| ANALYSIS: Why the US embassy in Baghdad was assaulted on New Year's Eve Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:23 PM PST  For many Americans, New Year's Eve brought a startling sight -- an American embassy under siege, assaulted by protesters and seemingly in danger of falling into enemy hands. Orchestrated by pro-Iranian militias, these protests are about domestic politics in Iraq and a country torn between two allies competing for influence -- Iran, Iraq's powerful western neighbor and fellow Shiite-majority nation, and the United States, bonded by the fight against the Islamic State and U.S. funds that helped stand up the government and keep it standing. Last Friday, an American civilian contractor was killed by rocket fire at K1, an Iraqi base that houses U.S. troops outside Kirkuk, in Iraq's north.
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| Pentagon expects to deploy troops to Mideast after Iraqi protesters assault US embassy, torch guardhouse to protest airstrikes Posted: 31 Dec 2019 04:48 PM PST  An infantry battalion of about 750 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division has been authorized to deploy to the Middle East "immediately," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement Tuesday night, after hundreds of protesters, fomented by pro-Iranian militias and seemingly permitted by Iraqi security forces, attempted to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad earlier on New Year's Eve. The violent scene on Tuesday marked another escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with President Donald Trump blaming Iran for "orchestrating" the "attack" and calling on Iraqi officials -- caught between their two allies -- to defend U.S. personnel and property.
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| Mike Pompeo Grilled on CBS: You’re Not ‘Alarmed’ by North Korea News? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 04:33 PM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted on Tuesday evening that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is "safe" following an attack earlier in the day by an Iranian-backed militia that prompted fears of another Benghazi. Or as President Trump called it on Twitter, "The Anti-Benghazi!" "The embassy is being monitored. It's safe," Pompeo told Major Garrett, who was filling in for Norah O'Donnell on the New Year's Eve edition of CBS Evening News. "The actions that we took today were prudent. Under President Trump's direction our team worked together to quickly, decisively, prudently take the appropriate responses to keep our American people safe." The president was reportedly at his Florida golf course when news of the attack reached him. Pompeo, who was among the fiercest critics in the Senate of the Obama Administration's handling of a 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, seemed to downplay the severity of the Baghdad incident by saying that the U.S. "never contemplated" evacuating the facility and pushing back on the notion that they were "caught off guard," adding, "We've known for a long time that there was this risk." At the same time, he referred to the attack as "state-sponsored terror" and "Iranian-backed terrorism" as opposed to a protest that got out of hand.Moving on to the other big international news of the day, Garrett—a former Fox News reporter—asked Pompeo, "Have you ever been more concerned about the future of U.S.-North Korean relations than you are right now?" "I was more concerned before this administration took office," Pompeo answered. "We were in a place where it was very likely we would have ended up in a war with the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. President Trump has taken an approach where we've tried to develop a diplomatic pathway. We hope that the North Koreans will reconsider, that they'll continue down that pathway." Despite Trump's efforts, Kim Jong Un announced Wednesday that his country will soon unveil a "new strategic weapon" and that it is ending its moratorium on nuclear and ballistic missile testing. "These two announcements do not alarm you?" Garrett asked. "I'm concerned about a lot of things every day, Major," Pompeo said, stumbling as he seemed to suggest he had just received the news of North Korea's announcement on his way to the interview. Finally, he allowed, "If Chairman Kim has reneged on the commitments he made to President Trump that is deeply disappointing." "We've lived up to our commitments," he added. "We continue to hold out hope that he'll live up to his as well." Jake Tapper Exposes Pompeo, Graham and Giuliani's 'Stunning' HypocrisyRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| New Year's Eve 2020 celebrations and fireworks around the world Posted: 31 Dec 2019 04:21 PM PST  New Year's Eve celebrations have taken place across the globe as the world rings in 2020. Thousands of people lined the Thames as London kicked off the new decade to the roar of football anthems such as Three Lions with the festivities providing a prelude to the Euro 2020 football tournament. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, had promised the display - which also featured music from Stormzy, Wiley and Bastille - would be the best the capital "has ever seen". Big Ben rang out 12 times to mark the start of the new year despite the bell falling mostly silent this year while renovation work is completed. London's annual New Year's Eve fireworks display was sold out, with around 100,000 revellers packed into the streets around Victoria Embankment. Fireworks light up the sky over the London Eye in central London during the New Year celebrations Credit: PA Around 2,000 fireworks set off during the display were fired from the London Eye, with the remainder coming from barges moored in a central location along the River Thames. You can see pictures from all the celebrations in our gallery here. Dubai For nearly 10 minutes, fireworks lit up the sky over Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, as hundreds of thousands gathered downtown to watch the spectacular display. The New Year's Eve display at the 2,716-foot-tall skyscraper was just one of seven different fireworks shows across the emirate. Tourists, especially from Europe and Russia, flock to the sunny beaches of Dubai at this time of year to escape the cold, dark winter. Fireworks explode around the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, during New Year celebrations in Dubai Credit: Reuters To keep the massive crowds safe, police created walkways around the Burj Khalifa tower for male-only groups to separate them from families and women. Dubai this year will be hosting Expo 2020, a world fair that brings the most cutting-edge and futuristic technologies. Russia Russians began the world's longest continuous New Year's Eve with fireworks and a message from President Vladimir Putin urging them to work together in the coming year. Putin made the call in a short speech broadcast on television just before the stroke of midnight in each of Russia's 11 time zones. The recorded message was followed by an image of the Kremlin Clock and the sound of its chimes. State TV showed footage of extensive festive fireworks in cities of the Far East. Fireworks light the night sky over the Kremlin and the Red square to mark the New Year in Moscow Credit: Rex But one holiday tradition was missing in Moscow this year - a picturesque layer of snow. The Russian capital has had an unusually warm December and temperatures in central Moscow as midnight approached were just above freezing. Fireworks explode in the sky during New Year's celebrations in Moscow Credit: Reuters Indian festivities dampened by protests Fireworks light up the sky over Mumbai's iconic Gateway of India Credit: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/ AFP Thousands of Indians ushered in the year by demonstrating against a citizenship law they say will discriminate against Muslims and chip away at India's secular constitution. Demonstrations were planned in New Delhi, in the grip of its second coldest winter in more than a century, as well as Mumbai and other cities, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attempts to dampen demonstrations that have run for nearly three weeks. Irshad Alam, a 25-year-old resident of the Shaheen Bagh area of New Delhi, stood with his 1-year-old in his arm and his wife by his side. He said he had been participating in the protest every day. "It's freezing here," he said. "But we are still here because we care about this movement." Beijing pledged to to 'seize the day' People celebrate the new year during an event at Shougang Industrial Park Credit: JASON LEE/Reuters President Xi Jinping delivered a New Year speech in Beijing to ring in 2020, pledging to achieve the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the "milestone" year. "Let's seize the day and live it to the full," Xi said, as celebrations were well underway including a spectacular party at Shougang Industrial Park, one of the venues for the Beijing 2022 Olympics. Rain couldn't stop play in Indonesia Fireworks explode after midnight over Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural park part of New Year celebrations in Bali, Indonesia Credit: Rex Tens of thousands of revellers in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta were soaked by torrential rains as they waited for New Year's Eve fireworks. Festive events along coastal areas near the Sunda Strait were dampened by a possible larger eruption of Anak Krakatau, an island volcano that erupted last year just ahead of Christmas Day, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 430 people. The country's volcanology agency has warned locals and tourists to stay 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) from the volcano's crater following an eruption Tuesday that blasted ash and debris up to 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) into the air. Kuala Lumpur lights up the night as Singapore sparkles Fireworks explode above Petronas Twin Tower during New Year's Eve celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Credit: Rex Fireworks explode over Marina Bay during New Year's Eve celebrations in Singapore Credit: Reuters Pro-democracy chants in Hong Kong as fireworks cancelled Pro-democracy protesters and revellers flocked to sites across Hong Kong to usher in 2020, but the semi-autonomous Chinese city had toned down its New Year's celebrations amid the months-long demonstrations. A fireworks display that traditionally lights up Victoria Harbor was cancelled amid safety concerns. Despite this, thousands welcomed 2020 on its neon-lit promenades and many broke into pro-democracy chants shortly after the countdown to midnight. Instead of fireworks, a "Symphony of Lights" took place, involving projections on the city's tallest skyscrapers, while smaller-scale pyrotechnics were launched from waterfront rooftops. Protesters hold up their hands to symbolize the five demands of the pro-democracy movement as New Year's fireworks light up the sky in Hong Kong Credit: AP Protesters chant as fireworks explode in Hong Kong along the waterfront on new year's eve in Tsim Sha Tsui Credit: Rex Australia sees in the new roaring 20s Australia ushered in the New Year with a huge fireworks display in Sydney, despite the calls to cancel the event as devastating bushfires raged across the country. A petition to cancel the event out of respect for fire victims attracted more than 280,000 signatures. Fireworks displays were scrapped in Australia's capital, Canberra, and Sydney's western suburbs due to elevated fire danger and extreme weather conditions. Critics had wanted Sydney to use the Aus $6.5 million ($4.5 million) spent on the display to fight bushfires ringing the city, but officials said the event was worth Aus $130 million to the economy and cancelling it would not have helped those impacted by the fires. More than 100,000 fireworks lit up the skyline for the hundreds of thousands of spectators thronging the city centre. Crowds were warned to take care as strong winds gusted in the harbour, forcing the cancellation of a boat display that would have blasted water into the sky. Fireworks explode over Sydney Harbour as part of New Year's Eve celebrations Credit: Rex Sydney's celebrations Credit: Getty Images AsiaPac Meanwhile, Melbourne shimmered as the night sky erupted Credit: Getty Images AsiaPac Japan's new era celebrates its first New Year's People flocked to temples and shrines in Japan, offering incense with their prayers to celebrate the passing of a year and the first New Year's Eve of the Reiwa era. A Shinto priest prepares to attend a ritual to mark the end of the year and prepare for the new one at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo Credit: Rex Under Japan's old-style calendar, linked to emperors' rules, Reiwa started in May, after Emperor Akihito stepped down and his son Naruhito became emperor. Although Reiwa is entering its second year with 2020, Jan 1 still marks Reiwa's first New Year's, the most important holiday in Japan. The first year of the new decade will see Tokyo host the 2020 Olympics, an event that is creating much anticipation for the capital and the entire nation. It's officially 2020 now in New Zealand As the most populated city in New Zealand, Auckland always puts on a good show and the Sky Tower display was spectacular as half a ton of fireworks burst from the landmark towering over the city centre. Thousands gathered around the tower, where - for the first time - lasers and animations accompanied the fireworks display. South Korea and Samoa have started the party Thousands of South Koreans filled the downtown streets in Seoul ahead of a traditional bell-tolling ceremony near City Hall. Dignitaries picked to ring the old Bosingak bell at midnight included South Korean Major League Baseball pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu and Pengsoo, a giant penguin character with a gruff voice and blunt personality that emerged as one of the country's biggest TV stars in 2019. South Korea welcomes the new decade Credit: Getty Images AsiaPac Residents and tourists watch the New Year's Eve fireworks show at Yulpo Beach in South Korea Credit: REX In Samoa, fireworks erupted at midnight from Mount Vaea, overlooking the capital, Apia. The Pacific island nation of Kiribati was also one of the first countries to welcome the new decade. The nation's 3,200 coral atolls are strewn more than 3 million square miles, straddling the equator.
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| Kim Says North Korea Not Bound to Test Freeze, Built New Weapon Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:51 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Kim Jong Un declared that he was no longer bound by his pledge to freeze major weapons tests, saying the regime would soon debut a "new strategic weapon" and take "shocking" action toward the U.S.The North Korean leader told a gathering of party leaders in Pyongyang that the new weapon system had been "perfectly carried out" by scientists, designers and "workers in the field of the munitions industry," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. The comments were released early New Year's Day in North Korea, an occasion when Kim has previously made a televised address announcing big policy shifts."The world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future," KCNA said, citing Kim and referring to the country's formal name.While showing his frustration for sputtering nuclear talks with the U.S., Kim still left an opening for President Donald Trump by not explicitly stating he would resume tests or break off the nuclear negotiations that have seen three face-to-face meeting since June 2018. Kim expressed his anger at joint U.S.-South Korean militarily drills, new U.S. weapons being deployed on the peninsula and sanctions, which have been choking North Korea's paltry economy.Kim said the U.S. actions had forced him to reconsider a moratorium on tests of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles that could deliver them to the U.S. "He stressed that under such condition, there is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer," KCNA said."North Korea's moratoriums are meant to be broken," said Sung-yoon Lee, a professor of U.S.-East Asia relations at Tufts University's Fletcher School. "North Korea always lays the blame for its actions on the U.S. Kim Jong Un, I believe is setting the stage for the next big provocation to come."It was unclear whether Kim would also deliver a separate new year's speech. Kim could replace his annual address with a policy statement from the plenary, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported before KCNA issued the report.In a previous New Year's address, Kim said he planned to resume tests of ICBMs, but no mention was made of new testing in the latest report. Kim didn't specify what the new strategic weapon was, or when it would be deployed.How Kim Jong Un Keeps Advancing His Nuclear Program: QuickTakeNorth Korea had expressed increasing frustration with the U.S. since Trump walked out of their last formal summit in February. Kim resumed launches of mostly short-range ballistic missiles at a record-setting pace and repeatedly warned that his freeze on tests on ICBMs might be coming to an end. Trump was not mentioned by name in the report, a sign that Kim has not resorted to the name-calling that punctuated their relationship ahead of their detente."In the future, the more the U.S. stalls for time and hesitates in the settlement of the DPRK-U.S. relations, the more helpless it will find itself before the might of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," Kim told the four-day party gathering that ended Tuesday.'Fell in Love'While Trump in 2018 claimed that North Korea was "no longer a nuclear threat" and that he and Kim "fell in love," a deal between the two countries has remained elusive.Neither side can agree on the terms of disarmament or U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. Meanwhile, North Korea has continued to conduct missile tests and build its nuclear arsenal.North Korea had suggested a "Christmas gift" would be forthcoming after demanding additional concessions as part of the stalled nuclear talks. Earlier this year, Kim's regime set a Dec. 31 deadline for a breakthrough. Trump has downplayed any threat, saying on Christmas Eve that the U.S. will "deal with it" and joking that Kim's "gift" could be a "beautiful vase."Robert O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, said in December that the U.S. will be ready to respond should Kim fire additional long-range missiles or conduct further nuclear weapons tests."We'll reserve judgment, but the United States will take action as we do in these situations," O'Brien said on ABC's "This Week." "If Kim Jong Un takes that approach, we'll be extraordinarily disappointed and we'll demonstrate that disappointment."Kim, however, had some ominous words for the U.S. "He said that we will never allow the impudent U.S. to abuse the DPRK-U.S. dialogue for meeting its sordid aim but will shift to a shocking actual action to make it pay for the pains sustained by our people so far and for the development so far restrained," KCNA reported.\--With assistance from Shinhye Kang.To contact the reporters on this story: John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.net;Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon HerskovitzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Donald Trump warns Iran it will pay 'big price' as protesters try to storm US embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:43 PM PST  Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad as he said he expected Iraq to "use its forces" to intervene. "Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat," he wrote on Twitter. "The US Embassy in Iraq is, & has been for hours, SAFE! Many of our great Warfighters, together with the most lethal military equipment in the world, was immediately rushed to the site," Mr Trump intensified pressure on the Iraqi authorities who had been powerless to prevent hundreds of demonstrators breaching the outer wall of the embassy compound in the heavily fortified green zone. He pressed the case for action in a call to Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abd al-Mahd, urging him to protect US personnel and property. Chanting "death to America", the protesters set fire to a sentry box, pulled security cameras away from walls and hurled a barrage of missiles including Molotov cocktails. At one point the mob, which was protesting against US airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq on Sunday, used a drainpipe in an attempt to smash an embassy window. US troops tried to disperse the crowd firing warning shots before using teargas and stun grenades. At least 62 people were reported to have been injured. Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 31 December 2019 Amid mounting tension, the US announced it would be deploying additional marines to increase security. Two Apache helicopters flew over the compound in a show of force. Matt Tueller, the US ambassador in Iraq, was not in the embassy at the time, but will be returning to join staff in the compound, the US State Department said. Under pressure from Mr Trump to protect US personnel, Mr Mahdi had deployed special forces at the main gate in an attempt to prevent hundreds of protesters forcing their way in. Some of the crowd did withdraw, while others pitched tents, paving the way for a siege, which a spokesman for the militant group said would remain until US diplomats leave the country. As the violence unfolded in Iraq, Mr Trump intensified pressure on both Iraq and Iran with a series of tweets. "We expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!" Mr Trump tweeted, saying Iran "will be held fully responsible" for the unrest. Mr Trump was unapologetic for the military action which killed at least 25 fighters from Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah, a militant group with the US holds responsible for the death of an American contractor. "Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will," the US president wrote. Supporters of Kataeb Hezbollah were prominent among the demonstrators in Baghdad, with the group's flags hanging on the fence surrounding the embassy. The Iraqi government, which is already facing a wave of protests across the country, has found itself caught in the crossfire between Tehran and Washington. Thousands of protesters and militia fighters outside the gate denounced U.S. air strikes in Iraq. Credit: AFP Mr Mahdi condemned the weekend's airstrikes, but Mr Trump remained unrepentant as he urged the country to stand up to Iran "To those many millions of people in Iraq who want freedom and who don't want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, this is your time!" the president tweeted. In response, Tehran accused the US of "audacity" in blaming Iran for the demonstrations. "The surprising audacity of American officials is so much that after killing at least 25... and violating the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, that now... they attribute the Iraqi people's protest against their cruel acts to the Islamic Republic of Iran," said foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi. In the US, Republican hawks praised Mr Trump's tough response to the attack on the embassy. "He has put the world on notice - there will be no Benghazi's on his watch," tweeted Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally and GOP senator from South Carolina. Newt Gingrich called for even tougher action. "The United States should respond to Iran in Iran. The Iranian dictatorship doesn't care how many of its allies we hit in Iraq. We have to go after the heart of the enemy and make them pay decisively."
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| Is the U.S. Embassy Baghdad Attack a Sign of Things to Come? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:03 PM PST  Iranian-backed militia swarmed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday chanting "Death to America," sparking widespread concern among officials in Iraq and Washington about further targeting of American outposts in the days to come. The protest escalated Tuesday afternoon in Iraq as individuals holding the flags of Kataib Hezbollah, which launched rocket attacks that killed an American contractor on Friday only to be hit by U.S. airstrikes on Sunday, scrawled graffiti on the walls of the compound and used long concrete poles to try and break through the doors and windows. Is U.S. Embassy Attack in Baghdad Part of an Iran Trap?Others climbed on top of one of the American buildings, hoisting the Kataib Hezbollah flags to the roof. The crowds eventually dispersed, but U.S. officials said they would send additional troops to the area to protect embassy staffers. The State Department said there were no plans to evacuate the compound.The embassy protest took place after the U.S. launched a strike on Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, killing 24 people and wounding 50, according to a press statement from Kataib Hezbollah. Two days before that, the U.S. said the group launched rockets at a base near Kirkuk, Iraq, killing one American contractor. "We responded defensively to the Iranian proxy attack that killed an American citizen and wounded American and Iraqi soldiers," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday. "Now, Iranian backed groups are threatening our embassy in Baghdad."The rocket strike in Kirkuk represented the culmination of tensions between the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that have been mounting as the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran intensified and the U.S.-Iran relationship veered towards aggressive confrontation.After a series of attacks on Japanese, European, and Saudi oil tankers in the Gulf attributed to Iran in May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassy in Iraq and its consulate in Basra, citing intelligence showing an increased risk to U.S. officials from Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq. The move, according to the Pentagon's Lead Inspector General of Operation Inherent Resolve, established to fight the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has affected all operations of Mission Iraq, limiting the mission's ability to help Iraq become "a more resilient, independent, democratic country, and to support counter-ISIS efforts."The U.S. military footprint in Iraq also has shrunk due to growing tensions with Iran and the militias it supports. For more than a year Iraqi politicians have called on the United States to withdraw all of its troops from the country, saying their continued presence would make an already volatile situation all the more perilous.Over the summer, a series of unexplained explosions at Iranian-backed militias' ammunition storage facilities led to allegations that Israel had targeted Iranian ballistic missiles stored at the facilities. U.S. officials denied any involvement in the explosions, but Iraqi officials facing an onslaught of conspiracy theories and Iranian-backed militia outrage, restricted the the anti-ISIS coalition's use of Iraqi airspace—a move that "hurt the Coalition's ability to counter the ISIS threat in Iraq," according to the most recent Pentagon report.The swarm attacking the U.S. embassy on Tuesday alarmed Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, concerned that the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy had sparked an irreversible escalation with Tehran that could kickstart, at a minimum, a stand-off with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. "Trump's reckless decisions to walk away from the Iran [nuclear] Deal and now to launch airstrikes in Iraq without Iraqi government consent have brought us closer to war and endangered U.S. troops and diplomats," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a Democratic presidential candidate, said on Twitter. "We should end the forever wars, not start new ones."Republicans took to social media to denounce the media's use of the term "protesters" to describe the mass of people who encircled the U.S. embassy Tuesday, saying those who participated were directly linked to the Iranian-backed militias. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the protesters were members of the Hezbollah militia operating in Iraq. "There's zero question," Rubio declared on Twitter. Photos surfaced on social media Tuesday showing leaders of Kataib Hezbollah at least mingling with the protesters at the American embassy.Both the Senate and House foreign affairs committees called for briefings on the situation from top State Department officials. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, announced Tuesday on Twitter that he had met President Donald Trump in Florida to discuss the situation in Iraq, saying the president was "determined to protect American personnel" and that he expected "Iraqi partners to step up to the plate." "No more Benghazis," said Graham.Not everyone believes that the flareup over Iranian-backed militias will mark the beginning of the end for the U.S. military presence in Iraq. "We both still realize we need each other and I don't think this will serve as a break. It is a low point; I don't think it's a breaking point," one former senior military officer told The Daily Beast."Iraq is in between two nation states, both of whom they need help from, both of whom they want good relationships with, and both of whom are at each other's throats. Not to be too sympathetic to the Iraqi government, but they are in a very precarious position politically and they don't have the depth or breadth of experience to work their way through it," he said.While it's unclear yet whether Iraq will apply further restrictions on the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition in the wake of the U.S. strikes, experts say the impact of either a withdrawal or expulsion of U.S. forces would be clear."The effectiveness of the CT [counter terrorism] effort would be rapidly degraded by a U.S. pullout, and ISIS would likely begin to rebuild some higher-end attack capabilities, particularly car bomb and suicide bomber networks," Alex Mello, a security consultant, told The Daily Beast.The impact would likely be felt hardest among Iraq's Counterterrorism Service (CTS) and other elite special operations units which U.S. special operators have spent years training and have fought alongside when the ISIS caliphate still stood. But Mello says conventional troops among Iraqi Security Forces would also feel the effect of a U.S. drawdown. "They've become accustomed to operating with U.S. support, particularly relying on airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage during clearance operations. If U.S. combat air support was also withdrawn, ISIS would be able again to mass openly in large groups and potentially threaten to overrun Iraqi forward operating bases and larger combat outposts."Maximum Pressure on Iran Is Working. That's Why It's Lashing Out. Let's Keep It Up.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Kim Jong-un says North Korea ending moratoriums on tests - and touts 'new strategic weapon' Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:00 PM PST  North Korea is to abandon its moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, Kim Jong-un has announced. Addressing a meeting with party officials, the North Korean leader also said the country would unveil a new strategic weapon in the new future, the country's official KCNA news agency reported on Wednesday. "There is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer," he is quoted as saying. "The world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future." North Korea has not tested a long-range missile or nuclear warhead since 2017 under a self-imposed moratorium. But in recent weeks the North Koreans had been more bellicose as tensions escalated on the Korean peninsula. North Korean missile ranges Kim had signalled that Pyongyang was preparing a "gift" which would be unveiled if the US failed to make significant concessions in negotiations by the end of the year. He paved the way for the move at a meeting of 300 top officials. The North Koreans had been demanding the lifting of sanctions as a price for stepping up the pace of peace talks which appeared to have stalled. His announcement will be a blow for Donald Trump who thought personal diplomacy could end decades of hostility. A series of summits raised hopes that the US president's unconventional diplomatic approach could bear fruit. Mr Trump, who had derided Kim as "Rocket Man", struck a different note over the summer praising the leader of the rogue regime. Hopes had been raised further when the two men met at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) which divides North and South Korea at the end of June. Kim Jong-un in pictures: Bizarre photoshoots of North Korea's leader The US president maintained that the suspension of nuclear tests was evidence that his approach had succeeded where others had failed and that Kim could be persuaded to give up his nuclear arsenal. In Washington officials had sought to play down the threat from Pyongyang, despite the increasingly aggressive noises coming from North Korea. But in recent months relations have worsened and the North Korean leader struck a harsh note at the meeting of the ruling Workers Party. "The US is raising demands contrary to the fundamental interests of our state and is adopting brigandish attitude," KCNA cited him as saying. "We can never sell our dignity," he added, saying Pyongyang would "shift to a shocking actual action to make (the US) pay for the pains sustained by our people". Kim added that "if the US persists in its hostile policy toward the DPRK, there will never be the denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK will steadily develop necessary and prerequisite strategic weapons for the security of the state until the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy," according to the agency. Kim and President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but negotiations have faltered since the collapse of their second summit last February in Vietnam. The North announced in December that it performed two "crucial" tests at its long-range rocket launch site that would further strengthen its nuclear deterrent, prompting speculation that it was developing an ICBM or planning a satellite launch that would provide an opportunity to advance its missile technologies. North Korea also last year ended a 17-month pause in ballistic activity by testing a slew of solid-fuel weapons that potentially expanded its capabilities to strike targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases there.
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| Angry protesters swarming the US embassy in Baghdad caps off Trump's disastrous year in the Middle East Posted: 31 Dec 2019 02:54 PM PST  Tensions with Iran, linked to Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, fueled chaos throughout the region in 2019.
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| Boris Johnson Pledges to ‘Waste No Time’ in Delivering Brexit in 2020 Posted: 31 Dec 2019 02:30 PM PST ![Boris Johnson Pledges to 'Waste No Time' in Delivering Brexit in 2020]( "Boris Johnson Pledges to 'Waste No Time' in Delivering Brexit in 2020") (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson pledged to "waste no time" in delivering Brexit before moving on to the "people's priorities" of funding schools and hospitals.In his New Year message, the prime minister promised to complete the U.K.'s divorce from the European Union by the end of January, repeating the campaign message that saw his Conservative Party win its largest majority in more than three decades in the Dec. 12 general election."The necessary legislation has already begun its passage through Parliament and, once MPs return to Westminster, we'll waste no time in finishing the job," Johnson said. Before the Christmas recess, his Brexit deal with Brussels easily cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons, and its ratification in January is expected to be a formality.He appealed for the country to "turn the page on the division, rancor and uncertainty which has dominated public life," and said the 2020s promise to be a "remarkable decade" for the U.K.Johnson appears determined to try to retain the Labour voters who switched to the Conservatives this time, enabling the Tories to win seats in the main opposition party's traditional strongholds in northern and central England. Funding the state-run National Health Service "will always be my top priority," the prime minister said, parking his tanks firmly in an area where Labour is typically perceived to hold an advantage."I know that many of you do not consider yourself natural Tories and may only have lent me your vote. I am humbled by your support and will work every day to keep it," Johnson said. "I want to reassure you that I will be a prime minister for everyone, not just those who voted for me."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, Stuart Biggs, Andrew LangleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Kim vows to show new N. Korean weapon, never trade security Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:55 PM PST  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accused the Trump administration of dragging its feet in nuclear negotiations and warned that his country will soon show a new strategic weapon to the world as it bolsters its nuclear deterrent in the face of "gangster-like" U.S. pressure. The North's state media said Wednesday that Kim made the comments during a four-day ruling party conference where he declared the North will never give up its security for economic benefits in the face of what he described as increasing U.S. hostility and nuclear threats.
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| Is Trump's 'maximum pressure' campaign blowing up in Iraq? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:54 PM PST  An assault on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq is fueling questions about whether U.S. efforts to contain Iran are backfiring.
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| Trump says Iran will 'pay a very BIG PRICE' for damage caused by violent protests at the US embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:52 PM PST  President Donald Trump has publicly blamed Iran for the unrest outside the US embassy in Baghdad and says they are going to pay "BIG" for the damage.
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| Lawyers: Robert Durst wrote incriminating 'cadaver' note Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:49 PM PST  Lawyers for New York real estate heir Robert Durst acknowledge he penned a note tipping off police to the location of the body of a friend he's accused of killing, according to court documents. In a court filing last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, lawyers for Durst conceded he had written the note directing police to the home where his best friend, Susan Berman, was shot point-blank in the back of the head just before Christmas of 2000. Durst, 76, pleaded not guilty to murder in Berman's death but told a documentary film crew that the letter could only have been sent by the killer.
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| ‘This is a threat’: Iran will pay heavy price for damage at US embassy in Baghdad, Trump says in furious New Year tweet Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:24 PM PST  Donald Trump has issued a furious threat to Iran following an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad.The US president had earlier said he held Tehran responsible for Tuesday's storming of the compound gates by Iraqi militia members. Iran, which sponsors the militias, has denied being behind the incident.
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| Marines: Hanukkah stabbing suspect kicked out of boot camp Posted: 31 Dec 2019 12:31 PM PST  The man charged with stabbing five people during a Hanukkah celebration in New York began boot camp to enter the U.S. Marine Corps but was separated from the service a month later for "fraudulent enlistment," military officials said Tuesday. A Marine Corps spokeswoman would not provide details on why Grafton Thomas left the Marines as a recruit in late 2002, about a month after he started training. Federal prosecutors filed hate crime charges against Thomas on Monday, accusing the 37-year-old of using a machete to wound five people inside the home of a rabbi in Monsey, N.Y., north of New York City.
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| Attack on US Embassy in Iraq shows stark choices for Trump Posted: 31 Dec 2019 12:20 PM PST  The attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad by Iran-supported militiamen Tuesday is a stark demonstration that Iran can still strike at American interests despite President Donald Trump's economic pressure campaign. Trump said Iran would be held "fully responsible" for the attack, but it was unclear whether that meant military retaliation.
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| Judge orders Alex Jones to pay $100,000 in Sandy Hook case Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:43 AM PST  A Texas judge ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $100,000 in another court setback over the Infowars host using his show to promote falsehoods that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax. Jones is being sued for defamation in Austin, Texas, by the parents of a 6-year-old who was among the 26 people killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, attack. State District Judge Scott Jenkins ruled on Dec. 20 that Jones and his defense team "intentionally disregarded" an earlier order to provide witnesses to attorneys representing a Sandy Hook father who brought the lawsuit, Neil Heslin.
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| Iraq riots expose an America weaker and with fewer options Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:37 AM PST  Mobbing of US embassy after US strikes on state-sanctioned militia show America's plan of maximum pressure only added to chaosThe mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade.Tuesday's events are not quite as decisive as the 1975 helicopter evacuation of the embassy in Saigon, or the seizure of the Tehran embassy four years later. Iraqi forces did turn up eventually to protect the Baghdad mission. It turned out the ambassador was on holiday anyway, so he did not have to endure the humiliation of a rooftop escape. But the demonstration of US weakness, after spending $2tn in Iraq, was plain for all to see.The rioters, organised by the Iranian proxy militia Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH), brushed past Iraqi checkpoints, and there were members of parliament from the government bloc among them. Security forces who have had no compunction about firing tear gas canisters into the skulls of anti-Iranian protesters on Tahrir Square, stood by and watched molotov cocktails thrown at the US embassy. In its public pronouncements, the Iraqis put more blame on Washington than Tehran.For Iran, the embassy riot was the latest move in a deliberate strategy, to raise the costs of the US presence in Iraq and drive a wedge between the Iraqi government and Washington.The competition between the US and Iran for influence in Iraq would have escalated anyway as the threat from Isis declined. But the US effort to destroy Iran economically through its campaign of maximum pressure has meant the Iranians have nothing to lose."The Iranians have been very, very methodical over the past six months about their responses to the maximum pressure campaign. And unfortunately, it is not really met any counter-response," said Barbara Leaf, former US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. "The question is: while Iran has a very methodical approach to upping the ante, do they at some point trip across a red line that they don't even know exists?"It was inevitable that the repeated attacks by KH on Iraqi bases hosting US troops would eventually lead to American casualties, as happened on Friday near Kirkuk, triggering US retaliatory airstrikes on KH camps in Iraq as well as Syria.Ariane Tabatabai, a political analyst at the Rand Corporation, said: "The US was sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, because on the one hand, if it did not respond to this latest attack, considering that a US citizen was killed, it would have sent a pretty strong signal that the red line that it had laid out about US casualties didn't mean anything."By highlighting the Iraqi government's impotence on its own territory, the retaliation diverted public dissatisfaction with the heavy-handed Iranian presence in Iraq, to the desire to be rid of the imperious Americans. The US comes out of this tit-for-tat round weaker and with fewer options.It is not clear whether the US has a plan for what happens now. The campaign of maximum pressure was supposed to force Iran to accept a worse deal than the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement on which Donald Trump walked out in 2018. The oil and banking embargo on Iran have been highly effective in damaging the Iranian economy, but have failed to make Iran bow to US demands for Tehran to give up its military stake in Middle East conflicts and its enrichment of uranium.Instead, Iran has hit back against tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf, and Saudi oil facilities, while ratcheting up pressure on the US military presence in Iraq.US officials have talked in recent days about "restoring deterrence" against such moves with air strikes against KH targets, and have warned they are ready to escalate by taking the fight into Iranian territory.US deterrence however is undermined by having given Iran so little to lose, and by the vacillation of the president, who is entering an election year claiming he has extricated the country from costly foreign wars, while simultaneously wanting to appear tough in the standoff with Iran."To those many millions of people in Iraq who want freedom and who don't want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, this is your time!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday, but he sent the tweet while on his way to his golf course in Palm Beach.He was convinced that maximum pressure would bring Iran to the negotiating table as a supplicant, but instead it has added to the chaos.No one – almost certainly not even Trump – knows how he is going to respond.
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| AP Explains: Who are Iraq's Iran-backed militias? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:24 AM PST  Iran emerged as a major power broker in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, supporting Shiite Islamist parties and militias that have dominated the country ever since. Worries are increasing that the militias could drag Iraq into the growing proxy war between the U.S. and Iran in the Middle East. The United States and its ally, Israel, are targeting pro-Iranian militias across Lebanon, Syria and Iraq with economic sanctions and airstrikes hitting their bases and other infrastructure.
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| The US is sending roughly 100 more Marines to defend the embassy in Baghdad after violent protesters stormed the gate Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:23 AM PST  The violent protests followed US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq — strikes in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed a US citizen.
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| Deval Patrick hopes 'magic' can make up for late 2020 start Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:12 AM PST  Over a year ago, Woody Kaplan, a major Democratic donor and longtime Deval Patrick supporter, helped the former governor plan his potential presidential bid. Patrick is struggling to find those ways. Unlike another latecomer to the race, Michael Bloomberg, Patrick doesn't have the campaign cash or personal fortune to blanket television screens with advertising.
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| US embassy personnel in Baghdad safe, no evacuation planned Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:10 AM PST  US personnel at the American embassy in Baghdad, which has come under attack by pro-Iran protesters, are safe and there are no plans to evacuate, the State Department said Tuesday. "Our first priority is the safety and security of US personnel," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. "US personnel are secure and there has been no breach," the spokesperson said.
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| Cyprus' top lawyer says rape case trial must run its course Posted: 31 Dec 2019 09:58 AM PST ![Cyprus' top lawyer says rape case trial must run its course]( "Cyprus' top lawyer says rape case trial must run its course") Cyprus' attorney general said Tuesday he couldn't suspend the trial of a 19 year-old British woman found guilty of lying about being gang raped by as many as dozen Israelis because she had leveled "grave accusations" against police investigators that had to be adjudicated in court. Costas Clerides said the woman's allegation that police coerced her into retracting her rape claim "could not have been left to linger" so he could not move to suspend the trial. Clerides also said the woman's insistence that she didn't get a fair trial is "essentially a legal-constitutional matter" that a courtof law must rule on.
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| US sending more troops to Baghdad embassy Posted: 31 Dec 2019 09:28 AM PST  The U.S. will send more troops to protect the embassy compound penetrated by militias and their supporters in Baghdad on Tuesday and does not plan an evacuation, the Pentagon and State Department said. The extra force will consist of a small additional detachment of Marine security guards, two defense officials in Washington said. "U.S. personnel are secure," added an official from the State Department.
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| Trump threatens Iran will pay ‘a very big price’ over US embassy protests in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:56 AM PST  Washington humiliated as hundreds storm American compound chanting slogans in support of pro-Iranian militiasDonald Trump has directly threatened Iran, saying it will pay a "very big price" for any US lives lost or facilities damaged in the wake of a mob attack on the American embassy in Baghdad.In a humiliating day for Washington, hundreds of supporters of Iraqi Shia militia, many wearing military fatigues, besieged the US compound, at one point breaching the main gate and smashing their way into several reception rooms. They lit fires, battered down doors and threw bricks at bulletproof glass.The rampage was carried out with the apparent connivance of Iraqi security forces who allowed protesters inside the highly protected Green Zone. US guards responded with teargas but did not open fire.After declaring the embassy safe, Trump tweeted: "Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!"The Trump administration's declared policy has been to treat any attack on US interests by Iranian proxies as an attack by Iran itself. On Sunday, the US conducted air strikes on bases belonging to the Kata'ib Hezbollah militia group, which is formally part of the Iraqi army. The group's attacks on Iraqi bases hosting coalition forces culminated in the death of a US contractor and injuries to at least four American soldiers in Kirkuk on Friday.At least 25 fighters were killed and dozens injured in the US strikes. The embassy attack followed.Instead of advancing US goals, the airstrikes appear to be the latest in a series of foreign policy blunders in the Middle East. Iraq's government furiously condemned them, while pro-Iranian militias promised further attacks against American targets, with the goal of expelling US forces."Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will," Trump tweeted. "Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible."The US embassy denied earlier reports from Iraq's foreign ministry that the ambassador and his staff were hastily evacuated, as protesters surged towards the building.A state department spokesperson told the Guardian the chief of the US mission in Iraq, Matthew Tueller, was away on a scheduled vacation and left Baghdad a week ago. The embassy was under lockdown but had not been evacuated, officials said, with diplomats sheltering in a "safe room"."The Iranian-backed demonstrations in front of the US embassy should not be confused with the Iraqi protesters who have been in the streets since October to decry the corruption exported to Iraq by the Iranian regime," the spokeswoman said."We have made clear the United States will protect and defend its people, who are there to support a sovereign and independent Iraq. We are closely monitoring the situation in Iraq and call on the government of Iraq to protect our diplomatic facilities per their obligations."Video from the scene showed thick grey smoke engulfing the compound against a backdrop of wailing from an emergency siren. Protesters shouted "no, no, America!" and "no, no, Trump!", and "death to America!". By nightfall fires were still burning. One masked man walked off with an official US embassy sign.Map of embassy locationThe US state department said personnel at the embassy were safe and there were no plans to evacuate. "Our first priority is the safety and security of US personnel," a spokesperson said in a statement."US personnel are secure and there has been no breach," the spokesperson said. "There are no plans to evacuate Embassy Baghdad."The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, announced that he authorized the immediate deployment of about 750 soldiers to the Middle East. He said additional troops are prepared to deploy over the next several days.Former foreign service staff compared the chaotic scenes to the ransacking in 1979 of the US embassy in Tehran, when 52 US citizens were taken hostage. Tuesday's events, however, were not on the same dramatic scale. There was no loss of life and most of the embassy building was not breached.Nonetheless, the prospect of a worsening conflict between US forces and Iranian proxies in Iraq looms large. The Trump administration's policy of piling sanctions and economic pressure on Tehran appears to have delivered few tangible diplomatic results and has taken relations with Iraq to a new low.Iraq's prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi – an ally of both Iran and Washington – vowed on Tuesday to protect the safety and security of US personnel. After doing little initially to halt the violence, Iraqi security forces turned up in force in the afternoon and formed a protective line between angry crowds and US guards.The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo said the US would "protect and defend its people" in a phone call with Abdul Mahdi. The viability of the US diplomatic mission in Baghdad – its largest in the world – is now an open question, as demonstrators set up tents outside its perimeter.Many of the protesters had come from funerals held in Baghdad for some of the dead militia fighters. They were carrying flags belonging to Kata'ib Hezbollah and to Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), a powerful paramilitary group of which Kata'ib Hezbollah is a part.Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the Iranian-backed Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq militia, and many other senior militia leaders were among the demonstrators. On Monday, Iran condemned the US strikes as "terrorism". Russia complained it had not been given advance warning.Street protests take place regularly in the Iraqi capital. In recent months, security guards have shot dead more than 450 people protesting against rampant government corruption and the growing influence of Iranian-backed groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah.
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| Carlos Ghosn Joins Ranks of Big-Time White-Collar Fugitives Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:53 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Carlos Ghosn's stunning escape from Japan makes him one of the most famous white-collar fugitives in recent years, joining the likes of Malaysian businessman Jho Low and Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya.The former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, who was facing trial for financial crimes, defended his move to Lebanon by saying in a statement he'll "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system."It's unclear how Ghosn escaped as he's been under house arrest and close surveillance since being granted bail in April following his initial arrest in November 2018. He's a citizen of Lebanon, which doesn't have an extradition treaty with Japan, and is held in high esteem there. He also holds Brazilian and French citizenship. Ghosn's lawyer Junichiro Hironaka said his legal team has all of his passports, adding that it's likely he entered his ancestral home country using a different name.Here's a look at some high-profile fugitives from the business world in recent years.Jho LowMalaysia is still trying to bring in Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the siphoning of billions of dollars from state-owned investment fund 1MDB. The scandal led to Prime Minister Najib Razak losing a 2018 election, ending 61 years of his party's rule, and has entangled individuals and businesses far and wide, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Malaysian authorities last week complained about a lack of cooperation from other countries in their search for Jho Low. In September, Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador said the financier was in a jurisdiction that has an extradition treaty with Malaysia and talks were being held with a party suspected of protecting him.Marc RichThe commodities trader fled to Switzerland hours before being indicted in 1983 on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering, trading with Iran during an embargo, and evading more than $48 million in U.S. income taxes. The charges stemmed from a multimillion-dollar chain of U.S. crude-oil deals that roiled the global petroleum industry in the early 1980s.The businessman was celebrated for inventing the spot-oil market before becoming one of the most wanted white-collar fugitives in American history for 17 years. After leaving the U.S., he founded a commodities trading company that became the forerunner of today's Glencore Plc.Marc Rich, Fugitive Commodities Trader in 1980s, Dies at 78 On the last day of his presidency in January 2001, Bill Clinton pardoned Rich, who repeatedly maintained his innocence. Rich died in 2013.Christopher SkaseThe entrepreneur died in Majorca in 2001, a decade after fleeing Australia as his media and hotel empire Qintex Australia Ltd. collapsed. The businesses included Seven Network Australia Ltd., the country's second-largest television network.Skase successfully fought bids to extradite him to Australia. An order to expel him was in place but suspended by the Spanish government a month before he died of cancer at the age of 52.Vijay MallyaThe so-called King of Good Times has been subject to extradition efforts by Indian authorities for years. Mallya is based in London, where this month he was taken to court by a dozen state-owned Indian banks petitioning for him to be declared bankrupt over 1.15 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) in unpaid debts.Mallya's business interests stretched from liquor to motor racing to airlines. He was the founder of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd.Nirav ModiThe celebrity jeweler was arrested in London in March for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank of $2 billion. He was denied bail due to "substantial risks" he'd flee the country to avoid extradition to India.(Updates with section on Marc Rich. An earlier version was corrected to remove a reference to Jerome Kerviel.)\--With assistance from Enda Curran, Paul Geitner and Sam Nagarajan.To contact the reporter on this story: Will Davies in Hong Kong at wdavies13@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, Frank Connelly, Rebecca PentyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ex-Bosnian Serb general indicted for aiding genocide Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:50 AM PST ![Ex-Bosnian Serb general indicted for aiding genocide]( "Ex-Bosnian Serb general indicted for aiding genocide") SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia's war crimes prosecutor on Tuesday charged a former Bosnian Serb general with aiding genocide in the 1995 massacre at the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb troops captured the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995 during the Bosnian war.
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| C.Africa authorities and UN vow to disarm flashpoint district Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:39 AM PST  The government and United Nations forces in the Central African Republic will ban guns from a flashpoint district in the capital where new clashes have claimed dozens of lives, the UN mission said Tuesday. The mainly-Muslim PK5 district in Bangui is a notorious trigger for violence in the CAR, one of the world's poorest and most volatile countries. "Any armed person will be disarmed or neutralised," Bili Aminou Alao, spokesperson for the UN force MINUSCA, told AFP.
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| Riot Police Use Tear Gas to Answer Firebombs: Hong Kong Update Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:32 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong protesters rang in the new year with a wave of fresh mass demonstrations, as they tried to show they could maintain pressure on the Beijing-backed government into 2020.The Civil Human Rights Front -- organizer of some of the biggest rallies to rock the Asian financial center over the past six months -- obtained police approval for a New Year's Day march across Hong Kong Island. On New Year's Eve, when residents might normally watch fireworks fall over Victoria Harbor, protesters urged supporters to gather at shopping centers and build a human chain around the former British colony.The turnout could signal the staying power of a pro-democracy movement that has led to countless of violent clashes with police, pushed the economy into recession and forced the cancellation of numerous events, including the New Year's fireworks show. The city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, said in a year-end video message that restoring social "order and harmony" should be the city's resolution for 2020.Historic protests erupted in June in opposition to now-withdrawn legislation that would've allowed extraditions to mainland China and quickly morphed into a broader movement against Beijing's rule. The Communist Party and its local appointees have so far refused to meet demonstrators' demands including calls for direct leadership elections.Why Hong Kong Is Still Protesting and Where It May Go: QuickTakeHere's the latest (all times local):Tear gas fired in the new year (12:07 a.m.)Riot police fired tear gas in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon shortly after the city headed into the new year. The officers moved in as protesters threw petrol bombs on the main thoroughfare.Water cannons used on protesters (11:20 p.m.)Police used water cannons briefly in Mong Kok in Kowloon to disperse protesters who blocked the main thoroughfare. Riot police made a number of arrests. In the popular shopping district Tsim Sha Tsui, thousands of protesters gathered at the harborfront as the city readied to count down to the new year. Some of the demonstrators wore masks, held up mobile phones with lights shining and displayed a banner saying, "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our times."Xi defends "one country, two systems" (7:15 p.m.)Chinese President Xi Jinping used his New Year's Eve address to defend China's system for running Hong Kong. Xi argued the success of neighboring Macau, which he visited earlier this month, shows that the "one country, two systems" framework used to govern both former European colonies "is fully applicable, achievable and popular.""Without a harmonious and stable environment, how can people live in peace and enjoy their work?" Xi asked. "I sincerely wish Hong Kong well. Hong Kong's prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation of our motherland."Small scale protests were held across the city on Tuesday evening.Lam urges return to order (11:45 a.m.)Restoring order and harmony in society should be a resolution for the new year, leader Lam said in a year-end video message. "Let's start 2020 with a new resolution: to restore order and harmony in society. So we begin again, together," she said.She vowed to "not shy away" from her responsibility and to "listen humbly to find a way out," while upholding the "one country, two systems" framework that assures Hong Kong's autonomy from Beijing. "To allow Hong Kong to move forward steadily, we must handle the problems at hand and acknowledge the shortcomings in our system," Lam said.New Year's Day MarchPeople will gather at centrally located Victoria Park -- the starting point for other mass marches thrown by CHRF -- starting at 2 p.m. and begin walking toward the city's central financial and shopping areas around 3 p.m. They plan to start early if the park's central lawn is 85% full, or if crowds overflow in the Wan Chai and Admiralty areas, which have seen regular violence over the past six months."We continue to show our opposition to Carrie Lam and the police force for police brutality," Eric Lai, vice convenor of CHRF, told a news conference Monday. He said the protest's other aims included solidarity with those detained in previous demonstrations.\--With assistance from Dandan Li and Justin Chin.To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.net;Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.net;Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump says U.S.-China trade deal will be signed on January 15 Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:14 AM PST  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Phase 1 of trade deal with China would be signed on Jan. 15 at the White House, though considerable confusion remains about the details of the agreement. The president wrote in a tweet that he would sign the deal with "high level representatives of China" and that he would later travel to Beijing to begin talks on the next phase. Last week, Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would host a signing ceremony to ink the Phase 1 deal.
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| Palestinian Fatah marks 55 years with West Bank marches Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:12 AM PST  Hundreds of Palestinians marched through the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday to mark the 55th anniversary of the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Established by Yasser Arafat in 1965, Fatah led the armed struggle against Israel for decades as the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO recognized Israel in the early 1990s at the start of the peace process, and since then it has been committed to a two-state solution.
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| Holocaust education planned after WV jail guard Nazi salute Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:09 AM PST  West Virginia plans to begin training its corrections department staff about the Holocaust after a photograph of correction officer cadets giving Nazi salutes led to dozens of firings and widespread outrage, officials said Tuesday.
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| Hong Kong’s Turbulence to Persist as Protesters Ring in New Year Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:01 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's turbulence shows no sign of abating in 2020, with the new year marked by rallies showing continued resistance against Beijing's tightening grip over the financial hub.Protesters were emboldened by hundreds of pro-democracy legislators who were elected in a landslide victory in district council polls in late November. The local lawmakers, who take office on New Year's Day, will buoy a grassroots political movement that's already sparked dramatic clashes, battering Hong Kong's economy, decimating its retail and tourism sectors, curbed new investments and even challenged the city's richest tycoons.While some indicators show signs of recovery, raising the specter that relative calm over the holidays might mean the worst is over, the city is still facing sustained political and economic volatility as it heads into 2020. The new year was already expected to get off to a tense start with a march planned for Wednesday by the Civil Human Rights Front, the organizer of some of Hong Kong's biggest protests.Senior pro-government figures are bracing for an intense fight when voting for seats in the more powerful Legislative Council takes place in September."It's going to be a hard-fought battle," said Bernard Chan, a senior adviser to Hong Kong's leader. "Both sides are gearing up now."Political TurmoilAlthough district councils wield little real power -- mainly advising the government on matters such as maintaining parks and establishing recycling facilities -- they may prove to be a key organizing platform ahead of LegCo polls. They also help decide the composition of the committee that selects Hong Kong's chief executive.Still, there is firm opposition. China's government has consistently backed Chief Executive Carrie Lam, including on a visit to Beijing she made to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping in mid-December."In 2019, we experienced challenges not seen before," Lam said in a video released Tuesday."We all want to see an end to this predicament."Hong Kong must acknowledge the "shortcomings in our systems, as well as the deep-rooted problems and conflicts that have been accumulating for many years," Lam said.Nascent LawmakersPro-democracy representatives took 85% of the 452 district council seats recently contested, but many of the new lawmakers are yet to prove their mettle.Joseph Cheng, a pro-democracy activist and retired political science professor, has lectured at boot camps organized to help train the new recruits. "They have the resources, the status to approach people, and they have a good foundation to do grassroots work," Cheng said.Even still, the potential emergence of many new political candidates risks fragmenting support for the movement, Cheng said. "And if there's too many, we could divide the vote too thin and not do well."Economic JittersHong Kong's economy is mired in recession after six months of violent unrest that halved visitor arrivals from mainland China, forced organizers to cancel events, and hurt countless businesses across the city. But the pain may be short lived.The government is expecting final numbers to show an annualized contraction of 1.3% for 2019, the first annual decline in a decade, according to government documents. While year-over-year comparisons are expected to remain weak, with the protests starting in June, economists surveyed by Bloomberg now forecast positive quarter-on-quarter growth in the first half of 2020.Easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China could boost Hong Kong's flagging trade sector. The city will also likely receive additional stimulus when Financial Secretary Paul Chan presents his next budget in early 2020.He acknowledged Tuesday that the economy has "suffered from serious blows," after blogging days earlier that "negative growth will continue."Retail ReckoningThe first quarter of 2020 is likely to bring a reckoning for Hong Kong's retail and tourism sectors, as some store owners choose not to renew leases after six months of depressed sales and a lackluster Christmas season.More than 5,600 retail jobs could be axed and thousands of stores shut down in the first half of 2020, according to a recent survey of retailers. Prominent restaurants and bars like Happy Paradise and Ce La Vi have announced closure plans, while cosmetics retail chain Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd. said it was likely to shutter 30 stores this year.The Lunar New Year, when spending traditionally peaks in Hong Kong amid a flood of vacationing mainlanders, may not provide its usual boost. Visitor numbers plunged 53% during Christmas week compared with a year earlier, according to local media reports.Tycoons at RiskHong Kong's ultra-wealthy business families have long enjoyed a close relationship with Beijing and been able to dominate the city's economy thanks to large profits from the booming property market, few regulations to rein in oligarchies, and a favorable tax regime. But as protests raged, Beijing's attention turned to deep-seated issues such as unaffordable housing.And since Chinese officials believe tycoons are to blame, they may pressure Hong Kong to curb the power of the city's super-rich. "In 2020 we are going to see a new dynamic in the political arena translating into some real impacts on businesses," said Jackie Yan, an assistant professor in international business strategy at the University of Hong Kong.Some tycoons have already reacted, with conglomerates like New World Development Co., Henderson Land Development Co. and Wheelock & Co. announcing they would donate land for building affordable housing. Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, on the other hand, offered HK$1 billion ($130 million) to help ease protest-related financial pressure on small businesses."I expect to see more of this kind of thing in 2020," Yan said.Real EstateHong Kong's property market has remained a rare pillar of resilience. Prices for existing homes fell just 6.7% from a record high in late June, when the protests started, paring values back to March 2019 levels.The sector's strength is down to a number of factors: Hong Kong simply doesn't have enough housing to support its population, so demand for apartments remains strong. In October, the city's government also relaxed mortgage rules. All that has made real estate agents optimistic."We expect purchasing power to be unleashed in the second quarter and support home prices, given that social events will subside by then," said Sammy Po, the chief executive officer of Midland Realty International Ltd.'s residential department.\--With assistance from Eric Lam and Jinshan Hong.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Shirley Zhao in Hong Kong at xzhao306@bloomberg.net;Shawna Kwan in Hong Kong at wkwan35@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Team Trump’s Furious Hunt to Find Out Who ‘Liked’ a Chelsea Clinton Tweet Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:48 AM PST  On the evening of July 10, 2017, staffers at the U.S. embassy in Brussels—the official office for the ambassador to the European Union—received an unusual call from the seventh floor of the State Department back in Washington. The office of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was irate. Someone in Brussels with access to the mission's Twitter account had liked the wrong tweet. It had set off alarm bells in Foggy Bottom.The tweet wasn't just any tweet. It was one written by Chelsea Clinton and directed at President Donald Trump in a public spat that took the internet by storm. That week in July, Trump drew criticism for his decision to let his daughter Ivanka fill his seat at the G-20 meeting of top economic powers in Hamburg, Germany. After days of the pile-on, Trump took to Twitter the morning of July 10 to claim his decision to have Ivanka represent the U.S. at the G-20 was "very standard" and that Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany agreed. Not more than 15 minutes later, he switched his tenor and began attacking Clinton and the press. "If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!," Trump said. Clinton shot back: "It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not."That tweet garnered more than half a million likes, including by the account for the U.S. mission to the European Union. That kickstarted a weeks-long investigation, prompted by the secretary's office, into who exactly at the Brussels mission had access to the Twitter account and hit "Like" on Clinton's tweet, according to two former U.S. officials. (Full disclosure: Clinton sits on the board of IAC, The Daily Beast's parent company.) At least 10 people were interviewed about whether they, as administrators of the account, had mistakenly or deliberately pressed the "Like" button. All of them denied any wrongdoing, those sources said. One individual familiar with the exchanges said the secretary of state's top managers in Washington "wanted blood" and called Brussels numerous times demanding the name of the culprit.U.S. officials in Belgium were never able to give Tillerson's office a name and soon after, the embassy restructured the Twitter account and limited access to just two individuals. The concern from the secretary's office over social-media messaging continued after Tillerson into the era of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to two U.S. officials at American embassies overseas. The micromanaging is still causing headaches for staffers and officials at top American outposts who are trying to navigate the task of pleasing both the State Department and the White House simultaneously—a mission that at times requires two completely different strategies, those sources said.The officials told The Daily Beast that their offices often get complaints from senior State officials in Washington that their accounts' language on Twitter, while it matches the president's tenor, does not align with department thinking. Senior State Department officials have asked particular embassies to switch their rhetoric so it more closely matches the objectives of Foggy Bottom.At the same time, officials are wary of promoting social-media posts that might seem to undermine the desires of the president, according to multiple former and current administration officials. They fear the posts will be quickly undercut, if not directly rebuffed, by a single, angry tweet from President Trump's personal account. "There were definitely times [during the Tillerson era] where ambassadors would complain about a complete lack of information flow between the White House and State, and that they would be in the dark about what they were supposed to say, or even put on Twitter," one of these sources, a senior veteran of the administration, said. It is unclear if Trump—who is famously thin-skinned about criticism or even mean tweets from prominent critics—himself was aware of this intra-administration kerfuffle over the Clinton tweet, but some of his lieutenants certainly were. According to two former White House officials, word of the "Chelsea Clinton thing," as one of the ex-officials said they'd dubbed it, soon reached the halls of the West Wing, where it became a piece of gossip and facepalming among Trump aides, many of whom were still trying to root out perceived foes in their ranks, often by labeling enemies in conversations to the president or to senior staffers as "Never Trumpers," "anti-Trump," and "leakers."Vet Trump Tweets? Aides Say 'LMFAO.'"During that first year, people were constantly trying to get other people fired; some even compiled lists of people to fire that they would show, or try to show, to the president," said one of the ex-officials. "[The Chelsea Clinton incident] was another little thing that fueled suspicions and reminded…officials in the White House that there were a lot of people working in the administration who clearly hated Donald Trump."It would hardly be the only time over the past three years that the State Department has bent itself out of shape over anti-Trump activity on Twitter. Early this year, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro reportedly had her International Women of Courage Award canceled by State following the department's realization that she had repeatedly bashed Trump on her personal Twitter account. "It created a shitstorm of getting her unceremoniously kicked off the list," an American diplomatic source told Foreign Policy magazine at the time. "I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels." A State Department spokesperson claimed to FP that the investigative journalist was "incorrectly notified" that she would be receiving a Courage Award.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Egypt draws ire with artifacts' move to busy Tahrir Square Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:37 AM PST  Egypt's recent decision to transport ancient Pharaonic artifacts to a traffic circle in the congested heart of Cairo has fueled fresh controversy over the government's handling of its archaeological heritage. Cairo has some of the worst air pollution in the world, according to recent studies. Archaeologists and heritage experts fear vehicle exhaust will damage the four ram-headed sphinxes and an obelisk, currently en route to their new home in Tahrir Square.
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| Minister: Texas gunman grew angry in past over cash requests Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:30 AM PST  The congregation at a Texas church where two people were fatally shot had repeatedly given food to the gunman, according to the pastor, but had declined to give money to him, angering a man who court records show was deemed mentally incompetent for trial in 2012. It's unclear whether Keith Thomas Kinnunen's extensive criminal record and psychological history would have barred him from legally buying the shotgun he used during Sunday's attack at the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth-area town of White Settlement. Kinnunen, 43, shot worshippers Richard White and Anton "Tony" Wallace in the sanctuary before a member of the church's volunteer security team shot and killed him, according to police and witnesses.
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| Top UN official accuses US of torturing Chelsea Manning Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:17 AM PST  Ex-army intelligence analyst jailed over refusal to testify against WikiLeaks reportedly subjected to 'severe measures of coercion'A top United Nations official has accused the US government of using torture against Chelsea Manning, the former army intelligence analyst currently jailed in the US over her refusal to testify against WikiLeaks.Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, made the charge in a letter sent in November but only released on Tuesday.In the missive, Melzer says Manning is being subjected to "an open-ended, progressively severe measure of coercion fulfilling all the constitutive elements of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".Manning, who was detained on 16 May after refusing to testify before a grand jury, is currently being held at the Alexandria detention center in Virginia until she agrees to give evidence or until the grand jury's term expires in November next year. She also faces fines currently running at $1,000 a day.In the letter, Melzer writes: "The practise of coercive deprivation of liberty for civil contempt … involves the intentional infliction of progressively severe mental and emotional suffering for the purposes of coercion and intimidation at the order of judicial authorities."Warning that "victims of prolonged coercive confinement have demonstrated post-traumatic symptoms and other severe and persistent mental and physical health consequences", Melzer said Manning's detention "is not a lawful sanction but an open-ended, progressively severe coercive measure amounting to torture & should be discontinued & abolished without delay".Mannings' lawyers have argued that her detention is "for refusing to comply with a grand jury is pointless, punitive, and cruel" and warned that she is not likely to change her mind.In a letter released in March when Manning was first sent back to jail, her lawyers warned: "Chelsea has clearly stated her moral objection to the secretive and oppressive grand jury process. We are Chelsea's friends and fellow organizers, and we know her as a person who is fully committed to her principles."They warned US authorities that if they "believe that subjecting Chelsea to more punishment will change her mind, they are gravely mistaken".Virginia prosecutors are determined to force Manning to testify in what they hope will be an eventual trial of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.Assange has been charged with conspiring with Manning to break into military computers to help her transmit a vast trove of US state secrets to the open information organization in 2010 which then published them, causing an international uproar.Manning was subsequently sentenced to 35 years in military prison in 2011. Manning spent seven years behind bars before Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.
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| Trump expects Iraq to 'use its forces' to protect US embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST  President Donald Trump said Tuesday he expects Iraq to "use its forces" to protect the US embassy in Baghdad as he blamed Iran for orchestrating an "attack" that breached the wall of the compound. Iraqi supporters of pro-Iran factions protested at the embassy on Tuesday, chanting "Death to America," throwing rocks, tearing down security cameras and setting a sentry box ablaze in anger over weekend air strikes that killed two dozen fighters. "We expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!" Trump tweeted, saying Iran "will be held fully responsible" for the unrest.
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| Yemen officials: Rebel ban on banknotes stops gov't salaries Posted: 31 Dec 2019 06:59 AM PST ![Yemen officials: Rebel ban on banknotes stops gov't salaries]( "Yemen officials: Rebel ban on banknotes stops gov't salaries") Yemeni officials said on Tuesday that a powerful rebel group's ban on recently-printed government banknotes in areas under their control, including the capital, Sanaa, has held up the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants and pensioners. The officials and the internationally recognized government said the rebels, known as Houthis, refused to work with the Yemeni rials that its central bank had printed in the past three years. The Iran-backed Houthis control most of the country's north, after more than five years of a stalemated civil war.
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| Oman says Sultan Qaboos, 79, is 'stable' amid health scare Posted: 31 Dec 2019 06:34 AM PST ![Oman says Sultan Qaboos, 79, is 'stable' amid health scare]( "Oman says Sultan Qaboos, 79, is 'stable' amid health scare") Oman's 79-year-old ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said is in "stable condition" and is following a doctor-prescribed medical treatment, the nation's royal court announced Tuesday, amid days of worried speculation about his health. A statement carried by the sultanate's state-run Oman News Agency did not, however, explain what illness the ruler faced. Sultan Qaboos, long unmarried, has no heir and it remains unclear who will succeed him in this nation on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
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| Arab League Warns of Libya War Escalating as Turkey Considers Entry Posted: 31 Dec 2019 06:23 AM PST ![Arab League Warns of Libya War Escalating as Turkey Considers Entry]( "Arab League Warns of Libya War Escalating as Turkey Considers Entry") (Bloomberg) -- The Arab League on Tuesday warned against military escalation in Libya and said it would ask the United Nations' chief and other key countries to work to prevent any foreign interference in the North African nation's affairs.The league, in an extraordinary session called by Egypt, voiced its "great concern" over the situation in Libya, which it said threatens the security of neighboring countries. In a statement, it also condemned any foreign intervention that facilitates the flow of "terrorists" there.The statement didn't mention Turkey by name, but its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is seeking a one-year mandate from parliament to send troops to Libya in support of the United Nations-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. The Libyan premier is locked in a battle with eastern-based rebel commander Khalifa Haftar.Al-Sarraj is seeking Turkish support to protect the capital, Tripoli.Turkey's potential entrance into an arena already cluttered with a variety of militias, mercenary forces and rebels, threatens to deepen a growing proxy war between regional powers, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly said that foreign intervention in Libya threatens to deepen a conflict that has national security implications for his country.To contact the reporter on this story: Abdel Latif Wahba in Cairo at alatifwahba@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Tarek El-TablawyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump threatens Iran after protesters break into U.S. embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 06:22 AM PST  President Trump is blaming Iran after supporters of Iraq's Iran-backed militias stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.In a tweet Tuesday morning, Trump accused Iran of "orchestrating" the attack on the U.S. embassy, threatening to hold them "fully responsible."> Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019Protesters breached the embassy on Tuesday following U.S. airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah, which came in response to an attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor, The New York Times reports. Kataib Hezbollah has denied involvement. A spokesperson for the militia said it would erect tents outside of the embassy and "not leave these tents until the embassy and the ambassador leave Iraq."The Associated Press described this "unprecedented breach" as "one of the worst attacks on the embassy in recent memory," reporting that the embassy's main door was smashed, a reception area was set on fire, and protesters hurled stones over the compound's wall. Per AP, the protesters were joined by some commanders of militia factions that are loyal to Iran, and The Wall Street Journal reports some protesters identified themselves with fatigues and badges as members of Kataib Hezbollah.Trump on Tuesday also defended the airstrikes while writing the U.S. expects Iraq "to use its forces to protect the embassy." AP notes "Iraqi security forces made no effort to stop the protesters."More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history
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| 10 things you need to know today: December 31, 2019 Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:25 AM PST ![10 things you need to know today: December 31, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: December 31, 2019") 1.Protesters forced their way into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday and set fires in an outburst of anger over weekend U.S. airstrikes that killed 24 members of an Iranian-backed militia. The U.S. ambassador and embassy staff were evacuated earlier, after hundreds of demonstrators and militia members gathered outside the compound. People in the crowd threw rocks, chanted "Death to America," and called for the U.S. to pull out troops from Iraq. The U.S. airstrikes on Sunday targeted five camps — three in Iraq and two in Syria — of the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah or Hezbollah Brigades, which the U.S. blamed for missile attacks that killed an American contractor and wounded U.S. and Iraqi military personnel. A militia spokesman denied the group was responsible. [The New York Times, The Guardian] 2.Prosecutors on Monday charged Hanukkah stabbing suspect Grafton Thomas with federal hate crimes. Thomas, 37, pleaded not guilty a day earlier to five counts of attempted murder and one of burglary after he was accused of barging into a celebration at a rabbi's house in Monsey, New York, and slashing five people with a machete. On Monday, prosecutors filed five counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon, and resulting in bodily injury. Investigators reportedly found handwritten journals with anti-Semitic writings in Thomas' home, including references to "Nazi culture." His computer showed a recent search for "why did Hitler hate the Jews." The journal also reportedly contained apparent references to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center says is fueled by anti-Semitism. [NBC News, The Washington Post] 3.A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former top national security aide to President Trump seeking a court ruling on whether he should comply with a House subpoena to testify in impeachment proceedings against Trump. The White House had told the official, Charles Kupperman, not to testify, and Kupperman wanted the court to decide whose orders he should follow. Justice Department lawyers had argued that top Trump aides like Kupperman, who was a deputy to then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, had "absolute immunity" against congressional subpoenas. House Democrats, who have since impeached Trump, withdrew the subpoena, so Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court in Washington declared that the case was moot. [The Washington Post] 4.Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday he would consider picking a Republican running mate if he became the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. Biden said, however, that he couldn't "think of one right now" who would fit. "There's some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here's the problem right now," Biden said. "They've got to step up." Biden has consistently polled at the top of the field of Democratic candidates. In recent months, he has said he would prefer a person "of color and/or a different gender" as his running mate. He has said that he would consider either Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who recently dropped out of the presidential race, or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who's still a contender. [CNN] 5.Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a GOP moderate, said on Monday that she is "open" to meeting Democrats' demand to call witnesses in President Trump's Senate impeachment trial, but only if the evidence indicates the need for new testimony. She said the decision should be made after House impeachment managers and Trump's legal team have made their opening arguments. "I am open to witnesses. I think it's premature to decide who should be called until we see the evidence that is presented and get the answers to the questions that we senators can submit through the Chief Justice to both sides," Collins told Maine Public Radio when questioned about whether acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney or former National Security Adviser John Bolton should be called to testify. A standoff over the process has delayed the start of the trial. [The Hill] 6.A court in Shenzhen, China, sentenced a Chinese scientist and two assistants Monday for creating the world's first genetically edited babies last year, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. The lead scientist, He Jiankui, was handed three years in prison and a fine of 3 million yuan ($430,000), while researcher Zhang Renli got two years in prison and a 1 million yuan fine, and Qin Jinzhou received 18 months and a 500,000 yuan fine. "The three accused did not have the proper certification to practice medicine, and in seeking fame and wealth, deliberately violated national regulations in scientific research and medical treatment," Xinhua reported, citing the court's ruling. "They've crossed the bottom line of ethics in scientific research and medical ethics." The news agency said He and his team edited the genes of three children born to two women. [Reuters, The Associated Press] 7.China's top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, plans to visit Washington next week to sign the "phase one" deal to ease the trade war between the U.S. and China, the South China Morning Post reported Monday, citing a source briefed on the matter. "Washington has sent an invitation and Beijing has accepted it," the source told the newspaper under condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the deal. The signing would represent a significant de-escalation in tensions between the world's two largest economies, which have exchanged a series of damaging tit-for-tat tariffs. The interim deal, announced on Dec. 13 after lengthy negotiations, led both sides to cancel another round of tariffs that had been scheduled to hit on Dec. 15. China also committed to increasing its purchases of U.S. farm goods. [South China Morning Post] 8.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to use his New Year address on Wednesday to unveil a "new path" for relations with the U.S. after the Trump administration declined to meet his demands for new talks on denuclearization. Kim has called for the U.S. to be more flexible in negotiations on curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs in exchange for sanctions relief. He has threatened a "Christmas gift" if the U.S. fails to respond in a way he likes. Washington has dismissed the deadline as a gimmick. White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said days ahead of the deadline that the U.S. has many "tools in its tool kit" to respond if Pyongyang tests a long-range or nuclear missile in early 2020. [Reuters] 9.Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has fled to Lebanon from Japan, where he faced charges for financial crimes. Ghosn said Tuesday from Lebanon that he left to escape "injustice and political persecution" before his trial next year on allegations that he underreported his income and shifted his own financial losses to the automaker. He has citizenship in France, Brazil, and Lebanon, where he spent part of his youth. He is popular in Beirut, where after his November 2018 arrest someone put up a billboard reading, "We are all Carlos Ghosn." He had been in and out of jail awaiting trial, and was out on $9 million bail when he left the country. His flight threw his case into uncertainty, because Lebanon does not extradite its citizens. [The New York Times, The Associated Press] 10.Neil Innes, the comedian and songwriter known for his work with Monty Python, has died at 75. Innes' family confirmed his death on Monday, saying in a statement he "died of natural causes quickly without warning and, I think, without pain." Sometimes referred to as the "seventh Python," Innes worked on Monty Python albums and films and became only the second non-Python member to write for Monty Python's Flying Circus in addition to Douglas Adams. He also co-founded the Beatles parody band The Rutles and performed in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Monty Python's John Cleese paid tribute to Innes on Monday, remembering him as "a very sweet man" and a "lovely writer and performer." [CNN, Rolling Stone]More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history
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| PHOTOS: Iraqi Shiites break into U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:24 AM PST  Dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire, angered over deadly U.S. airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militia. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main embassy building. It followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah.
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| Protesters stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad and torched parts of it on New Year's Eve Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:05 AM PST  A large crowd of protesters gathered to demonstrate against US airstrikes on an Iran-backed militia, and some stormed the US compound.
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| Green Shoots Lurk in Latin America’s Lost Decade Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST ![Green Shoots Lurk in Latin America's Lost Decade]( "Green Shoots Lurk in Latin America's Lost Decade") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Most anywhere you look in Latin America, ruin prospers. Violence? South and Central America and the Caribbean are home to 44 of the world's 50 most murderous cities. Economic torpor? Latin America clocked its lowest growth in seven decades from 2014 to 2020. If currencies are a nation's share price, then Latin America at year's end looks like a global penny stock. Blame Latin America's paltry labor productivity (a quarter that of its emerging market peers) or its dismal schooling (15-year-olds are three years behind their counterparts in rich-world OECD countries). Never mind inequality (only 16% of Latin Americans see wealth distribution as fair), where the nations from Mexico to Chile are world-beaters. No wonder the headline across Latin America is of yet another lost decade.Ten years ago, it was another story. The region was surging (indeed, Brazil was rocketing) ahead. Poverty had plunged and the chasm between haves and have-nots narrowed as never before. Latin America finally had grown a middle class.Now that downward mobility is back, it's tempting to conclude that the 2000s were an optical illusion, and that Latin America has simply defaulted to backwardness and want. Yet today's ugly landscape overshadows some solid advances. Green shoots of civic rectitude, social justice and transparency in government poke through the gloom. If well tended, they could help Latin America revive and even flourish.Start with attitude. Spasms of civic unease have seized Latin America in recent years, culminating this year in open revolt, as societies recoiled at misrule, unearned entitlements and elected officials who flouted the law to feed at the public trough. The turmoil arguably risks destabilizing politics, but not democratic collapse. The waves of protests rolling over the region since 2013 suggest an indomitable, sometimes unruly public, with a visceral aversion to inequities and zero tolerance for corruption. "This was the decade of the awakening of the Latin American opposition, and when democracy refused to die," said Javier Corrales, a historian at Amherst College.Granted, national governments responded belatedly or badly to spreading protests. Ecuador's Lenin Moreno fled angry crowds in Quito, the national capital, for a friendlier coastal city before rescinding an austerity package. In Chile, President Sebastian Pinera declared that the country was at war with demonstrators, only to backtrack days later, apologize and sack his cabinet. One honorable exception to the clueless official reaction was that of the Organization of American States: Beginning in 2015 under the watch of Secretary General Luis Almagro, it no longer looked the other way when hermanos became autocrats. Led by Almagro, regional diplomats stood up to the increasingly disastrous rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and played a pivotal role in probing electoral fraud and calling a new election in Bolivia. "The O.A.S. came back from the dead, transforming from a useless body to a herald of transparency and transition in Bolivia, and a defender of the democratic opposition in Venezuela and Bolivia," said Corrales.Moreover, for all the talk about the military's return to positions of political power, Latin America's armed forces notably have held back. The generals serving rightwing President Jair Bolsonaro are the house moderates. In Argentina they mind their business. The armed forces in Ecuador, Peru and even Chile took action when besieged national leaders called, but knew better than to hang around and take the fall for fumbling civilians. Bolivia's military may have overreached by showing President Evo Morales the door, but did not step through it.The Americas' economic record is less inspiring. Latin America has spent the last decade missing opportunities. As the region has rushed to feed China's demand, raw materials continue to represent a disproportionate share of national wealth — a formidable speed bump to economic diversification. Latin America's dependence on natural resources rose from 43% in 2003 to 60% at the end of the commodities boom in 2013, leaving more than half the region indentured to natural resources. Even as other emerging markets gained on developed nations, Latin America's gross domestic product per capita has all but stagnated, the McKinsey Global Institute reported earlier this year. While 56 million people climbed out of poverty during the commodity boom, poverty and outright indigence were higher in 2018 than they were a decade earlier.The good news is that China, the region's biggest trade partner, is shifting its one-track trade focus from commodities to investment in infrastructure, banking, ports and processing industries as it takes the Belt and Road strategy deeper into the Americas. Energy generation and distribution and ride services like Didi Chuxing are part of China's new deal with Brazil and beyond, indicating that Beijing has become more discerning about its stakes in the Americas. "The Chinese are sharper creditors and increasingly reluctant to throw money to sinking ships," said Boston University economist Kevin Gallagher, a specialist in China and Latin America. Encouragingly, thanks to the broadening Chinese investment, Latin America may be learning to deal with, and not just submit to, the dragon. "Some countries are approaching China with eyes wide open," said Margaret Myers, a China specialist at the Inter-American Dialogue. "They don't want to repeat Sri Lanka´s predicament, where China's involvement is seen as putting national autonomy is at stake."Frustration over the decade's economic failings also has fueled creative discontent. The turmoil sweeping Latin American capitals and engulfing political leaders has had some salutary policy effects. In a recent study of nine emerging markets and three developed countries hit by protests, Oxford Economics found that rather than paralyzing government, mass demonstrations "were generally conducive to bolstering the constituency for stabilizing reforms," and in this way "may have even taken over some of the role markets used to play as a disciplining device." In Chile, protestors pierced the veneer of complacency over the presumed blessings of unfettered markets, forcing national leaders to see social exclusion as a driver of underdevelopment and political instability. Outrage in Bolivia over apparently stolen elections could help build a consensus for firewalling democratic institutions against autocrats. "Sometimes disruption needs to happen to get some improvement," Oxford Economics' emerging markets analyst Gabriel Sterne told me.Popular revolt can also presage economic overhauling. Consider Brazil, where governments spent lavishly through boom and bust, generating the worst recession on record. In the blowback, a political consensus favoring economic realism emerged. While fiscal fraud may have been the partisan expedient for getting rid of Workers Party President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, her impeachment served as an all-purpose warning to profligates. "Economic rout laid bare Brazil's failed economic strategy and drew the line for fiscal irresponsibility," said Fernando Schuler, a political scientist at the Sao Paulo business school Insper. "That cleared the way for congress to pass the government spending cap and pension reform – major decisions showing that institutions are important for economic stability."It's too early to say whether the same constraints will prevail in Argentina, where the fallout from the misbegotten free-market reforms of Mauricio Macri swept Alberto Fernandez and the spendthrift Peronists back into power. In Argentina as in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico, chronic economic under-performance and rising demands of social redress will pressure revenue-scarce governments to fund safety nets worn thin by austerity and misfortune.The trick will be to stay solvent while paying out overdue social dividends. Fortunately, even the most free-spending leaders recognize that bondholders and investors can exact a heavy price for dirigisme and blank-check policymaking. "We've seen that movie before and it isn't pretty," said Alberto Ramos of Goldman Sachs.Here is where the street can introduce a formidable learning curve. Once tolerated as the grease on capitalism's gears, graft and the capture of public institutions now loom as a direct threat to safety nets — a trigger for popular revolt and prosecutorial action. Transparency International found in an 18-country survey that 65% of Latin American believe their government is run by private interests. The good news: 77% of those polled also said they believed that ordinary people can make a difference in fighting corruption.More than anger, this broad concern for social wellbeing also is driving the public conversation. Fighting poverty and inequality are no longer exclusively the purview of earnest citizens and nongovernmental groups. Part of the economic tragedy of the second decade of the century was seeing the previous decade's advances evaporate. "Twenty per cent of human development progress was lost through inequalities in 2018," the United Nations development program administrator Achim Steiner said in a speech earlier this month. Outrage over inequality now shapes public debate and keeps authorities on a tether. Even the International Monetary Fund has become more fluent in the grammar of the Gini coefficient and poverty mitigation.Minding the gap between highest and lowest earners is more than good samaritanism. It's smart economics, predicated on the conviction that inequality undermines long-term growth. By committing to more inclusive economies, Latin America could reap a 50% gain in gross domestic product and a $1,000 per capita income increase by 2030, McKinsey concluded.Next decade's agenda is hardly trivial. A close look at the recent social turmoil suggests that discontent arises not solely out of privation but often after a period of rising prosperity and mobility that has whetted public appetites. Likewise, people turn on leaders who socialize misgovernment by passing along the cost of fiscal folly though taxes, inflation or austerity.The message to the next crop of Latin American leaders is hard to miss. Politicians who fail to deliver well-being or to engage local constituencies in policy decisions are a perishable species. "Until 2013 or so, sitting politicians in Central and South America generally got a pass," said Corrales. "Now, there's far less of a tendency to give a blank check to incumbents."There's no guarantee, of course, that new leaders will be any less tone deaf than the lot that squandered opportunities of the 2000s. It will fall to Latin America's newly ignited publics to hold them to account and lock in the goods of another decade before it passes.To contact the author of this story: Mac Margolis at mmargolis14@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Mac Margolis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin and South America. He was a reporter for Newsweek and is the author of "The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Green Shoots Lurk in Latin America’s Lost Decade Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST ![Green Shoots Lurk in Latin America's Lost Decade]( "Green Shoots Lurk in Latin America's Lost Decade") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Most anywhere you look in Latin America, ruin prospers. Violence? South and Central America and the Caribbean are home to 44 of the world's 50 most murderous cities. Economic torpor? Latin America clocked its lowest growth in seven decades from 2014 to 2020. If currencies are a nation's share price, then Latin America at year's end looks like a global penny stock. Blame Latin America's paltry labor productivity (a quarter that of its emerging market peers) or its dismal schooling (15-year-olds are three years behind their counterparts in rich-world OECD countries). Never mind inequality (only 16% of Latin Americans see wealth distribution as fair), where the nations from Mexico to Chile are world-beaters. No wonder the headline across Latin America is of yet another lost decade.Ten years ago, it was another story. The region was surging (indeed, Brazil was rocketing) ahead. Poverty had plunged and the chasm between haves and have-nots narrowed as never before. Latin America finally had grown a middle class.Now that downward mobility is back, it's tempting to conclude that the 2000s were an optical illusion, and that Latin America has simply defaulted to backwardness and want. Yet today's ugly landscape overshadows some solid advances. Green shoots of civic rectitude, social justice and transparency in government poke through the gloom. If well tended, they could help Latin America revive and even flourish.Start with attitude. Spasms of civic unease have seized Latin America in recent years, culminating this year in open revolt, as societies recoiled at misrule, unearned entitlements and elected officials who flouted the law to feed at the public trough. The turmoil arguably risks destabilizing politics, but not democratic collapse. The waves of protests rolling over the region since 2013 suggest an indomitable, sometimes unruly public, with a visceral aversion to inequities and zero tolerance for corruption. "This was the decade of the awakening of the Latin American opposition, and when democracy refused to die," said Javier Corrales, a historian at Amherst College.Granted, national governments responded belatedly or badly to spreading protests. Ecuador's Lenin Moreno fled angry crowds in Quito, the national capital, for a friendlier coastal city before rescinding an austerity package. In Chile, President Sebastian Pinera declared that the country was at war with demonstrators, only to backtrack days later, apologize and sack his cabinet. One honorable exception to the clueless official reaction was that of the Organization of American States: Beginning in 2015 under the watch of Secretary General Luis Almagro, it no longer looked the other way when hermanos became autocrats. Led by Almagro, regional diplomats stood up to the increasingly disastrous rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and played a pivotal role in probing electoral fraud and calling a new election in Bolivia. "The O.A.S. came back from the dead, transforming from a useless body to a herald of transparency and transition in Bolivia, and a defender of the democratic opposition in Venezuela and Bolivia," said Corrales.Moreover, for all the talk about the military's return to positions of political power, Latin America's armed forces notably have held back. The generals serving rightwing President Jair Bolsonaro are the house moderates. In Argentina they mind their business. The armed forces in Ecuador, Peru and even Chile took action when besieged national leaders called, but knew better than to hang around and take the fall for fumbling civilians. Bolivia's military may have overreached by showing President Evo Morales the door, but did not step through it.The Americas' economic record is less inspiring. Latin America has spent the last decade missing opportunities. As the region has rushed to feed China's demand, raw materials continue to represent a disproportionate share of national wealth — a formidable speed bump to economic diversification. Latin America's dependence on natural resources rose from 43% in 2003 to 60% at the end of the commodities boom in 2013, leaving more than half the region indentured to natural resources. Even as other emerging markets gained on developed nations, Latin America's gross domestic product per capita has all but stagnated, the McKinsey Global Institute reported earlier this year. While 56 million people climbed out of poverty during the commodity boom, poverty and outright indigence were higher in 2018 than they were a decade earlier.The good news is that China, the region's biggest trade partner, is shifting its one-track trade focus from commodities to investment in infrastructure, banking, ports and processing industries as it takes the Belt and Road strategy deeper into the Americas. Energy generation and distribution and ride services like Didi Chuxing are part of China's new deal with Brazil and beyond, indicating that Beijing has become more discerning about its stakes in the Americas. "The Chinese are sharper creditors and increasingly reluctant to throw money to sinking ships," said Boston University economist Kevin Gallagher, a specialist in China and Latin America. Encouragingly, thanks to the broadening Chinese investment, Latin America may be learning to deal with, and not just submit to, the dragon. "Some countries are approaching China with eyes wide open," said Margaret Myers, a China specialist at the Inter-American Dialogue. "They don't want to repeat Sri Lanka´s predicament, where China's involvement is seen as putting national autonomy is at stake."Frustration over the decade's economic failings also has fueled creative discontent. The turmoil sweeping Latin American capitals and engulfing political leaders has had some salutary policy effects. In a recent study of nine emerging markets and three developed countries hit by protests, Oxford Economics found that rather than paralyzing government, mass demonstrations "were generally conducive to bolstering the constituency for stabilizing reforms," and in this way "may have even taken over some of the role markets used to play as a disciplining device." In Chile, protestors pierced the veneer of complacency over the presumed blessings of unfettered markets, forcing national leaders to see social exclusion as a driver of underdevelopment and political instability. Outrage in Bolivia over apparently stolen elections could help build a consensus for firewalling democratic institutions against autocrats. "Sometimes disruption needs to happen to get some improvement," Oxford Economics' emerging markets analyst Gabriel Sterne told me.Popular revolt can also presage economic overhauling. Consider Brazil, where governments spent lavishly through boom and bust, generating the worst recession on record. In the blowback, a political consensus favoring economic realism emerged. While fiscal fraud may have been the partisan expedient for getting rid of Workers Party President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, her impeachment served as an all-purpose warning to profligates. "Economic rout laid bare Brazil's failed economic strategy and drew the line for fiscal irresponsibility," said Fernando Schuler, a political scientist at the Sao Paulo business school Insper. "That cleared the way for congress to pass the government spending cap and pension reform – major decisions showing that institutions are important for economic stability."It's too early to say whether the same constraints will prevail in Argentina, where the fallout from the misbegotten free-market reforms of Mauricio Macri swept Alberto Fernandez and the spendthrift Peronists back into power. In Argentina as in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico, chronic economic under-performance and rising demands of social redress will pressure revenue-scarce governments to fund safety nets worn thin by austerity and misfortune.The trick will be to stay solvent while paying out overdue social dividends. Fortunately, even the most free-spending leaders recognize that bondholders and investors can exact a heavy price for dirigisme and blank-check policymaking. "We've seen that movie before and it isn't pretty," said Alberto Ramos of Goldman Sachs.Here is where the street can introduce a formidable learning curve. Once tolerated as the grease on capitalism's gears, graft and the capture of public institutions now loom as a direct threat to safety nets — a trigger for popular revolt and prosecutorial action. Transparency International found in an 18-country survey that 65% of Latin American believe their government is run by private interests. The good news: 77% of those polled also said they believed that ordinary people can make a difference in fighting corruption.More than anger, this broad concern for social wellbeing also is driving the public conversation. Fighting poverty and inequality are no longer exclusively the purview of earnest citizens and nongovernmental groups. Part of the economic tragedy of the second decade of the century was seeing the previous decade's advances evaporate. "Twenty per cent of human development progress was lost through inequalities in 2018," the United Nations development program administrator Achim Steiner said in a speech earlier this month. Outrage over inequality now shapes public debate and keeps authorities on a tether. Even the International Monetary Fund has become more fluent in the grammar of the Gini coefficient and poverty mitigation.Minding the gap between highest and lowest earners is more than good samaritanism. It's smart economics, predicated on the conviction that inequality undermines long-term growth. By committing to more inclusive economies, Latin America could reap a 50% gain in gross domestic product and a $1,000 per capita income increase by 2030, McKinsey concluded.Next decade's agenda is hardly trivial. A close look at the recent social turmoil suggests that discontent arises not solely out of privation but often after a period of rising prosperity and mobility that has whetted public appetites. Likewise, people turn on leaders who socialize misgovernment by passing along the cost of fiscal folly though taxes, inflation or austerity.The message to the next crop of Latin American leaders is hard to miss. Politicians who fail to deliver well-being or to engage local constituencies in policy decisions are a perishable species. "Until 2013 or so, sitting politicians in Central and South America generally got a pass," said Corrales. "Now, there's far less of a tendency to give a blank check to incumbents."There's no guarantee, of course, that new leaders will be any less tone deaf than the lot that squandered opportunities of the 2000s. It will fall to Latin America's newly ignited publics to hold them to account and lock in the goods of another decade before it passes.To contact the author of this story: Mac Margolis at mmargolis14@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Mac Margolis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin and South America. He was a reporter for Newsweek and is the author of "The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| What a former diplomat thinks about Trump, Ukraine, and America's role in promoting democracy abroad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 04:54 AM PST  Change was in the air, and it felt electric.Former diplomat Mietek Boduszynski was posted to Libya in 2010, a year before an armed revolt would overthrow the regime of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In the early days of the Arab Spring, there was the remarkable sight of people in Cairo's Tahrir Square having open political discussions, and Libyans excitedly discussed their future under a new leader."I saw young Arabs who wanted the same thing people want everywhere: to be able to voice their opinion on Twitter and Facebook, choose their leaders, and have them held accountable if corrupt," Boduszynski told The Week. "These are universal aspirations."The Arab Spring uprisings began a century after Woodrow Wilson began a push to promote democracy abroad, believing this would foster world peace and stability. Over the last 100 years, the United States has supported democratization efforts in all corners of the globe, but the demand for free elections and judicial reform has cooled in recent years.In his new book, U.S. Democracy Promotion in the Arab World: Beyond Interests vs. Ideals, Boduszynski, a politics and international relations professor at Pomona College, writes about the United States' stuttering advocacy for democracy. Like many past and present members of the foreign service, he is troubled by how the current administration is wielding power.Boduszynski didn't set out to become a diplomat. He came to the U.S. as a political refugee from Poland when he was five years old, and his family ultimately benefited from President Ronald Reagan's general amnesty. While finishing his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, Boduszynski was torn between staying in academia or exploring the world with the State Department. He chose adventure, and went off to Albania for his first posting. His career would later take him to hotspots like Kosovo and Iraq.The United States has always been selective about when and where it will promote democracy, Boduszynski says, with the consequences still felt today. In the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. chose not to exact revenge on its enemies, but rather promote democratic institutions. Once the Cold War heated up, the U.S. became interested in one thing: countering Soviet influence. This maniacal focus resulted in the overthrow of democratically-elected regimes, such as the ones in Iran and Guatemala.The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 gave the United States a chance to stop focusing on combating communism and start promoting democracy in Eastern Europe.Take Ukraine. "Successive presidential administrations, Republican and Democrat, have made strengthening Ukrainian democratic institutions a goal of U.S. policy," Boduszynski said. "Pro-Western Ukrainian governments have been receptive to U.S. efforts, because they would like their country to be a member of the Western democratic community of nations."That's one reason why he found President Trump's decision to freeze $400 million in security aid to Ukraine, which was the major impetus for the House of Representatives' impeachment vote, so alarming. Boduszynski said the kind of assistance Trump "chose to politicize was critical for [democracy promotion], and also critical to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression — which is also in the U.S. interest. In other words, President Trump has distorted and undermined U.S. democracy promotion policy toward a country with fragile institutions that badly needs and welcomes American assistance, and in the process hurt U.S. national interests."For every country like Ukraine that's willing to listen, there's another with an authoritarian leader posing a challenge. Presidents of both parties have cozied up to authoritarian regimes when it suits the United States' interests, particularly in the Middle East.Indeed, for many decades, even as democracy promotion efforts expanded across the globe, the Arab world was the exception. Boduszynski said that in Washington, the general attitude was "these are societies that are not made for democracy. Having a strong person rule is the only way to prevent chaos and terrorism."Then came the Arab Spring.Boduszynski said the protests caught many off guard "because they were talking to regimes, not the people, and had been missing things." He worked for U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in a 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Boduszynski's new book is dedicated to Stevens, whom he called "a wonderful representative of the United States. He was a believer that Arabs and people around the world deserve better than having to choose between chaos and authoritarians."Boduszynski was supposed to be in Benghazi when the attack occurred; due to last minute logistical issues, he remained in Tripoli. In the wake of the disaster, 10 investigations were launched, including six by GOP-controlled congressional committees, with Republicans accusing members of the Obama administration, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, of participating in a coverup."It was really sad for me to see how the attack in Benghazi became a political witch hunt in our politics," Boduszynski said. "[Stevens] never would have wanted our domestic policy held hostage because he was doing his job, and there were certain risks that went into it, like a police officer or firefighter. The biggest craziness in Washington was when Republicans decided to make this a way to go after Hillary Clinton, instead of what it was: tragic terrorism."In the Trump administration, democracy promotion is seemingly on the back burner. On the left and the right, there are growing calls for isolationism, with the argument being that the United States cannot be the world's policeman. "We have a lot of domestic problems and people are tired of these endless commitments," Boduszynski said.He's found that many people overseas think U.S. foreign policy involves "a small group of people getting together in a situation room, making decisions about the world." In fact, "it's very messy ... and reflects the democratic system." This misconception presents an opportunity."One way we should conduct our foreign policy is to focus on things that attract people to the U.S., but also recognize the difficult road of our own democracy," Boduszynski said. "The civil rights movement was just a few decades ago. It's important to tell our story overseas, about how we still have huge problems, but we became more inclusive and a better democracy over time."More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history
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