| Turkish and Syrian ambassadors clash at UN Security Council Posted: 24 Oct 2019 05:23 PM PDT  The Turkish and Syrian ambassadors clashed Thursday at their first U.N. Security Council encounter since Turkey launched a cross-border offensive earlier this month following the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The council met on Syria's humanitarian situation, but the members' top concerns were the state of a Russian-Turkish cease-fire agreement that divides up the border region and prospects for next week's first meeting of a committee that is supposed to draft a new Syrian constitution.
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| Boris Johnson’s Election Bid Casts Doubt Over EU Brexit Delay Posted: 24 Oct 2019 04:07 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson's efforts to break three years of gridlock in the U.K. Parliament with another election were thrown into doubt, after his main opponent demanded he rule out a no-deal Brexit first.Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday that his decision on backing Johnson's bid for an election depends on for how long the EU will extend Brexit.The prime minister needs Corbyn's support for an early election in order to get the two-thirds majority in Parliament required for it to take place.The latest standoff in Westminster complicated the calculus for EU diplomats meeting in Brussels on Friday morning. They were due to decide the length of a third Brexit extension, but now don't want to be seen taking sides in a British political matter, according to people familiar with discussions.With just six days before the U.K. is scheduled to leave the bloc and no deal yet agreed, there's a slim chance Johnson could still push through his legislation again after winning broad support in Parliament for his plans Tuesday night.Johnson is concerned that without an election, scrutiny of his bill could drag out to fill a full three-month Brexit extension, becoming unacceptable to him if opponents succeed in amending it. Since becoming prime minister three months ago, he's twice failed to win the two-thirds majority needed in the Commons for an early national vote.If MPs once again reject his plan, Johnson will ditch his Brexit bill and campaign relentlessly for an election, which he sees as the only way to break the impasse, according to a person familiar with his thinking.But some MPs may question that threat, after Johnson backtracked on a similar pledge earlier this week. Johnson only put his legislation on hold after MPs rejected his accelerated timetable for debating it, even though hours before he'd threatened to pull the bill if they voted against him."It is our duty to end this nightmare and provide the country with a solution as soon as we reasonably can," Johnson said in a letter to Corbyn, appealing for his MPs to back an election. "These repeated delays have been bad for the economy, bad for businesses, and bad for millions of people trying to plan their futures."In response, Corbyn said he'd wait and see what the EU offered in the form of an extension on Friday. That caused a Catch-22 situation in Brussels, where diplomats said they wanted more clarity from the U.K. before agreeing on any potential extension.\--With assistance from Ian Wishart and Nikos Chrysoloras.To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Citizen army required to spot and destroy invasive species, MPs report says Posted: 24 Oct 2019 03:59 PM PDT  Britain needs a 'citizen's army' to fight the influx of invasive species, a committee of MPs has advised the government in a new report. The Environment Audit Committee has said that 1.3 million trained volunteers are needed to identify and respond to biosecurity outbreaks, in a new scheme modelled on a system developed in New Zealand. They would be trained to identify invasive species and either destroy them, prevent them spreading or alert authorities to new outbreaks so they can be swiftly dealt with. The growing threat from Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS), is estimated to cost Britain's economy £1.8 billion a year. If the government takes these recommendations on board, the committee said the citizen's army could be set up by around 2025. The committee also called for a special border force for invasive species to be set up by 2020. Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee Mary Creagh MP said: "INNS is one of the UK's top five threats to the natural environment. If we're to beat this, we need people power with an army of volunteers trained to spot and stop an invasive species before it becomes established. "We're witnessing changes, from climate change, that put the future of our natural landscape at risk. Oak Processionary Moth caterpillars can strip an oak tree bare as well as posing a hazard to our own health. We face losing half of the UK's native ash trees to ash dieback within a century costing £15 billion. New regulations to halt their progress are welcome but they are too little, too late. The asian hornet Credit: AFP "Government funding to tackle invasive species is tiny and fails to match the scale of the threat." The report found that urgent action is needed to slow the rate of arrival of invasive species and prevent them becoming established. It estimates that around 40 non-native species will become invasive within 20 years. Invasive species, including Japanese knotweed, the oak processionary moth, creeping water primrose, and topmouth gudgeon can destroy ecosystems, causing costly clean-ups, kill our native wildlife, destroy homes and cause costly issues for businesses. Some can also cause human health risk, including including the spread of Lyme disease by non-native deer, giant hogweed causing skin rashes and blistering, and the Oak Processionary Moth caterpillars which can cause skin irritation and breathing difficulties. INNS that pose the greatest threat to human health are mosquitoes and ticks, with the UK starting to see the arrival of the Asian hornet which can cause anaphylactic shock. Future threats are predicted to come from the Asian tiger mosquito which carries chikungunya and dengue fever. The american bullfrog Credit: Alamy The report also argues that more public awareness around biosecurity is needed, as many invasive species are spread by citizens buying plants from abroad, dumping plants from aquariums into the environment and transferring species from one body of water to another when fishing or going on boats. MPs conclude that the Government has missed its legal targets on tackling invasive species and has failed to give it the same priority and funding as animal and plant health regimes. They point out in the report that current funding for biosecurity in Great Britain is estimated at £220 million a year however invasive species receive less than one per cent of that sum (£0.9m). Brexit could also impact biosecurity, the MPs argued, as changing trade routes could allow more invasive species to arrive from South America and Asia with online trade considered a new and significant risk for introducing invasive species. A Defra spokesperson said: "Invasive non-native species not only challenge the survival of some of our rarest species but damage our natural ecosystems as well as costing the economy more than £1.7 billion per year. "We are committed to being leaders in tackling invasive species, and our 25 Year Environment Plan commits us to enhancing the biosecurity of the country even further. "We welcome the EAC's report and will now carefully consider its findings and recommendations."
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| After withdrawal, Trump shifts focus to Syria oil fields Posted: 24 Oct 2019 03:48 PM PDT  As Russian and Turkish leaders divvy up security roles in northeast Syria following an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal, President Donald Trump is focused on oil fields elsewhere in the war-torn country. Trump spurred a fresh wave of criticism Thursday with a tweet noting that he had spoken with Syrian Kurdish military chief Mazloum Abdi and observing that perhaps "it is time for Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region," an apparent reference to oil fields in Deir el-Zour province of Syria. "We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil," Trump said Wednesday while discussing the pullout of all but 200 to 300 U.S. troops in Syria.
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| US plans to send tanks to Syria oil fields, reversing Trump troop withdrawal – reports Posted: 24 Oct 2019 03:04 PM PDT  * Tanks to come from units already in Middle East, report says * Trump has said US 'secured oil' despite withdrawalTurkey-backed Syrian fighters take over areas on the road between Tal Abyad and Kobane on Thursday, as Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria left several positions along the long border with Turkey. Photograph: AFP ContributorAFP/AFP via Getty ImagesThe US is reportedly planning to deploy tanks and other heavy military hardware to protect oil fields in eastern Syria, in a reversal of Donald Trump's earlier order to withdraw all troops from the country.The most likely destination for US armoured units is a Conoco gas plant near the city of Deir Ezzor, the site of a February 2018 clash between US special forces and Syrian regime-backed militias fighting with Russian mercenaries.Fox News reported such a deployment was "likely" and that the tanks would come from units already in the Middle East. CNN said it would happen relatively soon.Trump has justified his decision to stand US troops down to allow a Turkish offensive in north-eastern Syria at the cost of abandoning Kurdish partners, by saying he was "bringing the troops home".However, it is quite likely it would take more troops to deploy, maintain, supply and protect armoured units in the middle of the eastern Syrian desert than the roughly 1,000 that were in the country before the Turkish invasion.The contradiction has been apparent in Trump's remarks in recent days, in which he claimed the US had "secured the oil" even while withdrawing its forces."It would mean walling off eastern Syria as a US zone," Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East programme at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Washington, said of the plan to put tanks around the Conoco plant. "You would have to protect it from the air. You have to supply it and then you have got to protect the road, presumably from Iraq. You can easily see a scenario where we end up with more troops in Syria than we started off with."On Thursday, Trump added to the confusion on Thursday by tweeting: "Perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region!"The remark seemed to endorse a population transfer from the Kurdish areas along the border with Turkey southwards to the almost entirely Sunni Arab area of Deir Ezzor. Such a mass displacement of Kurds from their homes would fit with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's plans to resettle north-eastern Syria with Syrian Arab refugees to create a buffer zone against Kurdish insurgents. Kurdish refugees in Turkey are already reported to be subject to forcible deportation.On Tuesday, Erdoğan struck a deal with Vladimir Putin on a 30km-deep "safe zone" in which Russian military police and Syrian border guards would oversee the withdrawal of armed Kurdish units from the area.Such mass demographic changes – carried out at the barrel of a gun – risk prolonging Syria's multiple-front conflict indefinitely, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and the UN's former humanitarian chief."This was an area of relative stability, before all of these deals," said Egeland, who was also the UN's special adviser on Syria. "We need to remind all of these people with the power and the guns that this is no chessboard. It is a place where people live. There are two to three million civilians in this area. I cannot see how this can be a safe zone for long with so many different armed parties."Egeland said about 180,000 people, half of them children, had been displaced as a consequence of the Turkish incursion. He added that Kurds arriving at overcrowded camps in Iraq said that many more would join the exodus from the north-east but could not afford to pay people-smugglers who charge hundreds of dollars per person.Egeland said the mass displacement of populations was being brought about as a consequence of "explosive, improvised deals"."For many, the move will not be voluntary and they will displacing the original population there. No problems will be solved and new problems will be created," he said.The US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, admitted on Wednesday that "a bit more than 100 Isis detainees have escaped" from captivity as a result of the chaos triggered by the Turkish incursion. Trump claimed on the same day that the escaped Isis fighters had been "largely recaptured". Jeffrey told Congress: "We do not know where they are."There was also considerable uncertainty on Thursday of the fate of nearly 70,000 people, almost all women and children in the al-Hawl camp in north-eastern Syria. Some of them are families of Isis fighters, but many are civilians swept up in formerly Isis-run areas.The UN's assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Ursula Mueller, said the situation in the camp was "desperate". In a warning directed largely to western nations, Mueller said: "Member states have the primary responsibility for their own nationals, and policies and actions that lead to statelessness should be avoided."
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| Brexit’s Catch 22: London Awaits EU Move as EU May Wait for U.K. Posted: 24 Oct 2019 02:05 PM PDT ![Brexit's Catch 22: London Awaits EU Move as EU May Wait for U.K.]( "Brexit's Catch 22: London Awaits EU Move as EU May Wait for U.K.") (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson's abrupt push for snap elections, and Jeremy Corbyn's response that he will only agree if the European Union decides on Friday to grant a comfortable Brexit extension, has put an obscure group of Brussels-based diplomats into an awkward position.The group of EU ambassadors, known as Coreper II, is due to meet Friday morning, to discuss the length of the third extension due to be granted to the U.K. The plan was to reach a consensus, allowing the bloc's governments to sign off on the recommendation via a written procedure, without convening a second leaders' summit in less than two weeks.That was before the British Prime Minister announced on Thursday his push for an election on Dec. 12 in order to end the Brexit gridlock. Corbyn, whose backing Johnson needs in order to get the two-thirds majority required for a national vote, said his decision depends on the EU's response.Both may have to wait, as the EU itself was also seeking clarity from the U.K. before making a decision.Four diplomats familiar with the deliberations in Brussels said it's unlikely the Coreper -- which stands for Committee of Permanent Representatives -- will reach a concrete conclusion. One of the diplomats said that the envoys and their governments are being dragged into British politics, as any decision puts them at risk of being blamed for either favoring the opposition or the government's view in London."Let's wait and see if there will be an election before we do fiction politics," Amelie de Montchalin, France's junior minister for European affairs said in an interview with RTL. "If there are elections, not just called for, but announced and scheduled, then we can take a decision."At a meeting on Wednesday, all EU27 ambassadors agreed that an extension should be granted, thus removing the risk of a cliff-edge exit next week. But France resisted the majority view of granting a three month extension, insisting instead on a short delay only to allow the ratification of the proposed Brexit deal.The meetings of the Coreper are meant to be preparatory. They aren't public, there are no press opportunities and - usually - no communiques of their conclusion.They occasionally take place in a secure room, without phones or aides allowed. While the gatherings have recently drawn the spotlight, with journalists getting detailed readouts of the discussions on Brexit, never before have the eyes of an entire country debating snap elections been so focused on a group barely known to anyone outside the Brussels bubble.The final decision on whether to grant an extension -- and if so for how long -- still lies in the hands of European Council President Donald Tusk and the unanimous blessing of 27 EU leaders.\--With assistance from Helene Fouquet.To contact the reporters on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net;Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Heather HarrisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Your Evening Briefing Posted: 24 Oct 2019 02:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every afternoon? Sign up here U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will seek a general election on Dec. 12, setting up a national vote on his Brexit strategy. "It is our duty to end this nightmare," he said in a letter appealing to lawmakers for support. The next steps, like all things Brexit, are complicated. We lay it all out here. It's down to the wire with Brexit: To keep up with the latest news, sign up for our daily newsletter, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our podcast.Here are today's top storiesEven as the White House attempts to block witnesses and withhold documents, the impeachment investigation of U.S. President Donald Trump is accelerating rapidly. The explosive testimony of senior U.S. diplomat William Taylor helps fill in a picture of Trump using congressionally allocated military aid and an Oval Office visit to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 campaign. Until now, the investigation has taken place behind closed doors. Soon, Congress will hold open hearings. Polls already show support for the inquiry rising.PG&E shut off power to more than half a million people across California in an attempt to keep power lines from igniting wildfires. A major blaze has already erupted. Prince Turki Al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and an influential royal family member, told U.S. lawmakers to get off their "high moralistic horses" and normalize relations with the kingdom. Lawmakers in both parties have been unified on punishing the nation since the murder and dismemberment last year of Washington Post columnist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi.United Airlines is known for operating planes, not designing them. But it's new regional jet is a custom creation, featuring ten first class seats intended to attract a lucrative group of small city travelers.If the U.S. economy manages to sustain its decade-long expansion into 2020, it will be because U.S. consumers didn't lose their nerve despite all the talk of recession.Space exploration is an expensive proposition. Eventually, it will have to pay off. In episode three of Giant Leap, a Bloomberg Originals video series, we look at how industry in orbit is a key to our future on Earth—and among the stars.What's Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says Bitcoin is to electricity what alcohol is to grapes. Electricity is difficult to store at scale (battery technology being disappointing) and power dissipates over distribution lines. But when that same electricity is used for mining a cryptocurrency, Joe says it becomes something virtually immortal that can be stored and transported with great ease. People are still trying to wrap their heads around cryptocurrencies: some argue Bitcoin is digital gold while others say it's currency. Some say it's a commodity while others call it a "protocol." But the answer is simple, according to Joe: Bitcoin is digital alcohol.What you'll need to know tomorrowThere was a mysterious private jet flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia. Short-sellers laughed at Elon Musk. Who's laughing now? Google was accused of creating a spy tool to quell worker dissent. U.S. senators think TikTok may be a national security threat. Investors are tiring of America's fracking revolution. After WeWork, investors may be done with profitless companies. Shape-shifters and hoverbikes steal the Tokyo Motor Show.What you'll want to read tonight in BusinessweekAfter years of downplaying Netflix's negative effect on the cable business, media companies are going all-in on internet TV, spending billions of dollars to finance new apps and new shows. Disney+ is one of four services set to start in the coming 12 months, alongside Apple TV+, Comcast's Peacock, and AT&T's HBO Max. "The Streaming Wars," as many have called this video arms race, are the talk of Hollywood and Wall Street. Nobody seems to have an exit strategy.To contact the author of this story: Josh Petri in Portland at jpetri4@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UN to probe abuses in Chile as strike continues Posted: 24 Oct 2019 01:56 PM PDT  The United Nations said Thursday it would send a special mission to investigate human rights abuses in Chile, where a general strike went into its second day following a week of street protests that left 18 dead. President Sebastian Pinera tried to ease tensions by announcing a plan to end a highly unpopular state of emergency and nighttime curfews that have lasted six days. "Having monitored the crisis in Chile since it began, I have decided to send a verification mission to examine the allegations of human rights violations," the head of the UN Human Rights Council and former Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, said in a tweet.
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| Britain's Johnson offers Dec 12 poll to break Brexit deadlock Posted: 24 Oct 2019 01:40 PM PDT  UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday proposed settling the Brexit crisis through an early election on December 12 that could help Britain finally find a way out of the European Union. The Conservative leaders' offer comes with his party leading opinion surveys and the opposition split over whether to back a snap poll or to seek a new EU membership referendum that could undo the one triggering Brexit in 2016. It also suggests that Johnson has all but given up on his repeated pledge to take Britain out of the EU after nearly 50 years by the twice-delayed October 31 deadline.
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| Key Senators Circulate Legislation Banning Iran Nuclear Waivers Posted: 24 Oct 2019 01:30 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Two of the U.S. Senate's staunchest opponents of the Iran nuclear deal drafted legislation that would bar President Donald Trump from renewing waivers allowing the Islamic Republic to maintain a limited civil nuclear program.The legislation from Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham is part of a broader effort by hardline opponents of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which Trump withdrew the U.S. from last year, to end the few remaining benefits Iran still gets from the accord. They circulated their draft legislation to officials at the Departments of Treasury, State and Energy this week, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.When Trump backed out of the nuclear accord, he imposed a raft of new sanctions designed to choke Iran's economy and compel it to agree to stricter limits on its nuclear and missile programs. But he left intact a set of sanctions waivers allowing Iran to work with nations that remain in the deal. The point was to limit nuclear weapons proliferation and ensure Iran doesn't enrich uranium to high levels.The bill from Graham and Cruz would end three waivers allowing work at a reactor at Arak, an enrichment facility at Fordow, and the Tehran Research Reactor, according to the draft. The administration renewed those waivers for 90 days on July 31 and has been debating whether to do so again.The State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Iran moved in recent months to exceed the 2015 deal's limits on enriched uranium stockpiles, though President Hassan Rouhani's government insists it is still meeting the terms of the accord.Proponents of the legislation say the Tehran government channeled a covert nuclear-weapons program through civil nuclear projects in the early 2000s. They also argue that ending the waivers would make it harder for a Democratic president to revive the deal should Trump not be re-elected next year.To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Lion Bone Trade, Ivory Stockpiles to Be Reviewed by South Africa Posted: 24 Oct 2019 01:30 PM PDT ![Lion Bone Trade, Ivory Stockpiles to Be Reviewed by South Africa]( "Lion Bone Trade, Ivory Stockpiles to Be Reviewed by South Africa") (Bloomberg) -- South Africa's trade in lion bones and its management of elephant ivory stockpiles will be among wildlife-related issues to be reviewed by an advisory committee established by the country's environment ministry.The 25-member committee will review a number of issues as criticism from anti-hunting campaigners and animal activists mounts. In August a High Court judge said that the allocation of export quotas for lion skeletons by the government was illegal."The department of environmental affairs has for some time dealt with a number of complex and emotive sustainable-use issues," the environment department said in a statement. "These include the elephant management and culling debate, the management of the ivory stockpile, trade in rhinoceros horn, captive breeding and the emerging issue of lion bone trade."The appointment of the committee, which will carry out its work over a number of months, comes as southern African nations threaten to quit the United Nations's Convention on International Trade in Wild Species of Flora and Fauna over regulations on elephant management. The committee will examine the legal trade in lion bones and skins from South Africa to East Asia and the hunting of leopards and trade in their skins. It will also examine the feasibility of establishing a legal trade in rhino horns. To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Gordon BellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Race to Save the World: Experts Sound Off on Saving Earth From Climate Catastrophe Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:59 PM PDT  The Daily BeastThe rise of fascism around the world has contributed to a spike in neo-Nazi activity and hate crimes, but Keya Chatterjee of the U.S. Climate Action Network says it's also made climate change more difficult to address than ever before. "It's hard to reduce emissions in a neo-fascist world," she explained Thursday at the Race to Save World event, hosted by The Daily Beast in partnership with Pfizer. "Movements right now are realizing that we can't solve this issue in a bubble, we have to take on a range of social issues… we have to grow and we have to be strategic."The changing climate and increasingly polarized political environment are only two of the many issues humanity now faces with the clock ticking. Other challenges to the Earth's population—including potential epidemics and an uptick in the number of people facing hunger—were also discussed at the Race to Save World event, in which experts came together to discuss ways to tackle these problems and avoid the most dire of consequences.Chatterjee said she hopes to see a world where she isn't worried about her son's future—one without a warming climate and a society that only seems to care about individual well-being."Can we take care of each other or is it everyone out for themselves?" she said at a panel discussion led by the Beast's national security reporter, Spencer Ackerman. "I know in my 9-year-old son's lifetime that more storms will come... I want him in a society where people are kind. There are people that don't want us to do this, and we need to knock them out of power so we can do it."Chatterjee credited the grassroots climate movements for putting an emphasis on community and forcing those in power to engage in meaningful discussions about real solutions. Sarah Ladislaw, the director of the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also said the "rich and powerful can't not have answers anymore" on climate change."I think we've made remarkable progress on half-ass effort. What if we really try?" Ladislaw asked. "I think there's a big shift in people—they didn't accept the problem before and now they accept the problem. Some of them have accepted their role in the climate problem, but now they have to take the steps to fix it. I still think there's a problem with this."While skepticism about "neo-fascist" systems has invigorated efforts to solve climate change, Elaine Kamarck—director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution—also warned at one of the event's fireside chats that trust in the government will be key to fomenting change worldwide. "Climate change is the most challenging collective action problem—we have collective action but no trust in government," she said. "We have to do this internationally and it's really hard when you have no faith in government."But while trust in government may be necessary to bring the Earth back from the brink of devastation, experts warned that that only goes so far, as governments themselves are contributing to global epidemics and pandemics. Ron Klain, a former White House Ebola response coordinator, said the current brand of "isolationism" favored by President Donald Trump could mean "death.""If we don't engage with the world, the sicknesses will come here for sure," he said at a panel on epidemics moderated by Jackie Kucinich, the Beast's Washington bureau chief. "The best way to control these things to help counties out… no wall we can build that's high or wide enough to keep infectious diseases out of this country."Panelists also spoke about the proliferation of anti-vaccine rhetoric, which has created breeding grounds for highly preventable viruses to spread. "It's an education issue. The data is there, science was irrefutable, but it's still a really growing problem," Justin McCarthy, senior vice president of patient and health impact at Pfizer, said. "There's no better way to address a disease than to prevent it from happening."Klain disagreed, saying that the spread of vaccine misinformation is indicative of a "cultural problem" and a "deep conspiratorial mood" that has permeated the U.S.In a third panel led by Daily Beast national security reporter Erin Banco, experts spoke about the world's dwindling food and water resources, which have been greatly affected by climate change, violence and conflict, as well as the volatile financial system, according to panelists. Vimlendra Sharan, a director at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, noted that world hunger has only increased in the past four years."We are trying to feed the global population by starving the planet—and if we starve the planet, we'll have dire consequences down the road," Sharan said. "If we do not do anything, we are in for very tough times."Pete Pearson, the senior director for food loss and waste at World Wildlife Fund, said humanity needs to hold itself accountable for food waste as more people are going to bed hungry."It's a math equation. We're running at a deficit and you can't run spending like that. You'll hit a resource shortage," Pearson said. "We are placing value at food at every point, it has to be unacceptable to waste food from beginning to end."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Syria says Turkish-led forces attacked its troops Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:57 PM PDT  Turkish forces and their allies attacked Syrian government troops in northeastern Syria on Thursday, killing some of them, and they also clashed with Kurdish-led fighters, the state news agency in Damascus and a war monitoring group said. Most worrisome has been the prospect of a collision between forces of the Syrian government' and those backed by Turkey, which include Syrian rebel fighters and Islamic extremists opposed to President Bashar Assad. All sides have said they are abiding by a cease-fire as they implement a Russian-Turkish agreement that divides up the border region.
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| Boris Johnson’s Election Bid In Doubt Amid No-Deal Brexit Threat Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:27 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's bid for a snap election on Dec. 12 was up in the air after his opponents said they want to rule out a no-deal Brexit first.Johnson announced that a motion to trigger an early poll will be put to a vote in the House of Commons on Monday. It will require two-thirds of members of Parliament to support the proposal for the election to take place.But the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, late Thursday said he wanted to see if the EU offered an extension before making a decision. "Take no deal off the table and we will absolutely support an election," he said.If Johnson succeeds, there is a chance MPs could speed his Brexit deal into law before Parliament is dissolved for the campaign to begin on Nov 6. That would mean the U.K. would be out of the European Union before voters go to the polling stations.Brexit's Catch 22: London Awaits EU Move as EU May Wait for U.K.The U.K. Treasury canceled plans for a Nov. 6 Budget following Johnson's election proposal. Chancellor Sajid Javid had previously said he would only hold the Budget on that day if the U.K. had left the EU with a deal.EU officials said while it's still most likely the bloc will grant a delay until Jan. 31, the discussion between Brussels and the bloc's other 27 governments is still going on and Johnson's election call -- and Labour's possible rejection of it -- is now complicating matters.One decision to make could be whether, if a deal is passed by Nov. 6, as Johnson wants, the EU would then see Brexit happen on Nov. 30 or Nov. 15, the officials said.'End this nightmare'"It is our duty to end this nightmare and provide the country with a solution as soon as we reasonably can," Johnson said in a letter to Corbyn, appealing for his MPs to back an election. "These repeated delays have been bad for the economy, bad for businesses, and bad for millions of people trying to plan their futures."It would be the third general election the U.K. has been through in four years, and the second since the seismic shift in British politics from the 2016 referendum vote. In a political context of extreme volatility, the contest will be difficult to predict.The Brexit referendum split the country and redrew the political debate, breaking the old party structures that have held sway in the U.K. for decades. In 2017, Johnson's predecessor Theresa May called an early election with her party 25 points ahead of Labour in the opinion polls.Crisis BritainInstead of reaping the landslide she had expected, May lost the slim majority she started with, paralyzing Parliament and plunging Britain into a political and constitutional crisis in which it remains.In an initial response to Johnson's plan, Labour said it will back an election once a no-deal Brexit has been ruled out, and if the EU grants the U.K. an extension to the Oct. 31 deadline. The EU is widely expected to agree to a three-month delay when ambassadors meet in Brussels on Friday, putting back the U.K.'s exit until Jan. 31.Johnson told Corbyn he would prefer a short extension to the deadline until the middle of November but expected the EU to require a longer delay until the end of January. In those circumstances, an election would be essential, he said.January Brexit"If I win a majority in this election, we will then ratify this great new deal that I have negotiated, get Brexit done in January and the country will move on," Johnson wrote to Corbyn. "If you win a majority, then you will, I assume, implement your policy: that is, you will ask for another delay after 31 January 2020 to give you the time both to renegotiate a new deal then have a referendum, in which you may or may not campaign for your own deal."Johnson will need two-thirds of MPs in the Commons to back the motion on Monday, giving Labour an effective veto if all of its 245 members refuse. He's twice failed to win Parliament's support for an early national vote.If MPs reject his plan, Johnson will ditch his Brexit bill and campaign relentlessly for an election, which he sees as the only way to break the impasse, according to a person familiar with his thinking.Brexit Twists Point to Election. Here's How It Works: QuickTakeJohnson pledged "do or die" to get Brexit done by the existing deadline of Oct. 31, and tried to get parliamentary approval for an accelerated timetable to pass his agreement into U.K. law. MPs voted in favor of the deal in principle -- but rejected a fast-track plan to rush the deal into law in just three days of Commons debates, leaving the U.K.'s European divorce stuck.Johnson was required to seek a Brexit extension to Jan. 31 when he failed to get a deal through Parliament by Oct. 19 and the EU is due to give its formal response on Friday morning.(Updates to add Labour comment in first, third, fifth; adds sixth, seventh paragraphs)\--With assistance from Stuart Biggs and Greg Ritchie.To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Democratic senator asks whether Trump interfered with court case on Turkey's Halkbank Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:10 PM PDT  A top Democratic senator on Thursday questioned whether President Donald Trump interfered with a criminal investigation of Turkey's Halkbank, which has been accused of conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. Wyden said he was launching an investigation to examine the relationship between Halkbank and Trump administration officials.
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| UPDATE 1-UK's Javid scraps Nov. 6 budget plan over Brexit delay, election call Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:08 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-UK's Javid scraps Nov. 6 budget plan over Brexit delay, election call]( "UPDATE 1-UK's Javid scraps Nov. 6 budget plan over Brexit delay, election call") British finance minister Sajid Javid has postponed his first budget statement which he had been due to give on Nov. 6 because of delays to Brexit and the government's attempts to call an early election, a Treasury source said on Thursday. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said the budget date had been decided on the assumption that Britain was leaving the European Union with a deal on Oct. 31. Javid has previously said his budget plan would include higher public spending and a review of Britain's budget rules.
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| Democratic senator asks whether Trump interfered with court case on Turkey's Halkbank Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:07 PM PDT ![Democratic senator asks whether Trump interfered with court case on Turkey's Halkbank]( "Democratic senator asks whether Trump interfered with court case on Turkey's Halkbank") A top Democratic senator on Thursday questioned whether President Donald Trump interfered with a criminal investigation of Turkey's Halkbank, which has been accused of conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. Wyden said he was launching an investigation to examine the relationship between Halkbank and Trump administration officials.
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| Why Saving the Oceans Is as Vital as Protecting Rain Forests Posted: 24 Oct 2019 11:54 AM PDT  Saving the oceans is key to fighting the climate crisis, according to Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a Brooklyn-born marine biologist and activist who is a rising figure in the climate movement.Johnson, 39, is the founder of Ocean Collectiv, a conservation consultancy, and of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank, and speaks frequently at TED Talks, climate rallies and her salons at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Protecting the ocean is crucial for people at all economic levels, she said, not just bicoastal elites who look down their noses at plastic straws.Q: You have talked a lot about how the oceans are crucial in the fight against climate change. How so?A: When people talk about the destruction of the Amazon, and how forests in general are the lungs of the planet, I always want to jump in and say the ocean is a huge part of that, too.Phytoplankton -- these tiny little plants in the ocean -- produce a huge percentage of the oxygen we breathe, and the population of phytoplankton is declining. That should be a cause for concern for every single person.Q: You hear a lot of talk about plastic straws. Is that issue really a big deal or is it greenwashing?A: Straws are not the biggest problem facing the ocean, but they are an opportunity to think about what else we can do to reduce our impact on the planet.It really cracked me up the other day. I was walking down the street in Fort Greene, the neighborhood where I grew up and where I live now, and I saw this guy looking super-stylish carrying an iced coffee in a plastic to-go coffee cup with a plastic lid, and I turned to look, and he's got a metal straw in the cup.Part of me wanted to just hit it out of his hand and be like, "Dude, you're totally missing the point! If you're going to bring a straw, just bring your own cup!"Q: Some of those straws, I guess, can end up in the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Are there any steps we can take to tackle that?A: I kind of recoil at this question, to be honest, because I feel like this has been done a million times: carry your own water bottle, carry your own grocery bags. But I think there is a harder answer, which is that it does actually require some sacrifice.Like I'll be walking down the street and I want to get a Juice Press because I'm hungry and I didn't bring enough snacks for the day, and I don't. There is an element of: "Don't buy the thing that's in plastic."There's no cute answer, right? Nothing that is disposable can be sustainable.Q: The United Nations says that 93% of commercial fish stocks are being fished at or beyond capacity. What kind of fish should we avoid eating?A: Pending changes which could come at any moment, the U.S. still does a very good job of managing our fish population. So eat U.S. seafood and support your fishermen who are doing it right.And eat lower on the food chain. Instead of tuna, eat sardines and anchovies -- those little ones that are reproducing super-quickly. Because tuna is so far up the food chain, if we were eating the land equivalent of tuna, it would be like eating whatever kind of dragon eats a lion. It's this incredible beast, and we will never be able to have sustainable tuna fishing at scale.Q: Is farmed seafood preferable to wild?A: The sustainability of fish farming is improving, but farmed fish are still often grown in high densities, and so there's a lot of spread of disease and pollution.But ocean farming of shellfish -- oysters, mussels and clams -- and seaweed is super-sustainable, and we should all be eating more of those things because they actually just live off of nutrients in the water and sunlight.In fact, eating shellfish like oysters can be more sustainable than being totally vegan, because it's just such an efficient and low-carbon way to make protein. Shellfish are absorbing carbon as they're making their shells. And seaweed is absorbing tons of CO2, because they're plants.Q: Some people think ocean conservation is an elitist issue for people with beach houses. Why does it matter for people across the economic spectrum?A: It's no coincidence which communities bear the brunt of sea level rise, pollution and strengthened storms. Along the coasts, it's poor communities and communities of color who are most at risk. It's those who already have the fewest resources who are most in danger, not people with vacation homes and yachts. Ocean conservation is a social justice issue.Q: Climate change deniers like to paint conservation as a pet cause for limousine liberals.A: It's so easy to think about the typical environmentalist as this stereotype of a fit white guy stepping out of a Prius, looking out into the mountains wearing a Patagonia jacket. But I've looked into the polling data, and that's completely false.It's young people, and it's people of color, and it's women who disproportionately care about environmental and climate issues, and are most supportive of stronger government policies to address them: 68% of people of color say they are worried about the impacts of climate change, compared to 55% of white people.Q: Do you see the green movement forging stronger ties to the social justice movement?A: I mean, Black Lives Matter has a part of their platform that's about climate and the environment, because it is a justice issue. If you think about the rates of asthma in inner-city communities that are near power plants or exposed to other types of pollution, it's a lot higher.And when we think about immigration, and how a lot of migration is now driven by climate change, whether it's droughts and crop failures or the impacts of storms, that becomes a social justice issue that was triggered by the impacts on communities that did the least to emit the carbon to cause the problem.Q: That's a lot of bad news to take in. What's the biggest reason for hope?A: Nature is super-resilient if we give it a chance, right? If we stop polluting the ocean, it will be less polluted. If we stop overfishing, in most cases, fish populations will recover.The ocean has already absorbed about 30% of the excess CO2 that we've trapped by burning fossil fuels. And the ocean has already absorbed 93% of the heat that we've trapped. And so the ocean is trying its best to buffer us from our worst, right? We need to return the favor.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| As Putin Era Begins to Wane, Russia Unleashes a Sweeping Crackdown Posted: 24 Oct 2019 11:54 AM PDT  PSKOV, Russia -- After a teenager blew himself up inside a branch of Russia's secret police near the Arctic Circle late last year, a freelance journalist hundreds of miles to the south drew what she thought was "an obvious and banal" conclusion in her weekly radio commentary.Her conclusion -- that relentless repression by Russia's security forces is radicalizing Russian youth -- now has the journalist, Svetlana Prokopyeva, facing up to seven years in jail for "publicly inciting terrorism."Even the Kremlin's own Human Rights Council protested that Prokopyeva had done no such thing and, from her home office in the ancient Russian city of Pskov, had been merely trying to explain the forces that push people toward extreme acts, not to encourage them.Yet, the case rolls on, adding a Kafkaesque twist to the increasingly assertive actions of a security apparatus seemingly bent on proving the Kremlin's harshest critics right when they say that Russia has taken a dangerous turn as President Vladimir Putin serves out what is supposed to be his final term.The prosecution of Prokopyeva and other harmless critics comes against the backdrop of foreboding and uncertainty over what might follow Putin, who has anchored the system for nearly two decades. Even the question of whether he will depart as scheduled in 2024 is the subject of speculation, since he remains more popular than any opponent despite a dip in his ratings.The resulting jitters, exacerbated by economic stagnation and mostly small but widespread protests that erupted this summer, have left Russia's numerous law-enforcement bodies scrambling to prove their mettle against potential threats, no matter how puny, and secure their future in a country they all view as a fortress besieged by enemies at home and abroad.In the aftermath of the protests, which were broken up with often brutal force by the authorities, law-enforcement agencies last week conducted nationwide raids on news outlets critical of the Kremlin and on the homes and offices of people affiliated with the opposition leader, Aleksei A. Navalny.But, as Prokopyeva noted, cracking down so hard has often fueled anger and further unrest. When men armed with hatchets -- they were dressed in civilian clothes but backed up by riot police officers -- broke up a tiny protest in Siberia last month over the treatment of a shaman, their violent action set off the biggest outpouring of anger in the remote region near the border with Mongolia in years.The widening and often-hard-to-fathom crackdown has even reached aging Soviet-era dissidents with scant means and few followers.The Justice Ministry, for example, demanded last week that a shoestring human rights group led by Lev A. Ponomaryov, 78, be disbanded. Burly police officers then snatched the leader of a doctors' association, an eye specialist, off the street, charging her and an assistant, a gynecologist, with "disobedience" to law enforcement authorities after a flurry of protests by medical workers.On Monday, the Kremlin announced an overhaul of the Human Rights Council, already a toothless body but one that had on occasion spoken up for victims, including Prokopyeva, of Russia's often lawless security apparatus. The most independent-minded members of the council were purged in favor of loyalists from the state news media and others known for their obedience."Their logic is the same as terrorists: they want to create fear," said Lev Shlosberg, an elected member of the Pskov region council and regional leader of Yabloko, Russia's last remaining pro-Western political party with national reach. "By sending just one person to jail they can terrorize a million others."Maxim Kostikov, the editor-in-chief at the radio station in Pskov that broadcast Prokopyeva's commentary last October, said the decision to prosecute the 40-year-old journalist made no sense "by any normal logic."He estimated that "maybe three or four hundred people" had listened to the original broadcast and perhaps a few hundred more had read the text of Prokopyeva's commentary on a Pskov news portal. But now, thanks to the criminal case against her, "the whole world knows what Svetlana wrote."But whether turning a previously obscure provincial journalist into a national cause celebre is counterproductive, said Ekaterina Schulmann, one of the purged members of Putin's Human Rights Council, "depends on your understanding of productivity."The logic driving actions by the Federal Security Service, known by its Russian initials FSB, and other arms of a vast security apparatus riven by feuds over turf and money, Schulmann said, does not flow from any master plan to terrorize Kremlin opponents but rests on self-interested bureaucratic calculation."Each body has to show its own results and doesn't care about the overall picture," Schulmann added, noting that by pursuing Prokopyeva, the FSB "now has a nice juicy criminal case it can put in its reports."Asked about the case this month, Putin's spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said Putin "is of course aware of it, but this is not a topic for the president."Prokopyeva, in an interview in Pskov, said she had been questioned repeatedly by investigators from the Investigative Committee, Russia's version of the FBI, about why she wrote what she did and whether anyone had helped or had given her instructions. But she said she believed the case had been driven from behind the scenes by the FSB, which has overall responsibility for combating terrorism.The agency's motive, she said, was simple: "revenge" for her suggestion that Russia's security system is creating the crimes it is supposed to prevent."They want to defend their immovable position in this country," she said, dressed in a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words "We Will Not Shut Up" in different languages.Prokopyeva has been in the sights of Russia's security services since 2014, when, as editor of Pskovskaya Guberniya, her hometown's only independent newspaper, she oversaw coverage exposing another "obvious" truth: that Russian soldiers have been fighting and dying in eastern Ukraine.Exhibit A in the criminal case against Prokopyeva is an 800-word text she wrote that compared the teenage bomber in the northern city of Arkhangelsk -- who killed nobody but himself -- to young Russians in the 19th century who joined "People's Will," an anarchist group responsible for the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881."Cruelty breeds cruelty," the journalist said in her radio commentary, broadcast on the Pskov affiliate of Ekho Moskvy, a Moscow station. Linguists commissioned by investigators to study the text said her commentary contained "signs of incitement to terrorism," though experts hired by her lawyers found no such "signs."Prokopyeva's view that security services responsible for keeping Russia safe are contributing to its ruin clearly hit a raw nerve in a system that -- replete with grand pageantry and endless praise of Putin as guardian of Orthodox Christianity and Russia's status as a great power -- is looking more and more like a throwback to the czarist era.Drawing attention to the violent side of Russian history, particularly to an anarchist group that murdered a czar, is highly sensitive at a time when Putin increasingly points to Russia's past -- scrubbed of assassinations and bloody strife -- to inspire patriotic confidence in the future.In the past year, at least nine people besides Prokopyeva have faced criminal charges -- with one person sent to jail for two and a half years -- over comments they made about the teenager, Mikhail Zhlobitski, 17, who blew himself up. Also caught up in the rolling crackdown against supposed "extremists" have been scores of peaceful and often older followers of Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination that Moscow outlawed in 2017 as a security threat.Prokopyeva, who last month was formally charged with inciting terrorism, said she had written her text in just a couple of hours and never imagined it would stir such a ruckus. "It wasn't anything special or original," she said, adding that anyone who went to school, as she did, in the Soviet Union, where textbooks celebrated 19th-century anarchists as precursors of Lenin's revolutionaries, knows how czarist repression fed violence.Zhlobitski, she wrote, was not simply a lone lunatic but a warning that the authorities need to heed if they want to avoid following the example of Russia's doomed czarist order. "The ruthless state gave birth to a citizen who made death his argument," she wrote, noting that the authorities had sealed off peaceful avenues of dissent for young people like Zhlobitski.She ended her commentary with what she had thought was a clear message that she did not want others to follow the teenager's example: "Let's hope he is an exception."Zhlobitski gave his own explanation for his turn to violence shortly before he set off his homemade bomb in the Arkhangelsk office of the FSB. Using the alias "Sergei Nechayev," a violent 19th-century revolutionary, he posted a message online saying he wanted to strike at the F.S.B. because it "fabricates cases and tortures people."Putin's Human Rights Council, shortly before this week's purge of its more outspoken members, noted in a statement that the question of why people turn to militancy was "one of the most acute and debated" issues in criminology, and that journalism should not be criminalized. The council said it had "carefully studied" Prokopyeva's text and "did not see in it any signs of justification of terrorism."Denis Kamalyagin, the editor of Pskovskaya Guberniya, Prokopyeva's old newspaper, described the case as a "terrible stupidity." It is not, he said, "a sign of how strong our authorities feel but of their weakness. They can't act like a normal European government. All they can do is frighten people."Even this, he added, no longer works."They have created a new generation that is no longer scared of them," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| UN to launch 75th anniversary year with global dialogue Posted: 24 Oct 2019 11:25 AM PDT ![UN to launch 75th anniversary year with global dialogue]( "UN to launch 75th anniversary year with global dialogue") Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the United Nations will launch its 75th anniversary year in January 2020 with a global dialogue engaging people around the world on their vision for the future and how to achieve it. The U.N. chief made the announcement on United Nations Day, the anniversary of the U.N. Charter's entry into force in 1945.
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| Medical workers released in Libya after 2-week abduction Posted: 24 Oct 2019 11:18 AM PDT ![Medical workers released in Libya after 2-week abduction]( "Medical workers released in Libya after 2-week abduction") Six medical workers were released in Libya after being abducted and held hostage for nearly two weeks by unknown armed men, a leading human rights group said Thursday. Human Rights Watch's statement said the four physicians, a nurse and an anesthetic technician were released the previous day. Months of fighting between rival Libyan governments for control of the capital, Tripoli, took a further toll on medical workers Thursday.
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| Boris Johnson’s Double Gamble on an Unpredictable U.K. Election Posted: 24 Oct 2019 11:05 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Will it be the most wonderful time of the year for Boris Johnson?If he gets his December election, the U.K. prime minister would be taking a double gamble. Not only would he be holding it at a time of year when elections haven't been held in modern times, but he would also be going in with the defining issue of his premiership unresolved. That makes the outcome all the harder for traders to predict.Take the polls. With Brexit set to be delayed until Jan. 31, Johnson still faces the threat that Nigel Farage's Brexit Party will siphon off Leave voters. But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's ambiguous stance on Brexit means he may be unable to gain from tactical voting by Remainers. A surge by the Liberal Democrats under Jo Swinson, who has promised to stop Brexit, could complicate the result further.But Anthony Wells, director of political research at YouGov, warned against reading too much into polls based on hypothetical questions -- such as asking how people will vote if Brexit is delayed."Polls measure current public opinion. They can't predict the future," he said on Twitter. "While you can ask respondents to predict their own future opinions, they aren't necessarily very good at it."A December election would be the first since 1923 -- which produced a hung parliament. Parties traditionally avoid winter votes because it's harder to canvass support after dark and they have to get people out in to the cold to go to polling stations.For the Conservatives, holding an election while students aren't at university -- where they are typically registered to vote -- could be an advantage, as James Forsyth of the Spectator notes:The Times notes that the register of voters only gets updated at the start of December. That means that poll cards will go out to electors on the old lists -- but staff at the polling stations will be using the new ones. Will people be prevented from voting?Johnson's plan still needs the support two-thirds of members of Parliament, something that he has failed to get on two previous occasions. If he succeeds this time, the result could be hard to predict.After all, his predecessor Theresa May also called an election in 2017 to seek a bigger majority for her Brexit plan, and that gamble backfired spectacularly when she lost her House of Commons majority.Brexit Twists Point to Election. Here's How It Works: QuickTakeTo contact the reporter on this story: Edward Evans in London at eevans3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Report: Iranian authorities cut off convicted thief's hand Posted: 24 Oct 2019 10:45 AM PDT ![Report: Iranian authorities cut off convicted thief's hand]( "Report: Iranian authorities cut off convicted thief's hand") A semi-official Iranian news agency is reporting that authorities have amputated the hand of a convicted thief in a prison in the country's north. Fars news agency reports that one hand of an unidentified convict was cut off in a prison in Sari city, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of the capital Tehran. Critics say amputations, public executions and floggings hurt Iran's image.
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| Mike Pence accuses NBA of acting like a 'subsidiary' of Beijing and takes aim at Nike for silence on Hong Kong Posted: 24 Oct 2019 10:37 AM PDT  Mike Pence accused the National Basketball Association (NBA) of "acting like a wholly owned subsidiary" of China's oppressive regime on Thursday, saying American companies should "stand up for American values". In a speech in Washington, the US vice president said: "Some of the NBA's biggest players and owners, who routinely exercise their freedom to criticise this country, lose their voices when it comes to the freedom and rights of other peoples". "In siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech, the NBA is acting like a wholly owned subsidiary of the authoritarian regime," he added, calling it "un-American" for the country's corporations to "embrace censorship." Mr Pence was referencing a controversy surrounding the association after Daryl Morley, the general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball, posted a tweet in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. China responded by cancelling TV coverage of pre-season NBA games being held there and several Chinese companies suspended ties with the Rockets. In a since-deleted tweet, Daryl Morey showed support for Hong Kong protesters Credit: AP The NBA sought to distance itself from Mr Morley, calling his tweet "regrettable", but faced criticism in the US for allegedly attempting to appease the Chinese government. Mr Pence also hit out at Nike, accusing the sportswear giant of hypocrisy in promoting itself as a "social-justice champion", citing reports that the company had removed Houston Rockets merchandise from its Chinese shops. "When it comes to Hong Kong, it prefers checking its social conscience at the door," Mr Pence said. "A progressive corporate culture that willfully ignores the abuse of human rights is not progressive – it's repressive." Nike has not responded. The scathing remarks came amid a wide-ranging critique of Beijing, in which Mr Pence also berated Beijing for its detention of Muslim Uighurs in the Xinjiang region along, unfair trade practices and thefts of US intellectual property. Hong Kong has been gripped by mass demonstrations since June Credit: Rex The closely watched speech on the US-China relationship comes just before a crucial round of trade talks between the two countries and will set the tone for how tough a stance the Trump administration is prepared to take. President Donald Trump is due to attend a summit in Chile where he has said he hopes to close a "phase one" trade deal with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Fears of antagonising Beijing prompted the White House in June to postpone the speech ahead of a meeting between the leaders aimed at getting trade talks back on track. Mr Pence, who has often taken a hawkish approach to China, said: "No longer will America and its leaders hope that economic engagement alone will transform Communist China's authoritarian state into a free and open society that respects private property, the rule of law, and the international rules of commerce". However he also insisted the US does not seek confrontation or to "de-couple" from its main economic rival. "We want a constructive relationship with China's leaders," he said, calling on China to "seize this unique moment in history to start anew by ending the trade practices that have taken advantage of the American people for far too long."
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| U.S. Farm Sales to China May Hit Pre-Trade War Level by Election Posted: 24 Oct 2019 10:16 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. farmers may return to pre-trade war levels of sales to China in time for the presidential election year, relieving economic pressure on one of Donald Trump's key political constituencies as he campaigns for a second term and fights an impeachment inquiry.But the bonanza of $40 billion to $50 billion in annual agricultural sales to China Trump promoted when he announced a tentative partial trade deal on Oct. 11 will almost certainly have to wait until after the presidential vote, if it ever comes. And China's added purchases also come with strings attached.China aims to buy at least $20 billion of agricultural products in a year if it signs a partial trade deal with the U.S., and would consider boosting purchases further in future rounds of talks, people familiar with the matter said.That would take China's imports of U.S. farm goods back to around 2017 levels, before Trump began a tit-for-tat tariff feud with Beijing. In the second year of a potential final deal, purchases could rise to $40 billion to $50 billion. But that would depend on Trump removing remaining punitive tariffs, said the people, who asked not to be named because talks are private.The market reaction to China's pledge was relatively muted, with Chicago soybean futures climbing less than 0.5% but staying below highs from earlier this week. Corn, wheat and hog futures were either little changed or down.Trump already has raised expectations that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign a phase-one deal when they meet in Chile next month. Chinese officials also have said talks are progressing. The signal from China on first-year purchases provides a clearer picture on the deal taking shape.When trade talks wrapped up in Washington on Oct. 11, Trump said China would lift agriculture purchases to between $40 billion and $50 billion. The people didn't say when the first year would start or when China would begin counting imports toward the $20 billion.The two nations are working on details of a limited agreement, after talks in Washington earlier this month at which the U.S. agreed not to hike tariffs in October, and said China agreed to increase purchases and other concessions.U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are scheduled to speak by phone on Friday as they try to get a deal down on paper. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said any agreement on contentious structural issues will wait for two additional phases.China's Ministry of Commerce didn't immediately respond to a fax seeking comment on agricultural purchases.While in 2017 China's $20 billion agricultural purchases was heavily weighted toward soybeans, the nation's need for pork is now greater because an outbreak of African swine fever has devastated its hog herd and sent pork prices soaring. INTL FCStone Inc. said in a note that the coming purchases are likely to be skewed more toward pork."The bottom line is that China's history tells us that it will buy what it needs to buy -- to meet domestic needs or political needs -- and no more or no less, regardless of the commitments that it makes," FCStone said in the note.U.S. agricultural groups maintained a cautious stance toward the potential partial deal."We are still in the same position we were in a couple of weeks ago when news of the partial agreement was first announced, where we need confirmed details to adequately respond," said Wendy Brannen, a spokeswoman for the American Soybean Association."China is struggling with food price inflation and needs reliable sources of pork," said Jim Monroe, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council. "We know U.S. pork exports to China can grow significantly and that this alone could put a big dent in the trade deficit with them. We continue to seek the permanent removal of punitive tariffs on U.S. pork so we can address this important need in China."China has already started ramping up purchases to lay the groundwork for the signing of a phase-one deal. Beijing issued waivers for 10 million metric tons of soybean purchases this week. It's considering approving an additional 4 million to 5 million tons of grains, including wheat, corn and sorghum, according to people familiar.Data out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture was a mixed bag. Sales of both U.S. soybeans and pork to China slumped in the week ended Oct. 17. However, the USDA separately announced a daily sale of 264,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China.\--With assistance from Michael Hirtzer, Millie Munshi, Shawn Donnan and Isis Almeida.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Niu Shuping in Beijing at nshuping@bloomberg.net;Steven Yang in Beijing at kyang74@bloomberg.net;Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net, ;Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, James MaygerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 1-UK PM Johnson passes government's legislative agenda Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:58 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-UK PM Johnson passes government's legislative agenda]( "UPDATE 1-UK PM Johnson passes government's legislative agenda") Parliament approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan for government on Thursday in a symbolic vote that does little to strengthen his authority on Brexit or signal an end to the country's political crisis. Lawmakers voted 310 to 294 in favour of the legislative agenda Johnson asked Queen Elizabeth to announce on his behalf last week in an elaborate ceremony. Johnson won the vote with the support of allies who back his leadership on topics other than Brexit - the key issue that will define the future of Johnson's 93-day tenure as prime minister.
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| UK PM Johnson passes government's legislative agenda Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:48 AM PDT ![UK PM Johnson passes government's legislative agenda]( "UK PM Johnson passes government's legislative agenda") Parliament approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan for government on Thursday in a symbolic vote that does little to strengthen his authority on Brexit or signal an end to the country's political crisis. Lawmakers voted 310 to 294 in favour of the legislative agenda Johnson asked Queen Elizabeth to announce on his behalf last week in an elaborate ceremony.
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| TEXT: UK PM Johnson's letter to Labour's Corbyn calling for Dec. 12 election Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:43 AM PDT ![TEXT: UK PM Johnson's letter to Labour's Corbyn calling for Dec. 12 election]( "TEXT: UK PM Johnson's letter to Labour's Corbyn calling for Dec. 12 election") British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Thursday to opposition Labour leader Jeremy asking him to back an election on Dec. 12, and offering him the opportunity to ratify the government's Brexit deal before that vote. Sadly you succeeded in persuading Parliament to ask the EU to delay Brexit until 31 January 2020. On Tuesday, the Commons voted for our new deal but again voted for delay and, even worse, handed over control of what happens next to the other EU member states.
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| Lebanon crisis deepens as protests enter 2nd week Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:40 AM PDT  Lebanon's president pleaded Thursday with tens of thousands of protesters who have blocked main roads and paralyzed the nation for days, urging thems to back economic reforms proposed by the prime minister as the "first step" toward saving the country from economic collapse. The protesters, however, have already rejected the initiative and were not swayed by President Michel Aoun's overtures or calls for dialogue. As the protests entered their second week with banks, schools and public institutions shuttered, the country appeared headed for a protracted crisis with no clear roadmap for a solution.
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| Boris Johnson To Ask Parliament For Early General Election In December Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:39 AM PDT  The prime minister said he would give Parliament more time to debate his Brexit deal as long as it agrees to an election before Christmas.
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| UPDATE 1-UK's Johnson to ask parliament for Dec. 12 general election Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:24 AM PDT  Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that he was asking parliament to approve a national election to take place on Dec. 12 as part of his efforts to ensure Britain leaves the European Union. This would mean Brexit could be completed before a Dec. 12 election.
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| Johnson Seeks Dec. 12 Election to Break Deadlock: Brexit Update Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:23 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he will seek a general election on Dec. 12 in an effort to secure a Parliamentary majority for his Brexit deal.Johnson briefed his cabinet on Thursday afternoon and announced that a motion will be put to Parliament for a vote on Oct. 28.By law, he will need to secure the backing of two-thirds of members of Parliament to hold an early election, giving the opposition Labour party an effective veto if all of its 245 MPs vote against his plan. In September, Johnson tried twice to go to the polls -- but on both occasions failed to get the necessary majority.While opposition parties say they want a general election, they first want to ensure that Britain can't crash out of the European Union without a deal on Oct. 31. The EU is widely expected to grant a three-month extension when ambassadors meet in Brussels on Friday, putting back the U.K.'s exit until Jan. 31.Key Developments:Johnson Seeks Dec 12 General Election in to Break Brexit ImpasseBrexit Twists Point to Election. Here's How It Works: QuickTakePound Slides to One-Week Low on Talk of U.K. Election RisksJohnson Offers More Votes Before Election (5:20 p.m.)In a letter to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Johnson said that if the opposition commits to voting for an election (and the EU agrees to an extension) he will set aside "all possible time between now and Nov. 6 for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to be discussed and voted through.""This means that we could get Brexit done before the election on Dec. 12, if MPs choose to do so," Johnson said.Johnson Seeks Election (5:02 p.m.)U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will seek a general election on Dec. 12. Johnson briefed his cabinet on Thursday afternoon and announced that a motion will be put to Parliament for a vote on Monday.Cabinet Focused on Brexit Bill Votes, EU Talks (4 p.m.)Thursday afternoon's meeting of cabinet was an opportunity to discuss last Tuesday's House of Commons votes on the government's Brexit legislation and for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to update ministers on his talks with European Union leaders, his spokeswoman told reporters.Asked about speculation the government is preparing to seek an early general election, Alison Donnelly pointed to the government's business statement -- which did not include a proposal for an early ballot (see 11:30 a.m.) -- and said "at this point I don't have any more to add."DUP Will Back Queen's Speech (3.05 p.m)The 10 MPs from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party will vote in favor of the government's legislative agenda when in comes to a vote in the House of Commons later today, a party spokesman said.Their support for the so-called Queen's Speech, which includes 26 draft bills focused on Boris Johnson's domestic plans, makes it more likely the prime minister will get a majority for his program.Labour Prefers New Timetable for Brexit Bill (2.30 p.m.)The main opposition Labour Party would prefer to find an alternative timetable for passing the Brexit bill than have a general election, its Treasury spokesman, John McDonnell, told reporters.McDonnell said the Labour leadership is still in talks with the government to agree a new timetable, and is asking for more days -- rather than weeks -- to scrutinize the proposals.But McDonnell also said he was ready for an election "whenever," and isn't worried Labour would do badly. "I want to get rid of this lot," he said.Ireland Fires Warning Over EU Trade Deal (12:50 p.m.)In a reminder of the long road ahead even if Boris Johnson can get his Brexit withdrawal deal through Westminster, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned the U.K. that standards will need to stay closely aligned to the EU if a wide ranging future trade agreement between the two sides is to be agreed.If the U.K. wants trade that "is as seamless as they would like it to be with the EU under a free trade agreement, they will have to provide guarantees sector by sector around level playing field issues and equivalence," Coveney said in Parliament in Dublin. "Or else they won't have the kind of FTA that they're looking for.""We cannot have a situation whereby the U.K. decides to change its regulatory model, fundamentally diverges from EU standards and at the same time trades into the EU uninhibited," he said.Govt Can't Guarantee Brexit Bill After Election (12:15 p.m.)Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said that if there's a general election before Brexit legislation is passed, he can't guarantee the same bill -- which would put Boris Johnson's deal with the EU into law -- will return to Parliament.He was responding to a question from a fellow Conservative seeking assurance that "precisely the same deal that we have now" would be put before the House of Commons after a general election."It's impossible to guarantee what might happen after a general election because we don't know what will be in the various manifestos and we don't know what a new Parliament will decide to do," Rees-Mogg said."The deal as it currently stands has its second reading. If there were to be an election, of course any bills that haven't completed their passage fall, so there can be no guarantees of that kind."Rees-Mogg Makes Joke of Missing Bill (11:50 a.m.)Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said that next Thursday, Oct. 31, is the date "set in law" for leaving the European Union, and made a joke of the withdrawal bill not being on the agenda for next week (see 11:30 a.m.)Asked by the SNP what had happened to the legislation, Rees-Mogg said: "Here I think the answer lies with Sir Percy Blakeney," referring to the literary character the Scarlet Pimpernel. "They seek it here, they seek it there. Those Parliamentarians seek it everywhere. Is it in heaven or is it in hell? That damned elusive Brexit bill."He confirmed that the government is waiting on Brussels before acting. "We don't know what the EU will do," he told MPs.Neither Brexit or Election on Next Week's Agenda (11:30 a.m)Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg didn't include the Withdrawal Agreement Bill or proposed legislation for a general election when he announced business for the lower chamber of Parliament next week.If the U.K. is to leave the EU with a deal on Oct. 31, the necessary legislation would have to be passed early next week.Will Johnson Have to Appoint a Commissioner? (11:10 a.m.)In what might prove an embarrassing complication for Boris Johnson, European Commission president-elect Ursula Von der Leyen said at a press conference in Helsinki that if the U.K. is still in the EU after Nov. 1, "I would ask the U.K. to send in a commissioner."Meanwhile, the EU Parliament recommended the bloc should accept London's request for a flexible extension until the end of January. The recommendation should be caveatted by the fact that the parliament has no formal say on whether the request will be accepted.Dodds Warns Of Unrest Over Deal (11 a.m.)Nigel Dodds, Westminster leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, warned Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay that checks in the Irish Sea would disrupt the fragile political stability in Northern Ireland "by what you're doing to the unionist community.""We're really in danger here of causing real problems," Dodds told the House of Commons. "We need to get our heads together and look at a way forward that can solve this problem."Veteran Brexiter Tory Bill Cash backed Dodds and urged Barclay to listen to the DUP's concerns.Brexit Will Involve N. Ireland Checks: Barclay (10:45 p.m.)Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay conceded on Thursday that Boris Johnson's Brexit deal will involve some checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the U.K. leaves the European Union -- directly contradicting comments on Wednesday by the prime minister."There will be minimal targeted interventions designed to prevent, for example, trade in endangered species," Barclay told the House of Commons. "We will work with the European Union to eliminate these limited processes as soon as possible."Johnson told the chamber less than 24 hours earlier that "there will be no checks between Northern Ireland and GB." Barclay said Johnson was referring to the paperwork, which will be done digitally, rather than having physical checks.The provisions on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain are at the heart of the disagreement between Johnson and his Conservative Party's former allies in the Democratic Unionist Party, who have accused him of putting up a border in the Irish Sea.Lib Dems Propose Referendum Amendment (Earlier)The Liberal Democrats have proposed an amendment to the Queen's Speech legislation due to be voted on in Parliament on Thursday that would add a second referendum on Brexit.The amendment, which has little chance of passing and wouldn't in any case force the government to accept, seeks to add a line that the government "should make arrangements for a people's vote in which the public will have the choice between the latest withdrawal agreement and remaining in the European Union."Labour Will Back Election, Long-Bailey Says (Earlier)Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour's business spokeswoman, said the party will back a general election once the EU has granted an extension to Brexit but said Boris Johnson should consider the party's revised timetable to get a deal through Parliament.Johnson rejected a proposal by party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday to allow more time to scrutinize his Withdrawal Agreement Bill during its passage through Parliament. Johnson lost a vote on his proposed accelerated timetable on Tuesday, throwing his Brexit plans into disarray."Jeremy Corbyn went to Boris Johnson and offered a realistic and pragmatic way forward, he said if you come back with a reasonable time frame for us to be able to scrutinize this bill in Parliament we will work with you if you really want to deliver this bill," Long-Bailey told BBC Radio 4. "If he goes straight to calling for a general election of course we'll support a general election."Cleverly Doesn't Rule Out Christmas Election (Earlier)Conservative Chairman James Cleverly said his party is ready for a general election and it could come in the run up to Christmas to break the impasse over Brexit."I don't want to be the Grinch, but the point is democracy is incredibly important," Cleverly told BBC Radio. "We have been prevented from discharging the duty imposed upon us. We want to get on with governing.""We've been calling for a general election, me personally, the prime minister at the ballot box, my friends and colleagues all around the country, for months now," Cleverly said. "The Labour Party are running scared and I can completely understand why, their Brexit message is confused at best."Earlier:EU Keeps Boris Johnson Waiting Over Length of Brexit ExtensionBoris Johnson Waiting for Delay He Doesn't Want: Brexit BulletinHow Businesses Are Preparing for Brexit, Deal or No DealU.K.'s Johnson Pulls Out of Parliamentary Scrutiny Hearing\--With assistance from Kati Pohjanpalo, Thomas Penny and Peter Flanagan.To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Back an election and we can still ratify a Brexit deal, UK PM Johnson tells Labour Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:14 AM PDT ![Back an election and we can still ratify a Brexit deal, UK PM Johnson tells Labour]( "Back an election and we can still ratify a Brexit deal, UK PM Johnson tells Labour") Parliament could still pass a deal to leave the European Union if it backs the government's attempt to hold a new election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in a letter on Thursday. Johnson said he was "extremely sceptical" that parliament would stop, as he described it, voting for a delay to Brexit, but he was willing to offer lawmakers more time to ratify his deal to leave the European Union. "If you commit to voting for an election next week (in the event of the EU offering a delay until 31 January and the government accepting, as it is legally forced to do by parliament), then we will make available all possible time between now and 6 November for the WAB (Withdrawal Agreement Bill) to be discussed and voted through," he wrote in the letter posted on Twitter.
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| Kurds attacked by Turkish-backed fighters day after Trump boasts of 'permanent' ceasefire Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:13 AM PDT  Kurdish forces yesterday accused Turkish-backed fighters of violating the ceasefire in northeast Syria with a "vast" new ground offensive and pleaded with the US "to intervene immediately" to stop the assault. Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump boasted of establishing a "permanent" peaceful settlement in the area, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they were under assault from Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. "The SDF…holds the Turkish side responsible for the deterioration of the ceasefire process and calls on the American guarantor to intervene immediately to stop this aggression against our people," a spokesman said. Turkey said five of its soldiers were injured when Kurdish forces attacked near the border town of Ras al-Ain with mortars and drones. A car bomb also exploded in the Turkish-controlled town of Tal Abyad, wounding several people. The renewed fighting undercut Mr Trump's claim of "a major breakthrough" in northeast Syria and raised questions about his decision to retract sanctions on Turkey because it had halted its offensive. Mr Trump boasted of a 'permanent' ceasefire in northern Syria Credit: SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/REX While Mr Trump said the US had "a very good relationship" with Turkey, several of his senior officials lashed out in frustration at Ankara. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," said Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, calling the Turkish military operation in Syria an "unwarranted invasion". Mr Trump's special envoy for Syria went further in his criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes committed by Turkish-backed rebels, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. "Many people fled because they're very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We've seen several incidents which we consider war crimes," James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing. The Syrian rebels, known as the National Army, have been accused of human rights abuses since the first days of the Turkish offensive. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have been accused of war crimes Credit: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi An autopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she was dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The National Army said it was investigating the allegations. In recent days, footage has appeared which seems to show rebels mutilating the corpse of a female Kurdish fighter. The SDF appeared to be complying with the terms of a Russian-Turkish agreement and were withdrawing their forces 20 miles from the border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's president, said his forces would "crush" Kurdish fighters if they did not fully withdraw. Despite the fighting around Ras al-Ain, Russia said it believed the ceasefire deal signed by Vladimir Putin and Mr Erdoğan was holding. "We note with satisfaction that the agreements reached in Sochi are being implemented," said Sergei Vershinin, Russia's deputy foreign minister. Mr Erdoğan also mocked European fears over an influx of Syrian refugees from Turkey. "When we say we will open the gates, they are up in arms," he said. "The gates will be opened when the time comes." Turkey currently hosts more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees and Mr Erdoğan said he would send some of them to "safe zones" in northern Syria. It is not clear if refugees would go willingly to the area now that Assad's forces control much of the nearby territory.
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| Hackers target UN humanitarian organizations: Lookout Posted: 24 Oct 2019 09:06 AM PDT  Hackers are targeting United Nations and humanitarian aid workers with a scheme designed to trick members into revealing passwords, security researchers said Thursday. A report released by cybersecurity firm Lookout said the campaign aimed at UN-connected relief organizations has been active since early this year, and is crafted to lure workers to fake websites where their credentials may be stolen. Lookout principal security intelligence engineer Jeremy Richards told AFP groups targeted included the UN World Food Program, UNICEF and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
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| A Week In London, England, On A $34,900 Salary Posted: 24 Oct 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Welcome to Money Diaries, where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking women how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we're tracking every last dollar.Today: a Policy Advisor working in Government who makes $34,900 per year and spends some of her money this week on a canned raspberry mojito.Editor's Note: All currency has been converted to USD.Occupation: Policy Advisor Industry: Government Age: 23 Location: London, England Salary: $34,900 Paycheck Amount (1x/Month): $2,390 Gender Identity: Cis WomanMonthly Expenses Rent: $400 (I live with my boyfriend in a one-bed flat that his mother owns. She moved abroad but wanted to keep a place in London, her hometown, so we pay very cheap rent in a very central location. This includes all utilities, wifi, and gym access. A pretty sweet deal.) Student Loans: $0 (My grandmother left me some inheritance so I used that to pay for university, rather than take a loan.) Cell Phone: $27 Netflix: $13 (the world and his dog uses this too — my sister, her ex-housemates, my parents, my boyfriend's sister….) Spotify: $6.50 (I am still on a student plan somehow despite graduating a year and a half ago) Charitable Donation: $25 (to support work to improve the lives of children and women in a developing country) Savings: At the end of the month, anything left in my bank account goes into high-interest stock investments as savings. Usually around $800 to $1,000. I dip into this as necessary (e.g. to pay for a holiday or emergency). L., my boyfriend, and I also are planning to open a Lifetime ISA in January to start saving for a house, as we should both be getting raises/promotions. I will most likely transfer some of my existing investment savings to that account. Day One7 a.m. — Ugh. My 7 a.m. alarm is a sound I haven't heard in a while. L., my boyfriend, and I have been on holiday for the past week, and today is my first day back at work. L. has another day off, the lucky man. I shower and quickly get ready. My dad stayed at our flat last night as he has meetings in London today near my office, so we take the tube ($2.85) together. It's nice to catch up and beat the holiday blues by discussing our upcoming family cruise. $2.858:45 a.m. — As a first day back treat, I stop at Pret a Manger to pick up an overpriced bacon and egg brioche sandwich, and a large orange juice for breakfast. I head into the office and eat at my desk while catching up on emails, and with co-workers. My inbox is not too bad surprisingly, so I prep for some meetings I have later. $7.2012 p.m. — I head to grab lunch as I have a meeting at 1. We arrived back at 11 p.m. yesterday so we did not have time to food prep, which means I have to buy a very pricy salad (I usually bring in my lunch). However, it is my favorite very pricy salad — quinoa, chicken, avocado, mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, peppers, and pesto with a lemon dressing. It is incredible. Anytime I don't bring lunch, I buy this. $10.195:10 p.m. — I haven't had a chance to catch up with my manager yet and she asks if I can stay a little late. Unfortunately, I cannot tonight, as I need to attend a webinar training on some volunteering I will be doing, so I leave the office at about 10 past 5 to get the tube home. When I get to the tube I realize my phone is dead (I usually pay for the tube on Apple Pay), and I do not have my contactless card with me. I have to buy a paper ticket instead that costs over double the contactless price! How is that fair! $6.346 p.m. — I get home to a gorgeously cleaned house and prepped dinner and lunches — L. is a star! He is out with a friend for a drink and I settle into my volunteer training. After it finishes, I read for a while until L. gets home. We eat dinner together and catch up on RuPaul's Drag Race UK before heading to bed around 10:30.Daily Total: $26.58 Day Two7:30 a.m. — I wake up a little later this morning as my Dad isn't here, and head out to the office at around 8:20 on the tube. Thank god my phone is charged today — I won't be making that mistake again! $2.859 a.m. — I stop at Tesco to pick up breakfast. I get some breakfast bars, which will last me a while, and an apple juice. I eat at my desk again, settling into my work. I shouldn't have to spend any money until after work today as I brought in jerk chicken with rice and peas that L. made yesterday for lunch. $5.507 p.m. — After work, I join my team for a drink at the pub. My team leader kindly buys me a large glass of wine. However, I am not the biggest fan of socializing with my direct work colleagues — I prefer to keep my work and social lives separate, so I head off to take the tube after one drink. $2.857:45 p.m. — On my way home, I pick up the ingredients to make a carbonara — L.'s favorite that I promised to make for him tonight. I pick up linguine, eggs, parmesan, and bacon, plus asparagus and mushrooms as I need veggies in my dinner. It's such a simple, but delicious dish. When I arrive home, he greets me at the door with a glass of Prosecco. What a cutie! We cook and eat together, and then settle into the latest episode of RuPaul. We head to bed around 11. $8.41Daily Total: $19.61 Day Three7:30 a.m. — Same routine as yesterday. I hop on the tube around 8:40 today as I messed around too much. Once I get to work, I have one of the breakfast biscuits I bought yesterday to start the day. $2.8510 a.m. — I go for a coffee, well hot chocolate for me as I hate caffeine, with a colleague/friend to discuss my career advancement plans. I want to grab a promotion in January, so we talk all about that. We end up chatting for a long time! It's nice to catch up after my holiday, too. I also eat my lunch (jerk chicken leftovers again) with some other co-workers and I'm happy not to spend anything again until I leave the office. $2.904:30 p.m. — L. messages me that he had an anxiety attack so I decide to leave the office early to make sure I am home when he gets in. It's nice to get a slightly less busy tube on a Friday too, plus it has been a slow day and none of my managers are in… $2.855 p.m. — I stop at Sainsbury's to pick up a bottle of Prosecco as L.'s aunt is coming over tonight. Somehow, L. and I manage to drink it before she arrives while watching TV. We shouldn't have worried though, she turns up with two bottles of Prosecco and a bottle of red wine. It's going to be a big night! (Don't worry reader, we "only" drink two bottles. Oops. The red wine goes in the cooler.) $8.858 p.m. — As L.'s aunt so kindly brought so much alcohol, I decide to treat us for dinner. We order Nando's — five medium wings for me with peri salted chips and macho peas, L. gets 10 hot wings with double peri salted chips, and L.'s aunt gets a hot quarter chicken with salad and spinach. L. cycles everywhere so I send him to collect our order and save on delivery costs (it is like personal UberEats) while L.'s aunt and I catch up on girly stuff. $43.849:30 p.m. — We walk L.'s aunt to the tube station and then L. suggests we stop at a bar for a nightcap. I get a pornstar martini and L. gets a gin and tonic. L. pays. We then move onto another (much cheaper) bar where I get a gin cocktail and L. gets a beer. I pay for this round, which is half the price of the one L. bought — oops. We then head home, finish the Prosecco left out, and head to bed around 1. $16.80Daily Total: $78.09 Day Four12 p.m. — This morning L. and I have a glorious lie-in, and then we go down to pick up some parcels and breakfast. L. buys me a ham and cheese croissant and orange juice from our local bakery, which we eat back at our flat watching some politics (Brexit is boring me to death but I need to know what is going on!). Then we both got ready and head to one of our favorite local pubs. L. is taking me out for a late lunch so I buy him a G&T and myself a prosecco to start the afternoon right. $14.202:30 p.m. — We hop on the tube to get to our lunch venue! It is a new Italian place. They have a special offer — any pizza and cocktail for $13. I obviously go for the most expensive options — a burrata pizza and a peach cocktail. My pizza has a whole burrata on it! We can't finish our pizzas so we ask for the leftovers to go. L. pays. $2.854 p.m. — After lunch, L. and I decide to head to a bar before we both go to meet some friends. I get a piña colada, L. gets a beer, and then we both have a sambuca shot. Yes, at 4:30 p.m. Wild. $25.864:30 p.m. — L. and I take the tube together for one stop, then head our separate ways to meet up with friends. I have to take a real train to my friend's, so I get off at one of London's big interchange stations. $2.854:55 p.m. — I stop at Boots to pick up some new tights and gradual tan ($15.50). I need to keep my holiday glow and be able to hide it under tights if the gradual tan turns me orange! $15.504:45 p.m. — I stop at Marks and Spencers to pick up some wine and cocktail tins ($31.68). I earn a little more than many of my friends, so I like to treat when I can. $31.685:03 p.m. — I'm finally on the train to my friend's. It is only a short journey, but I crack open one of the cocktail cans, Raspberry Mojito, delicious. Perhaps the journey was too short as I have to down it as we pull into the station. I meet my friends at the other end and we head straight to the pub. One friend buys us a bottle of wine there. It is great to catch up, I haven't seen these girls in ages! Then we head to one friend's house and another picks up a bottle of wine on the way. I already have the wine and cocktail tins to contribute. Everyone loves the cocktail tins! We chat, laugh, and play board games like old women. $2.8511:40 p.m. — I need to take the last train home ($2.85), so my friends walk me to the station. I have to wait on the platform for a while as the train is a bit delayed. $2.8512 a.m. — The final leg of my journey home is a tube journey ($2.85). As soon as my head hits the pillow, I crash out. $2.85Daily Total: $101.49 Day Five12 p.m. — L. was out really late last night so we decide to have a lazy day in bed watching chick flicks…I can't lie I am quite hungover too. We eat leftovers — pizza, carbonara, you name it — and films like Sex and the City. I am so glad he has a guilty pleasure for them! 4 p.m. — We decide to order FroYo, I treat. The rest of the day is spent similarly. Eating leftovers, and watching films. I also call my parents to catch up in the evening. A truly lazy Sunday. $19.20Daily Total: $19.20 Day Six7:30 a.m. — Back to the grind! L. and I were meant to restart our gym routine this morning with a 6 a.m. session, but that clearly didn't happen. Instead, we cuddle until 7:30. Then, it's my usual routine. I'm on a tube at around 8:30. $2.859 a.m. — On my way into work, I pick up a hot chocolate to go with one of the breakfast biscuits I bought last week. As usual, I eat my breakfast at my desk. $3.5512:30 p.m. — I am paying (literally) for my laziness yesterday (not food prepping) with my favorite expensive salad. But you know what, it's yummy. I enjoy my lunch break reading Money Diaries and scrolling Instagram. $10.192:45 p.m. — Work is super slow today and I have some flexitime to claim (when you have worked too long), so I leave over two hours early!! I will log back on when I get home, but I have some chores I would like to get done. It's so nice to get a super empty tube. $2.854 p.m. — I buy the ingredients for food prep for this week. I'm making bacon, mushroom, and cheddar egg muffins for breakfasts, and butter chicken for dinner today plus lunch tomorrow. At home, I marinade the chicken and then make the muffins. When L. gets home around 6, he helps finish the butter chicken. Plus, we finally assemble some bedside lights we bought a while ago. It makes our bedroom look so warm and perfect for reading! We plan to read after dinner, but get sucked into a new show, The Capture. Four episodes later, it is 1 a.m. Oops. $22.10Daily Total: $41.54 Day Seven9:10 a.m. — Oops. I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night. Luckily I am working from home today! Gym missed again! I spend the morning working in bed on my laptop before heading down to Sainsbury's to pick up some washing powder we need. I try to get a lot of chores done on work from home days, so I spend some time cleaning. $6.475:30 p.m. — I am meeting a friend for dinner tonight so I get all glammed up on a Tuesday, and head to the tube. $2.856 p.m. — We go to a vegan buffet place for dinner! It is one of my favorites. I get….everything and have a great time catching up with my old school friend. Nothing ever really changes, which is lovely. $19.408 p.m. — All caught up and full I take the tube home, and return to the series we were watching last night. We head to bed at a more reasonable time of 11. $2.85Daily Total: $31.57Money Diaries are meant to reflect individual women's experiences and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29's point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend — to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here.Do you have a Money Diary you'd like to share? Submit it with us here. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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| Ethiopia’s Abiy Says Talks With Egypt Can Resolve Nile Dispute Posted: 24 Oct 2019 08:01 AM PDT ![Ethiopia's Abiy Says Talks With Egypt Can Resolve Nile Dispute]( "Ethiopia's Abiy Says Talks With Egypt Can Resolve Nile Dispute") (Bloomberg) -- Egypt and Ethiopia agreed Thursday to resume talks over a giant Nile dam and reach a deal on sharing the vital waters, downplaying a recent escalation of tensions.Both nations are willing "to collaborate on the project in a manner that will benefit the two sides," Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told local media, shortly after meeting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit."We have no problem with having political negotiations with anyone; it will not disrupt the technical committee's work," Abiy said, when asked about an Egyptian request for mediation. Egypt's presidency said that they agreed to resume the work of the committee, which also includes mutual neighbor Sudan.Accusations have flared in recent weeks over plans for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, which is set to be Africa's biggest hydropower project when completed. The two countries are struggling to reach an agreement on how to fill the dam's reservoir -- a process key to ensuring a reliable flow to Egypt, which depends on the Nile for almost all its fresh water.Ethiopia maintains the dam would benefit the region by providing electricity and regulating the river's flow to avoid flooding.Competing ProposalsAn adviser to Ethiopia's Water Ministry, Gideon Asfaw, said a technical committee composed of the three nations earlier in 2019 agreed on a plan to fill the reservoir over four to seven years, depending on hydrology and rainfall.Egypt has said Ethiopia has rejected its filling proposal and is acting unilaterally. Gideon said there have been five trilateral technical meetings on the subject this year, of the nine scheduled, and Egypt wants Ethiopia to release a guaranteed flow of water "regardless of whether there's rain, no rain, or drought, which technically also doesn't make sense."El-Sisi on Thursday said that Egypt understands the Horn of Africa nation's needs, but is standing firm in seeking its historical right to a share of the Nile, according to presidential spokesman Bassam Rady. Ethiopia rejects historical treaties it says belong to the colonial era.The river is an "artery of cooperation, brotherhood and development" and shouldn't become a source of conflict, El-Sisi said. Egypt and Ethiopia, which both have populations of about 100 million and are the fastest-growing economies in their respective regions, have officially dismissed any prospect of the dispute triggering a war.Global InterestThe Russia-backed meeting at the Black Sea resort of Sochi is the latest sign of increasing international involvement in the dispute. Egypt, which describes negotiations as deadlocked and has called for an outside mediator, said this week it has accepted a U.S. proposal for fresh meetings with Ethiopia and Sudan."Egypt and Ethiopia being two large countries on the continent, there is some fear trouble between the two countries could create regional instability," Abiy said. "Thus many countries, including Russia, have offered to mediate." Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to provide help for future talks, according to a Kremlin spokesman.Abiy made no explicit reference to the U.S. offer of talks that was announced by Egypt's Foreign Ministry late Tuesday. American officials haven't responded to requests for comment on the Egyptian statement.Abiy, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a long-running conflict with neighbor Eritrea, accused parts of the media of inflaming the dispute while unrelated protests against his rule spread at home.Egypt's presidency said Abiy described some of his recent comments as having been taken out of context. This week, he'd said Ethiopia was capable of lining up "many millions of people" in the event of military confrontation.(Updates with Ethiopian adviser comment in second paragraph under Competing Proposals subheadline.)\--With assistance from Tarek El-Tablawy and Tony Halpin.To contact the reporters on this story: Samuel Gebre in Abidjan at sgebre@bloomberg.net;Nizar Manek in Nairobi at nmanek2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mnuchin Asked by Top Senate Democrat to Detail Turkey Dealings Posted: 24 Oct 2019 08:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A top Democratic senator has asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to share information about his relations with Turkish officials as part of an inquiry into whether he or other members of President Donald Trump's administration interfered with a U.S. criminal investigation into a Turkish state-owned bank.Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the finance committee, sent Mnuchin a letter on Wednesday raising concerns over "troubling reports" about the Treasury secretary's alleged involvement with the treatment of Halkbank, one of Turkey's largest banks.Wyden referred to a Bloomberg News report published earlier this month that Trump assigned Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr to deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's repeated pleas to avoid charges against Halkbank.Earlier: Trump-Erdogan Call Led to Lengthy Quest to Avoid Halkbank Trial In an April phone call, Trump told Erdogan that Mnuchin and Barr would handle the issue, according to people familiar with the matter. In the months that followed, no action was taken against Halkbank for its alleged involvement in a plan to evade sanctions on Iran. That changed when an undated indictment was unveiled last week -- a day after Trump imposed sanctions over Turkey's military operation in northern Syria."The administration's interference in favor of Turkey's Halkbank requests could have undermined years of effort by U.S. law enforcement," which dates back to 2012, Wyden wrote in a letter obtained by Bloomberg News.In 2017, Trump pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, according to people familiar with the matter. Tillerson refused, saying it would be illegal."These reports are part of a larger story highlighting Trump's efforts to accommodate the intense pressure campaign by the Turkish government to get investigations into Halkbank dropped," Wyden said in the letter to Mnuchin.He requested that Mnuchin share details of all interactions with Turkish officials since taking office. Wyden asked if Trump or anyone at the president's direction asked Mnuchin to intervene with Turkish concerns regarding Halkbank, and whether the Treasury secretary ever appealed to the Justice Department on behalf of the bank.Wyden set a Nov. 20 deadline for Mnuchin to respond.Earlier this month, U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against Halkbank, accusing it of fraud, money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. It's unclear exactly when the Halkbank indictment was filed, raising questions about whether it was set aside until it became politically expedient for the Trump administration to unseal it.The charges against Halkbank also come after years of public and private lobbying by Erdogan and other top Turkish officials -- starting in the Obama administration -- to get the investigations into violations of Iran sanctions dropped.Wyden also sent separate letters to the chief executives of eight banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holding Plc and Deutsche Bank AG that were identified in the indictment as "victim banks" tricked into processing barred transactions on behalf of Halkbank.Wyden asked each bank to describe its relationship with Halkbank, due diligence policies and details about dollar transactions for foreign banks.To contact the reporters on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'What Is Going to Happen to Us?' Inside ISIS Prison, Children Ask Their Fate Posted: 24 Oct 2019 07:53 AM PDT  NORTHEASTERN SYRIA -- The prisoners cover the floor like a carpet of human despair. Many are missing eyes or limbs, some are bone-thin from sickness, and most wear orange jumpsuits similar to what the Islamic State, the terrorist group they once belonged to, dressed its own captives in before it killed them. Upstairs, jammed into two cells with little sunlight, are more than 150 children -- ages roughly 9 to 14 -- from a range of countries. Their parents brought them to Syria and ended up dead or detained. The children have been here for months and have no idea where their relatives are or what the future holds. "I have a question," said a boy from Suriname inside his cell. "What is going to happen to us? Are the kids going to come out?" Rare visits to two prisons for former residents of Islamic State-held territory in northeastern Syria by The New York Times this week laid bare the enormity of a growing legal and humanitarian crisis that the world has largely chosen to ignore. As the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate collapsed in Syria, tens of thousands of men, women and children who had lived in it ended up in squalid camps and crowded prisons run by the Kurdish-led militia that had partnered with the United States to defeat the jihadis. But now that a military incursion by Turkey against Kurdish forces has set off a new wave of violence and weakened their control over the area, uncertainty has grown over the fate of the huge population of people who survived the toppling of the Islamic State and have been warehoused since then in prisons and detention camps. Most of their home countries have refused to take them back, fearing that they harbor extremist thoughts or could carry out attacks. So their governments have instead chosen to leave them in the custody of a Kurdish-led force that lacks the resources to house, feed and protect them, much less to investigate the adults and provide the children with education and rehabilitation. Little about the minors' conditions in the Kurdish-run prison appeared to meet international standards that, even for suspected criminals, prioritize children's well-being, consider detention a last resort and require specialized physical and emotional care. One crowded cell held 86 minors -- from Syria, Iraq, Mauritius, Russia and elsewhere. Another held 67 adolescents and a boy who said he was 9 and from Russia. When asked where his parents were, he shrugged and said, "They got killed." Later, he asked of his captors, "Why don't they bring us fruit?" The confusion surrounding the detainees has only grown since President Donald Trump started pulling U.S. forces out of the area, a decision that cleared the way for Turkey to begin its assault on America's pivotal allies in the war against the Islamic State in Syria. Prison crowding has increased because Kurdish fighters, who are viewed as a threat by Turkey, moved hundreds of prisoners away from the border to facilities farther from the battle zone, Kurdish officials said. And fighters who worked as prison guards have slipped off to the front lines to fight the Turks, leaving the facilities more vulnerable to prisoner uprisings or attacks by the Islamic State to free its comrades. "We are 100% sure that if they have the opportunity to escape from the prison, it will be very dangerous for us," said Can Polat, an assistant warden at a prison with more than 5,000 men. "Holding these people here is not only a danger for Syria, it is a danger for the whole world."The detention crisis in northeastern Syria is a bleak byproduct of the war against the Islamic State. As the terrorist group was rolled back, losing its last patch of territory in Syria in March, Kurdish fighters found themselves in charge of about 11,000 men and tens of thousands of women and children. Many of them were foreigners, from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arab world, and most of their countries refused to take them home, even to put them on trial, much less integrate them into society. So with help from a U.S.-led international coalition, the Kurds established camps and a prison system, housing detainees in former government prisons they had taken over and in makeshift lockups in schools and other facilities. Polat's prison is a converted industrial institute that holds more than 5,000 people. One-quarter of them are Syrians, the rest hailing from 29 other countries, including Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan, the Netherlands and the United States. The facility opened around the collapse of the Islamic State in Syria, which caused such an influx of prisoners that many were given orange jumpsuits provided by the coalition to replace their old clothes, Polat said. Since the Islamic State often dressed its captives in orange before killing them, many of the captives gasped when they saw the new outfits, thinking they were about to be killed, too.Orange jumpsuits now filled the prison. Most of the 400 men in a vast medical ward wore them. Many of them were sick or wounded. Men with metal braces holding broken bones in place lay on thin mattresses, while others shuffled to the bathroom on crutches or dragged their legs on the ground behind them. A few were so emaciated that their cheekbones stuck out and their legs were as thin as arms. When one man made the call to prayer, many of the prisoners prayed sitting down because they were too injured or ill to stand. The Kurdish guards assumed that most of the men had been fighters and still followed the Islamic State's ideology, but the prisoners themselves played down their roles in the world's most fearsome terrorist organization. A Palestinian man with a broken leg said he had come to Syria because he "wanted to help." A mechanic from Trinidad said he had not fought because he had been too busy fixing cars. A tall, muscular Russian said he had been a cook -- in an elementary school. In dozens of interviews in two prisons, no one admitted to being a fighter.Most wanted to return to their countries or hoped to get amnesty for renouncing the Islamic State. "There are some who say, 'I was a fighter and will continue on that path,' and others who say, 'No, I was tricked,'" said Basil Karazoun, who said he had joined the terrorist group for protection after defecting from the Syrian military. Like most of the prisoners, he feared being handed over to Syria's president, Bashar Assad, whose forces have been accused of widespread abuse and killings of detainees. After Trump announced that he was pulling troops out of Syria, the Kurds -- worried about being overrun by Turkey once the Americans abandoned them -- announced that they had reached an agreement to allow Syrian government forces into the area. "It's a fact that if we fall into the regime's hands, there will be mass executions," he said. "That is how the regime thinks." Another cell in the prison held 99 men, most of whom had lost limbs, including Abdelhamid al-Madioum, who described himself as an American who had lived near Minneapolis. In an interview, he said that he had worked at a Jamba Juice in high school, that his best friends were an atheist and a Christian, and that he had been studying engineering before joining the Islamic State in Syria, where he had hoped to study medicine. But a few months after he arrived, he said, he was hit by an airstrike that shattered his body and tore off his right arm. Around the time he was captured by Kurdish fighters this year, he said, his wife was shot dead and he lost track of his two young sons, aged 2 and 4. "I made a mistake," he said. "I'll admit it. I'll admit it 1,000 times."It was unclear why some minors were put in prison, while most of the children of Islamic State fighters and followers have been taken to detention camps. Their cells were crowded, with no free space between their mattresses and blankets. When a guard swung open a hatch on the cell's door, the children crowded around to peek outside. Under U.N. standards for juvenile justice, even minors suspected of crimes should be detained only as "a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time," pending trial. While the Islamic State did train boys for combat, it was unclear if that was true of the boys in the prison. None were awaiting trial, because the Syrian Kurdish authorities do not try foreigners. The U.N. also says detained juveniles should receive "all necessary individual assistance," including education, medical care and counseling. The boys in prison said they received almost no services. "The situation is pretty bad here, so if they could hurry up and decide," said a 16-year-old boy from Mauritius. "Months like this without knowing what is going to happen, people could start going crazy. They could say these guys were terrorists before with ISIS, but they are still human."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| UPDATE 1-Putin urged to pardon Norwegian jailed for spying amid hopes of swap Posted: 24 Oct 2019 07:02 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Putin urged to pardon Norwegian jailed for spying amid hopes of swap]( "UPDATE 1-Putin urged to pardon Norwegian jailed for spying amid hopes of swap") MOSCOW/OSLO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A Russian commission on Thursday recommended President Vladimir Putin pardon a Norwegian man jailed for spying, spurring hopes in Norway that he may be released as part of a spy swap brokered behind closed doors. Frode Berg, a retired guard on the Norwegian-Russian border, was detained in December 2017 and jailed for 14 years after being convicted of gathering intelligence about nuclear submarines. According to an unconfirmed Lithuanian Baltic News Service report earlier this month, Russia and Lithuania are negotiating a spy exchange that will secure the return of several captured agents, including a Norwegian national, to their home countries.
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| German far right tests Merkel's conservatives in eastern state vote Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:51 AM PDT ![German far right tests Merkel's conservatives in eastern state vote]( "German far right tests Merkel's conservatives in eastern state vote") The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will try to build on its successes in two regional votes last month and beat Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in another eastern state election on Sunday. Among a swathe of nationalist movements making waves across Europe, the AfD is the third largest party in Germany's legislature behind Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
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| UPDATE 1-UK Labour Party seeking compromise timetable for Brexit law - McDonnell Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:28 AM PDT Britain's opposition Labour Party is focused on finding a compromise timetable to consider Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal in parliament, but remains opposed to the divorce agreement, finance policy chief John McDonnell said on Thursday. "We're in the process at the moment of trying to see whether or not this compromise we've offered to Boris Johnson will enable him to bring forward a proper programme motion (timetable)," McDonnell told reporters.
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| UK Labour Party seeking compromise timetable for Brexit law - McDonnell Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:12 AM PDT LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party is focused on finding a compromise timetable to consider Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal in parliament, but remains opposed to the divorce agreement, finance policy chief John McDonnell said on Thursday.
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| Trump’s Turkey, Kurd, Syria Presser Was the Craziest Yet Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:08 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast/Photos GettyWhen Donald J. Trump speaks, his message is usually easy to understand: "Trust me. I am the greatest. All good things come from me. And everything is beautiful." That was his message 30 years ago when he was selling unbuilt condos to Soviet money launderers, and it's his core message today as president about anything from the maxed-out economy to, well, the unbuilt border "wall."But the actual content of Trump's remarks often is distinct from the message. Among the truncated sentences, muddled analogies, half-truths and outright lies, there may be kernels of insight into what he really has been thinking or what he's been hearing. To be sure, delving into the rhetorical muck is a little like plumbing the depths of a septic tank for lost coins, but there is something to be learned nonetheless, and Trump's remarks on Wednesday about Turkey, Syria, Kurds, and "the bloodstained sands" are a striking example.One starts with a transcript, which usually is posted on whitehouse.gov, but is not always easy to find. Type "Turkey" into the site's search engine and (of course) the first thing that pop's up is "Turkey Pardoning," about sparing the bird on Thanksgiving. But with a bit of filtering, there it is: "Remarks by President Trump on the Situation in Northern Syria."Diplomatic Reception Room11:41 A.M. EDT [October 23, 2019]THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. My fellow Americans, I greet you this morning from the White House to announce a major breakthrough toward achieving a better future for Syria and for the Middle East. It's been a long time.DECRYPTION: This is pure fiction. The president is talking about an almost complete capitulation to Turkey's ambitions as it seizes Syrian territory in the name of self-declared national security. To call this a major breakthrough for a "better future" is an uncomfortable but probably oblivious echo of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin's declaration of "peace for our time" after Hitler assured him at Munich all he really wanted was a little chunk of Czechoslovakia. For 70 years, since the waning days of World War II, the United States and the United Nations have tried to counter such actions through international institutions and international laws. Trump is simply ignoring that history, and those laws.Over the last five days, you have seen that a ceasefire that we established along Syria's border has held, and it's held very well, beyond most expectations. Early this morning, the government of Turkey informed my administration that they would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria, and making the ceasefire permanent. And it will indeed be permanent. However you would also define the word "permanent" in that part of the world as somewhat questionable, we all understand that. But I do believe it will be permanent.Clearly Trump does not have much faith the ceasefire will be permanent, and with reason.I have therefore instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to lift all sanctions imposed on October 14th in response to Turkey's original offensive moves against the Kurds in Syria's northeast border region. So the sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we're not happy with.The sanctions announced were never going to deter Turkey, and it's not clear that, over the course of only nine days, any were implemented.This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else, no other nation. Very simple. And we're willing to take blame, and we're also willing to take credit. This is something they've been trying to do for many, many decades. Since then, others have come out to help, and we welcome them to do so. Other countries have stepped forward, they want to help, and we think that's great. The nations in the region must ultimately take on the responsibility of helping Turkey and Syria police their border. We want other nations to get involved.The only thing clear about this paragraph is that the president is none too subtly conflating the nation with Donald J. Trump. His unusual, indeed almost unheard of, suggestion that he is "ready to take the blame" for failure is rhetorical as he once again credits himself, but it also suggests rather more misgivings about the situation than he intends in his overall message.We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil. And we're going to be protecting it, and we'll be deciding what we're going to do with it in the future.Why? The United States does not need Syrian oil. The concern may be that the so-called Islamic State has not been so thoroughly defeated as Trump claims, and might re-take the fields. But that seems unlikely. The more obvious threat is from Russia and the Syrian regime. A significant if brief battle to defend the fields was fought on Feb. 7, 2018, when Syrian government troops and Russian mercenaries tried to take them and the Kurds and Americans and U.S. air power drove them off, a fight subsequently described in detail by The New York Times. Now, contrary to what Trump says, neither he nor the U.S. Special Operations Forces on the ground will be deciding what happens to those fields. It will be, yes, the Russians and the Syrian regime that tried and failed to win them back almost two years ago who determine their fate.In any event, by the moves that we've made, we are achieving a much more peaceful and stable area between Turkey and Syria, including a 20-mile-wide safe zone. An interesting term, "safe zone." That's the term we're using it. Hopefully, that zone will become safe. Thousands and thousands of people have been killed in that zone over the years. But it's been sought for many, many decades, and I think we have something that's going to be strong and hold up.The ironic term "safe zone" is straight out of Ankara's talking points, and nobody has been seeking such a buffer zone "for decades" apart from Turkey. Until Ankara's invasion, it was at peace.Turkey, Syria, and all forms of the Kurds, have been fighting for centuries. We have done them a great service, and we've done a great job for all of them. And now we're getting out. A long time. We were supposed to be there for 30 days; that was almost 10 years ago. So we're there for 30 days, and now we're leaving. It was supposed to be a very quick hit and let's get out. And it was a quick hit, except they stayed for almost 10 years. Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand.This is an especially muddled paragraph. Until the end of World War I, which is to say one single century ago, Syria was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Arabs and Kurds were restive, to be sure, but a ruthless peace was imposed by the the sultan at the Sublime Porte in Istanbul. Today, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes no secret of his desire to resurrect the realms of Ottoman influence if not, indeed, the empire. But the heart of this part of Trump's remarks is the succession of rhetorical flourishes detached from any discernible reality. Is he talking about the Obama administration's decision in 2014 to deploy a small group of Special Forces—which remained small—to help coordinate the fight against ISIS? If so, that was five years ago, not ten. Or is he thinking about the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which he seems to reference later? No matter, the money quote is "blood-stained sand," which is misleading both historically and topographically, but evocative for those many Americans who are tired of what seem endless wars.I want to thank Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo for leading the American delegation so successfully to Turkey several days ago, along with National Security Advisor O'Brien. I want to thank them very much. The American delegation negotiated the original five-day ceasefire that ended [enabled] Kurdish fighters to safely leave. It just got them to a point where, frankly, they were able. It enabled them to get out, to go and move, really, just a few miles in a slightly different direction. So this enabled them to do so.It's a good thing that once Trump abandoned the Kurds, an American delegation could arrange for them to be able to leave their homes and their land without being slaughtered. But this hardly seems to merit congratulation. His confusion between "ended" and "enabled" as revealed by the White House brackets suggests he knows this.Countless lives are now being saved as a result of our negotiation with Turkey—an outcome reached without spilling one drop of American blood. No injuries. Nobody shot, nobody killed.Only American blood counts, even if Americans open the door for others to die.I have just spoken to General Mazloum, a wonderful man, the Commander-in-Chief of the SDF Kurds. And he was extremely thankful for what the United States has done. Could not have been more thankful. General Mazloum has assured me that ISIS is under very, very strict lock and key, and the detention facilities are being strongly maintained. There were a few that got out—a small number, relatively speaking—and they've been largely recaptured.Mazloum has very few options, and for the moment has to be grateful to the United States for a pause in the slaughter. He is also publicly grateful to the Russians, and on video no less. As for the terrorist prisoners, the U.S. special presidential envoy for Syria and the fight against ISIS, Jim Jeffrey, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that for the moment nobody knows where the escaped prisoners are.I'm also sure that he [Mazloum] will be issuing his own statement very shortly. We had a great talk. But we've saved the lives of many, many Kurds. He understands that. The war was going to be vicious and probably not very long. And I'm very happy to have been involved in it, as are our Vice President, our Secretary of State, and all of the other people on our team. By getting that ceasefire to stick, we've done something that's very, very special. But by getting the ceasefire after a tremendous amount of really tough war for a very short period of days, that is something very special.Our troops are safe, and the pain and suffering of the three-day fight that occurred was directly responsible for our ability to make an agreement with Turkey and the Kurds that could never have been made without this short-term outburst.This is a reference to Trump's infamous playground theory that you let kids beat each other up a bit before you pull them apart, and somehow things work the same way there in northeast Syria. In point of fact, there would have been no fighting at all—just as there had been no fighting previously—had Trump kept the U.S. Special Forces in place and showed such weak resolve.Should Turkey fail to honor its obligations, including the protection of religious and ethnic minorities—which I truly believe they will do—we reserve the right to re-impose crippling sanctions, including substantially increased tariffs on steel and all other products coming out of Turkey.There is no reason to be confident Turkey will honor its obligations, and every reason to believe the jihadists it supports will carry out atrocities. Indeed, they've already committed war crimes. But Trump is convinced that the power of the almighty dollar can impose his will on any nation in the world without the need to deploy troops. So far, the good news has been that he has not sought new wars, à la George W. Bush, but the economic pressure he puts on adversaries, including most obviously Iran, tempts them to call his bluff with "other means." These can include terrorism or thinly veiled military action, as with the recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities. Turkey, for its part, has ignored Trump's sanction threats before, and will certainly do so again.We are now an economic powerhouse like never before, and, very importantly, like no other. Our economic might is stronger than it's ever been, and our competitors are not doing very well.Some economic indicators, like the employment rate, are very good. Some, like the national debt, are mind-blowing: the equivalent of vastly maxed-out credit cards. But no nation or group of nations is yet in a position to challenge the supremacy of the U.S. dollar in international commerce. Unlike the many businesses Trump bankrupted, the United States may truly be too big to fail.We also expect Turkey to abide by its commitment regarding ISIS. As a backup to the Kurds watching over them, should something happen, Turkey is there to grab them.Turkey has the second biggest military in NATO, after the United States. But it never fired so much as a slingshot against ISIS, even when the Islamic State's forces rolled up to Turkey's border. Indeed, as ISIS grew it was aided and abetted by the acquiescence of Turkish authorities who gave its foreign fighters easy passage into Syria, and often helped them recover in Turkish hospitals if they were wounded.Further, we implore European countries to come and take those fighters that the U.S. captured and bring them back to their countries for incarceration and for trial. Until just recently, Europe has been very unresponsive in doing what they should have been doing for a long time. Now is their chance to finally act.Trump is right about this. Period.American forces defeated 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate during the last two years. We thank the Syrian Democratic Forces for their sacrifices in this effort. They've been terrific. Now Turkey, Syria, and others in the region must work to ensure that ISIS does not regain any territory. It's their neighborhood; they have to maintain it. They have to take care of it.Actually, it was the Kurdish-led forces on the ground with American support, mainly from the air, who defeated ISIS. Trump is thanking them the way he might thank servants before stiffing them on their salaries. As for the "others in the region," the most important are Russia and Iran.There were some political pundits who responded to Turkey's offensive in Syria by calling for yet another American military intervention. I don't think so. But halting the incursion by military force would have required deploying tens of thousands of American troops against Turkey—a NATO Ally and a country the United States has developed a very good relationship with, including President Erdoğan.This is the great fallacy of Trump's presentation. There was never a question of the U.S. going to war against Turkey. But Erdogan had been deterred for years by the presence of small contingents of U.S. Special Forces in northeast Syria, and that could have continued. He saw Trump's weakness and exploited it. The critical moment probably came at the United Nations General Assembly last month when Erdogan presented a map showing precisely the "safe zone" he now claims, and Trump, perhaps out of arrogance or indecision or both, could not find the time to fit Erdogan into his schedule of one-on-one meetings. In the phone call that followed weeks later, Trump simply surrendered to Erdogan's will.The same people that I watched and read—giving me and the United States advice—were the people that I have been watching and reading for many years. They are the ones that got us into the Middle East mess but never had the vision or the courage to get us out. They just talk."Giving me and the United States advice:" a telling phrase. Here, Trump probably is thinking of the neo-cons who were coaches and cheerleaders for the Iraq invasion of 2003 and have since moved into the "never Trump" camp on the domestic front.How many Americans must die in the Middle East in the midst of these ancient sectarian and tribal conflicts? After all of the precious blood and treasure America has poured into the deserts of the Middle East, I am committed to pursuing a different course—one that leads to victory for America.Trump in recent days has ordered an additional contingent of 3,000 troops to sandy Saudi Arabia, which is more than three times the number of American soldiers operating in Syria when Trump decided to start moving them around. There are now more U.S. troops in Iraq (about 6,000) while in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states there are between 45,000 and 65,000 U.S. military personnel.Through much work, we have done things that everybody said couldn't be done. Today's announcement validates our course of action with Turkey that only a couple of weeks ago were scorned, and now people are saying, "Wow. What a great outcome. Congratulations." It's too early to me to be congratulated, but we've done a good job. We've saved a lot of lives.This fumbled locution is exactly what Trump said, according to the White House transcript. He appears to be trying to stop himself from congratulating himself even more blatantly than what we see here.Most importantly, we have avoided another costly military intervention that could've led to disastrous, far-reaching consequences. Many thousands of people could've been killed.We have avoided a costly military intervention that was never going to happen in the first place if U.S. policy had been clear and firm.The last administration said, "Assad must go." They could've easily produced that outcome, but they didn't.Not without the kind of war Trump is congratulating himself for avoiding.In fact, they drew a very powerful red line in the sand—you all remember, the red line in the sand—when children were gassed and killed, but then did not honor their commitment as other children died in the same horrible manner. But I did honor my commitments with 58 Tomahawks.Ironically, the Russians stepped in to help the Obama administration deal with Bashar Assad's chemical arsenal. As a result it was acknowledged for the first time and then almost entirely eliminated. After some residual chemicals were used by Assad early in Trump's term, apparently as a test, his Tomahawk attack was largely a symbolic show of high-powered fireworks—and also coordinated with the Russians.Eight long years after President Obama's ill-fated push at regime change, U.S. troops are still on the ground in Syria. There were no American troops on the ground in Syria until 2014, and since then they could be counted in hundreds, not thousands.More than half a million people are dead, hundreds of thousands are terribly injured, and millions more Syrians are displaced. It really is a nightmare of misery.Debate goes on about what Obama might have done to stop the carnage, but Turkey gave at least tacit aid to ISIS, and Russia and Iran openly supported the blood-drenched Assad regime. Now Trump would have us believe they are part of his grand plan for peace.Across the Middle East, we have seen anguish on a colossal scale. We have spent $8 trillion on wars in the Middle East, never really wanting to win those wars. But after all that money was spent and all of those lives lost, the young men and women gravely wounded—so many—the Middle East is less safe, less stable, and less secure than before these conflicts began.The Republican administration of George W. Bush launched the wars Trump is talking about here, and it certainly wanted to win them. It just failed to do so, not least because its planning was based on hubris.The same people pushing for these wars are often the ones demanding America open its doors to unlimited migration from war-torn regions, importing the terrorism and the threat of terrorism right to our own shores. But not anymore. My administration understands that immigration security is national security.Very few people who pushed for the Bush wars recommend unlimited immigration today. Trump has a reasonable argument, as far as it goes, when he says immigration security cannot be divorced from national security. But when it comes to the question of terrorism, the greatest threat in the U.S. today is from domestic white supremacists, many of whom find elements of Trump's politics, especially vis a vis dark skinned immigrants, positively inspiring. As a candidate for President, I made clear that we needed a new approach to American foreign policy, one guided not by ideology, but by experience, history, and a realistic understanding of the world.This is a bold claim from a man who had no diplomatic or political experience, has no sense of history, and clearly has very little "realistic" understanding of the world. Most of those in his administration who did have such backgrounds have quit, been fired, or, in a couple of cases, become whistle blowers.We are building up America's military might like never before, investing $2.5 trillion since my election. But we will not be depleted. We will not happen again. It will not be allowed to happen again, where our military is depleted, fighting in areas of the world where we shouldn't be.The objective here would seem to be to deter other major powers, most notably Russia and China, as well as secondary powers North Korea and Iran. But how Trump plans to achieve the kind of quick and absolute victories he talks about is an open question. He frequently invokes apocalyptic images of "fire and fury" for North Korea, "obliteration" of Iran, or killing 10 million Afghans, which suggests he is mulling the use of nuclear weapons. Not a happy thought.When we commit American troops to battle, we must do so only when a vital national interest is at stake, and when we have a clear objective, a plan for victory, and a path out of conflict. That's what we have to have. We need a plan of victory. We will only win. Our whole basis has to be the right plan, and then we will only win. Nobody can beat us. Nobody can beat us.This is the Powell Doctrine, which is fine if you have a clear vision of national interest, what threatens it, and why war would be the best or only response. That is not apparent in this administration.I want to again thank everyone on the American team who helped achieve the ceasefire in Syria, saved so many lives, along with President Erdoğan of Turkey—a man I've gotten to know very well and a man who loves his country. And, in his mind, he's doing the right thing for his country, and we may be meeting in the very near future.Trump does admire autocratic nationalists, even if they find his language more than a little condescending.I also want to thank General Mazloum for his understanding and for his great strength and for his incredible words today to me—but me just as a representative of the United States—because he knows that we saved tens of thousands of Kurds. And we're not talking in the long term, we're talking in the short term. We're talking something that was going on immediately and something, frankly, that was planned for a long time.Again, Trump is reminding himself in public that it's not all about him, but he just can't help himself. Then he slides into near incomprehensibility, trying to explain that his great victory is just for the short term, or not, but anyway it was planned, not (as everyone believes) the direct result of his capricious gut. The job of our military is not to police the world. Other nations must step up and do their fair share. That hasn't taken place. Today's breakthrough is a critical step in that direction.In northeast Syria, thank you Russia, thank your Iran, thank you Turkey for taking more than your share.Thank you all very much, and God bless America. Thank you. Thank you.END11:56 A.M. EDTThere were no questions taken.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| US's Esper has sharp words for Turkey over Syria invasion Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:02 AM PDT  After spending four tumultuous days engulfed in the chaotic ramifications of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper lashed out Thursday at Turkey for its military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters. Speaking at the German Marshall Fund, Esper said Turkey's "unwarranted" invasion into Syria jeopardizes gains made there in recent years as the U.S.-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled the Islamic State group.
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| Big Companies Can Take Big Steps to Save Species Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:00 AM PDT ![Big Companies Can Take Big Steps to Save Species]( "Big Companies Can Take Big Steps to Save Species") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Before our eyes, nature is vanishing faster than we might have imagined. The bird population in the U.S. has fallen by more than 30% in the past 40 years, as have insect populations in Germany. In the U.K., 60% of mammals and birds have disappeared since 1970. Meanwhile, nearly one-third of marine mammals worldwide face extinction.The problem seems especially daunting because it results from vital human activities, including industrial agriculture and fishing, fossil fuel extraction and use, forestry and mining. It's long been taken for granted that the enormous transnational corporations that dominate these basic industries are unwilling to compromise their profits to benefit nature.But that may no longer be the obstacle it once was. Big companies face increasing pressure from governments and from their own investors to adopt sustainable practices. And sheer size gives the companies the power to carry them out on a large scale. The industries most responsible for global ecological decline, like other industries, have become extraordinarily concentrated. Just 100 coal, oil and gas companies supply the fuels that account for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, the Swedish ecologist Carl Folke and his colleagues found in a recent analysis of company profits, sales, market share, exports and other data. Only 10 firms manufacture most farming fertilizers, four produce most other agricultural chemicals, and three dominate seed production.The story is the same everywhere: A few huge companies are largely responsible for the depletion of fish stocks, as well as the environmental damage linked to the farming of palm oil, cocoa, soy and bananas.Such companies are thus in the best position to enact meaningful changes. It's true that their own voluntary efforts have fallen short. Often when companies have claimed to manage their supply chains for sustainability, they have set only modest goals — to improve labor conditions, for example, or to follow national laws.In recent years, though, some governments have begun to push harder for more ethical and sustainable practices. A 2017 French law, for instance, obliges large companies to prevent environmental and human-rights abuses in their own operations as well as those of their subsidiaries, subcontractors and suppliers.Companies also face new financial pressures, as pension funds and institutional investors shift capital away from firms with unsustainable practices. International institutions are emerging to help this effort. The United Nations Global Compact Action Platform for Sustainable Ocean Business, for one, brings together companies in fishing, mining and finance to find ways to protect the seas.Ten of the 13 largest seafood companies have committed to the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship program, agreeing to be more transparent and to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. And the global forest products industry has promised to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and manage forests more sustainably. More than 50% of the world's total forest area is now managed by businesses committed to an international forest management certification plan, up from just 12% in 2000.As Folke and his co-authors note, last year, nearly 30% of some 700 of the world's biggest global companies included the UN's sustainable development goals in their business strategies. Sustainability is no longer merely an option for the most progressive companies; it's become a central goal for entire industries.Let's hope this movement for "corporate biosphere stewardship" proves more broadly effective than earlier calls for "corporate social responsibility" — which turned into a slick way for corporations to shield themselves from criticism while pursuing business as usual. If it does, the industries that have been most voracious in consuming the earth's resources could become the most effective at protecting them.To contact the author of this story: Mark Buchanan at buchanan.mark@gmail.comTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Mary Duenwald at mduenwald@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Mark Buchanan, a physicist and science writer, is the author of the book "Forecast: What Physics, Meteorology and the Natural Sciences Can Teach Us About Economics."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russian nuclear bombers land in Africa as Putin hosts continent's leaders Posted: 24 Oct 2019 05:23 AM PDT  Russia landed the world's heaviest bomber in South Africa on Wednesday in a rare show of military cooperation between the two nations, as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted African leaders at an economic forum. Two Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers, which are supersonic Soviet-era aircraft capable of launching nuclear missiles, touched down at a South African Air Force base on the outskirts of the capital, Pretoria. It was said to be the first time that Tu-160 bombers have ever landed on the African continent.
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| India’s Modi to Meet King Salman in Saudi Arabia Posted: 24 Oct 2019 05:22 AM PDT ![India's Modi to Meet King Salman in Saudi Arabia]( "India's Modi to Meet King Salman in Saudi Arabia") (Bloomberg) -- India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilateral talks with King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Oct. 29, where the two sides are expected to finalize a refinery in the state of Maharashtra and establish a strategic partnership council.The refinery will be single largest greenfield refinery in India, said T.S.Trimurti, East Region Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi Thursday, while Indian Oil Corporation will sign an agreement to set up retail outlets in Saudi Arabia.Modi, who travels to Riyadh on the opening day of the three-day Future Investment Initiative -- an annual event showcasing the Kingdom's investment opportunities -- will also hold delegation level talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The two countries will hold joint naval exercises at the end of this year and into early 2020, Trimurti said, with Saudi defense personnel receiving training in India.Saudi Arabia had shown "understanding" regarding India's decision to revoke the special autonomous status of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir and implement a months-long communication and movement lockdown, Trimurti said. "Their understanding has had a salutatory affect on Pakistan."Kashmir CriticismsIndia's Ministry of External Affairs also called recent U.S. comments on events in India's portion of Kashmir "regrettable."On Tuesday the U.S. State Department -- in its strongest comments on the matter -- expressed concerns about the ongoing detention of residents and political leaders in the troubled Himalayan region amid.The Indian government on Aug. 5 revoked seven decades of regional autonomy in Kashmir. An internet blackout in the valley has been in place since then. Kashmir has witnessed three decades of separatist violence, supported by neighbor Pakistan, that has killed more than 40,000 people, according to the Indian government. It is at the heart of a long running dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad with both nations claiming the Himalayan territory.It is "regrettable that a few members of Congress in U.S. used the hearing to comment" on India's Kashmir moves, foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said, adding "it shows poor understanding of India" despite the fact that the Indian government has kept members of the U.S. updated about India's concerns about cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, that has Islamabad's backing.'Invaded and Occupied'Kumar also repeated India's condemnation of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's comments to the United Nations last month that India had "invaded and occupied" Kashmir."India has noted the Malaysian leader's statements," Kumar said. "It is not accurate and in keeping with facts," he said, adding that India hoped "Malaysia will introspect."Since Mahathir's comments on Kashmir Indian buyers of palm oil have been turning to Indonesia for supplies because of concerns that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will curb purchases of the vegetable oil from Malaysia.Relations between New Delhi and Ankara have also strained over Kashmir. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's speech to the United Nations criticizing India's decision to abrogate the region's special status prompted Modi to cancel a planned visit to the capital, according to a news report.To contact the reporter on this story: Archana Chaudhary in New Delhi at achaudhary2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Muneeza NaqviFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Warren Is ‘Single Biggest Risk for the Market,’ Citrone Says Posted: 24 Oct 2019 04:56 AM PDT ![Warren Is 'Single Biggest Risk for the Market,' Citrone Says]( "Warren Is 'Single Biggest Risk for the Market,' Citrone Says") (Bloomberg) -- The rise of U.S. presidential contender Elizabeth Warren is "the single biggest risk for the market," according to Rob Citrone, founder of hedge fund Discovery Capital Management."I think if Elizabeth Warren is leading the way into the February primaries, the S&P will be down 10, 15, 20%," Citrone said at the C4K Investors Conference in Toronto on Wednesday. "Her policies on regulation, on taxes, on a lot of different things, are substantially different than anything we've had in our country before."Citrone, who runs a macro-focused hedge fund firm with $2.5 billion in assets, sees volatility ahead as Democrats prepare to pick a candidate to run against President Donald Trump. The growing popularity of Senator Warren, who advocates for a wealth tax, Medicare-for-all and reining in private equity, is stoking fear on Wall Street.The markets aren't prepared for the prospect of the Democratic party's left wing gaining power, said Citrone, who is a registered independent. He rarely backs presidential candidates but donated money to Republican Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign.Turkey CrisisCitrone's comments strike a different tone from billionaire Michael Novogratz, who said at a benefit last week that his peers should "lighten up" and stop worrying so much about Warren. Novogratz, the founder of cryptocurrency firm Galaxy Investment Partners, said 97% of the people he knows "are really, really fearful of her" because they think she's seen as "anti-rich."On the international front, Citrone said Turkey and Mexico are headed toward economic crises and may fall into recessions."Turkey will have a good old fashioned emerging market crisis" over the next couple of years, with the Turkish Lira dropping by 50%, credit spreads widening and the stock market going down, he said in his presentation. "If there's one country and one market that is a substantial short over the next couple of years it's Turkey."On Mexico, he said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is presiding over the slow "deterioration" of the country's institutions. "I think he's going to take the country to crisis," Citrone said.Discovery is based in South Norwalk, Connecticut.Other highlights from Citrone's presentation include:He's bullish on the currency and equity markets in India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines calling them "solid growers" that have "very bright outlooks." They're also benefiting from the U.S. trade war with China as a number of companies have shifted their supply chain away from China and to these nations. Citrone said that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is business-friendly, that his administration is cutting corporate and individual taxes and is trying to clean up the state banking system. "If we had to pick one market of size to put assets to work, we think that's a good place," he said. On Europe, Citrone said he wouldn't be surprised if Germany was in a recession next year, and he expects Chancellor Angela Merkel will be out of power in the next three to six months. There's a 20% to 30% chance of Italy leaving the European Union over the next 18 months, he said. It is "the number one candidate" to potentially be next to exit "which could be a very significant global event." He also expects Italy's government to fall in the spring of 2020. (Updates with more highlights from Citrone's presentation after 10th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Michael Bellusci and Rob Golum.To contact the reporter on this story: Hema Parmar in New York at hparmar6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Mirabella at amirabella@bloomberg.net, Josh FriedmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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