| Iran rejects US order to pay $180 mn over reporter's jailing Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:12 PM PST  Iran on Monday rejected a US court order for Tehran to pay $180 million in damages to a Washington Post reporter for jailing him on espionage charges. Jason Rezaian spent 544 days in an Iranian prison before he was released in January 2016 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States. On Friday, a US district court judge ordered damages be paid to Rezaian and his family in compensation for pain and suffering as well as economic losses.
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| Labour, Tories Dig up Old Attack Lines in Bid for U.K. Power Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are tapping messages from past campaigns to boost their chances of victory in the U.K.'s Dec. 12 election.Johnson's Conservatives on Tuesday said that Corbyn's Labour, allied with the Scottish National Party, could end up spending 150 million pounds ($194 million) and the whole of 2020 on fresh referendums on Scottish independence and the U.K.'s European Union membership.Labour, meanwhile, unveiled a pledge card for pensioners including a 10.8 billion-pound package for social care, and said the Tories couldn't be trusted to look after the elderly.At stake is the future direction of the U.K., with the two parties outlining vastly different visions. Labour's platform involves six pounds of new spending for every one promised by the Tories and includes nationalizing broadband, the Royal Mail, the railways and energy and water utilities. Labour would also seek a new Brexit agreement that keeps Britain more closely tied to the EU than Johnson's deal, with the prospect kept open of canceling the divorce altogether in a second referendum.Most polls give the Conservatives a double-digit lead, enough to win an outright majority. But U.K. electoral polls in recent years have proven unreliable, and with more than two weeks left of the campaign, there's everything to fight for.'Coalition of Chaos'The Tories are reviving the message of 2015 by underlining the threat posed by a possible alliance between Labour and Nicola Sturgeon's SNP. Then, Tory warnings of a "coalition of chaos" between Sturgeon and Corbyn's predecessor, Ed Miliband helped David Cameron to win a surprise majority."A majority Conservative government would get Brexit done," Johnson said in a statement. "The alternative is Jeremy Corbyn, a man who can't even make up his mind on Brexit, submitting to a pact with Nicola Sturgeon, and we already know what terms she will demand - another divisive referendum on Scottish independence alongside a second vote on Brexit."Corbyn, for his part, is tapping memories of the 2017 campaign when Labour branded then Prime Minister Theresa May's social care plan a "dementia tax." It ended up helping derail her campaign as she lost her majority in the House of Commons.When her successor unveiled the party's manifesto on Sunday, there was no detailed plan on social care but rather a pledge to seek cross-party consensus. The Tories also promised to maintain an extra billion pounds of annual spending already announced for next year for the following four years."The scandalous state of the care system is perhaps the biggest crisis facing our country," Labour's finance spokesman, John McDonnell, said in a statement. "Labour's new pledge card sets out our offer to restore dignity and proper support for older people after being abandoned by the Conservatives."As well as the additional spending on social care, Labour said on its pledge card late on Monday that it would restore 3,000 bus routes, retain free TV licenses and bus passes for pensioners, compensate 3.7 million women for changes to their pensionable age, invest in insulation for homes and protect mine workers' pension plans.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Edward Johnson, Tony JordanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russia is Going to Transfer Unique Construction Technologies to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Following President Vladimir Putin's Visit Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:00 PM PST  This Fall, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Saudi Arabia on a State visit. Following negotiations between President Putin and the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin AbdulAziz Al Saud, over 20 documents were signed, including a Russia-Saudi high-level strategic cooperation program.
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| Citizen diplomacy spreads the best ideas America has to offer around the world | Opinion Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:21 PM PST  Whether it be in Venezuela, Syria, North Korea or Ukraine, international events recently have sparked a lot of discussion about U.S. diplomatic engagement with other nations.
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| Trump supporters say God chose him to be president Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:16 PM PST  Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley see God's hand in picking Donald Trump as president.
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| Kevin McCarthy debuts new ad praising Trump's election prowess. It uses Russian stock footage. Posted: 25 Nov 2019 12:39 PM PST ![Kevin McCarthy debuts new ad praising Trump's election prowess. It uses Russian stock footage.]( "Kevin McCarthy debuts new ad praising Trump's election prowess. It uses Russian stock footage.") Russia seems to loom over just about everything election-related these days.House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) unveiled a new ad Monday defending President Trump as he remains the subject of an impeachment investigation and the 2020 general election draws ever closer.McCarthy's ad portrays Trump as someone who has shown the ability to get elected and achieve results in office, despite having many people try to upend him.> What if I told you... > ⇒ He won the election. > ⇒ He spoke for millions who didn't have a voice. > ⇒ Despite their obstruction, he is still getting things done for the American people. pic.twitter.com/ZuVq1Jl9RG> > -- Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 25, 2019One criticism Trump hears from his opponents is that he's either willingly or unwittingly a pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government is widely believed to have interfered in the 2016 presidential election. It's likely to come up more often as the election approaches, and with that in mind, some eagle-eyed observers, like CNN's Andrew Kaczynski, spotted stock footage in the McCarthy ad that seems to have been shot in Russia. The congressman's team may designate someone to check the location of images going forward. > A little on the nose the stock footage used here was Russian. pic.twitter.com/FYhgdF3DvL> > -- andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 25, 2019More stories from theweek.com Welcome to the vengeance election Trump is degrading the U.S. military Money laundering, conspiracy to defraud U.S. reportedly among charges under consideration in investigation related to Rudy Giuliani
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| Regime supporters rally as Amnesty says Iran death toll at least 143 Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:22 AM PST  At least 143 demonstrators were killed across Iran, almost all of them shot by security forces, Amnesty said Monday, as government supporters poured into central Tehran to condemn days of "rioting" that the Islamic republic blamed on its foreign foes. "According to credible reports... those killed include at least 143 people," Amnesty International said. Amnesty, which last week gave a death toll of more than 100 as security forces stamped out protests that followed fuel price rises on November 15, said it believed the actual toll would climb "significantly higher" as it investigated.
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| Green New Deal Author Wants To Expand Anti-Corruption Laws To Cover Climate Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:20 AM PST  Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey's latest bill could extend the kind of financial sanctions the U.S. slapped on Russia and North Korea to countries such as Brazil.
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| Latin star Carlos Vives will receive philanthropy award at the UN Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:14 AM PST  Colombian star Carlos Vives will receive the 2019 Latin Impact Award at the United Nations for his organization's work "Tras la Perla de América," which strives for responsible, inclusive and sustainable development in the city of his birth, Santa Marta.
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| Threat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. Voters Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:05 AM PST ![Threat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. Voters]( "Threat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. Voters") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Boris Johnson's decision to hold an early general election could have at last one high-profile casualty: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.On the face of it, Raab should be safe as he's defending a majority of more than 23,000 in his Esher and Walton constituency, south of London -- and his ruling Conservative Party has a double-digit lead in most polls. But after a local survey earlier in the month showed the Liberal Democrat candidate, Monica Harding, eating chunks out of his lead, the foreign secretary was handed another blow on Monday when his Tory predecessor urged voters to cast their ballots for Harding."Brexit has scrambled traditional party allegiances," Ian Taylor, who held Esher and Walton seat for 23 years until 2010, wrote in a statement on Twitter. "Tactical voting is important in this general election. It is not a time for tribal party loyalties."Taylor said Harding, who is campaigning to cancel Brexit, is best placed to look after local interests. Raab is one of the most ardent Brexiteers in government, even though his district voted 58% to stay in the European Union in the 2016 referendum. The endorsement complicates Raab's bid for re-election, though he's still in pole position. A Survation poll put Raab down 14 points from 2017, on 45%, with Harding up 19 points on 36%.That there's any prospect of the Liberal Democrats unseating Raab emphasizes the shifting patterns of U.K. politics. Local anomalies, coupled with the U.K.'s winner-takes-all first past the post voting system could see politicians with comfortable majorities end up losing their seats.Taylor said Prime Minister Boris Johnson's strategy of setting a Dec. 2020 deadline for reaching a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU heightens the risk of a no-deal Brexit. "This is a really damaging threat which must not go unchallenged," he wrote.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| When It Comes to Ukraine, Why Are Republicans So Eager to Play Putin’s Game? Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:31 AM PST  When Sen. John N. Kennedy of Louisiana went with a group of fellow Republican lawmakers to celebrate the Fourth of July in Moscow (yes, Moscow) last year, they met with Russian counterparts in what the Russian press described as a "secret room." Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of Russia's foreign affairs committee, said Kennedy had promised to deliver a "tough message" about Russia's interference in U.S. elections, but when it was his turn to speak "he had absolutely nothing to say." Now the Republicans have plenty to say, and most of it benefits the Kremlin. Indeed, the Republicans of Donald Trump's regime and the Russians of Vladimir Putin's often sing in amazing harmony. Thanks to Rand Paul, Russian Media Are Naming the Alleged WhistleblowerWhen Kennedy was interviewed Sunday by Chris Wallace on Fox News, he gave us a striking example of synchronicity. Kennedy, who was educated at Vanderbilt, the University of Virginia, and Oxford University's Magdalen College, and ought to know better, readily echoed a fable spawned by the Russian security services."Who do you believe was responsible for hacking the DNC [Democratic National Committee] and [Hillary] Clinton campaign computers, their emails?" Wallace asked. "Was it Russia or Ukraine?" To which Kennedy replied, "I don't know, nor do you, nor do any others." Wallace fired back: "Let me just interrupt to say the entire intelligence community says it was Russia." Kennedy wobbled: "Right, but it could also be Ukraine." Nothing could better epitomize the ideal outcome of the Kremlin's barrage of conflicting narratives, its dezinformatsiya, or disinformation designed to create a false impression that the truth is simply unknowable.Gone are the days when the GOP dared to confront the Kremlin, and we should keep in mind that prominent Russian politicians and media figures rejoiced at the death of the late, great Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) last year—presciently predicting that no one in the Republican Party would be able to live up to his legacy. Appearing on the Russian state television show 60 Minutes in 2018, Karen Shakhnazarov opined: "Global empires like the United States are destroyed from within... The U.S. is deteriorating. They won't find other fighters like McCain. There won't be any others like him. This process is irreversible."The Kremlin wagered its bets with stellar precision and the Republicans made the job easy. Instead of picking up the torch of democracy proudly carried by McCain, the GOP of Trump is clutching the tiki torch of Russian propaganda. Fiona Hill, who served as the leading Russia expert on Trump's National Security Council staff, issued a stark warning during her testimony in the impeachment hearing: "Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves." The Republican committee members who have intoned the phrase "Russia hoax" like a mantra feigned surprise.President Trump did not heed the warning from Hill, nor did his Republican enablers. Calling into Fox & Friends, Trump again repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that Russia didn't hack the servers of the DNC—and Ukraine was the real culprit. Then Russian state television immediately inserted the translated clip from Fox News into its news broadcasts.But we've come to expect that sort of thing from the president who took the side of Putin against his whole intelligence community at the Helsinki summit last year. It's the capitulation to the Kremlin by the virtual entirety of the obsequious GOP that really draws attention now as Trump's impeachment by the House and trial by the Senate loom on the near horizon. Last Thursday, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (once a close friend of McCain) launched a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden's dealings with Ukraine. His efforts were lauded almost instantaneously on the Russian state television program Vesti Nedeli. And lo and behold, that very same day Russian state media announced the alleged beginning by the Ukrainian parliament, or Rada, of an investigation into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma as well as Hunter Biden, who sat on its board, and his father.Vesti couldn't hide its excitement with a segment entitled "Rada FINALLY sits up... Opens Investigation of Hunter Biden!" Vesti added: "It's hardly possible to get back the money, but will likely mess up Joe Biden's election prospects."The said "investigation" is in fact merely an audit. Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka has said repeatedly that there are no criminal cases or any other cases initiated against Burisma or Hunter Biden. But the mere announcement of such an inquiry could be used for political advantage. One recalls the testimony of Ambassador Gordon Sondland revealing that a public announcement of an investigation by Ukraine's president would sufficiently serve Trump's political needs. Multiple actors in the United States, Russia, and Ukraine have been promoting the idea of investigating Ukraine's alleged election meddling, as well as the inquiry about the Bidens. The calls for such measures have been promoted especially by Ukrainian lawmakers known for their pro-Russian views, including Yuri Boyko, the co-chairman of Ukraine's biggest pro-Russian party. According to the English-language Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post, three other Ukrainian lawmakers—Oleg Voloshyn, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, and Andriy Derkach—are also "doing Trump's dirty work" to try to prompt the investigations he demanded from the Ukrainian president. The Kyiv Post pointed out the lawmakers' links to the oligarch Dmytro Firtash, discredited former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, and President Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort. Voloshyn, who calls Manafort his friend, authored a flattering opinion piece about him in December 2017. At the time, Robert Mueller's prosecutors argued that Manafort violated a gag order by heavily editing Voloshyn's op-ed that attempted to whitewash Manafort's work in Ukraine.The politically motivated investigations of the Bidens and Ukraine's alleged interference in the U.S. elections would play right into President Vladimir Putin's hands by jeopardizing bipartisan U.S. support for Kyiv. The Kremlin, which seized and annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, sees Ukraine as the highly coveted jewel of the post-Soviet region. But Russia's influence over its largest European neighbor can be restored only by undermining the American involvement. Putin personally pitched in to paint a negative picture of Ukraine, when President Trump inexplicably sought his "guidance" on how to deal with President Volodymyr Zelensky.The Kremlin has strived continually to drive a wedge between the United States and Ukraine in order to get the country back firmly into Russia's sphere of influence. Russian state media repeatedly urge the Ukrainian government to go along with Trump's demands, no matter how humiliating, or else lose any hope of continued U.S. support. The host of Russian news talk show 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, warned: "If Trump gets re-elected, and you don't investigate Biden... [Ukraine] won't get anything from America. Not a thing." The co-host of 60 Minutes, Olga Skabeeva, scoffed: "With respect to mutual American-Ukrainian love, as we know, nothing lasts forever," adding, "Trump could spit on Ukraine." The leader of a pro-Russian group of Ukrainians, Yuriy Kot, picked up that refrain: "Trump could spit on Ukraine!" Kot added that if Trump is re-elected, Ukraine can expect "four more years of hell from the United States of America. You don't even understand the horror that is coming your way." Skabeeva summed up: "For Ukraine, this is a catastrophe... Americans are directly telling you they're sick of you. Nobody needs you." Such demoralizing drivel from Russian state media is, of course, designed to push the fledgling democracy away from the U.S. and back into Russia's orbit. Trump, for his part, has been in the "blame Ukraine" camp for years as a way to diminish or discredit the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community and many of its Western allies that, as Fiona Hill pointed out, Putin had waged a systematic effort to undermine U.S. democracy, with support for Trump a part of that strategy.Putin and Trump reportedly have discussed allegations of Ukrainian interference in U.S. elections. In a 2017 Oval Office meeting, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that he was unconcerned about Moscow's election interference. At the G20 in June of this year, Trump grinned and playfully wagged his finger as he told Putin: "Don't meddle in the election." One month later, during Trump's now infamous July 25 call with Ukraine's Zelensky, Trump urged him to investigate Ukraine's alleged meddling in the U.S. elections—and the lesson drawn from all this by Putin? Appearing at the economic forum Russia Calling, he smirked: "Thank God no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore. Now they're accusing Ukraine."But here's the fact of the matter. Russia's unprecedented interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has been described, with reason, as "the most successful influence campaign in history, one that will be studied globally for decades," and it is far from over.Instead of counteracting Russia's malign influence, American foreign policy under Trump is seemingly being guided by it and leaders of the Republican Party are doing their best to aid and abet that program. The wave of Kremlin disinformation started with faceless workers at the St. Petersburg "troll factory" banging away at their keyboards, striving to reach everyday not-very-well-informed Americans who would in turn misinform others within their sphere of influence. The operation surpassed Putin's wildest dreams when ripples of disinformation surged into a tsunami as Candidate Trump and then President Trump started openly to recite Russia's fictive talking points. The range of dissemination was then magnified by Trump's Republican supporters, along with his 67 million Twitter followers, and media outlets hanging on to every word uttered by the leader of the mightiest country in the world.Russia Loves the Impeachment Hearings Because GOP Is Parroting Kremlin PropagandaIn sum, there's no question the presidency of Donald J. Trump has proved to be enormously beneficial for the Kremlin, and supporters of the Russian president are openly rooting for Trump's re-election. Russian state television channel Rossiya-1 has dispatched its reporter Denis Davydov to broadcast directly from the impeachment hearings and, probably this should not be a surprise, Russian state-media coverage sounded eerily like much of Fox News, echoing the disingenuous claims by Trump supporters that there was no pressure against Ukraine and no "quid pro quo." For the first time in modern history, in the era of Trump, Russian state television is more than happy to support the Republicans—and for a good reason. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'No sign of a slowdown' as greenhouse gas concentration hits record high again Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:14 AM PST !['No sign of a slowdown' as greenhouse gas concentration hits record high again]( "'No sign of a slowdown' as greenhouse gas concentration hits record high again") Even as countries rush to cap or limit their emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have reached a record high -- again.The United Nations' World Meteorological Organization said Monday that globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a record-breaking 407.8 parts per million in 2018. That surpassed the previous high, which was set the year before, and the WMO was feeling pretty pessimistic going forward."There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, adding that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3-5 million years ago.Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Program Inger Andersen said the WMO's findings "point us in a clear direction" and that "we face a stark choice" to "set in motion the radical transformations we need now" or "face the consequences" of climate change. A report from the UNEP on the emissions gap will be released Tuesday. Read the WMO's full statement here.More stories from theweek.com Welcome to the vengeance election Trump is degrading the U.S. military Money laundering, conspiracy to defraud U.S. reportedly among charges under consideration in investigation related to Rudy Giuliani
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| Brexit Bulletin: Johnson’s Promise Posted: 25 Nov 2019 08:51 AM PST  Days to General Election: 17(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.What's Happening? The Conservatives are playing it safe with election promises, but a new Brexit cliff-edge could soon come into view.It seems like a safety-first manifesto: Get Brexit "done," cut some taxes and promise to hire 50,000 extra nurses. In purely fiscal terms. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's pledges for the next Parliament amount to one pound of extra spending for every six promised by Labour, Bloomberg's Andrew Atkinson notes.And there's a good reason the Conservative Party is cautious, despite being comfortably ahead in the polls. A new ICM/Reuters poll this afternoon gives the Tories a seven-point lead over the Labour Party — days after a separate weekend poll put them 19 points ahead. In 2017, a disastrous manifesto contributed to Theresa May almost losing the election. Nevertheless, there's one big buried risk: The manifesto explicitly rules out any extension to the Brexit transition period, which expires at the end of 2020. If he wins a majority, Johnson should be able to bring back his Brexit deal to Parliament before Christmas, but many experts think his desire to reach a swift trade deal is unrealistic. The promise has helped him neuter Nigel Farage and has brought hard Brexiters on board — but time is tight.Johnson's own commitments won't make it easy to negotiate a trade deal. For one thing, he's promised to leave the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy and take back control of British waters. Access to those areas is one of France's key demands.The prime minister is no stranger to a U-turn or two, but breaking a manifesto pledge remains a big deal in British politics. We may not have seen the last of the Brexit cliff-edge.Today's Must-ReadsDespite the momentous choice facing the country, the mood is one of weariness — and that's not the electorate's fault, John Harris writes in the Guardian. The Financial Times has also been looking at the Tory manifesto — and found a gigafactory-sized hole. Forget the size of the Tory manifesto, Stephen Pollard writes in the Telegraph. "Only three words in the Tory manifesto matter: Get Brexit done."Brexit in BriefOut of Commission | The U.K. failed to respond to a European Commission deadline for it to name a candidate for the incoming slate of commissioners. The commission "will now analyze" possible next steps, spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters in Brussels. The incoming commission team is due on Dec. 1.Taking Stock | U.K. stocks may be poised to rebound in 2020 as fears of a no-deal Brexit recede, according to an increasing number of strategists and fund managers. Morgan Stanley strategists say U.K. shares are "potentially the best global equity opportunity for 2020." Credit Suisse says that British stocks are 14% undervalued according to its model.Leaders Grilled | The U.K.'s key political leaders will each be interviewed by the BBC's Andrew Neil before the election campaign is done. Scottish Nationalist Party leader Nicola Sturgeon is first in the hot-seat, on BBC One in the U.K. at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Tomorrow: Jeremy Corbyn.'Really Brazen' | The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, criticized the Conservative Party for rebranding a party account as a fact-checking authority during last week's Johnson-Corbyn debate. "It was unbelievable they would do that," he told the BBC. "Don't do that. Don't trust people who do that."Remainers Speak Out | Two leading anti-Brexit figures spoke up in favor of voting tactically on Dec. 12. Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would understand if people voted for the Liberal Democrats, while Liberal Democrat candidate Chuka Umunna urged voters to back his party to "help reduce the number of pro-Brexit Conservative MPs."Grime4Corbyn | Stormzy is backing Labour, again. In a letter to the Guardian, the award-winning grime MC said a vote for Labour was necessary to "end austerity, rebuild our communities" and change lives. Want to keep up with Brexit?You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. It's live at midday on Bloomberg Radio and is available as a podcast too. Share the Brexit Bulletin: Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here. For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition.For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.To contact the author of this story: Edward Evans in London at eevans3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Adam Blenford at ablenford@bloomberg.net, Lisa FleisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The Honeymoon Is Over for Ukraine’s President Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:56 AM PST ![The Honeymoon Is Over for Ukraine's President]( "The Honeymoon Is Over for Ukraine's President") (Bloomberg) -- For the first time since President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took power this year, more Ukrainians say the country is headed in the wrong direction than not, according to the latest poll on his performance.With voters clamoring for change, the political novice scored a landslide victory in spring elections. He then enjoyed approval ratings that at one point exceeded those of Vladimir Putin in neighboring Russia.But things have begun to go awry. About 39% of people polled this month say Ukraine is off course compared with 36% who hold the opposite opinion, a survey by the Democratic Initiative Fund and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found.While a margin of error of as much as 2.3 percentage points could mean opinion is about equally split, the latter figure is down from 50% in August.Ukrainians' priorities are to stop the war with Kremlin-backed fighters in the country's east, raise living standards, cut tariffs, punish corrupt officials and reduce the influence of big businessmen on politics.Here's how they view current policies:75% support peace talks with Putin while 15% are against59% back the withdrawal of troops in the conflict zone while 26% oppose it58% oppose removing a moratorium on farm-land sales while 24% support the ideaPrivatization of large state companies is opposed by 55% and backed by just 22%The Nov. 4-19 poll, released Monday, was among 2,041 people.To contact the reporter on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at kchoursina@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley, Michael WinfreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Jailed Israeli’s Mother Looks to Putin as Netanyahu Stumbles Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:46 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The mother of an Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia on drug-smuggling charges has asked President Vladimir Putin to pardon her after he snubbed repeated pleas from Israel's embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, handed Putin a letter from Naama Issachar's mother, Yaffa, asking for clemency at a Kremlin meeting last week. A copy of the request signed Nov. 18 seen by Bloomberg asks Putin "with all the pain of a mother's heart to pardon my daughter and return her to her family."Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in a Russian prison last month for transporting a small quantity of hashish on a transit flight via Moscow. The Moscow City Court will hear her appeal against the conviction on Dec. 12, according to its website.The plight of the U.S.-born Israeli army veteran has become a cause célèbre in Israel, where Netanyahu is facing the greatest threat of his 13-year rule as he battles bribery and fraud charges that could see him ejected from office and jailed. Elections may be held for the third time in less than a year in early 2020 if no lawmaker presents Israel's president with a coalition by Dec. 11.Despite frequent contacts over many years, Putin sent Netanyahu away empty-handed in September when he flew to the Kremlin leader's Black Sea residence a few days before the last polls.Amid tensions over Israel's tough policy on Iran and Syria, Putin decided he didn't want to bolster the Israeli leader at a time of electoral uncertainty in Israel, according to two people with knowledge of internal Kremlin discussions. The Russian president will personally decide Naama's fate once a new government is in place in Israel, they said.Putin is scheduled to be Israel's guest of honor at a ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 27 marking the 75th anniversary of the Red Army's liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the plea for a pardon during a conference call with reporters on Monday. Earlier he'd said that Putin is considering Israeli requests for clemency.Issachar's case for a time became entangled with that of a Russian national, Alexei Burkov, whom Israel extradited to the U.S. earlier this month on charges including hacking and credit card fraud. Russia had offered to swap the two, according to Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician.(Updates with appeal hearing in third paragraph)\--With assistance from Ilya Arkhipov.To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony HalpinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Champagne regains number one spot over Prosecco in Britain's battle of the bubbles Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:35 AM PST  They have been fierce competitors for years, but now it seems that Champagne has regained its crown over Prosecco as Britain's favourite fizz. An aggressive pricing campaign by French producers has edged Champagne ahead of its Italian rival in the battle of the bubblies for the first time in five years, just as the UK heads into the festive season. After a stratospheric rise, sales of Prosecco overtook those of Champagne in Britain in 2015, with the Italian fizz firmly ensconcing itself as the nation's summer drink of choice. But sales of Prosecco in the UK are forecast to have fallen 6 per cent this year, while sales of Champagne are predicted to have grown by 34 per cent. The figures were revealed at an event in the northern city of Verona, organised by wine industry organisations Osservatorio Vinitaly and Nomisma Wine Monitor. "France has lowered the price of Champagne in the UK by more than 25 per cent, something which is pretty unusual for French sparkling wine," Giovanni Mantovani, an event organiser, told Corriere della Sera newspaper. Champagne is back on form in the UK market Credit: Getty "Evidently they have decided that it is worth sacrificing their price margins in order to reconquer an important market which had been won by Italian sparkling wines." Leta Bester, the president of the London Wine Academy, said after years of booming Prosecco sales, consumers were getting a little jaded with the drink. "What we are seeing is the same thing that happened with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc - people get on top of a wine style and then they get a bit bored with it and want to try something new," she told The Telegraph. "Another factor is that cheaper Champagne is now much better than it was 10 years ago – producers have cleaned up their act because of the competition from other countries. Cava from Spain is also good value and no longer has that damp dog flavour that came from old wine barrels." The thirst for Prosecco is also being eroded by interest in other variety of fizzes, including English sparkling wines and offerings from the New World. Prosecco is hardly on its knees. Since more vineyards were planted in the northern Veneto region, production has risen dramatically and sales to the UK rose by 163 per cent in the last five years. Last year, 560 million bottles of Prosecco were exported from Italy, with Britain the number one market. The worldwide sale of French sparkling wines, including Champagne, was up by 9 per cent in value in the first half of this year, according to French figures. Sales to Britain in particular were up, thanks in part to distributors buying up French wine to stockpile ahead of any Brexit-related disruption. "Both Prosecco and Champagne will always have a place at the table," said Ms Bester. "It depends on what you're eating, what time of day it is – and how much money you have in your pocket."
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| REFILE-UPDATE 1-EU lawmakers set to declare 'climate emergency' ahead of UN conference Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:18 AM PST ![REFILE-UPDATE 1-EU lawmakers set to declare 'climate emergency' ahead of UN conference]( "REFILE-UPDATE 1-EU lawmakers set to declare 'climate emergency' ahead of UN conference") A majority of European Union lawmakers hoped to declare a "climate emergency" on Monday, a week before a United Nations climate conference in Madrid. Members of the European Parliament said the declaration would increase pressure on the incoming EU executive, expected to start work on Dec. 1, to take a stronger leading role in the global fight against climate change. "The EU must act together and lead by example in international climate negotiations through concrete actions and measures," the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group of lawmakers in the parliament, said in a statement.
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| Australia investigates 'China plot to plant spy in Parliament' as Scott Morrison insists 'not naive' to threat Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:36 AM PST  Australian authorities are investigating claims a man who mysteriously died in March this year had been approached by a Chinese espionage ring to stand for the country's national parliament. Sources with knowledge of the alleged plot understand the suspected intelligence group offered one million dollars to fund the campaign of Liberal Party member and Melbourne car dealer Bo "Nick" Zhao, 32, to run for the seat of Chisholm. Mr Zhao reported the alleged plot to ASIO, Australia's intelligence agency, and was later found dead in his hotel room. Local investigators are yet to determine a cause of death. Scott Morrison. the Australian prime minister, said Monday that allegations were "deeply disturbing and troubling, " and that "Australia is not naive to the threats that it faces." "The government has never been more determined to keep Australians free and safe from foreign interference," Mr Morrison told reporters. "I would caution anyone leaping to any conclusions about these matters." ASIO director-general of security Mike Burgess issued a statement in which he said the agency "takes seriously" the allegations reported by Australian newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald about Mr Zhao. It is also looking into claims by defector Wang Liqiang, who has told Australian authorities he worked as a Chinese spy in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Scott Morrison said the allegations were "deeply disturbing and troubling" Credit: AP Photo/Rod McGuirk, File "Australians can be reassured that ASIO was previously aware of matters… and has been actively investigating them. Given that the matter in question is subject to a coronial inquiry, and as not to prejudice our investigations, it would be inappropriate to comment further." "Hostile foreign intelligence activity continues to pose a real threat to our nation and its security," Mr Burgess said. Government backbencher Andrew Hastie, also a member of the Liberal Party, was briefed on Mr Zhao's death as chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security. He told the 60 Minutes program that the case was "like something out of a spy novel happening in Melbourne with impunity". Mr Hastie, a combat veteran with the elite Special Air Service, said Australians should be "very concerned" about the alleged plot. "This isn't cash in a bag… this is a state-sponsored attempt to infiltrate our parliament," he said. Paul Monk, the former head of China analysis for Australia's Defence Intelligence Organisation told Sky News: "The Putin government in Russia have murdered several people who have spilled the beans… and the Chinese community intelligence is more ambitious and larger than that of Putin". Gladys Liu, who was the Liberal Party's eventual - and successful - candidate for the seat of Chisholm in May, confirmed in September that she held membership of the Guangdong Overseas Exchange Association, linked to China's foreign interference operations, within 24 hours of claiming she could not recall being a part of it. Ms Liu issued a statement in which she said she held an honorary role with Association in 2011 but no longer had any association with it. At the time, the organisation reported directly to Beijing's State Council. On Monday crossbench senator Rex Patrick said a "shadow" continued to hang over Ms Liu. "There is a shadow and where there's a shadow, light can solve issues to make sure that people are absolutely confident in MPs," he told local media.
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| Iran's Guard threatens US, allies over protests Posted: 25 Nov 2019 05:40 AM PST  The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened the U.S. and its allies Monday as he addressed a pro-government demonstration attended by tens of thousands of people denouncing last week's violent protests over a fuel price hike. Gen. Hossein Salami, echoing other Iranian officials, accused the U.S., Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia of stoking the unrest. Iran has not released a death toll and cut off internet for several days, making it difficult to ascertain the extent and severity of the demonstrations.
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| UPDATE 1-British parliament to reconvene on Dec. 17 - Downing Street statement Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:37 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-British parliament to reconvene on Dec. 17 - Downing Street statement]( "UPDATE 1-British parliament to reconvene on Dec. 17 - Downing Street statement") Britain's parliament will be reconvened on Dec. 17 following the general election, and if Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains leader, his government plans to set out its legislative agenda on Dec. 19, the government said on Monday. The emailed statement from Johnson's government office said if there were to be a change of government after the Dec. 12 election, the plans could change. Britain is holding an election three years ahead of schedule because parliament had become deadlocked over Brexit, unable to agree on how or even whether to leave the European Union.
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| Egypt hands down 7 death sentences on terror charges Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:37 AM PST ![Egypt hands down 7 death sentences on terror charges]( "Egypt hands down 7 death sentences on terror charges") An Egyptian court has handed down death sentences to seven people convicted of carrying out attacks that killed 11 policemen in 2016. The Cairo Criminal Court on Monday also sentenced 18 others to 10-15 years in prison for the same charges. The charges stem from multiple attacks in Cairo, including one that killed eight police in a microbus in the suburb of Helwan.
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| 'Never allow escapes': Second leak reveals how China runs Uighur detention camps Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:09 AM PST  A second leak of secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents has revealed details of how over one million detainees in China are indoctrinated, controlled and punished in a huge network of internment camps. The papers, dated to 2017 and leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), have been dubbed The China Cables and feature instructions to "never allow escapes" from the camps. The venues, which in 2018 Beijing claimed did not exist then said were education centres, are populated mainly by Muslim members of ethnic minorities who have not been charged with crimes. The leak came a week after a different trove of CCP documents related to China's Muslim crackdown was revealed. Both caches provide evidence that the CCP is orchestrating a widespread campaign of brainwashing and human rights abuse against Muslims, mainly in the country's vast western Xinjiang province. The ICIJ said the documents it acquired marked the "first leak of a classified Chinese government document revealing the inner workings of the camps, the severity of conditions behind the fences, and the dehumanising instructions regulating inmates' mundane daily routines." Some of the newly-revealed documents are from an internment camp instruction manual issued by Xinjiang security authorities. One order in them is for staff to "strictly manage door locks and keys – dormitory doors, corridors doors and floor doors must be double locked, and must be locked immediately after being opened and closed." According to Beijing the venues were set up as part of a crackdown on separatist terrorism stemming from Xinjiang, which is home to around 11 million members of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic group. Internees undergo indoctrination to denounce religion and show loyalty to the CCP and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Escapees have reported torture and rape occurring in the camps. The documents showed how internees were regularly tested on subjects including mandarin language skills, and only allowed to leave once they gained satisfactory scores. Scores were linked to "rewards, punishments and family visits", and staff were told to "evaluate and resolve students' ideological problems and abnormal emotions at all times." They were also required to "promote the repentance and confession of the students for them to understand deeply the illegal, criminal and dangerous nature of their past behaviour." Chinese officials failing to strictly follow internment camp guidelines have faced severe consequences. The documents leaked to the New York Times showed that 12,000 officials were investigating for not implementing the rules with enough vigour. Wang Yongzhi, an official in charge of the crackdown in an area of Xinjiang called Yarkand, was investigated and disappeared from public view after quietly releasing 7,000 inmates from the system. His grovelling confession, likely given under duress, was distributed as a warning to other officials. He 'confessed': "I undercut, acted selectively and made my own adjustments, believing that rounding up so many people would knowingly fan conflict and deepen resentment... without approval and initiative, I broke the rules." Details about how internees, who can be sent to camps for behaviour such as using non-approved messaging apps or collecting money for mosques, were isolated from loved ones were also revealed. It was decreed that they were allowed a phone call with family "at least once a week", but they "may not contact the outside world apart from during prescribed activities." Adrian Zenz, senior fellow in China studies at Washington DC's Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said of the newly-leaked papers: "It really shows that from the onset, the Chinese government had a plan for how to secure the vocational training centres, how to lock in the 'students' into their dorms, how to keep them there for at least one year." When asked about The China Cables on Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said: "Some media's conspiracy to slander China's terrorist effort won't succeed. Our most powerful counterattack is to maintain solidarity among ethnic groups and a peaceful society." The documents feature a section named "Strict secrecy", which included the order: "It is necessary to strengthen the staff's awareness of staying secret."
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| EU lawmakers set to declare 'climate emergency' ahead of UN conference Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:01 AM PST ![EU lawmakers set to declare 'climate emergency' ahead of UN conference]( "EU lawmakers set to declare 'climate emergency' ahead of UN conference") A majority of European Union lawmakers were hoping to symbolically declare a "climate emergency" on Monday, a week before a U.N. climate conference in Madrid. Members of the European Parliament said the declaration would increase pressure on the incoming EU executive, expected to start work on Dec. 1, to take a stronger leading role in the global fight against climate change. "The EU must act together and lead by example in international climate negotiations through concrete actions and measures," the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second-largest group of lawmakers in the parliament, said in a statement on Monday.
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| Iran crackdown on protesters revealed in new videos after internet blackout lifted Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:59 AM PST  Videos have begun emerging of Iran's brutal crackdown on protesters after the internet was restored following a week-long government-imposed blackout. The protests began on November 15 after a petrol price hike was announced. Demonstrations quickly grew into a wave of anti-government unrest that saw at least 100 banks and dozens of buildings torched in the worst violence since Iran put down a "Green Revolution" in 2009. In one video, machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. In others, motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators, while in a different location plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street. Another video in Kermanshah, some 260 miles southwest of Tehran, purportedly shows security forces wearing civilian clothes and wielding nightsticks, dragging one man off by the hair of his head. The detained man falls at one point. An Iranian protester shows the bullets shot by security forces during protests in Tehran, Iran Credit: REX "Look, (the agents) wear styles like the youth," one man off-camera says, swearing at them. Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president, claimed on Thursday that uprising had been contained. With the internet down, it was difficult to immediately prove otherwise. Since the blackout was eased over the weekend, however, a flood of videos have been published on social media sites. Iran, which has a highly developed and isolated domestic internet network, was for nearly a week completely shut off from the world. The Iranian government can throttle or block access because there are just two principal gateways, known as exchanges, that connect the country to the global internet, and the government controls both. This is what's been happening in Iran during the near-total internet shutdown. Security forces have shot and killed at least 106 people with complete impunity in nationwide protests. This is what they don't want the rest of the world to see. pic.twitter.com/M4Jw17Xj1g— Amnesty International (@amnesty) November 21, 2019 While other authoritarian regimes have used the tactic to stifle dissent, Iran's shutdown is unprecedented in its scale. Amin Sabeti, a researcher with digital security NGO Digital Impact Lab, said that no other shutdown has been implemented across such a large country, for such a length of time, and been so effective in preventing the dissemination of information. Citing recent shutdowns, Mr Sabeti explained: "In Kashmir, Iraq or Sudan, you could still find journalists, they could report back – for instance from the BBC. For Iran it wasn't the case." On Iranian state TV, officials allege that foreign conspiracies and exile groups instigated the unrest. There is little mention of the demonstrations in any of Iran's main newspaper. Iran has used every opportunity to blame its protests on foreign powers. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, on Monday accused the US, Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia of stoking the unrest. Addressing a pro-government demonstration, he warned the West: "If you cross our red line, we will destroy you... We will not leave any move unanswered." BREAKING: This horrific video was leaked now shows Police of Iran's Islamic Regime constantly shooting at an injured & unarmed protester & then beating him with metal bar in-order to arrest him during the second day of IranProtests in Gorgan! The protester died later. pic.twitter.com/4yljMYgSG4— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) November 24, 2019 The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that rioters had looted and burned chain stores in a number of Tehran suburbs, and that some had "received $60 for each place set on fire." Amnesty International last week said at least 100 have been killed, but Iran analysts said that with access to the country limited the number was likely to be conservative. Reports have also emerged that wounded and dead protests are being removed by Iranian intelligence officers to hide the true scale of Tehran's crackdown. One of the videos published online over the weekend appeared to show security forces unarmed protesters in close range in the head before carrying their corpses into trucks.
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| Chemical watchdog chief expresses confidence in Douma report Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:57 AM PST  The director-general of the global chemical weapons watchdog expressed confidence Monday in a report into a deadly attack in Syria last year that has been called into question in a leaked letter. Fernando Arias used his opening statement to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' annual meeting to publicly support the report issued in March by an OPCW fact-finding mission that found "reasonable grounds" that chlorine was used in a deadly attack on the Syrian town of Douma. The mission wasn't mandated to attribute blame for the attack, but the U.S., Britain and France blamed Syria and launched punitive airstrikes.
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| UPDATE 1-Pope urges world leaders to renounce nuclear weapons during visit to Japan Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:15 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Pope urges world leaders to renounce nuclear weapons during visit to Japan]( "UPDATE 1-Pope urges world leaders to renounce nuclear weapons during visit to Japan") Pope Francis appealed on Monday to world leaders to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again, a day after he visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only cities ever to be hit by atomic bombs. Nuclear disarmament has been a key theme of the pope's trip to Japan, a country not only haunted by the memory of the two attacks that ended World War Two but also alarmed by the nuclear programme and missile tests of nearby North Korea.
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| Libyan officials say US drone shot down by mistake Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:12 AM PST ![Libyan officials say US drone shot down by mistake]( "Libyan officials say US drone shot down by mistake") Libyan forces trying to seize Tripoli shot down a U.S. military drone over the capital by mistake last week, officials said Monday. The U.S. military said it lost the drone Thursday while it was assessing the security situation and monitoring extremist activity. The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, launched an offensive to capture Tripoli in April after seizing much of eastern Libya from Islamic militants and other rivals in recent years.
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| Congo residents burn town hall after latest rebel attack Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:10 AM PST ![Congo residents burn town hall after latest rebel attack]( "Congo residents burn town hall after latest rebel attack") Angry residents of the eastern Congo city of Beni burned the town hall and stormed the United Nations peacekeeping mission Monday after rebels killed eight people and kidnapped nine overnight in their latest assault. Gunfire could be heard outside the U.N. offices as police and peacekeepers tried to disperse the crowds who attacked the base and burned U.N. vehicles. Residents have been protesting outside the U.N. for several days over repeated attacks by Allied Democratic Forces rebels, and two civilians and two policemen have died in the unrest.
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| Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N. Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST ![Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N.]( "Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N.") Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, rising faster than the average rise of the last decade and cementing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday. The U.N. agency's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is one of a series of studies to be published ahead of a U.N. climate change summit being held in Madrid next week, and is expected to guide discussions there. It measures the atmospheric concentration of the gases responsible for global warming, rather than emissions.
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| Report: Turkey to start testing Russian S-400 defense system Posted: 25 Nov 2019 01:48 AM PST ![Report: Turkey to start testing Russian S-400 defense system]( "Report: Turkey to start testing Russian S-400 defense system") Turkish media say Turkey is poised to begin testing Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, despite threats of sanctions from the United States. The Milliyet newspaper, which has close links to the government, said Monday that the military is planning to test the S-400s that are currently deployed at an airbase in the outskirts of the Ankara. Turkey took delivery of two Russian S-400 batteries this year, dismissing warnings from the United States that they pose a threat to NATO security.
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| HIGHLIGHTS-Former UK PM Blair says Britain is a mess Posted: 25 Nov 2019 01:40 AM PST ![HIGHLIGHTS-Former UK PM Blair says Britain is a mess]( "HIGHLIGHTS-Former UK PM Blair says Britain is a mess") Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that Britain was in a mess, warning that neither his own Labour Party nor Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives deserved to win a Dec. 12 election. In Britain our populism focused on a policy – Brexit – which may be permanent.
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| UPDATE 2-Britain is a dangerous mess, former PM Blair says Posted: 25 Nov 2019 01:25 AM PST ![UPDATE 2-Britain is a dangerous mess, former PM Blair says]( "UPDATE 2-Britain is a dangerous mess, former PM Blair says") Former prime minister Tony Blair said on Monday that Britain was in a dangerous mess and that neither his own Labour Party nor Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives deserved to win a Dec. 12 election. Britain is holding an election three years ahead of schedule because parliament was deadlocked over Brexit, unable to agree on how or even whether to leave the European Union. "We're a mess," Blair said at a Reuters Newsmaker event.
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| UK Conservatives defending policy-light election platform Posted: 25 Nov 2019 12:37 AM PST  Britain's governing Conservative Party was striving Monday to defend an election platform that is light on policy proposals, as it tries to avoid squandering its poll lead before the vote in less than three weeks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's party is campaigning heavily on a promise to "get Brexit done" by taking Britain out of the European Union on the scheduled date of Jan. 31, if it wins the election. Despite the definitive-sounding slogan, Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan conceded that leaving the bloc would only be "the first big step" to completing Brexit, because it would be followed by negotiations on a new trade relationship with the bloc.
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| Will Iran Become the Next Soviet Union (As In Bankrupted by Massive Military Spending)? Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:42 PM PST  While Iran's rulers have no aspirations to be a superpower, they do seem to covet being a regional hegemon as the Persian Empire was. So far, Iran has waged war on the cheap by using proxies rather than massive troop commitments as the U.S. did in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. But as Hezbollah has discovered when its Iranian subsidies were slashed, even war on the cheap can be expensive.
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| Leaked Chinese government documents detail how tech is used to escalate the persecution of Uighurs Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:33 PM PST  In less than two weeks, two major reports have been published that contain leaked Chinese government documents about the persecution of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China. Details include the extent to which technology enables mass surveillance, making it possible to track the daily lives of people at unprecedented scale. The first was a New York Times article that examined more than 400 pages of leaked documents detailing how government leaders, including President Xi Jinping, developed and enforced policies against Uighurs.
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| Key Beirut road reopens after rival groups clash overnight Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST  A key road in the Lebanese capital reopened Monday following clashes throughout the night between rival groups, some of the worst violence since protests against the country's ruling elite began last month. The confrontations began Sunday evening after supporters of the country's two main Shiite political parties, the militant Hezbollah and the Amal Movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, attacked protesters who had blocked a main Beirut thoroughfare known as the Ring Road. Both sides then threw stones at each other for hours as security forces formed a barrier to keep them apart.
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| Blair Sees Brexit, Local Issues Dominating: U.K. Campaign Trail Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:49 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led Labour to three successive victories, will use a speech on Monday to describe British politics as "utterly dysfunctional" and urge voters to examine how they cast their ballot in "650 mini-elections."Blair will highlight how voters no longer identify along party lines and are more likely to identify themselves with their decision in the 2016 European Union referendum. That means parties are focusing on the local detail perhaps more than ever before. On Sunday, when Boris Johnson launched the Conservative Party manifesto in Telford, he made a point of taking a question on the district's emergency department. It's a pattern repeated in target seats across the country, with both parties trying to demonstrate that local concerns really matter despite the national clamor over Brexit.Must Read: Johnson Plays Safe With 'Sensible' Manifesto for U.K. VoteFor more on the election visit ELEC.Coming up:Former Tory Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan takes on the breakfast broadcast round to defend the party's election manifesto.Labour will set out plans to take on "dodgy" landlords and introduce a charter of renters' rights.Polls:The Conservatives enjoy a double-digit lead over Labour in at least six different polls released over the weekend.Deltapoll and BMG Research both put Johnson's party ahead by 12 points.Opinium gave the Conservatives a 19-point lead.YouGov show the Tories with a 12-point lead, while Savanta ComRes puts them 10 points ahead.Survation poll gave the Tories an 11-point lead.Separately, analysis of YouGov polls by Datapraxis suggests the Conservative Party will win a 48-seat majority.Catching Up:Johnson used his manifesto launch to say his party won't raise income tax, value-added tax or national insurance rates.He also pledged to recruit 50,000 nurses and said the National Health Service wouldn't be "on the table" in post-Brexit trade talks.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a BBC TV debate on Friday he'd stay neutral in a second Brexit referendum, later defending his position as a sign of "maturity."Corbyn's deputy John McDonnell said on Sunday he'd wait for the deal Labour could strike with the EU before deciding whether to campaign to leave or remain.Johnson plans to hit foreign buyers of homes in England with a new tax intended to cool prices and help locals get on the housing ladder.The Markets:The pound gained 0.1% against the dollar at 6:48 a.m. in London on Monday.Investors are becoming more confident the Tories will win the election, with funds betting on the pound to strengthen.There's now a 74% chance of a Conservative Party majority, according to odds offered by bookmakers Paddy Power.\--With assistance from Dara Doyle.To contact the reporter on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay, Guy CollinsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Number of grand coalition-opposed Social Democrats very small-finance minister Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:27 PM PST ![Number of grand coalition-opposed Social Democrats very small-finance minister]( "Number of grand coalition-opposed Social Democrats very small-finance minister") Olaf Scholz, Germany's finance minister, said he was optimistic that his party's governing coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives will hold after a leadership vote. "I am noticing that the number of those party members willing to exit the coalition without a good reason has become very small," Scholz, a member of the Social Democrats, told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Monday. Scholz, who is the frontrunner to become the Social Democrats' co-chair next weekend, is being challenged by two candidates of the party's more left-leaning branch.
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| Trump impeachment: Republicans dig in as hopes of bipartisan support dashed Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:00 PM PST  * Schiff readies report and White House prepares for trial * Analysis: Republicans' top six impeachment falsehoods * Opinion: Impeachment shows US officials at their bestDonald Trump listens, with the Utah senator Mitt Romney, during a meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/POOL/EPACongressional Republicans dug deep in defense of Donald Trump over the weekend, frustrating Democratic hopes that the impeachment inquiry would build bipartisan support following weeks of testimony laying out how Trump attempted to extract a political "favor" from Ukraine in exchange for official acts.At the same time, the White House said it was preparing for a trial in the Senate. If the House of Representatives votes for impeachment, the matter would move to the upper chamber with Trump's removal from office on the line.But that prospect seemed distant as not a single elected Republican stepped forward to criticize Trump and members of Congress dodged the question of whether it was acceptable for a president to seek help from a foreign country with a political campaign."Let me answer that," the New York representative Lee Zeldin said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, before zigging to claim Trump had a bona fide interest in fighting Ukrainian corruption and zagging to point out that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had been granted a meeting with Trump – at the United Nations.Other Republicans buttressed Trump's insistence on a baseless and debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind 2016 election tampering.embed"I don't know," the Louisiana senator John Kennedy told Fox News Sunday when asked if Russia was behind the interference, as the US intelligence community says. "Nor do you. Nor do any of us."And yet, even as Republicans declared "case closed", potentially damaging information about Trump's Ukraine scheme continued to emerge. The Washington Post cited three anonymous sources in reporting that an internal White House review had uncovered "extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification" for the decision to withhold military aid for Ukraine.Trump and his defenders insist that the aid was not held up in an effort to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation tied to Joe Biden, despite a previous statement to that effect, soon retracted, by the acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, and despite the testimony of multiple impeachment witnesses.The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, meanwhile, faces allegations he travelled to Europe late last year to meet Ukrainians and discuss digging up dirt on Biden. Devin Nunes has denied the claim and threatened to sue CNN and the Daily Beast, which reported it.On Sunday Adam Schiff, the chair of the intelligence panel, told CNN if Nunes "was traveling on taxpayer funds to dig up dirt on Biden, that will be an ethics matter, that's not before our committee".Throughout the nine-week impeachment inquiry steered by Schiff, Trump has worked hard to keep Republicans in line, fiercely attacking critics as "human scum" and showering praise and attention on defenders who managed to catch his eye. He also has been inviting lawmakers on exclusive trips to Camp David, the presidential retreat, at taxpayers' expense, the Post reported.> None of the Republican senators defending Trump could say they would tolerate a Democratic president doing the same> > Walter ShaubElise Stefanik of New York, one of the youngest members of Congress and a rising Republican star, was the beneficiary of an approving Trump tweet on Sunday, as was Jackie Walorski, a member of the House ethics committee from Indiana."None of the Republican senators defending Trump could say with a straight face that they would tolerate a Democratic president doing the same thing," tweeted Walter Shaub, former director of the government ethics office. "But, given this dangerous precedent, they may have no choice if they ever lose control of the Senate. Is that what they want?"Schiff said the inquiry had amassed "overwhelming" evidence of "serious misconduct" by Trump, but said he would continue to seek documents and potentially take further testimony as the committee assembles a report over the Thanksgiving holiday.The report will go to the House judiciary committee, which will determine if and on what grounds an impeachment vote will be held.A Senate trial could offer an opportunity to obtain testimony from witnesses who have not cooperated with the House investigation, including Mulvaney, the former national security adviser John Bolton and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, Schiff said.As presiding judge, the supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, would have the ability to approve subpoenas requested by the House – a legal twist first pointed out on the site Talking Points Memo.An audience member gives Lee Zeldin a thumbs-up as he leaves the room during a public hearing in the impeachment inquiry. Photograph: Erin Schaff/POOL/EPA"We may get a quicker ruling from a chief justice in a Senate trial, if it ever came to that, then we would get by going months and months on end litigating the matter," Schiff told CNN.Schiff dismissed Republican calls for him to testify in any Senate proceedings about his handling of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment inquiry."There's nothing for me to testify about," Schiff said. "And I think, if the president or his allies in the Senate persist in this, it really means they're not serious about what they're doing … The only reason for them to go through with this is to mollify the president."The White House is preparing for a trial, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told CBS's Face the Nation. But Republican support for the president on the Sunday morning shows was not as full-throated as it might have been. Top officials and the elected party leadership declined to appear to defend Trump, CNN said.The prospect of a strict party-line vote on impeachment, which Democratic leaders had vowed to avoid, would not dissuade investigators, Schiff said."At the end of the day, we have to decide what our constitutional duty is, even if our colleagues in the GOP and Congress have decided they're more committed to the person and the president than their constitutional duty," Schiff said."We're going to still have to do our duty."
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| Face of Guatemala’s anti-corruption fight faces threats Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:09 PM PST  The woman who has become one of the most-visible faces of Guatemala's fight against corruption says she won't be intimidated. There is an "interest in obstructing my work, in attacking my judicial independence," Aifán told The Associated Press. The fight against corruption in Guatemala was left in the hands of prosecutors and judges, like Aifán, after a U.N. anti-corruption commission that had helped investigate and prosecute hundreds of corrupt politicians, public officials and businesspeople over 12 years departed the country in September.
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| Kim orders N. Korea artillery firing, drawing Seoul rebuke Posted: 24 Nov 2019 06:38 PM PST  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops to practice firing artillery near a disputed sea boundary with rival South Korea, Pyongyang's state media reported Monday, drawing a quick rebuke from Seoul. The coastal artillery company's actions during Kim's visit to the west coast's Changrin Islet "fully showed their gun firing skills" and "delighted the supreme leader," according to the North's Korean Central News Agency. Seoul's Unification Ministry said it was Kim's first known trip to a front-line military unit since at least April last year, around the start of his diplomatic engagement with the U.S. Those once-promising negotiations are largely at a standstill now as North Korea steps up pressure on Washington to lift international sanctions and abandon what it calls hostile policies against the North.
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