| Iran ships stranded in Brazil are set to depart: officials Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:48 PM PDT  Two Iranian ships stranded off the coast of Brazil for weeks were setting sail Saturday, officials said, after a court ordered state oil giant Petrobras to fuel up the vessels. The bulk carriers had been stuck at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana since early last month after Petrobras refused to provide fuel for fear of breaching US sanctions on Iran. The ships dragged Brazil into a global standoff which has seen rising tensions and fears of a military clash involving Tehran and Washington, which imposed a raft of punitive measures on Iran and companies with ties to the Islamic republic.
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| Johnson Forms Brexit Cabinet as No-Deal Prospect Rises: Times Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:24 PM PDT ![Johnson Forms Brexit Cabinet as No-Deal Prospect Rises: Times]( "Johnson Forms Brexit Cabinet as No-Deal Prospect Rises: Times") (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson formed a war cabinet of six senior ministers to plan for exiting the European Union by Oct. 31, as a key adviser said leaving without a deal had become a very real prospect, the Sunday Times reported.Johnson's most senior aide, Dominic Cummings, a key leader in the 2016 Brexit campaign, called advisers to the prime minister's residence Friday night and told them Brexit will happen "by any means necessary," the Times said. Cummings said Johnson is prepared to suspend Parliament or hold an election to thwart those who may seek to block a no-deal Brexit.Michael Gove, a Johnson ally writing in the Times, said all agencies will work "flat-out" to prepare to leave without an agreement on the future U.K.-EU relationship, and he hopes Brussels will reconsider its decision against reopening talks. "We still hope they will change their minds, but must operate on the assumption that they will not," he wrote. Gove will lead daily meetings -- weekends included -- of civil servants and advisers until ties with the EU are cut, the newspaper said.Johnson's efforts to renegotiate the withdrawal deal struck by his predecessor Theresa May have been rejected by EU leaders. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Johnson that the withdrawal agreement — which Parliament has rejected three times — was the "best and only agreement possible."Macron, MerkelJohnson spoke on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a bid to change the minds of EU leaders.A new poll showed Johnson's Conservative Party has a slim statistical lead over the Labour Party in the latest ComRes poll for the Sunday Express. The July 24-25 survey is the first to show a Tory lead since early March and gives the Brexit Party its lowest projected vote share since they were included in the survey in May, according to ComRes.A majority in the poll, 55%, said Johnson will make a terrible prime minister, with 64% saying he would be better than Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. But 72% said he should be given a chance to deliver Brexit before new elections are called or the government is toppled.Given Time"While the public agree that he should be given the necessary time to deliver Brexit, a majority are skeptical as to how good he may be as prime minister," said Chris Hopkins, ComRes head of politics.Johnson on Saturday reiterated that the Irish backstop portion of the agreement -- which he said seeks to divide the U.K. -- needs to be dropped from the divorce plan before a broader Brexit deal can be reached.The new leader in a speech in Manchester said he is confident a deal can be reached, noting he has good relations with many European leaders and is "mystified" by reports claiming otherwise. The backstop provision is hated by many Brexiteers –- Johnson included.In a separate development, May's former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, met with Labour Party Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer and they agreed to work on plan to block leaving the EU without a deal, the Observer reported.Starmer, of the opposition party, confirmed that Johnson's rise to the nation's top political office had "spurred more cross-party discussions at high levels involving senior Tories sacked by Johnson." Hammond quit his post before Johnson took office.The Times reported that Johnson will make every decision on Brexit policy with a team of just senior ministers — all Brexiteers who support no deal. The group is Gove, Chancellor Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net;Adam O. Manzor in New York at amanzor@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chakradhar Adusumilli at cadusumilli@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Sudan prosecutor: Generals did not order sit-in dispersal Posted: 27 Jul 2019 11:01 AM PDT  Sudanese prosecutors on Saturday said the country's ruling generals did not order the deadly break-up of a protest camp last month, instead blaming the widely condemned dispersal on paramilitary forces who exceeded their orders. Sudanese protest leaders disputed the prosecutors' conclusion, saying the decision to raze the sit-in was made at the highest levels of the military council. On June 3, Sudan's security forces violently swept away a protest camp located in front of the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum.
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| Hong Kong Braces for More Weekend Unrest After Tear Gas, Clashes Posted: 27 Jul 2019 09:46 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police and protesters faced off for the eighth straight weekend as the China-backed government struggles to quell discontent over Beijing's increasing control over the financial hub.Thousands of protesters descended Saturday on the northern suburb of Yuen Long near the Chinese border to condemn a mob attack last weekend that shocked the city, marking a violent turning point in the historic protest movement. While police on Saturday used batons, tear gas and pepper spray on protesters throwing stones and wielding metal rods, the violence wasn't as bad as some had feared. Nine people were hurt, Hong Kong's RTHK reported.Demonstrators are set to hit the streets again on Sunday near the Chinese government's liaison office in Hong Kong. Protesters vandalized the building last week, drawing stern warnings from Beijing and sparking fears that China's military would be called in to restore order.The former British colony's government is currently reeling from its biggest political crisis since the return to Chinese rule in 1997. The movement to oppose a bill allowing extraditions to the mainland has expanded to include calls for genuine universal suffrage, an inquiry into excessive force by police and demands for Chief Executive Carrie Lam's resignation."We all disagree with Carrie Lam and the government," Wini L., a retired civil servant employee who declined to give her full name, said on Saturday. "That's why we come out every week. We'll never stop."The outbursts of violence have put pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping to find a solution. Beijing has so far backed Lam's government, in part to avoid setting a precedent in which street protests lead to political change. His government has also accused the U.S. of supporting the demonstrations, a charge the Trump administration has denied. In a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo urged China to "do the right thing."Sales HitWith the unrest showing no signs of ending, the city's reputation among investors as a stable environment for business has taken a hit. Local retailers are bracing for poor sales figures as demonstrations keep tourists out of shops and ordinary residents seek to avoid major shopping malls that have been targeted."We haven't seen anything improved by the government," Cat Cheung, a 20-year-old student who spoke through his gas mask, said on Saturday after retreating from the front lines. "That's why we have to keep coming out."Saturday's demonstration came a day after a sit-in at Hong Kong's international airport, which underscored the economic risk of continued unrest. It was the first of three days of demonstrations against the city's government.Organizers said 15,000 people took part in the airport protest, while police put the number at 4,000 at its peak. About 288,000 people took part in the Saturday rally, organizer Max Chung told reporters, although police have not yet provided an estimate.Crime SyndicatesAhead of the protest Saturday, fears grew that large groups of black-shirted activists would draw out the pro-establishment mob that had beaten the protesters with sticks on July 21. Police had said some of the assailants arrested later had links to the city's notorious organized crime syndicates, or triads, and denied a permit to the rally on Saturday due to fear of renewed clashes."The violence in Yuen Long last week shocked Hong Kong and persuaded many people into supporting and joining the protest movement," opposition lawmaker Raymond Chan said as protesters in yellow hard hats marched past him in Yuen Long on Saturday afternoon. "Even though it's a little bit dangerous, you see so many people have come out."Demonstrators on Saturday targeted the police as well as a village where the mob was believed to have originated. As the rally began in the afternoon, a large crowd of protesters surrounded a police station in the village and pressed in toward the entrance, chanting "bad cops.""The police aren't even human," said Bobo Tsang, who had rolled a flyer into a makeshift megaphone so she could yell at cops filming the rally from the top of a building in the police station compound. "I wouldn't have come out if they didn't behave so poorly."Many feared violence but some of the more radical members of the large crowd carried their usual hard hats, gas masks and goggles in preparation for a clash with police. Police moved to clear the area late Saturday after some of the demonstrators packed into the narrow streets hurled stones at officers and vandalized a law enforcement van with personnel still inside. Around 10 p.m. local time, a few hundred hardcore activists continued to engage in running street battles with the cops, who pursued them inside one of the subway stations."I just wanted to show the police that we can't let gangsters rule Yuen Long," said Neil Li, a 23-year-old student. "Hong Kong people need to protect our place. We can't let the police and the gangsters attack our people."(Updates throughout with new details, comments.)\--With assistance from Justin Chin.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.net;Annie Lee in Hong Kong at olee42@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net;Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net;Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Libyan officials say fighting rages near capital Posted: 27 Jul 2019 09:40 AM PDT  The battle between rival militias for control of the Libyan capital raged amid increased fighting over the past the past 24 hours, officials said Saturday, with both sides relying heavily on airpower to make progress in the stalemated conflict. Forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter, a veteran army officer based in the country's east, began an offensive to capture Tripoli in early April. Hifter's self-styled Libyan National Army has been advancing into the city's southern outskirts, clashing with an array of militias loosely affiliated with the U.N.-recognized government based in the capital.
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| Brexit is a 'massive economic opportunity': PM Johnson Posted: 27 Jul 2019 09:25 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said Brexit was a "massive economic opportunity" but had been treated under his predecessor Theresa May as "an impending adverse weather event". In a speech in Manchester where he pledged new investment in Leave-voting areas, Johnson promised to step up negotiations on post-Brexit trade deals and set up free ports to boost the economy. "When people voted to leave the European Union, they were not just voting against Brussels, they were voting against London too," he said.
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| Moscow police arrest hundreds at rally for fair elections Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Police arrested more than 500 people as they gathered in Moscow on Saturday to demand fair local elections, the latest in a wave of protests after authorities blocked opposition candidates from the ballot paper. Around 3,500 people took to the streets for the unauthorised rally, according to official figures. Several of the arrests were violent and police used batons against protestors, AFP reporters at the scene saw. The demonstration came a week after the capital's biggest protest in years, when some 22,000 marchers called on officials to reverse rulings and allow opposition activists to stand for the city council in September. Since then investigators have raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates, while top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days for calling the fresh protest. "Honestly, I'm scared," 42-year-old IT worker Alexei Sprizhitsky told AFP at the demonstration on Saturday. He said the last time he had seen this level of pressure on activists was in 2012, when President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin after four years as prime minister sparked popular dissent. Thousands turned up for the unauthorised rally Credit: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/ AFP Other leading opposition figures and would-be candidates were arrested in the hours leading up to the Saturday's protest, which comes amid declining living standards and a fall in Putin's approval ratings. Local polls are a rare opportunity for dissenting voices to participate in political life as anti-Kremlin parties have been squeezed out of parliament over Putin's two decades in charge. OVD Info, which monitors demonstration, said at least 561 people had been arrested at the rally - more than one in seven of those officially taking part. The organisation reported that arrested protesters suffered from various injuries including a broken nose and head fractures. Security was tight in central Moscow and police shut down the area outside city hall where protesters were planning to gather, forcing participants out onto side streets. "This is our city!", "Shame!" and "We want free elections," the crowd chanted as police blocked off the site. Politician and disqualified candidate Dmitry Gudkov was arrested shortly before the march. Earlier he had said the future of the country was at stake. "If we lose now, elections will cease to exist as a political instrument," he said. "What we're talking about is whether it's legal to participate in politics today in Russia, we're talking about the country we're going to live in." Some said it was the authorities' heavy response that had turned a local issue into a major protest movement While pro-Kremlin candidates enjoy the support of the state, independent candidates say they have been made to jump through countless hoops in order to get on the ballot for the city polls. After activists and ordinary Muscovites staged pickets last week, including outside the local election commission building, investigators said they were launching a criminal probe into obstructing the work of election officials. If found guilty, organisers risk up to five years in prison. Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said he had been arrested shortly ahead of the demonstration. Barred candidate Ilya Yashin meanwhile announced he was detained in the early hours of Saturday morning following a raid on his home. Would-be candidate Lyubov Sobol, who this week launched a hunger strike, was arrested at the demonstration. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the unauthorised protest a "security threat", adding that "order will be ensured according to the relevant laws". Elena Rastovka, a 68-year-old pensioner at the demonstration, told AFP: "I've been afraid all my life, but enough is enough. If we stay at home, nothing will change. "Authorities arrest people who want to challenge them. Look at what they're doing - the authorities do not like the people." Some said it was the authorities' heavy response that had turned a local issue into a major protest movement. "Who would have thought it would become important to take part in such a bizarre and boring affair as the Moscow parliament election?" asked Viktoria Popova, a 30-year-old illustrator, ahead of the rally.
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| Europeans stall on mission to protect tankers in Gulf after Raab calls for joint patrols with US Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:49 AM PDT  Divisions have emerged over plans for a European naval mission in the Persian Gulf, with Britain suggesting the operation would need US support while France and Germany insist it stay independent of America. In a first sign that the UK may move closer to the US position on Iran under Boris Johnson, the new foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said a European mission was probably not "viable" without American help. "I think we do want to see a European-led approach, but that doesn't seem to me to be viable without American support as well," Mr Raab told The Times. That marks a shift from Jeremy Hunt, Mr Raab's predecessor, who proposed a European naval mission separate from America's Operation Sentinel. Both missions are intended to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian threats but the US-led operation is widely seen in Europe as part of Donald Trump's "maximum pressure campaign" to force Iranian capitulation on nuclear and regional issues. Dominic Raab at the Foreign Office Credit: Dan Kitwood/PA Wire/ Dan Kitwood/PA Wire Mr Raab's comments are likely to unsettle Germany and France, both of which have stated that any European effort must be independent from the US. "We have made clear that we do not subscribe to the United States' policy of maximum pressure. Our efforts in the region must be recognisably European," said Heiko Maas, Germany's foreign minister. He added that Germany would not decide whether to join the naval effort until there was "a clear idea of what such a mission would look like". France said the European mission would be "the opposite of the American initiative" and was not intended to provoke Iran. It remains unclear whether the three European states would have the naval strength for a mission independent of the US. The HMS Duncan, a destroyer, is due to join and then replace the HMS Montrose, a frigate, in Strait of Hormuz and will be responsible for escorting British ships through the strategic waterway. A boat of Iranian Revolutionary Guard sails next to Stena Impero Credit: Mizan News Agency/WANA Handout via REUTERS Up to three British-flagged ships pass through the Strait on any given day and the government is encouraging shipping firms to alert the Royal Navy ahead of time so they can be escorted. US officials said they were prepared to share intelligence with Western allies but would not provide escorts to other nations' ships. Meanwhile, Iran released Indian nine crew members from the MT Riah, a ship seized a week before the British-flagged Stena Impero. Three Indian crew remain in Iranian custody. It was not clear why some were freed and others were not. Their release is a potentially hopeful sign for the 23 crew members of the Stena Impero, 18 of whom are Indian. There are also three Russians, a Latvian, and a Filipino. The ship's operator said the crew were in good health and staying aboard the ship.
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| Syrian rebel town pounded, 11 killed in market airstrike Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:43 AM PDT  A Syrian government airstrike hit a busy open-air market in the country's northwest on Saturday, killing at least 11 people, most of them children, according to activists. The town of Ariha has been particularly targeted over the last week as the government escalates its offensive against the country's last rebel stronghold. The airstrike in Ariha also left a three-year old girl with an amputated leg and a man with serious injuries to his bladder and torso, according to Dr. Mohamad Abrash, a surgeon and head of the Idlib central hospital.
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| ONS develops algorithm to tell how green Britain's gardens to help tackle flooding and CO2 levels Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:39 AM PDT  Britain's official statisticians have developed an algorithmic technology that can measure how green are all our gardens in a bid to help combat flooding and reduce pollution and CO2. Within any town or city, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will be able to pinpoint the proportion of vegetation in each and every garden versus the amount of paving, patios, decking or rockery. It is critical with the onset of climate change because it will enable planners to establish how well each town and city's vegetation can soak up carbon dioxide and withstand flooding. Town planners can then adapt public policies to encourage residents to make their gardens greener. The more vegetation gardens have, then the more cities and towns are able to clean up the air that their residents breathe and the better they can soak up run-off water to combat floods. Vegetation also cools cities, particularly as heat climbs. The "machine learning" technology analyses aerial images through both the normal light spectrum and infrared and has been taught to distinguish between paving, decking and even artificial grass and natural vegetation. It has established the average British garden is 62 per cent greenery, with 38 per cent inert. There are, however, significant differences between cities. Bristol and Cardiff, where the technology was tested by the ONS and Ordnance Survey, respectively recorded an average of 45 per cent and 54 per cent of vegetation in their gardens. There are also huge variations within the cities between paved stone obsessives who have no interest in mowing a lawn and the jungle types who want to return to nature. "Some gardens were almost entirely paved so the figure is close to 0, whilst other gardens are almost fully turfed and near to 100 per cent," said the ONS. The research is important because the United Nations predicts the proportion of the population worldwide living in cities will rise from 54 per cent to almost 70 per cent by 2050. "We are trying to strengthen and improve our understanding of natural capital [the ecosystem that makes human life possible] and statistics on green space in the UK," said Tom Smith, director of the ONS's data science campus.
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| Bully or broker: EU wonders which Boris Johnson will come to Brexit talks Posted: 27 Jul 2019 06:57 AM PDT ![Bully or broker: EU wonders which Boris Johnson will come to Brexit talks]( "Bully or broker: EU wonders which Boris Johnson will come to Brexit talks") BRUSSELS/PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) - The European Union is offering new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a wary welcome, insisting it will consider any detailed new ideas he has on Brexit but cautious lest his gambit is ultimately to blame Brussels for a no-deal departure. The 27 remaining EU members say publicly and privately that the divorce settlement, agreed with London but rejected three times by Britain's parliament, is closed. Johnson says the Irish backstop, an insurance against a hard border on a new EU frontier between Ireland and Northern Ireland, must be struck from that Withdrawal Agreement.
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| Brexit is a 'massive economic opportunity': PM Johnson Posted: 27 Jul 2019 06:13 AM PDT British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said Brexit was a "massive economic opportunity" but had been treated under his predecessor Theresa May as "an impending adverse weather event". In a speech in Manchester where he pledged new investment in Leave-voting areas, Johnson promised to step up negotiations on post-Brexit trade deals and set up free ports to boost the economy. "When people voted to leave the European Union, they were not just voting against Brussels, they were voting against London too," he said.
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| Trump's 'maximum pressure' campaign on Iran faces key test Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:59 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran is at a crossroads. The administration faces a Thursday deadline to decide whether to extend or cancel sanctions waivers to foreign companies working on Iran's civilian nuclear program as permitted under the deal. Ending the waivers is a move favored by Trump's allies in Congress who endorse a tough approach to Iran.
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| UPDATE 2-Russia detains more than 500 people over election protest - monitor Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:24 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Russia detains more than 500 people over election protest - monitor]( "UPDATE 2-Russia detains more than 500 people over election protest - monitor") Russian police arrested more than 500 people on Saturday, including prominent activists, around a political protest in Moscow to demand that members of the opposition be allowed to run in a local election later this year. The protest, which authorities declared illegal beforehand, did not represent a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin and his allies who have the resources to break up such demonstrations and jail people. With several thousand people present, however, it showed how many activists and especially younger people are unafraid to challenge authorities on the streets and intend to keep pressing for the Kremlin to open up Russia's tightly-choreographed political system to competition.
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| Warren Goes Big, Rise of Boris and Oligarch Purge: Weekend Reads Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is trying to beat Donald Trump at his own game by going big on policy. New U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also taking a bold approach after storming to power with a pledge to get a better Brexit deal or leave the European Union without one.In Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to build a futuristic supercity, while in Hong Kong, inequality is kindling fear that goes beyond the street protests shaking the Asian megalopolis.We hope you enjoy these and other longer stories from the past seven days – including one about Ukraine's oligarch purge and another on the rising violence in Cape Town – in this edition of Weekend Reads.Elizabeth Warren Has Radical Plan to Beat Trump at His Own GameShe's staking her campaign on bold policy promises. Read Joshua Green's profile of her push for a platform that includes a wealth tax, wiping out student debt and giving Medicare to everyone in a giant leap in Democratic ambition.Will Ireland Buckle in the Face of Johnson? Don't Count on ItAs Johnson cements power in London, the mood in Dublin remains resolute. Dara Doyle reports how Ireland isn't budging after the U.K.'s new leader demanded scrapping of the backstop, the proposed arrangement for keeping the Irish border open after Brexit.Build It and They Will Come? Saudi Prince's Megacity Takes ShapeIn the sleepy fishing village of Khurayba, Prince Mohammed wants investors to help him realize a $500 billion vision. Vivian Nereim and Donna Abu-Nasr write about the plans for a futuristic city with state-of-the-art resorts and smart technologies run by robots.Mexico's President Keeps Score by the Peso as Economy NosedivesPresident Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tends to ask advisers for an update on how the peso is doing. Nacha Cattan explains that, while it's doing pretty well, it's about the only good news. Also, read Eric Martin's account of how plans to transform the country have run into a tough reality.The NoMarriage Movement Is Adding to Korea's Economic Woesn accountant during the week, Baeck Ha-na spends her weekends promoting the "live-alone life" as a YouTube star in South Korea. Jihye Lee reports how a growing number of women are rejecting marriage and motherhood, intensifying economic challenges for a country with one of the world's lowest birth rates.Hong Kong's Despair Runs Deeper Than Violent Street ProtestsCandy Kwok worries about about her daughter's future more than a government crackdown against her and other protesters in Hong Kong's streets. Shawna Kwan and Natalie Lung tell how crippling inequality is complicating efforts by the city's government to quell the worst political crisis since 1997.Rising Cape Town Gang Violence Is Another Legacy of ApartheidJust 12 miles from Cape Town's beaches and five-star hotels, gang wars have killed 900 people this year. Pauline Bax, Antony Sguazzin and Paul Vecchiatto report how the cause lies in the five decades of apartheid social engineering, the legacy of which persists despite 25 years of democracy.Greece's Mitsotakis Gets 'Show Me' Treatment From InvestorsKyriakos Mitsotakis oversaw the firing of thousands of state employees to fulfill creditors' demands five years ago. As Greece's new premier, he'll again need to show investors that his post-bailout government can take more bold measures to overhaul the economy, Sotiris Nikos reports.And finally … Frustrated at a parliament stacked with oligarchs, Ukrainians backed little-known candidates, including a wedding photographer and a fitness director, in Sunday's elections. Volodymyr Verbyany writes how that dealt a blow to powerful men who've held sway in the assembly for decades. To contact the author of this story: Michael Winfrey in Prague at mwinfrey@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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| Top Oman diplomat in Iran amid tanker crisis in Persian Gulf Posted: 27 Jul 2019 04:48 AM PDT  Oman's foreign minister is in Iran for bilateral talks as tensions between Washington and Tehran roil the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for a fifth of all globally traded crude oil. Oman, which has been a facilitator of talks between the U.S. and Iran in the past, sits across the strait from Iran.
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| UPDATE 1-UK PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit Posted: 27 Jul 2019 04:30 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-UK PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit]( "UPDATE 1-UK PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit") British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cautioned the European Union on Saturday that the Irish backstop, which he said was undemocratic, needed to be ditched if they were to strike a Brexit divorce deal. Johnson, since taking office on Wednesday, has repeatedly warned that if the EU continues to refuse to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement agreed by his predecessor, Theresa May, then he will take Britain out on Oct. 31 without a deal.
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| Brexit is a 'massive economic opportunity': PM Johnson Posted: 27 Jul 2019 04:14 AM PDT British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said Brexit was a "massive economic opportunity" but had been treated under his predecessor Theresa May as "an impending adverse weather event". In a speech in Manchester where he pledged new investment in Leave-voting areas, Johnson promised to step up negotiations on post-Brexit trade deals and set up free ports to boost the economy. "When people voted to leave the European Union, they were not just voting against Brussels, they were voting against London too," he said.
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| Much of southern Yemen flooded by heavy rainfall; 6 dead Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:15 AM PDT |
| Bahrain executes 2 in terrorism case decried by activists Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:51 AM PDT ![Bahrain executes 2 in terrorism case decried by activists]( "Bahrain executes 2 in terrorism case decried by activists") Two men convicted in a mass terrorism trial were executed in Bahrain, the kingdom's authorities announced Saturday in a case that activists have decried and that U.N. human rights experts had expressed concerns over. Activists identified the two as Ali al-Arab, 25, and Ahmed al-Malali, 24. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said the two had exhausted all their legal appeals after being sentenced to death in a mass trial alongside 58 other men in January 2018.
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| Libya’s Migrant ‘Holding Areas’ Have Become Death Camps Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:48 AM PDT  AFP/Getty ImagesROME—The smell of decomposing human flesh is what Amal, a young Eritrean man, remembers most about the days after the Tajoura migrant detention center was struck by a missile earlier this month in the midst of Libya's worsening civil war . Speaking to The Daily Beast by phone with the help of a humanitarian worker on Friday, Amal, who had just survived the deadliest Mediterranean migrant ship disaster yet this year.Doctors Without Borders says as many as 250 people could have died in the multiple boat disaster, which occurred overnight Wednesday. But what Amal remembers most intensely is the smell of fetid corpses back at the detention center before he left.He says he fears the stench will stay with him forever"The bodies were piled up in the heat and they started to rot," he says, adding that temperatures were hovering around 110 degrees at the time. "I felt so lucky to get out of there and not end up on the pile. When our ship overturned I thought I might die, but I thought at least I won't end up on the pile. The bottom of the sea would be better."A New Strongman Marches on the Libyan CapitalWhat Amal did not know when he gave the brief interview was that he would soon be taken back to the Tajoura center near the front line of a civil war that the U.N. estimates has killed 1,000 and sent 10,000 fleeing the area since fighting began in April. The Libyan Coast Guard, which was not present when around 134 survivors were plucked from the sea by fishermen after several wooden boats tied together overturned about five miles off the coast of Libya, said there was no other place to take them but the bombed-out center.The international aid community is outraged that survivors like Amal, who are freshly traumatized from watching people drown around him, are now being sent back to a detention center that is not only badly damaged but within missile strike of the worsening conflict. "There's insufficient food, water, unsanitary conditions, UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley, said in a statement Friday upon hearing the news that the shipwreck survivors would be taken to a center that will likely be hit again. "There are also widespread reports of human rights violations taking place."The damaged center was fully evacuated on July 10, more than a week after the early July strike. At least 53 refugees and migrants were killed in the initial impact and 130 others suffered injuries that would have led to hospitalization in a civilized country. But in Libya, the injured were left to tend to their wounds in captivity, and the dead were stacked up in the piles Amal described. Survivors of the attack told aid workers that many more died in the days after from untreated wounds, exposure and even starvation when supplies ran out and the jailers left either to escape the war or to join the fighting, which pays substantially better than guarding migrants. Libya has gone from a tinderbox to a full inferno in recent months. Khalifa Haftar, once an American citizen by passport and currently a Libyan warlord by trade, is leading a bitter battle for Tripoli against the UN-backed Government of National Accord. In order to focus on the endgame of taking over the country, he has reportedly just called in reinforcements–4,000 of Sudan's notorious Rapid Support Forces, many of whom trained as mercenaries in Yemen. Their task is to protect at any cost the oilfields Haftar hopes to one day control so he can focus on seizing Tripoli. Sudanese Radio Dabanga, picked up by international news outlets, reported that 1,000 of a 4,000-strong contingent arrived in Libya on Thursday. Ironically, many of the Sudanese refugees now suffering in Libya were escaping the violence these militia men wrought on their home country. It is unthinkable to imagine what will happen if any of them get near one of Libya's many migrant detention centers filled with Sudanese men and women. This spring, Europe declared the Mediterranean migration crisis over. The pan-European border patrol boats all went back to dock, mostly because of disagreement about what to do with any migrants and refugees they found. Still, crisis or not, the International Organization for Migration says 37,555 people have made it to Europe by sea this year so far, mostly to Greece and Spain. In 2018, more than 144,000 arrived, down from more than 390,000 in 2016 at the height of the crisis.A scattering of NGO charity boats have forced their way into Italian ports with the handful of migrants that have gotten past the blind eye of Italian-trained Libyan coast guard, which has tended to end in the sequester of the rescue vessels and the attempt to criminalize the captains. German native Carola Rackete was arrested when she docked the Seawatch ship in Lampedusa against orders from Italy's hardline interior minister and vice premier Matteo Salvini. When she showed up in court to explain why she had no choice given the dire state of the rescued people on board, Salvini and the right-wing press ridiculed her for apparently not wearing a bra, calling it an affront to the Italian judiciary. Still, while Salvini blows his trumpet on his success at closing Italian ports, the IOM says the Italian and Maltese coast guards and navy have quietly rescued hundreds of people at sea, bringing them into Europe quietly beyond the glare of the media. Migrants Rescued at Sea Between Death and HopeHumanitarian aid groups say that very few migrants are still coming from sub-Saharan Africa on the traditional migrant trail that leads to Europe by way of Libya. Now, many are finding routes through Tunisia, and into Spain or even through complicated passages to Greece. But the real crisis is the backlog in Libya, fed in part by Salvini. His total block of Italy's ports has meant that as many as 6,000 people who had made it into Libya to attempt the crossing to Italy are now stuck there. With no chance of being rescued at sea, very few have attempted to leave until now. United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq says Libya now has to acknowledge its role in the humanitarian crisis. For one, he says they can no longer keep migrants and refugees in the firing line. He says at least 5,600 refugees and migrants are known to be held in detention centers in Libya. Many others are living as slaves or otherwise kept in appalling situations. Of those in detention centers, he says, "at least 2,500 refugees and migrants are estimated to remain in detention centers exposed to or at risk of armed conflict in and around Tripoli." And they all want out, whether it is back to their home countries or, more likely, across the sea to Europe. Now it remains to be seen whether the three boats that made it out on Wednesday night are a fluke or, more likely, according to humanitarian workers on the ground, the beginning of an exodus that will surely only lead to more deaths like the ones this week. "If current trends for this year continue, that will see us pass more than 1,000 deaths in the Mediterranean for the sixth year in a row," UNHCR spokesman Yaxkley says. "That's a really bleak milestone."But even worse than the risk of death at sea are those that come with staying on land in Libya. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| How an F-22 Stealth Fighter Snuck Behind an Iranian F-4 Phantom Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:24 AM PDT  The March 2013 episode happened only a few months after a two Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes operated by the Pasdaran (the informal name of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards) attempted to shoot down an American MQ-1 flying a routine surveillance flight in international airspace some 16 miles off Iran.Back in 2013, Pentagon press secretary George Little said that an Iranian air force F-4 Phantom combat plane attempted to intercept a U.S. MQ-1 Predator drone flying through international airspace near Iran.As we reported back then, one of the two F-4 Phantom jets — in service in Iran since the Shah — came to about 16 miles from the Predator, but broke off pursuit after two American planes escorting the drone broadcast a warning message.(This first appeared earlier in July 2019.)It was a close call.The March 2013 episode happened only a few months after a two Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes operated by the Pasdaran (the informal name of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards) attempted to shoot down an American MQ-1 flying a routine surveillance flight in international airspace some 16 miles off Iran.
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| Donald Trump and Boris Johnson working on 'very substantial' post-Brexit trade deal Posted: 27 Jul 2019 01:10 AM PDT  Donald Trump has said he and Boris Johnson are already working on a "very substantial" post-Brexit trade agreement. The two world leaders spoke on the telephone on Friday evening and discussed the "unparalleled" trade opportunities offered by Britain's departure from the European Union. Mr Trump said any deal could signal a "three to four or five times" increase in trade between the two countries. "We're working already on a trade agreement," he told reporters at the White House. "And I think it'll be a very substantial trade agreement. "You know we can do with the UK, we can do three to four times, we were actually impeded by their relationship with the European Union. We were very much impeded on trade. "And I think we can do three to four or five times what we're doing. "We don't do the kind of trade we could do with what some people say is Great Britain. "And some people, remember a word you don't hear too much is the word England, which is a piece of it. "But with the UK we could do much, much more trade and we expect to do that." BJ Archive - portal embed Downing Street said the two leaders had "expressed their commitment to delivering an ambitious free trade agreement". "They agreed that Brexit offers an unparalleled opportunity to strengthen the economic partnership between the UK and United States," a spokesman added. Mr Trump said the UK had "needed" Mr Johnson for a long time, adding: "He has what it takes." "I think we can have a great relationship and Boris is going to be a great prime minister," he said. "I predict he will be a great prime minister." The president had previously heaped praise on Mr Johnson following his victory in the Tory leadership contest. Addressing a crowd of young US conservatives on Tuesday, he said: "We have a really good man who is going to be the prime minister of the UK now: Boris Johnson. "Good man. He's tough and he's smart. They're saying 'Britain Trump'. They call him Britain Trump and it's people saying that's a good thing. "They like me over there. That's what they wanted. That's what they need." The leaders also used their Friday night call to discuss tensions with Iran.
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| We've Got the List of the 5 Best Sig Sauer Handguns Posted: 26 Jul 2019 11:30 PM PDT  The Sig P210 is the original handgun that started the company's entire line of P2XX pistols.The Swiss-German company Sig Sauer has been in the arms business for a long time. Swiss SIG (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft) a company founded in 1853, partnered with the German Sauer in 1976 to produce firearms. The joint company rode the European wave of handgun manufacturers in the late 1980s and 1990s with its series of handguns based on the original P210 platform.Today Sig Sauer sells a full line of handguns and modern sporting rifles in the United States, and has penetrated both the military and law enforcement markets. Although the company failed to sell the P226 handgun to the U.S. Military in 1984—losing out to Beretta of Italy—in 2017 it succeeding in winning the contract for the Beretta's replacement, the M17 Modular Handgun system. Here is a list of some of Sig Sauer's best service pistols.Sig P210The Sig P210 is the original handgun that started the company's entire line of P2XX pistols. The P210 is generally regarded as one of the best-designed pistols of the twentieth century. Adopted in 1949 by the Swiss Army, it replaced a Swiss copy of the Luger P08 pistol, the Model 29. The P210 is also considered one of the most accurate pistols ever built.(This first appeared in May 2018.)Recommended: How the Air Force Would Destroy North Korea.
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| The biologist in a race against time to save the Great Barrier Reef Posted: 26 Jul 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Could pioneering research by a young marine biologist from Essex save the embattled Great Barrier Reef? Guy Kelly meets her to find out. I've never considered what the collective noun might be for a group of explorers – a compass? A khaki? A smug? – but whatever it is, I have discovered a large one, gently grooming one another in a lecture theatre in downtown Washington, DC. They convene here every year, at the National Geographic Explorers Festival, to revel in their triumphs, network furiously, and share concerns for a planet in desperate need of their kind to save it. By mid-morning on the second day, those gathered in the auditorium at National Geographic's headquarters have heard from people who've viewed Earth from space and plumbed the dark depths of the oceans. We've listened to NGOs that have come together to save the Sumatran rhino and learnt why protecting 30 per cent of the planet by 2030 is essential to preventing the next mass extinction. Many of the speakers have been American and many have been confident, experienced figures who've fought to become the leaders in their (often literal) fields. Then, refreshingly, come a group of innovators with new solutions to age-old problems – beginning with a young marine biologist from Brentwood, Essex. Wearing an aqua-blue summer dress, 32-year-old Emma Camp strides out looking calm and composed. She hits her mark, takes a deep breath, then delivers the bad news. 'The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is home to over 7,000 marine species, has huge economic and cultural value, and supports essential ecosystem services, such as fisheries. But this underwater city, full of life and colour, is turning white and derelict,' she says. The audience is hooked. 'Climate change is compromising not just the Great Barrier Reef, but reefs globally. Warmer, more acidic, low-oxygen seawater is fundamentally affecting the biology of the corals, and this is compromising whether they'll be able to exist in the future. In just three years, over a third of the Great Barrier Reef has been lost.' Camp isn't just here as a harbinger of doom, however. She's also come with a plan. Through her research, she tells us, she has discovered that in certain areas of the planet there are corals that already exist in the kind of hot, lower pH waters we'll see all over the world, unless action is taken. And remarkably, some are adapting to survive. Camp has had the idea of 'transplanting' clippings of 'super-survivor' coral (think of grafting tree branches) to reefs being devastated by rising sea temperatures, then seeing what happens. Camp is the first speaker – and sole Briton – from the 10 finalists for this year's Rolex Awards for Enterprise. In 1976, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rolex Oyster, the world's first waterproof watch, the Swiss company launched a biennial programme to support explorers, scientists and entrepreneurs who have a project that could make the world a better place. It continues today, as part of the brand's 'Perpetual Planet' campaign. This year's group – chosen from 957 entries by a jury that included Jonathan Baillie, the chief scientist of the National Geographic Society, and the British geneticist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford – will be halved after further jury consideration and a public vote. The five winners will then become 'laureates', each receiving a significant grant for their project (in the region of 200,000 Swiss francs) and, naturally, a watch. All 10 finalists will also enjoy the vital publicity that attends the awards. Studying resilience in coral at a mangrove off Port Douglas Credit: Franck Gazzola/©Rolex They are eminently impressive, and as varied as in any year. Previous winning projects have included turning discarded rice husks into energy; establishing a travelling school to help a nomadic culture survive; and, in 2016, a proposal from a British man, Andrew Bastawrous, transforming eye care in sub-Saharan Africa using a smartphone-based examination kit. This year's competition features everything from conservation to disease prevention. 'It's all been a bit full on,' Camp admits, when we meet for coffee in a nearby hotel the next morning. The night before saw her attend the National Geographic Awards and the rest of her time has been taken up by speaking events, interviews, photo shoots and 'associated admin activities'. 'I had to just go for a walk yesterday, just to be outside,' she says, sinking into an armchair. 'I'm not used to being around so many people. It's usually fish and coral.' Camp is tall and willowy, with long brown hair and the healthy tan of somebody who spends half her life dangling off boats in the world's most beautiful places. I ask for the down-the-pub-chat version of her pitch. 'Well, climate change is killing the reefs, and we risk losing them in our lifetimes. But there are naturally resilient populations we know very little about. My project aims to find out how they're doing it, and whether they could help save other reefs.' For a long time Camp's work was largely general: looking at the impact of climate change on coral in different waters. But one research trip in 2016, to mangroves in New Caledonia, in the South Pacific, changed her focus for life. 'Nobody [in marine biology] outside of our little community bought into the idea that there could be something exciting there, but we went and there were corals everywhere – full reef structures, in water where the pH reading was extremely low.' The public's greatest misconception about coral is that it is a plant. Really, it is a sessile (fixed, like a barnacle) animal, a marine invertebrate related to sea anemones and jellyfish. Corals rely on algae that live inside their tissues, photosynthesising and giving the coral its colour. Under stress – due to, for example, warming waters and changing pH levels – the algae will leave, eventually killing the coral. The process is known as 'bleaching' because it goes dull and pale. A good pH level for coral is around 8 to 8.5. In certain mangrove lagoons in New Caledonia, where tidal cycles and unique physico-chemical conditions create a swirl of warm, deoxygenated, lower pH water, Camp didn't expect to find such healthy coral. The water was 1 to 2C warmer than nearby. So she tested the pH – it was below 7.5. 'My colleagues said the pH meter must be broken. So they tried and got the same. We ended up trying five sensors before we accepted it. It completely challenged our understanding.' It was the kind of lightbulb moment scientists only experience once or twice in a career. The water conditions in the lagoon are more extreme than many of the worst predictions for the warming of the world's oceans over the next century. So if corals there have managed to adapt, could they hold the key to saving the Great Barrier Reef? The biggest reefs in the world Camp's team now hope to expand a project that involves transplanting 'super-survivor' cuttings to at-risk areas. She has already set up a 'multispecies coral nursery' off Australia (imagine a mesh fence with cuttings of different types of coral fixed to it, weighed down close to the sea floor), but requires further funding and support. And it may not work: after all, the Great Barrier Reef – one of the seven wonders of the natural world, visible from outer space, and worth about £3 billion in tourism each year – is about the same size as Italy, and subject to all manner of different stresses. But it might. 'There's a real art to getting the message across. We fundamentally have to lower carbon emissions to save coral reefs, that's number one, but we also need to look at alternative strategies we can use in addition to that,' Camp says. She is intensely aware that her messaging needs to be drenched in caution, lest people hear of her discovery and declare the problem solved – or worse, lest climate sceptics hoist it as an example of us underestimating the planet's ability to survive, whatever the conditions. 'Some people look for any excuse to do less, so we need to be honest but not give a false sense of security. Think of it like a toolbox. The main tool we have is lowering emissions, but that's not working well enough alone, so what else do we have?' Camp has been fascinated by coral reefs since childhood. The daughter of local-government workers, she grew up in Essex with two brothers (both are still there; one has his own business, the other's a policeman). When she was seven, her father took her snorkelling during a holiday to the Bahamas. It was all she needed. 'I vividly remember putting the mask on and for the first time seeing this whole life you couldn't see from above the water, this complex coral network. At the time I just appreciated its beauty, but as I got older I started to understand how important that ecosystem is. That so many people and animals rely on it. A third of all fish stocks interact with the reef. They need it.' As a teenager, she spent most summers in Spain, where she earnt her diving qualifications. By the time she was an adult she was a divemaster, but balanced that passion with one for basketball (she went on to play for Great Britain). On a basketball scholarship, she completed an environmental science and chemistry degree at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, before a master's in environmental management and business at Sheffield Hallam University, then a PhD in marine biology at the University of Essex – most of which was spent in the field, studying reefs around the world. Today she is based at the University of Technology in Sydney, where she is one of the leading researchers focusing on climate change and coral reefs. Camp – whose vowels occasionally slip into a New South Wales twang, especially when talking about her life in Australia – lives in Sydney with her husband, Rawiri, a banker from New Zealand. They married in January, and she is teaching him to snorkel. Seeing his appreciation of the underwater world has 'reinvigorated' her love for it, she says. Camp now reckons she's completed 'over 1,500 dives, most of them about an hour at least – I stopped counting'. By my calculations, she's spent two months of her life underwater. 'Probably about a quarter of my day job is in the field. The rest is in the labs, testing samples, or writing it up. But more and more important is the science communication, making sure people understand why we're doing what we're doing.' It's why accolades like making the Rolex shortlist are so valuable, as they allow her both to gain extra funding and to promote her work before people she might not normally reach. 'For me, it's about raising awareness of what's going on in our oceans, so it's more about exposure than the money. These are global issues and a brand like Rolex can facilitate that message.' Last year she was also announced as one of 17 'young leaders' for the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. It's a two-year position, and has seen her address the UN General Assembly once already. Do they listen? 'Yeah, I've been pleasantly surprised. There's an eagerness to have intergenerational discussions. We are the next custodians who will inherit the planet and give it to our children, and there's a real commitment to make sure young people's voices are heard.' Britain seems to have embraced the anti-plastics message Sir David Attenborough and others have pushed into the mainstream. Australia is similarly filled with activists, Camp says, but the Queensland government hasn't helped by recently approving the construction of an Adani coal mine – to be one of the largest in the world – in the Galilee Basin, near the Great Barrier Reef. Are we putting too much energy into banning straws? 'The analogy I like to use is that if somebody has a terminal illness and breaks their leg, you obviously deal with the broken leg, but you don't stop treating the illness. You can deal with short-term issues without losing sight of the bigger picture.' By the end of the Explorers Festival in Washington, it's been announced that Camp has narrowly missed out on becoming one of the five Rolex laureates. Those lucky few are João Campos-Silva, a Brazilian fishing ecologist who has devised a plan to save the world's largest scaled freshwater fish, the arapaima; Grégoire Courtine, a French medical scientist with a method of allowing people with broken backs to walk again; Brian Gitta, a Ugandan IT specialist who has developed a new weapon in the war on malaria; Indian conservationist Krithi Karanth, who works to ease conflicts between people and wildlife; and the Canadian entrepreneur Miranda Wang, with her plan for plastics. Copy of More from Tel Mag Moon landings 18/07 Not all is lost for Camp, however. Rolex was so impressed with all 10 finalists that the remaining five have been made 'associate laureates', meaning her project will still receive support. Besides, the networking opportunities have been invaluable, not least a dinner at a mansion in the historic Georgetown neighbourhood, where the world's leading explorers gathered to meet and celebrate one another, again. There, Camp met her hero, the legendary marine biologist Sylvia Earle – a woman who has spent a year of her life underwater. Camp hopes she's still diving and working at 83, too. There are days 'when you think, this is really tough', she says, 'especially when you see the political scene, but what's the option? You can give up or be one of the individuals who make it their commitment in life to do everything they can to protect the reefs.' So she is optimistic about the future, but knows the planet is now at a crossroads. 'The best case scenario in 50 years is that we have coral reefs that are still biodiverse, serving their function, and we have an even healthier marine environment than we do now, respecting biodiversity not just for its value to us as humans. The worst case scenario is that we've lost coral reefs as we know them. I don't want to tell my future grandchildren that this was a privilege I had, but they won't, and it was all because we didn't do enough.' Every time I see her in Washington, Camp is wearing a large bone necklace in the shape of a fish hook. It is a traditional Maori hei matau, made by her husband's late uncle, and means 'safe passage over water'. A wearer is considered a strong-willed provider and protector, determined to succeed. Camp clutches it to her chest. 'It's seen better days,' she says, 'but I wear it on every dive.' Rolex is now accepting entries for the 2021 Rolex Awards for Enterprise
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| How North Korea Could Launch a Nuclear War from the Sea Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:00 PM PDT  North Korea's Kim dynasty has long practiced an unsubtle form of political signaling which can be summed up: when things aren't going its way, launch some missiles.Thus after National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has long advocated forceful "regime change" in North Korea, met with South Korean officials in July 2019, Pyongyang celebrated his arrival by test-firing two new short-range ballistic missiles.And as U.S. troops prepared to embark on their its first major military exercise with South Korea after a long hiatus in August 2019, on July 22 Pyongyang released photos of Kim Jong Un in gray suit visiting a dry dock to inspect what analysts have concluded is an old Romeo-class submarine modified to launch ballistic missiles through its sail (conning tower).A KCNA press release pointedly indicated the submarine's role in "strategic tasks"—a very thinly-veiled reference to its role launching nuclear weapons.
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| Irish PM says no-deal Brexit could lead to united Ireland Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:54 PM PDT  A no-deal Brexit could lead to a united Ireland as more people in Northern Ireland would "come to question the union" with Britain, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said. Tension around the withdrawal deal centres on the so-called Irish backstop -- a mechanism designed to preserve the bloc's single market and prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.
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| Sorry, AOC: Socialism is the Zombie Ideology of Our Time Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:30 PM PDT  Socialism is the zombie ideology of our era: It fails everywhere, and yet it keeps rising back from the dead.Despite embarrassing socialist failures in China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and now Venezuela, the true believers march onward. Good intentions are unassailable. The revolution must go on.Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., arguably has done more than any other living American to market socialism to the next generation. And with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., following closely in his wake, rest assured we'll be contending with socialism for years to come.A recent Gallup survey shows that their message is resonating with more and more Americans.While 51% say socialism would be bad for America, 43% say it would be good. And notably, among the 18-34-year-old cohort, 58% favor socialism while 37% disfavor it.Those numbers hang like a dark cloud over America's future, but they don't tell the whole story.Interestingly, according to Gallup, Americans still favor the free market over government in multiple areas, including technological innovation, health care, and even basic things like wages, distribution of wealth, and the economy overall. And the comparison isn't even close.By contrast, Americans favor government over free markets when it comes to protecting consumers' online privacy and environmental protection.This creates quite a mixed picture, even a contradictory one. As a matter of simple math, there have to be millions of Americans who say they favor some form of socialism, yet favor the free market in general when it comes to certain aspects of their lives.How can that be?
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| 'Wrong person to mess with': Woman chases down male flasher Posted: 26 Jul 2019 08:22 PM PDT !['Wrong person to mess with': Woman chases down male flasher]( "'Wrong person to mess with': Woman chases down male flasher") A runner captured on video chasing down a man who exposed himself to her says she turned the tables on him to make him feel afraid. Aia Polansky says she didn't hesitate to run the man down after he pulled down his pants as she ran along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 18. Surveillance video released by Massachusetts State Police shows the unfazed and infuriated 33-year-old former Israeli army soldier sprinting to overtake the unidentified man.
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| Rand Paul Fights Sanctions on Russian Pipeline Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:00 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Nord Stream 2/GettyAdvocates for a massive Russian natural gas pipeline project have a powerful, quiet ally in Congress: Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and close friend of President Donald Trump. He has quietly worked against sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 project, which would dramatically expand Russia's shipments of natural gas to Germany. Critics say it would also dramatically expand Russia's influence in Western Europe while harming Ukraine. The Trump administration has weighed sanctioning the project, but has yet to do so. And Trump himself has criticized it.On Thursday, the senator postponed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's mark-up of legislation that would have put sanctions on the project, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the committee's proceedings. And while Paul hasn't publicized his opposition to the proposed sanctions, he sent Senate colleagues a letter before the mark-up explaining his stance. The letter, which The Daily Beast obtained, argues that the legislation in question–a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz and Jeanne Shaheen–doesn't clearly state which entities would be sanctioned. "This means that, ultimately, we are voting blind as to who will be sanctioned under this bill," Paul wrote in the letter. "Congress would once again pass on our authority to the Executive Branch, thus abandoning our constitutional responsibility to make laws." He echoed that reasoning in comments to The Daily Beast. "Congress has not only become trigger happy, but sanction happy. If this legislation goes into force, we would be sanctioning European allies," Paul said. Though the letter criticizes the legislation for being vague about the sanctions' targets, it also says the sanctions would directly impact two specific companies–one Italian, and the other Swiss. "These sanctions would not be felt by the Russians, but by companies from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Sweden, and Italy, as well as their investors," Paul wrote. Paul isn't alone in that view. Last year, Agnia Grigas of the Atlantic Council told Foreign Policy that sanctions on the project could drive a wedge between the U.S. and Western European allies. "I strongly urge you to oppose this legislation," Paul concluded in his letter. Paul is working with aide Jim Webb, who joined his office last year, to gin up opposition to the project, according to a Senate source with knowledge of the office's strategy. Richard Burt, the Washington lobbyist leading the effort to protect the pipeline, has a longstanding relationship with Paul, and Politico called him one of the senator's "main foreign policy advisor[s]" in 2014. Burt also advised Trump during the 2016 campaign on a major, Russia-friendly foreign policy address. Russia's state-controlled natural gas export monopoly, Gazprom, is building the near-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Its completion would let Russia double its natural gas shipments to Germany. Shortly before Trump's friendly press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2017, he ripped German Chancellor Angela Merkel for embracing the project. Noting that Germany is a member of the NATO alliance, created to stave off Russian aggression, Trump said, "We have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that's being paid to the country we're supposed to be protecting you against."Rand Paul Wants to Scrap Some U.S. Sanctions on RussiaPaul has long criticized interventionist foreign policy, and was one of just two senators to vote against the 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which sanctioned Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Its only other Senate opponent was Sen. Bernie Sanders. An aide to a senator who publicly opposes the Nord Stream 2 project said Paul's letter contains errors. "The letter is very shouty and very wrong," said the aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "It misspells a bunch of things repeatedly, including Nord Stream. It says the bill is economic warfare but it's against two companies. It says no one knows who's getting targeted, then it complains about targeting those two companies. It says Europe supports Nord Stream, but everyone except Germany opposes it."The legislation in question would sanction ships involved in building the pipeline. Russian state media says construction of the pipeline is nearly complete. "This pipeline has the tremendous potential to compromise energy security throughout the continent for decades," said Shaheen, a Democrat, when she introduced the bill. Russia's influence in the U.S. and the West has come into sharp relief over the past several years, since the Kremlin interfered in the American 2016 presidential campaign and the Brexit vote in the U.K. In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last week, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller said the Kremlin is currently working to meddle in the 2020 campaign season. And much of the conversation about Russia's 2016 interference focuses on sanctions. During the Obama administration, the United States sanctioned numerous Russian officials for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Those sanctions enraged the Kremlin, which dispatched envoys to lobby Washington to have them lifted. Those sanctions were the topic of the now-notorious June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump's campaign chief Paul Manafort, son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a Kremlin-linked lawyer. Since Trump's election, the U.S. has leveled more sanctions against the Kremlin–sometimes haphazardly. When the Treasury Department sanctioned the Russian aluminum conglomerate Rusal and its parent company En+ Group, global aluminum markets veered into chaos. Treasury then made a deal with the company to reduce oligarch Oleg Deripaska's control over it, and lifted the sanctions. But the decision to roll them back drew vocal opposition on the Hill, and 42 Senators voted to keep them in place. Several months after that effort failed and the sanctions were lifted, news broke that Rusal would make a major investment in an aluminum plant in eastern Kentucky–the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and of Sen. Paul. The Kremlin's Oil Company Has a Man in TrumplandRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| WADA adds North Korea to doping compliant nations' list Posted: 26 Jul 2019 12:41 PM PDT  Montreal (AFP) - North Korea's anti-doping committee has been removed from the list of nations deemed non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced Friday.
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| North Korea, China top Pompeo agenda on Asia trip Posted: 26 Jul 2019 12:16 PM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads to Asia next week with an agenda dominated by a stalemate in the Trump administration's nuclear talks with North Korea and impasses with China over trade, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Pompeo travels to Thailand on Tuesday for the Association of Southeast Asian National Regional Forum where North Korea's launch of medium-range missiles this week and increasingly assertive Chinese maritime actions will be major issues.
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| American tourist captured by Syrian regime on world trip is freed Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:03 AM PDT  An American traveller arrested by Syrian government forces while completing a "round the world tour" has been released following negotiations. Sam Goodwin, 30, from Missouri, had been walking around the Kurdish-held northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on Saturday May 25, when he is understood to have been apprehended by regime troops. Mr Goodwin had quit his job at a start-up in Singapore and was trying to travel to every country in the world and only had 10 of 193 left. On his website, Searching4Sam.com, he describes himself as "an American expat, entrepreneur, former Division I athlete and world traveler." The Niagara University graduate wrote: "Some unique memories from around the globe include paragliding over Queenstown, tracking white rhinos on foot in Swaziland, ringing in New Years on a party boat in Iran, running with the bulls in Pamplona and coaching North Korea's National Hockey Team." Sam Goodwin, 30, was travelling the world when he was arrested by the Syrian government Credit: Handout After failing to get a visa from the government, he entered through a border controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) militia, local sources told the Telegraph. Ignoring advice, he wandered the streets the day he arrived alone and was believed to have been stopped by regime soldiers. According to a friend, he had only planned to stay for three days and was hoping to attend a Mass service at a church in Qamishli on the Sunday. While the city, the largest in the autonomous Kurdish region, is under the control of the YPG, the regime mans checkpoints dotted around. Mr Goodwin was released back to his family this week after nearly two months in detention. A Lebanese security official revealed on Friday that Beirut managed to mediate the release with the Syrian government. The northeastern Syrian city is under the control of the Kurds Credit: Sam Tarling for the Telegraph "Lebanon has worked on mediating through General Abbas Ibrahim to release an American and he was handed over to his family already," the official said. Mr Goodwin's parents, Thomas and Ann, said in a statement released on Friday: "Sam is healthy and with his family. We are forever indebted to General Abbas Ibrahim and to all others who helped secure the release of our son. We will have more to say at a later date." The Syrian government considers anyone entering the country without a visa to have entered illegally. The US government warns citizens against any travel to Syria. Several US citizens have been held in Syria since the war began there in 2011, including journalists and aid workers held by jihadist groups such as Islamic State. Austin Tice, a journalist who disappeared in Syria while working for the Washington Post in 2012, is believed to be being held by the regime. Layla Shweikani, an American-Syrian humanitarian worker, was arrested by government forces in February 2016. She later died in a regime-held prison, some claim of torture. Last year the family of another American, clinical psychologist Majd Kamalmaz, told the Wall Street Journal that he had disappeared at a government checkpoint in Damascus in 2017. He has not been heard from since.
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