| Yazidi still hears brothers before IS kills them in Iraq Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:11 PM PST ![Yazidi still hears brothers before IS kills them in Iraq]( "Yazidi still hears brothers before IS kills them in Iraq") A survivor of the mass slaughter of the Yazidi minority in Iraq five years ago told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that he still hears his brothers and nephews calling his name before they were killed by Islamic State extremists — and he hears the screams of his wife and three daughters when the militants kidnapped them. Kachi spoke at a council meeting on activities of the U.N. investigative team promoting accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq.
|
| Israeli aircraft hit Hamas site after rocket fire from Gaza Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:35 PM PST ![Israeli aircraft hit Hamas site after rocket fire from Gaza]( "Israeli aircraft hit Hamas site after rocket fire from Gaza") Israeli aircraft attacked several sites for Gaza's Hamas rulers early Wednesday in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave. The Israeli military said the targets of the multiple airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip included a weapons manufacturing facility. "If someone in Gaza thinks that he can raise his head after Operation Black Belt, he is sorely mistaken," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to two days of intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants two weeks ago that was the worst such cross-border conflict in months.
|
| Corbyn Can’t Find Antidote to Anti-Semitic ‘Poison’ Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:32 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Inside an arts center in one of London's most multicultural districts, Jeremy Corbyn declared anti-Semitism "vile and wrong." Outside, the slogans emblazoned on two red vans were equally blunt. "A vote for Labour is a vote for racism," declared one. The other said simply: "Never Corbyn."The leader of Britain's Labour Party wanted to talk about his radical new plans for the future. Instead, a little over two weeks before arguably the most pivotal U.K. election in recent memory, the biggest challenger to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday was having again to contend with something more associated with the dark days of the past."He's anti everything that I've been taught is good about the world," said David Rosenberg, a businessman who braved the late autumn drizzle to protest against Corbyn at the arts center in Tottenham, home to more than 3,000 Jews. Despite having voted for Labour in 2017, Rosenberg, 63, now said he would move to Israel if Corbyn came to power.Accusations of hostility toward the Jews have been directed at Labour since Corbyn became leader in 2015, in part because of his history of criticizing Israel and sharing platforms with members of Islamic militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. But rather than being stamped out, the issue snowballed with threats toward Jewish Labour parliamentarians. Two of them, Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman, quit the party.The latest intervention came on Tuesday from U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who condemned Corbyn's claims to be tackling anti-Semitism as "mendacious fiction" and questioned whether he's fit to run the country. Writing in the Times newspaper, Mirvis said "a new poison, sanctioned from the top, has taken root" in the Labour Party.Mirvis won public support from Justin Welby, the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church, who posted on Twitter about his concern for the "fear felt by many British Jews."Corbyn, who came of political age in the early 1970s, rejects accusations of anti-Semitism and says he has taken steps to remove it from his party. Some of his loyal supporters, meanwhile, blame the furor on his opponents trying to vilify him.QuicktakeBritain's Election Gamble — What You Need to KnowTrailing Johnson's Conservatives by double digits in some opinion polls before the Dec. 12 vote, Labour can't afford any missteps. Johnson wants the election to break the political impasse over the U.K.'s painful divorce from the European Union while Corbyn is focusing on his platform of state intervention in the economy and plans to tax businesses and the rich.Last week, though, Corbyn was twice forced to publicly declare he wasn't an anti-Semite. One Jewish audience member at a business event asked Corbyn if Labour was "for the many not the Jew" — a play on Labour's campaign slogan of "For the many, not the few."Indeed, the chief rabbi's unprecedented intervention was the issue that dominated the newspaper headlines and rolling broadcasts on Tuesday. Then Corbyn himself faced a 10 minute grilling in an interview on prime-time BBC television.He was asked about a Labour member who had questioned whether the Holocaust had really killed 6 million Jews, and another who had asserted that "Rothschild Zionists" ran the world government. Neither had been expelled from Labour. Corbyn repeatedly declined to apologize to Jewish people for the behavior of some in his party.Yet that's exactly what's needed to win back trust from the Jewish community, said Joseph Dweck, senior rabbi for Sephardi Jews in the U.K. "The issue falls on ears that are somewhat indifferent to the problem," he said. "Again, this is not a political issue for us, but one of tolerance or hate."Earlier in the day, Corbyn had published Labour's 18-page "Race and Faith Manifesto." It contained just a handful of references to anti-Semitism. One of them was to reform the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is currently investigating Labour over whether it unlawfully discriminated against Jews.In his article, the chief rabbi said there were 130 allegations of anti-Semitism outstanding against Labour members. The party disputes the figure. But Laura Janner-Klausner, senior rabbi for Reform Judaism in Britain, said Corbyn simply hasn't properly faced up to the full scale of the problem. "The only way you can gauge the truth is through actions," she said. "I don't care what's in their manifesto, the evidence is in hundreds of thousands of complaints and tens of whistle-blowers."The question is how much that resonates in the wider electorate. If the trouble for the Labour leader is that the issue just won't go away, the problem for Jewish voters is that there are only five constituencies where they account for more than 10% of the electorate, according to analysis by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.Ben Ari, 35, who grew up in east London, says he now feels betrayed by the party he's always supported. "I shouldn't have to make a choice between my Jewishness and my politics, but that's the reality," he said. "I'll be drawing a big Star of David on my ballot come Dec. 12."In Finchley and Golders Green, which has the largest Jewish population of any constituency, former Labour MP Luciana Berger faces a struggle to unseat Conservative incumbent Mike Freer after joining the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.Last month, the Jewish Labour Movement downed tools and said it wouldn't campaign in the election, except for one or two "exceptional" candidates. It had already said Corbyn was "unfit" to be prime minister."There's only three or four seats for enough Jews to have any impact," said Mike Katz, who is the chairman of the group. "But it's not a good look in many voters eyes to be racist and one of the good things about this country is that people don't like a racist party."\--With assistance from Robert Hutton and Alex Morales.To contact the author of this story: Jess Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Rodney JeffersonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| UPDATE 1-Data firm broke Canadian privacy laws with involvement in Brexit, U.S. campaigns -probe Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:13 PM PST ![UPDATE 1-Data firm broke Canadian privacy laws with involvement in Brexit, U.S. campaigns -probe]( "UPDATE 1-Data firm broke Canadian privacy laws with involvement in Brexit, U.S. campaigns -probe") Canadian data firm AggregateIQ broke privacy laws with some of the work it did for a leading pro-Brexit group in Britain and a number of U.S. political campaigns, according to a report of an official probe released on Tuesday. Daniel Therrien, the federal privacy commissioner, along with Michael McEvoy, his counterpart in the province of British Columbia, said AggregateIQ (AIQ) had not done enough to ensure it had the authority to disclose British voter data. AIQ was hired in 2016 by Vote Leave, which wanted Britain to leave the European Union, to draw up Facebook Inc advertisements aimed at potential voters.
|
| 'Bleak' U.N. Report Finds World Heading to Climate Catastrophes Posted: 26 Nov 2019 11:56 AM PST  Four years after countries struck a landmark deal in Paris to rein in greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to avert the worst effects of global warming, humanity is headed toward those very climate catastrophes, according to a U.N. report issued Tuesday, with China and the United States, the two biggest polluters, having expanded their carbon footprints last year."The summary findings are bleak," the report said, because countries have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse gas emissions even after repeated warnings from scientists. The result, the authors added, is that "deeper and faster cuts are now required."The world's 20 richest countries, responsible for more than three-fourths of emissions, must take the biggest, swiftest steps to move away from fossil fuels, the report emphasized. The richest country of all, the United States, however, has formally begun to pull out of the Paris accord altogether.Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 1.5% every year over the past decade, according to the annual assessment, the Emissions Gap Report, which is produced by the U.N. Environment Program. The opposite must happen if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread food insecurity by midcentury. To stay within relatively safe limits, emissions must decline sharply, by 7.6% every year, between 2020 and 2030, the report warned.Separately, the World Meteorological Organization reported Monday that emissions of three major greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide -- have all swelled in the atmosphere since the mid-18th century.Under the Paris agreement, reached in November 2015, every country has pledged to rein in emissions, with each setting its own targets and timetables. Even if every country fulfills its current pledges -- and many, including the United States, Brazil and Australia, are currently not on track to do so -- the Emissions Gap Report found average temperatures are on track to rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius from the baseline average temperature at the start of the industrial age.According to scientific models, that kind of temperature rise sharply increases the likelihood of extreme weather events, the accelerated melting of glaciers and swelling seas -- all endangering the lives of billions of people.The Paris agreement resolved to hold the increase in global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit; last year, a U.N.-backed panel of scientists said the safer limit was to keep it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.There are many ways to reduce emissions: quitting the combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal, the world's dirtiest fossil fuel; switching to renewable energy like solar and wind power; moving away from gas- and diesel-guzzling cars; and halting deforestation.In fact, many countries are headed in the wrong direction. A separate analysis released this month looked at how much coal, oil and natural gas the world's nations have said they expect to produce and sell through 2030. If all those fossil fuels were ultimately extracted and burned, the report found, countries would collectively miss their climate pledges, as well as the global 2 degree Celsius target, by an even larger margin than previously thought.A number of countries, including Canada and Norway, have made plans to reduce emissions at home while expanding fossil-fuel production for sale abroad, that report noted."At a global level, it doesn't add up," said Michael Lazarus, a lead author of the report and director of the Stockholm Environment Institute's U.S. Center.To date, he noted, discussions on whether and how to curb the production of fossil fuels have been almost entirely absent from international climate talks.The International Energy Agency recently singled out the proliferation of SUVs, noting that the surge of SUVs, which consume more gasoline than conventional cars, could wipe out much of the oil savings from a nascent electric-car boom.Diplomats are scheduled to gather in Madrid in December for the next round of negotiations over the rules of the Paris agreement. The world's biggest polluters are under pressure to raise their pledges."This is a new and stark reminder," Spain's minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, said of the Emissions Gap Report in an email. "We urgently need to align with the Paris agreement objectives and elevate climate ambition."If there is any good news in the report, it is that the current trajectory is not as dire as it was before countries around the world started taking steps to cut their emissions. The 2015 Emissions Gap Report said that, without any climate policies at all, the world was likely to face around 4 degrees Celsius of warming.Coal use is declining sharply, especially in the United States and Western Europe, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. Renewable energy is expanding fast, though not nearly as fast as necessary. And city and state governments around the world, including in the United States, are rolling out stricter rules on tailpipe pollution from cars.Those who have followed the diplomatic negotiations say they are confronted by something of a cognitive dissonance when they think about this moment. The world's biggest polluters are nowhere near where they should be to draw down their emissions at a time when the human toll of climate change is near impossible to ignore.And yet, renewable energy is spreading faster than could have been anticipated even a few years ago; electric buses and cars are proliferating and young people are protesting by the millions in rich and poor countries alike. Even in the United States, with its persistent denialist movement, how to deal with climate change is a resonant issue in the presidential campaign."There's a bit of a best of times, worst of times about this," said David Waskow, director of the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute, a research and advocacy group.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
|
| 3 Afghan Schools, 165 Accounts of Students Being Raped Posted: 26 Nov 2019 11:55 AM PST  KABUL, Afghanistan -- The 14-year-old Afghan boy said his teacher had asked him for "a little favor" in return for not failing him on his final exams. Then the man took him to the school library, locked the door and raped him, the boy said.At the same school, a 17-year-old boy reported similar treatment from the school's principal. He said the man had threatened to kill him if he told anyone.But the boys did talk, giving their accounts to a child advocacy group in their province and repeating them later in interviews with The New York Times. The advocacy group discovered that those two boys were not the only victims. From just three schools in one area of Logar province, south of the Afghan capital, the group said it had taken statements from 165 boys who said they had been sexually abused at their schools or by local officials they went to for help.Now, Afghanistan is again caught up in discussion of rampant sexual abuse of children and of a deep reluctance by many officials to deal with the issue at all.After talking with the TOLO news channel about the investigation, the leader of the Logar advocacy group, Mohammad Musa, and a colleague, Ehsanullah Hamidi, were detained by Afghanistan's national intelligence agency late last week, the group says.On Monday, former President Hamid Karzai said that if verified, the detention of Musa by the intelligence agency was "a very wrong thing."A spokesman for the National Directorate of Security declined to comment Monday. Musa has not been reachable for comment since late Thursday.Robert A. Destro, the assistant secretary of state, said on Twitter that the United States was closely following the case and was "greatly concerned." He called on the Afghan government "to take action to protect survivors and bring perpetrators to justice."It is unclear whether the cases at the three schools are related. But the prevalence of systematic sexual abuse of boys in Afghanistan has been a problem for generations. Bacha bazi -- it means boy play -- is common among men in powerful positions who keep boys as sex slaves. Bacha bazi boys are forced to dress as girls and to dance for men before being raped. Sometimes the boys are prostituted to the highest bidder.In an interview with The New York Times this month, Musa said that his group -- the Logar Youth, Social and Civil Institution -- began intensively investigating after a troubling Facebook post in May that showed men with boys in sexual positions. One video provided by the group shows a teenage boy dancing barefoot for about two dozen men who stand or sit in a circle around him.The post came down quickly, Musa said, but the group was able to preserve many of the images. Some of the boys were recognizable and had complained of sexual abuse before, he said.The Logar group began methodically talking to students in the area, finding dozens who said they had been raped. Many of their accounts were confirmed by teachers or other people in the area, who along with four of the boys were also interviewed by The Times.As the accounts unfolded, at least seven boys who said they had been raped were found dead, Musa said, most likely at the hands of their own families.Musa said that the advocacy group took the boys' statements to Logar provincial police but that no action was taken. He said several boys who had agreed to be questioned by police were subsequently raped by officers.Shapoor Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the Logar provincial police, said the accusations were false. "Nobody has come to the police for rape cases," he said. "It's just rumors."The Logar provincial governor, Mohammad Anwar Ashaqzai, said officials were examining boys' statements provided by the advocacy group. He said he was not aware of any rapes in the province's schools."If we find these documents are incomplete and they are fake, then those who are involved will face the law and should be punished," Ashaqzai said.Still, in response to the group's accusations, the Ministry of Education in Kabul said Nov. 14 that it was sending a delegation to the province to investigate.In Logar, Shafiullah Afghanzai, the executive officer of Hamid Karzai high school, where the 14-year-old and the 17-year-old said they had been raped, told The Times that the school's headmaster had been transferred to another district earlier this year after he was accused of sexually assaulting a boy.Afghanzai said boys had also been raped by teachers at two other schools in the province. He said three boys who had reported rapes were later killed by the Taliban, who condemn the sexual abuse as anti-Islamic."If they get evidence that teachers were involved, they will hang them," Afghanzai said of the militants.A Taliban spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.Hassibullah Stanikzai, head of the Logar provincial council, said the bodies of several boys had been found in areas of Logar under Taliban control. But he said there was no evidence that their deaths were related to sexual assault.A teacher at one school in Logar, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Hamid, said he had spoken to 13 boys who said they had been raped by teachers there. He said the families of three of those boys had moved away to avoid the social stigma of rape, especially after images were posted on Facebook."It's a crisis," Hamid said. "We want to do something to stop this mafia, but we don't know what to do."Musa, of the advocacy group, said 25 families abandoned their homes in shame after their sons said they had been raped. In some cases, he said, the boys' faces had been visible in images on the anonymous Facebook page before it was taken down.In several cases, boys had been banished from home by their fathers, Musa said."We don't trust anyone, neither the Taliban nor the government," Musa said. One school is in an area contested by the Taliban, and two are in government-controlled areas. Wakil Kaliwal, head of the education department in Logar, said there were perhaps one or two cases of student rape in the province's schools but no epidemic of sexual assault. He said the principal at Hamid Karzai high school had been transferred for beating a boy but also had been accused of raping another boy.Kaliwal added, referring to sexual assaults of boys: "It is an issue across the country, and Logar isn't exceptional."Mohammad Qasim Sediqqi, a member of the Logar provincial council, said there was no evidence of widespread rape in schools. "Maybe there are one or two cases, because this is Afghanistan, and crime exists everywhere," he said.President Ashraf Ghani, who is from Logar, promised in 2015 to crack down on bacha bazi. But pederasty is still widely tolerated in Afghan culture, and prosecutions of men who sexually assault boys are rare.An investigation by The New York Times in 2015 found widespread sexual assault of boys by the Afghan security forces or others in power and that the U.S. military was reluctant to intervene. The article reported that an American captain was relieved of command and a first sergeant was pressured to retire after they confronted and shoved an Afghan militia commander who had raped a boy. That article led to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction on the military's reticence to confront the abuse.Afghanistan made bacha bazi and related offenses violations of the national criminal code in May 2017. The penalty for violating the code is up to three years in prison -- three to five years if the dancing is "a public event." If a teacher, instructor or "superior in any way is involved," the penalty is five years in prison.But Charu Lata Hogg, executive director of All Survivors Project, a human rights group based in Liechtenstein, said the group interviewed 24 male rape victims in four Afghan provinces, not including Logar."We found that sexual violence against boys and young men is pervasive and happens within communities, police checkpoints and in detention settings," Hogg said.She said her group welcomed the 2017 laws, but she added that authorities must "apply the law and hold perpetrators to account."In a 2018 report, the United Nations documented 78 cases of sexual assault against boys in Afghanistan, adding, "Impunity for perpetrators remains a serious challenge."Shaharzad Akbar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, called on authorities to investigate the Logar allegations and prosecute anyone involved. She asked government officials to protect members of the advocacy group and refrain from "the language of fear and intimidation."Amnesty International warned that the two detained rights activists were at risk of torture "and other ill treatment" as long as they remained in custody.Lyla Lynn Schwartz, who counsels victims of trauma in Afghanistan, including rape, said Afghan boys raped by men often suffer extreme emotional and psychological distress, often for the rest of their lives. The victims are often ostracized, or even attacked, by their family members over a perceived dishonor.The 17-year-old from Hamid Karzai high school said in an interview that he was left homeless after his father banished him. He said he no longer attends school."My father says if he sees me again," he said, "he will kill me."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
|
| Data firm broke Canadian privacy laws with involvement in Brexit, U.S. campaigns -probe Posted: 26 Nov 2019 11:31 AM PST ![Data firm broke Canadian privacy laws with involvement in Brexit, U.S. campaigns -probe]( "Data firm broke Canadian privacy laws with involvement in Brexit, U.S. campaigns -probe") Canadian data firm AggregateIQ broke privacy laws with some of the work it did for a leading pro-Brexit group in Britain and a number of U.S. political campaigns, according to a report of an official probe released on Tuesday. Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien, along with his counterpart in the province of British Columbia, said AggregateIQ (AIQ) had not taken measures to ensure it had the authority to disclose British voter information. AIQ was hired in 2016 by Vote Leave, which wanted Britain to leave the European Union, to draw up Facebook Inc advertisements aimed at potential voters.
|
| Saudi-led coalition says to free 200 Yemen rebels amid peace push Posted: 26 Nov 2019 11:29 AM PST  A Saudi-led military coalition said Tuesday it will release 200 Yemeni rebels and permit some flights from the insurgent-held capital Sanaa, as efforts to end the nearly five-year conflict gain momentum. The initiatives coincide with a lull in Huthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and come after a senior official in Riyadh this month said it had an "open channel" with the Iran-aligned rebels. Patients needing medical care will be allowed to be flown out of Sanaa airport, which has been closed to commercial flights since 2016, coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency.
|
| The Latest: Israel shoots down rocket fired from Gaza Posted: 26 Nov 2019 11:23 AM PST ![The Latest: Israel shoots down rocket fired from Gaza]( "The Latest: Israel shoots down rocket fired from Gaza") The Israeli military says its missile defenses intercepted a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. It was the second incident this week, and rattled the shaky cease-fire brokered by Egypt and the U.N. two weeks ago that ended two days of fighting with Palestinian militants. Earlier this month, Israel killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant in the Gaza Strip.
|
| The Latest: Iraqi officials: Baghdad blasts kill 5 Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:25 AM PST ![The Latest: Iraqi officials: Baghdad blasts kill 5]( "The Latest: Iraqi officials: Baghdad blasts kill 5") Iraqi officials say five people were killed and 13 wounded in three simultaneous explosions across Baghdad. The Islamic State group has carried out scores of bombings in Iraq and still has a presence in some parts of the country despite no longer controlling territory. Iraqi officials say one protester has been killed and 21 people are wounded amid ongoing clashes with security forces in Baghdad.
|
| Mike Pompeo rebukes Egypt after raid on last major independent newspaper Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:24 AM PST ![Mike Pompeo rebukes Egypt after raid on last major independent newspaper]( "Mike Pompeo rebukes Egypt after raid on last major independent newspaper") Egypt escalated its crackdown on press freedom this weekend when it raided the offices of Mada Masr, the last major independent news outlet in the country, and arrested and later released four of its editors.Cairo remains a major ally of the United States in the Middle East, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday called on the Egyptian government to change course and respect the press. "As part of our longstanding strategic relationship with Egypt, we continue to raise the fundamental importance of respect for human rights, universal freedoms, and the need for a robust civil society," Pompeo said unprompted during a press conference. > BREAKING: Sec. Pompeo calls on the Egyptian government to "respect freedom of the press and to release journalists detained in a raid last weekend," an apparent reference to the raid on Mada Masr, the last major independent media outlet in the country. pic.twitter.com/jAKyhHutSc> > -- NBC News (@NBCNews) November 26, 2019Pompeo's rebuke might come as a bit of a surprise, considering the strategic alliance between the two countries and President Trump's apparent fondness for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, whom he once called his "favorite dictator." Some analysts were waiting to see what Pompeo would say about the raids, especially after he continued to criticize U.S. adversary Iran for human rights abuses. The raid was the latest episode in Cairo's expanding effort to subdue an independent press, turning the country into one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world.More stories from theweek.com Fox News guest: 'Why the hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here' 21 dead in Albania after 6.4 magnitude earthquake Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage wasn't celebrated 'a long time ago'
|
| US says received 20,000 messages from Iran protests Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:58 AM PST  The United States said Tuesday it has received nearly 20,000 messages from Iran about protests including photos and videos after appealing to demonstrators to defy restrictions on the internet. "We've received to date nearly 20.000 messages, videos, pictures, notes of the regime's abuses through Telegram messaging services," Pompeo told reporters, referring to the encrypted app. "To the courageous people of Iran who refuse to stay silent about 40 years of abuses by the ruling regime, I say simply this: the United States hears you, we support you and will continue to stand with you in your struggle for a brighter future for your people and for your great nation," Pompeo said.
|
| Lebanon’s President to Hold Talks on New Premier This Week Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:53 AM PST ![Lebanon's President to Hold Talks on New Premier This Week]( "Lebanon's President to Hold Talks on New Premier This Week") (Bloomberg) -- Parliamentary consultations to name a new Lebanese prime minister are expected to begin Thursday, with caretaker premier Saad Hariri saying he won't take on the job permanently amid nationwide unrest.President Michel Aoun will canvass parliamentary blocs to see which candidates they prefer, and based on those recommendations he'll assign someone to form a new government. Consultations usually take at least two days. The Thursday start date was reported on the news website of Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement.Earlier in the day, Hariri said he wouldn't head the new cabinet, declaring on Twitter that "I am committed to the principle of 'not me but someone else.'" Hariri, who favors a government of experts to address Lebanon's financial and economic crises, said the new government should meet the aspirations of the young men and woman who have been protesting for over a month.Hariri, who in his statement touted the role played by women in the protests, has according to media reports proposed caretaker Interior Minister Raya El Hassan as his preferred candidate for premier.Other names in circulation include former ambassador to the United Nations Nawaf Salam, chairman of the Banking Control Commission Usama Mikdashi and his predecessor Walid Alamuddin, as well as businessman Samir Al Khatib, who told a local television channel that he would accept the nomination if it was offered.The deepening crisis that's gripped Lebanon has paralyzed the economy, put pressure on its decades-old currency peg and raised the threat of default. Hariri stepped down late last month, and demonstrators are demanding a government of technocrats to avoid an impending financial meltdown.Political parties have been unable to reach a deal on the shape of the new government because the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies, including Aoun, want to be represented alongside independent experts. Last week, former Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi was put forth as a consensus candidate, but he withdrew after protesters opposed the choice. Safadi has denied their allegations that he used his political status to benefit his business.Lebanon's Standoff Worsens With Parliament Paralyzed by ProtestsThe central bank began rationing dollars even before the unrest ignited, pushing up demand for the foreign currency and creating a black market rate that's currently 30% higher than the fixed exchange rate of 1,507.50 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. The move has stymied trade and imports in a country that's almost entirely reliant on foreign goods.The Economic Committees, a group that represents the private sector, said its member businesses will go on a three-day nationwide strike to protest the deteriorating conditions. The Traders Association union will join the walkout, according to its head, Maroun Chammas."The point we have reached today is this: no buying, no selling no paying and no salaries. Stockpiles are not being renewed and this means rationing and a supply crisis," Chammas said in a televised conference.A shortage of dollars has forced many importers to buy currency on the black market at higher rates. The central bank said it would supply dollars to importers of fuel, wheat and pharmaceuticals.(Updates with possible names for premiership)To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Michael GunnFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Corbyn Defends Party in Latest Row Over Antisemitism: U.K. Votes Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:30 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Jeremy Corbyn is again embroiled in a row over antisemitism, after the U.K.'s chief rabbi suggested the Labour leader is unfit for high office and said a "new poison -- sanctioned from the very top -- has taken root" in his party. The timing could hardly be worse. Labour trails Boris Johnson's Conservatives going into the Dec. 12 election, but appeared to have secured a poll boost on the back of plans to dramatically reshape the British economy.In a speech in north London on Tuesday, Corbyn said antisemitism is "vile and wrong," and pledged to protect "all places of worship" in the U.K.Must read: U.K. Chief Rabbi Says Corbyn's Labour Is Poisoned Against JewsComing up:U.K.'s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis says Labour can "no longer claim to be the party of equality and anti-racism"Corbyn defends Labour Party's response to antisemitism casesBBC interview with the Labour leader airs at 7 p.m.Johnson is campaigning in Scotland, where he warned that a Labour win would see Corbyn's party working with the SNPAn ICM/Reuters poll released Monday put the Conservatives on 41%, Labour on 34%, Liberal Democrats on 13% and the Brexit Party on 4%Javid Won't Guarantee Reaching Tax Goal (3:55 p.m.)Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid said he can't promise when the Conservatives will meet their ultimate target for the threshold at which workers pay national insurance.He said that in his first budget, he would increase it to 9,500 pounds, which would save around 85 pounds per person. But as to the party's wider goal of raising it to 12,500 pounds, he said: "At every budget we will look to see how much further we can go.""I can't say to you today it will definitely be done in x years or by the end of the parliament," he said. "We will do it as we can afford it as a country, but I am confident that we can keep making progress towards that goal at each budget."Javid Pledges Tory Probe into Islamophobia (3:45 p.m.)Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid promised the Conservatives will set up an inquiry into Islamophobia in the party before the end of the year."We will never ever as a party tolerate anyone amongst our ranks that has any kind of prejudice towards any group of people," Javid, who is of Muslim heritage, said in Bolton, northern England. Labour "has been contaminated with the cancer of antisemitism, and that cancer begins at the top."Javid contrasted accusations of Islamophobia in the Tory party with those of antisemitism in Labour, saying "no-one has ever credibly suggested it's an issue with the leadership" of the Conservatives. When asked about an article by Boris Johnson describing women in Muslim dress as looking like "letterboxes," he said the prime minister has given a "perfectly valid explanation."Muslim Council Attacks Tories Over Islamophobia (1:45 p.m.)It's not just Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party under fire over its record on tackling racism and prejudice. The Muslim Council of Britain -- which represents over 500 mosques and charities across the U.K. -- accused the Conservatives of approaching Islamophobia with "denial, dismissal and conceit" in a statement which welcomed the chief rabbi's comments on Labour."It is abundantly clear to many Muslims that the Conservative Party tolerate Islamophobia, allow it to fester in society, and fail to put in place the measures necessary to root out this type of racism" the council said. "It is as if the Conservative Party has a blind spot for this type of racism."Boris Johnson was widely criticized for a 2018 newspaper column in which he said Muslim women who wear burqas look like "letter boxes." During the Tory leadership campaign, candidates including Johnson committed to holding an inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.Johnson Slams Corbyn's Record on Antisemitism (1:10 p.m.)Boris Johnson criticized what he called Jeremy Corbyn's "failure" to tackle antisemitism in his party, and sought to draw parallels with the Labour leader's equivocation over Brexit."I do think it is a very serious business when the chief rabbi speaks as he does," Johnson said at an event in Scotland. "I've never known anything like it, and clearly it is a failure of leadership on the part of the Labour leader that he has not been able to stamp out this virus in the Labour Party."Corbyn's failure to stem antisemitism in Labour is "cognate with a general failure of leadership that we're seeing at this moment" on Brexit, Johnson said. "You cannot be neutral on something like this any more than you can be neutral, frankly, on antisemitism."Corbyn: Antisemitism Is 'Vile and Wrong' (1 p.m.)Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded to criticism from the U.K.'s chief rabbi, which risks undermining his campaign ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.Antisemitism is "vile and wrong," Corbyn said in a speech in Tottenham, north London. "There is no place whatsoever for antisemitism in any shape or form or in any place whatsoever in modern Britain, and under a Labour government it will not be tolerated whatsoever. I want to make that clear."Corbyn said Labour has a "rapid and effective system" for handling antisemitism cases which is "constantly under review to make sure it is rapid and effective." He also said he's "proud" to lead what he described as a "party of diversity."Johnson: No Referendums Even If No Majority (12:40 p.m.)Boris Johnson ruled out holding a second referendum on either Scottish independence or the U.K.'s European Union membership -- even if he finds himself in a minority government after the Dec. 12 general election."I genuinely think they would be bad for our country," Johnson said in Fife, Scotland at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto. "It's not the way forward now. We need to honor democracy."The red line leaves Johnson with few options if he does find himself with the biggest party in Parliament but no outright majority. That's because Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party all want a second referendum on Brexit, while the SNP is demanding a second vote on Scottish independence. Johnson has also alienated the Tories' traditional allies in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, with his Brexit deal.Labour's Shah: Party Should Have Acted Sooner (11:30 a.m.)Labour's women and equalities spokeswoman Naz Shah said the party should have acted faster on instances of antisemitism and to rebuild trust with the Jewish community."It is not acceptable that the Jewish community does not feel that the Labour Party is its natural home," Shah told the BBC on Tuesday. "We haven't been as good as we could be, we need to get better even today. We could do things differently, we do need to do much better at it and that means listening and that means responding accordingly to the Jewish community."Jeremy Corbyn's party launches its race and faith manifesto shortly in Tottenham, north London, and the furore over the intervention by the U.K.'s chief rabbi will inevitably dominate proceedings.Corbyn's Spending Blitz Wins Economists' Backing (Earlier)Former Bank of England policy maker Danny Blanchflower and more than 160 other economists and academics have backed the Labour Party's election promises as the best way to help the U.K. economy.In a letter published in the Financial Times, the economists said productivity growth has all but stagnated over the past decade and more public investment is needed, particularly into green technology aimed at energy, transport, housing, industry and farming.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's plans include an extra 83 billion pounds ($108 billion) of day-to-day spending and 55 billion pounds more for investment, which amounts to about six pounds of new spending for every one pledged by Boris Johnson's Conservatives.Gove: Rabbi's Labour Intervention 'Unprecedented' (Earlier)Cabinet minister Michael Gove called criticism of Labour by the U.K.'s chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis "an unprecedented intervention in a general election.""Jeremy Corbyn has been warned about antisemitism at the heart of his party for years now," Gove told Talk Radio on Tuesday. "The chief rabbi has confirmed that Jeremy Corbyn just hasn't taken the action required."But Labour's faith envoy Stephen Timms told the same station "steps have been taken to deal with" antisemitism in the party, and accused Gove's Tories of ignoring its own problems with racism and prejudice."There have been problems of antisemitism in the Tory Party as well, as well as a very big problem of Islamophobia which the Tory party has largely ignored," said Timms, a Labour member of Parliament.Johnson, Corbyn Dig Up Old Attack Lines (Earlier)Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are digging up attack lines from past elections as they seek to get an edge ahead of the Dec. 12 election.Johnson's Conservatives on Tuesday said a Labour win would see Corbyn's party, allied with Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish National Party, spending next year -- and 150 million pounds ($194 million) -- holding fresh referendums on Scottish independence and the U.K.'s EU membership. That revives their 2015 warning that Labour would form a "coalition of chaos" with Sturgeon, which helped David Cameron win a surprise majority.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. That sparks memories of the 2017 campaign when Labour branded the Tory social care plan a "dementia tax," helping to derail Theresa May's bid to extend her majority.Read more: Labour, Tories Dig Up Old Attack Lines in Bid for U.K. PowerAnti-Brexit Tories Ramp Up Johnson Criticism (Earlier)Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine urged voters to back the Liberal Democrats and accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of pursuing an "utterly disastrous" policy on Brexit."The real issue is what is at stake and it is the prosperity of this country, the world influence of this country, our relationship with our neighbors in Europe," Heseltine told BBC radio on Tuesday. "I cannot vote or support people who are going to make the country poorer or less influential."It's the latest example of anti-Brexit Conservatives trying to make their voices heard in the run up to the Dec. 12 vote. On Monday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab's Tory predecessor in his Esher and Walton constituency in south of London said voters should back for the Liberal Democrat candidate."Brexit has scrambled traditional party allegiances," Ian Taylor, who held Esher and Walton for 23 years until 2010, said on Twitter. "It is not a time for tribal party loyalties."Read more: Threat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. VotersEarlier:Four Ways the U.K. Election Could Play Out for BrexitLabour, Tories Dig Up Old Attack Lines in Bid for U.K. PowerThreat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. Voters\--With assistance from Andrew Atkinson and Kitty Donaldson.To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Andrew AtkinsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Brexit Bulletin: From Election to No-Deal Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:24 AM PST  Days to General Election: 16(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.What's Happening? However the U.K. general election plays out, a no-deal Brexit is still on the cards.The specter of a no-deal Brexit hasn't gone away. In fact, there are four ways the upcoming general election could revive the risk of an abrupt U.K. split from the European Union.Only one election outcome gives Boris Johnson a clear path to get his Brexit deal approved in the timescale he wants. Conservative Majority: If Johnson's Tories win more than 325 seats they will form the next government. Johnson will aim to pass his Brexit deal swiftly and formally leave the EU by Jan. 31. He then has 11 months to negotiate a trade agreement with Brussels — a goal many observers say will be hard to meet. No-Deal Alarm: Dec. 31, 2020. Little Change: There's a real prospect that after all the campaigning Parliament will end up divided once again. This would herald more Brexit turmoil and a potential stream of crisis votes in early 2020. No-Deal Alarm: Jan. 31, 2020. Labour In, But Who Leads? If the Tories slump below 300 seats Labour might look to smaller parties for a way into Downing Street, potentially without Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. That could set up a battle royale, with no-deal by accident a real possibility. No-Deal Alarm: Jan. 31, 2020. Prime Minister Corbyn: If the Tories and Labour each win similar numbers of seats, Corbyn could cut a deal with the Scottish National Party, offering a new referendum on Scottish independence. Corbyn would then seek a soft-Brexit deal before putting that to a public vote (and staying neutral). No-Deal Alarm: The next Conservative government.Today's Must-ReadsFormer EU envoy Ivan Rogers believes the worst is yet to come on Brexit. In a hurry? Bloomberg's Joe Mayes weighs up how difficult it might be to seal a trade deal by Dec. 2020.Feel like you've heard it all before? You might be right. Johnson and Corbyn are tapping messages from past campaigns to boost their chances of victory, Bloomberg's Alex Morales reports.A Tory majority could mean a public spending and economic growth bump equivalent to a one percentage point interest-rate cut, Marcus Ashworth writes for Bloomberg Opinion.Brexit in Brief"New Poison" | Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis intervened in the election campaign, sharply criticizing Corbyn over antisemitism and saying Labour can "no longer claim to be the party of equality and anti-racism." Corbyn responded by calling anti-Jewish sentiment "vile and wrong."Economists for Corbyn | Former Bank of England policy maker Danny Blanchflower and more than 160 other economists and academics have backed the Labour party's election promises as the best way to help the U.K. economy.Polls Hit the Pound | The pound slipped as a couple of polls showed a tightening race. A Kantar survey released Tuesday showed an 11 percentage point lead for the Tories, while an ICM/Reuters poll released late Monday put them seven points ahead of Labour. Traders are wary of an inconclusive result and an ongoing Brexit impasse. Tactical Shift | After Tony Blair, Michael Heseltine: The former Conservative cabinet minister became the latest pro-Remain politician to advocate tactical voting rather than tribal loyalty.Landslide Ahead? | A detailed analysis of YouGov data revealed "some of the most startling polling numbers I have ever seen" — and could flag a Conservative landslide, pollster Peter Kellner writes for The Article.Social Media Spending | The Liberal Democrats are spending more cash advertising on Facebook and Instagram than the Conservatives and Labour, a Guardian analysis on social media campaigning shows. Jo Swinson's party is attempting to cut through with a strong anti-Brexit message.Register to Vote | People in England, Scotland and Wales have until 11:59 p.m. tonight to register to vote in the U.K. general election. According to the Electoral Reform Society, at least 3.2 million applications have been made since the election was called, with 74% of those by people aged under 34.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: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Adam Blenford at ablenford@bloomberg.net, Chris KayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| UNC to update policies following complaint of anti-Semitism Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:13 AM PST ![UNC to update policies following complaint of anti-Semitism]( "UNC to update policies following complaint of anti-Semitism") The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has agreed to expand its anti-bias training and expressly forbid anti-Semitism in campus policies as part of an agreement with the U.S. Education Department following complaints about a March conference featuring a rapper accused of anti-Jewish bias. The university announced the changes Monday after reaching a resolution with the department's Office for Civil Rights. The deal puts an end to the inquiry without any admission of wrongdoing on the school's part, and without any official finding from the department on the allegation of illegal discrimination.
|
| Thousands of farmers in mass tractor protest in Berlin Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:10 AM PST  Thousands of farmers drove their tractors to Berlin's famed Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday in a mass protest against new environmental regulations they say threaten their livelihoods. Long convoys brought traffic to a standstill in the heart of the city's government district, in the biggest display yet of farmers' anger over agricultural policy changes agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet in September. "First the plants starve, then the farmers, then you," read one sign attached to a green tractor.
|
| American killed in attack on UN vehicle in Kabul on Sunday -Pompeo Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:08 AM PST ![American killed in attack on UN vehicle in Kabul on Sunday -Pompeo]( "American killed in attack on UN vehicle in Kabul on Sunday -Pompeo") A U.S. citizen was killed in an attack on a United Nations vehicle in Kabul on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, as he condemned the act. "Attacks targeting UN personnel working to help the Afghan people are unconscionable and we condemn this act in the strongest possible terms," Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. An Afghan government spokesman said on Sunday that one foreign nationals had been killed and five others wounded when a grenade was thrown at a UN vehicle in the Afghan capital.
|
| Thousands rally in support of embattled Israeli leader Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:53 AM PST  Thousands of people rallied in support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in what was intended to be a show of strength for the Israeli leader as he battles a corruption indictment and a possible rebellion within his own party. While the demonstration has no impact on the legal charges, a strong turnout could give Netanyahu a boost in terms of public opinion and against potential rivals in his Likud party as the country appears to be heading toward new elections. Netanyahu has claimed that he is the victim of an attempted "coup" by overzealous police investigators and prosecutors.
|
| The 2019 Global Education Summit Focused on The Future of Education with Sharing From Diverse Perspectives Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:48 AM PST  On November 25th, the 2019 Global Education Summit (hereinfater "GES 2019") kicked off in Beijing. The summit is jointly organized by the China Development Research Foundation, Beijing Normal University, Tencent, GSV(Global Silicon Valley), New Oriental Education & Technology Group, and TAL Education Group, with academic cooperation support from Arizona State University (ASU) and the participation of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
|
| Brexit Trade Deadline ‘Very Demanding,’ Irish Finance Chief Says Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:43 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The European Union's time frame to complete a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.K. will be "very demanding" as officials race to complete a complicated set of negotiations at an unprecedented pace, according to Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have only 11 months to negotiate a trade deal with the EU's 27 remaining members even if an agreement to exit to the bloc goes through the British parliament at the end of January. A rapidly negotiated trade deal will be a lifeline across the Irish Sea."It's a very demanding deadline to have such difficult and complex work done by then," Donohoe said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Berlin on Tuesday. "But of course the European Commission and the European Union will be ambitious, and we will look to get the work in the negotiation completed as soon as possible." The Irish economy stands to sustain the most damage among EU member states in the event of a disorderly Brexit, though the risk of having no deal has receded amid speculation Johnson will able to push his deal through after the Dec. 12 election.But after the deal is done, an even bigger task lies ahead: securing a free-trade agreement with the EU before a transition period runs out at the end of 2020. Previous deals have taken years to complete. An EU accord with South American nations in the Mercosur group took 20 years to negotiate.Since the EU will be negotiating for 27 nations, any deal with have to take into account competing interests ranging from Spanish access to U.K. fishing waters and France's focus on dairy-export markets. EU states including Ireland have also demanded the future alignment of British regulatory standards.Donohoe played down any prospect that Brexit could redraw the century-old map of Ireland by bringing about a referendum to unite the the Republic of Ireland and U.K.'s Northern Ireland -- a prospect contained in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended conflict in the north."We're many, many phases way from something like that happening," Donohoe said. "The view of the Irish government is that the timing is not right for a poll like that, that in fact it would be very counterproductive."(Updates with comments on united Ireland, further context.)\--With assistance from Dara Doyle and Michael McKee.To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net;Alix Steel in New York at asteel6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| One False Move By Israel or Iran Will Lead to War Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:14 AM PST  Over the last two years, Israel has warned about Iran's entrenchment in Syria. But Iran has continued its role in Syria, and it continues to threaten Israel and transfer precision guidance to Hezbollah for converting its rockets.
|
| Saudis free 200 Yemeni rebels as part of peace efforts Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:55 AM PST ![Saudis free 200 Yemeni rebels as part of peace efforts]( "Saudis free 200 Yemeni rebels as part of peace efforts") The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Tuesday it has released 200 Houthi rebels to advance a U.N.-brokered deal aimed at ending the war in the Arab world's poorest country. Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said in a statement that the move was aimed at paving the way for a larger and long-delayed prisoner swap agreed upon last December. The coalition has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis on behalf of Yemen's internationally recognized government since 2015.
|
| The Black Angus Bull Trade And The Need For Tracking Its Supply Chain Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:18 AM PST ![The Black Angus Bull Trade And The Need For Tracking Its Supply Chain]( "The Black Angus Bull Trade And The Need For Tracking Its Supply Chain") A consignment of 250 black Angus-cross weanling bulls made its way from Ireland to Algeria on Nov. 21, marking the advent of Irish cattle into the African country and potentially opening up a new market for Irish livestock – especially with the reality of Brexit looming. This delivery is the first livestock to head to Algeria from Ireland after a new veterinary protocol was agreed upon recently by the Irish and Algerian departments of agriculture. Every year, Algeria imports roughly 150,000 cattle, making it a highly lucrative market for Irish rearers if they continue to deliver high quality and healthy livestock to the north African nation.
|
| UPDATE 4-Lebanon's Hariri says he does not want be PM Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:36 AM PST ![UPDATE 4-Lebanon's Hariri says he does not want be PM]( "UPDATE 4-Lebanon's Hariri says he does not want be PM") Lebanon's Saad al-Hariri said on Tuesday he did not want to be prime minister of a new government, putting the onus on adversaries including the Iran-backed group Hezbollah to find an alternative who can steer the country out of crisis. Hariri, who is Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician and is aligned with Western and Gulf Arab states, said his decision was final.
|
| Iran to Replace $11 Billion of Imports as Economic Crisis Bites Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:02 AM PST ![Iran to Replace $11 Billion of Imports as Economic Crisis Bites]( "Iran to Replace $11 Billion of Imports as Economic Crisis Bites") (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Iran plans to manufacture $11 billion worth of products in the next two years to replace some imports and help contend with crippling U.S.-led sanctions.The Islamic Republic aims to produce electrical, automobile and telecommunications goods and double exports to 15 neighboring countries in order to reach a target value of $48 billion, Reza Rahmani, minister for industry, mining and trade, was cited as saying by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.Iran started to ban some 1,400 non-essential goods and commodities within weeks of a sharp decline in the value of the rial against the dollar last year, after the U.S. abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions. The policy is designed to support local manufacturers and shore up foreign exchange supplies.Read: How Iran Is Using Currency Reforms to Withstand Trump: QuickTakeLast month, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said government officials should ban the import of goods that are also produced domestically.To contact the reporter on this story: Abbas Al Lawati in Dubai at aallawati6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Outgoing Lebanese PM withdraws candidacy for post Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:55 AM PST  Outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday withdrew his candidacy for the premiership, saying he hoped to clear the way for a solution to the political impasse amid weeks of anti-government protests. Hariri resigned nearly a month ago in response to mass protests ignited by a severe financial crisis. Hariri had insisted on heading a government of technocrats, while his opponents, including the militant group Hezbollah, want a Cabinet made up of both experts and politicians.
|
| Turkey 'to sign new missile defence system contract' with Russia, in fresh blow to US ties Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:27 AM PST  Turkey is to sign a new contract for S-400 missile-defense systems with Russia, according to Moscow, which would risk further souring ties with the US and could trigger threatened sanctions. Ankara received the first batch of Russia's surface-to-air missile systems systems in July, prompting the US to kick Turkey off its F-35 fighter jet programme. The Trump administration warned Ankara it could face sanctions, but said Ankara could be spared if it does not activate the S-400 system. But the Nato member yesterday came one step closer as it began testing a newly acquired Russian missile defence system against American-made fighter jets. Footage of the first trial run, which began on Monday and continued into Tuesday, showed the system's radars rotating over an air base outside the capital. US-made F-16 fighter jets were used as mock targets during the exercise, which will likely irk Washington. Initial tests may just be to ensure that the radars are working properly or to see if they can adequately distinguish between friendly and enemy aircraft. The US, as well as Nato, had been concerned that the Turkish military might conduct exactly these tests, potentially giving Russia insights into Western jets' capabilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) during a joint news conference following Russian-Turkish talks in the Black sea resort of Sochi, Russia, last month Credit: Reuters A senior US State Department official said last week that Turkey needed to get rid of the S-400s it had already bought to mend fences. Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, said the tests were "concerning" but said on Tuesday that the US was "still talking to the Turks, still trying to figure out our way through this thing." Alexander Mikheev, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, said in an interview on Tuesday that Moscow hopes to seal a deal to supply Turkey with more S-400 missile systems in the first half of next year. "We hope that in the first half of 2020 we will sign the contract documents," RIA news agency cited Mr Mikheev as saying. "But I want to stress that military technical cooperation with Turkey is not limited to the supply of the S-400s. We have big plans ahead." As Mr Mikheev's comments emerged, President Tayyip Erdogan was cited on Tuesday as saying Turkish and US officials would conduct efforts until April to sort out the dispute between the Nato allies over the S-400s. President Donald Trump (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a joint press conference at the White House in Washington D.C on Nov 13 Credit: Xinhua "There is a process that is ongoing until April. Our defence and foreign ministers will carry out these efforts. We need to see where we get with these efforts," broadcaster NTV reported him as saying when asked how they would resolve the row. Turkey's relationship with the US and Nato has been fraught, over the sale of the defence system and over Mr Erdogan's offensive in northern Syria. The US has asked Ankara to show restraint in its operation, which the latter claims is to clear Kurdish militias is considers terrorists. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have been accused of war crimes against civilians in the area.
|
| Global greenhouse gas levels reach new record Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:21 AM PST ![Global greenhouse gas levels reach new record]( "Global greenhouse gas levels reach new record") 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. "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" of "radical transformations" or we will "face the consequences" of climate change.More stories from theweek.com Fox News guest: 'Why the hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here' 21 dead in Albania after 6.4 magnitude earthquake Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage wasn't celebrated 'a long time ago'
|
| No Relief in Sight for Hong Kong Exports Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:06 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Terms of Trade newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Economics on Twitter for more.Hong Kong acts a bit like a lung for global trade in goods: Merchandise gets pulled in mostly from mainland China, funneled through the city's massive port and then exhaled again around the world.Right now the air is getting thinner. Weaker global demand and the impact of the U.S.-China trade war have hit Hong Kong's cross-border commerce at the same time as domestic economy is crippled by months of political protest. In October, exports shrank 9.2% from a year earlier, while imports dropped 11.5%, according to data released Tuesday.The vulnerability of this former British colony, dominated by the natural wonder of Victoria Harbour, to the trends affecting other economies is striking. Where once the workshops of Kowloon churned out low-price merchandise for sale around the world, nowadays the manufacturing is done across the border in Guangdong province. That means almost all the goods Hong Kong sells are actually made somewhere else.The global trade downturn, which has extended the contraction in exports to 12 months, was the original headwind facing the city's economy, before the protest wave began in the middle of this year. Now a 2019 recession is almost certain, with neither the trade tensions nor the domestic political crisis looking resolvable by year-end.Charting the Trade WarToday's Must ReadsWTO threat | The Trump administration, which threatened last week to block the World Trade Organization's 2020 budget, offered members a proposal that would allow it to continue operating, but would effectively dismantle the WTO's appellate body, which officiates disputes that affect billions of dollars in commerce every year. Phase one call | China and the U.S. "reached consensus on properly resolving relevant issues" and agreed to stay in contact on the remaining points for a "phase one" trade deal during a phone call Tuesday morning Beijing time, Beijing said. Brexit scenarios | Bloomberg's Rob Hutton outlines four ways Brexit could play out after next month's U.K. general election. Catch up on them here. Dumping ground | The European Union threatened to widen tariffs on corrosion-resistant steel from China, saying Chinese manufacturers may have shipped "slightly modified" versions of the product to dodge the duties. Saving bacon | U.S. pork producers see a potential $24.5 billion market in China within 10 years if the Trump administration can gain unrestricted trade access after the Asian country's hog herd has been devastated by disease.Economic AnalysisPipe dreams | The Commerce Department must reconsider, and possibly lower, duties on certain imports of steel pipes from South Korea, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled. Wardrobe malfunction | The Trump administration suffered a setback in its bid to hold an importer liable for allegedly underpaying duties on imports of athletic apparel from Vietnam.Coming UpNov. 29: Vietnam exports Dec. 1: South Korea exports Dec. 5: U.S. trade balanceLike Terms of Trade?Don't keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here. We also publish Balance of Power, a daily briefing on the latest in global politics.For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for full global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.How are we doing? We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our trade tsar know.To contact the authors of this story: Jeff Black in Hong Kong at jblack25@bloomberg.netEric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Arnold at marnold48@bloomberg.net, Zoe SchneeweissCraig StirlingFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Protesters furious over rebel attack torch UN base and town hall in Ebola-hit Congolese city Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:06 AM PST  An angry crowd set fire to a United Nations building as well as a local mayor's office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday, in the wake of a deadly attack by an armed group. Violent protests erupted in the northeastern city of Beni after at least 8 people were killed and others were kidnapped on Sunday night during a raid by the Allied Democratic Forces, a militant group of Ugandan origin. Residents were apparently furious that government troops and U.N. peacekeepers had failed to protect them or thwart the attack, according to separate statements from the Congolese National Police and the United Nations.
|
| 10 things you need to know today: November 26, 2019 Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:40 AM PST ![10 things you need to know today: November 26, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: November 26, 2019") 1.A federal judge ruled Monday that former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn has to comply with a House subpoena to testify before lawmakers investigating whether President Trump tried to obstruct former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The White House argued that McGahn is "absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony" about his work for Trump. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson rejected that claim. "Presidents are not kings," the judge wrote. The Justice Department said it would appeal. McGahn's lawyer said McGahn "will comply with Judge Jackson's decision unless it is stayed pending appeal." The case could lead to forced testimony by numerous officials in the House impeachment inquiry, including national security officials. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has indicated he has significant information on the Ukraine affair. [The Washington Post, The New York Times] 2.House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Monday that the panels involved in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump would send a report to the House Judiciary Committee early next month. Schiff said the report would include a list of White House refusals to cooperate with the investigation into whether Trump abused his power to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rivals, noting that the failure to cooperate could result in a separate article of impeachment for obstruction of Congress. "A dozen witnesses followed President Trump's order to defy lawful subpoenas, and the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, Office of Management and Budget, and Department of Energy have provided no documents in response to subpoenas," Schiff wrote in a letter to members of Congress. Schiff's committee has just completed two weeks of public hearings after weeks of closed-door depositions. [Reuters] 3.Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that President Trump ordered him to let Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher keep his Trident pin, meaning he could retire as a Navy SEAL. Gallagher was acquitted of murdering a wounded Islamic State prisoner but convicted for posing in a photo with the ISIS fighter's corpse. A Trident review board was examining Gallagher's status, but Trump's order put the matter to rest. Esper also addressed his decision to oust Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday, saying he was "flabbergasted" to learn that Spencer had sidestepped proper channels to negotiate directly with the White House on a deal to let Gallagher retire as a member of the elite commando force. [NPR, CNN] 4.A court in Mendoza, Argentina, on Monday found two priests guilty of sexually abusing deaf children at a Catholic-run school. The three-judge panel sentenced the Rev. Nicola Corradi to 42 years and the Rev. Horacio Corbacho to 45 years for the abuse at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in the northwestern Argentina municipality of Lujan de Cuyo. Corradi, who is Italian, is 83 and is expected to be held under house arrest because of his age. Corbacho, an Argentine, will be held in a Mendoza prison, as will gardener Armando Gomez, who was sentenced to 18 years in the case. The case has shaken the church in the homeland of Pope Francis. "Thank God there has been justice and peace for the victims," said Dante Simon, one of two Argentine priests the Vatican sent to the South American nation to investigate the case. [The Associated Press] 5.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. "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" of "radical transformations" or we will "face the consequences" of climate change. [World Meteorological Organization] 6.The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request to review the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case was the subject of the first season of the hit podcast Serial and a four-part HBO documentary. Syed's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reverse the Maryland Court of Appeals' August decision against granting a new trial for Syed, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Syed's legal team argued that he deserved a new trial because his trial attorney, now dead, was ineffective and failed to pursue an alibi witness. The Serial podcast in 2014 examined whether Syed received a fair trial, while the HBO documentary, The Case Against Adnan Syed, looked at DNA tests, which found nobody else's DNA on Lee's body. [The New York Times] 7.Charles Schwab Corp. on Monday reached a deal to buy TD Ameritrade for $26 billion in an acquisition that creates a giant brokerage with $5 trillion in assets under management. Analysts expect the purchase to force smaller rivals to seek their own mergers to compete in an industry already shaken by price wars. Schwab, a pioneer in low-cost investing, has been on the front lines, last month becoming the first major brokerage to eliminate commissions. Fidelity Investments, E*Trade, and TD Ameritrade then matched the move. "In a low, or no fees world ... the pressure will be on other financial services rivals to try to keep up, or to gain further scale themselves," Bankrate.com senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said. [Reuters] 8.U.S. stocks jumped to record highs on Monday on mounting indications that the U.S. and China are nearing a "phase one" deal to end their trade war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.7 percent to close at a record. The S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent, also hitting an all-time high. The Nasdaq had the biggest day, rising by 1.3 percent and closing at a record level. President Trump noted the records and tweeted: "Enjoy!" Monday's gains came after several rough days last week when all three of the main U.S. indexes snapped multi-week winning streaks as expectations of a trade deal weakened. U.S. stock futures were flat early Tuesday as investors continued to monitor the trade dispute. [CNBC] 9.The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked the House from obtaining President Trump's financial records while the court considers whether to review the case. A lower court ruled that the House should be allowed to see the documents, which the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed from Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, in mid-April. Trump's lawyers argue he is immune from such an investigation while in office. "This is a significant separation-of-powers clash between the president and Congress," Trump's personal lawyer William Consovoy said in a filing with the court. The Supreme Court gave Trump's lawyers until Dec. 5 to file a formal petition explaining why the court should review the full case. Another ruling in favor of a New York prosecutor seeking Trump's tax returns also is on hold. [The Washington Post] 10.Thieves broke into a German state museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on Monday and stole 18th-century jewelry in what German media described as the biggest art theft since World War II. The thieves got into the palace's Green Vault, which houses 4,000 pieces of antique jewelry, after a fire at an electrical distribution point knocked out the museum's alarm and lights. Still, a security camera captured images of two men smashing a window, cutting through a fence, and breaking the glass of a display case. German media reported that the thieves took jewels possibly worth more than $1 billion, but the director of Dresden's state art collections, Marion Ackermann, said it was impossible to estimate the stolen items' value "because it is impossible to sell." [The Guardian]More stories from theweek.com Fox News guest: 'Why the hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here' 21 dead in Albania after 6.4 magnitude earthquake Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage wasn't celebrated 'a long time ago'
|
| Michael Bloomberg, American oligarch Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:50 AM PST ![Michael Bloomberg, American oligarch]( "Michael Bloomberg, American oligarch") Billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg will almost certainly not win the presidency -- because he will almost certainly not win the Democratic nomination.You can't just skip six months of debates, the Iowa caucuses, and the New Hampshire primary and hope to prevail by making seven-digit TV ad buys in major media markets around the country. Neither are you likely to come out on top in a party's presidential nominating contest when you're barely even a member of that party and nearly half of its voters are ideologically committed to an agenda sharply opposed to the one you're selling.But that doesn't mean we should respond to Bloomberg's bid with complacency. Bloomberg himself obviously thinks he has a decent shot, and so do many of our country's journalistic gatekeepers. That means we need to take his campaign seriously, recognizing it for what it is -- which is an expression of highly developed rot at the core of the American political system.As we repeatedly heard in last week's impeachment hearings in Congress, members of America's centrist political establishment like to point to the baleful influence of "oligarchs" on public life in the post-communist political cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, very much including Ukraine. The U.S. supposedly suffers from no such plague of corruption, or at least we didn't until Donald Trump won the presidency and single-handedly began a "dismal process of Ukrainianization" that is spreading sleaze throughout the system.That's a quote from a powerful column by arch-establishment pundit Bret Stephens, who expresses disgust at the willingness of a thoroughly Trumpified Republican Party "to debase our political standards to the old Ukrainian level just when Ukrainians are trying to rise to our former level." Such disgust was expressed over and over again in those hearings last week -- by the Democrats posing the questions to career civil servants testifying against the president no less than by those witnesses themselves. It was the consensus of everyone except the Trump-defending Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee that the president's tendency to act like an Eastern European oligarch poses (in Stephens' words) "a clear and present danger to our security, institutions, and moral hygiene."It's hard to disagree with this diagnosis. Yet two weeks before this column ran, Stephens penned another -- this one titled "Run, Mike, Run!", a warm bucketful of flattery for the centrist media mogul that all but begged him to jump into the race for president in order to save the country from both President Trump and his far more progressive Democratic primary opponents.As far as Stephens was concerned, the fact that Bloomberg is a billionaire who would be running against a sizable segment of the Democratic Party was a bonus, since his moderate positions would prove popular in the general election and his financial edge would give him a unique advantage against a Republican Party that enjoys a significant fundraising advantage. Plus, voters would get to compare the two billionaires side-by-side and would be sure to choose the "maker" over the "faker."Apparently oligarchs aren't so bad after all -- as long as they oppose Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.Of course Stephens and other Bloomberg boosters would strenuously deny that the billionaire is an "oligarch" at all. He's a self-made, wildly successful businessman and entrepreneur, and a politician who served three terms as mayor of the largest city in the country. What could be better than that? He should be treated as a hero -- an exemplification of the American dream.But is it true? The term "oligarch" comes down to us primarily from Aristotle, who distinguished between rule by the virtuous "few" for the sake of the common good (aristocracy) and rule by the wealthy "few" for the sake of their own selfish advantage (oligarchy). When we use the term to describe rich, self-aggrandizing elites in Russia and Eastern Europe, we mean roughly what Aristotle did.Is Bloomberg an oligarch in this sense? For that matter, what about Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Charles Koch, George Soros, Sheldon Adelson, Jamie Dimon, Howard Schultz, Tom Steyer, and the other super-rich men who play such an outsized and growing role in our politics? Are they acting in a genuinely public-spirited way when they donate vast sums to political causes and campaigns? Or are they self-dealing plutocrats out to advance their own interests instead?The answer is rarely obvious. Even the most self-interested political actors will tend to portray their own agenda as motivated at least in part by noble ideals. They might even believe it themselves. That's why we must seek evidence in what they actually do or propose to do.In Bloomberg's case, there's the mystery of his decision to jump into the race. Why would he do this when Joe Biden, currently leading in both the moderate lane and the primary race as a whole, should be an ideologically acceptable choice to win Bloomberg's support? Why would Bloomberg risk weakening his fellow centrist by directly challenging him for the nomination? It only makes sense if we assume that Bloomberg fears that Biden's high standing in the polls conceals an underlying vulnerability. But to whom? Bloomberg may fear that Biden would lose to Trump, though so far head-to-head polling belies such concerns. It's far more likely that Bloomberg fears that Biden could lose to Warren or Sanders in the primaries.Now, it's possible that Bloomberg worries that, should they prevail over Biden, Warren or Sanders would both be too far left to defeat Trump in the general election. (He could be right about that.) But there's also substantial evidence that he fears Warren or Sanders winning next November for reasons very much rooted in his own substantial wealth and business interests.Bloomberg has likewise had respectful and even laudatory things to say about the Chinese government, including the leadership of the Communist Party and Xi Jinping in particular, even in the context of its repression of Hong Kong and the mainland's Muslim Uyghur minority. Is this because he favors authoritarian policymaking on the merits? (There's some troubling evidence for this from his time as mayor of New York City.) Or do his sympathies for the Chinese government follow from Bloomberg LP's heavy investments in China -- investments that have also allegedly shaped coverage of China in Bloomberg News?My own political sympathies run to the center (though my understanding of what constitutes the true center of American politics differs quite a lot from the way it is typically defined). If you listed the policies of an imagined Bloomberg administration, I'd probably support several of them -- and almost certainly far more than I would endorse on a list of Trump or Sanders policies.Yet Bloomberg will never win my vote -- because I want a president who will do what's best for the country as a whole, and I doubt very much that this matches up with what's best for the eighth richest person in the country (and sixteenth richest person in the world). It's an awful lot to expect a person to bracket such powerful financial interests -- or even to recognize that such interests sometimes, and perhaps often, conflict with the common good.Americans would be wise to stop looking for political saviors altogether. But they would be even wiser to resist looking for them among the oligarchs, a class to which Michael Bloomberg (along with Donald Trump) very much belongs.More stories from theweek.com Fox News guest: 'Why the hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here' 21 dead in Albania after 6.4 magnitude earthquake Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage wasn't celebrated 'a long time ago'
|
| Is Trump Getting Ready to Sell Out South Korea and Japan? Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:48 AM PST  SEOUL—President Donald Trump's demands for vast increases in South Korean and Japanese financial contributions to maintain U.S. bases and forces has triggered fears here that he's eager for massive troop withdrawals from the territory of these U.S. allies. And while the scale and the history are very different, the capricious way that Trump ordered U.S. forces pulled out of northeast Syria in October is seen as a cautionary example.Although some U.S. troops reportedly are back in action in Syria, Trump created murderous confusion when he suddenly decided to pull about 1,000 of them out on Oct. 6, betraying longtime Kurdish allies beleaguered by the Turks, Syrians, Russians, and ISIS guerrillas. The overwhelming concern here is that the impetuous and ill-informed action in Syria was a rehearsal for much greater reductions in U.S. forces in northeast Asia. Trump has questioned the need for them, and their cost, for many years.Trump Wants to Turn America's Alliances Into Protection Rackets"My Korean colleagues worry that the Syria withdrawal could also be applied to Korea, and potentially with similar very negative consequences," says Bruce Bennett, senior researcher at RAND Corp. "Actions like the Syria withdrawal cause our allies to worry that they could be next, and that worry undermines the strength of our alliances."The U.S. role in Korea was put to the test last week when James DeHart, chief U.S. negotiator on the bases, staged a precipitous walkout after two hours getting nowhere in a meeting here with South Korea's negotiator. South Korea contributed approximately $900 million this year to the bases, up 8 percent from 2018. But Trump wants to up the price to Seoul by 400 percent to $5 billion, a figure he seems to have pulled out of thin air and that the Pentagon has had trouble justifying. (As MIT Prof. Vipin Narang told CNN in a memorable remark, "Nothing says 'I love you' like a shakedown.") DeHart, Trump's negotiator, read a brief statement saying South Korea's counter-proposal to Trump's demand for raising the South Korean outlay was "not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden-sharing." Thus "we cut short our participation in the talks" in hopes the Koreans would "put forward new proposals…."Maybe the Trump team thinks this is just the way things are done here on the peninsula. DeHart's remarks bear an uncanny resemblance to those of the North Korean negotiator who broke off talks in Stockholm last month with U.S. nuclear negotiator Stephen Biegun, claiming the U.S. had added nothing to the dialogue on the North's nukes and missiles.It's not only the U.S. presence in South Korea that's imperiled; bases also are in doubt in Japan, where conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is balking at Trump's demand for a $4 billion increase in its annual contribution.Bruce Bennett at RAND raises the question of who has military superiority in the region if the U.S. breaks its historic alliances. North Korea has 1.1 million troops plus 30 to 60 nuclear warheads, he notes, while South Korea's armed forces, bereft of nukes, will be down to 365,000 by 2022. "If the North is in a position of dominance," Bennett asks, "what will the rest of the world conclude about the value of an alliance with the U.S., and what will the world conclude about the need for national nuclear weapon programs?" Such a move could well lead to "the end of effective U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts."During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump seemed to embrace the idea that South Korea and Japan should have their own nuclear weapons to defend against North Korea. "At some point," he told Anderson Cooper in a CNN town hall, "we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea, we're better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start to protect itself.... Wouldn't you rather in a certain sense have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea has nuclear weapons?... Wouldn't you rather have Japan, perhaps, they're over there, they're very close, they're very fearful of North Korea."By law Trump cannot arbitrarily slash the number of U.S. troops in Korea, now about 28,500, to below 22,000 without talking to the South Koreans and proving the drawdown won't compromise the alliance or defense of the South. Trump, however, has said repeatedly that he believes South Korea and Japan can fend for themselves and American forces are no longer needed. The danger is Trump means what he says, but his friend Kim Jong Un is not cutting him much slack. On Monday, nine years after North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on an island in the Yellow Sea, the North's state media reported Kim had presided over an artillery exercise on a nearby island—as menacing as the North's recent short-range missile tests in view of its proximity to South Korean territory but apparently not much of a worry for POTUS."Trump is unafraid to push to the wire and beyond on cost-sharing negotiations with Korea and Japan because he believes he has all the leverage," says Victor Cha at Georgetown University. "If they don't want to pay, he will pull them out."Cha, who served on the National Security Council during the presidency of George W. Bush, bases this conviction on what he sees as Trump's "unappreciation of the benefits of having allies around the world." His outlook as a businessman, he observes, leads him to "a monetization of foreign policy in general."Trump's tough bargaining position throws into doubt the future of the delicate alliance relationships that the U.S. has had since the Korean War to ward off another North Korean assault on South Korea—and possible Chinese intervention, too. Backing up U.S. forces in Korea, the U.S. has 50,000 troops in Japan, including a Marine division on Okinawa, plus more air and naval forces on Guam."He truly believes that 'free rider' stuff he's been saying since the 1980s," says Van Jackson, author of On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War. "He thinks we're being taken to the cleaners by our allies, he doesn't get the security value of alliances or forward military presence, and the only acceptable redress for his grievance is maximal rent-seeking." Defense Secretary Mark Esper, on a recent visit here, said South Korea "is a wealthy country and could and should pay more to help offset the cost of defense," but "we're not threatening our allies over this." Jackson, who now lectures at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, says he would be "willing to bet Trump pulls a troop withdrawal stunt sometime in the next year if South Korea doesn't make some huge concessions."The issue arouses intense fears and debate among South Koreans. Not only conservatives but also middle-of-the-roaders who supported President Moon Jae-in in the Candlelight Revolution of 2016 and 2017 are increasingly disillusioned by his policy of appeasing North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in the quest for reconciliation. And the concern intensifies as the American defensive shield appears to be threatened.At a rally Saturday in central Seoul, several hundred thousand people waving American and South Korean flags shouted slogans denouncing Moon. There, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, the parents of Otto Warmbier, who was jailed in North Korea nearly four years ago for stealing a poster near the end of a brief tourist trip to Pyongyang, described their son's torture before he was sent home to die in June 2017. "We look forward to working with you to solve the problem of North Korea," said Fred Warmbier, whose words were translated over mega-loudspeakers to thunderous applause. "What we need to do is to change the regime in North Korea. That's why we're here today."In the crowd, Ahn Chang, who had been jailed for refusing to leave a government office while protesting Moon's policies, worried about whatever Trump will do. "I am very afraid he will pull out troops," says Ahn. "Unlike typical U.S. presidents, he's against this whole Korean-American alliance. If he pulled out troops, we are left alone to fight."Ahn believes South Korean leftists have fallen for North Korean propaganda and won't stand up against attack from the North. "The leftists are brain-washed," he says. "We are already losing because of the lies they were telling to the people."Moon's real stance, however, may be somewhat ambivalent. On Friday, his government announced it would not take the controversial step of withdrawing from its deal for exchanging military intelligence information with Japan, as it had threatened to do. A Moon spokesman said South Korea would remain committed to GSOMIA (an acronym pronounced Gee-soh-mee-ya, for General Security of Military Intelligence Agreement) for the sake of "national interest."To Shake Up Trump, Kim Jong Un Gets All Mystical—Then Launches MissilesBut South Korea will continue to press Japan to do away with constraints on export of vital chemicals and other equipment imposed after Korea's supreme court ruled that Nippon Steel and others had to compensate Koreans forced to work for the Japanese as de facto slave labor in World War II.The sense is that Moon and others would not be thrilled by a U.S. decision to cut down the number of U.S. troops while North Korea shows no signs of scaling back, much less giving up, its nuclear and missile program. In fact, some analysts believe Trump would hesitate for fear of the rising power of China, which supports North Korea."We know Trump doesn't want to spend money for alliances," says Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute of National Unification, but "he cannot withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea and Japan because of China."But, really, there's no telling what Trump really has in mind. "He does not seem to care about the post-World War II consensus on the U.S.-built liberal world order," says Daniel Pinkston, a longtime Korea analyst and lecturer at Troy University. He and "a large part of his coalition view the liberal world order as 'rigged' or 'ripping off the U.S.'" They would "would rather ruin it and be spoilers."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.
|
| Baghdad bombings kill 5 as Iraqis protest government Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:32 AM PST  Three simultaneous explosions rocked Baghdad late Tuesday, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, Iraqi officials said, in the first apparent coordinated attack since anti-government protests erupted nearly two months ago. It was not immediately clear who has behind the bombings, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. Iraq declared victory over the extremists nearly two years ago, but they still maintain a presence in parts of the country and carry out sporadic attacks.
|
| Berlin’s Biggest Landlord Has a Warning Over Soaring Rents Posted: 26 Nov 2019 01:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Berlin's plan to control surging housing costs is diverting investment from the squeezed market even before a rent freeze comes into force, according to the city's largest residential landlord.While German courts are likely to strike down legislation to control rents for five years, "the damage has already been done," Philip Grosse, chief financial officer of Deutsche Wohnen SE, said in an interview at the property owner's headquarters.The initiative by Berlin's government has been sowing doubt since it was proposed in June and caused delays to "much-needed investments" in the city's housing stock, Grosse said. "The longer we have that uncertainty, the worse it will be."Deutsche Wohnen has postponed construction projects in Berlin and will instead focus on other cities. The company said earlier this month that its inability to raise rents significantly, combined with potential mandated rent reductions, presents a risk to cash flow of as much as 330 million euros ($363 million) over five years."The city of Berlin is creating its own civil code which conflicts with the federal regulations," Grosse said. "Our constitution explicitly forbids that."For the Berlin government, the effort has helped defuse tension that spurred a call to expropriate large for-profit landlords like Deutsche Wohnen -- the main target of public ire in the city because of its large presence.The CDU -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, which is in the opposition in the city -- plans to challenge the measures in Germany's constitutional court, according to a party spokesman. But any challenge can only happen once the new legislation takes effect, which is expected to be during the first quarter of next year."I have great trust in our legal system and, in my very strong opinion, the law will not survive a constitutional review," Grosse said.There has been one upside to Berlin's rent freeze for Deutsche Wohnen: the movement to force the city to buy out big apartment owners is faltering. Only 29% of Berliners are in favor of a proposed referendum, according to a survey published in the Berliner Morgenpost on Friday. In the same poll, 71% backed a rent freeze."It's losing steam, and it's not going to happen," said Grosse, who attributes the loss of momentum partly to the other measures against landlords. "If there's one good thing about the rent freeze, it's that."To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Blackman in Berlin at ablackman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Germany’s Altmaier Tries to Defuse Row Over U.S.-China Comments Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:44 PM PST ![Germany's Altmaier Tries to Defuse Row Over U.S.-China Comments]( "Germany's Altmaier Tries to Defuse Row Over U.S.-China Comments") (Bloomberg) -- German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier sought to clarify comments he made about the threat of U.S. and Chinese espionage, which the U.S. ambassador to Germany labeled an "insult" to American troops stationed in the country.Altmaier on Sunday defended the government's decision not to ban China's Huawei Technologies Co. from Germany's fifth-generation mobile networks, saying it didn't issue a "boycott" of American companies in the wake of espionage accusations against the U.S. around 2013.Ambassador Richard Grenell responded with a statement Monday saying that "there is no moral equivalency between China and the United States and anyone suggesting it ignores history."Altmaier, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said he was not suggesting that the political systems in the U.S. and China are "on the same level." He made the original comments during a talk show on ARD television late Sunday that focused on whether China can be trusted."It's clear that we want the highest possible security standards for sensitive data, regardless of where the products come from," he was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Bild newspaper.Huawei's role in Germany's 5G networks has been a source of growing antagonism between Berlin and Washington, along with trade, defense spending and Russian gas.U.S. officials have stressed the risks of Huawei's ties to the Chinese government and Merkel has faced pressure from her intelligence services and from her own party to keep the company out. She has insisted, however, that individual providers won't be excluded unless they fail to meet security standards.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Rogers in Berlin at irogers11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Raymond ColittFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Ebola responders on ‘lockdown’ after Congo city’s unrest Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:27 PM PST  Ebola responders are on lockdown in the eastern Congo city of Beni after angry residents attacked a United Nations base to protest repeated rebel assaults, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. Every day that health workers don't have full access to Ebola-affected areas is a "tragedy" that prolongs the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. The U.N. health agency previously could trace more than 90% of contacts of infected people in Beni but now that figure is just 17%, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
|
| Labour Makes Faith Vow After Rabbi Attack: U.K. Campaign Trail Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:18 PM PST ![Labour Makes Faith Vow After Rabbi Attack: U.K. Campaign Trail]( "Labour Makes Faith Vow After Rabbi Attack: U.K. Campaign Trail") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Labour is due to launch its race and faith manifesto just hours after the U.K.'s chief rabbi attacked Jeremy Corbyn's record in dealing with anti-Semitism in the party. Writing in The Times, Ephraim Mirvis said "a new poison -- sanctioned from the very top -- has taken root" in the party and suggested Corbyn was not fit to be prime minister.Labour insisted Corbyn was a life-long campaigner against anti-Semitism, but this isn't the kind of headline the party needs as it lags in the polls going into the final two weeks of the election.The Labour leader faces a TV grilling on the BBC on Tuesday evening.Must Read: U.K. Chief Rabbi Suggests Voters Should Avoid Corbyn's LabourELEC for more on the U.K. electionComing up:Corbyn will launch the party's race and faith manifesto in North LondonThe Liberal Democrats announce plans to expand the U.K.'s marine protected areasTuesday is the last day for British citizens to register to vote. They have until 11:59 p.m.The Polls:An ICM/Reuters poll released Monday put the Conservatives on 41%, Labour on 34%, Liberal Democrats on 13% and the Brexit Party on 4%.Here's a summary of recent polls.Catching Up:Four Ways the U.K. Election Could Play Out for BrexitLabour, Tories Dig Up Old Attack Lines in Bid for U.K. PowerThreat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. VotersSNP leader Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC's Andrew Neil that Scotland would look to rejoin the EU if Brexit happens.Remain voters will feel free to vote tactically as there's no chance of a Labour majority, argues Rachel Sylvester in the Times.The Markets:The pound traded at $1.2896 early on TuesdayBloomberg Intelligence has taken a deep-dive into the risks and opportunities the 2019 election bringsThere's now a 74% chance of a Conservative majority, according to odds offered by Paddy Power.(Adds story. An earlier version of this story was corrected.)\--With assistance from Dara Doyle.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, Adam BlenfordFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Carbon markets pioneer Moura Costa buys back EcoSecurities from Mercuria Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST ![Carbon markets pioneer Moura Costa buys back EcoSecurities from Mercuria]( "Carbon markets pioneer Moura Costa buys back EcoSecurities from Mercuria") Pedro Moura Costa, a pioneer of carbon markets in the 1990s, and partner Pablo Martinez are buying back from Swiss trader Mercuria Energy Group Ltd the low-carbon projects' developer and carbon credit generator EcoSecurities, Moura Costa said. Brazilian Moura Costa started EcoSecurities in 1997, some months before the approval of the Kyoto Protocol by the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The protocol, which included emission reduction targets for developed countries, triggered the development of carbon markets since countries could use carbon credits to help them to comply.
|
| Palestinians protest US settlement decision in ‘day of rage’ Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:56 PM PST  Thousands of Palestinian protesters took part in a "day of rage" across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, with some groups clashing with Israeli forces to protest the U.S. announcement that it no longer believes Israeli settlements violate international law. Around 2,000 people gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah by midday, where they set ablaze posters of U.S. President Donald Trump as well as Israeli and American flags. Schools, universities and government offices were closed and rallies were being held in other West Bank cities.
|
| The Latest: UN sends disaster assessment experts to Albania Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:37 PM PST  The United Nations says it is sending two technical experts from the U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination office to Albania following the earthquake that struck the country. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that in addition to dispatching the technical experts to Albania, the U.N. is also ready if required to provide assistance to Bosnia, where minor damage was recorded from a separate, magnitude-5.4 quake Tuesday. The U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination office is designed to help the United Nations and governments of disaster-affected countries during the first phase of an earthquake, hurricane, severe flooding or other sudden emergency.
|
| Four Ways the U.K. Election Could Play Out for Brexit Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.It will be no ordinary general election. Voters in Britain are now focusing their minds on the decision they will make in two weeks' time. The result will determine not just the next government, but the fate of Brexit.From crashing out without a deal to holding another referendum and remaining in the European Union, the range of outcomes is still wide open. Here's a guide to how it could all play out.Conservative MajorityResult: Boris Johnson's Conservatives get more than 325 seats in Parliament.How We Got There: The polls were right. The Conservatives picked up seats in areas where Labour has traditionally been strong, and southern Tory voters decided they disliked Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn more than Brexit.What Happens to Brexit: Johnson moves swiftly to get his deal through Parliament -- perhaps even before Dec. 31. Every Conservative candidate has pledged to vote for it and, with his majority, the prime minister can rush it through the House of Commons. Britain leaves the EU by Jan. 31.Is Brexit Done? Of course not. Johnson then has 11 months to negotiate a trade agreement with the EU. That deal will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and the loyalty pledge Tory candidates have taken doesn't cover it. Unless Johnson has a majority of more than 40, there's a risk that rebel Tory MPs who favor a more decisive break with the EU will try to force him to back a harder Brexit.Set Your No-Deal Alarm For: Dec. 31, 2020.Little ChangeResult: The Tories are the largest party, but fall just short of a majority.How We Got There: Like his predecessor Theresa May, Johnson learned that Labour heartlands are hard for Tories to conquer. In the end, voters in those places decided they didn't trust him. The seats in Leave-voting areas he did pick up were offset by losses in Remain-leaning areas.What Happens to Brexit: More of the same turmoil. Johnson refuses to step down, while the opposition parties fail to agree among themselves what should happen next. The New Year sees a potential stream of crisis votes in parliament -- to force another delay; to get Johnson's deal approved; to hold a second referendum; or even to call another election. Meanwhile, the clock ticks down toward Britain's scheduled exit on Jan. 31.Set Your No-Deal Alarm For: Jan. 31, 2020Labour In, But Who Leads?Result: The Conservatives have fewer than 300 seats, Labour loses ground too but enters government thanks to support from smaller parties. The Scottish National Party gets about 50 seats, the Liberal Democrats around 30, and a couple of former Conservatives running as independents somehow hold on.How We Got There: The Conservatives piled up votes in areas they already held, but didn't win enough of the districts they needed to take from other parties. Johnson won seats from Labour in the middle of the country, though fewer than he hoped, and lost to the SNP in Scotland. Helped by some tactical voting, the Liberal Democrats made some advances against the Tories in the south.What Happens to Brexit: Expect another delay. Johnson is clearly beaten, but who replaces him? The Liberal Democrats refuse to put Corbyn in office, and urge Labour to select an alternative prime minister, an idea with which a lot of Labour MPs are privately sympathetic. Christmas sees a battle between Corbyn's supporters and his detractors. In January, with some kind of alternative government in place, the focus turns to seeking another extension from the EU, this time to allow for a referendum.Set Your No-Deal Alarm For: Jan. 31, 2020, until the anti-Conservative parties have worked out who will replace Johnson.Prime Minister Jeremy CorbynResult: The Conservatives sink to 280 seats, and Labour rise to a similar level. Corbyn secures the support of the SNP by offering the Scottish nationalists another independence referendum and becomes prime minister.How We Got There: He did it. Corbyn staged a late surge in the polls, persuading voters that Johnson is untrustworthy and that the Conservatives were only interested in Brexit. Labour's promise of more spending on public services didn't just maintain the party's share of the vote, it helped it to win over new supporters.What Happens to Brexit: Corbyn heads to Brussels to seek a deal that keeps Britain close to the single market. EU negotiators pull such a deal off the shelf, and Corbyn puts it to the British people in a referendum in June alongside the option of staying in the EU.Set Your No-Deal Alarm For: The next Conservative government.To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Edward EvansFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Oman Sees Path to Achieve Peace Between Saudis, Yemen Rebels Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:51 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Omani Foreign Minister Yousef Bin Alawi said he is optimistic that an agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels could be reached to end the four-year-war in Yemen."There are consultations, there's mediation and the desire to solve the conflict," Bin Alawi told Oman's state television after meeting with the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington today. ''Houthi leaders' principle is to take the path of peace, security and stability, and I believe they will positively cooperate."Pompeo and Bin Alawi agreed that only a political solution will bring an end to the conflict and ensure peace, prosperity and security in Yemen, the State Department said in a statement.The U.S. has begun efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the conflict, which has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis with tens of thousands killed and millions left hungry and displaced.In September, devastating attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure highlighted the danger the Yemen conflict poses to regional stability. The strikes were claimed by the Houthis but Saudi officials and observers saw the hand of Iran, which is pushing back against a U.S.-led economic offensive to weaken the Islamic Republic.(Adds State Department statement in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Glen Carey.To contact the reporter on this story: Zaid Sabah in Washington at zalhamid@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sebastian Tong at stong41@bloomberg.net, ;Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Jim SilverFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
0 条评论:
发表评论
订阅 博文评论 [Atom]
<< 主页