| British PM Johnson warns EU he will not delay Brexit Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:53 PM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the European Union on Sunday he will not delay Brexit beyond October 31, underlining that his latest proposals are a last chance to reach a deal. Johnson told French President Emmanuel Macron in a telephone call on Sunday that "the EU should not be lured into the mistaken belief that the UK will stay in the EU after October 31st", a Downing Street spokesman quoted him as saying. The UK premier said he would not request another delay, despite British MPs passing a law last month that requires him to seek another Brexit delay if he fails to secure an agreement by the end of a make-or-break EU summit on October 17-18.
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| Britain's Johnson asks France's Macron to 'push forward' on Brexit Posted: 06 Oct 2019 02:30 PM PDT ![Britain's Johnson asks France's Macron to 'push forward' on Brexit]( "Britain's Johnson asks France's Macron to 'push forward' on Brexit") Britain's Boris Johnson urged French President Emanuel Macron on Sunday to "push forward" to secure a Brexit deal and told him the EU should not be lured into the mistaken belief that the UK would stay in the EU after Oct.31, the prime minister's office said. Johnson discussed his Brexit proposal, which has been widely rebuffed in Brussels, with Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Sunday. "The UK has made a big, important offer but it's time for the Commission to show a willingness to compromise too.
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| Brexit Deal Prospects Fade as Talks Stall, EU Signals Pessimism Posted: 06 Oct 2019 02:30 PM PDT ![Brexit Deal Prospects Fade as Talks Stall, EU Signals Pessimism]( "Brexit Deal Prospects Fade as Talks Stall, EU Signals Pessimism") (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. Prospects of a Brexit deal faded after talks between the two sides stalled and European leaders cast doubt on reaching an agreement in time for Halloween.Boris Johnson struck a defiant tone on Sunday, saying the U.K. will leave the European Union as planned on Halloween, regardless of whether the EU accepts the prime minister's latest offer. He told French President Emmanuel Macron by phone that the EU shouldn't be "lured into the mistaken belief that the U.K. still stay in the EU after Oct. 31," his office said."We will be packing our bags and walking out," Johnson wrote in the Sun on Sunday. "The only question is whether Brussels cheerily waves us off with a mutually agreeable deal, or whether we will be forced to head off on our own."But Johnson is issuing contradictory messages. The government has repeatedly said it will obey a law passed by Parliament compelling the premier to request a Brexit delay if he can't get an agreement by Oct. 19. A senior official in his office said on Sunday it would be an historic misunderstanding if EU leaders thought Johnson's domestic opponents could prevent a no-deal departure.Securing a Brexit deal is the only obvious way to obey the law and see through Brexit at the end of the month. But the indications from the EU are that proposals Johnson made last week to resolve the impasse won't cut it. As time ticks down to Brexit day, there were no negotiations over the weekend.In other developments:Macron aside, Johnson also spoke with his counterparts from Finland and Portugal over the weekend and plans to talk to more leadersJohnson's EU envoy, David Frost, will have discussions with the European Commission, while Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay is on a three-day tour of European capitalsThe government said it'll consider publishing the legal text of its latest Brexit proposal if deemed helpful to move negotiations forwardLabour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn will host other opposition party chiefs on Monday to agree on next steps to thwart a no-deal BrexitJohnson's Brexit blueprint would see Northern Ireland remain in regulatory alignment with the EU for manufactured goods, livestock and agricultural products, so long as the region's political leaders agree to the arrangement every four years. But he's had push-back from the EU, whose chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told senior diplomats on Friday that the British blueprint falls far short of his conditions for a deal.Scope For MovementBarclay suggested there's room for the U.K. to alter its position on customs checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and on how to determine consent by Northern Ireland. "Of course in the mechanism as part of the intensive negotiations, we can look at that," he told the BBC.Time is short to reach a consensus. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday it'd be "reasonable" to expect an improved U.K. offer by Friday, while Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told the BBC on Sunday that "the EU doesn't have a whole lot of wiggle room," because of the difficulty in getting 27 nations to agree.Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper that he doesn't expect any U.K. proposal to emerge that could be acceptable before the Oct. 17-18 leaders' summit in Brussels.That's left the British press speculating about whether Johnson will delay Brexit, something he's said he'd rather die in a ditch than do. The Sunday Telegraph, citing two cabinet ministers, reported that if forced to delay, Johnson plans to sabotage the EU by possibly blocking its seven-year budget, and sending a Euroskeptic commissioner to Brussels -- possibly even Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage. Suggestions like that may give EU leaders doubts about approving an extension.Early ElectionAnother theory circulating at Westminster is that the premier could ask another country to veto an extension: a notion dismissed as "tittle-tattle" by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick. "I've not heard any serious talk of that," he told Sky News on Sunday.The Labour Party's spokeswoman on legal matters, Shami Chakrabarti, told the BBC on Sunday that there's no way around the law for Johnson. "If you send the letter as you are required to under the law and then seek to undermine it by other means, you have not kept faith with the law," she said. "That would be unlawful conduct."The EU has said it won't grant an extension without a valid reason. Making the time to negotiate new proposals is likely to meet that requirement, as would allowing for Britain to hold a general election to break the Parliamentary deadlock.Labour has so far rebuffed Johnson's bid for an early general election, though the opposition party says it wants one. Chakrabarti said that once Johnson has sought to a delay Brexit, "then I think we're looking realistically at a general election certainly this side of Christmas, hopefully substantially before Christmas."\--With assistance from Ian Wishart and Nikos Chrysoloras.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iraq blames 'malicious' hands as toll from unrest tops 100 Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:40 PM PDT  Twelve anti-government demonstrators were killed Sunday in ongoing protests in the capital Baghdad, the latest fatalities in six days of clashes that have left more than 100 dead and thousands wounded. Iraq's government has scrambled to contain the popular anger that has racked Baghdad and a number of southern cities since Tuesday. In the first official statement from the government accounting for the violence, Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said Sunday that 104 people had been killed in the six days of unrest, including eight members of the security forces, and more than 6,000 wounded.
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| Turkey summons US diplomat over a Twitter 'like' Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:19 PM PDT  Turkey summoned a top American diplomat Sunday after the U.S. Embassy's official Twitter account "liked" a tweet that said the people of Turkey should prepare for a political era without the leader of Turkey's national party, who is reportedly ill. The Foreign Ministry said the U.S. charge d'affaires Jeffrey Hovenier was summoned despite an embassy statement that said its Twitter account had liked "an unrelated post in error," and apologized.
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| North Korea says talks with US are over unless Washington abandons 'hostile policy' Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:44 PM PDT  North Korea said on Sunday that it would not meet again with the United States unless it abandons its "hostile policy" against the North, as the two countries offered different takes on their weekend nuclear negotiations in Sweden. After their first talks in more than seven months in Stockholm on Saturday, the chief North Korean nuclear negotiator said the talks broke down "entirely because the US has not discarded its old stance and attitude" and came to the negotiating table with an "empty hand". But the US said the two sides had "good discussions" that it intends to build on in two weeks. On Sunday, the North's foreign ministry issued a statement accusing the US of trying to mislead public opinion and "spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides are open to meet" again. The statement said the Stockholm talks "made us think they have no political will to improve (North Korea)-US relations and may be abusing the bilateral relations for their own partisan interests" at home. It said North Korea isn't willing to hold "such sickening negotiations" as those in Stockholm until the US takes "a substantial step to make complete and irreversible withdrawal of the hostile policy toward" the North. It added that the US policy "threatens the security" of North Korea and "hampers the rights to existence and development of its people". North Korea has said it has no other option but to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls a US plot to invade the country. The North has also said rounds of US-led sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programs are stifling its economy. Early last year, North Korea entered talks with the US over the fate of its advancing nuclear arsenal in return for political and economic benefits from the US. Saturday's talks were the first between the sides since the February breakdown of the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam. The two leaders held a brief, impromptu meeting at the Korean border in late June and agreed to restart diplomacy. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the chief North Korean negotiator's comments about Saturday's talks did "not reflect the content or the spirit" of the "good discussions" that took place over 8.5 hours. She also said the US accepted an invitation from Sweden to return to Stockholm in two weeks to continue talks.
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| Trump's Parting Gift: An Iran with Nuclear Weapons? Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:17 PM PDT  A nuclear-armed Iran is going to be one of Donald Trump's going-away presents to the international community.
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| Iraq's government pledges social reforms as death toll rises to more than 100 in six days of protest Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:08 PM PDT  The Iraqi government on Sunday unveiled a series of social reforms in a bid to quell widespread unrest that has left more than 100 protesters dead in less than a week. Confronted by its biggest challenge since coming to power just under a year ago, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi's cabinet issued a decree including 17 planned reforms, such as land distributions and increased welfare stipends for families. The move followed five days of protests calling for the government to resign, which first began in Baghdad and spread to the Shia-majority south. With thousands wounded and the deaths mounting - mostly from bullet wounds - the United Nations on Saturday urged an end to the deepening violence. Sunday's decree also ordered the construction of 100,000 new housing units, following September's launch of demolitions of houses in informal settlements, which are home to three million Iraqis nationwide. In response to staggering youth unemployment, which has reached around 25 per cent according to the World Bank, the government said it would create new jobs and boost benefits for those without work. On Sunday, at least eight people were killed and 25 wounded in clashes as Iraqi forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters in the streets around Sadr City, a Shia district in the south of Baghdad. The interior ministry insisted meanwhile that government forces had not fired directly at protesters during the course of the week's unrest. In a news conference broadcast on state television before the latest deaths, Spokesman Saad Maan told a news conference broadcast on state television that 104 people including eight security personnel had been killed, while 6,107 protesters and more than 1,200 security force members had been injured. Protesters defied orders to stay off the streets, as well as the threat of tear gas and live rounds Credit: Khalid Mohammed/AP More than fifty public buildings and eight political party headquarters had been torched by demonstrators, he said. The majority of those killed were struck by bullets, according to medical sources who spoke to AFP. The authorities have accused "saboteurs" and unidentified snipers of targeting protesters. As well as live rounds, protesters have defied an internet blackout and tear gas. The government has ordered demonstrators off the streets and security forces have deployed in large numbers in central Baghdad, pushing protesters away from Tahrir Square. The square was a gathering point when the protests first erupted on Tuesday. T he protest movement has denounced corruption, unemployment and the decay of public services in a country chronically short of electricity and drinking water. The public sector remains the largest employer in Iraq, a country of 40 million people, but it has struggled to absorb new university graduates in recent years. In the southern city of Kut last month, a young Iraqi man died after he set himself alight in despair after authorities seized his mobile kiosk. Iraq is the 12th most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International. The mainly male, young crowds say they are not backed by any political or religious establishment. "We don't want parties anymore. We don't want anyone to speak in our name," one protester told AFP. Authorities have asked protesters to give them time to implement reform. "Five days of reported deaths and injuries: this must stop. I call on all parties to pause and reflect," the head of the UN mission to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, wrote on Twitter.
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| Swedish teen climate activist to visit Dakotas reservations Posted: 06 Oct 2019 11:13 AM PDT  A 16-year-old climate activist who garnered international attention when she scolded world leaders at the United Nations is visiting American Indian reservations in the Dakotas to talk about oil pipelines. Greta Thunberg is appearing at panel discussions on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota at 5 p.m. Sunday and on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on Tuesday.
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| The Latest: Officials say 7 demonstrators killed in Iraq Posted: 06 Oct 2019 11:01 AM PDT  Iraqi officials say seven anti-government demonstrators have been killed in ongoing protests in the capital Baghdad and 17 wounded. A medical official in a local hospital and a security official said the seven were killed on Sunday in Sadr City, where hundreds have gathered trying to break through a security cordon to head to the city center. Security forces had sealed off Tahrir Square and heavily deployed all the way to Sadr City, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away to keep protesters back.
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| Thousands protest Ukraine leader's peace plan Posted: 06 Oct 2019 09:30 AM PDT  About 10,000 people including Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko gathered in central Kiev on Sunday to protest a plan for broader autonomy for separatist territories ahead of a high-stakes summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The protesters, who descended on Kiev's Independence Square known locally as Maidan, chanted "No to surrender!", some holding placards critical of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky's predecessor Poroshenko, who was trounced in an April election, joined the crowd towards the end of the rally and several thousand demonstrators later marched towards the presidential administration and parliament.
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| U.S. Nuclear Talks With North Korea Break Down in Hours Posted: 06 Oct 2019 09:22 AM PDT  The first negotiations in eight months between the Trump administration and North Korea aimed at breaking the logjam over dismantling the North's nuclear program broke down only hours after they began in Stockholm on Saturday, the North Koreans said. It was the latest indication that President Donald Trump's signature diplomatic initiative has stalled. "The negotiation did not live up to our expectations and broke down," the chief North Korean negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, said, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency. Kim added that the United States had arrived "empty-handed" and had "not discarded its old stance and attitude." The State Department, in a carefully worded statement, did not say the long-awaited session failed, and warned that the "early comments" from the North "do not reflect the content or the spirit of today's 8 1/2 hour discussion." The statement continued: "The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions" with its North Korean counterparts, without specifying what they were. Eager not to be cast as the obstacle to progress, the State Department also said its delegation previewed new proposals not only on denuclearization, but on other elements of the talks, which include a commitment to finding a formal end to the Korean War. State Department officials did not say how the North Korean negotiating team reacted. Despite the rosy statement from the U.S. side, it remained clear that discussions -- which Trump had said were imminent after he briefly met Kim in the Demilitarized Zone in late June -- got nowhere. And though the U.S. negotiators said they were willing to come back in two weeks, the North Koreans made no such statement. The talks were the first detailed discussion between the two countries since Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, walked away from a summit meeting in Hanoi in February. The outcome on Saturday was hardly surprising. Despite Trump's frequent optimistic statements about his relationship with Kim and what he has termed Kim's "beautiful letters" to him, the North has accelerated its testing of missiles and added to its stockpile of nuclear fuel. One objective of the new talks, according to some administration officials, was to test new proposals that would amount to a temporary freeze of nuclear activity, so that the North's capability did not increase while the talks drag on. Trump's failure to negotiate a freeze when he first met Kim in Singapore in June 2018 -- the first meeting between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader -- is considered by many experts to be a key flaw in his negotiating approach. A Vox report suggested the U.S. negotiating team would call for a three-year suspension of United Nations sanctions on North Korean coal and textiles in return for shuttering a major nuclear site and halting some types of fuel production. It is not clear if the new talks even broached these or other proposals in any detail. The State Department's chief negotiator, Stephen Biegun, has said little about the specifics of U.S. proposals, other than making it clear they involved a more step-by-step approach to denuclearization than the all-or-nothing strategy Trump had used. In recent days, one of Trump's former national security advisers, John R. Bolton, delivered a stinging appraisal of Trump's approach without ever naming the president, who fired him a month ago. Bolton said he believed that Kim had no intention of ever giving up his weapons, a statement largely in accord with years of U.S. intelligence estimates dating to before Trump was elected. Bolton said added that there was little use in the negotiations. Bolton was excluded from the talks at the end of his time in office, apparently because Trump believed Bolton's hawkish views were more likely to lead to a conflict than to a negotiated settlement. "I don't think the North Koreans will ever voluntarily give up enough" to make the negotiations fruitful, Bolton said last Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There is no basis to trust any promise that regime makes." Trump's theory has been that the issue can be solved only by direct meetings between the leaders of the two nations, since decades of lower-level talks either broke down or resulted in agreements that fractured apart within a few years. The most notable success came from a 1994 agreement struck by the Clinton administration, more than a decade before the North tested its first nuclear device. Even that agreement fell apart soon after Bush was inaugurated, after the United States and South Korea caught the North secretly pursuing uranium enrichment, one of the two pathways to building a nuclear weapon. Every effort that followed collapsed more quickly. Kim, sensing Trump's desire for summit meetings that attract intense coverage, may be betting that Trump needs a breakthrough before next year's presidential election. As a result, he may be testing to see how little of his program he can give up in return for the Trump administration agreeing to lift the onerous sanctions that have squeezed North Korea's export revenues for the past three years. In Hanoi, Kim proposed closing down the country's main nuclear production facility at Yongbyon in return for an end to those sanctions. Trump, while tempted to accept the deal, was persuaded otherwise by Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he would be accused of leaving the North with production facilities outside of the Yongbyon plant, and with an arsenal of 30 to 60 weapons. The two leaders walked away from Hanoi, Kim's negotiators were fired, and talks were in abeyance until the new team arrived in Stockholm on Friday. It is possible they will resume soon, after this initial testing of the waters. But in an essay posted on the Foreign Affairs website, Ankit Panda and Vipin Narang, two North Korea experts, note that "Pyongyang has set a very clear deadline -- the end of this calendar year -- for getting negotiations back on track and for the United States to moderate its position." After that, they suggest, Kim could be back to intense testing, betting that Trump would not risk a conflict in the midst of a presidential campaign.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Johnson Doubles Down on Oct. 31 No-Deal Divorce: Brexit Update Posted: 06 Oct 2019 08:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit on Twitter, join our Facebook group and sign up to our Brexit Bulletin.Boris Johnson doubled down on his pledge to take Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal if necessary, two days after it emerged he'd promised to obey a law forcing him to send a letter requesting a delay if he can't get an agreement with the bloc.The U.K. premier's latest promise to deliver Brexit in an op-ed in The Sun on Sunday comes as he tries to persuade the EU to negotiate a new deal along the lines of the one he proposed during the week. It envisaged keeping Northern Ireland in regulatory alignment with the Republic of Ireland, so long as the region's political leaders agree to it every four years.But the EU so far has pushed back, and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has suggested Friday is a "reasonable" deadline for Johnson to come up with revised proposals.Key Developments:Johnson says Brexit will happen on Oct. 31Ireland says "reasonable" to expect revised Brexit plans from U.K. by FridayFinnish Premier doesn't see solutions in time for Brexit deadlineLabour says Johnson can't circumvent lawJohnson, Macron Speak by Phone (4:30 p.m.)Johnson spoke on Sunday by phone with Emmanuel Macron, the French president's office said in a text message. Macron told Johnson that Brexit talks must continue apace, with an assessment to be made by the end of the week on whether an agreement is possible that respects EU principles of maintaining the integrity of the single market and protecting the Irish peace process, his office said.Finland Doesn't See Solutions Agreed by Oct. 31 (10:29 a.m.)Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, said he doesn't expect a proposal from Downing Street that could hold water in the two weeks before the Oct. 17-18 summit in Brussels."It seems that Johnson has only now realized what a huge mess this is and has difficulties making a proposal that he can push through," Rinne told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "So I fear that at the October summit, it could be more about an extension than concrete solutions."Rather than risk a no-deal Brexit, Rinne said he would be prepared to consider a request to extend negotiations beyond Oct. 31.Separately, Rinne on Saturday spoke by phone with Johnson, according to a statement from the Finnish premier. Rinne said he told his U.K. counterpart to put forward written proposals, but that the current plans don't meet EU goals of protecting the Irish peace process and EU unity or of maintaining a "well-functioning internal market."Barclay Suggests U.K. Can Move in Talks (10 a.m.)Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay suggested on the BBC TV's "Andrew Marr" show on Sunday that there is scope for the U.K. to alter its position in discussions with the European Union on the issues of customs checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the principle of consent, whereby politicians in Northern Ireland would have an effective veto over regulatory alignment with the EU."We've set out a broad landing zone," he said when asked about customs checks post-Brexit. "In the detail of the negotiation of course we can get into detail as to how operationally they work."On the issue of consent, Barclay said the principle is "key," but that how it's done can be discussed. "Of course in the mechanism as part of the intensive negotiations, we can look at that," he said.Labour Says Johnson Can't Circumvent Benn Act (9:45 a.m.)There's no way for Boris Johnson to circumvent the law passed by Parliament requiring him to delay Brexit if he can't get a deal or approval for a no-deal Brexit through the House of Commons, Labour's shadow attorney-general, Shami Chakrabarti, told BBC TV on Sunday.The law, known as the Benn Act, "was drafted with great care after a great deal of cooperation across the House of Commons," Chakrabarti said. "It's very, very specific and explicit about personal duty on the prime minister."At the same time, Chakrabarti said Johnson speaks "with a forked tongue," making promises to a Scottish court on Friday that he would write the letter required of him by the law, and saying another thing in broadcast interviews. "He seems to have a very casual relationship with the law. He seems to think that he's above the law," she said. But, she warned that attempts to undermine an extension request would be unlawful."If you send the letter as you are required to under the law and then seek to undermine it by other means, you have not kept faith with the law," she said. "You have not fulfilled your specific statutory duty to seek an extension. That would be unlawful conduct on his part."Latvia: EU Has Little Wiggle Room (9:30 a.m.)The European Union has little room for maneuver in negotiating a new Brexit deal, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said Sunday in a BBC television interview, while adding that he thinks a deal can be done by Oct. 31.The difficulty in getting 27 nations to agree to big changes to the existing deal means that "the EU doesn't have a whole lot of wiggle room," Karins said. Still, "we are open to working for a real compromise."Nevertheless, Karins indicated that the time pressure of the current deadline may end up working in favor of getting an agreement. "Sometimes when you're down to the wire, some decisions can be made more quickly than when you're not down to the wire."Johnson Not Winning Over Labour Opponents (8:55 a.m.)The Prime Minister isn't making any headway in winning over Members of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party, even those that have said they want to be able to support a Brexit deal. One of those MPs, Lisa Nandy, told Sky News on Sunday that all Johnson has done is alienate people like herself."I could support a deal, I would support a deal," Nandy said. "The problem is at the moment that we don't have a deal. What we've got is a proposal which stands virtually no chance of being accepted by the EU."Nandy said she wants to see promises on future workers' rights and the environment –- negotiated by Labour with Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, incorporated into legislation and put before a vote in the House of Commons. But, she said, Johnson hasn't engaged with her or her colleagues."For all of this talk about getting Brexit done, he doesn't seem to be serious at all about trying to agree a cross-party deal and move us forwards," Nandy said. "From the word go he's alienated those MPs that he would need to rely on to get a deal."We'll Seek No Brexit Extension: Minister (8:47 a.m.)Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick on Sunday stuck firmly to the prime minister's line that the government will deliver Brexit on time."This government has no intention of extending Article 50," he told Sky News on Sunday, referring to the treaty clause under which Britain is negotiating Brexit. "All of our efforts now are focused on trying to get a deal."He dismissed as "tittle tattle" the notion that the government might be trying to persuade another EU nation to veto any extension request that comes from the U.K. "I've not heard any serious talk of that beyond the speculation that I've seen in the papers," he said.U.K. Leaves EU in 25 Days, Johnson Says (Earlier)The U.K. will be leaving the European Union on Halloween as planned, regardless of whether the EU accepts the U.K.'s latest offer for a deal, Johnson wrote in The Sun on Sunday newspaper."We will be packing our bags and walking out on Oct. 31," Johnson wrote in the paper. "The only question is whether Brussels cheerily waves us off with a mutually agreeable deal, or whether we will be forced to head off on our own."He said his plans represent Britain "jumping to the island in the middle of the river," and now the EU must join it from the other side.The statement is at odds with court documents released on Friday that showed the premier has committed to send a letter seeking a delay to Brexit, as compelled to by the Benn Act, a piece of legislation passed by his Parliamentary opponents in September. Under that law, he has until Oct. 19 to secure a deal or persuade Parliament to accept a no-deal departure. Failing that, he must seek a delay.Cox Told Johnson to request Extension: Mail (Earlier)Attorney General Geoffrey Cox told Johnson he'd quit his post if the premier didn't abide by the law requiring him to delay Brexit if he doesn't have a deal by Oct. 19, the Mail on Sunday reported, without saying were it got the information.Paper: Johnson to Sabotage EU if Forced Into Delay (Earlier)Johnson plans to sabotage the running of the European Union if he's forced into seeking a delay to Brexit, the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing two unidentified cabinet ministers. Measures could involve blocking the EU's seven-year budget, and sending a Euroskeptic commissioner to Brussels, with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage mooted as a contender, the newspaper said.Varadkar Wants New Proposals by Friday (Earlier)Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar pointed to Friday as a "reasonable" deadline for an improved offer from the U.K. to break the Brexit impasse, as the deadlock over the Irish border continued.Speaking to reporters in Dublin on Saturday, he said the ideas submitted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson fell short of providing the basis for deeper negotiations before leaders gather on Oct. 17 to consider the state of play on Brexit."Plenty of time" remains for the U.K. to come up with a better plan, Varadkar said, adding Friday isn't an "absolutely rigid" deadline. "If you know over the next 24 hours, an extra 48 hours are needed, we're not going to give up on the prospects of the deal over that."Johnson to Challenge Queen to Fire Him: S. Times (Earlier)Prime Minister Boris Johnson is prepared to challenge Queen Elizabeth II to dismiss him rather than resign as he attempts to push through Brexit by the Oct. 31 deadline, the Sunday Times reported, citing senior aides.Johnson would not step aside if his Brexit proposals were rejected by the European Union, and even if members of the U.K. Parliament declare no confidence in his government and agree to a caretaker prime minister to replace him, according to the report.Earlier:Irish PM Says Friday 'Reasonable' Deadline for New Brexit OfferAfter Another Week of Brexit Bluff and Bravado, What's Next?Rory Stewart Embraces Love, Quitting Tories in Bid to Run London\--With assistance from Peter Flanagan, Robert Hutton, Dominic Lau, Patrick Donahue, Frances Schwartzkopff and Helene Fouquet.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Andrew DavisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Germany could face refugee influx bigger than 2015 if EU does not agree quota system, interior minister warns Posted: 06 Oct 2019 08:48 AM PDT  Germany's interior minister warned on Sunday that the country could soon face a refugee influx bigger than the one it dealt with in 2015, as he sought support for his plans for an EU quota system for rescued migrants. "We need to do more to help our European partners with controls at the EU's external borders. We've left them alone for too long," Horst Seehofer told Bild newspaper. "If we don't do this, we'll experience a wave of refugees like in 2015 - or perhaps an even larger one." Mr Seehofer, a member of the conservative CSU party, was one of the most critical voices in the German government towards Angela Merkel's decision to open the country's borders in 2015. But his new plan has surprised many by committing Germany to taking in a quarter of the asylum seekers that arrive in the EU via the sea crossing from North Africa to Italy. He has not committed to accept any of those entering the EU via Greece or Spain. In a trip to Turkey and Greece which was spurred by a sharp rise in migrant crossings in the Aegean over the past year, the veteran politician said he would push for increased EU funds to be assigned to Turkey, while offering more technical support for Greece's coast guard. An agreement signed with Ankara in 2016 was key in turning the tide on a surge of migration which saw over a million asylum seekers arrive in Germany. Ever since the crisis peaked in 2015 Berlin has been pushing in Brussels for a binding quota system, but these efforts have foundered in the face of resistance from eastern Europe. Mr Seehofer's quota proposals have proven unpopular inside his own party. Ralph Brinkhaus, CDU/CSU faction leader in the Bundestag, suggested over the weekend that the plan would encourage smugglers to increase their activities. "This is the interior minister's initiative, it does not come from the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag. We will have to take a very close look at his plans," Mr Brinkhaus said.
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| China Loves News About Trump's Controversies. Not This Time. Posted: 06 Oct 2019 08:43 AM PDT  BEIJING -- Since a trade war broke out with the United States, China's state-run media has not held back from commenting on the swirl of political controversies around President Donald Trump. At least, not until now.After Trump openly urged China on Thursday to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, Chinese news media and officials were strikingly muted.While news of Trump's request has seeped onto the Chinese internet, official media have been silent so far and social media mentions have been sparse, suggesting censors are at work. As of Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not publicly responded. Even Global Times, a nationalist Chinese tabloid that is reliably voluble about Trump, has been quiet.The lack of response reflects China's awkward choices as it tries to stand tough against the Trump administration while trying to avoid a spiral of worsening tensions, several experts said.China's ties with the Trump administration are volatile. Tit-for-tat tariffs have created a cloud over both economies, and the United States is heading into a presidential election in which China fears it may become a front-burner topic. Relations are especially sensitive at the moment, as top Chinese officials head to Washington in the coming days for the next round of trade talks.Now Trump has pushed China into the bonfire of controversies that has prompted Democrats in Congress to initiate an inquiry into his possible impeachment."The tagline 'silence speaks volumes' is a good one to capture the logic of the likely Chinese response," said Susan Shirk, who was a deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for China during the Clinton administration and is now chair of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California San Diego."Chinese government and media are likely to suppress all discussion in order not to provoke President Trump," Shirk said by email. China's leader, Xi Jinping, "is not unusual in working hard to avoid provoking our volatile president and even to try to build some goodwill with him despite his unpredictability," she said.Beijing's low-key posture may shift in coming days. China is still enjoying its annual National Day holiday, when media and officials are usually slower to respond to news.The holiday ends after Sunday, and China's top trade negotiator, Liu He, is expected to travel to Washington for resumed talks starting Thursday, potentially thrusting him under an unwelcome limelight created by Trump's demands for a Chinese inquiry.Liu already played an unexpected walk-on role in one of Trump's political dramas in February. Trump chided the U.S.' top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, in front of reporters while Liu was visiting the Oval Office."Undoubtedly, Trump's request is a very delicate issue for China," Zhang Jian, a professor at Peking University who teaches U.S. politics, said in an interview."China has its declared stance of not meddling in other countries' internal affairs, and if it somehow went along with him, that would be difficult to explain both at home and abroad."Even if China were to look into Hunter Biden's business dealings, the government would very likely seek to keep any findings to itself, Zhang said. "They'll want to play this in a very low-key way," he said.In Chinese, Trump's name is rendered as Te-lang-pu, and on China's internet he has gained a similar-sounding nickname, Te-mei-pu, a slang phrase meaning "totally unpredictable." China has experienced Trump's changeable ways more than most countries.As president-elect, Trump affronted Beijing by holding a telephone call with Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, the island democracy that China claims as its own territory. After he took office, the Chinese government worked energetically to smooth relations. When Trump visited Beijing in 2017, Xi courted him in the imperial Forbidden City.Since then their relations have soured. From last year, the two governments have been locked in disagreement over the Trump administration's demands that China buy more U.S. goods and pull down protective barriers that foreign businesses say put them at a heavy disadvantage in China. The two sides have been trying to contain the trade tensions, but Trump has also said that he is in no rush to reach an agreement.Ties with the United States have also been strained over human rights disputes, including China's mass detentions of Muslim minorities; accusations of Chinese intelligence operations in the United States; U.S. restrictions on visas for Chinese academics and other visitors, and limits on Chinese companies, especially Huawei; and Chinese anger over the U.S.' criticisms of policy in Hong Kong, the semiautonomous city where protesters have raged for months against the city's Beijing-backed leadership.China's calculus in dealing with Trump has become even more fraught after he demanded that Xi's government investigate Biden, an aspiring Democratic challenger to Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump already faces a congressional inquiry over his efforts to press Ukraine to investigate the Bidens."China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine," Trump told reporters. Moments earlier he had commented on the upcoming trade talks with China, and said, "If they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power."When asked Friday if he would be more likely to agree to a trade deal with China if it investigated the Bidens, Trump said, "One thing has nothing to do with the other."Trump's demand for an investigation appears to focus on a business venture that involved Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and Chinese state-owned financial companies. Trump suggested that China had channeled $1.5 billion to Hunter Biden in an effort to influence his father.But the allegation seems to find little, if any, support in established facts. Biden and other Democratic contenders for the presidency have denounced Trump's comments.Chinese media have widely reported that Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, making the silence over his similar call to China more jarring. Before Trump made his comments pressing China to investigate, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, had already said his government did not want to become mired in U.S. political strife."We've never meddled in American domestic affairs, and are confident that the American people can solve their own problems," Wang said in a speech in New York in late September, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. (On Friday, Global Times used its Twitter feed to cite similar words from Wang, but there was no evidence that he used them after Trump called for an investigation.)Beijing has reason to worry that its policies could become a focus for candidates in the coming presidential election, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.U.S. public opinion about China has turned sharply negative, according to findings recently published by the Pew Research Center. The latest opinion survey conducted in spring this year found that 60% of U.S. respondents had an unfavorable opinion of China. That was the highest unfavorable level in 15 years of Pew polling of U.S. views on China, and a 13-percentage-point jump in negative opinion compared with views last year.Biden has vowed to get tough on China, while also criticizing Trump's tariffs on goods made in China as damaging to the U.S. economy and consumers. Other Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have been more bluntly critical of China's policies."I do think China will be a focus of discussion and debate," Glaser said. "Candidates may vie for who can advocate the toughest policy responses."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| North Korea: No more talks until US ends 'hostile policy' Posted: 06 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT  North Korea said Sunday that it won't meet with the United States for more "sickening negotiations" unless it abandons its "hostile policy" against the North, as the two countries offered different takes on their weekend nuclear talks in Sweden. After their first talks in more than seven months in Stockholm on Saturday, the chief North Korean nuclear negotiator said the discussions broke down "entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude" and came to the negotiating table with an "empty hand." But the U.S. said the two sides had "good discussions" that it intends to build on with more talks in two weeks.
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| Thousands protest Ukraine leader's peace plan Posted: 06 Oct 2019 07:13 AM PDT About 10,000 people including Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko gathered in central Kiev on Sunday to protest a plan for broader autonomy for separatist territories ahead of a high-stakes summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The protesters, who descended on Kiev's Independence Square known locally as Maidan, chanted "No to surrender!", with some holding placards critical of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky's predecessor Poroshenko, who was trounced in an April election, joined the crowd towards the end of the rally and several thousand demonstrators later marched towards the presidential administration and the parliament building.
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| 10 things you need to know today: October 6, 2019 Posted: 06 Oct 2019 07:12 AM PDT ![10 things you need to know today: October 6, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: October 6, 2019") 1.A second whistleblower who reportedly has first-hand knowledge of President Trump's communications with Ukraine's government has spoken with the intelligence community's inspector general, Mark Zaid, the lawyer representing the official, confirmed Sunday. The New York Times first reported that a second whistleblower was considering filing a formal complaint against the president. While Zaid confirmed that he is representing a second official, it is not clear if the person referenced in the Times report is his client. The second whistleblower allegedly has more direct information than the first whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's Ukraine dealings spurred the congressional impeachment inquiry. [Reuters, ABC News] 2.Nine people were reportedly shot at a private, members-only bar in Kansas City, Kansas, early Sunday, police said while acknowledging they know very little about the situation. The suspect, who is reportedly on the run, allegedly entered the bar and started shooting, killing four people and wounding five others, who were hospitalized and are reportedly now in stable condition. Police said they believe the shooting was an isolated incident, but the suspect and motive remain unclear. "We do not have a good enough description yet to put out anything for a suspect, or suspects," police spokesman Thomas Tomasic said. "We don't even know how many." [CNN, NBC News] 3.North Korea said nuclear talks with the United States broke down again after the two sides met in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturday in an attempt to revive negotiations after months of stalemate. Pyongyang's chief negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, blamed the U.S. for being inflexible and said that Washington would not "give up their old viewpoint and attitude." The U.S. did not agree with North Korea's sentiment, however, and even accepted Sweden's invitation to return to Stockholm in two weeks for another round of talks. "The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. "The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean peninsula through the course of a single Saturday." [Reuters, The Washington Post] 4.Hong Kong's recent ban on protesters wearing masks, which was implemented after Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked a colonial-era emergency law, appears to have failed as thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets for the 18th consecutive weekend of anti-government protests Sunday. Many of them continued to cover their faces. The rallies grew more chaotic and violent as the day went on. Protesters reportedly set fires, damaged banks and subways, and constructed road barricades, while police fired tear gas and other projectiles. A taxi driver was reportedly beaten by a mob in one district. "It's backfired," one protester said, referring to the emergency law. "It's made us more angry." [The South China Morning Post, The Wall Street Journal] 5.Speaking at a public meeting in Athens, Greece, on Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the State Department will "obviously do all the things that we're required to do by law" during the House's impeachment inquiry of President Trump and his communications with Ukraine, despite the fact that he thinks it's a "silly gotcha game." Pompeo is one of several Trump administration officials who has been subpoenaed by Congress for documents related to the inquiry. Pompeo also defended Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump has been accused of pressuring Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter. "There has been some suggestion somehow that it would be inappropriate for the United States government to engage in that activity and I see it just precisely the opposite," Pompeo said. [NPR, The Associated Press] 6.Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi's cabinet has issued a series of reforms in response to mass anti-government protests that sprouted up throughout the country in recent days. More than 100 people have died during the protests, which are reportedly centered around corruption, unemployment, and poor public services. In response, the government shut down the internet, set a curfew, and deployed security forces to quell the demonstrations before the cabinet sat down to draw up a plan. Among the planned reforms are land distributions, military enlistment, and increased welfare stipends for families. The government also reportedly said it would create large market complexes and increase benefits for those without work, as the country's youth unemployment sits at around 25 percent, per the World Bank. [Al Jazeera, The New York Times] 7.Joshua Brown, who served as a key witness in the murder trial of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, was reportedly fatally shot Friday in the parking lot of his apartment complex. The 28-year-old testified during Guyger's trial, saying he overheard gunshots in his apartment complex where his neighbor across the hall, Botham Jean, was shot and killed by Guyger, who said she mistook Jean's apartment for her own and shot him thinking he was a burglar. Dallas police responded to a shooting Friday, and found Brown lying on the ground at the scene. He was transported to a hospital where he died of his injuries. There is no suspect information at the time. Brown "had no known enemies," his attorney said. [CNN, The Guardian] 8.Voters are heading to the polls in Portugal, Kosovo, and Tunisia on Sunday. Tunisia, which is facing inflation and high unemployment, is holding its second parliamentary elections since adopting its current constitution in 2014. The legislative race is expected to end with no clear winner. Kosovo's voters are heading to the polls for snap elections, which are taking place after Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned in July after being summoned to appear before a war crimes court. Two opposition parties are viewed as frontrunners as people are reportedly dissatisfied with the country's "deep-rooted corruption." In Portugal, incumbent Prime Minister Antonio Costa's Socialist Party is considered the favorite, though it's unclear if they will secure a parliamentary majority. [Al Jazeera, BBC] 9.The first-ever all-female spacewalk has been scheduled for Oct. 21, NASA announced seven months after the agency initially canceled such a walk because they did not have properly fitted spacesuits. Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will venture outside of the International Space Station to install lithium-ion batteries, which reportedly will better serve the station's power supply. It will be the fourth of 10 walks scheduled over the course of the next three months. "I think it's important because of the historical nature of what we're doing and in the past, women haven't always been at the table," Koch said. "And it's wonderful to be contributing to the human spaceflight program at a time when all contributions are being accepted." [The New York Times, NBC News] 10.Ginger Baker, the drummer and co-founder of the band Cream, died on Sunday morning at the age of 80. Baker's family had previously told the public that he was critically ill. Born Peter Edward Baker before receiving the nickname "Ginger" on account of his red hair, The Guardian described the U.K. native as "one of the most brilliant, versatile, and turbulent drummers in the history of British music," while BBC called him "one of the most innovative and influential drummers in rock music." He was known for combining elements of jazz, which he was trained in, with rock music, and for his temperamental nature. [The Guardian, BBC]
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| UPDATE 4-North Korea doubts U.S. will have alternative plans inside two weeks Posted: 06 Oct 2019 05:36 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-North Korea doubts U.S. will have alternative plans inside two weeks]( "UPDATE 4-North Korea doubts U.S. will have alternative plans inside two weeks") North Korea said on Sunday there was no way the United States would bring alternative plans for their stalled nuclear talks to a meeting proposed by Stockholm in two weeks after weekend negotiations in Sweden broke down. The working-level talks between U.S. and North Korean envoys were broken off on Saturday.
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| The U.S. and North Korea are not on the same page about how their latest talks went Posted: 06 Oct 2019 05:06 AM PDT ![The U.S. and North Korea are not on the same page about how their latest talks went]( "The U.S. and North Korea are not on the same page about how their latest talks went") That didn't last long.North Korea said nuclear talks with the United States broke down again after the two sides met in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturday in an attempt to revive negotiations after months of stalemate. Pyongyang's chief negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, blamed the U.S. for being inflexible and said that Washington would not "give up their old viewpoint and attitude."The U.S. did not agree with North Korea's sentiment, however, and even accepted Sweden's invitation to return to Stockholm in two weeks for another round of talks, Reuters reports. "The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. "The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean peninsula through the course of a single Saturday."The Swedish foreign office reportedly declined to say whether Pyongyang had accepted their invitation to return for more talks, so despite North Korea's rhetoric, there is apparently still a chance they'll return to the table. But Van Jackson, a former Pentagon official who now lectures at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington, told The Washington Post that North Korea is likely to boycott more working-level meetings like the one on Saturday in favor of another major summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump. Read more at Reuters and The Washington Post.
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| Israeli minister seeks 'non-aggression' pacts with Gulf Arab nations Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:59 AM PDT  Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Sunday he was seeking "non-aggression" agreements with Gulf Arab nations that do not formally recognise the country as a prelude to possible future peace deals. Details of the proposal were not made public, but it was the latest sign of Israel's push to improve ties with Gulf Arab nations with whom it has no formal diplomatic relations. Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory has long served as a major factor preventing peace deals with Arab countries, but common concerns over Iran are widely seen as having brought them closer in recent years.
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| North Korea sees no way for U.S. to bring alternative plans in two weeks Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:53 AM PDT ![North Korea sees no way for U.S. to bring alternative plans in two weeks]( "North Korea sees no way for U.S. to bring alternative plans in two weeks") North Korea said on Sunday that there was no way United States would bring alternative plans for their stalled nuclear talks within two weeks. The two countries were holding working-level talks in Sweden but these were broken off on Saturday. The U.S. State Department has said it had accepted Sweden's invitation to return for more discussions with Pyongyang in two weeks.
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| Thousands protest Ukraine leader's peace plan Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:48 AM PDT  Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Kiev on Sunday to protest broader autonomy for separatist territories, part of a plan to end a war with Russian-backed fighters. Protesters chanted "No to surrender!", with some holding placards critical of President Volodymyr Zelensky in the crowd, which police said had swelled to around 10,000 people. The country's 41-year-old president is gearing up to hold his first summit with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in an effort to revive a stalled peace process to end the five year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
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| Iran's Nightmare: Time for America to Use Drones in the Persian Gulf? Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:30 AM PDT  Unmanned systems could counter Iran's aggression.
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| UPDATE 2-UK could be flexible on details of Northern Ireland veto, customs plan Posted: 06 Oct 2019 04:09 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-UK could be flexible on details of Northern Ireland veto, customs plan]( "UPDATE 2-UK could be flexible on details of Northern Ireland veto, customs plan") Britain is open to some flexibility on the proposed mechanism that would allow lawmakers in post-Brexit Northern Ireland to decide whether the British province remains in regulatory alignment with the European Union, its Brexit minister said. The mechanism, set out in London's latest Brexit proposals, aims to resolve the biggest sticking point in negotiations: the currently seamless border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
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| Saudi Arabia eases restrictions on women taking hotel rooms Posted: 06 Oct 2019 03:58 AM PDT ![Saudi Arabia eases restrictions on women taking hotel rooms]( "Saudi Arabia eases restrictions on women taking hotel rooms") Saudi Arabia has lifted some restrictions on women traveling in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, its tourism authority said Sunday, with new guidelines allowing women to rent hotel rooms without a male guardian's presence, and foreign men and women to share a room without proof of marriage. The easing of stringent regulations governing social interactions comes after Riyadh launched its first tourist visa scheme, as part of efforts to open up the country to foreign visitors and diversify its oil-reliant economy. The Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage posted the new requirements on Twitter Sunday, confirming a Friday report by the Saudi daily Okaz.
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| North Korea pulls out of nuclear talks after US insist two sides had ‘good discussions’ Posted: 06 Oct 2019 02:46 AM PDT  Nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States have broken down, Pyongyang's chief negotiator has said, despite Washington's assurances the two sides had "good discussions" in Sweden.Kim Myong Gil said the talks in Stockholm on Saturday had "not fulfilled our expectations and broke down. I am very displeased about it".
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| Desmond Morris: The body language that betrays the power plays of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson Posted: 06 Oct 2019 02:07 AM PDT  He is a zoologist and animal behaviourist who transformed the way we look at human beings with his landmark bestselling books The Naked Ape and Manwatching. Now Desmond Morris has been watching politicians, concluding that they are a breed apart, with a body language that speaks volumes. He told The Telegraph that politics has become such a "pantomime", that the best way to watch televised debates is with the mute button pressed: "Then you'll see much more clearly what the politicians are really like. You can learn so much from their body language." While he describes US President Donald Trump as "a master of domineering body language" and says that Prime Minister Boris Johnson "super-exaggerates" gesticulations to convey "energy", he is struck that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has "virtually no body language". In studying President Trump, he has observed "a whole range of tricks, which are so well done", not least his one-upmanship in shaking hands in a "very special way". He explained that hand-shaking was not popular until the 19th century "because it's essentially egalitarian": "If you're shaking hands with the king,... you are performing identical actions and, just for that split second, you are equal to the king… When President Trump meets another world leader and they shake hands, you might think that - because they're both world leaders - they would do the same movement. But, if you study his handshakes, you find that, in several ways, he manages to make himself superior. "First of all, [there's] the 'equality handshake', where you offer your hand with the palm vertical. But if you're clever - and Trump does this with some leaders - you offer your hand palm down… Then the other person has to put their hand underneath yours. That means that Trump literally has the upper hand." Donald Trump jokes with French President Emmanuel Macron about their handshakes in front of NATO leaders Credit: REUTERS That is his "first ploy" and there are others, Dr Morris said, observing that Russian President Vladimir Putin is among leaders who have managed to get their own hand in the upper position: "Trump then gets his other hand and pats them… on top, so he's now sandwiched their hand between his two hands… Patting someone is a paternal action for children… By patting them with his other hand, he's now destroying what they thought was going to be a superior move… He [also] leans his body forward to invade their space." He observed that President Trump has modified his behaviour considerably since he became president: "For example, he has increased the use of the downturned corners of the mouth,…making him look… Churchillian and very serious. If he's in a public situation, you can see him adopt this mouth posture to make himself look more… commanding." He added: "When he's sitting next to a head of state, he will adopt what's called 'the steeple', where all the fingertips of one hand are touching the fingertips of the other hand in a symmetrical posture. This is again a posture of dominance because it displays perfect balance between left and right... and is displaying his high status. He also uses 'the precision gesture' when he's gesticulating during a speech. He'll put his thumb and forefinger together in a ring shape, which is…displaying… precise thinking." Boris Johnson gesticulates while Leo Varadkar, Ireland's prime minister, speaks at a joint press conference Credit: Bloomberg Dr Morris said that, while we all use 'baton gestures', beating time to words to emphasis them, Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn have both "veered from the norm": "Johnson overdoes the gesticulations. He makes them super-exaggerated because… it signals… that he's extraordinarily energetic… Boris's are power gestures - a lot of clenched fists and beating the air… He wants to give people the reassurance that he is strong enough to cope with everything." Referring to the prime minister's ruffled hair and rumpled clothing, he said: "What he's saying… is 'I'm going to look a bit rumpled and dishevelled because… it shows that my real emphasis is not on my appearance but on my aims and my goals, my thoughts and my ideas'." He also noted that Mr Johnson sometimes speaks with his hands in his pockets: "That's very uncommon… [That] is a self-comforting device… Although he comes over as a very buoyant individual, even he needs a little comfort." He added: "Corbyn, on the other hand, has virtually no body language. It's very extraordinary… There's one photo of him trying to do a 'high five' because he knows that's a with-it thing to do - and he can't even do that properly… When he's making a speech, he very often reads from notes, so he doesn't have to look at the person he's attacking. His policy is… 'gesticulate as little as possible and this will make me appear to be just an ordinary bloke'." Jeremy Corbyn tries to high five Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry Credit: Reuters Dr Morris's The Naked Ape is among the top 100 bestsellers of all time, with over 12 million copies sold. He is also an acclaimed Surrealist artist. He spoke to The Telegraph ahead of releasing his new book, Postures: Body Language in Art. He said: "Going back over portraits of the past, one can learn so much about society from the body language portrayed." In a chapter headed The Hidden Hand, he explores an earlier leader - Napoleon - and one of the best-known gestures in historical portraits, the emperor's right hand thrust into his waistcoat. Brexit | The best comment and analysis Dismissing previous explanations of this posture, Dr Morris notes that many other period portraits depict it and that its origins can be traced back to ancient Greece: "Some of the orators disapproved of gesture and said you must allow the words to speak…. Your hands must stay still…. They looked down on anybody who waived their hands about." But he senses that, in an age of televised close-up scrutiny, politicians today are generally gesticulating more: "There's much more complicated body language now. They are intensely aware of the cameras, aware that they are being watched."
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| UK could move on 'mechanism' of Northern Ireland consent-Brexit Secretary Barclay Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:54 AM PDT ![UK could move on 'mechanism' of Northern Ireland consent-Brexit Secretary Barclay]( "UK could move on 'mechanism' of Northern Ireland consent-Brexit Secretary Barclay") Britain is open to some flexibility on the mechanism that would allow Northern Ireland lawmakers to decide whether it remains in regulatory alignment with the European Union as set out in Britain's latest Brexit deal proposals, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said on Sunday. "The key issue is the principle of consent, that's why the backstop was rejected three times, that was the concern in terms of both sides in Northern Ireland not approving of the backstop," Barclay told the BBC's Andrew Marr on Sunday.
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| North Korea decries breakdown of talks US says were 'good' Posted: 06 Oct 2019 01:51 AM PDT  North Korea and Washington had two different takes on their nuclear talks, with North Korea's negotiator saying the talks had broken down but Washington maintaining the two sides had "good discussions" in Sweden that it intends to build on in two weeks. The North Korean negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, said the talks in Stockholm on Saturday had "not fulfilled our expectations and broke down. Saturday's talks were the first between the U.S. and North Korea since the February breakdown of the second summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.
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| Australia mum on possible swap of detainees with Iran Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:51 AM PDT ![Australia mum on possible swap of detainees with Iran]( "Australia mum on possible swap of detainees with Iran") The release from Iran of two Australians and an Iranian student held by Australia bears the hallmarks of a swap, a legal expert said Sunday, while the attorney general refused to comment on a possible deal with Tehran. The blogging couple, Jolie King and Mark Firkin, returned to Australia on Saturday after all charges against them were dropped. At the same time, Iran's state TV reported that an Iranian scientist, Reza Dehbashi, who was detained for 13 months in Australia for purchasing a defense system for his country from the United States, had returned home.
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| Iran to Take Legal Action Against U.S. Cyber Attacks: Tasnim Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:17 AM PDT ![Iran to Take Legal Action Against U.S. Cyber Attacks: Tasnim]( "Iran to Take Legal Action Against U.S. Cyber Attacks: Tasnim") (Bloomberg) -- Iran is planning to take legal action against the U.S. for numerous alleged cyber attacks and threats on its networks, the semi-official Tasnim news reported, citing an interview with General Gholamreza Jalali commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Passive Defense Organization.To contact the reporter on this story: Arsalan Shahla in Tehran at ashahla@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Claudia Maedler, Abbas Al LawatiFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A U.S.-Israeli Mutual Defense Pact Is a Terrible Idea Posted: 06 Oct 2019 12:00 AM PDT ![A U.S.-Israeli Mutual Defense Pact Is a Terrible Idea]( "A U.S.-Israeli Mutual Defense Pact Is a Terrible Idea") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- "There is no possibility of defeating Israel militarily," Gadi Eisenkot, the recently retired chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, told an interviewer on the eve of the Jewish New Year.This is an unusually blunt and optimistic assessment. Israeli politicians customarily frighten the public by citing enemy threats to wipe their country off the map. But Eisenkot is not a politician. He is one of Israel's most experienced and respected military thinkers. He isn't afraid of Iran or any combination of enemies. What worries him, instead, is Donald Trump's suggestion that the U.S. is exploring a "mutual defense pact" with Israel.Eisenkot is concerned that the pact would cost Israel its freedom of action, cede control of the Israeli Defense Forces for American use and cost it bipartisan support in the U.S. There's a deeper issue: It could lead to the loss of Israeli self-sufficiency.In the early days of the state, when Israel faced a genuine existential threat, successive governments tried and failed to make a mutual defense pact with the U.S. But Israel had little to offer. Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day War increased its prestige and its value, however. The U.S. did not offer a mutual security pact, but it steadily built an informal military alliance that features the sharing of intelligence, financial aid the supply of advanced weapons systems. This modus operandi has worked very well over the years. But in mid-September, just days before the Israeli election, Donald Trump tweeted that he is now exploring a mutual defense pact "that would further anchor the tremendous alliance," between the two countries. This did not come out of the blue. Bibi has been working Trump on this issue for some time and boasted his efforts had finally born fruit.Problem is, the fruit is potentially poisonous. Mutual defense pacts are worthless if they are based on nothing more than mutual affection and hot air. Trump is famously fickle. Even if Trump stays true to Bibi, the Israeli prime minister might not be around much longer. He is in serious political and legal trouble and it is unclear that he can form the next Israeli government. If not, his likely successor will be Benny Gantz, a bland fellow not given to political back-scratching or emotional gestures. Like Eisenkot, Gantz is a former Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff and he spent time in Washington as Israel's military attaché. He knows that a mutual security pact is not only unnecessary but more trouble than it is worth.A formal mutual security treaty would likely require Congressional approval. In the current climate in Washington, anything Trump sends to Congress would inspire fierce Democratic resistance, even by normally pro-Israeli Democrats. This is a fight to be avoided at all costs. Bipartisan support in Washington is of much greater strategic value to Israel than a largely symbolic declaration of mutual aid.Another drawback is the American propensity for getting itself into Middle Eastern conflicts that it can't win. If Trump, or some future president, invokes the principle of mutual defense and asks for Israeli troops or air power in Yemen or Afghanistan (or even farther afield) it would be very difficult for Jerusalem to resist. Such a pact would also inhibit Israel's freedom of action by giving the U.S. a veto over secret military initiatives. America is a good friend, but it doesn't always know best. In 1981, Israel destroyed Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor over the objections of the very pro-Israel Ronald Reagan. Beyond these practical and political objections lies a more profound reason to resist a mutual security pact. For 20 centuries Jews were dispersed and disarmed. They practiced an enforced pacifism that guaranteed endless humiliation, expulsions, pogroms, religious persecution and, eventually, genocide. The state of Israel came into being as a reaction to such helplessness. The nation's best and brightest compose a people's army; soldiering is arduous and sometimes dangerous work, but it is accepted by Israelis as a cost of survival and safety. A mutual-security pact with America could vitiate this motivation. Why waste years in uniform when the world's strongest superpower has got your back? It's remarkably short-sighted that Prime Minister Netanyahu, Mr Security himself, has blessed the deal. Eisenkot calls such a scenario "catastrophic." He is right to say so. Turning over Israel's strategic responsibility to a foreign country, no matter how friendly, would be a return to the historically catastrophic policy of counting on the kindness of others. To contact the author of this story: Zev Chafets at zchafets@gmail.comTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Jordan teachers end 4-week strike, country's longest ever Posted: 05 Oct 2019 11:05 PM PDT ![Jordan teachers end 4-week strike, country's longest ever]( "Jordan teachers end 4-week strike, country's longest ever") Teachers in Jordan have ended their longest strike ever and are opening the school year four weeks late. Nasser al-Nawasrah, the deputy head of the teacher's union, says Sunday a salary raise between 35-75% has been secured depending on teacher ranks. Some of the teacher protests that followed had them scuffling with security forces.
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| UPDATE 9-North Korea breaks off nuclear talks with U.S. in Sweden Posted: 05 Oct 2019 10:28 PM PDT ![UPDATE 9-North Korea breaks off nuclear talks with U.S. in Sweden]( "UPDATE 9-North Korea breaks off nuclear talks with U.S. in Sweden") Working-level nuclear talks in Sweden between officials from Pyongyang and Washington have broken off, North Korea's top negotiator said late on Saturday, dashing prospects for an end to months of stalemate. The talks, at an isolated conference centre on the outskirts of Stockholm, were the first such formal discussion since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in June and agreed to restart negotiations that stalled after a failed summit in Vietnam in February.
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| North Korea says no talks unless US stops hostile policies Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:07 PM PDT  North Korea said Sunday it has "no desire" to continue nuclear talks unless the United States takes steps to end hostilities, a day after negotiations in Sweden broke down. The discussions in Sweden followed months of stalemate following a February meeting between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, and came after Pyongyang's defiant test of a sea-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday. The North walked away from the Sweden talks saying it was disappointed at the lack of "new and creative" solutions offered by Washington.
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| The World’s Next Factory Won’t Be in South Asia Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:00 PM PDT ![The World's Next Factory Won't Be in South Asia]( "The World's Next Factory Won't Be in South Asia") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Vietnam seems to be the consensus pick for winner of the U.S.-China trade war, as Chinese and other manufacturers shift production to the cheaper Southeast Asian nation. If there's a loser, at least in terms of missed opportunities, it may be the countries of South Asia.To understand why, remember that the trade war has only accelerated an important trend a decade in the making. Faced with rising costs, Chinese manufacturers must decide whether to invest in labor-saving automation technologies or to relocate. Those choosing the latter present an enormous opportunity for less-developed countries, as Chinese companies can help spark industrialization and much-needed economic transformation in their new homes. There may not be another such chance this generation. The only proven pathway to long-lasting, broad-based prosperity has been to build a manufacturing sector linked to global value chains, which raises productivity levels and creates knock-on jobs across the whole economy. This was how most rich nations, not to mention China itself, lifted themselves out of poverty.Yet the evidence suggests that South Asian countries are lagging behind in attracting manufacturing investment. It's not just Vietnam that's racing ahead. African countries, too, are making manufacturing a top priority. Ethiopia alone has opened nearly a dozen industrial parks in recent years and set up a world-class government agency to attract foreign investment. The World Bank has lauded sub-Saharan Africa as the region with the highest number of reforms each year since 2012.By contrast, in terms of foreign direct investment as a percentage of GDP, South Asia lags both the global average for least-developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa. While South Asia's total GDP is more than 70% greater than Africa's, the continent received three-and-a-half times the investment from China that South Asia received in 2012, the most recent year for which the United Nations has published bilateral FDI statistics. In the last five years, the American Enterprise Institute's China Global Investment Tracker has recorded 13 large Chinese investment deals in Africa and only nine in South Asia.Bangladesh is a striking illustration of the problem. The country needs to create 2 million jobs per year at home just to keep up with its growing population. Yet, despite a world-class garments manufacturing sector, it seems unable to cut red tape and enact the reforms needed to attract investment to diversify beyond apparel. In the past few years, Bangladesh has fallen to 176 out of 190 countries in the global Ease of Doing Business country rankings. DBL Group, a Bangladeshi company, is investing in a new apparel manufacturing facility that will generate 4,000 jobs -- in Ethiopia.The fantasy, most common in India, that a country might somehow "leapfrog" from a rural, agriculture-heavy economy straight to a services-based economy is just that: a fantasy. South Asia can't afford to lose this chance to grow its manufacturing sector.Attracting manufacturing investments will require, first and foremost, that governments in the region acknowledge the competition is passing them by. India, for example, must abandon its overconfidence that investors will come simply for its large population. Pakistan needs to stop relying on its government-to-government friendship with China. Chinese state financing of infrastructure won't automatically lead to manufacturing investment, most of which is dominated by private Chinese companies motivated by competitive forces, not government diktats.Secondly, South Asian countries need to undertake a concerted, whole-of-government push to boost investment levels. Specifically, they need to create the conditions manufacturers need to thrive, from steady power supplies to efficient port operations and customs clearance. Moreover, they need to understand the specifics of these businesses. Factories have unique requirements depending on what they make. For example, cloth and clothing factories, despite their seeming similarities, have extremely different requirements: The former is capital-intensive, with huge amounts of power-hungry machinery churning out bolts of cloth, whereas the latter is labor-intensive and features rows of workers cutting and sewing. Countries need to analyze which manufacturing sub-sectors they are best positioned for, meet the requirements those manufacturers have in order to set up shop, and target the regions of China (and elsewhere in the world) where those types of manufacturers are to be found.The good news is that all of these measures are eminently feasible. And in many cases, the first steps are already being taken, such as with the construction of Bangladesh's first deep sea port at Matarbari. The bad news is that unless South Asia moves faster, others may have already seized the opportunity to industrialize.To contact the author of this story: Irene Yuan Sun atTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Nisid Hajari at nhajari@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Irene Yuan Sun is author of "The Next Factory of the World: How Chinese Investment is Reshaping Africa." She is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development and a research fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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