| Oil Resumes Slide on Trade War Threat, Geopolitical Tensions Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:45 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Oil continued its slide following last week's steep losses after President Donald Trump threatened to slap further tariffs on China, while reports emerged that Iran had seized another foreign vessel in the Persian Gulf.Global benchmark Brent crude futures were down 0.9%, after dropping 2.3% last week. Trump's threat to impose new tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods saw the market post its biggest one day sell-off in four years last Thursday. It found some relief on Friday from a robust payrolls report that boosted optimism on the U.S. demand outlook.Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf on July 31, compounding concerns about the safety of shipping in a region crucial to oil exports.To contact the reporter on this story: James Thornhill in Sydney at jthornhill3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, Keith GosmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolts southwestern Iran Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:22 PM PDT ![Magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolts southwestern Iran]( "Magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolts southwestern Iran") Iran's seismology center says a magnitude 5.2 earthquake has rocked the country's south-west. The report Monday says the quake hit near the town of Cheram in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, about 544 kilometers (338 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran. There were no immediate report of casualties in the city, which had a population of over 15,000, according to Iran's latest census in 2016.
|
| Johnson’s Spending Puts U.K. Parties on Alert for Snap Election Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:06 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson has dramatically boosted public spending since taking office, fueling speculation the U.K. prime minister is preparing not only for Brexit by Oct. 31, but a general election as well. The two are likely to be linked -- either before or after the U.K. leaves the European Union.On Monday, Johnson -- in office less than two weeks -- travels to Lincolnshire, eastern England, to lay out details of his 1.8 billion pound ($2.2 billion) boost for the National Health Service, delivering on his 2016 Brexit campaign vow while maintaining a focus on domestic policies. It follows recent pledges to hire more policy officers and increase infrastructure spending, including on railways.It's part of what the government calls economic "boosterism" as it prepares for Brexit on Halloween; it includes a cash injection of 2.1 billion pounds to prepare the economy for a no-deal split from the EU. But despite Johnson's public words to the contrary, politicians are increasingly taking the rapid domestic policy roll-out as proof he's gearing up for a snap poll. On Sunday, even Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly didn't rule it out."We're not going to initiate a general election," Cleverly told Sky News, a nod to the fact that the most likely trigger for an early national poll -- the next isn't until 2022 -- would be a no-confidence vote in Parliament put forward by the main opposition Labour Party.Confidence VoteOn the same program, Labour's health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth said an election could be "very soon," suggesting the NHS cash boost was a government tactic to win over voters. The party has strongly hinted it will pursue a confidence vote when Parliament returns in early September.Last week's special election in the Welsh constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire showed the potential risk to the government of an early vote.Defeat for Johnson's Conservatives reduced his working majority in Parliament to just one, making it that much harder to get any Brexit deal he negotiates with Brussels ratified by lawmakers. One theory is the prime minister will seek to reset the parliamentary arithmetic before he tries.Yet the result also showed that Johnson's "do or die" pledge to deliver Brexit in the fall hasn't yet neutralized the threat from Nigel Farage. In Brecon, the Tories would have won had their candidate secured the 3,331 votes that went to Farage's Brexit Party. Instead, the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats took the seat.Aware of the electoral threat, more than 10 Tories have asked the Brexit Party not to run against them, the Mail on Sunday reported.Parliament MathNone of which makes a compelling case for the government to pursue a snap poll. But after Brecon, Johnson is even more vulnerable to a no-confidence vote, especially given there are plenty of potential Tory rebels, including former cabinet ministers, opposed to a no-deal Brexit -- though whether they would vote to bring down their own government is debatable.According to the Telegraph, Johnson's senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, told ministers last week that Parliament won't be able to stop a no-deal Brexit even if the government loses a no-confidence vote, because the prime minister would be able to schedule an election for after the Oct. 31 deadline for the U.K. to leave.Cummings is already planning the Facebook campaign for a "people versus the politicians" general election after Brexit, the Financial Times reported late Sunday, citing a government official it didn't identify.That would put Johnson closer to a more optimal scenario of fighting a general election on his domestic agenda, having already delivered Brexit. But he's unlikely to get there without a fight in both Parliament and the courts, where anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller is seeking to block any attempt to get Brexit through while the legislature isn't sitting."There are a number of things the House of Commons can do, including bringing down the government and setting up a new one in its place," prominent Tory rebel Dominic Grieve told BBC radio on Sunday. "There are quite a number of colleagues who, I think, share my very considerable concern about no-deal, which is something which has never been put to the people as an option."On Sunday, Labour's Ashworth said cross-party efforts to prevent a no-deal divorce from the EU would gather pace once the government puts the legislation it needs for Brexit to Parliament in September."We will work to stop no-deal," he told Sky News.(Updates with Financial Times report on election in 12th paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in London at sbiggs3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| After Brexit pledges, British PM Johnson announces cash injection for health Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:30 PM PDT ![After Brexit pledges, British PM Johnson announces cash injection for health]( "After Brexit pledges, British PM Johnson announces cash injection for health") Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce a 1.8 billion pound ($2.2 billion) cash injection for Britain's public health system on Monday, seeking to honour his Brexit pledges as he pushes through the country's departure from the European Union. Johnson, a figurehead for the "Leave" campaign in the 2016 referendum, has long been associated with a pledge, emblazoned on a bus, that Britain could spend 350 million pounds a week on the National Health Service (NHS) if the country left the EU.
|
| Magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolts southwestern Iran Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:07 PM PDT ![Magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolts southwestern Iran]( "Magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolts southwestern Iran") Iran's seismology center says a 5.2 magnitude earthquake has rocked the southwestern part of the country. The center says the quake hit Monday near the town of Cheram in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, some 544 kilometers (338 miles) southwest of the capital of Tehran. A 3.5 magnitude aftershock hit 10 minutes later, it added.
|
| Russian MiG-15 Pilot: How I Shot Down a B-29 Bomber during Korean War Posted: 04 Aug 2019 12:00 PM PDT  The USSR began assisting the People's Republic of China in its establishment of a modern air force in 1950, when Soviet Air Force regiments and divisions were sent to the Far East to train local pilots. China's involvement in the Korean War in late October 1950 inevitably drew Soviet pilots into the conflict as well, and the latter made their first appearance over North Korea on Nov. 1 when MiG-15 fighters from 151st GvIAD (Guards Fighter Air Regiment) engaged USAF aircraft. Such clashes would become an everyday part of the Korean War until the conflict ended in July 1953.The battles fought between MiG-15s of 64th IAK (Fighter Air Corps) and Far East Air Force's Bomber Command in late October 1951 were some of the fiercest, and bloodiest of the entire Korean War.
|
| Report: Iran seizes tanker carrying 'smuggled fuel' in Gulf Posted: 04 Aug 2019 11:09 AM PDT  Iranian forces seized a ship in the Persian Gulf suspected of carrying smuggled fuel, state media reported Sunday, marking the Revolutionary Guard's third seizure of a vessel in recent weeks and the latest show of strength by the paramilitary force amid a spike in regional tensions. State TV and the semi-official Fars news agency reported that seven crew members were detained when the ship was seized late Wednesday carrying 700,000 liters (185,000 gallons) of "smuggled fuel" from Iran. The island sits in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran, north of the Strait of Hormuz.
|
| Iran seizes third tanker and seven sailors in Persian Gulf Posted: 04 Aug 2019 11:01 AM PDT  Iran yesterday said it had captured an oil tanker and seven sailors it accused of "smuggling" fuel through the Persian Gulf to Arab states – the third such seizure in recent months. Iranian state television reported that the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp detained the tanker, its crew and 700,000 litres of fuel on Wednesday. "The seizure of the oil tanker was in coordination with Iran's judiciary authorities and based on their order. It was taken to the Bushehr port, where its fuel was handed over to the authorities," said Guards commander Ramezan Zirahi. The incident marks the latest instalment in a series of actions designed to broadcast power and strength to the West. Tensions in the Persian Gulf have been high since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year, cutting the prized economic lifeline Tehran was offered in exchange for curtailing its nuclear programme. Since then, Iran has struggled to fight back against a combination of sanctions and diplomatic isolation, and to curtail rampant fuel smuggling, by sea and land, to neighbouring countries including Arab rivals. Entreaties to European signatories to the nuclear deal to pressure the US to back down have thus far fallen short, leaving Tehran looking to its nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz for sticks where carrots have failed. The IRGC captured the Panama-flagged Riah last month, accusing it of smuggling cheap, state-subsidized Iranian fuel. That incident followed the tit-for-tat detention of British tanker Stena Impero earlier in July, two weeks after British forces captured an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar accused of violating sanctions on Syria. British authorities say the Iranian seizure was illegal and have ruled out a swap of the two vessels. Twenty percent of global oil consumption passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran has threatened to block all exports if the international community bow to US calls to stop buying Iranian oil. In recent days, the Washington-Tehran confrontation has reached new heights, with the US announcing sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Javid Zarif, a key architect of the scrapped nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the sanctions "childish". On Saturday, Mr Zarif said Iran would soon take "the third step" in reducing its commitments made under the deal.
|
| Netanyahu apologizes to Druze envoy for airport grilling Posted: 04 Aug 2019 10:58 AM PDT ![Netanyahu apologizes to Druze envoy for airport grilling]( "Netanyahu apologizes to Druze envoy for airport grilling") Israel's prime minister has apologized to his country's ambassador to Panama, a member of Israel's Arabic-speaking Druze minority, after he and his family were given extra security screening before departing from Tel Aviv's airport. Reda wrote about the extra screening on Facebook Saturday. Israel is home to approximately 140,000 Druze, a secretive sect that splintered off Shiite Islam in the Middle Ages.
|
| Wife of Syria's Assad says she is free of cancer Posted: 04 Aug 2019 10:17 AM PDT  The wife of Syria's president said she is "completely" free of breast cancer a year after her diagnosis, in an interview with state TV. The half-hour interview, aired late Saturday, was Asma Assad's first since she was diagnosed — a rare declaration in the Arab world, where prominent figures often conceal their ailments. It was also designed to portray a modern attitude in a region where cancer remains a taboo, and many view it as an affliction.
|
| Navarro Says Fed, Not Tariffs, Is Biggest Threat to U.S. Economy Posted: 04 Aug 2019 08:39 AM PDT ![Navarro Says Fed, Not Tariffs, Is Biggest Threat to U.S. Economy]( "Navarro Says Fed, Not Tariffs, Is Biggest Threat to U.S. Economy") (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's trade adviser took up the cudgel against the Federal Reserve and its leader Jerome Powell, saying the Fed is the single greatest obstacle to strong growth in the U.S.Peter Navarro commented on "Fox News Sunday," days after Trump announced that 10% tariffs may be put on $300 billion of US. imports from China. Consumer goods, including smartphones, laptops, sneakers and toys, would be targeted if the duties go into effect Sept. 1.Fed Chairman Powell cited trade tensions with China more than two dozen times on Wednesday as a key reason for the central bank's 25-basis-point interest rate cut. The central bank had been widely expected to lower rates as a buffer for the economy against the negative impact of Trump's trade war."I find it ironic that Jay Powell of the Fed would come on and blame trade tensions," Navarro said. "In fact, Jay Powell is singularly responsible for losing at least a point of growth on our GDP by raising interest rates by 100 basis points and engaging in what's called quantitative tightening."Navarro's comments echo those of his boss, who's spent a year criticizing the Fed and Powell.All the Trump Quotes on Powell as Fed Remains in the Firing LineU.S. stocks suffered the worst week of 2019 as investors fretted over Trump's escalation of his trade war with China. Markets tumbled in Asia and Europe as well.China has vowed to retaliate against what it called "blackmailing" if Trump follows through on the tariffs next month. The tensions come shortly after a truce that had been in place since Trump met Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, in Osaka at the end of June.Trump said Xi hadn't lived up to a promise in Osaka to purchase large quantities of U.S. agricultural goods and to halt illegal exports of fentanyl. He also threatened Friday to increase the tariffs "substantially" if China doesn't "turn it around."The president tweeted on Saturday that things are going along "very well with China" and that the U.S. "consumer is paying nothing" for the tariffs, repeating a widely challenged assertion that China, not American importers and consumers, bear the cost.Gaming the SystemNavarro was asked about a study from the Tax Foundation, a Washington think-tank, that showed the average cost to a U.S. family of four from the pending tariffs would be $350 a year, on top of an estimated $850 a year from the levies already in place. He said it was "false" that U.S. consumers are bearing the cost."China has strategically gamed the tariffs by slashing their prices and by devaluing their currency," he said. "Consumers are not seeing any price hikes in any significant way, and it's not showing up in the data."Nevertheless, it's important for trade negotiations to continue, Navarro said. U.S. and Chinese negotiators are supposed to regroup in Washington in early September.To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net;Stephen Cunningham in Washington at scunningha10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, James LuddenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| UK's Johnson pledges $2.2B more to public health system Posted: 04 Aug 2019 08:29 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will pump an additional 1.8 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) into the National Health Service, feeding speculation he wants an early election to bolster his one-seat majority in Parliament and support for his Brexit plans.
|
| Floating nuclear power plant to be towed across Russian Arctic despite 'Chernobyl on ice' concerns Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:59 AM PDT  The wind and rain whipped by at several feet per second as crew members stepped outside for a quick smoke, but the world's only floating nuclear power plant barely shifted in the choppy waves of the Kola bay. The length of one-and-a-half football pitches, the Academic Lomonosov looks the part as the vanguard of Russia's "nuclearification" of the Arctic, at least now that its rusty hull has been repainted in the white, red and blue of the national flag. Later this month it will be towed 3,000 miles from the northwestern corner of Russia to the Chukotka region next to Alaska, where it will provide steam heat and eventually electricity to the coastal gold-mining town of Pevek, population 4,000. The state corporation Rosatom is trumpeting the Academic Lomonosov as the next big step in nuclear energy and a solution to electricity needs in Africa and Asia. "This is like launching the first rocket into space because it's a pilot project, the first in the world," Vladimir Irimenko, senior engineer for environmental protection, said before showing journalists the reactor control room. But the floating plant took more than a decade to build at high cost and has been dubbed the "nuclear Titanic" over safety concerns. It has been fuelled up and tested in Murmansk rather than its home port of St Petersburg after 11,000 signed an angry petition and Norway objected to two reactors full of enriched uranium being dragged along along its entire coastline. A dinghy of Greenpeace activists unfurled a "no to floating Chernobyl" banner next to the plant on the 31st anniversary of the disaster in 2017. This group and others have wondered about the wisdom of sending what is essentially a giant nuclear barge into some of the harshest and most remote conditions on earth, where any cleanup operation would be exceedingly difficult. Greenpeace Russia activists rolled out a banner before the floating nuclear power plant in St. Petersburghttps://t.co/7d6OPmRdQipic.twitter.com/ApMGOfoEtK— Greenpeace Russia (@greenpeaceru) April 26, 2017 "If there's a storm or something, it can't move anywhere, it's helpless," said activist Konstantin Fomin. "We did an action and boated up to it to show that if we can boat up to it, then terrorists can boat up to it." It's not exactly true that this floating nuclear power plant is the "first in the world," as a US army reactor installed on an immobilised cargo ship provided electricity to the Panama Canal zone in 1968-75. The Academic Lomonosov, however, is the first floating nuclear power plant designed for regular production, as Rosatom has claimed that southeast Asian countries are interested in buying such stations for electricity and South American and Middle Eastern countries for desalination. It has argued that the floating station meets higher safety standards than land-based nuclear plants and said any allusion to Chernobyl is like "comparing a 100-year-old automobile to one today". To be fair, while flammable graphite slowed down the neutrons for fission in the Chernobyl reactors, water performs this function in most reactors today, including on the Academic Lomonosov. Its KLT-40 reactors are similar to those that power three of Russia's five atomic icebreakers. A crew member monitors the reactors in the floating plant's control room Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph After previously complaining that it was only allowed on board to check the plant once a year during construction, Russia's technology oversight agency issued it a 10-year operating license in June. The floating plant will be protected from waves and ice by a pier, and national guardsmen will be deployed against intruders, Rosatom said. After the Fukishima nuclear disaster in 2011, all Russian nuclear power plants including the Academic Lomonosov were upgraded with new safety systems, it added. The company has declared that the floating plant's reactors are "invincible for tsunamis and other natural disasters". Yet overweening statements like this, as well a Rosatom official's promise last year that the reactors would be tested "at 110 per cent" of their capacity, hardly alleviate safety concerns. (The company later said the official misspoke.) During construction in 2017, a fire started on the Academic Lomonosov and spread over 170 square feet, according to state media. Asked about the incident, director Kirill Torkov said sparks from welding had caused a diesel generator to "start burning," but claimed that what resulted was "smokiness" rather than a fire. "There are several systems for fire safety on the vessel," he said. Hazard tape was stretched across several areas with signs instructing crew to access them through different corridors Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph But safety precautions can never completely eliminate the risk of human error or natural disasters, and Russia has had a spotty nuclear record in the Arctic. In Soviet times, 14 reactors were simply sunk in the Kara Sea, and thousands of iron containers of spent fuel were dumped overboard. "They might not sink right away, so we'd take a rifle and shoot them," recalled Andrey Zolotkov, who worked for Atomflot for 35 years before joining the environmental group Bellona in the 1990s. The nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Arctic 2000 and K-159 sank in 2003, and last month a fire on a nuclear deep-sea submersible near Murmansk almost caused a "catastrophe of a global scale," an officer said at the funeral of the 14 sailors killed. While a mishap in Pevek could result in local contamination, what observers really fear is when the Academic Lomonosov is towed the 3,000 miles back to Murmansk for maintenance and refuelling 12 years from now. It will enter the Barents Sea, the source of much of the cod and haddock for British fish and chips shops, full of spent nuclear fuel. "In case of an accident, the reactor can be shut down, but the storage of spent fuel on something like an unpowered vessel is wild to me," Mr Zolotkov said. "That object can't be completely airtight." Steam turbines next to the reactor compartment will provide heat and electricity Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph Perhaps the most serious issue facing Rosatom's plans to sell floating nuclear power plants around the globe is not "Chernobyl on ice" protests but rather cost. While Rosatom has refused to put a price tag on the Academic Lomonosov as a pilot project, insurance filings and media reports have revealed that it took at least £360 million to build including coastal infrastructure. "The coastline of Siberia is a wonderful spot for developing wind power, during the summer there are 24 hours of sun a day, and there's geothermal energy like Iceland and China are developing. So there are alternatives, and they are probably much cheaper to develop than to build the Academic Lomonosov plant," said Thomas Nilsen, editor of the Norway-based Barents Observer news site. Such alternatives are unlikely, however, now that Rosatom has been put in charge of all new infrastructure along the "northern sea route". Smoking is allowed only on the port deck of the vessel Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph As global warming melts the sea ice, Russia hopes this route can challenge the Suez Canal for a share of shipping to and from China, and Vladimir Putin has promised its atomic icebreaker fleet will increase to nine by 2035. It's all part of Moscow's grand plans to conquer the Arctic on the back of nuclear power: An extensive new report by the Barents Observer estimated that in the next 15 years, the number of military and civilian reactors in the Russian Arctic would double from the 62 in operation today. Other plans under consideration include autonomous nuclear reactors installed on the sea floor to power gas and oil drilling. Perhaps the greatest nuclear threat to the Arctic environment is posed by the secretive Poseidon underwater nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered drone announced by Mr Putin last year, which has been photographed on a ship near Arkhangelsk. Given its small size, the drone almost certainly can't hold a closed-circuit reactor and will emit nuclear waste directly into the water. A crew member passes through a hatch inside the Academic Lomonosov Credit: Alec Luhn/For The Telegraph In this atmosphere, the Academic Lomonosov looks more like a geopolitical PR stunt than an market-beating power source. Mr Irimenko said six floating nuclear power stations and one replacement would have to be produced for the project to be profitable, but admitted that this was not the most crucial aspect. "A military ship isn't profitable, a space rocket isn't profitable," he said, "but it's important for the country's development."
|
| Water drops from military aircraft douse some Russia fires Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:49 AM PDT  Russia's military says its aircraft dropped more than 1,200 metric tons of water (1,300 short tons) in a single day on wildfires in Siberia and made some progress in extinguishing the vast blazes. The Russian armed forces said the water from military planes and helicopters doused flames in about 1700 square kilometers (650 square miles) of the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions on Sunday. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military personnel last week to join the fight against forest fires in Siberia and the Far East that together involved territory about the size of Belgium.
|
| Poll shows Germany still divided 30 years after fall of Berlin Wall Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Almost 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new poll has exposed the enduring political divisions in Germany. The nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has surged to first place in the former communist east, with 23 per cent support. But it has failed to make a similar breakthrough in the former west, where it is in fourth place with just 12 per cent. The figures for the Green Party, which is in second place in the national polls, are almost a mirror image of the AfD's. In the former west, the Greens have 25 per cent support, but in the east it is they who are mired in fourth place with just 13 per cent. Just three months ahead of national celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the findings of the poll for Bild am Sonntag newspaper have laid bare the deep divide that persists across the old Cold War border. The AfD looks set to dominate the headlines in the run-up to November's anniversary, with the polls suggesting it could come first in regional elections in three eastern states this autumn. The party's anti-migrant platform has proved highly effective in the former communist east, where the city of Chemnitz saw violent protests last year. But the east accounts for less than a fifth of Germany's population, and the party has failed to make the sort of inroads in the west it would need to challenge for power. Current polls suggest the AfD could come first in three regional elections in eastern Germany this autumn Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg The poll's findings suggest Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) are the only party that can claim nationwide support. They are first in the west with 27 per cent, and second in the east with 22 per cent — a single point behind the AfD. Support for Germany's other traditional main party has collapsed: the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD) are third in the west on 13 per cent and a dismal fifth in the east with just 11 per cent. While the AfD is unlikely to win a majority in any of this autumn's regional elections, and will probably be kept out of power by a coalition of rival parties, coming first would be a shot across the bows of Mrs Merkel's government. The latest poll findings come as a new academic study claimed to show how the AfD distorts public perception of migrant crime figures. Researchers at Hamburg and Leipzig universities found AfD press statements blamed migrants for crimes in 95 per cent of cases last year, while police figures show they were only responsible for 35 per cent. "It's surprising how consistently this happens," Prof Thomas Hestermann and Prof Elisa Hoven, the study's authors, said.
|
| Sudanese protesters sign power-sharing deal with military Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:15 AM PDT  Sudan's pro-democracy movement signed a power-sharing agreement with the ruling military council on Sunday aimed at paving the way for a transition to civilian rule following the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in April. Representatives initialed a constitutional document that would establish a joint military and civilian council to rule for a little over three years until elections can be held. The agreement would establish a Cabinet appointed by the activists, as well as a legislative body.
|
| UN food agency, Yemeni rebels reach deal to restore aid Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:57 AM PDT ![UN food agency, Yemeni rebels reach deal to restore aid]( "UN food agency, Yemeni rebels reach deal to restore aid") The U.N. food agency on Sunday said it reached an agreement with Yemen's rebels to resume food deliveries to rebel-controlled parts of the country after suspending the aid for over a month. The partial suspension of aid to the capital, Sanaa, began in June amid accusations that the rebels, known as Houthis, were diverting the food from the hungriest people in the war-torn country, which has been pushed to the brink of starvation. The suspension affects 850,000 people in Sanaa, where the World Food Program says the bulk of the looting takes place.
|
| Egypt begins restoration on King Tut's golden coffin Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:54 AM PDT  Egypt started the first-ever restoration work on a gold-covered sarcophagus of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun, ahead of the country's new museum opening next year, the antiquities minister said Sunday. Khaled el-Anany told reporters that work on the outermost coffin, which is made of wood and gilded with gold, is expected to take at least eight months. The coffin remained in the tomb until July, when it was moved to the new Grand Egyptian Museum, being built near the famed pyramids of Giza outside Cairo.
|
| Nuon Chea, ideologue of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies at 93 Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:37 AM PDT  Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the communist Khmer Rouge regime that destroyed a generation of Cambodians, died Sunday, the country's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal said. Nuon Chea was known as Brother No. 2, the right-hand man of Pol Pot, the leader of the regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Researchers believe Nuon Chea was responsible for the extremist policies of the Khmer Rouge and was directly involved in its purges and executions.
|
| REFILE-EU must change its negotiating terms for Brexit, says Britain's Barclay Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:20 AM PDT ![REFILE-EU must change its negotiating terms for Brexit, says Britain's Barclay]( "REFILE-EU must change its negotiating terms for Brexit, says Britain's Barclay") The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, must go back to the bloc's leaders to change the terms of the talks because Britain's parliament will not accept the current deal, British Brexit minister Stephen Barclay said on Sunday. Writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Barclay said the "political realities" had changed since Barnier's instructions were set after Britain voted to leave the EU more than three years and that his mandate should reflect those differences. Britain's new prime minister Boris Johnson has pledged to leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, and has told the bloc there is no point in new talks unless negotiators are willing to drop the so-called Northern Irish backstop agreed with his predecessor Theresa May.
|
| Greta, It’s OK to Fly Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT ![Greta, It's OK to Fly]( "Greta, It's OK to Fly") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, recently announced that she will cross the Atlantic Ocean by boat to attend a United Nations global warming summit in New York. She does not believe in flying in airplanes, for the obvious reason that air travel is a contributor to the carbon emissions problem.I am here with a simple message: Greta, it is OK to fly. Indeed, I encourage you to fly.This isn't just about Thunberg. I often hear it argued that Al Gore is a hypocrite for complaining about carbon emissions while flying around the globe. International meetings such as Davos are criticized for holding sessions on climate change attended by people who may have flown in on their private planes.But flying isn't the worst offender when it comes to sources of carbon emissions. Some critics suggest flying accounts for 5% of the world's carbon emissions, but most estimates put aviation's share at closer to 2%. Whatever the exact number may be, it is hardly the major problem.Carbon emissions can come from stationary power sources (such as burning coal), automobiles, food production, construction, cement and, among other sources, air travel. It is plausible to expect a lot of progress on solar, wind, nuclear and even fracking to cut carbon output. The use of more electric cars and possibly hydrogen vehicles will also help reduce emissions. Food production could be improved significantly if people simply ate less meat. Energy-efficient construction may prove harder to achieve. But air travel may be the very hardest part of the problem to solve because nuclear, solar- or battery-powered large jets seem to be very far from market, even if biofuels can offer some relief.We should feel pretty comfortable with significantly reducing carbon emissions in most major areas except air travel. If that isn't enough for Thunberg, she could ask the airline to let her fly only if there are extra seats on the flight. The plane might burn a little more fuel than otherwise, but she can pack lightly. She might even ask them to fly a little more slowly to burn less fuel.It's not clear that Thunberg's decision to take the boat will lower carbon emissions at all, much less impact global temperatures. There are numerous media articles about this decision, with more to come, and when people read those articles (including this one), it demands more energy from computer servers and screens.As it stands, Thunberg will be spending about two weeks on a boat, in fairly uncomfortable circumstances. That may make her less productive, to the possible detriment of climate change campaigns.Obviously there is a symbolic aspect to the decision. Perhaps Thunberg and others feel they should take a public stand against all possible decisions to generate carbon emissions. But no one can meet that standard and remain alive. Arguably the symbolic message we ought to send is one of prioritization, not one of picking out a few highly visible public acts simply for the purpose of making a show of it.Or think more broadly about how to choose one's symbolic commitments to combat climate change. Buying a carbon offset, verifiable by an independent third party, seems like a good practical step. Thunberg also could take a stand in favor of nuclear power — a feasible source of green energy — except that she opposes it. Nuclear power has worked quite well for France for about 70 years, even if it is not suitable for earthquake zones.Another way to show one's dedication to limiting global temperatures would be to educate the public on carbon sequestration, which recently has made a good deal of real progress. How about a strike or demonstration to call people's attention to the possibilities of this new technology, and to ask for additional funding?I think breakthroughs on carbon capture are more likely than the world's wealthier citizens deciding to give up or even severely curtail their flying.Keep in mind that flying also has a green upside. Green technologies will need to spread around the world. That could involve, for instance, China learning new ideas from America, or vice versa. That process will go a lot more quickly with flying, including to scientific conferences and to set up green factories.I'm fine with people deciding they don't want to fly, but the rest of us should not rush into thinking that is the mark of a dedicated purist, or an especially effective practical tool. It is one symbolic commitment among many, and not obviously the best one.To contact the author of this story: Tyler Cowen at tcowen2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Baker at stebaker@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include "Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| A U.S. Navy F9F Panther Has the First Recorded Jet-On-Jet Shootdown Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT  The first air-to-air combat between fighter jets took place on Nov. 8, 1950 when, during an attack on the Sinuiju bridges near the mouth of the Yalu River, a U.S. Air Force F-80C belonging to the 16th Fighter Squadron encountered a MiG-15. The Korean war, that raged for three years from Jun. 25, 1950 to Jul. 27, 1953, saw the first widespread use of jet engine-powered fighter aircraft for both sides of a conflict.This article first appeared last month.These machines brought the air combat to a new, more faster and more lethal level. In fact the jet engines offered a significant increase in performance over the last piston engines, such as higher top speed, twice the cruise speed, greater ceiling and sustained climb rate. During the Korean War the fighter jets were deployed not only by the U.S. and their allies, but also by the North Korea and China and eventually some of these jets were flown by Russian pilots.
|
| Israel's Likud rules out Netanyahu stepping aside Posted: 04 Aug 2019 05:53 AM PDT ![Israel's Likud rules out Netanyahu stepping aside]( "Israel's Likud rules out Netanyahu stepping aside") The move appeared aimed at quashing any demand by potential coalition partners that Netanyahu step down. Netanyahu passed David Ben-Gurion last month as Israel's longest serving prime minister and seeks re-election for a fourth consecutive term. Israel is holding an unprecedented repeat election on September 17 after Netanyahu failed to form a government following April's vote.
|
| The Latest: Iranian fighter jet crashes near Persian Gulf Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:21 AM PDT ![The Latest: Iranian fighter jet crashes near Persian Gulf]( "The Latest: Iranian fighter jet crashes near Persian Gulf") Iran says a fighter jet has gone down in the south of the country near the Persian Gulf, with two pilots surviving the crash. The state-run IRNA news agency quoted a local official as saying the crash was caused by a technical problem. Abdolhossein Rafipour, the governor of Tangestan, says the plane went down near the coastal town at 12:30 local time (0800 GMT).
|
| Democrats need to remember: 2020 won’t be decided by 2019's debate responses Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Under the traditional model for US presidential politics, winning candidates veer left in the primaries and then scamper back for the general election'How self-destructive are the Democrats being as they launch the usual bidding wars to woo activist voters six months before the opening-gun Iowa caucuses?' Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesIt is as inevitable as new temperature records in an era of global warming. Every Democratic debate prompts a wailing wall of pundits and prognosticators lamenting how the party has lurched too far left to defeat Donald Trump.The debate formats accentuate the problem, with TV moderators stoking controversy with their questions and rigid time constraints (CNN in Detroit limited responses to 15 and 30 seconds) making every candidate sound shrill. Trailing candidates, desperate to qualify for the next debates, also have incentives to launch ideological attacks in hopes of creating a viral moment.Yet the editorial page odes to dynamic moderation have some validity. In an ideal universe, the Democrats would be assembling a broad-based never-Trump alliance ranging from actual socialists to principled libertarians like Justin Amash. The closest analogue would be the anti-fascist Popular Front coalitions on the left that governed France and Spain in the mid-1930s.But to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld: "You go to war against Trump with the candidates you have, not the candidates you might want."To win the 2020 Democratic nomination, candidates have to (warning: shocking insight ahead) appeal to Democratic voters. And in the midst of a climate crisis and Gilded Age-style economic inequality, it should not be surprising that Democratic voters aspire to more than just a president who promises not to type racist tweets or to coo over Kim Jong-un.> In an ideal universe, the Democrats would be assembling a broad-based never-Trump alliance ranging from actual socialists to principled libertariansSo how self-destructive are the Democrats being as they launch the usual bidding wars to woo activist voters six months before the opening-gun Iowa caucuses?Forgive me for not rending my garments in horror over Democratic rhetoric.It seems unlikely that there are many potential anti-Trump voters (with the exception of a few right-of-center columnists) who turned on the CNN debates and decided that a mendacious, Vladimir Putin-loving, would-be autocrat in the White House is better than the 2020 Democrats.Under the traditional model for American presidential politics, winning candidates veer left (or right for the Republicans) in the primaries and then scamper back towards the center for the general election. So the real question is whether the leading Democrats have already staked out positions that would prevent the eventual nominee from modulating his or her tone in the fall of 2020.This is where it gets tricky.The most seemingly radical proposition offered so far is the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren's 2% wealth tax on fortunes more than $50m that her campaign projects will raise $2.75tn over 10 years. While this proposal may scare the residents of Park Avenue penthouses and Silicon Valley mega-mansions, it polls surprisingly well with general election voters. An April national survey by Quinnipiac University found that 60% of the voters (including a startling 32% of Republicans) approve of such a levy on the super-rich.The appeals of both Warren and the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders are rooted in their authenticity as dedicated battlers against economic injustice. If they suddenly began to preach about the virtues of patience and incremental steps, they would be derided as typical politicians willing to swap principle for power.Campaign statements are also not binding legal documents. Already, the California senator Kamala Harris has abandoned her reflexive support for the elimination of private insurance under the rubric of Medicare for All. Her new position, unveiled right before the Detroit debate, features "a 10-year phase-in period". It is now so complicated that the healthcare section on her website begins by complaining: "One of the problems with our politics is that it often demands 60-second soundbites."Does that healthcare adjustment make Harris a flip-flopper?That was the dread accusation that the Republicans brandished against John Kerry in 2004. But it is hard to worry about that label in 2019 since objective truth no longer exists in the Trumpian political universe. Regardless of what the Democrats say in the debates, Trump will viciously portray his opponent as a socialistic America-hater in love with open borders and rat-infested inner cities.After covering the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, I better understand the value of inspiration and the danger of consultant-driven caution. Remember, it was just seven years ago when Joe Biden got ahead of Barack Obama by endorsing gay marriage. Should the Democrats really have stuck with the seemingly safe 2012 moderate position of backing civil unions?Fifteen months before the 2020 election, it is nearly impossible to know the best way of wresting power from Donald Trump. But it is safe to predict that the race will not be decided by a few intemperate debate answers in the summer of 2019.
|
| Johnson’s NHS Funding Fuels Election Speculation Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:56 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Talk of an early general election is intensifying after last week's special election cut the U.K. government's working majority in Parliament to one. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new funding for the National Health Service, delivering on a key Brexit pledge while demonstrating his administration has a domestic agenda beyond leaving the European Union.Key Developments:Labour says Parliament can block no-deal Brexit in the fallPM Johnson unveiled 1.8 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) in additional funding for the state-run National Health ServiceConservative Party Chairman James Cleverly said the government won't "initiate" an early general electionCleverly: Government Will Not Trigger Early Election (10 a.m.)Speaking on Sky News, U.K. Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly said the government won't "initiate" an early general election, adding that voters want the government to get on with Brexit and deliver on other policies including boosting the NHS.He also said recent spending pledges on health care and policing would be funded by economic growth, as the government invests in infrastructure including railways that will boost tax receipts. Cleverly reiterated that Boris Johnson is committed to leaving the EU with or without a deal on Oct. 31.After the Tory party failed to hold on to its Brecon and Radnorshire seat in last week's special election, Cleverly said he was "frustrated" that voters opting for the Brexit Party had enabled a Liberal Democrat victory.Labour's Ashworth Expects Election in Fall (9:10 a.m.)Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said he expects an early general election in the autumn, and that the main opposition party's lackluster performance in last week's special election -- it finished fourth -- would have no bearing on its prospects in that vote.He also told Sky News there would be ample time for politicians to work to block a no-deal Brexit in September and October, especially when the government puts forward legislation necessary for leaving the EU. Ashworth was responding after the Telegraph reported that a senior adviser to Boris Johnson told ministers that Parliament would be unable to prevent the U.K. leaving without a deal if the government opted to do so."We will use all the means available to us" to prevent a no-deal Brexit, Ashworth said, adding that there are former Tory ministers now on the backbenches willing to assist.Cummings Says MPs Can't Stop No-Deal Exit: Report (Earlier)Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to Boris Johnson, told ministers and officials last week that members of Parliament won't be able to stop a no-deal Brexit even if the government loses a no-confidence vote in September, the Telegraph newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the briefings.The prime minister would have the power to schedule an election for after the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, the newspaper reported Cummings as saying, meaning the U.K. would leave regardless of the efforts of MPs to prevent it. He also said Johnson's Conservatives would win an election, according to the report.No-Deal Pain Starting to Hit Irish Companies (Earlier)Ireland's biggest companies are getting a taste of the pain that could come from the U.K. crashing out of the EU without a deal. The country's ISEQ All-Share Index has been the worst performing benchmark in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since Boris Johnson became U.K. prime minister, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Johnson Adds NHS Funding to Meet Brexit Vow (Earlier)Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled 1.8 billion pounds in additional funding for the NHS, delivering on a pledge made during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. The money will be used to add hospital beds, wards and cutting-edge equipment, according to a statement from the prime minister's office.Earlier:Johnson's Brexit Enemies Prepare for Fight After Tasting VictoryJohnson Sets $2.2 Billion in New NHS Funding to Meet Brexit VowQueen's Banker Casts Wide Net for Clients as Brexit Takes TollThe Plan to Avert Banking Chaos in a No-Deal Brexit: QuickTakeTo contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in London at sbiggs3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Palmer Luckey’s Secretive Defense Company Is Booming Under Trump Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:43 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos GettyAs many tech giants grow skittish about cashing in on the surveillance boom, one company helmed by an industry iconoclast seems custom-built for Big Brother.For Anduril Industries, scanning the California desert alongside border agents or helping drones home in on targets isn't toxic—it isn't even controversial. That mostly has to do with the company's founder, Palmer Luckey. The 26-year-old is best known as the designer of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset that shepherded the futuristic technology into the mainstream. In 2014, Luckey sold his 100-person virtual reality company to Facebook for $3 billion. Luckey was reportedly forced out of Facebook in early 2017 after The Daily Beast revealed that he was bankrolling an unofficial pro-Trump group dedicated to "shitposting" and circulating anti-Clinton memes. It only took a few months for the boyish, ever-Hawaiian shirt clad near-billionaire to launch his second act, a defense company called Anduril Industries. Prone to references to fantasy worlds and role-playing games, Luckey named his new project after a mythical sword from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tellingly, the weapon's other name is the "Flame of the West." With Oculus, Luckey turned science fiction into affordable hardware. With Anduril, he'd port those innovations over into the defense sector, fusing affordable hardware and machine learning to create a border and battlefield surveillance suite that the federal government couldn't resist. Two years ago, Anduril was little more than a placeholder website with a casting call for "dedicated, and patriotic engineers." But with a handful of contracts in its cap and some friends in high places, Luckey's AI-powered defense experiment has established itself as an up-and-comer in the scrum for federal business. Anduril is still small—a fraction of the size of a Lockheed or a Raytheon, say—but it has quickly grown to employ close to 100 people, moving into a 155,000-square-foot headquarters in Irvine, California, where it can comfortably double in size.And far from shying away from politics post-Facebook, Luckey leaned into the MAGA-friendly ideology—donating big money to pro-Trump outfits, and meeting with Trump cabinet officials, all while his company quietly picks up military contracts and expands its work with border patrol.In a recent Reddit thread Luckey defended his new company's business model: "Of the things people might find divisive about me, this should be near the bottom of the list." Palmer LuckeyAnduril/Twitter BIG BORDER BUSINESSWhen Trump's vision of a "big, beautiful wall" ran into the costly, inefficient realities of a contiguous physical partition along the southern U.S. border, high-tech surveillance solutions emerged as a viable next best thing. In 2017, Luckey worked with Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) on cost estimates for legislation to push a virtual border wall into consideration. As part of that collaboration, Hurd introduced Luckey to a rancher in his Texas border district who agreed to let the young company test drive three of its portable sentry towers on his private land. (On Thursday, the 41-year-old tech-savvy Congressman announced that he would not seek re-election "in order to pursue opportunities… to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security.")Anduril bills itself as an "AI product company" specializing in hardware and software for national defense. Its hallmark product, called Lattice, is a modular surveillance setup comprising drones, "Lattice Sensor Towers," and software that autonomously identifies potential targets. As it demonstrated in two live pilot programs at the U.S. Southern border last year, the system can detect a human presence and push alerts to Customs and Border Protection agents in real time.Now, the company is expanding its reach. Anduril is currently working on a new pilot program with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to test "cold weather variations" of its high-tech surveillance system capable of running reliably outside the hot, dry climate of states along the U.S. border with Mexico. That program consists of two limited trials, one in Vermont and one in Montana. The pilots were pursued by the agency's innovation team, which explores new technologies for guarding U.S. borders and will "determine the efficacy and applicability of the technology to northern border challenges," according to CBP. While the northern U.S. border sees far less activity outside of designated border crossing sites, it does span some terrain even more remote and challenging than the arid stretches that line the southwest states. The U.S.-Mexico border makes headlines for its divisive role in American immigration policy, but the line dividing the U.S. and Canada is actually five times as long. Anduril may also be shopping its technology to the other side of the border. In May, Luckey represented Anduril at a Toronto event advertised as part of an official trade delegation to Canada. When asked if Anduril's business in Canada was purely aspirational or actually in the works, the company declined to comment. Anduril's border work was previously limited to a CBP pilot near San Diego and some unofficial testing at a private ranch outside of El Paso. The San Diego program began with only four towers in the agency's San Diego Sector and over time expanded over time to 14. Now, with the pilot program successfully ended, those 14 towers remain operational. The company has also turned its unofficial deployment in Texas into a formal relationship. The agency recently bought 18 additional Anduril-made towers and plans to deploy them later this year. That installation is not part of a pilot program. "Like any company, CBP's future relationship with Anduril will be subject to fair and open competition, the company's ability to deliver relevant technology, available funding, and a variety of other factors," CBP told The Daily Beast.Beyond its border-watching sentry towers, Anduril also makes its own heli-drone, a sort of miniaturized helicopter that can stay airborne for long periods. Those drones, known as Lattice Ghosts, are capable of stealth flight and flying in formation over large swaths of land or sea for anything from "anti-cartel operations to stealth observation."An Anduril sentry tower with one of the company's heli-dronesAnduril GAMER GOD GOES TO WASHINGTON Anduril is a curious company to have grown out of the West Coast tech scene—and a sign of the times. Luckey might still refuse to wear closed-toed shoes, but he's reinvented himself within Anduril's hyper-patriotic, veteran-friendly image. Luckey has smartly made efforts to surround himself with serious military types who blend in with the close-cropped national security crowd. The company has quickly built its operation out in Washington D.C., recruiting former Senate Armed Services Committee staff director Christian Brose late last year to serve as the company's head of strategy. As the Intercept previously reported, that hire helped get Anduril into the National Armaments Consortium, a nonprofit that connects defense companies with military contracts."The company's existed a year, and they already have systems that have been built and fielded right now," Brose told Defense News around the time of his hiring. "This isn't the classic play, 'Give us billions of dollars and 10 years, and we'll promise we'll build you something.' They have developed systems, and they're going out and solving problems with them."Anduril also picked up Scott Sanders, a former intelligence and special operations officer for the Marine Corps, to lead operations. By late 2018, Sanders was demoing Anduril's hardware and software surveillance system for Marines at Camp Pendleton. Less than a year later, the company sealed the deal on a $13.5 million contract with the Marine Corps to secure bases in Japan, Arizona, and Hawaii, surrounding each with a "virtual 'digital fortress.'" With two members of its founding team from Oculus and three from Palantir, tech's biggest defense success story, Anduril's early hires have been key to its quick expansion. One of those was Trae Stephens, a former Palantir engineer and current partner at Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, who joined Trump's transition team through Thiel.AndurilAnduril's leadership represents a blend of political leanings, even if Palmer Luckey's politics are quite a bit louder. The company's co-founder and COO Matt Grimm in particular is an active Democratic donor, with donations to Hillary Clinton, Beto O'Rourke, ActBlue, and Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign more recently. Co-founder and CEO Brian Schimpf donates to Democrats, too, including Henry Cuellar, a co-sponsor of Hurd's SMART Wall Act bill in late 2018. Christian Brose represents the traditional Republican wing within the company, having worked under the late Sen. John McCain. Given his work with Trump and Thiel, Stephens has shown a willingness to work with leaders whose politics are more closely aligned with Luckey's own. Next to Thiel, Luckey is probably Trump's most high-profile booster in the tech world, even if he was excommunicated from its mainstream. SIX DEGREES OF TRUMPLuckey has described himself as "fiscally conservative, pro-freedom, little-L libertarian, and big-R Republican." Regularly donning wigs and candy-colored anime garb, Luckey might be the only military contractor who's active on the cosplay circuit. Reportedly a longtime Trump fan, converted after reading The Art of The Deal, Luckey donated $100,000 to Trump's inaugural committee. He was spotted last month at a Trump 2020 fundraiser put on by Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle. While his political choices and some of his company may have previously placed him outside of Silicon Valley's establishment politics—the Trump administration's embrace of fringey, irreverent far-right idealogues helpfully opened some doors. In 2017, for example, Luckey discussed his border wall tech with Trump's Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in a face-to-face partially arranged by Chuck C. Johnson, a former Breitbart reporter who was permanently banned from Twitter for threatening to "take out" Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson. During Anduril's earliest days, Luckey also met with former Trump strategist and Breitbart editor Steve Bannon, another figure from the political edges who found his way to the center in 2016. Luckey, described as a "proud nationalist" by former Oculus friend John Carmack, has evoked ominous language with echoes of Trump's own on the issue of the border."If I could wave a magic wand, the United States would have perfect border security and arms wide open to everyone who believes in American values," Luckey said in a tweet. "Murderous gangs that terrorize communities across North America don't fit the bill, and I hope we can erase them from existence."Luckey added that his views are "mainstream libertarian as it gets" and that in spite of his business in border security he is "a big fan of immigration." In any online scrap over Anduril's border business, he's quick to draw a distinction between the concept of "border security" and policies around immigration that shape realities—and technologies—at the U.S. border.While his departure from Facebook also coincided with the end of the Zenimax trial, in which the Oculus founder defended himself against allegations that his virtual reality empire was built on stolen trade secrets, Luckey's tendency to live his right-leaning, irreverent politics out loud within Facebook's tepidly liberal leadership culture led to the events that made the axe come down."I contributed $10,000 to Nimble America because I thought the organization had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters," Luckey said in a Facebook post at the time, claiming that he actually planned to cast his vote for Gary Johnson. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Luckey's public support for the third-party candidate was a facet of Facebook's PR strategy foisted on him by executives at the company. TECH UNDER THE MICROSCOPEThe tide of public opinion has turned against the tech industry in recent years. After the revelations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and a concurrent wave of heightened sensitivity for privacy, the sector is no longer viewed as an optimistic hub filling the near-future with consequence-free innovation.That shift in public perception coupled with new activist energy within the tech workforce means that tech companies are facing a new level of scrutiny on their government defense deals, when previously they might have guiltlessly enjoyed federal cash infusions. Those deals have also grown out of the government's increased comfort with maturing tech companies capable of handling sensitive contracts and jumping through certification hoops. When Google came under fire and backed away from the Pentagon's controversial Project Maven contract, developing AI that can help drones autonomously home in on potential targets, Anduril stepped in. Amazon stayed the course under similar pressure, batting away internal dissent about the Pentagon's whopping $10 billion cloud computing project for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, better known as "JEDI."After Microsoft landed a $480 million Army contract for its HoloLens augmented reality goggles late last year, a cluster of Microsoft employees protested. "While the company has previously licensed tech to the U.S. military, it has never crossed the line into weapons development," they wrote. "With this contract, it does."Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defended the work in an interview with CNN. "We made a principled decision that we're not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy," Nadella said.Last month, Luckey spelled out Anduril's own uncomplicated attitude toward military work in an interview with CNBC. "What I am glad of is that Microsoft and Amazon are both willing to do this contract in the first place. There's a lot of U.S. tech companies that have been pulling out on the D.O.D," Luckey said. He went on to criticize Google for withdrawing from Pentagon's $10 billion JEDI contract over internal backlash around ethical concerns."I'm mostly just glad that Amazon and Microsoft are still in there fighting this… they are willing to work with the military," Luckey said. "I think we could use a lot more of that and I would love to see even more companies in the mix."With a president shredding his office's long-held traditions while obsessing over slowing immigration to a trickle, maybe it's no surprise that a boyish gamer demi-god in a Hawaiian shirt could reinvent himself as a serious security contractor keen to lock down borders around the world.In June, Anduril entered into a relationship with the UK Royal Navy through its NavyX tech accelerator. "The artificial intelligence and [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] systems from Anduril are game changing technologies for the Royal Marines Future Commando Force," Royal Navy Chief Technology Officer Dan Cheesman said.Recently, Luckey has hinted at the company's interest in deploying its border surveillance system to the Irish border, where Brexit has reignited historical tensions along what would become the only land border between the UK and the EU. A soldier tries the company's VR system for controlling its hardware AndurilAnduril believes that its technology is modular and versatile enough t0 be applied well beyond the military sector. While its AI-powered towers have mostly been implemented to secure borders, the company is in conversation about providing tech to other industries, like securing power grids and oil and gas facilities.What's more, the company has signaled its interest in applying its AR and VR expertise to "real-time battlefield awareness for soldiers"— a chance it might get after landing a piece of the drone-centric Project Maven contract. The company is also interested in providing tech to aid soldiers on the ground. "Imagine if the Nazis had been the first people to make practical nuclear weapons. Imagine if the Russians had been the first people to make practical nuclear weapons," Luckey told CNBC last month. If America's top scientists and technologists steered clear of that technology due to ethical concerns, Luckey argued that we'd be in "a very different world today.""It would not be the world that we're in right now—and it would be a lot worse."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.
|
| Iran seizes foreign oil tanker in Gulf smuggling fuel to some Arab states, state media reports Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:19 AM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps has seized a foreign oil tanker in the Gulf that was smuggling fuel to some Arab states, Iran's state TV reported, adding that seven sailors onboard of the tanker had been detained. "The IRGC's naval forces have seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was smuggling fuel for some Arab countries," TV quoted IRGC commander Ramezan Zirahi as saying. "It carried 700,000 litres of fuel. Seven sailors onboard of the tanker, who are from different nationalities, were detained." Last month, Iran seized a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz for alleged marine violations and allowed a second one to proceed after issuing a warning.
|
| Iran's Zarif sanctioned after declining Trump meet: officials Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:57 AM PDT  Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was hit with US sanctions after turning down an invitation to meet President Donald Trump, officials in the Islamic republic said on Sunday. The New Yorker magazine reported on Friday that Senator Rand Paul met Zarif in the US on July 15 and had Trump's blessing when he extended an invitation to the Iranian minister to go to the White House. Officials in Iran confirmed the report on Sunday, heaping scorn on the Trump administration for claiming to want dialogue with Iran while slapping sanctions on its top diplomat.
|
| UPDATE 2-UK PM Johnson ready to fast-track health funding to meet Brexit pledge Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:51 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-UK PM Johnson ready to fast-track health funding to meet Brexit pledge]( "UPDATE 2-UK PM Johnson ready to fast-track health funding to meet Brexit pledge") Prime Minister Boris Johnson will fast-track funding for Britain's public health service, announcing 1.8 billion pounds ($2.19 billion) to upgrade 20 hospitals, part of the new leader's push to meet his Brexit pledges. Johnson, a figurehead for the "Leave" campaign in the 2016 referendum, promoted the idea emblazoned on a bus that Britain could spend 350 million pounds a week on the National Health Service if it left the European Union. Britain's new prime minister is moving quickly to meet that and other Brexit pledges, a bid to restore some of the trust in politicians that has been eroded in the three years since the referendum that deeply divided the country.
|
| Report: Blast at Syrian air base kills 26 soldiers Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:40 AM PDT ![Report: Blast at Syrian air base kills 26 soldiers]( "Report: Blast at Syrian air base kills 26 soldiers") A Syrian pro-government newspaper is reporting 26 soldiers, including seven officers, have been killed in an explosion blamed on a technical error in central Syria. Al-Watan quoted a military official as describing Saturday's explosion at the Shayrat air base in the Homs province as severe. The official news agency SANA reported an explosion Saturday at the base, saying it killed an undetermined number of soldiers.
|
| Parliament can stop a no-deal Brexit in September - UK Labour's Ashworth Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:11 AM PDT ![Parliament can stop a no-deal Brexit in September - UK Labour's Ashworth]( "Parliament can stop a no-deal Brexit in September - UK Labour's Ashworth") There will be opportunities in September for lawmakers to stop Britain from leaving the European Union without a deal, the health policy chief for the main opposition Labour Party said on Sunday. Earlier, the Sunday Telegraph reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, had said lawmakers will not be able to stop a so-called no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 by bringing a vote of no confidence. "There will be opportunities for us when parliament returns in September to stop no deal," Labour's Jon Ashworth told Sky News.
|
| German far-right party ahead in east before regional votes Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:05 AM PDT ![German far-right party ahead in east before regional votes]( "German far-right party ahead in east before regional votes") The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken the lead in the east of the country ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), just a month before regional elections there, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. The AfD is favoured by 23% of voters in the former east, ahead of the CDU on 22%, the far-left Linke on 14%, the Greens on 13% and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) on 11%, according to a poll in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
|
| US still seeks allies in Gulf maritime coalition Posted: 03 Aug 2019 11:40 PM PDT  Senior U.S. leaders expressed confidence that they will be able to convince allies to help protect shipping in the Persian Gulf area against Iranian threats, but they provided no new details Sunday on which nations may be willing to participate. Speaking at a meeting between U.S. and Australian leaders, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he has already gotten a good response from allies and some announcements could be expected soon. Called "Operation Sentinel," the plan was triggered in June amid Trump administration concerns that Iran was behind a series of attacks on commercial ships in the Persian Gulf region.
|
| Could America Stop a North Korean Nuclear Weapon Headed for the Homeland? Posted: 03 Aug 2019 08:30 PM PDT  Here's what happens if the North pulls the trigger.Dozens upon dozens of missiles take flight.For years, the world had heard warnings, but most doubted the day would ever come. Most fall before allied defenses, but one missile finds its mark — it's the one that matters most. In a flash, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people perish.(This first appeared in The Daily Caller here back in late 2017.)Would North Korea fire off a nuclear weapon? No one knows for certain, but what we do know is that the above scenario is exactly what an aggressive and increasingly-powerful North Korea has been threatening for decades. While the reclusive regime may have previously lacked the necessary weaponry, the North now has the kind of capabilities to turn at least some of its threats into promises.The U.S. and its East Asian allies have strategic defense assets in position, but war is full of uncertainties. "People think missile defenses are a magic wand. They aren't," Jeffrey Lewis, a renowned arms expert, told The Daily Caller News Foundation (TheDCNF).Here's what happens if the North pulls the trigger.What Would Happen If A Launch Appeared Imminent?The U.S. and its allies in the region are by no means unprepared for a North Korean nuclear attack.The U.S. and South Korea both have preemptive strike plans for a situation in which a North Korean nuclear attack appears imminent, and while Japan is considering new options, it still relies heavily on U.S. defense.
|
| Prepare for a More Authoritarian China Posted: 03 Aug 2019 02:22 PM PDT  With the onset of China's economic reforms in the late 1970s, a widespread belief took hold in the United States and throughout the Western world that establishing robust economic relations with the "new China" would lead to gradual political liberalization. That belief persisted even after the communist government's June 1989 bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Most proponents of increased diplomatic, political, and economic engagement with Beijing (including this author) concluded that the massacre, however tragic, was merely a regrettable interruption in the long-term liberalization process. Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, memorably expressed the prevailing expectation that a more open China would become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system.Developments in recent years should create doubts about that assumption. Under President Xi Jinping, China has become noticeably more authoritarian, not less, at home. His presidency has been characterized by an insistence that all individuals in positions of responsibility devote more serious study of and adherence to Marxist-Leninist doctrine. He has conducted a systematic purge of the Party's ranks in the name of combating corruption. Although that appeared to be a reasonable justification in some cases, given the level of corruption that had developed along with China's meteoric economic growth, in other cases Xi seemingly used it as a pretext to get rid of personal and ideological rivals.
|
