Yahoo! News: World News

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• UN chief launches Syria inquiry amid protests over secrecy
• Taliban visits Moscow days after Trump says talks 'dead'
• US puts sanctions on N.Korea hacking groups behind major thefts
• Ex-PM Cameron no regrets on sparking Brexit referendum
• A new face at the reins of US diplomacy toward Latin America
• US puts sanctions on N.Korea hacking groups behind major thefts
• UPDATE 1-U.S. imposes sanctions on North Korean hacking groups blamed for global attacks
• Pakistani PM to raise Kashmir issue at UN General Assembly
• Samantha Power on Brexit: 'There's a huge amount of buyer's remorse'
• Lebanese-American to be prosecuted for working for Israel
• Johnson, Juncker to Discuss ‘Rough Shape’ of Deal: Brexit Update
• Gibraltar acted in good faith over Adrian Darya 1 tanker release
• UAE says 6 troops killed in 'collision,' without elaborating
• U.K. Police Drop Criminal Probe Into Brexit Campaign
• South African leader drops UN visit as women protest attacks
• UK PM Johnson says there is the "rough shape" of a Brexit deal to be done
• Why are you not in parliament? Heckler interrupts UK PM Johnson
• Trump's trade war with China is 'mutually assured destruction': Samantha Power
• Unable to vote, Palestinians shrug off Israel's elections
• Syrian activists: Car bomb in northern town; several wounded
• UPDATE 2-Merkel's party wants higher taxes on domestic flights, party document shows
• China Backs U.S. Farm Purchases as Trade Talks Atmosphere Warms
• Joe Biden’s Staying Power
• Turkey's ex-prime minister resigns from Erdogan's party
• Brexit frustrations make snap election a big gamble for Johnson
• While Trump Shrugs, North Korea’s Building Better Missiles
• State IG Set to Recommend Discipline for Trump’s Top Iran Hand
• UK parliament's speaker promises "creativity" to ensure PM Johnson obeys Brexit delay law
• Boris Johnson Still Has a Fighting Chance
• Bercow Warns Johnson MPs Won’t Let Him Force a No-Deal Brexit
• Fake Hitlers and a Real Art Problem for Merkel
• Brazil environment minister to meet US climate denier group before UN summit
• Good Riddance, John Bolton. We’re Going to Miss You.
• Big Reads on Economics: Negative Rates, U.S. Factories Shake
• U.S. Semiconductor Companies Urge Trump to Hurry Huawei Licenses

UN chief launches Syria inquiry amid protests over secrecy Posted: 13 Sep 2019 04:14 PM PDT Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected a Nigerian general Friday to lead a U.N. investigation into attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in Syria's last opposition stronghold in the northwest amid protests that its findings will be kept secret. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that the three-member board of inquiry to start work Sept. 30 will be led by Lt. Gen. Chikadibia Obiakor and include Janet Lim of Singapore and Maria Santos Pais of Portugal. Guterres announced plans for the board Aug. 1 following a series of attacks on hospitals, schools and other civilian facilities in Idlib and the de-confliction area in northwest Syria.

Taliban visits Moscow days after Trump says talks 'dead' Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:16 PM PDT A negotiating team from the Taliban arrived Friday in Russia, a representative told The Associated Press, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump declared dead a deal with the insurgent group in Afghanistan. Russian state news agency Tass cited the Taliban's Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying the delegation had held consultations with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin's envoy for Afghanistan. The Interfax news agency cited an unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the meeting in Russia underlined the necessity of renewing talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, and that the Taliban confirmed their readiness to continuing dialogue with Washington.

US puts sanctions on N.Korea hacking groups behind major thefts Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:00 PM PDT The US Treasury on Friday placed sanctions on three North Korea government-sponsored hacking operations which it said were behind the theft of possibly hundreds of millions of dollars and destructive cyber-attacks on infrastructure. The Treasury said the three groups -- dubbed Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel -- were behind major thefts from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as the 2018 WannaCry hack that crippled Britain's National Health Service. All three are tied to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang's main intelligence bureau, and are behind numerous malicious computer viruses as well as attempts to steal billions of dollars online to fund the North Korean government, the Treasury said.

Ex-PM Cameron no regrets on sparking Brexit referendum Posted: 13 Sep 2019 11:47 AM PDT Former British prime minister David Cameron said Friday he had no regrets about launching the Brexit referendum but accused current PM Boris Johnson of behaving "appallingly" during the pre-vote campaigning. Cameron, 52, who led the failed Remain campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union, told The Times newspaper that the tortuous Brexit negotiations were "painful to watch" -- and losing office left him "hugely depressed". Prime minister for six years, Cameron has largely kept his counsel since he left office following the 2016 Brexit referendum.

A new face at the reins of US diplomacy toward Latin America Posted: 13 Sep 2019 09:57 AM PDT The new acting head of U.S. diplomacy toward Latin America is a seasoned envoy who once floated the idea of going into Chile unilaterally to snatch a politically powerful general who was behind the murder of a leftist politician in Washington in the 1970s. The State Department announced Thursday that Michael Kozak will take over responsibility for the Western Hemisphere department a month after Kimberly Breier resigned. The appointment suggests the U.S. will continue to pursue a hard line against socialist Venezuela, even after President Donald Trump fired hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, saying there were strong disagreements over Iran, Afghanistan and a cascade of other global challenges.

US puts sanctions on N.Korea hacking groups behind major thefts Posted: 13 Sep 2019 08:47 AM PDT The US Treasury on Friday placed sanctions on three North Korea government-sponsored hacking operations which it said were behind the theft of possibly hundreds of millions of dollars and destructive cyber-attacks on infrastructure. The Treasury said the three groups -- dubbed Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel -- were behind major thefts from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as the 2018 WannaCry hack that crippled Britain's National Health Service. All three are tied to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang's main intelligence bureau, and are behind numerous malicious computer viruses as well as attempts to steal billions of dollars online to fund the North Korean government, the Treasury said.

UPDATE 1-U.S. imposes sanctions on North Korean hacking groups blamed for global attacks Posted: 13 Sep 2019 08:45 AM PDT The U.S. Treasury on Friday announced sanctions on three North Korean hacking groups it said were involved in the "WannaCry" ransomware attacks and hacking of international banks and customer accounts. It named the groups as Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff, and Andariel and said they were controlled by the RGB, North Korea's primary intelligence bureau, which is already subject to U.S. and United Nations sanctions. The Treasury statement said any foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitated significant transactions or services for them could also be subject to sanctions.

Pakistani PM to raise Kashmir issue at UN General Assembly Posted: 13 Sep 2019 07:51 AM PDT Pakistan's prime minister assured residents of disputed Kashmir on Friday that he will expose years-long Indian oppression and human rights violations in the region when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly this month. Imran Khan made the comments in his first speech to a rally in Pakistan-held Kashmir since the revocation of the special status of the disputed Himalayan region by India on Aug. 5. Khan also requested that rally-goers refrain from marching toward the heavily militarized Line of Control that separates Kashmir between Pakistani and Indian sides, saying they should wait for his call.

Samantha Power on Brexit: 'There's a huge amount of buyer's remorse' Posted: 13 Sep 2019 07:48 AM PDT While 52% of British citizens voted for Brexit in June 2016, former ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power believes some of them regret their decision.

Lebanese-American to be prosecuted for working for Israel Posted: 13 Sep 2019 07:45 AM PDT A Lebanese-American man was referred Friday to prosecutors after confessing he'd worked for Israel during its occupation of Lebanon for nearly two decades, a Lebanese security agency said. Amer Fakhoury was detained after returning to his native Lebanon from the United States earlier this month.

Johnson, Juncker to Discuss ‘Rough Shape’ of Deal: Brexit Update Posted: 13 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson will travel to Luxembourg for his first face-to-face talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Brexit on Monday. The prime minister said they will discuss, along with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, the "rough shape" of a divorce deal.Johnson still wants a general election to break the Brexit impasse in Parliament, and was in campaign mode during a speech Friday in northern England -- where his Conservative Party is hoping to win over pro-Brexit voters in the opposition Labour Party's traditional heartlands.Key Developments:Johnson to travel to Luxembourg for Brexit talks with EU's Juncker, Barnier; meeting will be a working lunch, a commission spokeswoman told reporters in BrusselsPrime minister said they'll discuss the "rough shape" of a Brexit deal, but he was heckled over his suspension of Parliament during his speech in RotherhamIrish PM Leo Varadkar said "exploratory discussions" underway with U.K. on alternatives to the backstop, but two sides still far apartOutgoing House of Commons Speaker John Bercow warned Johnson that MPs won't let him force a no-deal Brexit. An election will take place for a new Speaker on Nov. 4Pound Set for Best Week Since May as Brexit-Deal Hopes ResurfaceNorthern Irish Veto Not an Option, Coveney Says (2:50 p.m.)Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney made clear his government wouldn't allow Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly a veto, if the idea of a Northern Ireland-only backstop returned as a way of breaking the impasse."I think there is certainly a concern at an EU level that a devolved institution in Northern Ireland could have a veto over how the single market operates, or a border on the single market operates, so it's not as straightforward as some people are suggesting," Coveney told reporters in Cork.Premier Vows to Push Domestic Agenda (1:40 p.m.)Johnson said he won't let "shenanigans at Westminster" deter him from pressing on with domestic priorities as well as delivering Brexit. The premier suspended Parliament for five weeks on Monday after MPs voted through a law that forces him to delay Brexit if he can't get a deal. He accused opposition parties of not wanting an election and not wanting to deliver Brexit either."I certainly won't be deterred by anybody from our goal of coming out of the EU on Oct. 31," Johnson said. "But I also won't be deterred from getting on with out domestic agenda."He also responded to the heckler in the audience, who earlier asked the prime minister why he wasn't back in London dealing with Brexit. Johnson said there would be "ample time for Parliament to consider the deal" that he hopes to strike with the EU at Oct. 17-18 EU Council Summit.Johnson in Campaign Mode With Transport Pledges (1:27 p.m.)Johnson was in electioneering mode as he made his speech to the Convention of the North conference in Rotherham. He focused on the needs to improve transport infrastructure in the local area, including announcing a plan to give greater control of trains to local authorities in the north of England. He said they'd have more control over their budgets but also more responsibility for problems.Johnson Heckled Over Parliament Suspension (1.15 p.m.)Johnson's speech to the Convention of the North, on the subject of how the government can help parts of the country that aren't close to London, was interrupted by a heckler, who was angry at the suspension of Parliament. "Maybe get back to Parliament!" the man shouted, urging the prime minister to join MPs "in Parliament sorting out the mess that you created.""I'm very happy to get back to Parliament very soon," Johnson replied, before plowing on.Javid: Time to Get a Brexit Deal (11:40 a.m.)Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid said it was time to "knuckle down" and get a deal with the EU, while ruling out any kind of election pact with Nigel Farage's Brexit Party.Speaking to Bloomberg TV in Helsinki, where he is attending an informal meeting of EU finance ministers, Javid said the U.K. would eventually need a deal with the EU even if it leaves without one on 31 Oct."It's also understood that whether it's a deal now, eventually we'll need some kind of deal, so I think it's in everyone's interest that we knuckle down, get on with it and strike a deal as soon as we can," he said.While Johnson's administration still plans to leave the EU on Oct 31, Javid insisted the government would abide by "the rule of law". Ministers are looking at ways to get around a law passed last week by members of Parliament that requires Johnson to ask for an extension if he doesn't get a divorce deal by Oct. 19.Javid also ruled out any kind of arrangement or pact with the Brexit Party at the next election. Farage has offered a non-aggression pact in return for Johnson backing a no deal Brexit.Commons to Elect New Speaker on Nov. 4 (11:35 a.m.)The House of Commons has announced that the election for a new speaker will take place on Monday Nov. 4, shortly after the incumbent, John Bercow steps down.The process for choosing the speaker is steeped in tradition. Once Bercow stands aside, the famous Speaker's Chair inside the Commons chamber will be occupied by the longest serving member of Parliament, 79 year-old former Chancellor Ken Clarke. He will preside over the election as the rival candidates make their pitches to the House.Successive secret ballots will follow, until one candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, or a single contender remains. By tradition, the winner is dragged from his seat in the Commons and marched across the chamber to take up his new position in the Speaker's Chair.Bercow earlier in the week said that he'll step down On Oct. 31. His deputy, Labour's Lindsay Hoyle, is the favorite to succeed him.Johnson to Meet with Juncker on Monday (11:10 a.m.)Boris Johnson will travel to Luxembourg at "lunchtime" on Monday for Brexit talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, his office said on Friday. It will be the first meeting between Johnson and Juncker since the British premier took office in July.Later in the day, Johnson will meet with his counterpart in Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel.The meetings are a sign Johnson is ramping up engagement with the EU to try to resolve the impasse over Brexit. He has pledged to take the U.K. out of the bloc "do or die" on Oct. 31 without a deal if necessary, but that his preference is for a divorce agreement. One U.K. official played down the chances of a breakthrough on Monday.U.K. Sees Progress in Rolling Over Trade Deals (11 a.m.)As part of preparations for leaving the European Union, the U.K. has been trying to roll over trade deals with third countries that it currently benefits from through its EU membership, so that they also apply after Brexit. Those deals account for 139 billion pounds ($173 billion) or 10.7% of total trade.On Friday, the country said it's now rolled over 64.2% of that trade, and that once an agreement in principle reached Sept. 10 with a group of African nations including South Africa is ratified, the proportion will be 71.2%. That protects 99 billion pounds of commerce; an increase of 38.5 billion pounds since March, according to the government analysis.Canada remains the biggest holdout against a rollover, with trade worth more than 18 billion pounds currently governed by the EU's deal with the North American nation. And business groups have said that even some of the rolled over deals don't protect all trade governed by the existing EU deals, because they have been weakened.Farage Shows Johnson the Way in Pro-Brexit North (10 a.m.)Voters in Hartlepool demonstrated why Boris Johnson is traveling north to deliver his election pitch on Friday. They handed control of the northeast town's council to Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, the BBC reported, delivering a significant blow to the Labour Party in an area it traditionally dominates.Johnson is targeting pro-Brexit voters who have become disillusioned with Labour as it shifts toward backing a second referendum on leaving the European Union. His Conservative Party hopes it can take seats in Leave areas to offset any it might lose to Labour or the pro-EU Liberal Democrats in Remain-leaning districts.But the Hartlepool result is further evidence he's unlikely to get the Brexit vote to himself. Johnson's officials ruled out an electoral pact with Farage this week, but the question won't go away if the Tories see the pro-Brexit vote still split heading into a national poll.Brexit Gap 'Very Big,' Irish PM Says (Earlier)Ideas floated so far to replace the backstop -- the fallback measure in the Brexit withdrawal agreement designed to keep the Irish border free of checks -- fall "very short" of what's needed, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.In interviews with Irish radio stations RTE and Newstalk, he said that while the two sides are talking and he'll fight for an agreement to the last day, a no-deal Brexit remains a "real risk." Some "exploratory discussions" are underway with the British government as Johnson seeks "alternate arrangements" to the backstop, he said."We've always accepted that alternative arrangements could supersede the backstop," Varadkar said. "But I think the gap is very big at the moment."Wilson: 'Nonsense' to Say DUP Softening on Backstop (Earlier)Sammy Wilson, Brexit spokesman for the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, denied the party was prepared to shift its red lines to help unlock a divorce deal between the U.K. and the European Union. Wilson was commenting after the Times newspaper reported the DUP would drop its objection to regulatory checks in the Irish Sea -- an idea they have always said amounted to barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.The Times article is "totally untrue," Wilson told BBC Radio. A concession on those lines "is contrary to the position we have adopted throughout the debate," he said, adding that Boris Johnson's government has "has made it quite clear that it will not accept an arrangement which has a backstop, which separates Northern Ireland out from the rest of the United Kingdom."Earlier:Bercow Warns Johnson MPs Won't Let Him Force a No-Deal BrexitBoris Johnson Still Has a Fighting Chance: Therese RaphaelBoris Johnson May Get Brexit Help from Hungary: Brexit Bulletin\--With assistance from Jonathan Stearns, Dara Doyle and Peter Flanagan.To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net;Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Alex MoralesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Gibraltar acted in good faith over Adrian Darya 1 tanker release Posted: 13 Sep 2019 06:46 AM PDT Gibraltar acted in good faith when it released the Adrian Darya 1 tanker and Iran broke assurances it had given not to sell the crude oil to Syria, the British territory's maritime minister said on Friday. British commandos on July 4 seized the supertanker, formerly named the Grace 1, on suspicion that it was en route to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions. Gibraltar released it on Aug. 15 after getting written Iranian assurances that it would not discharge its cargo of around 2 million barrels of oil in Syria.

UAE says 6 troops killed in 'collision,' without elaborating Posted: 13 Sep 2019 06:24 AM PDT Six Emirati troops have been killed in a "collision," the United Arab Emirates said Friday, without elaborating or offering a location or time for the incident that comes after the federation of sheikhdoms began pulling out of a Saudi-led war in Yemen. Details about what happened remained vague, with the state-run WAM news agency citing the General Command of the UAE Armed Forces for the information. Among the six troops killed was a captain, the WAM report said, identifying those killed by name.

U.K. Police Drop Criminal Probe Into Brexit Campaign Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:48 AM PDT (Bloomberg) -- U.K. police dropped an investigation into whether Brexit supporting campaign Leave.EU breached electoral law, saying there was insufficient evidence to justify any further criminal probe.While Leave.EU made some "technical breaches" of the law when it comes to the spending reports it submitted for its campaign, there wasn't enough evidence to continue the investigation, the Metropolitan police said Friday in a statement. On Aug. 5, a group of lawmakers had requested advice on a potential prosecution."It was right to investigate the allegation," Alex Murray, the commander of the Metropolitan police's Central Specialist Crime department, said in the statement. "However, following detailed inquiries, it became apparent that the nature of potential breaches of the regulations, the criminal standard of proof required in court and the actions taken by Leave.EU to adhere to the regulations, mean that it is now appropriate to take no further action."An investigation into Vote Leave and BeLeave's spending is continuing, the police said.In February, the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office fined Leave.EU and a linked insurance company 120,000 pounds ($149,000) for serious breaches of electronic marketing laws, connected to how it used data analytics for political purposes.To contact the reporter on this story: Franz Wild in London at fwild@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher ElserFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

South African leader drops UN visit as women protest attacks Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:40 AM PDT South Africa's president on Friday canceled a visit to the United Nations' annual gathering of world leaders this month to focus on unrest over gender-based violence and xenophobic attacks, while women held another protest to express their fears. Hundreds gathered outside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to demand stronger government and business-sector action against rising levels of rapes and other sexual offenses. Some members of the ruling African National Congress party called on the government to declare a state of emergency.

UK PM Johnson says there is the "rough shape" of a Brexit deal to be done Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:37 AM PDT British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday there was the "rough shape" of a Brexit deal to be done and he was cautiously optimistic an agreement could be reached to smooth Britain's exit from the European Union. There is the rough shape of a deal to be done," he told an event in northern England. Johnson is due to hold talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the bloc's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday.

Why are you not in parliament? Heckler interrupts UK PM Johnson Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:36 AM PDT Boris Johnson was heckled by a protester as he made a speech in northern England on Friday, with a man demanding to know why the British prime minister wasn't in parliament fixing the mess he had created. Johnson, a former London mayor who helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, has angered his critics by suspending parliament for five weeks before Brexit. The government has said it is a normal part of the process of launching a new legislative programme, but Johnson's opponents have accused the prime minister of trying to prevent them scrutinising his Brexit plans.

Trump's trade war with China is 'mutually assured destruction': Samantha Power Posted: 13 Sep 2019 05:33 AM PDT In a new interview, former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power recently argued that the dispute is hurting both China's economy and everyday working Americans.

Unable to vote, Palestinians shrug off Israel's elections Posted: 13 Sep 2019 04:20 AM PDT MAS'HA, West Bank (AP) — Barhoum Saleh's town is surrounded by Jewish settlements, the sign above his roadside mechanic shop is in Hebrew, most of his customers are Israeli and he needs an Israeli permit to visit the beach a half hour's drive away. Saleh is among the 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank who have no voice in choosing Israel's next government and no control over whether it decides to annex part or all of the occupied territory, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to do . With the peace process having sputtered to a halt a decade ago, they also have little hope of getting a state of their own anytime soon.

Syrian activists: Car bomb in northern town; several wounded Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:56 AM PDT Syrian opposition activists say a car bombing in a town in northern Syria controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters has wounded several people. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said Friday's blast in the town of Afrin occurred near the offices of a Turkey-backed rebel faction. Afrin Now, an activist collective, quoted the Civil Defense in the town as saying as many as 25 people were wounded.

UPDATE 2-Merkel's party wants higher taxes on domestic flights, party document shows Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:53 AM PDT Seeking to tackle climate change, Germany's conservatives want to increase taxes on domestic flights and reduce the cost of long-distance train tickets, a party document seen by Reuters on Friday showed. The German government - made up of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, their Bavarian sister party CSU and the Social Democrats (SPD) - is expected to present a far-reaching package of climate protection measures on Sept. 20. The tax for domestic flights is now 7.40 euros ($8.21).

China Backs U.S. Farm Purchases as Trade Talks Atmosphere Warms Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:41 AM PDT (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. China said it is encouraging companies to buy U.S. farm products including soybeans and pork, and will exclude those commodities from additional tariffs, in the latest move to ease tensions before the two sides resume trade talks.The Commerce Ministry's announcement on Friday follows a move earlier this week to exempt a range of American goods from 25% extra tariffs put in place last year, as the government seeks to lessen the impact from the trade war. China didn't specify the amount of purchases of pork and soybeans, which are key exports from agricultural states important for President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection bid.Equity markets have rebounded in recent days as both Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sought to lower tensions that are clouding the outlook for the world's biggest economies. Adding to the pressure on Beijing, China is facing pork shortages that are pushing up prices during a holiday period, prompting officials to ration sales in some areas. Still, major differences on the substantive issues that sparked the trade war remain."It is hoped the U.S. side can keep goodwill reciprocity with China through practical actions," Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin said in a tweet shortly before the move was announced.Trump administration officials have discussed offering a limited trade agreement to China that would delay and even roll back some U.S. tariffs for the first time in exchange for Chinese commitments on intellectual property and agricultural purchases. Working-level teams from both countries are set to meet next week."The ice is thawing," said Chua Hak Bin, an economist at Maybank Kim Eng Research Pte. in Singapore. "China's reciprocity to Trump's goodwill gesture will set the stage for more cooperative trade talks."Soybean futures were little changed in Chicago after the Xinhua announcement. Prices had jumped 3.3% on Thursday and hog futures rose the most allowed by the exchange amid optimism that China will boost imports of American farm products. The U.S. government also cut its outlook for soybean stockpiles more than expected in a monthly crop report.The Shanghai Composite Index increased for a second consecutive week, and the S&P 500 Index was on course for its third straight week of advances.The Chinese government is growing increasingly concerned about soaring prices and its potentially to mar celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China's founding on Oct. 1. China is hoping to import 2 million tons for the year, some of which would be added to state reserves, according to people with knowledge of the plans.China bought about a million tons of pork so far this year, of which about 87,771 tons were from the U.S., according to Chinese customs data. Even if purchases tripled, imports would only make up about 6.6% of domestic supply, Citigroup Inc. said in a report on Sept. 12. The world's biggest consumer of pork accounted for about half of global demand last year, while it produced about 54 million tons, Citigroup said.More imports are only going to go part of the way to addressing shortages. The country is likely to see a 10 million ton pork deficit this year, more than the roughly 8 million tons in annual global trade, according to Vice Premier Hu Chunhua. That means the country will need to fill the gap by itself, he said.China's Fight Against Pork Prices Could Include U.S. Imports China had halted U.S. farm-product imports in August after trade-deal negotiations deteriorated. Before that, Beijing had given the go-ahead for five companies to buy up to 3 million tons of U.S. soybeans free of retaliatory import tariffs, people familiar with the situation had said.The goods exempted from additional tariffs this week by China included pharmaceuticals, lubricant oil, alfalfa, fish meal and pesticides. The exemptions are effective from Sept. 17 to Sept. 16, 2020, and will cover 16 categories of products worth about $1.65 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations based on China's 2018 trade data. Further rounds of Chinese exemptions will be announced in due course, the ministry said.Wednesday's exemptions apply to the round of tariffs Beijing imposed on U.S. goods starting last July in retaliation for higher U.S. levies. China began accepting applications for tariff exemptions in May, but it is the first time they have stated which products will be excluded. The U.S. Trade Representative's Office has announced six rounds of exclusions for the punitive tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods since December."We can all see there is a likelihood of a mini-deal given China's pork problems and to a lesser degree the 2020 election issue," said Michael Every, head of Asia financial markets research at Rabobank in Hong Kong. "Does this mean we get a 'real deal'? Let's just say that this is still highly unlikely."\--With assistance from Karen Leigh, Anna Kitanaka, Enda Curran, Kevin Hamlin, Miao Han and Megan Durisin.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Crystal Chui in Zurich at tchui4@bloomberg.net;Lucille Liu in Beijing at xliu621@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, ;Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Brendan MurrayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Joe Biden’s Staying Power Posted: 13 Sep 2019 03:33 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.Much has been made of Joe Biden's shortcomings as the candidate to lead Democrats back to the White House in 2020. But no one has been able to knock him off his front-runner perch.In fact, Biden's rivals at last night's debate in Houston went easier on the former vice president than in the last televised showdown in Detroit. The reason is tactical: Party officials have warned that criticizing Biden could turn off voters, best to keep the focus on Donald Trump.On trade, the candidates united in attacking the president's erratic approach to negotiations with China.But when it came to health care, there remains a schism that Biden would need to navigate if he becomes the nominee. The left wing — led by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — are pushing a government-run health care plan. Biden and other moderates want to build on Obamacare.The issue dominated the third debate, the first in which all 10 of the leading contenders shared the same stage.Lower-polling candidates made occasional efforts to break out without much success. By the next debate, the field will likely narrow further. Meanwhile, Biden is yet again showing he has staying power.Global HeadlinesClimate costs | With the new European Commission setting out its stall to lead the global fight against climate change, EU finance ministers are brainstorming in Helsinki on how to raise the hundreds of billions of euros they'll need to zero out emissions by 2050. In a sign of the battles ahead, Angela Merkel's party in Berlin is tussling with its coalition partner to try to shield her budget legacy from the impact of Germany's climate plan.Brexit lies | Life for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson keeps getting harder, and now he's been forced to publicly deny he lied to Queen Elizabeth II about the reason he got her to rubber-stamp the suspension of Parliament. He says it was needed to work on the domestic agenda but critics and a Scottish court ruling say he misled the country's constitutional figurehead and tarnished the crown.Peeping Bibi | Israel has probably been planting listening devices near the White House, according to a report in Poltiico. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the explosive allegation as a "blatant lie" and Trump said it was "hard to believe." But it wouldn't be the first time Israel has been caught in an espionage case in the U.S. and, if true, it could complicate one of the world's most iron-clad alliances.French pivot | Emmanuel Macron spent the first two years of his term focused on trying to revamp Europe. Now, with a new adviser at his side, the French president is shifting his foreign policy priorities to the Middle East. Helene Fouquet and Greg Viscusi unpack their efforts to bring Iran and the U.S. back to the negotiating table ahead of the United Nations General Assembly later this month.Overcoming obstacles | Tunisia is holding presidential elections on Sunday, and among 26 candidates vying for the top job is the first-ever presidential candidate for the country's leading religious party. Samer Khalil Al-Atrush looks at the challenges in a region where Islamists have been overthrown and thousands of their supporters jailed in the past decade.What to WatchJenny Leonard and Shawn Donnan report that Trump administration officials have discussed offering China a limited trade agreement that would delay or even roll back some U.S. tariffs in exchange for commitments on intellectual property and agricultural purchases. Germany is watching with alarm the growing number of migrants reaching the Greek islands from Turkey. The Trump administration has decided to advance a plan to strip California of its power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles on its own.And finally… Zimbabwe has yet another problem to add to its already-long list: a water shortage in the nation's second-biggest city of Bulawayo. Residents are already grappling with shortages of food, gasoline, electricity and even medicine. Now crumbling pipes and pumping stations — and a severe drought emptying reservoirs — has forced the local government to ration water, Brian Latham and Godfrey Marawanyika report. \--With assistance from Paul Richardson.To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Caroline AlexanderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Turkey's ex-prime minister resigns from Erdogan's party Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:55 AM PDT Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has announced his resignation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party and plans to form a new political movement. Davutoglu resigned on Friday, days after the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, began proceedings to expel him and three former legislators from the party for breach of discipline. The politician served as foreign minister between 2009 and 2014 and later as prime minister until 2016, when he was sacked by Erdogan and replaced by Binali Yildirim.

Brexit frustrations make snap election a big gamble for Johnson Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:33 AM PDT James Bowkett is a long-time Conservative Party supporter who voted in 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union. Three years later, the 58-year-old businessman is fed up waiting for Brexit to happen and is considering abandoning the Conservatives in a looming snap election.

While Trump Shrugs, North Korea’s Building Better Missiles Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:32 AM PDT Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyTOKYO–Blame it on John Bolton. That's President Donald Trump's explanation for why talks to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program haven't been going anywhere.It was indeed Bolton's idea that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un follow the model of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who gave up his nuclear program entirely  in 2003. But the great flaw in that example, as the North Koreans often note, is that NATO-backed rebels deposed and killed Gaddafi eight years later.Now Trump is saying that Bolton, by raising the Libyan example, "set us back very badly" in negotiations with North Korea. "What a disaster," Trump said Wednesday. "I don't blame Kim Jong Un for what he said after that. He wanted nothing to do with John Bolton."Why the Trump-Bolton Marriage Was Doomed From the StartNo doubt Bolton's hard-line advice on Kim was deeply offensive to the man whom Trump has come to respect, even to "love." And it would seem that in a contest between Kim and Bolton, Kim was the winner. So Bolton's advice on North Korea was one more big reason for Trump to dump him as national security adviser, especially after the North called for long awaited working level talks with the U.S. later this month—on its own terms. But it's unlikely Kim will quit taunting the United States, and even less likely that talks will persuade him to give up his nukes and his missiles, which he showed two years ago have the technical ability to hit American cities. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui had barely announced the regime's vision of U.S.-North Korean negotiations before two short-range projectiles—which Trump says he doesn't see as a problem—soared aloft. In fact they were like exclamation points emphasizing Kim's hard line. According to  Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency, Kim even gave "field guidance" to the test firing of a "super-large multiple rocket launcher."Choe's statement about the "willingness to sit with the U.S. side for comprehensive discussions" might have seemed like a breakthrough after the North's failure to return to talks, a promise made during Trump's photo op with Kim on the North-South line at Panmunjom at the end of June. But even sans Bolton, there's still a problem of personalities.Kim's not a fan of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo either. North Korea accused both Bolton and Pompeo of persuading Trump to walk out of his February summit with Kim in Hanoi. They had  advised the president the North needed to do much more than offer a vague promise to shut down its aging nuclear complex at Yongbyon while maintaining its nuclear program at other sites.For the moment, Pompeo may appear secure at State, and there's talk he might take over Bolton's dossier as well, but Pyongyang thinks Pompeo should go, too, and has said so in no uncertain terms. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has already dubbed him the "poisonous plant of American diplomacy."Vice Foreign Minister Choe's statement on new negotiations, as distributed by KCNA in English, made it clear the North, a.k.a. the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is not budging on the nuclear program that the U.S. insists it has to abandon. As long as the U.S. sticks to the same old "worn-out scenario," ran the official English version, "the DPRK-U.S. dealings may come to an end."Like a stern teacher addressing a recalcitrant student, Choe said she believed the U.S. had better come up with something more to North Korea's liking—all  geared to "the calculation method acceptable to us."In Pyongyang's view, the U.S. has to agree to a "step-by-step" approach under which North Korea refrains from testing its nukes and long-range intercontinental missiles while the U.S. removes sanctions.There is no hint that other "calculations," including on-site inspections, would be negotiable.  "North Korea is not taking positive steps and not making positive noises," says Leif-Eric Easley, international studies professor at Seoul's Ewha University.The biggest problem with the step-by-step approach is that North Korea has been building ever more nuclear warheads since its last, and biggest, nuclear test two years ago this month. The North conducted its last long-range missile test two months later but is known to be working on missiles with which to fire warheads at distant targets, including the U.S.A United Nations panel, in a report for the U.N. Security Council on Aug. 30, warned of the North's success developing short-range ballistic missiles powered by solid fuel that could be fired with virtually no warning. The report, citing "clear progression" to "solid propellant," said the North's goal is to power intercontinental ballistic missiles with solid rather than liquid fuel, which takes hours to pump into the ICBMs and makes them vulnerable to discovery in time for countermeasures.Importantly, while President Trump insists the short-range launches do not breach his understanding with Kim, the U.N. panel of experts concludes that they are a "new class of short-range ballistic missile" which "increase the effectiveness of the entire ballistic missile program" including, in addition to the solid fuel development, "mobility through the use of different types of transporter erector launcher and the capacity to penetrate ballistic missile defence systems."Yet for all this, Trump continues to appear unperturbed by what's happening on the Korean Peninsula, and he gave a rather measured welcome to the prospect of working-level U.S.-North Korean talks, saying simply "having meetings is a good thing, not a bad thing."East Asia Is on the Razor's Edge After North Korea Missile LaunchesAs for Poisonous Plant Pompeo, he said Sunday on ABC that Trump would be "very disappointed if Chairman Kim doesn't return to the negotiating table or conducts missile tests that are inconsistent with the agreements that they made when the two of them were together these three times."All of which leads Leif-Eric Easley to see one of two scenarios:The first is the U.S. and North Korea "make an interim deal so North Korea can get economic benefits and Trump can claim a victory before the next election." Second, "Trump will claim progress, hoping North Korea doesn't test an ICBM or nuke before the election" while Kim waits it out, looking for a post-election deal regardless of who wins. Either way, one reality remains. North Korea is a nuclear weapons nation, like it or not, and intends to remain so regardless of either the pressure of sanctions or the bait of economic blessings as promised by Trump.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.

State IG Set to Recommend Discipline for Trump’s Top Iran Hand Posted: 13 Sep 2019 02:29 AM PDT Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/GettyThe State Department is preparing to recommend that the Trump administration's top representative for Iran policy receive disciplinary action for his role in politically motivated firings of employees at the department, according to two government sources involved in carrying out the investigation. The department's inspector general has been investigating Brian Hook and other State Department officials for their involvement in layoffs and other personnel decisions that impacted individuals who were thought to have perceived loyalty to the Obama administration. Several whistleblowers raised allegations against Hook and others, prompting the inspector general to analyze emails and other documents as part of the probe. The recommendation for Hook is set to be outlined in a new report by the inspector general. It is due out within the next several weeks.Hook is one of the main Trump officials helping craft and promote the administration's Iran policy. He liaises with the Treasury Department and the White House on Iran sanctions and Jared Kushner's proposed Middle East peace plan. Hook worked with former National Security Adviser John Bolton during his time as the United Nations ambassador, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson brought him in to work on Middle East policy. Hook has traveled overseas to places like Israel and Saudi Arabia to work on gaining the confidence of allies on the U.S.' so-called strategy of "maximum pressure" on Tehran.The Daily Beast reported in March that Hook was among at least eight administration officials the inspector general was examining over reprisals against career department personnel for their perceived disloyalty to the president. At that time the investigation was in its final stages. The State Department at the time told reporters that "the personnel accusation" was "without merit and has no evidentiary, procedural, or legal basis."He's Trump's Point Man on Iran—and Under InvestigationIt's taken several months for the IG office to get to this point. This report, although not 100 percent finalized, is the second part of a larger study about the State Department. The first section found that State Department officials harassed, mistreated, and retaliated against employees deemed disloyal to President Trump. It did not mention Hook.Hook is reportedly in the running for national security adviser following Bolton's departure earlier this week. Any findings of fault or recommendations for discipline would likely hurt his chances at moving up in the national security ranks. Both officials who spoke to The Daily Beast agreed to be interviewed on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the State Department investigation.The State Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The public first learned about the State Department's investigation when in early 2017 Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a career official and Iran expert, had her assignment to Hook's policy-planning directorate cut short. The Conservative Review soon after wrote that Nowrouzzadeh, an "Iran deal architect," had "burrowed into the government under President Trump." Outside parties, including Newt Gingrich, sent that article around to State Department officials. Hook received the article and sent it to a career staffer in the policy planning office, Edward Lacey. Lacey, in an email first reported by Politico, called Nowrouzzadeh and other colleagues "Obama/Clinton loyalists."Lacey told Hook, "I succeeded in ousting five whose details expired before your arrival."Hook replied, "Ed– This is helpful. Let's discuss on Monday."It's that email and several others that have come under scrutiny by the State IG's office, sources say. When Nowrouzzadeh was reassigned, Politico reported on it. State officials attempted to craft a response for the piece. "[H]ow about saying something like: 'It is regular practice for detailees to return to their parent office at the completion of their detail assignments,'" Lacey emailed colleagues on April 17, 2017,  according to emails obtained by The Daily Beast.Nowrouzzadeh replied: "Ed—My assignment was not 'completed.'"Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in August 2018 expressed alarm about Hook's appointment as the special representative for Iran. "Internal documents... show [Hook] engaging in significant acts of political retaliation against career State Department employees," they wrote to Pompeo.Since that time, the State Department has handed over investigative documents and emails to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Both are conducting an internal investigation into political retaliation at the State Department. The IG report has not yet reached Capitol Hill.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

UK parliament's speaker promises "creativity" to ensure PM Johnson obeys Brexit delay law Posted: 13 Sep 2019 01:18 AM PDT House of Commons speaker John Bercow, has promised to use "creativity" to ensure Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not ignore a law which would prevent him taking Britain out of the European Union without a deal at the end of October. Johnson has vowed to deliver Brexit on Oct. 31, with or without a deal, and has said he will not request a delay to that deadline, despite the legal requirement to do so if he has not secured parliament's approval for an exit agreement. Bercow, who has been accused by the government of breaking parliamentary rules to help lawmakers try to force a delay to Britain's exit from the EU, said it was "astonishing" that anyone was entertaining the idea of not obeying the law.

Boris Johnson Still Has a Fighting Chance Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:45 AM PDT (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Is Boris Johnson about to be thrown into a Brexit briar patch — and is that just where he wants to be?The story of Brer Rabbit is a well-known trickster tale in American folklore. In one episode, Brer Fox has finally got Brer Rabbit trapped and is deciding how to finish him off; he wants the worst possible fate for a foe who has constantly outwitted him.Brer Rabbit begs for mercy. "Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Only please don't throw me into the briar patch," he pleads. And that's exactly what the fox does, to Brer Rabbit's delight. You see, says a smug rabbit as he combs his fur later, "I was bred and born in the briar patch, Brer Fox."It's far easier to picture the amply built, politically agile Boris Johnson as a bear, or even a fox, than a scrawny rabbit. But there's no question that the British prime minister's opponents appear to have him cornered. He seems to have miscalculated repeatedly as he tries to deliver Brexit by Halloween. He's being forced to request a Brexit extension, is unable to call an election, is stuck without a majority and his party is in open warfare.That's not even all. Scotland's high court declared his suspension of Parliament illegal, leaving the U.K. Supreme Court to decide the matter next week. Thanks to another constitutional sleight of hand, Johnson was also forced to release sensitive government information about the possible impact of a no-deal Brexit, including shortages of food, fuel and water, and public disorder.This looks bad, politically fatal even. Johnson's many opponents in Parliament have scored victory after victory. But assuming they've struck a killing blow is dangerous. While Johnson's opponents are celebrating his difficulties, they may be sending him straight to where he's most comfortable: his own version of the briar patch.The conventional wisdom is that if Johnson is forced to ask for, and accept, an extension to the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, it would be a devastating climbdown after he said he'd rather be "dead in a ditch" than do so. But would British leave voters really blame Johnson? It's not certain they would. Polls show a more polarized public, with Brexiters increasingly inclined to excuse almost any behavior to get the U.K.'s European Union departure over the line.Johnson will look to weaponize any extension, claiming it is a remainer trick to stop the "will of the people." The EU might even struggle to approve a delay if Johnson promises to be difficult, or risk looking as if it has taken sides in Britain's domestic political wars. Any of that would help Johnson's campaign of blame.He has other options, too. He might refuse to comply with Parliament's order to delay Brexit, or resign, leaving Labour's hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn to try to stitch together a government to request an extension. And, as Bloomberg reported Thursday, there's always the prospect that an EU outlier such as Hungary might block another Brexit delay, which requires unanimous approval.The Labour Party took the decision (against Corbyn's instincts) to deny Johnson an October election because it didn't want to give him what he wanted: a national vote that could have galvanized Britain's Brexiters to return Johnson's Conservatives with a mandate to crash out of the EU if necessary. But an October election would have been awkward for the prime minister. He would have had to choose between a pact with Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, which wants a no-deal departure, and retaining more moderate Tory voters.The more time that passes, the more Parliament looks unable to decide what it wants — and the more Labour's own Brexit divisions are exposed — then the more Johnson's appeal to get Brexit done may resonate with weary British voters. Certainly Parliament's suspension (or prorogation) has put Johnson back where he's happiest, out of the House of Commons and in sole charge of the prime ministerial bullhorn. He can't legislate, but he can make announcements, and they'll be reported by the media while MPs have lost their forum. He can engage in a flurry of diplomacy and make lavish spending promises.A decision against his prorogation by the Supreme Court would be embarrassing, of course. It would make it harder to avoid the legislation demanding that he pursue a Brexit extension. But legal setbacks and moral outrage don't necessarily translate into voter rejection. Indeed, a loss would let him portray the Scottish (and possibly English) judges as part of an anti-Brexit establishment; while a reconvened Parliament would bombard him with uncomfortable questions and committee hearings, it would help his electoral platform ("the people versus Parliament") to show lawmakers standing in the way of Brexit.None of this suggests that Johnson, or his adviser Dominic Cummings, are at all happy with this state of affairs. They clearly blundered. Nor is this a healthy place for Britain's economy or its polity.Johnson's team is betting that voters will reward him ultimately for showing leadership and doing whatever it takes to quit the EU. But that's a huge gamble and would require the Tories to compensate for what will certainly be lost seats in Scotland, London and other remain-supporting parts of the country. Prorogation has also helped unite the opposition to no deal and it's hard to rule out electoral pacts on that side.Even Brer Rabbit foolishly got himself stuck and was at the mercy of Brer Fox. Much depends then on what Johnson's opponents do next. In an interview with the Evening Standard on Thursday, the now-exiled moderate Tory lawmaker Oliver Letwin dangled a possibility. He said a cross-party alliance is prepared to withhold an election until after either a deal is agreed or a second referendum held.That's an interesting proposition. In one scenario, Johnson would have delivered Brexit and could fight an election on centrist, pro-growth turf against a socialist opposition without having to worry as much about losing support to Farage (as long as any Brexit deal was robust enough for his taste). While the alternative route of a new referendum may not be ideal, campaigning is where Johnson is happiest. The prime minister's enemies may feel they have him where they want him, but Johnson's hide is thick enough to withstand a few thorns. You can't count him out yet.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Bercow Warns Johnson MPs Won’t Let Him Force a No-Deal Brexit Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:32 AM PDT (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson's Brexit troubles deepened as the Speaker of the House of Commons warned him Parliament will "forcefully" try to stop him taking Britain out of the European Union without a deal.The premier believes the only way out of the crisis is to hold an election and he will press ahead with his campaign to win votes with a speech aimed at pro-Brexit areas in northern England on Friday. But before he gets a chance to make his case, his battle with opponents of his Brexit plan intensified.Johnson has said he'd rather die than ask the EU for a delay to Brexit. Members of Parliament passed a law last week saying he must ask for an extension if he doesn't get a divorce deal by Oct. 19.Government lawyers have been asked to find ways around the law, but John Bercow, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Commons, said Johnson would be acting like a "bank robber" if he refused to delay.He suggested the U.K. may need a U.S.-style written constitution to keep the government from trying to skirt laws passed by Parliament.Bercow has been a thorn in the side of the government by allowing Parliament time to pass laws on the future of Brexit. On Thursday, he suggested he'd continue to help MPs who want to stop a no-deal Brexit, until he leaves his post on Oct 31.Parliament Power"I would imagine that Parliament would want to cut off such a possibility and to do so forcefully," Bercow said in a lecture at the Bingham Center for the Rule of Law in London. "If that demands additional procedural creativity to come to pass, it is a racing certainty that this will happen and that neither the limitations of the existing rule book nor the ticking of the clock will stop it doing so."Bercow's intervention represents the latest in a series of blows to Johnson's strategy. Earlier this week, a Scottish court ruled that the premier acted unlawfully when he advised the Queen to suspend Parliament. On Thursday, Johnson was then asked whether he had misled the monarch about the reasons for suspending Parliament, replying he "absolutely" didn't.Johnson insisted that the five-week suspension was needed to work on the government's domestic agenda, though the court ruled that his purpose was to "stymie" politicians opposed to his Brexit plan.Legal challenges are piling up as Johnson seeks to pry Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 "come what may."While he won a Belfast court case related to the Irish border on Thursday, his opponents mounted another. Labour Party donor Dale Vince is filing papers seeking an immediate order that Johnson comply with the new law requiring the prime minister to seek a delay rather than allow a no-deal split.Johnson said he's hopeful of striking a deal with fellow leaders at an EU summit on Oct. 17-18. "We can see the rough area of landing space of how you could do it," he said in a television interview. "It will be tough, it will be hard, but I think we can get there."To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Fake Hitlers and a Real Art Problem for Merkel Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Adolf Hitler, the failed artist, appears to be taking his revenge on Emil Nolde, the successful artist he envied and hated. Just as Hitler watercolors, even those demonstrated to be fake, fetch high prices at auctions, there's a political backlash in Germany against Nolde. Chancellor Angela Merkel even took his works off her office walls this year.The contrasting and intertwined stories of Hitler and Nolde — the latter as ardent a Nazi as the former — are among the best illustrations of the complicated relationship between art and evil that permeates the last century of German history. Both men's artistic careers started with a rejection by a major art academy (Hitler in Vienna, Nolde in Munich), but that led them in startlingly different directions — and to an eventual clash.Two ArtistsHitler the artist is still something of a mystery, though biographers have thoroughly documented the Nazi dictator's life. It's known that he came to Vienna in the fall of 1907, at age 18, to take an entrance exam at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, that the rejection devastated him and that, after his money ran out in 1909, he started eking out a living as a painter in Vienna and then Munich, until going off to fight in World War I. That leaves many questions open. How many works did Hitler actually produce? What kind were they? Where did they end up? In a 1997 article, the German art historian Otto Karl Werckmeister wrote of "between two and three thousand drawings, sketches, watercolors and oil paintings extant from the years before the war." But his source is a self-published book by Billy F. Price, a Texas collector of all things Hitler, that purports to be a catalog of all his known paintings. Price, in turn, was relying on the consultations of August Priesack, who worked on finding and buying up the Fuhrer's artwork as an employee of the Nazi Party's main archive in the 1930s — and again for private collectors after World War II. Priesack was an interested party, since he helped Price build his collection, and in any case, his reputation was shredded when he authenticated the "Hitler's Diaries," a notorious fake created by the arch-forger Konrad Kujau. What we do know is that a petty criminal and self-taught draftsman, Reinhold Hanisch, put up a then-homeless Hitler to producing art for sale in 1909. Hanisch sold Hitler's works to random people in beer halls and to frame-shop owners. The partners eventually had a falling-out after Hitler accused Hanisch of pocketing his share of the proceeds. Later, when Hitler was German chancellor, Hanisch started faking Hitler watercolors and selling them to the Fuhrer's many fans in Vienna; in 1937, he was imprisoned for it and soon died in his cell.According to British historian Ian Kershaw's two-volume biography of Hitler, the future dictator was a lazy drifter who would work only when he needed cash; a watercolor every two or three days was his normal production rate. That would imply that no more than 800 small paintings could have been produced in the short time Hitler worked as an artist — and many buyers probably wouldn't attach much value to art they bought for the price of a couple of meals, so the works were unlikely to be treasured and preserved.Bart F.M. Droog, a Dutch investigative journalist who, along with his colleague Jaap van den Born, has been studying the market for Hitler art and objects, estimates the number of extant Hitler paintings at between 75 and 125. Droog told me that the Nazi archive where Priesack worked (known as the NSDAP) managed to locate only about 50 in the 1930s — despite a willingness to buy them for about the equivalent of the average German annual income — and not even all of those had been genuine. According to Droog, Hitler produced drawings and watercolors, never any oil paintings. They were all cityscapes, mostly copies of postcards of Vienna and Munich landmarks, enlarged with the help of a grid. Even Hitler himself probably couldn't have told a forgery from the real thing.Droog, admittedly, is not a proper art historian. But the problem with Hitler's art is that it's so mundane there's not much for an art expert to go on when identifying his hand. I asked the distinguished British historian Sir Robert Evans, who wrote a three-volume history of the Third Reich and this year published an article about Hitler's artistic output, whether he agreed with Droog's assertions about Hitler's works. "I'd go with his views," Evans wrote back. "I guess if you wanted to authenticate one you'd now go to Mr. Droog! The catalogs are all unreliable."Hitler himself knew what his paintings were worth. Kershaw cites the transcript of a 1944 conversation in which Hitler calls them "modest." In the late 1930s, the Fuhrer even banned their publication, ending his party's attempts to promote them as paragons of pure Aryan art. There's evidence that he was intensely jealous of more successful artists, in particular of Nolde — who, despite his rejection by the Munich Academy, had become a famous painter by the time Hitler came to power in Germany. "Nolde, that swine!" Hitler raged during a 1933 visit to the studio of one of his favorite architects, Paul Ludwig Troost.(1) "We have the power and the money today, but they will not get one commission from me. We will see who will hold out longer. And every one of the gallery directors will be instructed not to purchase one piece more. They will be liable to me with their personal fortunes for this, or I will have them imprisoned." In his memoir, "Inside the Third Reich," Hitler's minister of armaments, Albert Speer, recalled how he'd decorated the house of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with Nolde watercolors, and the propaganda minister was "delighted with the paintings" — until Hitler came to visit and "expressed his severe disapproval." Goebbels immediately had the paintings taken down.Oskar Kokoschka, the Austrian expressionist who did get into the Vienna Academy in 1907, blamed frustrated artistic ambition for much of what Hitler did after World War I. The British writer Elias Canetti recalled a conversation with Kokoschka in which the painter blamed himself for World War II: Had the academy accepted Hitler in his place, he said, Hitler never would have ended up in politics. It may sound like an exaggeration, but the Fuhrer's virulent jealously of the obviously more talented Nolde makes me think Kokoschka was probably onto something. The works of Nolde, a bold experimenter with colors and shapes, were included in the Nazis' 1937 exhibition of "degenerate art," and more than 1,000 of them, more than any other artist's, were removed from museums. But he remained one of Germany's most sought-after and best-paid artists — making 80,000 reichsmarks (almost $400,000 2015 U.S. dollars) a year — until the Nazis banned him from painting in 1941. Hitler couldn't have dreamed of such an income from his art.Nothing but intense jealousy can explain Hitler's open hatred of Nolde. The painter was an avid Nazi and a rabid anti-Semite; he praised Hitler as a "brilliant man of action." The Nazis could have embraced him as a co-creator of the Aryan myth, but Hitler would have none of it.The Nazi-imposed ban on painting kept Nolde from being denounced as a Nazi after World War II; he died a venerated master in 1956. The heroic depiction of Nolde in the 1968 novel "The German Lesson" by Siegfried Lenz contributed to the widespread view of him as a victim of the Hitler regime. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a Nolde collector, chose the artist's paintings for the walls of his office in the 1970s.Hitler's RevengeMerkel took them down this year, days before a Berlin exhibition highlighted Nolde's anti-Semitism and his connection to the Nazi Party. Though Merkel's office tried to present the removal as a mere return of valuable artworks to the foundation that had loaned them — one of the paintings was to go to the revealing exhibition — German media immediately caught on to Merkel's more likely motives for not wanting her Noldes back. After the Berlin exhibition, any public figure displaying Nolde's art on office walls would face tough questions. There would be no point in arguing that Nolde could make a storm look real with a dozen brushstrokes and that his sunflowers were arguably more luminous than van Gogh's. A Nazi is a Nazi.It's hard to say whether Nolde's views in the 1930s and 1940s, now at the forefront of any and all discussion of his work, have affected the market value of his oeuvre. But the prices his watercolors have commanded at auctions are similar to those fetched by paintings signed with Hitler's name. Indeed, Hitler art can be more expensive; in 2014, the Weidler auction house sold a cityscape bearing the dictator's signature for 130,000 euros ($143,600). Auction houses offer a broad variety of "Hitler" works — still lifes, portraits, landscapes, some of them done in oil on canvas. Droog considers most of them forgeries; they're often "authenticated" by the likes of Priesack or a U.S.-based handwriting expert named Frank Garo, who charges a small fee for his services. In 2017, van den Born himself clumsily forged a Hitler watercolor and sent a photo to Garo, who authenticated it.Many of the "Hitler" works, genuine or fake, go to China these days. "People in China and other Asian countries don't take it as personally as we do," Droog said. "For them, a Hitler painting on the wall is something like a Mao poster in the Netherlands."Those paintings and various objects that purportedly belonged to Hitler — furniture, spoons, vases — account, according to Droog, for 5% to 10% of the much bigger Nazi militaria market, which he estimates at $40 million to $50 million a year. Much of that money is paid for fakes, sometimes quite blatant ones. "There are factories in Poland, China, Pakistan that make this stuff," Droog told me. "The more swastikas there are on it, the higher the price."Some of the buyers are, of course, neo-Nazis. But as long as trade in these objects is legal (and it is, with various restrictions, in most big markets — even in Germany, Hitler's art and objects can be sold if there are no Nazi symbols on them), no one has any right to suspect them of being loyal Hitlerites. And besides, Droog and Evans both told me they believe many "Hitler" buyers — apart from some dedicated collectors — have a purely financial interest in the Fuhrer's work. "Even the fakes sell and so could be a useful investment," Evans emailed me.Truth on the WallGerman authorities are as embarrassed by the auctions as Merkel was by the Noldes on her wall. Input from Droog and van der Born comes in handy when police and prosecutors want to disrupt a sale, such as a big auction Weidler had planned for this February. Prosecutors in Nuremberg temporarily confiscated 63 works just before the sale for authentication purposes. Seven months later, the city prosecutor's office told me the investigation wasn't over, and I'm pretty sure it'll go on at a snail's pace. Nuremberg's mayor condemned the disrupted auction as being "in bad taste," and the city where the Nazis used to hold their grandiose gatherings doesn't need this kind of publicity. Nevertheless, the Weidler website contains a special page on "Watercolors signed A. Hitler"; it's protected by a password. Police interventions notwithstanding, there are still plenty of buyers for likely fake Hitler paintings at the same price as authentic Noldes. It seems they are, deep down, fine with the forgeries; they're really buying a story, a narrative of Hitler the poor, rejected young artist turned evil genius. They're essentially investing in the lie of his humanity, the lie that his watercolors are, indeed, art, no matter how "modest."Nolde's story, that of a Nazi scorned by his own people, doesn't work as well for marketing purposes. Berliners flocked to this year's exhibition to learn an inconvenient truth, but Merkel is hardly alone in not wanting that kind of truth on her wall.Something I've grown to understand in the five years I've lived in Germany, though, is that the truth doesn't tarnish what it touches, nor can lies be in any way redemptive. That's why Nolde's work shines so, and Hitler's — real or fake — is so pitiful. (1) The Hitler quote was displayed at the Nolde exhibition in Berlin in 2019, curated by Bernhard Fulda, Christian Ring and Aya Soika.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Brazil environment minister to meet US climate denier group before UN summit Posted: 13 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT * Ricardo Salles to meet Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) * Critics say Bolsonaro lacks commitment to fight climate crisisA spokesman for Brazil's environment minister, Ricardo Salles, said he could not confirm nor deny the meeting with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Photograph: Adriano Machado/ReutersBrazil's environment minister, Ricardo Salles, will meet a rightwing US advocacy group that denies climate change, just four days before the United Nations Climate Action Summit.Salles will meet representatives from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) at the headquarters of the US Environmental Protection Agency on 19 September, Brazil's Folha de S Paulo newspaper revealed.The meeting was immediately condemned by environmentalists, who said it showed that the government of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, had no commitment to fighting the climate crisis.News of the meeting emerged a day after Brazil's foreign minister questioned the scientific proof for global warming in a convoluted speech in Washington. Addressing the Heritage Foundation, Ernesto Araújo said "there is no climate catastrophe" and described efforts to fight climate change as a plot to destroy national sovereignty.Brazil is doubling down on its efforts to convince the world the Amazon is in safe hands, despite soaring deforestation and a huge spike in seasonal fires that provoked an international crisis. Bolsonaro is due to address the UN general assembly on 24 September."This is a government that makes efforts to deny the problems, not to face them," said Marcio Astrini, director of public policy at Greenpeace Brasil.A spokesman for Salles said he could not confirm nor deny the meeting and a spokeswoman for the Competitive Enterprise Institute did not respond to requests for comment.The CEI's director for energy and environment, Myron Ebell, led Donald Trump's transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency. His biography quotes Business Insider, which said: "Myron Ebell may be enemy 1 to the current climate change community.""Climate change does not endanger the survival of civilization or the habitability of the planet. So-called climate solutions are bureaucratic power grabs and corporate welfare schemes with no detectable climate-related benefits," read a June article on the CEI site.Before Salles took office in December, a São Paulo judge found he had altered plans for an environmentally protected area in order to favour businesses while state environment secretary. Salles denied the accusations and is appealing against the ruling.In July he said that Brazil was not far from "zero illegal deforestation". Satellite date from Brazil's Space Research Institute calculated a 278% increase in deforestation in July. The institute's director was fired after Bolsonaro described the data as "lies". Its data showed more than 30,000 fires in the Amazon in August, the highest since 2010.In a recent interview with the far-right Canadian YouTuber Stefan Molyneux, Salles hailed Brazil's conservation record.The minister argued that a primary cause of deforestation was the lack of proper documentation for Amazon land, despite widespread evidence that much degradation takes place in protected areas and indigenous reserves and has been partly fuelled by Bolsonaro's attacks on environment agencies and protection.

Good Riddance, John Bolton. We’re Going to Miss You. Posted: 12 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Critics of the Trump administration's Iran policy despised John Bolton. Now they're going to miss him.Ever since President Donald Trump abrogated the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the major world powers,the world has assumed that his administration has been itching for a war with the Islamic Republic. Among Iranians, many Europeans, and not a few of Trump's domestic opponents, the administration's actions invited facile comparisons to the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.Exhibit A for the case against Trump's Iran policy was his choice of Bolton as national security adviser. After all, the mustachioed neoconservative had led the chorus for the Iraq war and spent years arguing for a more aggressive posture with Iran, even advocating the bombing of the country's nuclear installations.He had called for Trump to pull the U.S. out of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. And sure enough, a little more than a month after Bolton moved into the White House, Trump did.It was easy to leap to the next conclusion: That the new adviser was going to drive his boss to war. Hadn't Bolton promised supporters of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, a virulently anti-regime group that was for years on the U.S.'s terrorism list, that they would "celebrate in Tehran" before 2019? Yes, he had.Bolton's presumed primacy in formulating Trump's Iran policy made it easy for critics to dismiss the repeated assertions by the president, in public and in private, that he did not want a war with Iran, or even to change the regime in Tehran. Surely this was dissimulation, they reasoned, a cover for Bolton's true intentions. When I suggested to some European diplomats that Trump might be using Bolton just to frighten the Iranians, like some attack dog on a leash, they dismissed this as too subtle a strategy for a bull-in-a-china-shop administration.It didn't help that Trump was never able to articulate his own attitude toward Iran, feeding the perception that Bolton was calling the shots.For the Iranians, who invariably referred to Bolton as a "warmonger" — or, sometimes, "warmonger-in-chief" — his presence in the White House was an excuse to reject as insincere all Trump's offers of negotiations. There's no question who Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister, was referring to when he warned that "elements are trying to put America into a war with Iran for their own goals."Now they don't have Bolton to kick around anymore. His inglorious exit removes the fog of warmongering from Trump's dealings with the Islamic Republic. That will make it harder for the Iranians and other critics of the president's "maximum pressure" campaign to keep brushing off offers of talks. This may explain why the regime has responded cautiously to Bolton's dismissal: the loss of a bogeyman can be disorientating.For the Europeans, likewise, the removal of the threat of war requires a recalibration. They have been too lenient on Iran's resumption of uranium enrichment, going no further than gentle finger-wagging. The announcement that Iran is now planning to deploy more advanced centrifuges and go for higher levels of enrichment should elicit the threat of European sanctions, rather than French President Emmanuel Macron's ill-conceived plan to offer the Iranians a $15 billion line of credit as an inducement to open negotiations — the diplomatic equivalent of paying off a blackmailer.It appears that Trump, too, was inclined to give the Islamic Republic a break before being talked out of it by Bolton. This suggests he doesn't recognize the opportunity before him. His campaign of sanctions is working. With the distracting mustache out of the way, he has a better chance of co-opting the Europeans, and forcing the Islamic Republic to the table.To contact the author of this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Bobby Ghosh is a columnist and member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Big Reads on Economics: Negative Rates, U.S. Factories Shake Posted: 12 Sep 2019 05:00 PM PDT (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The European Central Bank acted to reflate its economy, following the lead of the Federal Reserve and other counterparts in injecting fresh monetary stimulus.President Mario Draghi and colleagues cut interest rates and resumed bond buying as other signs emerged that global demand is being undermined by the U.S.-China trade war.To get a better sense of what's going on in the world economy, here is a collection of this week's analysis and enterprise from Bloomberg Economics:Draghi Gives Banks Pain Relief as ECB Negative Rates DeepenFed Loath to Follow ECB on Negative Rates Despite TrumpThe ECB may be positive about negative rates and President Donald Trump tweeted he agrees, but the Fed and banking industry remain doubtful. Nicholas Comfort, Yuko Takeo and Catherine Bosley report on Draghi's new measures, while Rich Miller outlines why the U.S. may not go below zero.Recession Already Grips Corners of U.S., Menacing Trump 2020 BidHow U.S. Shoppers Are Carrying Torch for EconomyOut in parts of the American heartland, the view of the trade war has shaped up much differently from Washington or New York. Swing states for the 2020 presidential race are seeing pockets of recession already -- undercutting Trump's own best case for re-election. Shawn Donnan hit the road to take a look at the economics and the politics with people such as Wisconsin factory-owner Greg Petras. On the flip-side, Vince Golle charts how U.S. consumers are propping up the economy, for now.Trump Advisers Consider Interim China Deal to Delay TariffsThere are signs the trade war may even be thawing. Shawn Donnan and Jenny Leonard delivered the scoop that Trump administration officials have discussed offering a limited trade agreement to China that would delay and even roll back some U.S. tariffs for the first time in exchange for Chinese commitments on intellectual property and agricultural purchases.India's Auto Boom Goes Bust on the Worst Sales in DecadesBMW & Co Are Losing Their Allure and Germany Is WorriedAuto manufacturers may be in the driving seat of the global slowdown. Anurag Kotoky and Anirban Nag in Delhi and Mumbai showed how automakers are slashing investment and production five years on from a credit crunch. Over in Germany, Christoph Rauwald, Carolynn Look and Elisabeth Behrmann explain how car output has slumped to its lowest level since 2010.Can't Spend, Won't Spend: Why MMT in Europe Is an Uphill FightThe Plot to Scrap Germany's Balanced Budgets Has Already BegunThe three letters that have sent shivers down the spines of debt hawks worldwide -- MMT -- are proving a tough sell in Europe. That's because the countries that want to spend more can't, and the ones that can, won't. That runs up against the strategy of Modern Monetary Theory devotees who aim to keep the budget the main tool in steering the economy. Birgit Jennen takes a look at the German official who may though be willing to ease up a little.U.K. INSIGHT: New Ways to Fight the Next RecessionThe U.K. economy might need some more creative thinking around policy tools to deal with the next downturn -- without compromising the Bank of England's independence, Jamie Rush from Bloomberg Economics writes. Potential prescriptions include a helicopter money drop, which might be both "an illusory free lunch" and "fiscal policy in disguise," Rush notes. But that's no reason to rule it out, especially as the U.K. stares down a recession that could hit as soon as next year amid a disorderly Brexit.Piketty Is Back With 1,200-Page Guide to Abolishing BillionairesThe bestselling French economist returns to bookstores in France at least, with a new tome that calls for an upending of capitalism. William Horobin had a look at "Capital and Ideology," the followup to 2013's "Capital in the 21st Century," which has sold more than 2.5 million copies in 40 languages.To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Singapore at mjamrisko@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Kennedy at skennedy4@bloomberg.net, Zoe SchneeweissFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

U.S. Semiconductor Companies Urge Trump to Hurry Huawei Licenses Posted: 12 Sep 2019 04:42 PM PDT (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. semiconductor industry urged President Donald Trump to make good on his promise to ease the ban on sales to China's Huawei Technologies Co."We encourage prompt action to issue approvals for sales that do not implicate national security concerns, particularly where there is foreign availability for competing products," the Semiconductor Industry Association said in a letter dated Sept. 11 to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, which was seen by Bloomberg News. Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. and are among members of the association.China's largest technology company has found itself at the center of a trade conflict between Beijing and Washington that's weighing on the global economy.After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late June, Trump said he would loosen restrictions on Huawei export licenses and that Beijing had agreed to buy more U.S. farming goods. But neither side has followed through on those pledges, and the U.S. has since increased tariffs on Chinese goods, sparking retaliation by China.In July, Trump met with chief executives from major technology companies including Micron Technology Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google who asked for a timely decision on the resumption of sales to Huawei.Trade BlacklistAmerican businesses require a special license to supply goods to Huawei after the U.S. added the Chinese company to a trade blacklist in May over national-security concerns.Huawei is the third-largest buyer globally of U.S. semiconductors, the association said in the letter. Sales to Huawei of "non-sensitive" products ranging from mobile phones to smart-watches "do not implicate national security concerns," the group said. The ban is making it more difficult for U.S. firms to compete against foreign rivals that don't face the same restrictions, according to the letter.Delays in awarding the special licenses could weaken the U.S. semiconductor industry because it will lead to lower profits, forcing some companies to cut research and eroding their dominance in the global market, the association said.To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net;Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Sarah McGregor, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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