| Denuclearization 'off the table' as North Korea rhetoric returns Posted: 07 Dec 2019 04:46 PM PST  North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said on Saturday that denuclearization is off the negotiating table with the United States and lengthy talks with Washington are not needed, the starkest statement yet emphasizing the gulf between the two sides ahead of a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang. U.S. President Donald Trump sought to play down a recent surge in tensions with North Korea, stressing what he said was his good relationship with its leader Kim Jong Un and saying he thought Kim wanted a deal, not to interfere in next year's U.S. presidential election. "We'll see about North Korea. I'd be surprised if North Korea acted hostilely," Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for Florida. "He knows I have an election coming up. I don't think he wants to interfere with that, but we'll have to see ... I think he'd like to see something happen. The relationship is very good, but you know, there is certain hostility, there's no question about it." Trump has invested considerable time trying to persuade North Korea to give up a nuclear weapons program that has grown to threaten the United States, but progress has been scant in spite of his three meetings with Kim Jong Un. North Korean ambassador to the United Nations Kim Song speaks during a news conference in New York Credit: Brendan McDermid/Reuters Tensions have risen ahead of a year-end deadline set by North Korea, which has called on the United States to change its policy of insisting on Pyongyang's unilateral denuclearization and demanded relief from punishing sanctions. Kim Jong Un has warned of an unspecified "new path" next year, raising fears this could mean an end to a suspension in nuclear bomb and long-range missile testing in place since 2017 that Trump has held up as a key win from his engagement efforts. U.N. Ambassador Kim Song said in a statement the "sustained and substantial dialogue" sought by the United States was a "time-saving trick" to suit its domestic political agenda, a reference to Trump's 2020 reelection bid. "We do not need to have lengthy talks with the U.S. now and denuclearization is already gone out of the negotiating table," he said. Kim Song's comments appeared to go further than North Korea's earlier warning that discussions related to its nuclear weapons program might have to be taken off the table given Washington's refusal to offer concessions. On Tuesday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry repeated a call for Washington to change its "hostile policies" and said it was up to Washington to decide what "Christmas gift" came at the end of the year. Kim Song also hit out at a statement this week from EU members of the U.N. Security Council criticizing recent short range launches by North Korea, calling it a "serious provocation" and saying they were playing the role of "pet dog" of the United States. Recent days have seen a return to the highly charged rhetoric that raised fears of war two years ago. In 2017, Trump and Kim Jung Un famously engaged in a war of words, with Trump calling Kim Jong Un "Rocket Man" and North Korea calling Trump, now 73, a "dotard." On Tuesday, Trump once again called Kim "Rocket Man" and said the United States reserved the right to use military force against North Korea. Pyongyang said any repeat of such language would represent "the relapse of the dotage of a dotard." Kim Jong-un in pictures: Bizarre photoshoots of North Korea's leader In spite of Trump's reprise of the Rocket Man meme, he has still expressed hope that Kim Jong Un would denuclearize. On Friday the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said the United States had not yet decided whether to have a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss North Korean human rights abuses that has angered Pyongyang. On Friday, South Korea said Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a half-hour phone discussion on ways to maintain diplomacy with North Korea. It said the two leaders agreed the situation has become "severe" and "dialogue momentum should be maintained to achieve prompt results from denuclearization negotiations." Many diplomats, analysts and U.S. officials have long doubted North Korea's willingness to negotiate away a nuclear program it has invested decades and a large proportion of limited national resources in creating.
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| U.K. Conservatives Lead in Polls With Campaign in Final Week Posted: 07 Dec 2019 03:16 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson's Conservatives hold a solid lead over Labour in the final weekend opinion polls before Thursday's general election, although one projection suggested a huge Tory landslide is as possible as a hung Parliament.A projection by Datapraxis in the Times newspaper, in which a YouGov poll gave the Tories a 10-point lead, put the cushion at 38 seats. Its previous analysis put the majority at 48, and the organization warned that as many as 90 constituencies are still up for grabs."We have never seen as many undecided voters this late in the campaign," The Times quoted Datapraxis's Paul Hilder as saying. "A much larger Conservative landslide is still possible -- but so is a hung Parliament."A Savanta ComRes poll for The Sunday Telegraph, showed that the Tories' lead fell to 8 percentage points, back to where it was shortly before the starting pistol was officially fired on the campaign. That would be enough for a parliamentary majority of 14, the report said.According to interviews with senior political officials on both sides of the divide, Johnson is heading for a majority of between 20 and 35 seats in the House of Commons, Bloomberg reported. All Conservative candidates have pledged to vote for Johnson's Brexit deal, meaning even a small majority would in theory ensure the U.K. completes its divorce from the European Union by the Jan. 31 deadline.An Opinium poll in the Observer suggests Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party failed to make any inroads in the past week, with the Conservatives amassing 46% of the vote for a 15-point lead. The left-leaning newspaper quoted Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, as saying the picture is "starkly negative.""Heading into the final week, a recovery is not impossible but doing so would require a turnaround even more spectacular than the one Mr. Corbyn achieved" in the 2017 election, Drummond said.Poll Breakdowns:Savanta ComRes (Telegraph) surveyed 2,034 adults Dec. 4-5:Conservatives 41% (-1 point), Labour 33% (+1), Lib Dems 12% (unchanged) Brexit 3% (unchanged).Opinium (Observer) surveyed 2,003 adults Dec. 4-6:Conservatives 46%, Labour 31%, Lib Dems 13%, Brexit 2% (all unchanged).YouGov (Times) surveyed 1,680 adults on Dec. 5-6:Conservatives 43% (+1), Labour 33% (unchanged), Lib Dems 13% (+1), Brexit (-1)Delta (Mail on Sunday):Conservatives 44% (-1), Labour 33% (+1), Lib Debs 11% (-4), Brexit 3% (unchanged)A separate Savanta ComRes poll commissioned by Remain United showed the Conservatives with a 6 percentage point lead over Labour.Gina Miller, who founded Remain United as part of a drive to stop Britain's departure from the EU, said if people vote tactically then the U.K. could still be set for a hung parliament."Based on these findings, remain and soft leave voters should be very energized knowing that their votes have the power to defeat a Tory majority," Miller said in a statement.(Adds Datapraxis and YouGov)To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Vasarri in New York at cvasarri@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lauren Berry at lberry4@bloomberg.net, James Ludden, Ian FisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump thanks Iran as American freed in prisoner swap Posted: 07 Dec 2019 02:09 PM PST  President Donald Trump had rare positive words for Iran on Saturday, thanking the US foe for a "very fair" negotiation to successfully pull off a prisoner swap that saw an American released from Iranian detention amid soaring tensions. The exchange, which took place in neutral Switzerland, involved a Princeton graduate student jailed in Iran for espionage since 2016 and an Iranian national arrested over a year ago in Chicago. "Thank you to Iran on a very fair negotiation," tweeted Trump, as Xiyue Wang made his way home to his family.
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| On Florida trip, Trump to address Jewish group, GOP dinner Posted: 07 Dec 2019 01:15 PM PST  President Donald Trump's trip to Florida on Saturday will feature separate addresses to a meeting of Jewish Americans and members of Florida's Republican Party. The trip comes hours after Trump celebrated Iran's decision to free a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton University who had been held since 2016. The whole Princeton University community is very thrilled, and it was a one-on-one hostage swap,'' Trump told reporters as he left the White House.
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| Biden calls Sanders' pitch to leverage Israel aid 'bizarre' Posted: 07 Dec 2019 01:10 PM PST  Joe Biden said Saturday that it is "bizarre" for Bernie Sanders to propose withholding U.S. military aid from Israel if the government there doesn't moderate its treatment of Palestinians. Biden and Sanders support a "two-state solution" for Israel and the Palestinians, and both men have criticized political leaders on each side of the long-standing conflict.
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| Pensacola naval base shooting tests US-Saudi relations Posted: 07 Dec 2019 12:33 PM PST  Top U.S. defense and military officials on Saturday reaffirmed America's continued commitment to and relationship with Saudi Arabia after a Saudi Air Force student's deadly attack at a Navy base in Florida. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and others attending a security conference in California played down any initial impact on U.S.-Saudi ties. President Donald Trump described a conciliatory conversation with the Saudi king.
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| North Korea says denuclearization not on negotiating table Posted: 07 Dec 2019 12:27 PM PST  North Korea said Saturday that denuclearization has "already gone out of the negotiation table" and it does not need to have lengthy talks with the United States as the end-of-year deadline set by its leader Kim Jong Un for substantial U.S. concessions in nuclear diplomacy looms. "We do not need to have lengthy talks with the U.S. now and the denuclearization is already gone out of the negotiation table," he said.
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| Trump says does not think Kim Jong Un wants to interfere in U.S. election Posted: 07 Dec 2019 12:14 PM PST ![Trump says does not think Kim Jong Un wants to interfere in U.S. election]( "Trump says does not think Kim Jong Un wants to interfere in U.S. election") President Donald Trump said on Saturday he did not think North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wanted to interfere in next year's U.S. presidential election and said he would be surprised if Pyongyang acted hostilely. "We'll see about North Korea," Trump told reporters after North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said on Saturday that denuclearization was off the negotiating table with the United States. "I'd be surprised if North Korea acted hostilely," Trump said at the White House before leaving for Florida.
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| Israeli aircraft strike Hamas sites in Gaza after 3 rockets Posted: 07 Dec 2019 11:42 AM PST ![Israeli aircraft strike Hamas sites in Gaza after 3 rockets]( "Israeli aircraft strike Hamas sites in Gaza after 3 rockets") Israeli aircraft bombed several militants' sites in Gaza early Sunday, hours after three rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave toward southern Israel. On Saturday evening, Israel announced that its air defenses, known as "Iron Dome," intercepted two of three missiles coming from Gaza.
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| US citizen Xiyue Wang released from Iranian jail in prisoner swap Posted: 07 Dec 2019 11:33 AM PST  Chinese-born Princeton student, sentenced to 10 years in prison, exchanged for Iranian scientist Masoud SoleimaniA Chinese-born US citizen sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran on spying charges has been released as part of a prisoner swap.Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang, imprisoned since 2016, was exchanged for Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist arrested at Chicago airport last year and convicted on charges of violating US trade sanctions.Wang was due to fly to the US via Oman and a US military base in Frankfurt, Germany. There had been no prior indication he was due to be released, and he was apparently shocked when he was told the news. He initially travelled to Iran to study Farsi and Iranian history.In a statement, Donald Trump said: "Mr Wang had been held under the pretence of espionage since August 2016. We thank our Swiss partners for their assistance in negotiating Mr Wang's release with Iran."The Swiss embassy in Tehran looks out for America's interests in the country as the US embassy there has been closed since the 1979 student takeover and 444-day hostage crisis.In a less diplomatic tweet, Trump said Wang had been "taken during the Obama Administration (despite $150 Billion gift), returned during the Trump Administration."Trump has repeatedly claimed his predecessor "gave" Iran $150bn. According to the Washington Post's Fact Checker column, the figure is actually an "upper range estimate" for Iranian assets unfrozen under the nuclear deal with Tehran in 2015.On Saturday, the president also thanked Tehran for "a very fair negotiation" and said: "See, we can make a deal together!"> Senior Administration official says Xiyue Wang is "doing really well" in Germany after State Iran envoy Brian Hook swapped for him in Zurich. Hook and Wang pictured. pic.twitter.com/qS1oz7sE3n> > — Rich Edson (@RichEdsonDC) December 7, 2019Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, accompanied Soleimani to Switzerland to make the exchange and will return with Wang, according to a US official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.The swap took place in Zurich and Hook and Wang were en route to Landstuhl in Germany where Wang was to be examined by doctors, the official said. Hook was expected to return to the US from Germany alone, as Wang was expected to be evaluated for several days.Although Hook was present for the swap, the US official said the national security adviser Robert O'Brien played the lead role in negotiations dating from his time as special representative for hostage affairs at the state department.Soleimani – who works in stem cell research, hematology and regenerative medicine – was arrested by US authorities on charges he violated trade sanctions by trying to have biological material brought to Iran. He and his lawyers maintain his innocence, saying he seized on a former student's plans to travel from the US to Iran in September 2016 as a chance to get recombinant proteins used in his research for a fraction of the price he would pay at home.On Saturday Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that Soleimani was with Iranian officials in Switzerland. Soleimani was expected to return to Iran in the coming hours. Zarif later posted pictures of himself on Twitter with Soleimani in front of an Iranian government jet and later with the two talking on board.The US regards the swap as a low price for the release of Wang, who has always insisted he is innocent and whose family has described the charges as absurd. He was researching the Qajar dynasty at the time of his arrest in August 2016. Hua Qu, his wife, released a statement saying "our family is complete once again"."Our son Shaofan and I have waited three long years for this day and it's hard to express in words how excited we are to be reunited with Xiyue," she said. "We are thankful to everyone who helped make this happen."The Princeton spokesman Ben Chang said the school was aware of Wang's release.Relations between the US and Iran reached a new low this week with further sanctions slapped on Tehran. A meeting with the remaining signatories of the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on Friday in Vienna ended with Europeans warning that further breaches of the nuclear deal by Iran would endanger their support.Ironically Britain, with better relations with Iran at least over the JCPOA, is making no progress, at least on the surface, in securing the release of its dual nationals held in Evin prison including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and a retired businessman, Anousheh Ashoori.Both consider themselves hostages captured in a bid to force diplomatic or economic concessions.Other Americans held in Iran include an 81-year-old businessman, Baquer Namazi, who has been held for more than two years and diagnosed with epilepsy.Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, also a dual national who has been held for more than three years, are serving 10-year sentences after they were convicted of collaborating with a hostile power.An Iranian-American art dealer, Karan Vafadari, and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Also held is US navy veteran Michael White.The former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing. Iran says Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information, but his family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Wang would soon be able to go home to his family but acknowledged other Americans remain held by Iran."The United States will not rest until we bring every American detained in Iran and around the world back home to their loved ones," Pompeo said in a statement.
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| German farmers set bonfires across the country in protest at being 'ignored' in climate drive Posted: 07 Dec 2019 10:35 AM PST  On Saturday evening German farmers set up "warning bonfires" at hundreds of sites across the country in a continuation of protests against new environmental controls that have caught Berlin on the back foot. The fires come sharp on the heels of a huge protest in Berlin, when close to 9,000 tractors converged on the Brandenburg Gate - many farmers driving overnight from far-flung regions. "We feel that government is being driven by green groups and NGOs. They are chasing the Green party vote and ignoring farmers even though we are their core voters," said Helmut Lebacher, the organiser of a bonfire in the small Bavarian village of Tyrlaching. Himself a cattle farmer, Mr Lebacher said that ever stricter regulations are threatening the financial viability of small farms. "I invested a million euros in a new cow shed five years ago, but it wouldn't get planning today. Constantly changing regulations are making it impossible to plan for the future," he said. Another farmer at the demonstration, Matthius Michaelbauer, said that farmers are sick of how they are portrayed in the German media. "We are always the bogeyman, the media reports negatively on pesticides and fertiliser without giving the full picture," he said. The demonstrations seemed to come from nowhere. Unlike France, where farmers blocking motorways is an integral part of the political landscape, Germany's rural communities are not known for their activism. But discontent has been bubbling under the surface. Tractor protests in Munich over a collapse in milk prices in 2015 provided a taste of what was to come. The current demonstrations started in October after Angela Merkel's government agreed on a new agriculture bill, which sets tough new limits on fertilisers and pesticide usage. Of particular distress to farmers is a 20 percent reduction in fertiliser use in large areas of the countryside. The government says it has to comply with EU rules on nitrate levels in the groundwater. Concentrations of nitrate in drinking water pose serious health risks to infants and fertilisers are a major culprit. But farmers suspect environmental agencies are exaggerating the extent of the problem. Maike Schulz Broers, the protests' co-initiator, told The Telegraph that fertiliser restrictions "wouldn't just lead to a drop in the harvest, it would mean crops would take the additional nutrients from the earth, which would quickly impoverish the soil." For her, this is evidence government policy is "driven by ideology not facts." Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats, who have locked down the farming vote for generations, have tried to appear accommodating, stressing that the bill "is not yet law." But they've made clear compromising on environmental standards is a red line, saying their hands are tied after losing appeal against fertiliser rules imposed by the EU. The protesters' list of gripes stretches much further than the draft law, though. Some are angry wolf numbers have been allowed to swell, leaving sheep as easy prey. Meanwhile a sense that city dwellers don't respect, or are even flat out hostile to, farmers permeates the protests. Ms Schulz Broers, owner of a wheat farm south of Hamburg, says Germany's liberal city dwellers want it both ways - they want farmers to go organic but still want a reliable supply of affordable food. "If they want us to move to organic farming, fine. But they should know that it leads to lower production," she says. The protests have met criticism from the Green party, who accuse farmers of "ignoring the seriousness of biodiversity loss and water pollution." Critics charge that a powerful agro-lobby has protected a retrograde EU subsidy system while stalling efforts to restrict the use of the potentially carcinogenic pesticide glyphosate. Meanwhile, although farmers claim their futures are threatened, agricultural exports are big business, accounting for €70 billion last year. With the CDU losing conservative voters to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in recent years, some predict disgruntled farmers could now desert them for the far-right. "The government's centrist politics fits the liberal principles of urban voters, but farmers in south Germany, like rural voters in the east, feel like they aren't being listened to," says Sudha David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund. "The AfD could pose a threat by telling farmers 'we also understand that the EU is distant body politic that makes rules from on high'," she argues. Others see it differently. Robert Vehrkamp, a researcher at the Bertelsmann Stiftung think tank argues that "support for the AfD in the countryside has been exaggerated. The pact with the CDU has served farmers well over the years. As far as I know the AfD don't even have a detailed agricultural policy."
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| Report: Some 14,000 to run for 290 seats in Iran parliament Posted: 07 Dec 2019 10:07 AM PST ![Report: Some 14,000 to run for 290 seats in Iran parliament]( "Report: Some 14,000 to run for 290 seats in Iran parliament") Iran's official IRNA news agency reports that nearly 14,000 people have registered to run for office in the country's parliamentary elections in February. The Saturday report said the exact number would be announced Sunday but already the number of potential candidates was 15% more than in the 2016 parliamentary election, when some 12,000 registered to run. The elections will be a gauge of the popularity of moderate and reformist camps that President Hassan Rouhani represents after November unrest over government-set gas prices.
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| Family recounts heroics of fallen son in Pensacola shooting Posted: 07 Dec 2019 09:52 AM PST ![Family recounts heroics of fallen son in Pensacola shooting]( "Family recounts heroics of fallen son in Pensacola shooting") Joshua Watson had just graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and looked forward to a military career as a pilot. On Saturday, he was being hailed a hero, as his family recounted how the 23-year-old — in his last minutes of life — led first responders to an active shooter at the Pensacola naval base. In a Facebook post, his brother Adam said Watson saved countless lives with his own.
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| ‘Haiti is like the forgotten emergency.’ UN needs $62 million to combat hunger crisis Posted: 07 Dec 2019 09:36 AM PST  The United Nations World Food Program is scaling up emergency food assistance in Haiti, where a protracted political and economic crises are fanning a humanitarian disaster.
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| North Korea says US denuclearization talks 'out of negotiation table' Posted: 07 Dec 2019 09:31 AM PST  North Korea on Saturday said denuclearization talks with the United States were "out of the negotiation table," while slamming European UN Security Council members who had recently denounced its "provocative" ballistic missile launches. The statement from North Korea's ambassador to the UN Kim Song came after Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom on Wednesday condemned North Korea's "continued testing of ballistic missiles," and called for strict enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang.
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| UPDATE 4-North Korea's U.N. envoy says denuclearization off negotiating table with United States Posted: 07 Dec 2019 09:00 AM PST ![UPDATE 4-North Korea's U.N. envoy says denuclearization off negotiating table with United States]( "UPDATE 4-North Korea's U.N. envoy says denuclearization off negotiating table with United States") UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said on Saturday that denuclearization is off the negotiating table with the United States and lengthy talks with Washington are not needed, the starkest statement yet emphasizing the gulf between the two sides ahead of a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang. U.S. President Donald Trump sought to play down a recent surge in tensions with North Korea, stressing what he said was his good relationship with its leader Kim Jong Un and saying he thought Kim wanted a deal, not to interfere in next year's U.S. presidential election.
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| Protests subside, but economic aftershocks rattle Haitians Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:34 AM PST  Port-au-Prince (AP) — The flaming barricades are mostly gone, protesters have largely dissipated and traffic is once again clogging the streets of Haiti's capital, but hundreds of thousands of people are now suffering deep economic aftershocks after more than two months of demonstrations. The protests that drew tens of thousands of people at a time to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse also squeezed incomes, shuttered businesses and disrupted the transportation of basic goods. "We are nearing a total crash," Haitian economist Camille Chalmers said.
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| American student Xiyue Wang jailed in Iran for 3 years freed in prisoner exchange Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:29 AM PST  An American graduate student who was jailed for more than three years in Iran is headed home after a prisoner swap. Xiyue Wang, 38, a Princeton University student, was exchanged for Iranian scientist Professor Massoud Soleimani early on Saturday as part of a prisoner exchange brokered by the Switzerland government.
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| Iran Releases U.S. Student Held Since 2016 in Prisoner Swap Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:23 AM PST ![Iran Releases U.S. Student Held Since 2016 in Prisoner Swap]( "Iran Releases U.S. Student Held Since 2016 in Prisoner Swap") (Bloomberg) -- Iran released the Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang on Saturday as part of a prisoner swap, U.S. officials said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif confirmed that the U.S. freed Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani.Soleimani was "delivered to Iranian officials in Switzerland," Iran's foreign ministry said on its Telegram channel. Zarif later tweeted photos of himself with his countryman.A senior U.S. administration official said Wang was met in Switzerland by Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative to Iran. Yang will undergo a medical evaluation in Germany before heading back to the U.S.The Princeton University scholar may visit President Donald Trump at the White House after his return but nothing has been arranged so far, the official said.The prisoner swap comes as diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran remain fraught. President Hassan Rouhani's government is under increasing pressure from U.S. sanctions that have hammered the Islamic Republic's economy. More than 1,000 people may have been killed by government forces in Iran during a crackdown on protests in recent weeks."Mr. Wang had been held under the pretense of espionage since August 2016," Trump said in a statement on Saturday. "Freeing Americans held captive is of vital importance to my administration, and we will continue to work hard to bring home all our citizens wrongfully held captive overseas."Soleimani, arrested at a Chicago airport in 2018 and convicted on charges of violating trade sanctions, had been expected to be freed from prison as early as next month under a plea agreement, the New York Times reported, citing two senior U.S. officials it didn't identify.U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo highlighted Iran's "constructive" stance on the matter in a Twitter post.The senior administration official said the U.S. is focused on bringing home other Americans it says are wrongfully held abroad using whatever tools it has, adding that Saturday's release could create fresh momentum.In the case of Iran, that includes Robert Levinson, the official said. Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared there in 2007, was reportedly on a mission for the CIA.No payment of cash, lifting of sanctions or other concessions were proposed as part of Wang's release, the official added.Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement posted on Twitter that the university's community "is overjoyed that Xiyue Wang can finally return home to his wife and young son, and we look forward to welcoming him back to campus." He is a fourth-year graduate student in the history department, according to the university.The senior administration official said Saturday that Trump remains prepared to meet with Iranian officials with no preconditions.(Updates with U.S. official from third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Katerina Petroff.To contact the reporters on this story: Arsalan Shahla in Tehran at ashahla@bloomberg.net;Mario Parker in Washington at mparker22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Kingdon at ckingdon@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Report: Iranian soldier shot 3 policemen to death Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:18 AM PST ![Report: Iranian soldier shot 3 policemen to death]( "Report: Iranian soldier shot 3 policemen to death") Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency is reporting that a soldier has shot three policemen to death in the country's south. The Saturday report said the incident took place at a police station near the port city of Bandar Lengeh, some 1,000 kilometers , or 620 miles, south of the capital Tehran. Such incidents are reported by Iranian media occasionally.
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| Oman's sultan, 79, travels to Belgium for medical checks Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:09 AM PST  Oman's 79-year-old ruler will travel to Belgium for a medical checkup, the sultanate's state-run news agency reported. Sultan Qaboos bin Said left "for some medical checks that will take a limited period, God willing," the Oman News Agency reported Saturday, citing a royal court statement. The sultan has ruled Oman since overthrowing his father in a bloodless 1970 coup.
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| Lebanese women march in Beirut against sexual harassment Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:04 AM PST ![Lebanese women march in Beirut against sexual harassment]( "Lebanese women march in Beirut against sexual harassment") Scores of women marched through the streets of Beirut on Saturday to protest sexual harassment and bullying and demanding rights including the passing of citizenship to children of Lebanese women married to foreigners. The march started outside the American University of Beirut, west of the capital, and ended in a downtown square that has been witnessing daily protests for more than seven weeks. Nationwide demonstrations in Lebanon broke out Oct. 17 against proposed taxes on WhatsApp calls turned into a condemnation of the country's political elite, who have run the country since the 1975-90 civil war.
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| North Korea's U.N. envoy says denuclearization off negotiating table with United States Posted: 07 Dec 2019 08:00 AM PST ![North Korea's U.N. envoy says denuclearization off negotiating table with United States]( "North Korea's U.N. envoy says denuclearization off negotiating table with United States") North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said on Saturday that denuclearization is already off the negotiating table with the United States and lengthy talks with Washington were not needed. The ambassador, Kim Song, said in a statement the "sustained and substantial dialogue" sought by the United States was a "time-saving trick" to suit its domestic political agenda. "We do not need to have lengthy talks with the U.S. now and denuclearization is already gone out of the negotiating table," he said in the statement made available to Reuters.
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| Chicago chief's firing again rattles confidence in force Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:57 AM PST ![Chicago chief's firing again rattles confidence in force]( "Chicago chief's firing again rattles confidence in force") The unceremonious firing of Chicago's police superintendent just weeks before his retirement has rattled a department that, under his leadership, was seeking to restore public confidence since the release of a 2014 video showing a white officer killing a black teenager with 16 gunshots. Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday for "ethical lapses" stemming from an October incident in which officers found him asleep behind the wheel of his official SUV.
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| Russia Linked to Leaked Document Behind Corbyn’s NHS Risk Claim Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:50 AM PST ![Russia Linked to Leaked Document Behind Corbyn's NHS Risk Claim]( "Russia Linked to Leaked Document Behind Corbyn's NHS Risk Claim") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Russia has been linked to the leak of U.K. government documents behind Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's election-campaign claim that the Conservative Party would put the National Health Service on the table in trade talks with the U.S.Social news and aggregation firm Reddit Inc. on Friday banned 61 accounts under its policies against "vote manipulation" ahead of Britain's general election on Dec. 12. The accounts, which were used to draw attention to the trade documents, were "part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia," according to Reddit.The documents have become a staple of Labour's election campaign. Corbyn has repeatedly waved them at campaign events to publicly accuse Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Conservatives of putting the NHS at risk in talks on a future free-trade deal with the U.S. Johnson has consistently denied he would open the healthcare system to U.S. interests, calling the charge "pure Bermuda-triangle stuff" during the most recent debate.Public InterestWhen asked about the Russia link on Saturday, Corbyn dismissed it as "nonsense," and pointed out that Johnson has never denied the documents' authenticity."The issues are that those documents show exactly what the British government was doing in discussions with Donald Trump's administration in the U.S., and also why the prime minister has refused to release the report on Russian interference in British politics, which he's been sitting on for a very long time," Corbyn said on Sky News.Corbyn was referring to Johnson's refusal to release a report by a U.K. intelligence watchdog that raises concern about Russian interference in the campaign. The Labour Party released the trade documents because they are "clearly in the public interest," a spokesman said on Saturday. Corbyn has refused to identify the source of the leak.Johnson has managed to brush back Corbyn's attacks over the NHS and kept the Conservative campaign focused on his pledge to complete the U.K.'s exit from the European Union, a strategy that appears to be working. With less than a week to the vote, the last five major polls gave the Conservatives an average lead of around 10 percentage points. Johnson is heading for a clear victory, senior officials in both main parties told Bloomberg.'Secondary Infektion'Reddit said its investigation occurred after Facebook Inc. discovered a Russian campaign on its network earlier this year dubbed "Secondary Infektion." More recent accounts on Reddit bear similarities to that campaign, "causing us to believe that this was indeed tied to the original group," the firm said."Suspect accounts on Reddit were recently reported to us, along with indicators from law enforcement, and we were able to confirm that they did indeed show a pattern of coordination," Reddit said. The banned accounts will be preserved for a time so that they can be scrutinized by researchers and the public.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said there are no grounds for the accusations against Russia.The Reddit accounts were removed after social media research firm Graphika Inc. published a blog on Dec. 2 saying that hundred of pages of leaked documents on trade between the U.S. and U.K. were amplified online in a manner "closely" resembling tactics used in the Secondary Infektion campaign.The U.K. operation appeared to start in October when "a German-language persona" that called itself Max Ostermann posted information about the leaked trade documents to three websites including German subreddit r/de, as well as an Austrian local-news blog and a Berlin-based platform, according to Graphika.The documents were then amplified using tactics previously seen in Secondary Infektion. These tactics included the use of "burner accounts" -- which post once before apparently being abandoned -- as well use of a "conspiracy site" called beforeitsnews.com, the Graphika report said."Even before the Reddit post, the big question was how the unredacted U.K. documents ended up online," said Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika. "That question just got bigger."\--With assistance from Tim Ross.To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Crooks in Miami at ncrooks@bloomberg.net;Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Patrick HenryFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Minnesota National Guard identifies 3 killed in copter crash Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:41 AM PST  The Minnesota National Guard says the three soldiers who were killed when their helicopter crashed near St. Cloud this week were part of a unit that returned last May from a nine-month deployment to the Middle East. The Guard identified the men who were killed in Thursday's crash as Chief Warrant Officers 2nd Class James A. Rogers Jr., 28, and Charles P. Nord, 30, and Sgt. Kort M. Plantenberg, 28. The Guard tweeted that during their unit's recent Middle East deployment, it conducted medical evacuations in support of operations Spartan Shield and Inherent Resolve.
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| Aging survivors return to Pearl Harbor to recall '41 attack Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:38 AM PST  A dozen frail survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor returned Saturday to honor those who perished when Japanese planes pierced a quiet sunny morning 78 years ago and rained bombs on battleships lined up below. About 30 World War II veterans and some 2,000 members of the public joined the survivors, the youngest of whom are now in their late 90s, to commemorate the anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that launched the U.S. into World War II. Herb Elfring, 97, of Jackson, Michigan, said being back at Pearl Harbor reminds him of all those who have lost their lives.
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| Voters Like Trump's Trade Goals, Not His Tone Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:12 AM PST  A big part of Donald Trump's political identity has centered on his promises to shake up the United States' role in the world and reject the free-trade agreements that he has called "a disaster" for American workers.Trump made those ideals a major part of his presidential campaign in 2016, and he has remained committed to them since -- as the events of the past week have shown. He publicly clashed with European leaders during a visit to London, going so far as to threaten a 100% tariff on some imports from France. He continues to push Congress to approve a deal that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.And on Tuesday he announced that he may wait until after the 2020 election to negotiate a grand deal with China, signaling that debates over trade could loom over the presidential race.Trade is not a primary concern for most American voters: Of the seven topics CNN asked about in a recent poll, voters were least likely to cite trade as important for their decision in 2020.But Trump's heterodox approach to diplomacy has become a constant source of headlines, and Americans' views of his trade policy have become entwined with their anxiety about how he conducts himself abroad.Nearly three years into the president's first term, the country now disapproves of his handling of both trade and foreign affairs by a sizable margin: On each topic, Americans are more likely to disapprove of his politics than to approve by a gap of 10 to 20 points, depending on which recent poll you're reading.When Trump took office, polls showed that Americans were broadly sympathetic to his calls for a rethinking of trade policy. In January 2017, a Gallup poll found that 71% of respondents nationwide said that "promoting favorable trade policies for the U.S. in foreign markets" should be a very important policy goal for the new administration. (Fewer put a high priority on working to defend U.S. allies or linking arms with the United Nations.)Still, at the same time, Americans have become much more likely to see trade as a good thing since Trump took office. A Gallup poll earlier this year found that by a huge margin (74% to 21%), Americans now tend to see trade as an "opportunity for economic growth through increased U.S. exports" rather than a "threat to the economy from foreign imports."Americans' views on this ideological question often follow economic trends, with respondents more likely to say trade is good whenever unemployment is low, as it is today. But in over 25 years of polling data from Gallup, Americans have never been as pro-trade as they became after Trump entered the White House.For the first time, in a remarkable show of bipartisan consensus, 7 in 10 respondents in each party this year said trade was more of an opportunity for the United States than a threat. But Lydia Saad, a senior editor at Gallup, resisted equating support for trade with opposition to Trump's positions."Republicans and Democrats are expressing more positivity about trade, but for different reasons," Saad said. "Democrats, I think, hear what Trump says and interpret that as anti-trade, and so reflexively are saying: 'No, trade is great.' Republicans hear what Trump says, and they say, 'Trump says he's going to be a better advocate for trade deals and make trade better, so trade is great.'"Indeed, white Americans without a college degree -- who tend to be among Trump's most solid supporters -- flipped from generally opposing trade to generally supporting it as soon as Trump was elected. In 2016, just 46% of those Americans told Gallup they saw trade as an opportunity for growth; in 2017, that number leapt to 66%.Democrats have become far more likely than Republicans to see NAFTA positively. In 2017, Gallup found that 67% of Democrats viewed the agreement favorably, versus just 22% of Republicans. In the 1990s and early 2000s, immediately after the agreement was passed, there was no notable partisan difference on this question.Trump is trying to replace NAFTA with a deal of his own, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, that includes many provisions that Democrats have long pushed for, including a demand that Mexico raise its minimum wage and a stipulation that cars include a higher percentage of parts made in North America. Trump's hard-knuckle approach to negotiations with China has also been premised on the argument that U.S. workers and businesses deserve greater protections from foreign competition.As a result, the Democratic nominee for president in 2020 may have a hard time opposing Trump on policy grounds. But the fact that most Americans remain dissatisfied with Trump's conduct abroad still leaves room for an opponent to confront him on trade, experts say.Indeed, a majority of Americans (52%) said in a Quinnipiac poll in October that Trump had weakened the United States' standing as the so-called "leader of the free world," while just 33% said he had strengthened it."Trump took most of their talking points," Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, said in an interview, referring to the president's protectionist policies. "So what you're hearing is the Democrats trying to find some way to take back that trade-skeptic position."He added: "If you listen to the Democrats, they're basically saying, 'We agree it was time to get tough on China, but the tariffs are the wrong tactic, and we shouldn't be alienating our allies.' So it's much more of a tactical debate than a substantive debate."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| The Accidental Celebrities of the Impeachment Inquiry Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:10 AM PST  No matter the job title, the gig of most every aide to a member of Congress is essentially the same: to help make it appear that the elected representative -- "the name on the door," as some aides put it -- is shouldering the work alone.This is especially true, and especially tricky, amid the scrutinized pageantry of news conferences and high-stakes public hearings like those convened last month by the House Intelligence Committee and this week by the House Judiciary Committee as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.In hearings, congressional aides often sit behind their bosses, close enough to discreetly provide on-the-spot guidance and information. But, for some, the tougher gig might be operating in front of a scrum of cameras while trying to remain invisible to the public."There is whirlwind of activity behind the scenes and it is your job to keep that off-camera and to fade into the wallpaper," said Jeremy Bash, who attended or staffed about 100 hearings while serving in various roles, including chief of staff to the former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.This is the balance aimed for by Russell Dye, an aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who has taken a visible and audible role as a staunch defender of President Donald Trump in the recent impeachment inquiry hearings.Dye says he wants to avoid the camera's glare when possible, to be invisible in plain sight when necessary and to keep the public's focus on the work of his boss."I tend to like to stay in the background," said Dye, 27. "I hate it when I become the center of attention."But someone needs to tell that to Dye's bright mint-green blazer. Paired with a green bow tie, the jacket has twice attracted national media coverage: first in 2014, when he and his jacket sat in the front row of an IRS hearing and were featured on Twitter, "Morning Joe" and in a political cartoon.Last month, just before a day of impeachment inquiry testimony would begin, Dye was setting up posters on easels with messages like, "0 days since Adam Schiff followed House rules."As he did so, Andrew Harnik, a staff photographer for The Associated Press, snapped Dye in his spearmint-gum-colored jacket."Hearings and hearing rooms can be on the more staid side so we're always looking for images that are striking and unexpected," said Harnik, 38. "I didn't have an idea of what the hearings were going to look like, but I wasn't expecting the posters." As for Dye's outfit, it was (green) icing on the cake.The photograph was published in The Washington Post, atop an opinion piece called, "A definitive guide to 64 Republican impeachment excuses." The picture and story were then plucked and billboarded by Apple News."That's not a good article for us, and I disagree with the author's assertion," Dye said, "but it still goes to everyone thanks to your mom and Facebook."He even got recognized in the aisles of his hometown Walmart in Forsyth, Georgia, when he was there for Thanksgiving. "We're just trying to do the best we can for the members we work for, but then you end up on Twitter," he said. "This is the age we live in."The more your boss is in the spotlight, the harder it can be to stay out of it. Charli Huddleston also works for Jordan, as press secretary for the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. She too found herself inadvertently upstaging him, and a gaggle of congressmen, when she was photographed in late October standing on a staircase above them as they staged a protest against the process of the impeachment proceedings. In the photo, a light shines upon Huddleston, 25, as if from an alien spaceship that is going to beam her up. Once posted to Twitter, the photo went viral."It was like, 'Oh my God, I'm a meme,'" Huddleston said in an interview.At first, the moment felt like a fun diversion from a tense time. After BuzzFeed published an article about how the photograph of a Republican congressman's aide had been adopted as favorite among anti-Trump tweeters, the attention rattled her."It's not supposed to be about me, it's about the name on the door," Huddleston said, recalling her worry about how her boss would react. "I hope he's going to be OK with it."In fact, Jordan called her to make sure she wasn't feeling trolled by nasty comments. "He was concerned," she said.More than simply fade into the background at that same protest, it was the job of Janae Frazier, the press secretary to Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., to gather video footage and photographs of her boss and his colleagues that could be used on social media to promote their impeachment resistance.That's not how it turned out.As the protest dragged on, pizza was ordered for the members of Congress, their aides and reporters in attendance.Frazier approached the cart of stacked boxes and was about to take a slice when she noticed her picture was being snapped. She made a face (Frazier describes it as "goofy") and backed away from the pizza."I don't want my picture taken while I'm eating," said Frazier, 28. "I can go in on pizza."At a media event that offered all the visual excitement possible of a bunch of middle-aged men in suits standing outside a conference room, the image of a woman contemplating pizza tickled Twitter."Y'all I have become a meme. I'm DEAD," Frazier tweeted.Then she went on with her life. But not everyone was ready to. Her picture was featured on CNN. And then it was included in a Weekend Update segment on "Saturday Night Live."She heard from long-lost friends and distant relatives who congratulated her on her career achievements. "I was like, 'WHAT? All this for being hungry?'" Frazier said.Among staffers and committee aides who have been sitting behind their congressional bosses in the current impeachment hearings, cameras have not seized on many goofy faces (nor did committee staffers seize the opportunity to comment for this article)."The staffer has to be a sphinx," said Bash, the former defense department and congressional aide who is now a national security consultant and news commentator."There is no formal training for this role," he continued. "You have to have been raised on the Iran-Contra hearings, the Clarence Thomas hearings, you have to be the kind of person who enjoys flipping to C-SPAN 3 during hours you're supposed to be sleeping."Even before the age of Twitter and iPhones, the inscrutability of congressional aides was the Washington way. Christopher Putala, 58, worked in the 1990s for then-Sen. Joe Biden and staffed dozens of hearings that Biden took part in as a member of the Judiciary Committee. At Putala's first one -- "not a controversial hearing," is all he remembers of it -- there was a moment of levity among the senators and the hearing witnesses. Putala chuckled too."There I was, yukking it up, and Evelyn Lieberman, a communications staffer, came up and whispered in my ear. She lit into me and said in no uncertain terms, 'You are to have no expression. You are to fade into the background.'"Lesson learned. Sort of. Recently Putala came across a Now This video that featured a 1993 assault weapons ban hearing which Biden presided over. Putala spied himself in the background."What am I doing but chewing gum, chomping away," he said.The valor of discretion can be lost on today's youth. When Jessica Sanderson, a lawyer for Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, was preparing to head to Washington to sit behind her client during his impeachment inquiry hearing testimony last month, Sanderson's daughter had one request."She said, 'Mom, you need to do something to become a meme,'" said Sanderson, 51.After Sanderson asked her daughter, a high school senior who was on her school's constitutional law team last year, to explain what exactly that means, she demonstrated a few silly faces that she thought her mother could make during the testimony.Sanderson rejected the suggestions.Still, after Vindman's testimony concluded, Sanderson's phone started to blow up. A photograph of a reporter guzzling coffee during the proceedings was going viral, and guess who was also visible in what became one of the most recognizable photos of the day? Yup."It was the best of possible worlds," Sanderson said. "I was in a meme and I had a straight face."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Official: Base shooter watched shooting videos before attack Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:56 AM PST  The Saudi student who fatally shot three people at a U.S. naval base in Florida hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Saturday. Officials investigating the deadly attack were working Saturday to determine whether it was motivated by terrorism, while President Donald Trump indicated he would review policies governing foreign military training in the United States. Family members on Saturday identified two of the shooting victims, both of whom were hailed as heroes for trying to stop the shooter and flagging down first responders after being shot.
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| Iran releases US hostage held for three years as suspected spy in prisoner swap Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:49 AM PST  Iran has released an American student who has spent the past three years in jail on spying charges in a prisoner swap.Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University graduate student, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted on charges of "spying under the cover of research".
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| Belarus crowds rally against closer Russia ties Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:31 AM PST  Roughly 1,000 Belarusians joined an unauthorised demonstration on Saturday against the prospect of a closer union with Russia. Long-time ruler Alexander Lukashenko was meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia on Saturday to discuss "key issues in our bilateral relations, including the prospects for deepening integration", according to the Kremlin. Police quickly intervened to oversee the demonstration but made no arrests.
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| Impeachment collides with funding deadline, testing Congress Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:27 AM PST  The impeachment drama is dominating Washington, but leading figures such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still have their day jobs to do. The California Democrat faces a testing over the next two weeks, toggling between the impeachment of President Donald Trump and past-ripe issues including North American trade legislation and a massive government-wide funding bill. "American families deserve better than this partisan paralysis where Democrats obsess over impeachment and obstruct everything else," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., attacking Democrats for delays in the defense budget.
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| 10 things you need to know today: December 7, 2019 Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:13 AM PST ![10 things you need to know today: December 7, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: December 7, 2019") 1.The White House on Friday sent a letter to House Democrats condemning the ongoing impeachment inquiry and calling on lawmakers to end what it called a "reckless abuse of power by House Democrats." The letter was sent just as the White House reached the deadline to tell Democrats whether President Trump or White House lawyers would participate in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Monday. Instead of explicitly noting Trump would not mount a defense before the committee, the letter called the impeachment inquiry process "completely baseless," and said the House should move quickly to vote on impeachment so the process can move to a Senate trial, where officials believe the Republican majority will defend Trump. House Democrats are writing articles of impeachment this weekend. [The New York Times] 2.Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-American graduate student at Princeton University who had been detained in Iran since 2016, was freed Saturday. Iran and the United States conducted a prisoner exchange in Zurich, Switzerland, which also saw the release of Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani who had been convicted of violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. President Trump confirmed the swap Saturday, as did Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Wang, a student of late 19th- and early-20th-century Eurasian history, reportedly went to Iran to learn Farsi and conduct archival research for his dissertation. He reportedly disclosed his research plan, and Princeton said he was not involved in an political activities or social activism, but Tehran believed he had ties to U.S. intelligence agencies, which led to his detainment. [The New York Times, The Associated Press] 3.Three people have been killed and at least eight others injured after a shooter opened fire at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Authorities said Friday the shooter is dead, and "our community is secure at this time." Among those hospitalized were two deputies, who are expected to recover, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. This is the second shooting at a Navy base this week after a sailor opened fire at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii on Wednesday, killing two people and himself. President Trump has been briefed on the shooting, the White House says. "This is a tragic day for the city of Pensacola," Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson said. [CNN, The Associated Press] 4.Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg temporarily blocked a congressional subpoena for President Trump's financial records from Deutsche Bank. The decision comes after Trump's emergency request to block a lower court ruling that required him to hand over the records. The stay on the ruling is temporary and does not reflect how judges will rule in the case. It will remain in place until Dec. 13 while the Supreme Court deliberates on whether to grant a longer stay and give Trump's legal team time to prepare a formal appeal. The House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees are investigating the president's relationship with the bank. A judiciary panel on the Second Circuit said earlier this week there was a "clear and substantial" public interest in granting the House subpoenas. [Politico, The Hill] 5.Unknown gunmen reportedly killed at least 20 people in Baghdad on Saturday at key anti-government protest sites. The armed men, who remain unidentified, reportedly drove through the areas in pick-up trucks and fired on the crowds, forcing demonstrators to flee. More than 130 people were reportedly also wounded by gunfire and stabbings near the main protest camp by Tahrir Square. The event took place a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announced his resignation. It's considered the capital's most violent flare-up in weeks. More than 400 people have been killed and nearly 20,000 wounded since the protests began in October. [BBC, Al Jazeera] 6.Pacific Gas & Electric agreed Friday to pay $13.5 billion in damages to victims of four California wildfires that occurred between 2015 and 2018. If accepted by a bankruptcy judge, the settlement will go to people who lost loved ones, property, or both, as well as government agencies and attorneys who pressed the claims. Some of the blame for the fires has been directed at faulty or aging PG&E equipment. The settlement comes after the company agreed to a $1 billion deal with cities, counties, and other public entities, as well as an $11 billion agreement with insurers and others covering claims for wildfires in 2017 and 2018. Victims seeking compensation will have until the end of the year to file claims. [NBC News, NPR] 7.Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) announced his retirement Friday. "Shortly after the Holidays I will resign from Congress," he wrote in a statement. "It has been an honor to serve the people of California's 50th District, and I greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me over these last 11 years." Hunter pleaded guilty to campaign finance violation charges, after he was accused of misusing at least $250,000 in campaign funds. The lawmaker also allegedly falsified campaign records filed to the Federal Election Commission to cover up spending on travel and entertainment. Hunter was re-elected even after the indictment. [The Wall Street Journal, The Hill] 8.The U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department said Friday, coming in ahead of analysts' forecast of about 180,000. Hiring reached its highest level since January, as unemployment fell from 3.6 percent in October to 3.5 percent in November and average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent, up 3.1 percent from last year. The New York Times writes the report "offered a counterpoint to renewed anxieties about an escalating trade war and a weakening global economy," noting tens of thousands of General Motors workers returning after a strike helped boost the hiring totals. [The Associated Press, The New York Times] 9.Tesla founder Elon Musk has prevailed in the defamation suit a British diver waged against him after Musk referred to him as "pedo guy." Vernon Unsworth was among the divers who saved the soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand last year after Musk claimed he would save the children with his Tesla submarine, which wasn't used. Unsworth wrote off Musk and suggested he "stick his submarine where it hurts," and Musk responded by suggesting Unsworth was a child predator. Unsworth later sued the so-called "billionaire bully" for $190 million in damages and said Musk left him feeling "humiliated." Musk argued "pedo guy" was just slang in his native South Africa, and a jury sided with him on Friday. [BBC] 10.The New York Knicks, who are in last place the NBA's Eastern Conference, fired coach David Fizdale on Friday. The Knicks are mired in an eight-game losing streak, and their current 4-18 record is tied for the worst mark in the franchise's history at this point in the season. The Knicks also fired Fizdale's top assistant, Keith Smart, and promoted another assistant, Mike Miller, to interim head coach. Fizdale was hired by New York before last season, in which the Knicks went on to win only 17 games. Since James Dolan took over as the franchise's owner in 1999, the team has employed 12 different head coaches, tied for the most in the league over that span. [ESPN]More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump and the people he forgets he knew Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:04 AM PST  When certain associates and acquaintances of President Donald Trump get into hot water, he forgets he ever knew them. For a few days, the stock market suffered a similar fate when it dipped too low for Trump to boast about it. THE FACTS: Trump knows the British prince.
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| Airstrikes in northwest Syria kill at least 18 people Posted: 07 Dec 2019 05:54 AM PST  Airstrikes on areas in the last major rebel stronghold in northwest Syria on Saturday killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and wounded others as a three-month truce crumbles, opposition activists said. The airstrikes on Idlib province have intensified over the past few weeks as the government appears to be preparing for an offensive on rebel-held areas east of the province to secure the main highway that links the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest and once a commercial center. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 people were killed in Idlib province while the opposition's Syrian Civil Defense said 18 lost their lives.
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| Iran and US complete prisoner swap Posted: 07 Dec 2019 05:40 AM PST  An Iranian held in the US and an American held in Iran have been freed, the two sides said on Saturday, in an apparent prisoner swap at a time of heightened tensions. Tehran announced the release of Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani from the United States shortly before Washington declared American researcher Xiyue Wang was returning home. "Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. "Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss government," which has looked after US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties, Mr Zarif added. n this Wednesday, May 9, 2018 file photo, Hua Qu, the wife of detained Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, poses for a photograph with a portrait of her family in Princeton, N.J Credit: AP State news agency IRNA said Mr Soleimani had been "freed moments ago after one year of illegal detention and was handed over to Iranian officials in Switzerland". In a statement issued in Washington, US President Donald Trump said that "after more than three years of being held prisoner in Iran, Xiyue Wang is returning to the United States". Mr Wang, a Chinese-born American, was serving 10 years on espionage charges in Iran. A doctoral candidate in history at Princeton University, he had been researching Iran's Qajar dynasty when he was imprisoned in August 2016. Rising tensions between UK, US and Iran Mr Soleimani is a professor and senior stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University who left for the United States on October 22, 2018, according to IRNA. The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic ties since 1980. Relations between the two foes worsened in May 2018 when Trump withdrew the US from an international accord that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
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| Iran has released US man Xiyue Wang, who spent three years in jail, as part of a prisoner swap deal Posted: 07 Dec 2019 05:36 AM PST  Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran in 2017 on espionage charges his family say were fabricated.
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| Chinese-American graduate student freed from Iran in prisoner exchange Posted: 07 Dec 2019 05:06 AM PST ![Chinese-American graduate student freed from Iran in prisoner exchange]( "Chinese-American graduate student freed from Iran in prisoner exchange") After three long years, Xiyue Wang is on his way home.Wang, a Chinese-American graduate student at Princeton University who had been detained in Iran since 2016, was freed Saturday when Iran and the United States conducted a prisoner exchange in Zurich, Switzerland. The exchange also saw the release of Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani who had been convicted of violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran.Brian Hook, the State Department's special representative for Iran, worked with Swiss intermediaries — who look out for American interests in Tehran since there's no U.S. embassy — to negotiate the exchange. He flew to Zurich with Soleimani and is expected to return with Wang, who will be able to reunite with his wife and young son. President Trump confirmed the swap Saturday, as did Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.Wang, a student of late 19th- and early-20th-century Eurasian history, reportedly went to Iran to learn Farsi and conduct archival research for his dissertation. He reportedly disclosed his research plan to the Iranian interest section at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, D.C., and Princeton said he was not involved in any political activities or social activism. But Tehran claimed he had ties to U.S. intelligence agencies, which led to his detainment. Read more at The New York Times and The Associated Press.More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes
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| U.K.’s Judgment Day, Impeachment Green Light Posted: 07 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.It's been a challenging few days for U.S. President Donald Trump. His week began with the discovery that his media style had become the butt of jokes among world leaders at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit and ended with the Democrats announcing they'll draft articles of impeachment for abusing his office in a "profound violation" of the public trust.In the U.K., Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's last-ditch attempt to wrest power from the Conservative party and change the course of his country's exit from the European Union entered its final days.And protests continued across the globe, as citizens' anger at corrupt and unequal regimes showed no signs of burning out and the demands for more urgent government action on climate change escalated.Dig deeper into these and other topics and click here for Bloomberg's most compelling political images from the past week.Key Election Task for U.K. Tories: Tame Boris JohnsonAnger management may decide whether Boris Johnson wins Thursday's crucial election. No longer just an entertaining media personality, the prime minister is a highly divisive figure whose displays of temper on the campaign trail have raised eyebrows inside and outside his party, Tim Ross writes.Britain's Brexit Election Is Now a Referendum on Jeremy CorbynIt's the last stand for Corbyn after defying critics two years ago by gaining seats in the last national vote, Kitty Donaldson and Robert Hutton report. His success on Dec. 12 depends on whether Johnson and his Conservatives can breach the "Red Wall," the band of districts running across the middle of the U.K.The Making of the Man Europe Picked to Confront Trump on TradeWhen Phil Hogan was fighting for his political life in Ireland, he knew just who to turn to: his enemy. As Dara Doyle reports, the new European trade commissioner will need all of those smarts as he works to defuse tensions with Trump and hammer out a post-Brexit deal with the U.K.Giuliani Is in Kyiv; Ukrainian Officials Are Steering Clear Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose work in Ukraine is at the heart of U.S. impeachment proceedings, is back in the country — and officials in Kyiv are keeping their distance. Stephanie Baker and Daryna Krasnolutska report that Giuliani flew into Kyiv from Budapest on Wednesday, the same day hearings stemming from his shadow diplomacy in Ukraine began in the House Judiciary Committee.A Year of Protests Sparked Change Around the GlobeEconomies on the verge of collapse, a yearning for greater democracy, revulsion against corruption and inequality — the grievances that drove people into the streets in 2019 were consistent across continents. Follow Alan Crawford's breakdown of protests around the world and the main reasons behind them.Hong Kong Needs Its Angriest Generation More Than EverThe profile of Hong Kong's determined protesters is predominantly university educated, under 30 — and middle class. That means the students who've thrown petrol bombs across the barricades for almost six months will, all else being equal, have to produce more economic output per-person just to keep the economy at a stable size, Jeff Black and Hannah Dormido report.Taken to Brink by Trump, Gulf States Are Backpedaling on IranAn expanded soccer tournament, a direct flight, clandestine meetings and a pledge to release prisoners of war; diplomacy is breaking out as Gulf Arab nations back away from a Trump-inspired confrontation with Iran. As Zainab Fattah reports, the signs are everywhere.Saudi Arabia's Social Revolution Has a Rival Across the Red SeaThere's a party in Osama bin Laden's old neighborhood and Nasr Aldin has brought the booze to get things hopping, Mohammed Alamin writes. At 38, he's no teenager, but it's the first time he hasn't feared the wrath of the authorities as citizens in Sudan demand more freedoms after ousting their autocratic Islamist leader.Macron's Reform Blitz Leaves Companies Waiting for WorkersMacron began his presidency in 2017 pledging to send shock waves through the French economy by making labor cheaper, more flexible and better skilled. Two-and-a-half years later, William Horobin writes, business leaders are experiencing both the successes and shortcomings of the president's ambitions.And finally … Wildly popular with lip-synching teenagers around the world, the short-video Tik-Tok app has taken India by storm. Police officers, city workers and physicians looking to escape the daily humdrum have found its lure irresistible, producing at-times cringe-worthy videos. But as Saritha Rai writes, the Chinese-owned app is raising concerns in a country with lax data protection regulations. To contact the author of this story: Ruth Pollard in New Delhi at rpollard2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Kathleen Hunter at khunter9@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Your Weekend Reading: The Year of Deadly Protests Posted: 07 Dec 2019 04:30 AM PST ![Your Weekend Reading: The Year of Deadly Protests]( "Your Weekend Reading: The Year of Deadly Protests") (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive a daily news briefing, including this weekend edition, in your inbox every day? Sign up here Friday's U.S. jobs numbers smashed expectations and may have added to President Donald Trump's argument for a second term in the face of potential impeachment. Stock investors around the globe loved the data. Though Trump fled snickers from fellow world leaders in Europe, he may be the one laughing now.The U.K. general election is next week, and all about Brexit. Subscribe to our daily newsletter, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our podcast.What you'll want to read this weekendAs for becoming the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, Trump can't seem to wait. "Do it now" he told the House of Representatives. Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems willing to accommodate.From Caracas to Hong Kong, it's been a year of protests. In Iran, more than 1,000 people may have been killed by security forces.Uber reported more than 3,000 sexual assaults in its vehicles in the U.S. alone last year. Separately, some 3,000 Americans died on the road because of distracted driving.Here's how one man paid for his Harley Davidson obsession with his job. How do cruise operators make bigger boats, more profits and add, oh, water slides? By cutting the vessels in half of course.Some high-end distilleries are working to become more climate conscious: turns out, booze is also hard on trees, bees and water. And after flight shaming, phone shaming may be next.What you'll need to know next weekThe U.K. votes. It's simple enough: Johnson or Corbyn? The Federal Reserve probably won't cut rates for a while yet. Saudi Aramco starts trading. It could be worth $2 trillion-plus. Argentina's president takes office, but may not call the shots. Lord & Taylor will open a tiny store in New York for the holidays.What you'll want to read in BusinessweekThe 50 Most Influential Individuals of 2019From finance to fashion and technology to trade, these are the people –and a chicken sandwich – who defined 2019. And when you're done, scroll down to the bottom of the page to find out who might make the list in 2020. To contact the author of this story: Ian Fisher in New York at ifisher10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: David Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| American freed by Iran in prisoner exchange Posted: 07 Dec 2019 04:29 AM PST  The release of Xiyue Wang and Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian imprisoned on charges of violating U.S. sanctions, comes at a moment of exceptionally high tensions between Iran and the United States.
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| U.S. Business Plagued by Trade Confusion as New Tariffs Loom Posted: 07 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. As U.S.-China trade talks undergo more advances and setbacks than a ping-pong match, South Carolina businessman John Ling is increasingly pessimistic that any meaningful trade deal will be reached under President Donald Trump."I'm becoming very doubtful there will be any deal that would solve the current problem," said Ling, a consultant for Chinese companies doing business in the U.S.The past week has cast the outlook for a trade deal between the U.S. and China into deeper confusion. Trump rattled markets on Tuesday by suggesting a phase-one trade deal may have to wait until after the 2020 elections. Then, two days later, the president said the talks are "moving right along" and people familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg News the sides are close to agreeing on a pact.On Friday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said a deal is coming down to the final stages but he acknowledged "delicate" proposals like Chinese farm purchases are still being discussed. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is leaving open the prospect of slapping tariffs on another $160 billion of Chinese goods in just over a week on Dec. 15 if nothing changes.Trump Downplays China Deal Urgency as Trade Risks RoarTrump has a history of indulging in brinkmanship to dial up the pressure in trade negotiations, especially as deadlines approach. In September, Trump said he wouldn't be satisfied by a partial deal with China -- only weeks before he and President Xi Jinping announced the outlines of the stage-one trade deal.Even if that's his strategy to win concessions, it's doing little to help companies that import from China who say they can't plan for next year when they don't know what's coming next week or month. Importers in the U.S. pay the duties when the products enter the country -- often passing the cost onto consumers -- even though Trump insists the tariffs are paid by China."I'm very frustrated, absolutely," Curt Christian, a Nashville, Tennessee-based furniture importer, said Thursday after days of back-and-forth headlines and seesawing markets. "I don't know how to plan. That's the issue."Christian already lost a furniture business in the early 2000s, when a wave of cheap Chinese imports decimated much of the U.S. wood furniture industry. He eventually picked himself up and created a new company, Function First Furniture, that supplies furniture to university dormitories and student housing developers. His revenue is in the tens of millions of dollars.In Forever Trade War, U.S. Companies Take Cover as Best They CanWhat burns him is that he supports the Trump administration's intentions to level the playing field with China, Christian said. However, he needs more time to cope with the fallout from tariffs. While he imports some furniture from Vietnam and Malaysia, 70% still comes from China."Give me time to move, because I can't just take $35 million worth of product and move it overnight," he said. "You can't just turn a battleship."Other companies give similar testimonies of being unable to shift investment plans or factories when they don't know how long the trade war will last.New York-based Delta Children's Products imports cribs from China and elsewhere in Asia and has seen those sales fall since the tariffs took effect, said President Joe Shamie. But so too have sales of its U.S.-made mattresses, he said.He would consider moving more production out of China if he knew what to expect. Instead, he's afraid to act because a deal to slash tariffs could come at any time. "Imagine you're about to buy a house, and there's a rumor the house might be half-price tomorrow. How do you know what to do?"Trade Woes Push IMF Global Growth Outlook to Decade-Low of 3%Jay Foreman, who heads a Boca Raton, Florida-based toy company, likes to joke that he's about 25 miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and he'd love to discuss trade with the president over lunch. For now, he's watching the news about the trade war, including Trump's tweets, "like it's my blood pressure and my cholesterol."Foreman's company, Basic Fun!, makes some of America's most iconic toys under license, including Lincoln Logs and Tonka trucks, and relies on China for 90% of its production. For now, all of his Christmas season merchandise is already in the U.S. tariff, but he's fretting over the 15% tariffs that may go into effect this month for merchandise crossing the ocean. He expects to have to eventually bump up the price of all his products at least 15%, if not more."Imagine you have 180 employees and 100 containers that are due to arrive any day for the next three weeks, and dozens and dozens the rest of the year -- and we don't know if it's going to cost us 15%, 20%, 25%, because this administration is so unpredictable," Foreman said on Friday.To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Sasso in Atlanta at msasso9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah McGregor at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net, Anita SharpeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iranian and American freed in apparent prisoner swap Posted: 07 Dec 2019 03:59 AM PST  An Iranian held in the US and an American held in Iran have been freed, the two sides said Saturday, in an apparent prisoner swap at a time of heightened tensions. Tehran announced the release of Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani from the United States shortly before Washington declared American researcher Xiyue Wang was returning home. "Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.
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| Iran frees Chinese-American scholar for US-held scientist Posted: 07 Dec 2019 02:50 AM PST  A Princeton scholar held for three years in Iran on widely criticized espionage charges was freed Saturday as part of a prisoner exchange that saw America release a detained Iranian scientist, a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington after months of tensions. The trade on the tarmac of a Swiss airport saw Iranian officials hand over Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang for scientist Massoud Soleimani, who had faced a federal trial in Georgia over charges he violated sanctions by trying to have biological material brought to Iran. Crushing U.S. sanctions on Iran blocking it from selling crude oil abroad remain in place, part of President Donald Trump's maximum pressure campaign imposed following his unilateral withdraw from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers last year.
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| US opens first round of resurrected peace talks with Taliban Posted: 07 Dec 2019 01:53 AM PST  U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad on Saturday held the first official talks with Afghanistan's Taliban since President Donald Trump declared a near-certain peace deal with the insurgents dead in September. The talks will initially focus on getting a Taliban promise to reduce violence, with a permanent cease-fire being the eventual goal, said a U.S. statement. Sitting with the Taliban at the negotiating table was Anas Haqqani, one of three senior Taliban freed last month in exchange for kidnapped American University of Afghanistan professors — American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, Taliban's political office spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted.
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| Iraqi officials raise toll to 25 killed in Baghdad bloodshed Posted: 07 Dec 2019 12:30 AM PST  Anti-government protesters wielding a blood-drenched flag returned to Baghdad's central plaza on Saturday after a night of bloody attacks that left 25 people dead and more than 130 wounded. Storm clouds gathered over Khilani Square as the protesters surveyed the blackened facade of a parking garage that had served as their de facto command post before unknown assailants torched it Friday night. The attack, which took place in darkness moments after the power was cut, marked a major escalation in assaults against protesters that have been taking place in recent weeks.
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| Lebanon Is Not a Hezbollah State Posted: 06 Dec 2019 10:00 PM PST ![Lebanon Is Not a Hezbollah State]( "Lebanon Is Not a Hezbollah State") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- On Monday, the Trump administration finally released $105 million in annual aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces that had been appropriated by Congress but, like the more notorious hold on military assistance to Ukraine, was inexplicably delayed by the White House.Better late than never, particularly since the Lebanese military has been protecting protesters in the streets of Beirut and other cities from intimidation by the pro-Iranian militias of Hezbollah and Amal.The Lebanese protests, now coming close to their third month, are a powerful rebuttal to the pernicious notion that all of Lebanon, or even just the Lebanese state, is simply an extension or a tool of Hezbollah, and should be therefore treated as a terrorist entity and pariah.Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, from all walks of life and throughout the country, have been protesting the entire socioeconomic and political establishment. Their anger isn't directed primarily against Hezbollah or Iran, but against the entire power structure in the country, which they blame for mismanaging the economy and enriching itself at the expense of the general population.Obviously, this threatens everyone who benefits from the status quo. But the threat to Hezbollah and its allies is particularly severe.Through force and guile, Hezbollah has maneuvered over the decades to maximize its influence in Lebanon, ensuring that it remains the most potent armed force in the country, while minimizing its responsibility for the failures of the state.It poses as a revolutionary group focused on combating Israel and only a small party of the government with a few minor ministries. In reality, it is by far the most powerful force in the country, maintaining its own foreign and defense policies, independent of the Lebanese government.Hezbollah initially pretended to side with the protesters. But its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, quickly changed his tune and decided that the protests were "inauthentic" and manipulated by foreign "hidden hands."This is because any profound change to the political order in Lebanon must have one of two negative effects for Hezbollah. If the upheaval leads to real change, the group's leverage can only decrease. Alternatively, if things don't change, Hezbollah will become increasingly associated in the public mind with the corruption and repression that props up the system that maximizes its influence. Hezbollah's bluff will be called, and its role exposed. Either outcome is a long-term threat to Hezbollah's credibility and power.So, the organization has been trying to disrupt the protests through threats and intimidation by goons. Protesters from Shiite communities have been repeatedly filmed "apologizing" to Hezbollah and its leadership, or to the state, for "insulting" them in the demonstrations. This is a familiar strong-arm tactic, in which the gun behind the camera cannot be seen by the viewer but is clearly evident in the expression of the victim. It has also been deployed by the regime in Tehran to try and undermine recent protests in Iran.This is why supporting the Lebanese army is urgent and important. The army is the primary national institution that can serve as a bulwark against thoroughgoing Hezbollah domination. In recent weeks, it has repeatedly intervened on behalf of the demonstrators when they were attacked by gangs of Hezbollah and Amal thugs.It is likely that the original impulse to withhold the congressionally-appropriated U.S. aid to the Lebanese military originated from the wrongheaded notion that Lebanon equals Hezbollah and therefore shouldn't get any American support. Senator Chris Murphy, who lobbied for the release of the funds, has said that "there is at least one person at the [National Security Council] who wants to punish Lebanon for having a political relationship with Hezbollah." Given that numerous commentators with close ties to the administration have been pushing for just such a perspective, that's not surprising.But the protests, and the army's performance in recent weeks, have shattered this myth.The protests represent the rejection of the sectarian order in Lebanon, and the resurrection of the pre-Civil War vision of Lebanon as a modern, unified nation-state with a national consciousness beyond communalism. That threatens much of the power structure, but it is a mortal danger to Hezbollah and its nefarious state-within-a-state in Lebanon.Everyone interested in combating Hezbollah domination of Lebanon and power in the Middle East ought to take advantage of this opportunity and understand that the Lebanese state isn't equivalent to Hezbollah. To the contrary, it is the alternative to Hezbollah. As such, it deserves support rather than isolation.To contact the author of this story: Hussein Ibish at hussein.ibish@gmail.comTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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