed the allegations as without merit.Trump suffered his biggest setback this week with the release of the text messages. Those included U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker telling a Ukrainian official he had "heard from the White House" that a Zelenskiy trip to Washington was conditioned on the Ukrainian leader convincing Trump he'd "get to the bottom" of a probe Trump sought into the 2016 election.Other texts showed U.S. and Ukrainian officials brokering a proposed announcement of investigations into a Ukrainian gas company that employed Hunter Biden, and alleged electoral interference aimed at undermining Trump. There were also internal exchanges between two Trump administration officials debating whether security assistance from the U.S. would be conditioned on investigations."As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," U.S. Charges D'affaires in Ukraine Bill Taylor wrote in one message. The other official said there was no such quid pro quo but then urged an end to text exchanges on the matter.Democratic lawmakers, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, said in a letter to colleagues that the communications were alarming."These text messages reflect serious concerns raised by a State Department official about the detrimental effects of withholding critical military assistance from Ukraine, and the importance of setting up a meeting without further delay," they wrote.The president on Friday reiterated his insistence that there hadn't been any improper pressure, and said he was motivated by rooting out corruption, not winning an election. But when asked by a reporter if he'd ever pressed a world leader to investigate impropriety not related to one of his political enemies, Trump said he would need to check.Also this week, congressional investigators unveiled documents showing Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, leaned on the State Department to investigate conspiracy theories related to Biden and Ukraine.Aides to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo cautioned against unfounded reports suggesting that the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine was a hotbed of Democratic support, according to the documents.In early May, the State Department unexpectedly recalled Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, whom Giuliani falsely accused of helping bring to light secret payments made by the party of Ukraine's then-President Viktor Yanukovych to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump said Thursday that he'd heard "very, very bad things about her."Yovanovitch is scheduled to testify to House investigators next week, although the White House has not said whether they will try to intervene to stop her testimony.The White House is expected to send Pelosi a letter arguing the president and White House officials can ignore lawmaker demands for documents and testimony unless the House holds a vote formalizing the impeachment inquiry, according to a person familiar with the plans.The president explained the move as a way to hold House Democrats in vulnerable districts accountable for the impeachment inquiry. He painted the House probe as the work of Pelosi and far-left elements of the party, that he said would be fatal to the re-election prospects of freshmen lawmakers who swept into power during last year's midterm elections.The discussion about withholding documents represented a substantial shift in strategy for an administration that initially claimed it had nothing to hide and released records of the Trump-Zelenskiy call as a show of transparency.On Friday evening, House impeachment investigators subpoenaed the White House for documents on efforts by Trump and Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into launching a probe of the Bidens.Damaging DetailsWhite House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that the subpoena "changes nothing -- just more document requests, wasted time, and taxpayer dollars that will ultimately show the president did nothing wrong."The week's revelations created anticipation that more damaging details could be revealed in coming weeks. That sense was amplified by a CNN report saying Trump discussed the political prospects of Biden and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping -- and offered to stay quiet about pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong in exchange for progress on his trade agenda.Trump himself made matters worse by explicitly calling for China and Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, during a question-and-answer session with journalists. That prompted Democrats and at least one GOP senator to admonish Trump."When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated," Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said in a tweet. "By all appearances, the President's brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling."Trump lashed out Saturday against Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, in a pair of Twitter messages delivered while in a motorcade a few minutes away from his Virginia golf club.Romney "is a pompous 'ass' who has been fighting with me from the beginning," Trump said. "He is so bad for R's!"Trump repeated the assertion that his conversation with Ukraine's president was "congenial and very appropriate." In other tweets Trump also assailed Democratic lawmakers Pelosi and Schiff, the media, and the whistle-blower whose account helped kick off the impeachment inquiry.Asked about his conversation with Xi about the Bidens, Trump this week said he didn't remember, though he added that he always speaks "in the appropriate way." Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said his country wouldn't interfere in the internal affairs of the U.S.Trump's public statements came as he has signaled his frustration with the probes in streams of Twitter posts, as well as increasingly bellicose interactions with journalists.At a joint news conference Wednesday with Finland's leader, the president berated a reporter who questioned him about Ukraine. Trump ended the news conference without taking a second question from the Finnish press, as is customary during a foreign leader's visit, and abruptly walked off the stage without shaking President Sauli Niinisto's hand.By Friday, the president indicated he was girding for political combat in the face of what he described as "the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country."The president said recent Republican victories in special elections in North Carolina provided a "glimpse" of frustration among the electorate toward Democratic tactics, along with his own popularity. In recent days, the president has increasingly cast the impeachment inquiry as an attack on Republican voters."I really believe that they're going to pay a tremendous price at the polls," Trump said.(Updates with Trump tweets on Mitt Romney from 26th paragraph.)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, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Saudi Arabia and Iran Make Quiet Openings to Head Off War Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:49 AM PDT  After years of growing hostility and competition for influence, Saudi Arabia and Iran have taken steps toward indirect talks to try to reduce the tensions that have brought the Middle East to the brink of war, according to officials from several countries involved in the efforts.Even the prospect of such talks represents a remarkable turnaround, coming only a few weeks after a coordinated attack on Saudi oil installations led to bellicose threats in the Persian Gulf. Any reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran could have far-reaching consequences for conflicts across the region.It was President Donald Trump's refusal to retaliate against Iran for the Sept. 14 attack, analysts say, that set off unintended consequences, prompting Saudi Arabia to seek its own solution to the conflict. That solution, in turn, could subvert Trump's effort to build an Arab alliance to isolate Iran.In recent weeks, officials of Iraq and Pakistan said, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked the leaders of those two countries to speak with their Iranian counterparts about de-escalation.Iran welcomed the gestures, stating privately and publicly that it was open to talks with Saudi Arabia.In a statement to The New York Times on Friday, the Saudi government acknowledged that Iraq and Pakistan had offered to mediate talks between the two countries but denied that Crown Prince Mohammed had taken the initiative."Efforts at de-escalation must emanate from the party that began the escalation and launched attacks, not the kingdom," the statement said.Distrust between the two Middle Eastern powers remains intense, and the prospect of high-level direct talks anytime soon appears remote. But even a slight warming could echo far outside their respective borders, where their rivalry fuels political divides from Lebanon to Yemen.Iran has long wanted to wrest the Saudis from their alliance with Iran's archenemies, Israel and the United States, who are waging a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran to try to force it to restrict its nuclear program and stop backing militias in the region.Iran's receptiveness for contact with the Saudis contrasts with its chilly tone toward the United States. Last week, Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, dodged an opportunity to speak directly with Trump while both were attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The new overtures between Saudi Arabia and Iran began in the aftermath of last month's drone and cruise missile strikes on two Saudi oil facilities, which Saudi Arabia and the United States accused Iran of orchestrating.Despite tough threats by the Trump administration, the president declined to order a military response. The demurral raised questions for the Saudis about the U.S. commitment to Saudi security, which has underpinned the strategic layout of the Persian Gulf for decades.Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan met with Crown Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, in Jiddah last month. Days later, while Khan was at the General Assembly, he told reporters that the crown prince had asked him to talk to Iran.Crown Prince Mohammed told Khan, "I want to avoid war," according to a senior Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. "He asked the prime minister to get involved."Khan then spoke with Rouhani on the sidelines of the General Assembly.The Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, visited Saudi Arabia a few days after Khan did.A senior Iraqi official said that Crown Prince Mohammed asked Abdul Mahdi to mediate with Iran and that Iraq had suggested Baghdad as the venue for a potential meeting."There is a big response from Saudi Arabia and from Iran and even from Yemen," Abdul Mahdi told journalists in Iraq after his return from the kingdom. "And I think that these endeavors will have a good effect."Iran endorsed the idea."Iran is open to starting a dialogue with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region," Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran's Parliament, told Al Jazeera in an interview broadcast Tuesday. "An Iranian-Saudi dialogue," he added, "could solve many of the region's security and political problems."While they explore back-channel possibilities, both sides have continued to stake out staunchly opposing public positions.The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had not asked anyone to send messages to Iran. Instead, he wrote, other countries he did not identify had offered to serve as intermediaries."We informed them that the truce needs to come from the side that is escalating and spreading chaos through aggressive acts in the region," al-Jubeir wrote.On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran said that his country would "definitely greet Saudi Arabia with open arms" -- but only if it prioritized friendly relations with neighbors over purchasing weapons from the United States.Iran has long sought to pull Saudi Arabia away from the United States and Israel. But it was the lack of a U.S. military response to the strikes on Saudi oil facilities that appeared to have created an opening."There are cracks in the armor suggesting Saudi Arabia is interested in exploring a new relationship with Iran," said Philip Gordon, a former White House coordinator for the Middle East. "The worst outcome for the Saudis is to move to a confrontation with Iran expecting the U.S. to support them and find out they won't."He added: "This administration has shown it's not really ready to take on Iran."Top officials from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi allies who could suffer if open conflict broke out, have spoken publicly of the need for diplomacy to reduce tensions and have made their own efforts to reach out to Iran. The Emirates has held direct maritime security talks with Iran and has pulled back from the war in Yemen, where it is allied with the Saudis in a battle against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.If Saudi Arabia joins Kuwait and the Emirates in reaching out to Iran, it could undermine the Trump administration's effort to build an international coalition to ostracize and pressure the Iranians."The anti-Iran alliance is not just faltering, it's crumbling," Martin Indyk, the executive vice president of Brookings Institution and a former senior diplomat, said Thursday on Twitter. "MBZ has struck his deal with Iran; MBS is not far behind," he said, referring to the Emirati crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed, or MBZ, and the Saudi crown prince, known as MBS.He also noted that Trump's most hawkish anti-Iran adviser, John Bolton, had left the administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is fighting for his political life, and Trump has shown a willingness to talk directly to the Iranians.For the Saudis, even indirect talks with Iran would mark a significant departure from Crown Prince Mohammed's approach to his prime regional rival since his father, King Salman, ascended to the Saudi throne in 2015.He has cast Iran as the root of the Middle East's problems and argued that political and theological differences make negotiations impossible. He has compared Iran's Supreme Leader to Hitler and threatened to instigate violence inside Iran's borders."We are a primary target for the Iranian regime," Crown Prince Mohammed said in 2017. "We won't wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia. Instead, we'll work so that the battle is for them in Iran."His antipathy toward Iran gave him common cause with Israel and the Trump administration. The Saudis have pitched themselves as the United States' greatest ally against Iran, proposing they carry out joint operations to weaken it and possibly bring about regime change, according to former U.S. officials.But the crown prince may now be more willing to explore a possible accommodation."We have reached the peak of Saudi-Iran tensions, and both sides have concluded this balance of fear is detrimental to their interests," said Saeed Shariati, a political analyst in Tehran.For now, the rift appears wide, and possibly unbridgeable. The Saudis criticize Iran for backing militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, where the kingdom has been mired in a disastrous war against the Houthis for four years.The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saudi oil facilities that seem to have helped prompt the diplomatic initiatives, but many Western experts believed that the Houthis could not have carried out the attacks unassisted.Al-Jubeir said Tuesday that Iran needed to stop its ballistic missile program, refrain from interfering in Arab states and "act like a normal country, and not like a rogue who sponsors terrorism."For its part, Iran has called on Saudi Arabia to freeze its multibillion dollar arms purchases from the United States, stop its intervention in Yemen, and end discrimination against the Shiite Muslim minority inside Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim-led absolute monarchy.At the General Assembly last week, Iran's president, Rouhani, aimed part of his speech directly at Arab countries in the Persian Gulf."It's the Islamic Republic of Iran who is your neighbor," he said. "At the day of an event, you and us will be alone. We are each other's neighbors not, America."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Trump's Call to China to Investigate Biden Could Complicate Trade Talks Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:47 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's public call for the Chinese government to investigate a political rival could complicate next week's trade talks, which are set to resume Thursday when American and Chinese negotiators meet in Washington to see if they can find a path to a trade deal.Expectations that this round of talks could produce some type of an agreement have been rising amid growing evidence that the trade war is exacting an economic toll on both the United States and China. Chinese and U.S. officials had been separately charting paths toward easing trade tensions, potentially presaging an initial deal in which the United States agreed to roll back some of its tariffs in return for China strengthening its protections for intellectual property and purchasing American agriculture.But the president's public urging of China on Thursday to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family will only increase scrutiny of any agreement that Trump may reach with Beijing. Trump's request came just moments after the president discussed the upcoming trade talks and said that "if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power.""The events of the past 24 hours have made it even more difficult for Trump to come to any resolution or any trade deal with China, if it isn't an extraordinary series of concessions from China," Jude Blanchette, a China scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Friday. At the negotiating table, officials are likely to still stick to trade issues when a high-level delegation comes to Washington starting Thursday.Clete Willems, a partner at Akin Gump who served as a White House economic adviser until earlier this year, said he did not expect the president's comments on Biden to figure into the trade talks. "Our teams have been very good throughout the negotiating process at keeping unrelated issues out of the talks, and I suspect that will continue," he said.But the president's comments could change how a trade deal is viewed domestically, on both the right and the left.Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Trump had just handed Democrats the "perfect criticism" about his trade deal -- that he accepted a lukewarm deal because he wanted the Chinese to help him get dirt on his political enemies."Politically, is making a deal a good idea for the president?" Scissors asked. "My reaction is to what he did yesterday is, it just became a bad idea."A deteriorating situation in Hong Kong further complicates the appearance of striking a deal for the president, who might be criticized for entering into a pact with China at a moment when citizens in Hong Kong are under attack for trying to preserve their autonomy from Beijing.Trump defended his comments Friday, saying that striking a deal with China had "nothing to do" with whether the Chinese agreed to investigate the Bidens, and that he would like to strike a deal if the terms were right."I'd like to do a great deal with China, but only if it's a great trade deal for this country. One thing has nothing to do with the other," the president said.Most Republicans have been silent on the president's statement, but several were outspokenly critical of the request, including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska."If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that's a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps," Sasse said in a statement to The Omaha World-Herald.Other Republicans were more temperate. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said the president had publicly suggested soliciting political help from China merely to "provoke" the media. "I don't think it's a real request," he said.The setback comes at a time when Chinese and U.S. officials appeared to be making progress toward defusing, at least temporarily, a trade war that has been underway for more than a year.Trump and his advisers have begun looking for ways to find a compromise with China that would forestall another round of tariffs on Chinese goods that are scheduled for later this year, and perhaps roll back some of the existing tariffs, people with knowledge of the White House's strategy said. The United States has already placed tariffs on more than $360 billion of Chinese products. It plans to raise tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 30% on Oct. 15 and impose more levies in December.Chinese officials have scaled back their expectations for eliminating U.S. tariffs by quietly dropping earlier public demands that any deal must immediately get rid of all of Trump's levies. They have also resumed buying U.S. farm goods as a goodwill gesture to help establish a negotiating environment in which an initial deal may be possible.Still, an agreement is far from guaranteed. Both sides have come close to a deal in the past, including in May, only to have it fall apart at the last moment and tip the countries back into an escalating trade war.Trump and his advisers have insisted they are still pushing for a comprehensive deal that would require Beijing to loosen state control over China's economy. However, they have also discussed scenarios in which they would ease tariffs on roughly a third of the $360 billion worth of Chinese goods penalized so far and delay further tariff increases, in return for concessions on intellectual property, substantial agricultural purchases and other benefits, people familiar with the matter said.It is far from clear whether either Trump or Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, would agree to any interim compromise, or that the two sides' top negotiators could find enough common ground to work toward an initial deal when they meet next week. Even if they do, the broader trade war would continue to rage, leaving in place U.S. tariffs on at least $250 billion in Chinese goods, plus some of Beijing's retaliatory measures on U.S. farm products and other imports.But economic and political pressure is growing on both sides to ease the trade war. China's growth continues to slow, while U.S. farm exports have slumped. Manufacturing in the United States continues to contract as businesses express concern about the uncertainty posed by the trade fight. Farmers and rural voters largely continue to back Trump, but their support is beginning to waver, and the president is eager to shore up that vote heading into the 2020 campaign.If China and the United States do not ease tensions before the end of the year, the United States will be taxing nearly every toy, shoe and laptop it receives from China.The Trump administration has denied that it is considering an "interim deal." But the issue may be one of semantics.In an interview on CNBC on Tuesday, Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, said that Trump wanted "a complete deal." But he also referred to the limited trade pact that the United States signed with Japan last week as "comprehensive." Unlike traditional free-trade agreements, which cover dozens of industries and topics, the "mini deal" opens Japanese markets only for two industries -- digital trade and agriculture.Trade experts say it appears unlikely that the United States will have much short-term success getting Beijing to make big changes to how it manages the economy. That means if the Trump administration wants to reach any sort of deal ahead the election, it will have to consider punting on difficult issues.Chinese officials have also been laying the groundwork for a potential agreement by subtly shifting their stance in recent weeks.After demanding since early May that any deal include the complete elimination of all tariffs, China has quietly stopped mentioning that point. Senior officials have shifted instead to much broader and more vague statements of their country's goals."The two sides should find a solution to the problem through equal dialogue in accordance with the principle of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit," said Wang Shouwen, China's vice minister of commerce for North American affairs, at a news conference Sunday.Internally, Chinese officials have also toned down their expectations on how quickly they can get the Trump administration to lift all tariffs even if the two sides strike a comprehensive deal, said people familiar with Beijing's thinking. The people, who consult regularly with government officials, were interviewed over the past month and asked for anonymity, citing the diplomatic and financial sensitivities.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| 10 things you need to know today: October 5, 2019 Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:36 AM PDT ![10 things you need to know today: October 5, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: October 5, 2019") 1.House Democrats on Friday subpoenaed the White House, giving the Trump administration until Oct. 18 to produce documents related to President Trump's impeachment inquiry. "We deeply regret that President Trump as put us — and the nation — in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena," three House committee chairs wrote in a letter. Earlier Friday, House Democrats requested that Vice President Mike Pence produce documents on Trump's phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, any government communication about the conversations, and information on plans for providing foreign aid based on political meddling. The letter also warned that failure to comply with the request for documents by Oct. 15 would be considered evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry. [Fox News, CNN] 2.The White House issued a proclamation Friday saying it would soon require immigrants applying for a U.S. visa to prove that they either have health insurance or can afford to cover their own health care costs before entering the country starting Nov. 3. President Trump said the White House wants to "protect the availability of health care benefits for Americans" as "taxpayers bear substantial cost" in paying for medical expenses of people who lack health insurance. "Immigrants who enter this country should not further saddle our health care system, and subsequently American taxpayers, with higher costs," Trump said. The proclamation would affect many immigrants, including those with family ties in the country, but it does not include non-citizen children of U.S. citizens or those who have been granted asylum. The proclamation is expected to face legal challenges. [The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post] 3.A second intelligence official is considering filing another whistleblower complaint and testifying to Congress about President Trump's communications with Ukraine's government, The New York Times reports. The official reportedly has more direct information than the first whistleblower, whose complaint that Trump was using the office of the presidency to pressure Kyiv to investigate his political rivals spurred a congressional impeachment inquiry. The second official was reportedly interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the first official's account. In related news, Trump reportedly has ordered reductions to the staff of the National Security Council. The first whistleblower alleged NSC officials had tried to keep Trump's controversial phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky under wraps, though sources said the cuts are meant to increase efficiency during a leadership transition. [The New York Times, Bloomberg] 4.The Treasury Department's inspector general will investigate whether Trump administration officials have improperly blocked Democrats from accessing President Trump's tax returns, officials confirmed Friday. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) has requested six years of Trump's taxes, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has so far refused to comply. Trump has said his taxes are under audit and thus cannot be released. A whistleblower, revealed Thursday to be an IRS official, said a Treasury Department appointee may have tried to "improperly interfere" with an audit, which the White House disputed. Neal requested the Treasury investigation, saying he wants assurance "no one is endeavoring to intimidate or impede government officials and employees carrying out their duties." [The Washington Post] 5.The United States re-engaged on two geopolitical fronts. U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban in Islamabad, Pakistan on Friday for the first time since President Trump declared peace negotiations to end the conflict in Afghanistan "dead" in September. Few details have been released about the meeting, but there reportedly has not yet been a resumption of peace talks. Meanwhile, Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde confirmed Saturday that U.S. and North Korean officials are in Sweden to hold talks about Pyongyang's denuclearization process after the negotiations between the two sides broke down in February. North Korea had announced earlier this week they were ready to resume talks. [Politico, The Associated Press] 6.The subway and most shopping malls were closed in Hong Kong on Saturday, as the city reportedly fell "eerily silent" amid an unprecedented shutdown after the government invoked emergency measures to stifle political unrest. Earlier in the day, hundreds of anti-government protesters defied a ban on face masks and marched in the streets, but by evening they had reportedly dispersed. However, there are reportedly plans for bigger marches Sunday. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam defended the emergency measures and criticized protesters for the "horribly violent incidents" that occurred during Friday demonstrations, which erupted after the face mask ban was announced. During the Friday protests, police shot a teenage boy, and protesters reportedly torched businesses and metro stations. [Reuters, The South China Morning Post] 7.Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) presidential campaign raised $24.6 million in the third fundraising quarter of 2019, her campaign announced Friday. That's a more than $5 million increase from her gain in the previous quarter, and nearly $10 million more than what former Vice President Joe Biden posted in Q3. After the third fundraising quarter closed earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) revealed he'd raised $25.3 million, the biggest quarterly haul of any 2020 Democrat. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised $19.1 million, while entrepreneur Andrew Yang nearly quadrupled his Q2 with $10 million in the third quarter. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) reported modest gains of $11.6 million and $6 million, respectively. Biden earned just $15.2 million in Q3, down from the $21.5 million he brought in during his first quarter of the race. [Team Warren, NBC News] 8.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was discharged from a Las Vegas hospital Friday following a heart procedure that put his presidential campaign on hold. His campaign also confirmed Friday that the Democratic presidential candidate had a heart attack earlier this week. The campaign had previously only announced that Sanders experienced chest discomfort, and that doctors inserted two stents in a blocked artery. Sanders' doctors said he's made good progress in his recovery, and Sanders reiterated in a statement that he "feels great" after the brief stay in the hospital and is looking forward "to getting back to work." The campaign has also said Sanders plans to participate in the next Democratic primary debate on Oct. 15. [The New York Times, NBC News] 9.Joker, the dark new origin story for the iconic Batman villain, is expected to set a new record for biggest opening weekend for an October release. The film has already set a new record for biggest preview night for a movie released in October with $13.3 million on Thursday, surpassing the record held by 2018's Venom. Venom also holds the record for biggest October opening with $80.2 million, but estimates see Joker raking in at least $90 million. Some theaters have seen increased police presence for the controversial film, which its critics have accused of depicting a mentally-ill loner turning to violence in an irresponsible fashion. A theater in Southern California shut down for two showings Thursday after receiving a credible threat. [Variety, The Hollywood Reporter] 10.Actress Diahann Carroll died of cancer at her home in Los Angeles on Friday, her daughter told The Associated Press. She was 84. Carroll, who was black, portrayed iconic stage roles traditionally dominated by white women, and became a household name starring in NBC's Julia from 1968 to 1971, portraying a single mother working as a nurse in the first TV show that starred a black professional woman. Carroll grew up and went to performing arts high school in New York City, and started her career as a model before a TV talent competition earned her a nightclub singing gig. That eventually transformed into her Broadway debut at age 19, and when Richard Rogers wrote the musical No Strings Attached specifically for her, she won a Tony award for her performance. [The Associated Press, The Week]
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| From Missiles to Oil, These Are Iran's Most Lethal Weapons Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:00 AM PDT  Iran has reasons to escalate since the U.S. left the nuclear deal.
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| Spanish police arrest drug traffickers who saved their lives in high speed boat chase Posted: 05 Oct 2019 04:53 AM PDT ![Spanish police arrest drug traffickers who saved their lives in high speed boat chase]( "Spanish police arrest drug traffickers who saved their lives in high speed boat chase") Spanish police arrested four drug traffickers who stopped to save their lives after the officers were thrown overboard during a high speed boat chase off the coast of Malaga on Friday. The three police officers fell into the sea following a collision with the trafficking boat during the chase, a Guardia Civil statement said. A police helicopter hovering overhead appealed to the speedboat via megaphone to stop and help the officers after their boat "span out of control", and the traffickers did so, pulling the agents to safety unharmed. However, when police found three tonnes of hashish in the waters nearby, the rescue did not appear to work in the traffickers' favour. The four on board were arrested regardless. "They were arrested for drug trafficking," a police statement said, indicating that more than 80 bundles of hash had been recovered from the sea. In a video posted by the Guardia Civil, the boats can be seen zooming across the open ocean before the semi-inflatable trafficking boat turns into the path of the police vessel, forcing it to turn sharply, throwing the three officers overboard. The video taken from the police helicopter then shows the officers bobbing around in the water below, before a wide shot shows the drug bundles floating nearby. High speed chases are not unusual off the coast of Malaga and the Costa del Sol, a known drug smuggling route from Africa to Europe. Morocco, just across the water, is the world's largest exporter of cannabis resin or hashish, according to the United Nations. A dramatic chase at the end of last year saw police ram a suspected drug boat in the open water, before officers from the chasing helicopter managed to intercept the fleeing suspects on land. The Spanish government has even moved to ban the high-speed semi-inflatable boats, known as RIBs, that are commonly used by traffickers to bring both drugs and more recently migrants from North Africa to Spain.
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| Australian bloggers held in Iran return home in possible swap Posted: 05 Oct 2019 04:30 AM PDT  An Australian travel-blogging couple held in Iran on spying charges have been freed and returned home, authorities said Saturday, in a possible swap for an Iranian student wanted in the US. Perth-based Jolie King and Mark Firkin had been documenting their journey from Australia to Britain on social media for the past two years, but went silent after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan about three months ago. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said they were released after "very sensitive negotiations" and had been reunited with their family in Australia.
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| UPDATE 7-North Korea breaks off nuclear talks with U.S. in Sweden Posted: 05 Oct 2019 03:10 AM PDT ![UPDATE 7-North Korea breaks off nuclear talks with U.S. in Sweden]( "UPDATE 7-North Korea breaks off nuclear talks with U.S. in Sweden") North Korea's top negotiator said late on Saturday that working-level nuclear talks in Sweden between officials from Pyongyang and Washington had broken off, dashing prospects for an end to months of stalemate.
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| Donald Trump denies quid pro quo with China on trade deal and inquiry into Joe Biden and son Posted: 05 Oct 2019 02:30 AM PDT  The White House scrambled to play down concerns on Friday that willingness from China to investigate Joe Biden and his son would lead to progress in resolving the trade war.Amid a rapidly escalating impeachment storm surrounding US President Donald Trump, his appeal to Beijing on Thursday to look into his political opponent infuriated Democrats, who accused Trump of holding US economic and trade interests hostage for the sake of political gain going into next year's election.Joe Biden, then the US vice-president, tours Beijing with his son Hunter on December 5, 2013. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Joe Biden, then the US vice-president, tours Beijing with his son Hunter on December 5, 2013. Photo: EPA-EFEBefore his appeal to the Chinese government, Trump had said that "if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous " tremendous power."But speaking to reporters a day later outside the White House, Trump insisted that trade negotiations and the matter of the Bidens were entirely separate."No, it has nothing to do with it," he said when asked whether he would be more likely to strike a deal with the Chinese if they investigated Biden."I'd like to make a trade deal with China, but only if it's a great trade deal for our country," said Trump, later adding that his calls on foreign countries to investigate his political opponent resulted only from concern about corruption and were not motivated by politics.Trump could not give an example of a time he had called on another country to investigate corruption not related to a political rival of his. "We would have to look," he said.Without evidence, Trump has accused Joe Biden's son Hunter of acquiring US$1.5 billion from China through business dealings in the country, and he said on Thursday that China was in turn rewarded with a "sweetheart deal" on trade while the elder Biden was US vice-president.Hunter Biden owns an equity stake in a China-based fund " BHR Partners " that in 2014 aimed to raise US$1.5 billion. Citing his lawyer, The New York Times reported on Thursday that the junior Biden has yet to profit financially from his part-ownership nor has he been paid for sitting on the firm's board of directors.Regardless of the veracity of Trump's charges against the Bidens, the furore is likely to complicate bilateral relations, already strained by a costly trade war that began in July 2018.White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow speaks in Washington on Friday. Photo: AP alt=White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow speaks in Washington on Friday. Photo: APTrade negotiations are expected to resume next week in Washington. The stakes are high, with the US on the brink of the holiday season and another increase in tariffs on Chinese goods entering the US set to go into effect on October 15.Larry Kudlow, a senior White House economic adviser, told Bloomberg earlier on Friday that Trump's calls on China to investigate Hunter Biden's business dealings in China were unlikely to have "much of an impact, if anything, on the China trade talks".China frequently preaches non-intervention when its own internal affairs become the subject of concern by foreign governments; during the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York last week foreign minister Wang Yi said that China would "never interfere in the internal affairs of the United States"."And we trust that the American people are capable of sorting out their own problems," he said." Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019Democrats appeared unswayed on Friday by the White House's attempts to disentangle the Biden issue from looming trade talks, with Representative Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona taking to Twitter to call recent revelations "a dark moment for our country"."We are involved in an ongoing trade war, but the President's biggest priority is calling on China to investigate a political rival," she said.Outrage has not been limited to the American left, however. On Friday, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, himself a former presidential candidate, became one of the first Republican lawmakers to publicly condemn Trump's appeal for foreign assistance, calling the requests "wrong and appalling".Romney said, "When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated."This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| North Korean and U.S. negotiators gather for nuclear talks in Sweden Posted: 05 Oct 2019 02:11 AM PDT ![North Korean and U.S. negotiators gather for nuclear talks in Sweden]( "North Korean and U.S. negotiators gather for nuclear talks in Sweden") U.S. and North Korean officials arrived to begin nuclear talks at an isolated conference centre on the outskirts of Stockholm on Saturday, in an attempt to end months of stalemate. The meeting will be the first formal working-level talks since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in June and agreed to restart negotiations that stalled after a failed summit in Vietnam in February. Police had closed off the approaches to the complex facing the Baltic Sea on the island of Lidingo, where the delegations led by U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and North Korea's Kim Myong Gil were expected to meet.
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| Trump’s Impeachment Turmoil Follows GOP Senator on 2020 Ballot Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT ![Trump's Impeachment Turmoil Follows GOP Senator on 2020 Ballot]( "Trump's Impeachment Turmoil Follows GOP Senator on 2020 Ballot") (Bloomberg) -- Joni Ernst, like most Republican senators running for re-election in 2020, would like to stay focused on the bread-and-butter issues that voters say they care about rather than political fire surrounding President Donald Trump.Many of her Iowa constituents seem to want to avoid the impeachment controversy consuming Washington, as well. At a town hall meeting in Templeton, most voters instead talked about bolstering corn-based ethanol, preventing mass shootings, and coping with Trump's trade war with China.But Ernst, a target for Democrats looking to take control of the Senate, couldn't entirely avoid the uproar over Trump's entreaties to China and Ukraine to help investigate a political competitor."Where is the line?" asked Amy Haskins, a self-described independent and stay-at-home mom from Manning, Iowa. "When are you guys going to say, Enough. And stand up and say, I'm not backing any of this."It's a situation that increasingly will confront many of the GOP senators running for re-election next year as Trump looks to them and their colleagues as a firewall against his removal from office if the Democratic House impeaches him.Numerous recent polls have shown a shift in public support in favor of an impeachment inquiry of Trump, and his own public remarks suggesting China and Ukraine investigate a Democratic rival, Joe Biden, have only sparked more questions about his presidency.At the same time, Biden and the other 18 Democrats running to challenge Trump in 2020 are criss-crossing early primary and caucus states, such as Iowa, and delivering a barrage of criticism of the president.Some of the most vulnerable Republican senators in 2020, such as Arizona's Martha McSally, Colorado's Cory Gardner and Susan Collins of Maine, have avoided bringing up the topic of Trump's actions.Collins has declined to comment, citing her potential role as a juror in any impeachment trial.But GOP lawmakers running for re-election in solid Trump states, such as Senator John Cornyn of Texas, have aggressively defended the president.Ernst says she hasn't seen real evidence of impeachable conduct by the president, though she separated herself from him a bit."I can't speak for him," she responded when Haskins also asked what she thinks of Trump's dismissive treatment of past U.S. allies and his embrace of dictators like North Korea's Kim Jong Un. "I'll just say that. I can't speak for him."Ernst is favored to win re-election, but her fate next fall could be closely tied to Trump's. Iowa is a classic swing state in presidential races.While Barack Obama won Iowa in 2008 and 2012, Trump won it by 9 points in 2016. But even before Ukraine and the impeachment inquiry, the president's popularity had taken a hit in in the Hawkeye State. His net approval rating has declined 18 percentage points there since he took office in January 2017, according to tracking polls by Morning Consult.The Ukraine allegations and the impeachment controversy could make that worse, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball election forecast at the University of Virginia. That risks turning Ernst's race more competitive, he said."If Trump loses Iowa, she's probably endangered by that," he said.Over a two-week congressional break, Ernst is making her regular rounds of the state -- Templeton was her 33rd town hall this year -- providing a window on what's on the mind of voters.Economic IssuesAs angry as Haskins and some other constituents might be, most are focused on other issues, especially those affecting their farm-state economy that's struggling under trade uncertainty. And many say they are so tired of the partisan controversies during Trump's presidency that they have stopped paying attention."I was in tune with the news and what's going on with Trump in the first two years, but it got to be a soap opera. So I just kind of shut it out," said Tim West, an elementary school teacher in Sioux City who said he's an independent.A member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's leadership team, Ernst backed Trump immediately after the release last week of a rough transcript of his July phone call with Zelenskiy. In a prepared statement on Sept. 25, she said House Democrats were " determined to impeach" the president, adding that "I've looked at the transcript, I don't see anything there."Until Thursday's town hall, she hasn't otherwise publicly addressed the issue. She's been tweeting about corn-based ethanol and ending wasteful spending. Her travels back home have included a meeting with agricultural equipment owners and a leadership summit for students at a Sioux City university.Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic party, said voters will expect Ernst to take a stronger position."People want to know that their leadership is representing them and making sure that people aren't putting their party over the people of the state," Price said.Democratic ChallengerIn the 2020 Senate race, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has endorsed Theresa Greenfield, president of a Des Moines real estate company. Other Democratic candidates include Eddie Mauro, who ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat in 2018, and Kimberly Graham, a lawyer.A former Iowa state senator and Iraq War veteran, Ernst had a rapid rise in Iowa politics. Her convincing victory in the 2014 Senate race helped Republicans take a seat long held by Tom Harkin, a Democrat who had retired, and made her the first woman in Iowa to be elected to Congress.Trump considered her as his running mate before settling on Mike Pence, then the governor of Indiana.Ernst has largely stood by Trump since he took office, but she's demonstrated an occasional independent streak. She has opposed his tariff policies, saying Iowa farmers were hurt after China retaliated with levies on some of the state's key exports, including pork and soybeans. She also helped lead a GOP backlash over his plans to pull troops from Syria, pushed him to release his tax returns and chastised him for tweeting this year that four minority Democratic House congresswomen who are U.S. citizens should "go back" to where they came from.At a news conference on Thursday, Ernst said she didn't see strong evidence of wrongdoing in the Ukraine-call transcript and a whistle-blowers report alleging attempts by Trump and other administration officials to compel an investigation of Biden and his son."I am not concerned with what I have seen, given it's face value, on the transcript or the whistle-blower complaint," she said. But she added that the Senate Intelligence committee would investigate it in a bipartisan way, adding that "bottom line, we will get the information."To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| In possible swap, Australia couple freed from Iran detention Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:52 AM PDT ![In possible swap, Australia couple freed from Iran detention]( "In possible swap, Australia couple freed from Iran detention") In a possible swap, an Australian-British blogger and her fiancé returned home Saturday after being freed from a three-month detention in Iran. The couple, Jolie King and Mark Firkin, returned to Australia after all charges against them were dropped. At the same time, Iran's state TV reported that an Iranian scientist, Reza Dehbashi, who was detained for 13 months in Australia over purchasing a defense system for his country from the United States, had returned home.
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| Trump's Big North Korea Mistake: Making Missile Tests Normal Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:51 AM PDT  Whether intentionally or not, by normalizing North Korea's recent ballistic missile tests, Trump is making it more rather than less likely that any deal with North Korea will leave Pyongyang with increasingly advanced missiles capable of attacking Japan, South Korea, and US military installations in the Pacific.
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| UPDATE 2-EU rejects UK's request for weekend talks as Johnson insists on no Brexit delay Posted: 04 Oct 2019 11:18 PM PDT ![UPDATE 2-EU rejects UK's request for weekend talks as Johnson insists on no Brexit delay]( "UPDATE 2-EU rejects UK's request for weekend talks as Johnson insists on no Brexit delay") The European Union has rejected a British request to hold Brexit talks this weekend, British media reported, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated his commitment to leaving the bloc on Oct. 31 despite the possibility of a not reaching an exit deal. The European Commission said that Johnson's new Brexit proposals do not provide any basis for finalising a separation agreement, according to Sky News. Talks on Johnson's plan to replace the Irish backstop will not take place over the weekend, EU Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud was quoted as saying by Sky http://bit.ly/33aHQAN.
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| UPDATE 2-Iran frees Australian couple imprisoned for 3 months on spying charges Posted: 04 Oct 2019 10:56 PM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Iran frees Australian couple imprisoned for 3 months on spying charges]( "UPDATE 2-Iran frees Australian couple imprisoned for 3 months on spying charges") MELBOURNE/GENEVA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - An Australian couple who spent more than three months in a prison in Tehran has been freed, Australia's foreign minister said on Saturday, and an Iranian news agency later reported that an Iranian student was released from detention in Australia. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that the couple, Australian Mark Firkin and British-Australian Jolie King who live in Perth, returned to Australia and all charges against them were dropped after weeks of "very sensitive negotiations" with Iran.
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| Australian couple charged with spying in Iran released Posted: 04 Oct 2019 10:14 PM PDT An Australian travel-blogging couple who were detained in Iran on spying charges have been released and returned home, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Saturday. Perth-based Jolie King and Mark Firkin had been documenting their journey from Australia to Britain on social media for the past two years but went silent after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan about three months ago. Payne said Saturday the pair had been reunited with their family in Australia following "very sensitive negotiations" with Tehran.
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| British-Australian woman Jolie King released in Iran along with fiancé Posted: 04 Oct 2019 10:03 PM PDT  Jolie King, a British-Australian travel blogger who was imprisoned in Iran with her fiancé on spying charges, has been released from jail. Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said yesterday it was "with some enormous relief" that she could announce Ms King and her Australian partner Mark Firkin "have been released and returned" and all charges against them dropped. "They are in good spirits and they are in good health," she added. Their release was followed hours later by reports on state media in Tehran that an Iranian student held in Australia and wanted in the United States had also been released and returned home. Iranian state television showed footage of what it said was Reza Dehbashi arriving at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport and hugging a tearful woman apparently from his family. Australia's attorney general Christian Porter confirmed in a statement that he had stopped the extradition of Mr Dehbashi, a PhD student at the University of Queensland, to the US. Mr Dehbashi had been detained in Australia for 13 months on accusations of circumventing US sanctions on military equipment. But Mr Porter dismissed "speculation" over the case amid media reports that it could be part of a prisoner swap involving the bloggers. Mr Porter declined to comment further "particularly when any such response from me may diminish our government's capacity to deal with future matters of this type in Australia's best interests." Ms King and Mr Firkin were held after allegedly using a drone to take pictures of "military sites and forbidden areas", an Irani an judiciary spokesman said last month. The pair had been documenting their journey from Australia to Britain on social media for the past two years, but went silent after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan about three months ago. They were understood to be incarcerated in the same wing of Tehran's Evin Prison as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian mother of one who has been held on spying charges since 2016. In a statement issued through the foreign ministry in Canberra, the couple said: "We are extremely happy and relieved to be safely back in Australia with those we love. "While the past few months have been very difficult, we kn ow it has also been tough for those back home who have been worried for us." The pair also stressed that intense media coverage "may not be helpful" for those who continue to be held in Iran, including a British-Australian woman whose unrelated case also came to light last month. Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert remains in prison in Iran Credit: PA Melbourne University academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who has been detained for almost a year, is accused by the Iranian authorities of "spying for another country". Negotiations over her fate are "very long term", Australia's Ms Payne said. "She has been detained for some considerable time and has faced the Iranian legal system and has been convicted and sentenced," the foreign minister said. "We don't accept the charges on which she was convicted and we would seek to have her returned to Australia," Payne added, declining to comment further. Iran tensions | Read more Ms King was camping with Mr Firkin near a military site in Jajrood near Tehran when the pair were arrested by the Revolutionary Guard on August 9 for reportedly flying a drone without a licence. The couple, who live in Perth, Western Australia, had been travelling across Asia for months, chronicling their journey regularly on YouTube and Instagram. Friends became worried when they stopped posting updates in July, it is understood. On their Instagram page, the couple say they are currently "taking a break". Their last update shows their jeep parked in a remote area of Kyrgyzstan, after travelling through South East Asia and Pakistan. Their final destination was the UK. News of the arrests last month came after Canberra announced it would contribute a frigate and surveillance aircraft to a US-led mission to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with tensions high in the Gulf region. Ms Payne has maintained the cases of those detained were not related to diplomatic tensions.
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| Iran's 'hostage diplomacy': All the known detainees with British links Posted: 04 Oct 2019 08:27 PM PDT  A British-Australian academic is still being held in Iran while another British-Australian woman and her Australian boyfriend have been released from detention. Tehran has pursued a campaign of detaining Iranian and dual nationals academics in recent years, raising fears the Islamic republic is using them as diplomatic leverage. While there are no exact figures on the number of detainees with British links being held in Iran, these are at least some of those who are understood to be incarcerated as part of Iran's "hostage diplomacy". Jolie King Ms King was camping with her Australian fiance Mark Firkin near a military site in Jajrood near Tehran when the pair were arrested by the Revolutionary Guard on August 9 for reportedly flying a drone without a licence. The couple, who live in Perth, Western Australia, had been travelling across Asia for months, chronicling their journey regularly on YouTube and Instagram. Jolie King and Mark Firkin They were released and all charges droppedafter almost two months in prison in Tehran, Marise Payne, Australia's foreign minister, announced. Kylie Moore-Gilbert At the same time as Ms Payne announced the release of Ms King, the minister also said British-Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert was still in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Dr Moore-Gilbert, who was working as a lecturer and researcher for Melbourne University's Asia Institute and has published work on authoritarian governance and activism in the Middle East, was jailed in October 2018. Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert Credit: PA However, her detention had not been reported in case it harmed the prospects of her release. She has been sentenced to 10 years in jail. It is not known what Dr Moore-Gilbert was charged with, but 10-year terms are routinely given in Iran for spying. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran Credit: PA The most high-profile detainee, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held on spying charges since 2016. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker, is incarcerated in the Evin jail and is now only able to see her five-year-old daughter, Gabriella, once a month. The Free Nazanin campaign also said she is barred from making international calls, leaving her unable to speak to her husband Richard, who has been campaigning for her release from the UK. Tulip Siddiq, who is Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's Labour MP, told The Times that the latest detentions of the Australian-British women, was "s a clear escalation of Iran's hostage diplomacy". Mr Ratcliffe criticised Boris Johnson for not meeting with the family since he entered Downing Street last month. He said there had also been no invitation to meet Dominic Raab, the new foreign secretary. During his tenure as foreign secretary, Mr Johnson incorrectly said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching journalism in Iran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe timeline His comments were seized upon by Iranian prosecutors who brought them up in court as evidence against the charity worker. Mr Johnson later apologised for the remarks. Morad Tahbaz Mr Tahbaz, an Iranian-American businessman who is believed to hold a UK passport, was arrested in 2018 during a clampdown on environmentalists and academics. The authorities accused Mr Tahbaz and seven other conservationists of collecting classified information about Iran's strategic areas under the pretext of carrying out environmental and scientific projects. The conservationists, members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, had been using cameras to track endangered species, including the Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopard, according to Amnesty International. Kamal Foroughi Mr Foroughi has been detained in Iran for alleged espionage charges since 2011. Two years after his arrest, he was convicted of espionage and possessing alcohol. The 80-year-old grandfather strenuously maintains his innocence. 3rdSep: Happy 80th birthday Dad!! Ruz-e Tavalod-e mobarak! pic.twitter.com/UB76ipws1z— Kamran Foroughi (@FreeKForoughi) September 2, 2019 Mr Foroughi, who came to Britain in the 1970s, also holds an Iranian passport. Before his arrest, he was working in Tehran as a consultant to Petronas, the Malaysian oil company. He has been eligible for release for several years under Iran's own laws. However, it is believed he is still in jail, the BBC reports. Aras Amiri Ms Amiri, an Iranian woman who worked at the British council, is also being held in Evin prison. The 33-year-old was arrested on spying charges in 2018 and was sentenced to ten years in prison in May for "cultural infiltration by the British intelligence services in Iranian internal affairs". She strongly denies the allegations. Aras Amiri lost her appeal against her sentence In August she lost her final appeal against espionage charges before Iran's supreme court. Ms Amiri had appealed against the sentence in a letter to the head of Iran's judiciary but the supreme court ruled to uphold her conviction and her prison term. She said in her letter that she was arrested because she refused to cooperate with Iranian intelligence officials who wanted her to spy for them in Britain. "I directly rejected their offer for cooperation and told them that I can only work in my own field and nothing else," she wrote. Iran often tries to pressure its expatriate citizens to cooperate with intelligence work. Kameel Ahmady A British-Iranian anthropologist, Mr Ahmady was arrested in August and also taken to Evin prison. Charges against him have not yet been made public. Mr Ahmady, an Iranian Kurd who was born in the western city of Mahabad, was granted British citizenship in 1994 but had been living in Iran for the last 14 years. British-Iranian researcher Kameel Ahmady Credit: Rex His wife, Shafagh Rahmani, said at the time he had not been officially charged, but prosecutors at Evin prison said that he faces a series of charges related to "his activities". According to his Linkedin profile, Mr Ahmady, who had studied at the London School of Economics, is "a scholar working in the field of social anthropology conducting research on topics related to local cultures, women and children, and the rights of minorities in the Middle East, with some work experience in Africa and the Far East." Anousheh Ashouri In August, Iran's judiciary said it had sentenced London businessman Anousheh Ashouri, 65, to 12 years for allegedly passing information to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. Mr Ashouri has been detained since August 2017 but was sentenced in August by a court in Tehran, which accused him of "being connected to Mossad and receiving money from them as an informer." The judiciary did not make public the evidence against him. His daughter Eilka, an actress living in London, said her father, a businessman who has lived on-and-off in the UK since the age of 17, was in Iran visiting his mother when he was detained. "My father has nothing to do with politics and told us not to get involved in politics," she said, adding that her father had run a building supplies company before he retired.
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| Iraq protests: Powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demands government resign as toll rises close to 100 Posted: 04 Oct 2019 07:46 PM PDT  One of Iraq's most influential clerics called on Friday for the government to resign as the death toll rose to 93 in the violent national protests against official corruption that have now entered their fifth day. Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist political leader who has a huge following on the Iraqi street, said new elections should be held soon. "Respect the blood of Iraq through the resignation of the government and prepare for early elections overseen by international monitors," a statement from his office said. Nearly 4,000 people have been injured since the protests against chronic unemployment, poor public services and widespread corruption erupted in the capital on Tuesday, the Iraq parliament's human rights commission said. It was not immediately clear whether the latest deaths were from Friday's huge protests or fresh demonstrations on Saturday. The authorities have imposed a virtual blackout of the internet and confirmation of protest casualties in the provinces has trickled in slowly. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called for calm as more than 190 people were wounded in the capital on Friday, but protesters scorned his promises of political reform. Sadr's intervention appeared likely to encourage them to continue their uprising until the government backs down. Anti-government protesters take cover while Iraq security forces fire during a demonstration in Baghdad Credit: AP On the streets of Baghdad, police appeared to be targeting individual protesters. Reuters reporters saw one fall to the ground after being shot in the head. He was pronounced dead in hospital. Elsewhere, a Reuters television crew saw a man critically wounded by a gunshot to the neck after snipers on rooftops opened fire at a crowd. Sporadic shooting could be heard in Baghdad into the late evening. Police shot dead three people trying to storm the provincial government headquarters in the southern city of Diwaniya, police and medics said. The violence is the worst since Iraq put down an insurgency by Islamic State two years ago. The protests arose in the south, heartland of the Shi'ite majority, but quickly spread, with no formal leadership. "It is sorrowful that there have been so many deaths, casualties and destruction," Iraq's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said in a letter read out by his representative during a sermon. Iraqi security forces stand guard outside the interior ministry during a demonstration Credit: AFP "The government and political sides have not answered the demands of the people to fight corruption or achieved anything on the ground," said Sistani, who stays out of day-to-day politics but whose word is law for Iraq's Shi'ites. "Parliament holds the biggest responsibility for what is happening." Sadr, who leads the largest opposition bloc in parliament, ordered his lawmakers to suspend participation in the legislature until the government introduces a programme that would serve all Iraqis. Parliament is to convene Saturday to discuss protesters' demands. A curfew was lifted at 5am local time (7am UK time) on Saturday morning, two days after imposing the measure in an attempt to quell the protests. Security remains heavily deployed but streets and main squares are now open to traffic. Municipal workers were on Saturday morning clearing the streets of the bullets and debris left behind by the latest confrontations. The speaker of Iraq's parliament has called the protests a "revolution" against corruption but urged calm and proposed reforms such as better state housing support for poor people and ensuring Iraqi graduates are included on lucrative foreign projects for energy sector development. Many government officials and lawmakers are widely accused of siphoning off public money, unfairly awarding contracts in state institutions and other forms of corruption. The violence is an unprecedented test for Adel Abdul Mahdi, a mild-mannered veteran politician who came to power last year as a compromise candidate backed by powerful Shi'ite groups that have dominated Iraq since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraqi Shiite cleric and leader Moqtada al-Sadr has demanded the government resign Credit: AFP In his overnight address, Abdul Mahdi pledged reforms but said there was no "magic solution" to Iraq's problems. He insisted politicians were aware of the suffering of the masses: "We do not live in ivory towers - we walk among you in the streets of Baghdad," he said. A young man in a crowd fleeing sniper shots at a central Baghdad square was scornful. "The promises by Adel Abdul Mahdi are to fool the people, and today they are firing live gunshots at us," he said. "Today this was a peaceful protest. They set up these barricades, and the sniper is sitting right there since last night." Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi gives his first televised speech following the outbreak of deadly protests in Baghdad Credit: AFP The unrest occurs on the eve of Arbaeen, a Shi'ite pilgrimage which in recent years has drawn 20 million worshippers, trekking for days on foot across southern Iraq in the world's biggest annual gathering, 10 times the size of the Mecca Hajj. Some pilgrims were already taking to the roads on Friday, although in smaller numbers than in recent years. Iran has closed one of the border crossings used by millions of pilgrims. Qatar has told its citizens to stay away. A senior Iranian cleric blamed the unrest on the United States and Israel, saying they aimed to thwart the pilgrimage. The protests could grow if they receive formal backing from Sadr, who has long denounced corruption and the political elite. Parliament was set to hold a session dedicated to finding a solution, but Sadr's faction was staying away. Sadr has not called on his followers to join the protests, but his faction has expressed sympathy with their aims. One senior Sadrist politician, Awad Awadi, described the protests to Reuters as "a revolution of hunger".
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| Microsoft patent application describes a vibrating floor mat for VR Posted: 04 Oct 2019 05:59 PM PDT |
| Violence escalates in Iraq even after top cleric urges calm Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:07 PM PDT  The latest deaths raised the number of people killed in clashes during ongoing protests to 59 and marked a sharp escalation in the use of force against unarmed protesters. Spontaneous rallies, which began Tuesday, started as mostly young demonstrators took to the streets demanding jobs, improved services like electricity and water, and an end to corruption in the oil-rich country. In a desperate attempt to curb massive rallies, authorities blocked the internet and imposed an around-the-clock curfew in the capital.
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| Iranian F-5 Pilots Have Their Eyes Trained On America's F-35 Stealth Fighters Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Could Iran take one down?
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