| Israel strikes Gaza after 10 rockets fired at south Israel Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:24 PM PDT  Israeli aircraft began pounding militant sites in the Gaza Strip early Saturday, hours after Palestinian militants fired 10 rockets toward southern Israel, shattering a monthlong lull along the volatile border. In an initial statement, the Israeli military said its warplanes "have started striking terror targets in Gaz," as bombings were heard across the coastal enclave. Palestinian media reported that several airstrikes targeted training sites and outposts affiliated with Hamas, the Islamic militant group controlling Gaza, and other groups.
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| China, US hold 'constructive' call on trade mini-deal Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:48 PM PDT  Senior Chinese and US officials again sent positive signals on Friday about their efforts to formalize the partial trade bargain announced last month, with President Donald Trump saying he may meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the state of Iowa. Trump had planned to sign a deal with China's leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the now-cancelled summit in Chile this month.
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| Pro-Trump Channel One America News Deploys a Former Kremlin Propagandist to Blast the 'Russia Hoax' Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:33 PM PDT  News out of the UK about Russian propaganda targeting that county's politics is a new "Russia hoax" being perpetrated by liberals and the mainstream media, according to One America News. The pro-Trump network put its very best alum of the Kremlin's propaganda machine on the story.One America News' Kristian Rouz covered the controversy in Britain surrounding an unreleased parliamentary report investigating Russia's interference in UK politics and its online trolling in support of the 2016 Brexit vote. Lawmakers are accusing prime minister Boris Johnson of slowing-walking the report to keep it under wraps until after the December 12 election."The mainstream media continues attempts to revive the failed Russia hoax, designating as a Russian agent none other than British prime minister Boris Johnson," Rouz reported.As The Daily Beast reported in July, Rouz, a graduate of Moscow's Higher School of Economics, was a regular contributor to the Kremlin-run propaganda site Sputnik while simultaneously working in the San Diego, California offices of OAN, a Trumpist cable channel with a history of regurgitating conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda.In a letter to The Daily Beast following that story, Rouz said he filed approximately 1,300 articles with Sputnik over four-and-a-half years, and was paid $11,500 a year. He also defended his work, which at Sputnik was primarily covering economic news. "I have never written propaganda, disinformation, or unverified information," he wrote. One 2017 Sputnik article by Rouz described Russian election interference in the US and UK as "largely debunked narratives." One of his OAN segments that year claimed Hillary Clinton was secretly funding Antifa. ("It's a great network," Donald Trump said of OAN during a 2017 news conference.)Rouz's byline hasn't appear on Sputnik since July, but even when he was being paid by the Russian government, his duel-affiliation wasn't disclosed in his on-air reporting for One America News, even when his segments touched on Russian affairs, and despite the fact that Sputnik's role in Russia's 2016 US election interference was highlighted in an assessment by the U.S. intelligence community. OAN didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But in a letter responding to The Daily Beast's previous reporting, OAN attorney Louis Miller said Rouz's work for the two outlets was unconnected. "He is paid by OAN—not the Russian government—for the content he creates for OAN," Miller wrote. "Every article he writes goes through OAN's editorial process … His outside work for other media outlets has no relation to—or bearing on—his work for OAN."OAN's support for Putin extends beyond any one reporter. In May, OAN's Pearson Sharp aired a segment based on Russian propaganda claiming to reveal that dozens of Syria's White Helmets confessed to faking chemical weapons attacks, making no mention of the false claim's Russian origin.OAN filed a lawsuit in September against MSNBC host Rachael Maddow, who commented on the air that OAN "is literally paid Russian propaganda." OAN is suing for defamation on the grounds that Russia is not paying them.Trump's New Favorite Network Embraces Russian PropagandaPro-Trump TV Channel OAN Has a Comedy Show So Terrible It Might Actually Be FunnyRead 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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| President Xi goes to Iowa? Trump floats farm state to seal trade deal Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:18 PM PDT ![President Xi goes to Iowa? Trump floats farm state to seal trade deal]( "President Xi goes to Iowa? Trump floats farm state to seal trade deal") U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday suggested he could sign a long-awaited trade agreement with China in the farm state of Iowa, which has been hard hit by tariffs in a nearly 16-month trade war between the world's largest economies. Trump said on Friday evening that negotiations about a "phase one" agreement were going well and he hoped to sign the deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a U.S. location when work on the agreement was completed. It could even be in Iowa," he told reporters at the White House.
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| Trump Considers Iowa as Location to Sign Trade Pact With China Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:07 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he is exploring several locations to sign the first phase of a trade agreement with China, including Iowa."Looking at a different couple of locations," Trump told reporters Friday at the White House. "It could even be in Iowa."Trump said that the two nations are actively discussing plans and making a lot of progress.The U.S. and China are searching for a new site for a signing ceremony after the cancellation of this month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile because of unrest there. It's not clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping would agree to sign the deal in the U.S."I like to get deals done first," Trump said, "I would do it in the U.S.," adding that Xi "would too."Discussions are underway over holding the signing in Iowa, an idea that just surfaced this week, according to a person familiar with the matter.Another person said an Iowa summit was discussed back in the spring, but people on the National Security Council and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer were opposed because they thought it might appear to be just an agricultural purchase agreement that lacks structural reforms.Xi has long had a soft spot for the Hawkeye State. He first visited in 1985 when he led a delegation from Hebei province to look at farming methods and received the key to the city of Muscatine. He also visited in 2012, a visit that is the basis of his relationship with Terry Branstad, the former governor of Iowa and now U.S. ambassador to China.Iowa would also make sense as Trump is eager to highlight the agricultural purchases that are the cornerstone of his "phase one" deal. Iowa is a major producer of pork and soybeans, two commodities that China is expected to buy large quantities of.And the state carries significant political importance as the 2020 election nears. Trump won Iowa in 2016 after it went to Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.Chinese officials have privately cast doubt about reaching a comprehensive trade agreement with the U.S. The U.S. and China are still far apart on some of the thorniest issues in their trading relationship.(Updates with new Trump quote, previous consideration of Iowa, starting in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Jenny Leonard, Shawn Donnan and Steven Yang.To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UN says drafting new Syria constitution will begin Monday Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:56 PM PDT ![UN says drafting new Syria constitution will begin Monday]( "UN says drafting new Syria constitution will begin Monday") The 150-member committee selected to write a new constitution for Syria agreed Friday on a 45-member drafting body that will begin work on Monday, a first step on what U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes will be a road to peace. U.N. special envoy Geir Pedersen, who is facilitating meetings of the constitutional committee in Geneva, said late Friday its "dignified and forward-looking" opening session on Wednesday was followed by two days of "very successful" meetings.
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| Iraqis defy crackdown to hold biggest protests yet Posted: 01 Nov 2019 02:29 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of Iraqis massed in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstrations since anti-government protests erupted a month ago, defying security forces that have killed scores of people and harshly criticizing Iran's involvement in the country's affairs. The square and the wide boulevards leading into it were packed with flag-waving protesters, as security forces reinforced barricades on two bridges leading to the heavily-fortified Green Zone, the seat of government.
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| Yemeni rebels claim they shot down a US-made drone Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:55 PM PDT  Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels shot down a U.S.-made drone Friday along the border with Saudi Arabia, according to a statement by the group's spokesman. The Shiite rebels, who overran Yemen's northern parts and the capital Sanaa in 2014, have been fighting a Saudi-led and U.S.-backed military coalition since 2015. In recent months, they have shot down at least two American drones.
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| Pompeo seeks faster progress with N.Korea after rockets Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:40 PM PDT  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that negotiations with North Korea were going too slowly after Pyongyang fired two more short-range projectiles. Pompeo downplayed Thursday's launches themselves, saying they were consistent with previous moves, but called for more effort in nuclear negotiations. "The progress has been far too slow," Pompeo told radio station KQAM in his home state of Kansas.
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| Eurosceptic Farage urges British PM to listen to Trump Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:27 PM PDT  Anti-European populist Nigel Farage urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday to follow Donald Trump's advice and form a "non-aggression" pact with his Brexit Party in Britain's pre-Christmas general election. The US president used a lengthy appearance on Farage's radio phone-in show Thursday to share his characteristically blunt views ahead of the December 12 snap poll. "I know that you and (Johnson) will end up doing something that could be terrific if you and he get together as, you know, an unstoppable force," Trump told Farage.
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| For Vietnam's 'Box People,' a Treacherous Journey Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:20 PM PDT  LONDON -- Vietnamese smugglers call it the "CO2" route: a poorly ventilated, oxygen-deficient trip across the English Channel in shipping containers or trailers piled high with pallets of merchandise, the last leg of a perilous, 6,000-mile trek across Asia and into Western Europe.Compared to the other path -- the "VIP route," with its brief hotel stay and seat in a truck driver's cab -- the trip in a stuffy container can be brutal for what some Vietnamese refer to as "box people," successors to the "boat people" who left after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.Vietnamese migrants often wait for months in roadside camps in northern France before being sneaked into a truck trailer. Snakeheads, as the smugglers are known, beat men and sexually assault women, aid groups, lawyers and the migrants themselves say. People cocoon themselves in aluminum bags and endure hours in refrigerated units to reduce the risk of detection.That journey proved fatal last week for 39 people, many of them believed to be Vietnamese, who were found dead in a refrigerated truck container in southeastern England.As dangerous as the last leg of the migrant journey to Britain often is, those petrifying hours in a trailer are sometimes only a sliver of months if not years of harsh treatment -- first at the hands of organized trafficking gangs, and then under imperious bosses at nail salons and cannabis factories in Britain.But still they come, an estimated 18,000 Vietnamese paying smugglers for the journey to Europe every year at prices between 8,000 and 40,000 pounds, around $10,000 to $50,000.In Britain, where Brexit has discouraged the flow of labor from Eastern Europe, migrants see a country thirsty for low-wage workers, paying easily five times what they could earn at home and free of the onerous identity checks that make other European countries inhospitable.Vietnamese smugglers, for the most part, get their clients across to France and the Netherlands, where other gangs, often Kurdish and Albanian, or, as in the recent case, apparently Irish or Northern Irish, finish the job.Many come from Ha Tinh and Nghe An, two impoverished provinces in north-central Vietnam, and leave for Britain with their eyes wide open to the risks, analysts say. Having watched their neighbors suddenly refurbish their homes with pricier materials, or buy better cars, they crave the same sense of security for their family, whatever it might cost them.But when Britain fails to deliver on that promise, migrants can end up in a dreadful limbo, kept from seeking help by the country's harsh immigration system and living in the grip of a shadowy system of traffickers and the employers who rely on them."I always encourage them, 'Stay at home,'" the Rev. Simon Thang Duc Nguyen, the parish priest at a Catholic church in East London attended by many migrant parishioners, said this week. "Even though you are poor, you have your life. Here, you have money, but you lose your life."Not all the 20,000 to 35,000 undocumented Vietnamese migrants estimated to be living in Britain have horror stories to tell. Many migrants, some experts say, put up with the travails of working in Britain for the real chance of a payday."My research has shown stories of migrants are not all about exploitation and not all about being trafficked," said Tamsin Barber, a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. "People are usually coming here agreeing to take high risks to work illegally and potentially earn large amounts of money in the cannabis trade."But more vulnerable Vietnamese are also being trafficked to Britain, with the authorities receiving five times as many referrals last year as in 2012.Once family and friends have scraped together enough money, the odyssey may begin with a trip to China to pick up forged travel documents. That is how many of the dozens of people who died in the truck began their journey, said Anthony Dang Huu Nam, a Catholic priest serving a church in the town of Yen Thanh, where he said dozens of the victims were from.On the way from China to Russia to Western Europe, one of the most punishing stretches is the walk through Belarusian forests to the Polish border. In a 2017 French survey of Vietnamese migrants, a man identified as Anh, 24, told researchers that he and five other men, led by a smuggler, were repeatedly arrested in Belarus, only to be released at the Russian border to try again. When they finally succeeded, they were met by a truck waiting on the Polish side."We were cold," the survey quoted him as saying. "We didn't eat anything for two days. We drank water from melted snow."Other routes, choreographed down to the minute, land migrants in European airports with recycled visas and travel documents, according to "Precarious Journeys," a recent report from ECPAT, an anti-child-trafficking organization, and other groups. As a precaution, smugglers in Vietnam often tell people to arrive at airport check-in desks 10 minutes before they close, for instance, so agents do not have enough time to inspect paperwork.The trip can take months, even years. Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, one of the migrants believed to have died last week, wanted to go to France to find work and support his siblings, seven of them in all, his father, Nguyen Dinh Gia, said. But in Russia, he overstayed his tourist visa and was confined to his house for six months. Then he moved to Ukraine and France, where he found a job as a waiter, before deciding to go to Britain for work in a nail salon.Trips are frequently interrupted when migrants are detained or run out of money. Some migrants are forced to work along the way, in garment factories in Russia or in restaurants across Europe. Some women sell sex, researchers say.Smugglers often keep people in the dark about where they are as a way of exerting total control. In a 2017 case, 16 Vietnamese people picked up by the Ukrainian authorities in Odessa thought they were in France.When migrants disobey their smugglers, the blowback can be fierce."They cannot be discovered by the police, so they have to keep the discipline," said Nguyen, the priest in London. "If you do not behave, you can be punished by beatings, or for women be abused sexually."And once they arrive in Britain, they are often in for a rude awakening. Sulaiha Ali, a human rights lawyer, said migrants were sometimes promised legitimate work in a restaurant or on a construction site, only to be forced to work as "gardeners" in a house converted into illegal cannabis growing operations. Locked inside the house for days at a time and often living 15 to a room, workers face the risk of fire from tampered electrical wiring and health problems from noxious chemicals.In the nail salons where many Vietnamese find work, salon bosses can control every aspect of workers' lives, a power that can breed exploitation, though researchers said some bosses also become migrants' surrogate parents, cooking for them and providing a place to stay.When the police raid places housing migrants, they can often ignore signs of forced work or human trafficking and send migrants into deportation proceedings instead, migrant advocates say. "The emphasis, as soon as it's established someone doesn't have any identification documents, is not trying to establish whether they've been exploited," Ali said. "It's on, 'Can we justify detention? Can we get them removed back to their countries?'"That threat of deportation, whatever someone's circumstances, is a cudgel for trafficking gangs to keep migrants under their sway."There's a serious distrust of authorities, a lot of the time because traffickers have embedded that in victims' minds: 'You don't have official documents,' or, 'You're going to be deported or imprisoned,'" said Firoza Saiyed, a human rights lawyer. "It's another thing that makes disclosure really difficult."Older Vietnamese migrants in Britain, many of whom arrived after the Vietnam War, are separated by a wide cultural gulf from the newer arrivals, but they have still proved to be a crucial support, ever more so in the last week.Nguyen, who left Vietnam in 1984, said he had been fielding calls from families in Vietnam, wanting to know if he could tell them whether their children were in the trailer."The mother, the father, all called me in tears," he said. "I couldn't bear hearing the words. You have to borrow a lot of money for this journey, and now you had hoped your daughter, your son can be successful, and that you can have some money to pay the debt. Now, it's hopeless -- nothing."He went on, "Nothing is OK, as long as they are arrested or in prison. It's OK, they survived. But now they lost two things. They lost hope and they lost their lives. Nothing."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Spain steps in to host COP25 climate summit as Greta asks for a lift Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:20 PM PDT  Spain will host the COP25 climate summit in December, the UN said on Friday, after Chile abandoned plans to hold it due to deadly anti-government protests. Some 25,000 delegates had been expected in Chile for COP 25, including teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. "We are pleased to announce the COP Bureau has agreed that COP25 will take place from 2-13 December in Madrid," United Nations climate chief Patricia Espinosa said on Twitter.
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| WRAPUP 2-U.S.-China trade deal in sight after progress in high-level talks Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:02 PM PDT ![WRAPUP 2-U.S.-China trade deal in sight after progress in high-level talks]( "WRAPUP 2-U.S.-China trade deal in sight after progress in high-level talks") The United States and China on Friday said they made progress in talks aimed at defusing a nearly 16-month-long trade war that has harmed the global economy, and U.S. officials said a deal could be signed this month. The Chinese Commerce Ministry on Friday said the world's two largest economies had reached "consensus on principles" during a "serious and constructive" telephone call between their main trade negotiators. U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped to sign an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a U.S. location, perhaps in the farming state of Iowa, which will be a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.
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| Nigel Farage Demands Johnson Ditch Brexit Deal to Forge Election Pact Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:34 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage threatened to fight for every seat in the Dec. 12 election if Prime Minister Boris Johnson refuses to abandon his divorce deal with the European Union and commit to a clean break. Speaking at the launch of his party's campaign at an event in central London on Friday, Farage said the "sell-out" deal agreed by Johnson on Oct. 17 "isn't Brexit" and he will make sure every voter knows that before they go to the polls.In other developments on the campaign trail on Friday: Johnson hit back at President Trump's claim that his Brexit deal would prevent a U.K.-U.S. free trade agreement in future because it binds Britain too closely to EU rules. "I don't wish to cast any aspersions on the President of the United States, but in that respect he is patently in error," Johnson told Sky News. ITV announced Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will face each other in a TV debate on Nov. 19. Farage is playing hardball. He wants to agree a "non-aggression pact" with Johnson in which Conservative candidates would stand down in seats where his party is well placed to beat Corbyn's Labour."There are around 150 seats in this country that are Labour-held constituencies that the Conservative Party have never ever won in their history," Farage said. "The only way to solve this is to build a leave alliance across the country."Tory activists have warned that the Brexit Party could split the anti-EU vote, costing the prime minister's party seats it could otherwise win. Johnson rejected Farage's call for the parties to work together."Voting for any other party simply risks putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10, and the problem with that is his plan for Brexit is basically yet more dither and delay," Johnson told BBC TV later on Friday. "This Conservative government has Brexit ready to go and to vote for us is the best way of getting it over the line as fast as possible."The Brexit Party topped the polls with 32% of the vote in EU Parliament elections in May and, while it is unlikely to win many seats under Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system next month, Farage is looking to cash-in on its power as a disruptive force.Farage cited two recent by-elections as examples of places where "Leave" candidates could have won if there had been an agreement between the parties.Canada OptionBut he made clear the price for any agreement would be for Johnson to abandon his deal with the EU and either pursue terms similar to Canada's trade arrangement with the bloc or leave on World Trade Organization terms by July 1.He compared Johnson's deal with the EU to a used car with a shiny hood but a failing engine. It's just Theresa May's deal with a new coat of paint, he said."This is Mrs May's appalling surrender deal. This is not Brexit," he said. If Johnson refuses to ditch it, "by the time Dec. 12 comes along, the country will understand what's in it, they'll understand it's not Brexit. We'll make sure of that," he said.Johnson defended his agreement and said it would enable the U.K. to be a champion for free trade across the globe, expanding opportunities and providing certainty for businesses."It's a great Brexit. It's a proper Brexit. It delivers exactly what we wanted, what I wanted," Johnson told the BBC. "It enables us to do proper all-singing all-dancing free trade deals around the world."While he aimed most of his fire at Johnson, Farage said he will travel to Labour heartlands in the north, the Midlands, South Wales and east London to target districts which voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. Voters in those areas are alienated by Corbyn's indecision over Brexit, he said, adding that it's "lazy" to assume all Brexit voters are Conservatives.Corbyn's policy of renegotiating with the EU and then holding a referendum on whether to accept his deal or remain in the bloc "represents nothing less than a complete and absolute betrayal" for 5 million Brexit supporting Labour voters, Farage said.The Brexit Party is also in talks with individual lawmakers about not contesting their seats, Farage said.He will be flexible with members of Parliament "who renounce the withdrawal agreement, who renounce the deal," Farage said. "In cases where they say this we will view them as our friends, not our enemies."(Updates with Johnson starting in 6th paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Colin KeatingeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Greta Thunberg is stuck on the wrong continent after the year's most important UN climate-change summit got moved from Chile to Spain Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:31 AM PDT  The United Nations COP25 climate summit got moved from Chile to Spain. Now Greta Thunberg is looking for help getting back to Europe without flying.
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| Pelosi Says U.S. Should Align With EU to Pressure China on Trade Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:07 AM PDT ![Pelosi Says U.S. Should Align With EU to Pressure China on Trade]( "Pelosi Says U.S. Should Align With EU to Pressure China on Trade") (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would be tougher on China than President Donald Trump by aligning with the European Union to bring additional pressure on the world's second-largest economy.Pelosi said in a roundtable Friday with Bloomberg reporters and editors that Trump was correct to identify China's aggressive trade policy as a threat to the U.S. But she faulted his approach as ineffective and said he's further hobbled the U.S. position by engaging in a trade conflict with the EU at the same time."We have leverage," Pelosi said. "So, what did the president do? Alienate the EU by putting tariffs on them. So they're now looking out for themselves vis-a-via us."She said the U.S. needs to be more "strategic," moving trade policy beyond using tariffs as a primary weapon and instead engage allies like the EU that share U.S. interest as well as its complaints about China."It has to be more comprehensive so that China knows they can't do this anymore," Pelosi said.Her remarks come as Trump is trying to conclude a "phase one" deal to ease the current trade war with China. However Chinese officials are casting doubts about reaching a comprehensive long-term trade deal with the U.S.The Trump administration has taken a mainly unilateral approach to the trade war with China, imposing tariffs on some $360 billion in imported Chinese goods to try to force economic reforms.So far, though, it has had limited success, if any. While the tariffs have forced many companies to contemplate shifting supply chains out of China the Trump administration has yet to deliver the sort of comprehensive change in Chinese behavior it has sought. Trump last month abandoned his push for a one-time and all-encompassing deal with Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart. He has instead opted to try to do it in phases, the first of which he wants to sign in the coming weeks.Read More From the Interview With Speaker PelosiPelosiSees Drug Price Deal With Trump Despite Impeachment ProbePelosi Says Can't Worry About Impeachment Effect on MarketsPelosi Expects Public Impeachment Hearings to Begin This MonthPelosi Says Health Care for All Better Than Medicare for AllPelosi joins other Democrats, including those running for president in 2020 like former Vice President Joe Biden, who argue that Trump has weakened his hand with China by concurrently waging trade battles and imposing tariffs against long-standing allies like the EU. Critics say Trump's use of tariffs - and the retaliation it has provoked from China and the EU among others - has also hurt U.S. farmers and workers.In addition to a trade war with China, Trump last year imposed sweeping tariffs on European steel and aluminum and has threatened to hit European car imports with a duty of up to 25%, arguing that they are a national security risk. He's due this month to make a decision on the latter.The U.S. also imposed tariffs on $7.5 billion of EU goods, ranging from planes to spirits, after the Trump administration won a longstanding World Trade Organization case involving aircraft subsidies. The EU has pledged to hit back with its own tariffs, risking a further escalation of tensions.(Adds Democratic critics, aircraft tariffs beginning in ninth paragraph)\--With assistance from Shawn Donnan.To contact the reporter on this story: Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Johnson, asked about Trump doubts on Brexit deal, says "UK has full control" Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:01 AM PDT  Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his Brexit deal would give Britain "full control" after it leaves the European Union, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said it might hinder a future trade agreement between the United States and Britain. "On the technicalities of the deal, anybody who looks at it can see that the UK has full control," Johnson told BBC television on Friday when asked about Trump's comments.
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| Lebanese man sentenced to death in 2013 mosque bombing Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:57 AM PDT  A Lebanese court has sentenced a man to death for twin car bombings in 2013 that targeted two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli, killing 47 people, state-run National News agency reported Friday. NNA said the Judicial Council sentenced Youssef Diab to death on Friday. NNA gave no further details regarding the sentence over the near-simultaneous bombings that targeted Sunni mosques in Lebanon's second largest city.
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| Chile climate pullout prompts tears from young activists sailing Atlantic Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PDT  News of Santiago summit's cancellation reportedly came as heavy blow but youngsters decide to push ahead with boat tripAdélaïde Charlier on board the Regina Maris, which is sailing from Amsterdam to Rio. The young campaigners say they are determined to continue their journey. Photograph: Jennifer Rankin/The GuardianChile's decision to withdraw as host of the COP 25 UN climate conference has prompted tears and frustration from a group of school-strike activists sailing across the Atlantic to attend the talks.But the young campaigners say they are determined to continue their journey to hold other civil society meetings in South America, and may only consider charting a new course if the United Nations accepts Spain's offer to act as an emergency host of the summit.The shock announcement by the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, was the latest in a series of setbacks for the 36 young European campaigners on board the Regina Maris sailboat, which left Amsterdam on 2 October.The vessel had to make an unexpected stop in France because of problems with the water purification system. The weather has been rough and several passengers were seasick, including 18-year-old Adelaïde Charlier, a co-organiser with Anuna De Wever of the Youth for Climate movement in Belgium.The Sail to the COP team. Photograph: Sail to the Cop.News of the cancellation of the Santiago summit reportedly came as a heavy blow to the activists, some of whom have also endured online trolling and death threats, during the past year."Quite a number of people started to cry, including Anuna and Adelaide," De Wever's mother, Katrien Van der Heyden, said. "They'd been planning this trip for months and the COP would be the ultimate climax of their trip. Obviously this changes the entire perspective of what they do, and is extremely disappointing."But the group discussed the options and decided to push ahead. "We are continuing our journey to Belém, Brasil today, while our thoughts are with Chile!" they tweeted.> ��UPDATE: We are continuing our journey to Belém, Brasil today, while our thoughts are with Chile! ����From there we can still make it to a COP25 held in Costa Rica or Bonn, most likely options at the moment. ClimateAction is unstoppable! �� pic.twitter.com/DP7u9TYYYh> > — Sail to the COP (@sailtothecop) October 31, 2019"From there we can still make it to a COP25 held in Costa Rica or Bonn, most likely options at the moment. ClimateAction is unstoppable!" They are not the only activists who have sailed the Atlantic to attend the talks and then been left in limbo while the UN attempts to reorganise the event.The Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg is currently in Los Angeles and was due to sail to Chile shortly. On Friday she appealed for a lift back to Europe by sea, tweeting: "It turns out I've traveled half around the world, the wrong way:) Now I need to find a way to cross the Atlantic in November … If anyone could help me find transport I would be so grateful."She continued: "I'm so sorry I'll not be able to visit South and Central America this time, I was so looking forward to this. But this is of course not about me, my experiences or where I wish to travel. We're in a climate and ecological emergency."The British film-maker James Levelle is halfway through a 100-day, 7,000-mile fossil-free journey to Santiago. Supporters say he may not even be aware that the climate summit has been cancelled.Other climate groups are also reeling from the immense financial hit of non-refundable airline tickets and the complications of getting visas to a new venue."We had big plans to bring indigenous representatives and partners to the summit," said Nicole Oliveira, Latin America team leader of 350.org, which planned to bring about 60 people to a climate defenders gathering ahead of the summit, in addition to 16 staff and a dozen other regional partners. The group says the cost of airfares and accommodation could double if the climate conference moves to Spain – which would eat up 10-15% of their budget for the event."What may not mean anything to the large corporations of the fossil fuel industry, to us as non-profit civil society organizations – and even more to the indigenous organizations – can often represent our survival as active agents of change," Oliveira said."We expect now that the climate talks move forward with a new focus on public participation and human rights. For far too long, this process has prioritized the voices of big business and corporate polluters. The UN must kick the fossil fuel industry out of the climate talks and make more space for the voices of the people."
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| Trump's Best British Pal Is Reshaping the Conservative Party Posted: 01 Nov 2019 09:45 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When looked at in terms of current polling or political history, Nigel Farage's British election ultimatum to Boris Johnson looks a bit like a cocky Little League baseball team challenging the World Series-winning Nationals. The Brexit Party leader told the British prime minister on Friday that unless he repudiates his hard-won Brexit deal, he will face Farage candidates in all 650 constituencies around the U.K.Farage might be Donald Trump's Best British Friend (the U.S. president called into his radio show for a 28-minute chinwag on Thursday), but who does he think he is? He has failed seven times to win a seat in Parliament; Johnson is the leader of the most electorally successful U.K. party in modern times. Farage's recently formed party has seen its poll ratings plummet since May's European election; Johnson's Conservatives enjoy a double-digit lead over their closest rivals, Labour. Farage says he wants Brexit; Johnson has actually negotiated a deal and is going to voters with it in hand.Yet to dismiss Farage is to miss the enormous influence he has had on Brexit and indeed the Conservative Party, whether or not he manages to spoil Johnson's election chances on Dec. 12. Trump isn't wrong to see in Farage a kindred spirit who mobilized a force that transformed British politics.It was Farage, then leader of the U.K. Independence Party, whose poll ratings pushed Johnson's predecessor David Cameron into calling the 2016 referendum on European Union membership. Cameron worried that his party would hemorrhage euroskeptic voters to UKIP and wanted to kill the threat. The gamble backfired and Britain's politics, its constitution and the United Kingdom itself, have been turned upside down.Breaking what was an unusual few weeks of silence (unless you count his Fox News interviews), Farage laid out his strategy in central London on Friday. Johnson's deal was "not Brexit" and should be dropped immediately, he said. Instead the prime minister should prepare to leave the EU without a deal and pursue a trade agreement by July 1, 2020 or else adopt World Trade Organization tariff rules. In exchange he suggested a non-aggression pact between the two parties, in which the Brexit Party would restrict itself to contesting about 150 Brexit-voting Labour seats and to not diluting the Tory vote.If Johnson refuses, Farage says his party is "fully funded" and would field candidates everywhere, stepping aside only where a local Conservative publicly denounces Johnson's "appalling surrender treaty." He gave the Tories two weeks to take up the offer.The threat won't exactly have Downing Street's officials quaking in their brogues, but it's not entirely idle either. There are enough three-way constituency races in the U.K. that a Brexit Party candidate could be a spoiler for Johnson by splitting the right-wing vote, as happened in a couple of recent by-elections.Farage's judgment of Johnson's deal might not wash with Leave voters who are tired of Brexit and eager to move on. In a recent YouGov poll, two-thirds of Leave voters thought Parliament should accept Johnson's deal. Only 10% thought lawmakers should reject it. Moreover, Leave voters prefer Johnson's deal to Farage's no deal by 48% to 33%.Still, six weeks is a long time in British politics. If Johnson refuses the pact, as surely he must, Farage says he'll spend the campaign peppering voters with all the reasons why the deal is a betrayal of Brexit. He'll be entitled to airtime under election broadcasting rules, so his campaign could sour opinion on the deal.More important are the fine electoral calculations Johnson needs to make to secure a majority. Because of the almost certain loss of former Tory seats in remain-voting London, Scotland and the southwest of England, he needs to pick up at least 60 seats elsewhere to win a comfortable majority.He is mining for those victories largely in the north of England, the former industrial heartlands of the Labour Party that have swung increasingly toward the kind of hard-right message peddled by Farage. This voter group is comprised largely of "traditional white working class Labour voters who will have much more conservative views on immigration, much more conservative views on law and order, probably much more conservative views on globalization and a multi-ethnic state," noted former Conservative lawmaker Rory Stewart this week on the Talking Politics podcast.This is why Johnson and the Tory party have been forced ever rightward, always aware of the danger of being outflanked by Farage and the need to make up for the loss of moderate remainers. In other words, Johnson's party is having to look a lot like Trump's Republicans, which explains why Conservative "one-nation" heavyweights like former Chancellors of the Exchequer Ken Clarke and Phillip Hammond are no longer welcome.Farage is surely the most important British politician never to have been elected to the national parliament. Even if Johnson sees him off in December, his politics now shape the Conservative Party.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump's Best British Pal Is Reshaping the Conservative Party Posted: 01 Nov 2019 09:45 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When looked at in terms of current polling or political history, Nigel Farage's British election ultimatum to Boris Johnson looks a bit like a cocky Little League baseball team challenging the World Series-winning Nationals. The Brexit Party leader told the British prime minister on Friday that unless he repudiates his hard-won Brexit deal, he will face Farage candidates in all 650 constituencies around the U.K.Farage might be Donald Trump's Best British Friend (the U.S. president called into his radio show for a 28-minute chinwag on Thursday), but who does he think he is? He has failed seven times to win a seat in Parliament; Johnson is the leader of the most electorally successful U.K. party in modern times. Farage's recently formed party has seen its poll ratings plummet since May's European election; Johnson's Conservatives enjoy a double-digit lead over their closest rivals, Labour. Farage says he wants Brexit; Johnson has actually negotiated a deal and is going to voters with it in hand.Yet to dismiss Farage is to miss the enormous influence he has had on Brexit and indeed the Conservative Party, whether or not he manages to spoil Johnson's election chances on Dec. 12. Trump isn't wrong to see in Farage a kindred spirit who mobilized a force that transformed British politics.It was Farage, then leader of the U.K. Independence Party, whose poll ratings pushed Johnson's predecessor David Cameron into calling the 2016 referendum on European Union membership. Cameron worried that his party would hemorrhage euroskeptic voters to UKIP and wanted to kill the threat. The gamble backfired and Britain's politics, its constitution and the United Kingdom itself, have been turned upside down.Breaking what was an unusual few weeks of silence (unless you count his Fox News interviews), Farage laid out his strategy in central London on Friday. Johnson's deal was "not Brexit" and should be dropped immediately, he said. Instead the prime minister should prepare to leave the EU without a deal and pursue a trade agreement by July 1, 2020 or else adopt World Trade Organization tariff rules. In exchange he suggested a non-aggression pact between the two parties, in which the Brexit Party would restrict itself to contesting about 150 Brexit-voting Labour seats and to not diluting the Tory vote.If Johnson refuses, Farage says his party is "fully funded" and would field candidates everywhere, stepping aside only where a local Conservative publicly denounces Johnson's "appalling surrender treaty." He gave the Tories two weeks to take up the offer.The threat won't exactly have Downing Street's officials quaking in their brogues, but it's not entirely idle either. There are enough three-way constituency races in the U.K. that a Brexit Party candidate could be a spoiler for Johnson by splitting the right-wing vote, as happened in a couple of recent by-elections.Farage's judgment of Johnson's deal might not wash with Leave voters who are tired of Brexit and eager to move on. In a recent YouGov poll, two-thirds of Leave voters thought Parliament should accept Johnson's deal. Only 10% thought lawmakers should reject it. Moreover, Leave voters prefer Johnson's deal to Farage's no deal by 48% to 33%.Still, six weeks is a long time in British politics. If Johnson refuses the pact, as surely he must, Farage says he'll spend the campaign peppering voters with all the reasons why the deal is a betrayal of Brexit. He'll be entitled to airtime under election broadcasting rules, so his campaign could sour opinion on the deal.More important are the fine electoral calculations Johnson needs to make to secure a majority. Because of the almost certain loss of former Tory seats in remain-voting London, Scotland and the southwest of England, he needs to pick up at least 60 seats elsewhere to win a comfortable majority.He is mining for those victories largely in the north of England, the former industrial heartlands of the Labour Party that have swung increasingly toward the kind of hard-right message peddled by Farage. This voter group is comprised largely of "traditional white working class Labour voters who will have much more conservative views on immigration, much more conservative views on law and order, probably much more conservative views on globalization and a multi-ethnic state," noted former Conservative lawmaker Rory Stewart this week on the Talking Politics podcast.This is why Johnson and the Tory party have been forced ever rightward, always aware of the danger of being outflanked by Farage and the need to make up for the loss of moderate remainers. In other words, Johnson's party is having to look a lot like Trump's Republicans, which explains why Conservative "one-nation" heavyweights like former Chancellors of the Exchequer Ken Clarke and Phillip Hammond are no longer welcome.Farage is surely the most important British politician never to have been elected to the national parliament. Even if Johnson sees him off in December, his politics now shape the Conservative Party.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| World’s Top Climate Diplomats Will Head to Madrid for UN Talks Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:33 AM PDT ![World's Top Climate Diplomats Will Head to Madrid for UN Talks]( "World's Top Climate Diplomats Will Head to Madrid for UN Talks") (Bloomberg) -- Madrid will host the annual United Nations climate jamboree just a few weeks after Chile pulled out of supplying a venue for the meeting because of widespread public unrest in the country.The United Nations climate change secretariat endorsed Spain's offer to hold the gathering involving more than 15,000 delegates, media and environmentalists starting on Dec. 2. Chile will still chair the two-week conference where some 200 nations are working on a pathway to rein in fossil fuel pollution. The body gave no further details on the re-located event.It's the second time this year UN authorities had to scramble to find a new meeting place. Brazil originally welcomed the gathering then backed out after President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January.Moving the event is a major undertaking. Countries that host it usually spend months putting in place the infrastructure needed for a series of parallel discussions where thousands of diplomats discuss hundreds of pages of text.Climate change has moved to the center of the political agenda in many nations, with wildfires in California this week and freak storms across Europe over the summer highlighting concerns that scientists have voiced for decades.Scuttling the event would have sapped momentum from a movement after millions protested worldwide within the past few weeks and 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg chided world leaders for not acting forcefully enough to save the planet.Chile canceled plans to host the conference as riots continue to erupt over economic inequality. That nation is grappling with the driest decade on record, and the government has taken emergency measures to survive an unprecedented drought.To contact the reporters on this story: Gerson Freitas Jr. in New York at gfreitasjr@bloomberg.net;Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, ;Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Lars PaulssonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 4-Spain to host UN climate talks in December after Chile cancels Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:31 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Spain to host UN climate talks in December after Chile cancels]( "UPDATE 4-Spain to host UN climate talks in December after Chile cancels") WASHINGTON/MADRID, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Spain will host U.N. climate change talks in December after Chile withdrew, the United Nations said on Friday, a last-minute switch which raises big logistical challenges and has left activist Greta Thunberg stranded on the wrong side of the Atlantic. The U.N. climate change talks, known formally as COP25, will be held Dec. 2-13, as originally planned, but in Madrid - over 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) away from Chile's capital Santiago where it was initially meant to take place.
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| Fuel Subsidies Fan the Flames in Latin America Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PDT ![Fuel Subsidies Fan the Flames in Latin America]( "Fuel Subsidies Fan the Flames in Latin America") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As turmoil rumbles across Latin America, energy prices have emerged as a potent flashpoint. Ask Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno, whose government was almost toppled this month by protests against increases in the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel.By now, this script is both tragic and familiar. In recent years, similar stories have played out in Argentina, Mexico and, most visibly, Brazil, where a trucker strike over higher diesel prices in May 2018 gridlocked the economy and forced the government to cave to protesters' demands.The culprit in all these cases was the same: fossil-fuel subsidies, which are widely regarded as wasteful, environmentally harmful and almost entirely ineffective. All too often, efforts to end them have ignored hard-earned experience, leading to avoidable economic disruption and civic unrest.Ecuador offers a case in point. Since the 1970s, it had been subsidizing the price of gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum by up to 85%. Over the past decade, these handouts averaged more than $2 billion a year, equivalent to about 7% of public spending and two-thirds of the country's fiscal deficit.Yet fuel subsidies aren't just expensive. They also distort industrial development, crowd out spending on benefits such as health care and education, and encourage corruption — in Ecuador's case, the illegal diversion of fuel to Colombia, Peru and offshore fishing vessels. By some estimates, the local costs of artificially cheap energy — thanks to global warming, pollution, accidents and road damage — exceed the fiscal burden of the subsidies themselves.Conceivably, such drawbacks might be worth it if these policies were a big help to the poor. But there's little reason to think they are. Most of the benefit, in fact, goes to the better-off. Researchers at the Inter-American Development Bank concluded that it takes nearly $14 in gasoline or diesel subsidies to provide $1 in benefit to the poorest fifth of the population. Compare that with the 2:1 cost-benefit ratio of a simple cash-transfer program. Moreover, countries that get rid of gas and diesel subsidies would need to devote only one-fifth of the resulting savings to compensate the bottom two-fifths of households for higher fuel prices.You can't blame Moreno for trying to end this lose-lose proposition, especially because he was doing so to unlock a badly needed $4.2 billion aid package from the International Monetary Fund. But he moved too quickly, failed to adequately consult indigenous groups that are heavily reliant on rural transport, and neglected to put effective cash-transfer programs in place to cushion the blow on the poorest.That should be a lesson for other Latin American countries struggling with the same dilemma. Unfortunately, even with much lower oil prices since 2014, only a handful of them have made meaningful progress in reducing energy subsidies. There's no doubt that they should be phased out. The key is to ensure that the public understands the benefits first, then to proceed gradually and prudently. One model to consider is Iran's 2010 fuel-subsidy reforms, which were preceded by extensive legislative debate, a big public-awareness campaign, and direct cash deposits that were released before the subsidies were slashed. As a result, the reforms took effect with minimal discontent and fuel consumption soon fell sharply.Of course, a smart phaseout of subsidies won't solve the wide range of challenges besetting Latin America. But it might avoid adding fuel to the fire in nations already simmering with discontent.\--Editors: James Gibney, Timothy Lavin.To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg Opinion's editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net, .Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Fuel Subsidies Fan the Flames in Latin America Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PDT ![Fuel Subsidies Fan the Flames in Latin America]( "Fuel Subsidies Fan the Flames in Latin America") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As turmoil rumbles across Latin America, energy prices have emerged as a potent flashpoint. Ask Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno, whose government was almost toppled this month by protests against increases in the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel.By now, this script is both tragic and familiar. In recent years, similar stories have played out in Argentina, Mexico and, most visibly, Brazil, where a trucker strike over higher diesel prices in May 2018 gridlocked the economy and forced the government to cave to protesters' demands.The culprit in all these cases was the same: fossil-fuel subsidies, which are widely regarded as wasteful, environmentally harmful and almost entirely ineffective. All too often, efforts to end them have ignored hard-earned experience, leading to avoidable economic disruption and civic unrest.Ecuador offers a case in point. Since the 1970s, it had been subsidizing the price of gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum by up to 85%. Over the past decade, these handouts averaged more than $2 billion a year, equivalent to about 7% of public spending and two-thirds of the country's fiscal deficit.Yet fuel subsidies aren't just expensive. They also distort industrial development, crowd out spending on benefits such as health care and education, and encourage corruption — in Ecuador's case, the illegal diversion of fuel to Colombia, Peru and offshore fishing vessels. By some estimates, the local costs of artificially cheap energy — thanks to global warming, pollution, accidents and road damage — exceed the fiscal burden of the subsidies themselves.Conceivably, such drawbacks might be worth it if these policies were a big help to the poor. But there's little reason to think they are. Most of the benefit, in fact, goes to the better-off. Researchers at the Inter-American Development Bank concluded that it takes nearly $14 in gasoline or diesel subsidies to provide $1 in benefit to the poorest fifth of the population. Compare that with the 2:1 cost-benefit ratio of a simple cash-transfer program. Moreover, countries that get rid of gas and diesel subsidies would need to devote only one-fifth of the resulting savings to compensate the bottom two-fifths of households for higher fuel prices.You can't blame Moreno for trying to end this lose-lose proposition, especially because he was doing so to unlock a badly needed $4.2 billion aid package from the International Monetary Fund. But he moved too quickly, failed to adequately consult indigenous groups that are heavily reliant on rural transport, and neglected to put effective cash-transfer programs in place to cushion the blow on the poorest.That should be a lesson for other Latin American countries struggling with the same dilemma. Unfortunately, even with much lower oil prices since 2014, only a handful of them have made meaningful progress in reducing energy subsidies. There's no doubt that they should be phased out. The key is to ensure that the public understands the benefits first, then to proceed gradually and prudently. One model to consider is Iran's 2010 fuel-subsidy reforms, which were preceded by extensive legislative debate, a big public-awareness campaign, and direct cash deposits that were released before the subsidies were slashed. As a result, the reforms took effect with minimal discontent and fuel consumption soon fell sharply.Of course, a smart phaseout of subsidies won't solve the wide range of challenges besetting Latin America. But it might avoid adding fuel to the fire in nations already simmering with discontent.\--Editors: James Gibney, Timothy Lavin.To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg Opinion's editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net, .Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mystery Oil Spill in Brazil Could Have Been Caused by Greek Ship Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:49 AM PDT ![Mystery Oil Spill in Brazil Could Have Been Caused by Greek Ship]( "Mystery Oil Spill in Brazil Could Have Been Caused by Greek Ship") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.A Greek ship is being implicated by Brazilian authorities as part of a probe into a mysterious oil spill in the Latin American country.More information is being sought about the merchant vessel that may have been the source of the oil leak, according to statements from the police and federal prosecutor's office. The ship, which wasn't named, docked in Venezuela on July 15, stayed for three days, and headed for Singapore by crossing the Atlantic Ocean, according to the authorities.Oil began washing up on Brazil's pristine northeast coastline in early September, with the crude tainting popular beaches, killing sea turtles and scaring off fishermen. It's putting the country back in the spotlight for environmental disasters. A surge in fires in the Amazon rainforest in August sparked an international backlash against President Jair Bolsonaro, a social conservative who supports developing natural resources in the region.The spill allegedly occurred during the ship's journey between July 28 and 29, when only one oil tanker was observed navigating through international waters about 700 kilometers (435 miles) off the Brazilian coast, the authorities said. While the vessel appears to be linked to a Greek company, it's unknown who owned the oil that was being transported, they said.Federal police acted on search warrants issued by a judge in Rio Grande do Norte state, according to the statements. Brazilian authorities have requested cooperation from other countries through the Interpol system, the federal police said, to obtain additional data on the vessel, ship crew and the company responsible for the oil.The federal police is on its way to fully "clarify this terrible environmental crime," Brazil Justice Minister Sergio Moro said in a twitter post.\--With assistance from Ney Hayashi.To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Pratish Narayanan, Millie MunshiFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Green New Deal Supporter Spain Steps In To Host Climate Summit Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:36 AM PDT  The European country offered to host the U.N. conference in Madrid after Chile abruptly pulled out amid fiery protests this week.
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| Pakistani Islamists camp out in Islamabad, urge PM to quit Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:22 AM PDT  Leading a caravan of hundreds of cars and buses was Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party. Rehman and his supporters entered Islamabad at about midnight Thursday. Chanting slogans for change and waving party flags, they camped out at an open area allocated for them by the government amid tight security.
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| Joint Turkish and Russian patrols begin in Syrian region Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:01 AM PDT  Turkey and Russia launched joint patrols Friday in northeastern Syria, under a deal that halted a Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who were forced to withdraw from the border area following Ankara's incursion. The Turkish Defense Ministry said an initial patrol covered an area 87 kilometers (54 miles) long and 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep in the al-Darbasiyah region, assisted by drones. The Russian Defense Ministry said the joint patrol included nine military vehicles, including a Russian armored personnel carrier.
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| Lebanon court sentences man to death in UK woman's death Posted: 01 Nov 2019 06:57 AM PDT ![Lebanon court sentences man to death in UK woman's death]( "Lebanon court sentences man to death in UK woman's death") Lebanon's national news agency says a criminal court has sentenced a man to death in the case of a British woman who was raped and killed in Beirut nearly two years ago. The National News Agency said Tarek Houshi, a local Uber driver, was sentenced Friday in the death of Rebecca Dykes. Dykes worked at the U.K. Embassy with the Department for International Development.
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| U.S.-China trade deal in sight after progress in high-level talks Posted: 01 Nov 2019 06:57 AM PDT  The United States and China on Friday said they made progress in talks aimed at defusing a nearly 16-month-long trade war that has harmed the global economy, and U.S. officials said a deal could be signed this month. The Chinese Commerce Ministry on Friday said the world's two largest economies had reached "consensus on principles" during a "serious and constructive" telephone call between their main trade negotiators. U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped to sign an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a U.S. location, perhaps in the farming state of Iowa, which will be a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.
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| Bashar al-Assad says Syrian regime to take back all Kurdish held areas in new interview Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:33 AM PDT  Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has said he will eventually reclaim all Kurdish-held areas of the country, dashing the minority's hope of independence. The Kurds last month agreed a deal with the Damascus government that saw the army return for the first time since the early days of the civil war, after the US announced the withdrawal of its troops. The US retreat left Kurdish allies without international protection against a Turkish offensive, forcing them to strike an agreement with the Assad regime that allowed it to take up positions along the border. But Assad indicated in an interview broadcast on state TV on Thursday that the agreement with the Kurds, who set up an autonomous administration in north-east Syria that came to cover nearly a third of the country, was not just a military one. "The deployment of the Syrian army is an expression of the presence of the Syrian state, which means the presence of all the services which should be provided by the state," he said. Turkish soldiers patrol the northern Syrian Kurdish-held town of Tal Abyad, on the border between Syria and Turkey Credit: AFP Assad conceded that the regime's return would be "gradual and rational" and that "new facts on the ground" would have to be taken into consideration. "There are armed groups and we cannot expect they would hand over weapons immediately, but the final goal is to return to the previous situation, which is the complete control of the state," he said. The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have for years been supported by the US in the fight against Islamic State, receiving funding and weapons. As part of the ceasefire agreement Russia negotiated with Turkey the SDF would lay down their arms and retreat 20 miles back from the border. Displaced people, fleeing from the countryside of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Ras al-Ayn along the border with Turkey, ride a motorcycle together along a road on the outskirts of the nearby town of Tal Tamr Credit: AFP Assad said that the deal was a "positive" step that would help his government achieve its goal. "It might not achieve everything... it paves the road to liberate this area in the near future we hope," said Assad, who has remained in power in Damascus with the help of powerful backers Russia and Iran. Mazloum Kobani, commander of the SDF, has said the agreement with Damascus could open the way for a political solution to be worked out later with the government, that could guarantee Kurdish rights in Syria. The Kurds have entered into talks with the regime on several occasions over the years. It has previously refused concessions, including the recognition of the Kurdish language and identity, which had been denied under the Assad family's Arab nationalist policies. Sources close to the government indicate that it may be willing to budge on some Kurdish demands, including a guarantee of their rights in the new Syrian constitution, though it will be fall well short of autonomy. Experts say the fall of Kurdish-held territory back to the regime has become all-but certain. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (C-R) meeting with Syrian army personnel on frontlines of al-Habit town in Idlib countryside, Syria Credit: Sana "For now the government has respected the agreement and the Kurdish presence, but once the Turkish threat is over, it will revert to its old-age way of dealing with domestic issues, Danni Makki, an independent Syria analyst in Damascus told The Telegraph. "This means autonomy for the Kurds in northern Syria is essentially finished." Aron Lund, fellow with The Century Foundation, said "the SDF bubble has burst": "Sooner or later, Kurdish-held cities in the northeastern interior are going to fall under his sway again. That means agriculture, hydroelectric dams, borders," he predicted. The future of lucrative oil fields currently under SDF control in the east is uncertain, however. While they would be a major boon for the government, which has had to rely on Tehran for much of its oil in recent years, the US sent several hundred troops back into Syria last week to guard them. Assad said he respected President Donald Trump's "transparency" in his bid for oil in the Middle East, a quality lacking in his predecessors, he claimed. "He is the best American president, not because his policies are good, but because he is the most transparent president," he said. "All American presidents ... project themselves as defenders of human rights and noble and unique American values. The reality is that they are a group of criminals who represent the interests of American lobbies, i.e. the large oil and arms companies, and others."
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| Britain's Peel Ports sees Brexit boost as shippers divert cargo Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:27 AM PDT  Cargo shippers are diverting goods to more ports across Britain to ensure stable supply lines due to uncertainty over whether the UK will leave the European Union without an agreement, a top port executive said. Brexit has been delayed for a third time, until the end of January, and Britain is headed for a snap general election in December designed to break the impasse. The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier this week said there was still a risk that Britain could exit the bloc chaotically with no divorce agreement.
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| UPDATE 1-Phase one trade deal with China is in good shape -U.S. Commerce Secretary Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PDT  The initial "phase one" trade pact with China appears to be in good shape and is likely to be signed around mid-November, although a finite date is still in question, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday. "We're pretty comfortable that the phase one is in good shape," he told Fox Business Network in an interview. U.S. President Donald Trump and other administration officials had looked toward the Nov. 11-17 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit as a possible venue to sign the deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping before Chile this week canceled its plan to host the international summit.
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| Survivors of 2015 Paris attacks publish open letter calling on France to take action on Isil in Syria Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:11 AM PDT  Survivors of the 2015 Paris attacks on Friday urged France and other countries to stop Western jihadists escaping from prisons in Syria to perpetrate new atrocities following the US withdrawal. In an open letter published in Le Parisien newspaper two weeks before the fourth anniversary of the attacks that killed 130 people, a group of 44 survivors appealed to France and other western nations not to abandon the Kurds who fought against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Most French and other western jihadists were held in a short-lived Kurdish enclave protected by US troops and air power. "Passivity is now allowing hundreds of terrorists to escape, including, we fear, the most dangerous French jihadists," the letter read. "How much time will it take before they strike again? All those years of battles and dogged efforts to combat terrorism are now being placed in jeopardy." Read more | Syria crisis The governments of President Emmanuel Macron and his predecessor François Hollande have tried to wash their hands of French nationals captured in Syria, but pressure is increasing to take them back to face justice in France in the wake of the US pullout. Some have been transferred to prisons in Iraq. The fate of French jihadists is a political minefield for Mr Macron. There is little popular enthusiasm to swell the ranks of the hundreds of jihadists already in French prisons. The French Right and far-Right have called for those in Syria and Iraq to be stripped of their French citizenship. Isil claimed the Paris attacks, which were planned in Syria. Most of the attackers had French citizenship and two were Iraqis. Some had fought in Syria and entered Europe amid an influx of migrants and refugees. The survivors' group spoke out a day after Donald Trump said that "it isn't fair" that the British government has not taken back British jihadists captured by the US. In an LBC radio interview with Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader, Mr Trump said: "We offered to give the ones from UK back to UK and they don't want them." Mr Trump said he made the same offer to France and Germany but they also failed to respond.
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| UPDATE 1-UK manufacturing decline slows after new Brexit stockpiling rush -PMI Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:09 AM PDT A renewed rush to stockpile ahead of another aborted Brexit deadline limited losses for British manufacturers last month, though not by enough to prevent a sixth month of contraction, a survey showed on Friday. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 49.6 from 48.3 in September, its highest level since April and topping all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists that had pointed to a reading of 48.1. October's PMI was flattered by manufacturers building stocks ahead of the Oct. 31 date for Brexit that was superseded this week by a Jan. 31 deadline, survey compiler IHS Markit said.
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| Phase one trade deal with China is in good shape: U.S. Commerce Secretary Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:54 AM PDT  The initial "phase one" trade pact with China appears to be in good shape and is likely to be signed around mid-November, although a finite date is still in question, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday. "We're pretty comfortable that the phase one is in good shape," he told Fox Business Network in an interview. U.S. President Donald Trump and other administration officials had looked toward the Nov. 11-17 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit as a possible venue to sign the deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping before Chile this week canceled its plan to host the international summit.
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| UPDATE 1-Brexit Party tells Johnson: drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:46 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Brexit Party tells Johnson: drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat]( "UPDATE 1-Brexit Party tells Johnson: drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat") Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday that he must drop the Brexit deal he struck with the EU and agree to a leave alliance for the Dec. 12 election or face a fight over every seat in Britain. Farage, who as UKIP leader pushed then-Prime Minister David Cameron to call the Brexit referendum and then helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, said on Friday Johnson had until Nov. 14 to agree to his demands. If the government doesn't agree "then the Brexit Party will be the only party standing in these elections that actually represents Brexit," Farage told reporters in London.
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| Maskless Merkel braves severe Delhi smog Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:35 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a toxic welcome to India on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed her in air so polluted that authorities declared a public health emergency. Ignoring medical advice to the choking megacity's 20 million inhabitants, the pair did not wear pollution masks as they inspected troops at the presidential palace in New Delhi.
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| Brexit Party tells PM Johnson drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:18 AM PDT ![Brexit Party tells PM Johnson drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat]( "Brexit Party tells PM Johnson drop Brexit deal or we contest every seat") Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson he must drop his Brexit deal or he will put up candidates in every seat in Britain in the upcoming general election. Farage, who as UKIP leader pushed then-Prime Minister David Cameron to call the Brexit referendum and then helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, said on Friday Johnson had until Nov. 14 to agree to his demands. If the government doesn't agree "then the Brexit Party will be the only party standing in these elections that actually represents Brexit," Farage told reporters in London.
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| The daily business briefing: November 1, 2019 Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:13 AM PDT ![The daily business briefing: November 1, 2019]( "The daily business briefing: November 1, 2019") 1.Federal prosecutors charged a 12th United Auto Workers official with alleged corruption Thursday. The union official, Edward Robinson, was accused of conspiring with colleagues to embezzle more than $1.5 million in union money to fuel "lavish lifestyles," and to defraud the U.S., both felonies punishable with up to five years in prison. The alleged crimes occurred between 2010 and this year. Robinson led a union community action program council where UAW President Gary Jones served as director. Investigators in the widening corruption scandal raided the homes of Jones and his predecessor, Dennis Williams, in August. [CNBC] 2.Tobacco giant Altria Group said Thursday that it had taken a major hit from its investment in e-cigarette maker Juul Labs due to the recent backlash over vaping problems. Marlboro-maker Altria, which invested $12.8 billion in Juul in December 2018, said it was devaluing its 35 percent stake in the company by $4.5 billion. Altria said the move reflected the "increased likelihood" that the Food and Drug Administration would "remove flavored e-vapor products from the market." Juul has struggled in the last year as it was targeted in new federal and state investigations into how its marketing practices affected the sharp rise of vaping by teenagers. Also, state and local authorities have issued vaping bans due to an outbreak of lung injuries and deaths linked to vaping-product use. [The New York Times, The Associated Press] 3.The Labor Department releases its monthly employment report on Friday, and economists expect it to show that job growth slowed sharply. The 40-day General Motors strike by United Auto Workers members hurt the October job numbers, but hiring already was slowing. The unemployment rate is expected to inch up from 3.5 percent, near a 50-year low. Due to the affect of the GM strike, however, economists warn that it will be difficult to see from the data how strong the labor market is and how hiring is affecting consumers. "There is going to be more noise than signal in this employment report because of the GM strike," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics. [Reuters] 4.The former chief of staff of ousted WeWork co-founder and leader Adam Neumann filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday accusing Neumann of pregnancy discrimination. The ex-employee, Medina Bardhi, said Neumann and other WeWork officials subjected her to a pattern of unfair treatment and derision. She said Neumann used words like "vacation" and "retirement" to refer to her maternity leave. Another top WeWork official allegedly told Bardhi, "Wow, you're getting big," in front of another colleague. Bardhi also said in the complaint that Neumann smoked marijuana on a corporate jet, leaving her and others to inhale second-hand smoke, and that women at the company made significantly less than male counterparts. [The New York Times, Gizmodo] 5.U.S. stock index futures struggled early Friday after Wall Street closed down on Thursday due to renewed concern over the prospects of a U.S.-China trade deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed with more slight losses. The losses came after a published report raised doubts about a trade deal, even though President Trump said the two sides were working on finding a location for a meeting where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping could sign "phase one" of a deal to tone down their trade war. "It's mainly the concerns about whether there will be some kind of trade deal with China, both the first round and the bigger agreement that, obviously, appears further away," said Kate Warne, chief investment strategist at Edward Jones. [The Associated Press]
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| 40 years on, Iranians recall 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:11 AM PDT  For those who were there, the memories are still fresh, 40 years after one of the defining events of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, when protesters seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and set off a 444-day hostage crisis. Veteran Iranian photographer Kaveh Kazemi recalled snapping away with his camera as he stood behind the gate where the Iranian militant students would usher blindfolded American hostages to those gathered outside waving anti-American banners and calling for the extradition of the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Anger toward America had already been growing throughout 1979 as Iran's revolutionary government took hold, but it boiled over in October when the United States took in the ailing shah for medical treatment.
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| Top Cleric Says Iraqis Alone Have Right to Choose Their Rulers Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:04 AM PDT ![Top Cleric Says Iraqis Alone Have Right to Choose Their Rulers]( "Top Cleric Says Iraqis Alone Have Right to Choose Their Rulers") (Bloomberg) -- Iraq's most senior Shiite cleric condemned the response to a wave of anti-government protests that have left more than 200 people dead and warned regional countries not to seek to override the wishes of Iraqis, an apparent reference to Iran's substantial political power in its neighbor.In his weekly Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said combat forces shouldn't be deployed to confront demonstrations as their presence would only fuel violence, according to his representative Ahmed al-Safi. He also said the authorities must carry out reforms, adding that "no international or regional party" can override the people's sovereign will.Under current law, Iraqis have a right to a "referendum on the constitution and periodic elections" to change how they are governed, Al-Sistani said.The protests over unemployment, government corruption and a lack of basic services have been the biggest test to confront the premiership of Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who has offered to resign once a successor has been agreed by a deeply divided parliament. The country's president on Thursday signaled he would push for a new election law and an early parliamentary ballot but sectarian bickering could enforce a prolonged delay.The turmoil in Iraq, along with sustained rallies that removed the prime minister of Lebanon, pose a particular challenge to Shiite-majority Iran, which will want to protect the significant sway it holds over politics in both countries.Abdul-Mahdi, a former finance minister, was picked by rival Shiite Muslim groups as a consensus candidate following parliamentary elections in 2018, but has struggled to form a strong government and start the nation's recovery from a devastating war with Islamic State jihadists.He vowed to create jobs for university graduates and said all contracts with foreign companies would stipulate that 50% of jobs should go to Iraqis. The pledges were not enough to calm protesters, and he was criticized by Al-Sistani for failing to answer the people's needs.To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Caroline AlexanderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| No time left to extend key US-Russia arms treaty: diplomat Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:40 AM PDT ![No time left to extend key US-Russia arms treaty: diplomat]( "No time left to extend key US-Russia arms treaty: diplomat") A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow and Washington are running out of time to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty. Vladimir Leontyev, deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's arms control department, said Friday that "it's clear that we won't be able to produce a full-fledged replacement" to the New START treaty that expires in 2021. Leontyev said Russia's prospective Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile and Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle fall under the pact, but other new weapons announced by President Vladimir Putin don't, including the Poseidon nuclear-armed underwater drone, the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
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| China's top leadership will not tolerate change to 'one country two systems', official says Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:34 AM PDT  China won't tolerate challenges to the bottom line of the "one country, two systems" formula that governs Hong Kong, separatism or threats to national security there, a senior Chinese official said on Friday after a meeting of the top leadership. The past five-months of anti-government protests in the former British colony represents the biggest popular challenge to President Xi Jinping's government since he took over the leadership in late 2012. On Thursday, the party vowed to ensure Hong Kong's stability, following a closed-door, four-day meeting of the ruling Communist Party's senior leaders in Beijing, signalling its importance to the stability-obsessed party. What started as opposition to a now-withdrawn extradition bill has grown into a pro-democracy movement against what is seen as Beijing's tightening grip on the Asian financial hub, which protesters say undermines a "one country, two systems" formula promised when Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997, guaranteeing freedoms not found in mainland China. Speaking to reporters on the outcomes of that plenum, parliament official Shen Chunyao said Hong Kong was "of course" an important topic at the meeting, which gathers together some 370 officials, from Xi on down. The plenum stressed that "one country" is the foundation for "two systems", and the party will support the governments of the Special Administrative Regions - which also include Macau - to strengthen their law enforcement efforts, said Shen, head of the Basic Law Committee of the parliament's standing committee. Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, ending 156 years of British rule Credit: Jason Reed REUTERS The Basic Law is Hong Kong's mini-constitution which governs its relations with Beijing. Hong Kong and Macau society, especially civil servants and young people, must improve their "patriotic spirit" and knowledge of China's history and culture, Shen added. "In short, we will further improve the central government's system of exercising full administrative power over the Special Administrative Regions in accordance with the constitution and the Basic Law," he said. The party will "firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, safeguard the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau, and will not tolerate any challenges to the bottom line of 'one country, two systems'", Shen said. The party "will not tolerate any act of splitting the country or endangering national security, and resolutely prevent and contain external forces from interfering in Hong Kong and Macau affairs and carrying out separatist, subversive, infiltration or destructive activities". He gave no details of any specific policy steps Beijing might take. China denies meddling in Hong Kong and has accused foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, of stirring up trouble. China has also quietly more than doubled its deployment of mainland security forces in Hong Kong, according to foreign envoys and security analysts, in a dramatic move by Beijing to prepare for a potential worsening of the unrest.
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| Foreign actors must not 'impose will' on protests: top Iraq cleric Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:26 AM PDT  Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned foreign actors on Friday against interfering in anti-government protests that erupted early last month and urged political factions to avoid "infighting". "No person or group, no side with a particular view, no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them," Sistani said in his weekly sermon read by a representative in the Shiite holy city of Karbala. It comes after comments by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday in which he urged protesters in both Iraq and Lebanon to pursue their demands through "legal frameworks".
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| The Latest: Denmark says more Britons seek citizenship Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:17 AM PDT  Denmark's immigration minister says the number of British citizens seeking Danish citizenship has more than tripled compared with 2017, the year after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Mattias Tesfaye says that, so far in 2019, 489 British citizens have applied to obtain dual nationality. Tesfaye says he believes "the increase is due to Brexit." The 489 Britons are among a total of 3,566 foreigners who have sought naturalization in Denmark so far this year.
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| Democrats Take a 2020 Gamble on Impeachment Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:10 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.A year from the 2020 election, Democrats have gone all in on impeaching Donald Trump — with no certainty of whether the effort will help or hurt their bid to woo voters.The new, soon-to-be-public phase of the House inquiry that Speaker Nancy Pelsoi launched yesterday has no explicit timetable, no defined scope and no indication the White House will cooperate. Not a single Republican backed it.In many ways, Pelosi is taking Congress and the country into the exact politically perilous place she long sought to avoid, Steven T. Dennis and Billy House write.With only the slimmest majority of public support in polls, many Democrats are nervous, knowing voters will hold them to account for whatever happens between now and then.Much will hinge on whether Trump can maintain the enthusiasm of his base and the backing of more moderate Republicans and independents. The president will road-test his response at a rally today in Mississippi, a conservative stronghold.It's not just the White House in play next year. The Senate and House majorities potentially are too. If public sentiment shifts over the inquiry, the lack of Republican defections from Trump so far could return to haunt some party lawmakers next Nov. 3.For both parties, the stakes are high.Global HeadlinesBrexit fallout | The U.K.'s third election in five years is promising the most radical shakeup of Britain's economy in decades. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives want a divorce agreement they say will open an era of free trade and self regulation. But that runs the risk of shrinking growth.Trump said Johnson's Brexit deal — if approved after the election — will make it difficult for the U.K. to strike a trade pact with Washington after its exit from the European Union.Missile threat | North Korea test-launched another volley of what appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles, in a show of firepower that reminded the U.S. of Kim Jong Un's threat to walk away from nuclear talks in the new year. Pyongyang has fired at least 20 missiles since breaking a testing-freeze in May, with experts saying the effort is aimed at improving its capability to deliver nuclear warheads to all of South Korea and parts of Japan.Mixed signals | Trump will pass on an opportunity to meet with Asian leaders at a major summit in Bangkok this weekend, raising questions about the U.S.'s strategy in a region. The lack of a high-profile U.S. delegation at the Asean meeting comes at a time when the Trump administration has pledged to thrash out a trade deal with China.Weighing in | As protests rage in Hong Kong against China's increased grip over the city, Beijing signaled it would intervene more in everything from education to the selection of the city's top leader. The Communist Party made a series of broad but vaguely worded commitments to wade into some of the former British colony's most divisive issues. Opposition lawmakers saw the makings of a crackdown.Islamic State creep | Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is dead, but his followers are expanding across remote patches of Africa. In the arid band on the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert that stretches through some of Africa's poorest and least-governed countries, they're launching attacks against government forces, while the movement said yesterday it named a "new caliph:" Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurashi.What to Watch:The Democratic presidential field will descend on Des Moines today for the last big party gathering in the state, where in fewer than 100 days caucus-goers will have an outsize say in deciding who the nominee will be.Spain has offered to host the world's largest climate summit after Chile canceled it in the face of widespread riots. The invitation may save the event, slated for next month.Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has agreed to resign, and the country's president vowed to move toward new elections after violent protests killed at least 200 people.Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, has changed his primary residence to Florida, a move that could benefit his re-election campaign — and his tax bill.Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). Trump's White House once explored whether the U.S. could cut off taxpayer funding for a network of charter schools affiliated with a political opponent of which world leader? Send us your answers and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally … Vladimir Putin was a "prompt, disciplined and conscientious" spy who was "morally upstanding," according to a declassified KGB profile of the Russian president displayed at St. Petersburg's state archive. "Comrade V.V. Putin constantly improves his ideological and political standards." The report shows Putin, who served in the Soviet Union's feared security service from 1975 to 1991, did not stand out, according to one former KGB general. "Usually we wrote 'morally upstanding' when there was nothing else to say," he said. \--With assistance from Daniel Ten Kate and Philip Heijmans.To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Winfrey at mwinfrey@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-JacksonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UK manufacturing decline slows after new Brexit stockpiling rush -PMI Posted: 01 Nov 2019 02:32 AM PDT A renewed rush to stockpile ahead of another aborted Brexit deadline limited losses for British manufacturers last month, though not by enough to prevent a sixth month of contraction, a survey showed on Friday. October's PMI was flattered by manufacturers building stocks ahead of the Oct. 31 date for Brexit that was superseded this week by a Jan. 31 deadline, survey compiler IHS Markit said. Britain will also hold an early national election on Dec. 12 as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to break the Brexit deadlock.
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| Hong Kong Policeman Who Fired His Gun Now Faces Death Threats Posted: 01 Nov 2019 02:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Surrounded by Hong Kong protesters who were using weapons to attack him and other frontline police officers, Jacky got scared.For hours, his unit had clashed with demonstrators in running street battles that became increasingly violent. They had already used non-lethal weapons like sponge-tipped bullets, bean bag rounds, pepper spray and tear gas, but nothing managed to disperse the crowd.So Jacky took out his gun and fired a live round."It was the first time I felt that way -- not that I would necessarily die, but that something was going to happen to me and my unit," he said, speaking to a news outlet for the first time since the incident. "It's the thing I had to do at that moment."For Jacky, however, the danger didn't end. Protesters upset about widespread allegations of police brutality quickly identified him and posted personal details of his family online. Two days after the incident, the calls started flooding in. Some people threatened to rape his wife and young daughter, while others said his whole family should die."Do you feel heroic?" one person asked. Others simply cursed at him. He switched off his phone after a day, but then the emails came in droves. Some were death threats: One message online offered a HK$500,000 ($64,000) bounty to kill him.Jacky quickly moved out of the police quarters where he was staying and into a secure location. He didn't leave the room for three weeks afterward, he said. But for him, what happened to his daughter was even worse: Shortly after he pulled her from school, her desk was painted black and vandalized. She hasn't been able to return."I don't regret having to save my colleagues, but regret that it ended up having an effect on my daughter," Jacky said, adding that the psychological pain of the personal attacks after his information was leaked was far worse than battles with protesters involving Molotov cocktails, bricks and corrosive acid. "I don't know how our society has come to this."Jacky is currently on leave and police are investigating the shot, as they do anytime an officer fires a weapon. He asked for his full name not to be identified and for specific details of the shooting incident to be excluded in order to protect his identity. He spoke earlier this week in a 90-minute interview at police headquarters.Since protests began in June against China's increasing grip over the city, Hong Kong's once-respected police force has found itself caught between a Beijing-backed government that doesn't want to give into demands for more democracy and demonstrators who are resorting to increasingly violent tactics to spur change. The unrest, which has plunged the city's economy into recession, has shown no signs of ending anytime soon.As the protests drag on, police have come under fire for increasingly aggressive tactics -- many of which were caught on video by hundreds of journalists and protesters with smartphones. Officers have faced criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.S. lawmakers and Amnesty International, which accused the force of abusing detained protesters with what amounted to "torture." Protesters also reported sexual assaults in detention centers that police have vowed to investigate.While nobody has been killed so far on the front lines of the protests, several incidents of live fire have left protesters seriously injured. Police so far have justified the use of live ammunition in cases where officers were under direct attack.Beyond the physical violence, protesters and police alike have been victims of "doxxing," when personal information is maliciously leaked online. In August, former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying promoted a website offering cash bounties to identify demonstrators. The following month, a Weibo account of China's state-owned CCTV accompanied its post about a doxxing website with a call to "unmask" protesters.A protester who goes by the name Mas said his name, birthday, social media accounts and phone number were disclosed without consent last month shortly after he was detained at an Oct. 6 protest."Luckily, they didn't disclose my address," said Mas, who asked not to have his full name disclosed to protect his identity. "The only worry for me is about harassing my family members."Hong Kong's privacy commissioner said roughly one-third of the 3,525 doxxing complaints and cases handled by its office were related to police or their families. At least 11 people have been arrested in relation to doxxing police officers, which can lead to charges of disclosing personal information without consent, incitement or access to a computer with dishonest or criminal intent. No arrests have been for doxxing protesters."It's a very powerful psychological weapon," said Superintendent Mohammed Swalikh of the Hong Kong Police Force's Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, who has also been doxxed. "People get radicalized online. You get behind and you start doing things that are difficult to do in the real world. It's like getting behind a mask. People start spreading it and it goes very quickly and widely."Doxxing concerns prompted riot police to stop wearing ID badges months ago, because they allowed protesters to discover their personal identity. The anonymity of police donning masks and swinging batons fueled outrage among protesters over a lack of transparency. The police introduced a new version of badges last week that are only identifiable within the police force based on rank, and can be used for hashing out complaints by the public.Because the leaderless protest movement has been organized through internet forums and encrypted messaging platforms, where some of the personal information has been leaked, authorities have sought to shut down some of these online venues.The High Court granted an interim injunction on Oct. 25 to protect police from doxxing by banning the publication of their personal information, raising concerns that the issue may be used to censor the Internet. A week later, a court granted a temporary injunction to block messages inciting violence on Telegram and LIHKG, two popular online platforms among protesters.Legislator Elizabeth Quat plans to raise a question in the Legislative Council on Nov. 6 to urge the government to enact legislation to combat "messages on the Internet which are fake and jeopardize public safety," legislative documents show. Beijing's allies are seeking to censor platforms used by protesters to communicate, lawmaker Charles Mok said by email."They may be thinking about screening of content as well as filtering of websites," he said. "That will effectively bring the Great Firewall to Hong Kong. Doxxing of police will of course be their convenient excuse."For officers like Jacky, the situation between police and the public has gotten persistently worse. On June 9, when the protests started, he could hear protesters swearing at some of his officers."That night, I still thought our job as police was to facilitate these protests," he said, noting that he was struck by how young some of the protesters were. "I was asking them to leave. 'Why don't you go home? Do your parents know where you are?'"As the government refused to withdraw a bill allowing extraditions to China, the police found themselves acting as the de facto public face of Chief Executive Carrie Lam's administration. Soon protesters began to throw bricks, Molotov cocktails and other projectiles at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas, rubber bullets, bean-bag rounds and water cannons. At one point, Jacky found himself working 34 hours straight.Asked about demonstrators' key demands, including an independent inquiry into the violence and police abuse, Jacky said he didn't mind one as long as it didn't focus solely on officers. He cited a commission of inquiry into the deadly 2012 collision of ferries off the city's Lamma Island as an example of a report that could offer recommendations to prevent a recurrence of the incident."It's reasonable to have an independent inquiry," he said, while adding that "the scope of the inquiry has to be broad."Expressing a sentiment shared by many officers, Jacky said politicians could've done a better job handling the issues that have inflamed the protests. And despite getting doxxed and attacked to the point where he fired his gun, he still advocates restraint while out on the streets."I have to constantly remind my junior officers that they may be shouting at you, but technically they're not shouting at you," Jacky said. "They're actually shouting and expressing their anger at the government."\--With assistance from Josie Wong and Justin Chin.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Blake Schmidt in Hong Kong at bschmidt16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Daniel Ten Kate, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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