| US navy prepares allies to 'protect navigation' in Gulf Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:57 PM PST  The United States is training Gulf allies to "protect navigation" in the region's troubled waterways, as it seeks to build an alliance to contain Iran. Washington's three-week International Maritime Exercise (IMX), which started on October 21, came after a number of commercial vessels were attacked in the Gulf from May, ratcheting up regional tensions. Washington and other Western powers blamed the incidents on Iran, which has denied any involvement.
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| Team to report on perpetrators of Syrian chemical attacks Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:52 PM PST ![Team to report on perpetrators of Syrian chemical attacks]( "Team to report on perpetrators of Syrian chemical attacks") The investigation team in charge of identifying perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria will produce its first report "in the next few months," the head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Tuesday. Fernando Arias gave the update to reporters after a private meeting with the U.N. Security Council when asked about the lack of accountability and justice for victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. The OPCW voted to apportion blame for poison gas and nerve agent attacks last year after Russia used its Security Council veto to terminate a joint U.N.-OPCW investigative body set up in 2015 to determine responsibility for chemical attacks.
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| PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Nov 6 Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:42 PM PST ![PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Nov 6]( "PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Nov 6") Overview British Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed at a rally in Harlow on Tuesday to "get Brexit sorted" within six months, adding that his party plans to hold a second referendum which will give the British public a clear choice on UK's future relationship with the EU. Former British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Tuesday he would not stand as a candidate in the upcoming national election, the latest high-profile lawmaker to join an exodus from parliament.
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| Iowa? Greece? Where Trump and Xi may meet becomes new trade deal issue Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:27 PM PST  The United States and China are working to narrow their differences enough to sign a "phase one" trade deal as early as this month, but suggestions for a signing venue range from Alaska to Greece. U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping could sign the agreement in Iowa, a state with historical connections to Xi, and one that would benefit from increased Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods. On the other hand, one Chinese official said Beijing was floating the possibility of a meeting in Greece, where Xi is due to arrive on Sunday, after which he will head to Brazil for a summit of major emerging market countries which starts Nov. 13.
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| Iowa? Greece? Where Trump and Xi may meet becomes new trade deal issue Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:19 PM PST ![Iowa? Greece? Where Trump and Xi may meet becomes new trade deal issue]( "Iowa? Greece? Where Trump and Xi may meet becomes new trade deal issue") The United States and China are working to narrow their differences enough to sign a "phase one" trade deal as early as this month, but suggestions for a signing venue range from Alaska to Greece. U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping could sign the agreement in Iowa, a state with historical connections to Xi, and one that would benefit from increased Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods. On the other hand, one Chinese official said Beijing was floating the possibility of a meeting in Greece, where Xi is due to arrive on Sunday, after which he will head to Brazil for a summit of major emerging market countries which starts Nov. 13.
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| Johnson Tries to Get On Front Foot After Day of Setbacks Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson will try to get his campaign back onto the front foot on Wednesday, after a day of reverses that saw one of his most senior ministers forced to apologize for his comments about a 2017 London tower block fire.The prime minister will travel to see Queen Elizabeth II before returning to his Downing Street residence to formally mark the start of the election campaign. Johnson, who twice failed to persuade Parliament to allow him to have an election before succeeding at the third attempt, will say he didn't want an election, according to his office."I don't want an election," he'll say. "No prime minister wants an early election, especially not in December. But as things stand we simply have no choice -- because it is only by getting Brexit done in the next few weeks that we can focus on all the priorities of the British people."Tuesday was dominated by comments from the prominent Conservative Brexiteer and Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg that some of the 72 people who died when flames engulfed the Grenfell Tower might have survived if they'd shown "common sense" and ignored fire service instructions to stay in their apartments."I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building," Rees-Mogg told LBC radio.His remarks stoked anger among victims' families as well as in Downing Street, which is keen not to fuel opposition jibes that the ruling Conservative Party is out of touch. Rees-Mogg revels in his image as a member of the English upper classes.On Tuesday, Rees-Mogg told the Evening Standard that he meant to criticize the fire department's advice to stay put rather than the people who adhered to it.'Authority Figures'His fellow Tory Andrew Bridgen later explained: "What he is actually saying is, he would have made a better decision than the authority figures who gave that advice."It was the first major gaffe of the Conservative campaign to secure a parliamentary majority on Dec. 12. Grenfell is located in the key marginal seat of Kensington and Chelsea, a former Tory stronghold that the party lost to Labour in 2017. The blaze occurred days after that election, and the local Conservative-run council was heavily criticized for failing to do enough to help victims.In another setback for the Conservatives, the country's most senior civil servant blocked the Treasury from publishing costings for the opposition Labour Party's policies. According to a Treasury official, the announcement had been ready to go, but after complaints from Labour, Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill refused to let it go ahead.Battleground SpeechesJohnson will mark the start of his campaign with a rally in the West Midlands, central England. It's a sign of how both parties see the fight that Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn will be speaking earlier in the same part of the country. "For me, real politics isn't about shouting matches in parliament," he'll say. "For me, real politics, the politics I stand for, is about sharing power and wealth with people who don't have a lot of money and don't have friends in high places -- to take control of their own lives. My job as leader, and my party's job, is to champion those people, and bring about real change."The ongoing spat within Johnson's Conservatives over Brexit claimed another scalp Tuesday, when former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said he is quitting Parliament following his expulsion from the Tory party.Hammond, who was thrown out for opposing Johnson's Brexit strategy, said he couldn't run in the election as a Conservative -- and ruled out running as an independent against the party he joined 45 years ago.The situation left him "saddened," Hammond said in a letter to his constituents posted on Twitter, adding a rebuke of the Tories' direction under Johnson. In the past, he said, the Conservative Party had "always had room for a wide variety of opinions and been tolerant of measured dissent."To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Robert HuttonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US says committed to Britain trade deal after Trump expressed doubt Posted: 05 Nov 2019 03:40 PM PST  The United States and Britain remain committed to reaching a post-Brexit bilateral free trade agreement, the White House said Tuesday, after President Donald Trump questioned whether such a deal is possible. Last week, Trump warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the terms of his EU divorce deal meant that "under certain aspect... you can't trade" with the United States. Trump used a lengthy appearance on Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage's radio phone-in show Thursday to share his characteristically blunt views ahead of a December 12 snap election in Britain.
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| Iran says to resume enrichment at underground plant Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:52 PM PST  President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Iran would resume uranium enrichment at an underground plant south of Tehran in its latest step back from a troubled 2015 agreement with major powers. The suspension of all enrichment at the Fordow plant in the mountains near the Shiite holy city of Qom was one of the main curbs on its nuclear activities that Iran accepted in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Under the terms of the agreement, Iran has retained more than 1,000 first-generation centrifuges at the Fordow plant, which have been running empty or remained idle since it took effect.
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| Yemen government, southern separatists sign power-sharing deal Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:41 PM PST  Yemen's internationally recognised government signed a power-sharing deal with southern separatists Tuesday, in a Saudi-brokered initiative to end a conflict simmering within the country's civil war. Unrest in the south, which saw secessionist forces seize control of Yemen's interim capital Aden, distracted the Saudi-led coalition from its battle against Iran-backed Huthi rebels and raised fears the country could fall apart entirely. The so-called Riyadh agreement, hailed as a stepping stone towards ending the wider conflict, would see the government's return to Aden and the formation of a new cabinet of 24 ministers with equal representation for southerners including the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC).
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| Trump OKs wider Syria oil mission, raising legal questions Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:16 PM PST  President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said. The decision, coming after a meeting Friday between Trump and his defense leaders, locks hundreds of U.S. troops into a more complicated presence in Syria, despite the president's vow to get America out of the war.
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| Trump-Xi meeting in Iowa would be poignant reminder of better U.S.-China ties Posted: 05 Nov 2019 01:55 PM PST  U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that he could sign a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Iowa has set off a flurry of excitement in Muscatine, Iowa, a city on the banks of the Mississippi River that has hosted Xi twice since 1985. Xi returned with much fanfare in 2012 as China's vice president, visiting that home and meeting with a dozen local "Old Friends" - people he had met in the 1980s. Tariffs have had an outsized impact on farmers in Iowa, a big exporter of soybeans.
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| Trump-Xi meeting in Iowa would be poignant reminder of better U.S.-China ties Posted: 05 Nov 2019 01:52 PM PST ![Trump-Xi meeting in Iowa would be poignant reminder of better U.S.-China ties]( "Trump-Xi meeting in Iowa would be poignant reminder of better U.S.-China ties") U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that he could sign a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Iowa has set off a flurry of excitement in Muscatine, Iowa, a city on the banks of the Mississippi River that has hosted Xi twice since 1985. Xi returned with much fanfare in 2012 as China's vice president, visiting that home and meeting with a dozen local "Old Friends" - people he had met in the 1980s. Tariffs have had an outsized impact on farmers in Iowa, a big exporter of soybeans.
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| Doubts Over Russia’s U.K. Meddling After Johnson Sits On Report Posted: 05 Nov 2019 01:45 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A U.K. intelligence watchdog has raised concerns over the threat of Russian interference in British elections, according to two people familiar with the findings of a secret report.While the investigation found no "smoking gun" evidence of Kremlin-sponsored interference in the past, the risk could still be there, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee conducted an inquiry into the threat but Boris Johnson's government has refused to release the findings, just as voters prepare to go to the polls in a general election next month. One of the report's authors said the investigation would be potentially relevant to the current election debate.A row over the government's refusal to publish the report dominated Parliament's final day before the body was dissolved for the Dec. 12 election. The government insists that it needs more time to ensure that secret sources of information aren't inadvertently revealed. People familiar with the report are equally insistent this work has already done.Britain's government has in recent years repeatedly accused Russia of trying to meddle in other people's elections, while insisting there's no evidence it has interfered with any U.K. votes. It's a sensitive issue given the divisions that have flowed in particular from the 2016 Brexit referendum.Fake NewsU.K. security officials are cagey even in private about Russian actions. The British voting process itself, involving paper ballots counted by hand in front of observers, is safe from hacking, but they acknowledge there are questions about fake news and interference in online discussions. In its report, the ISC examined the revelation that Russia-based Twitter accounts posted more than 45,000 messages about Brexit in just 48 hours during that campaign.Last year saw a more brutal example of Russian interference in Britain as the attempted poisoning of a spy in the city of Salisbury left a woman dead.ISC chairman Dominic Grieve on Tuesday accused ministers of sitting on the report. The Scottish National Party's Stewart Hosie, who sits on the committee, said he was "at a loss" as why Johnson's office had acted as it had.Labour's foreign affairs spokeswoman Emily Thornberry has questioned the security vetting of Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings, who worked in Russia as a young man, after allegations over his links with Russian academics and intelligence officials.But one person familiar with the contents of the report said it did not mention Johnson or Cummings.Questions MockedOn Tuesday Thornberry's questions were mocked by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who told her in Parliament the insinuation "that No. 10 is somehow in the grip of a Kremlin mole is frankly ridiculous, even by the standards of the loony left."A government official insisted the report contained nothing that ministers wished to hide and that officials had simply run out of time.But one of the committee members said the findings would have a potential impact on the election campaign debate, if ministers had not blocked publication of them."I have no idea why Downing Street decided to sit on it, but it's a sad day for government and Parliament," Grieve said in an interview, declining to comment on the contents of the report. "I don't know what impact it will have on the election -- not zero impact, but probably not much."Influence DisputedThe extent of Russian influence is disputed. According to a report by the Culture Committee, which examined disinformation, the U.K. "cannot state definitively that there was 'no evidence of successful interference' in our democratic process, as the term 'successful' is impossible to define in retrospect." It added: "There is, however, strong evidence that points to hostile state actors influencing democratic processes."However, discussing the EU referendum result. the Director General of MI5 Andrew Parker said last year he was "not aware of any information suggesting that the outcome was determined by any sort of interference." That view was echoed by Ciaran Martin, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, part of intelligence agency GCHQ, in multiple speeches.To contact the reporter on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert HuttonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 11,258 scientists from around the world declare a climate emergency Posted: 05 Nov 2019 01:07 PM PST ![11,258 scientists from around the world declare a climate emergency]( "11,258 scientists from around the world declare a climate emergency") A group of 11,258 scientists from 153 countries are declaring "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency."In an article published Tuesday in BioScience, William J. Ripple and Christopher Wolf of the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University write it is their "moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat."The declaration of a climate emergency comes one day after the Trump administration notified the United Nations that the United States, the country responsible for the second-largest amount of carbon emissions, is removing itself from the Paris climate accord.The article references climate data from the past 40 years, calls out global negotiations for failing to address the issue, and condemns the "business as usual" approach. The climate crisis is both moving faster and is more severe than many expected, the scientists say, threatening "the fate of humanity."The article lays out six steps that should be taken to ease the worst impacts of climate change, pertaining to energy, short-lived pollutants, nature, food, economy, population. The thousands of signatories included both climate scientists and scientists with other focuses, like biologists and ecologists.The good news, they say, is that is that implementing such changes "promises far greater human well-being than does business as usual," and they are encouraged by a recent uptick in concern for the planet.But their message of urgency is clear -- "prospects will be greatest if decision-makers and all of humanity promptly respond to this warning and declaration of a climate emergency and act to sustain life on planet Earth, our only home."
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| 3 protesters killed in clashes as Iraq tries to reopen port Posted: 05 Nov 2019 12:30 PM PST  At least three anti-government protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces in southern Iraq, officials said Tuesday, as authorities tried to reopen the country's main port, which had been blocked by demonstrators for three days. Security and medical officials said a protester was killed and eight more were wounded in Umm Qasr, a key oil terminal on the Persian Gulf. The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, a semi-official agency, said two people were killed and 23 wounded in clashes in the town of Shatrah, north of the southern city of Nasiriyah.
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| US navy prepares allies to 'protect navigation' in Gulf Posted: 05 Nov 2019 12:16 PM PST The United States is training Gulf allies to "protect navigation" in the region's troubled waterways, as Washington seeks to build an alliance of friendly nations to contain Iran. The US' three-week-long International Maritime Exercise (IMX) that began on October 21 comes after a number of commercial vessels were attacked in the Gulf from May, ratcheting up regional tensions. Washington and other Western powers blamed the incidents on Iran, but Tehran has denied any involvement.
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| The Latest: Croatia police find 9 migrants in crate in van Posted: 05 Nov 2019 11:19 AM PST ![The Latest: Croatia police find 9 migrants in crate in van]( "The Latest: Croatia police find 9 migrants in crate in van") Police in Croatia say they have discovered nine migrants crammed in a bolted crate at the back of a van. Police say they found the migrants early Tuesday in eastern Croatia after stopping the van with Polish license plates and hearing voices coming from the crate. The migrants included three men, two women and four minors who said they were from Iran and Iraq.
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| Egypt's president lavishly praises Trump on social media Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:56 AM PST  El-Sissi thanked Trump for his "generous concern" for helping revive Egypt's deadlocked dispute with Ethiopia. The two countries are at odds over Ethiopia's construction of a massive upstream Nile dam, which Egypt claims threatens its water supply. The U.S. is to host talks on Wednesday between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to discuss the dam, Cairo announced last week.
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| Israeli high court greenlights rights activist's expulsion Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:28 AM PST  Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the expulsion of the local director of Human Rights Watch, rejecting an appeal against a lower court's decision and sparking fierce criticism by rights groups that the ruling would harm freedom of expression and their work in the country. The director, Omar Shakir, a U.S. citizen, was initially ordered to leave the country because Israel charged that his advocacy against Israel's Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank amounted to support for the Palestinian-led boycott movement. An Israeli law from 2017 bars entry to those who publicly support a boycott of Israel or its West Bank settlements.
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| Iran will enrich uranium to 5% at Fordow underground nuclear site -official Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:19 AM PST ![Iran will enrich uranium to 5% at Fordow underground nuclear site -official]( "Iran will enrich uranium to 5% at Fordow underground nuclear site -official") Iran will enrich uranium to 5% at its underground Fordow nuclear facility on Wednesday, its nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday, adding the country had the capability to enrich uranium to 20% if needed. "Tomorrow we will enrich uranium to five percent at Fordow ... Right now we have enough 20% enriched uranium but we can produce it if needed," the Students News Agency ISNA quoted Salehi as saying, a day before Iran takes its fourth step to further scale back its commitment to a 2015 nuclear deal.
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| AP Explains: Iran's nuclear facility deep inside a mountain Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:15 AM PST  Iran's Fordo nuclear facility sits deep inside a mountain, with just one structure visible from space. Western intelligence officials have worried about the site since 2008, when satellite images caught work at the site just outside of the Shiite holy city of Qom, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Iran's capital, Tehran. Israel and the U.S. worried that the size of the facility, its hardened position and its air defenses signaled that it could be used for military activities — such as potentially enriching uranium for a nuclear weapon.
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| Lebanese army opens roads closed by protesters amid scuffles Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:03 AM PST  Lebanese troops deployed Tuesday in different parts of the country to reopen roads and main thoroughfares closed by anti-government protesters faced resistance in some areas, leading to scuffles. In most places, protesters withdrew peacefully as the troops moved in. Several protesters were detained by troops.
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| Defending the Perimeter Isn’t Enough on Election Hacking Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST ![Defending the Perimeter Isn't Enough on Election Hacking]( "Defending the Perimeter Isn't Enough on Election Hacking") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The U.S. is now just a year from the 2020 presidential election. In 2016, we saw foreign interests influence the outcome of a presidential race when Russian hackers infiltrated the computer networks of officials in both parties, and then selectively disseminated the emails of Democrats. Is the nation in better shape to counter such threats this time around?It doesn't look like it.For example, Microsoft recently reported an attack by Iranian hackers on the emails of current and former U.S. government officials, journalists covering political campaigns, and accounts associated with a presidential campaign. There is reason to believe that the attack, which consisted of more than 2,700 attempts on targeted email accounts, was backed by the Iranian government.According to security researchers and intelligence officials, hackers from Russia and North Korea have also begun targeting organizations that work closely with 2020 presidential candidates.Foreign enemies continue to see U.S. elections as an opportunity to subvert the will of the American people and exert control over our governance at the highest level. This most recent Iranian attack is a reminder that both political organizations and private enterprises face significant cybersecurity risks.Unfortunately, the legacy electoral systems most voters and organizations rely on do not offer sufficient protection in the modern digital landscape. When facing nation-state adversaries with billions in funding and information resources to rival the U.S. National Security Agency, Americans have to think beyond the popular two-factor authentication protocols. We need to protect not only the voting systems themselves, but the email, file-sharing and other communication systems of ancillary campaign groups, local officials and plenty more.What can we do to defend ourselves better? In my military and cyber experience, the operating principle is that the sophisticated attacker will eventually find a way through any perimeter defense. As supreme allied commander of NATO in the late 2000s, I pushed to strengthen the alliance's nascent Cyber Defense Center in Tallinn, Estonia — but saw firsthand how easily Russian hackers penetrated our digital perimeter.Protections must be designed so that even if the attacker succeeds in getting to the target, the target remains safe. To do so, we need to think in terms of four core principles for secure communication systems that will be resilient to the inevitable breach.First, systems must employ end-to-end encryption. (Disclosure: I serve on the board of an information-security firm, Preveil Llc.) If we assume that attackers will be able to exploit vulnerabilities in server software or the defense mechanisms that guard it, then the only way to keep information secure is to make sure that it's never exposed, even while on the server. With end-to-end encryption, data is only accessible to the sender and the recipient — it isn't accessible en route to the server or on the server. Even if the server is compromised, the data is not. Think of this as the difference between working in an Ebola environment in a body suit, which will eventually weaken at the seams, and being vaccinated against the disease. The perimeter defense is far from worthless, but the vaccine — the internal protection — is vastly better. A second concern is the vulnerability of anything in the system that becomes a juicy target. While end-to-end encryption eliminates the server as a single entity that can be compromised, if the system has administrators with global access, a high-yield single target for attackers remains. To solve this problem, access to large amounts of sensitive user data should be granted only after being approved by several trusted individuals. Similar to the systems used for nuclear-launch codes, encryption cryptography can break up individual user keys into fragments that are distributed among multiple people. Therefore, administrative access to users' accounts is achieved only when all key shards are present, so there is no single administrator who attackers can compromise to gain access.Third, it's time to do away with passwords. According to the report of the 2019 Verizon data breach investigations, 80% of hacking-related breaches involve compromised and weak credentials. Rather than depending on fallible passwords, secure communication systems should now grant account access using a private encryption key. A 256-bit encryption key has a lot of different possible combinations of characters — nearly 10 to the 78th power, the same as the number of atoms in the universe — and is not crackable with existing computational power. Because the key is stored only on the user's physical device, remote access isn't possible.Finally, it is important to protect the most sensitive communications from socially engineered phishing and spoofing attacks. Traditional digital communications provide an opening for impostors to trick users into clicking on dangerous links or leaking information. When only known users are able to communicate with each other about an organization's most confidential information, that risk of "lookalike" accounts is eliminated. The strongest security systems don't depend on users to be perfect, or to always exercise good judgment. They make sure that data is safe even when humans are flawed. Getting at this "insider threat" is crucial.Security is a serious matter for organizations of all types, not just political parties during an election season. Organizations should rethink their security preparedness with a deeper understanding of the adversaries' capabilities. They need to make the shift to secure systems modeled around these four core principles — including adopting ready-to-use encrypted communications systems for email and file-sharing.Between now and Nov. 3, 2020, there should be few higher priorities than improving security to stop hackers and foreign powers from threatening American democracy itself.To contact the author of this story: James Stavridis at jstavridis@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.James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also an operating executive consultant at the Carlyle Group and chairs the board of counselors at McLarty Associates.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Defending the Perimeter Isn’t Enough on Election Hacking Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST ![Defending the Perimeter Isn't Enough on Election Hacking]( "Defending the Perimeter Isn't Enough on Election Hacking") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The U.S. is now just a year from the 2020 presidential election. In 2016, we saw foreign interests influence the outcome of a presidential race when Russian hackers infiltrated the computer networks of officials in both parties, and then selectively disseminated the emails of Democrats. Is the nation in better shape to counter such threats this time around?It doesn't look like it.For example, Microsoft recently reported an attack by Iranian hackers on the emails of current and former U.S. government officials, journalists covering political campaigns, and accounts associated with a presidential campaign. There is reason to believe that the attack, which consisted of more than 2,700 attempts on targeted email accounts, was backed by the Iranian government.According to security researchers and intelligence officials, hackers from Russia and North Korea have also begun targeting organizations that work closely with 2020 presidential candidates.Foreign enemies continue to see U.S. elections as an opportunity to subvert the will of the American people and exert control over our governance at the highest level. This most recent Iranian attack is a reminder that both political organizations and private enterprises face significant cybersecurity risks.Unfortunately, the legacy electoral systems most voters and organizations rely on do not offer sufficient protection in the modern digital landscape. When facing nation-state adversaries with billions in funding and information resources to rival the U.S. National Security Agency, Americans have to think beyond the popular two-factor authentication protocols. We need to protect not only the voting systems themselves, but the email, file-sharing and other communication systems of ancillary campaign groups, local officials and plenty more.What can we do to defend ourselves better? In my military and cyber experience, the operating principle is that the sophisticated attacker will eventually find a way through any perimeter defense. As supreme allied commander of NATO in the late 2000s, I pushed to strengthen the alliance's nascent Cyber Defense Center in Tallinn, Estonia — but saw firsthand how easily Russian hackers penetrated our digital perimeter.Protections must be designed so that even if the attacker succeeds in getting to the target, the target remains safe. To do so, we need to think in terms of four core principles for secure communication systems that will be resilient to the inevitable breach.First, systems must employ end-to-end encryption. (Disclosure: I serve on the board of an information-security firm, Preveil Llc.) If we assume that attackers will be able to exploit vulnerabilities in server software or the defense mechanisms that guard it, then the only way to keep information secure is to make sure that it's never exposed, even while on the server. With end-to-end encryption, data is only accessible to the sender and the recipient — it isn't accessible en route to the server or on the server. Even if the server is compromised, the data is not. Think of this as the difference between working in an Ebola environment in a body suit, which will eventually weaken at the seams, and being vaccinated against the disease. The perimeter defense is far from worthless, but the vaccine — the internal protection — is vastly better. A second concern is the vulnerability of anything in the system that becomes a juicy target. While end-to-end encryption eliminates the server as a single entity that can be compromised, if the system has administrators with global access, a high-yield single target for attackers remains. To solve this problem, access to large amounts of sensitive user data should be granted only after being approved by several trusted individuals. Similar to the systems used for nuclear-launch codes, encryption cryptography can break up individual user keys into fragments that are distributed among multiple people. Therefore, administrative access to users' accounts is achieved only when all key shards are present, so there is no single administrator who attackers can compromise to gain access.Third, it's time to do away with passwords. According to the report of the 2019 Verizon data breach investigations, 80% of hacking-related breaches involve compromised and weak credentials. Rather than depending on fallible passwords, secure communication systems should now grant account access using a private encryption key. A 256-bit encryption key has a lot of different possible combinations of characters — nearly 10 to the 78th power, the same as the number of atoms in the universe — and is not crackable with existing computational power. Because the key is stored only on the user's physical device, remote access isn't possible.Finally, it is important to protect the most sensitive communications from socially engineered phishing and spoofing attacks. Traditional digital communications provide an opening for impostors to trick users into clicking on dangerous links or leaking information. When only known users are able to communicate with each other about an organization's most confidential information, that risk of "lookalike" accounts is eliminated. The strongest security systems don't depend on users to be perfect, or to always exercise good judgment. They make sure that data is safe even when humans are flawed. Getting at this "insider threat" is crucial.Security is a serious matter for organizations of all types, not just political parties during an election season. Organizations should rethink their security preparedness with a deeper understanding of the adversaries' capabilities. They need to make the shift to secure systems modeled around these four core principles — including adopting ready-to-use encrypted communications systems for email and file-sharing.Between now and Nov. 3, 2020, there should be few higher priorities than improving security to stop hackers and foreign powers from threatening American democracy itself.To contact the author of this story: James Stavridis at jstavridis@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.James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also an operating executive consultant at the Carlyle Group and chairs the board of counselors at McLarty Associates.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| U.S.-China trade negotiations may receive boost from joint opioid smuggling investigation Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:56 AM PST ![U.S.-China trade negotiations may receive boost from joint opioid smuggling investigation]( "U.S.-China trade negotiations may receive boost from joint opioid smuggling investigation") A joint law enforcement investigation between the United States and China may help inch the two countries closer to a long-anticipated trade deal, Bloomberg reports. The investigation reportedly revolves around fentanyl smuggling, and China's National Narcotics Control Commission is expected to hold a press conference Thursday about the case, in which officers from both countries will reportedly give a briefing on their cooperation. Fentanyl is a highly addictive painkiller that has played a central role in the opioid crisis, leading to thousands of deaths in the U.S.Washington has criticized Beijing in the past for not doing enough to stop nefarious opioid smuggling practices, and President Trump has specifically called out Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to live up to a promise to crack down on the practice. But the recent cooperation on the smuggling front may help swing the negotiation pendulum back in the right direction. Bloomberg notes the concession from China, could help Trump sell his negotiation tactics to struggling farms, the U.S. business community, and trade hardliners within his own administration. Read more at Bloomberg.
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| In last days, al-Baghdadi sought safety in shrinking domain Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:38 AM PST  In his last months on the run, Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was agitated, fearful of traitors, sometimes disguised as a shepherd, sometimes hiding underground, always dependent on a shrinking circle of confidants. Associates paint a picture of a man obsessed with his security and well-being and trying to find safety in towns and deserts in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border as the extremists' domains crumbled. In the end, the brutal leader once hailed as "caliph" left former IS areas completely, slipping into hostile territory in Syria's northwestern Idlib province run by the radical group's al-Qaida-linked rivals.
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| Putin calls for Russian alternative to Wikipedia Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:37 AM PST  The president told a Kremlin meeting of a committee on the future of the Russian language: "As for Wikipedia... it's better to replace it with the new Big Russian Encyclopaedia in electronic form," RIA Novosti news agency reported. Putin was referring to a Russian encyclopaedia that came out between 2007 and 2014 and is currently only available in paper form. The government plans to allocate nearly 1.7 billion rubles ($26.7 million) towards a Russian online reference resource similar to Wikipedia in the next three years, according to government documents published in September.
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| Hammond’s Departure Shows U.K. Tories Have Shifted Under Johnson Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:18 AM PST ![Hammond's Departure Shows U.K. Tories Have Shifted Under Johnson]( "Hammond's Departure Shows U.K. Tories Have Shifted Under Johnson") (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. election next month will see the departure from Parliament of two former Chancellors of the Exchequer. As well as having run the Treasury, Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond share another distinction: They were both expelled from the Conservative Party in September.The retirement of Clarke, 79, has been a while coming. For Hammond, 64, it is more abrupt. Announcing he wouldn't be a candidate in a letter to voters published on Twitter, he was clear it wasn't his preference. "I am saddened to find myself in this position after 45 years of Conservative Party membership," he wrote.Boris Johnson moved quickly to impose himself on the party after he became leader in July and expelled 21 Tory MPs for voting against him over Brexit in September. At the end of October, 10 were readmitted, meaning they can stand for the party at the election. Others embraced their dismissal: Sam Gyimah and Antoinette Sandbach are now Liberal Democrats, and Dominic Grieve is running as an independent in his district of Beaconsfield.Although discipline was vital in any attempt to get a Brexit deal through Parliament, and is likely to be important if Johnson wins on Dec. 12, many Conservatives bridled at having loyalty urged on them by a man who had stoked rebellion against his predecessor Theresa May, twice voting against her Brexit deal. As Hammond observed in his letter, "many parliamentary colleagues have defied the party whip on occasions without any action being taken against them."The prime minister's action carries two dangers: The first is voters will wonder what kind of Conservative Party has no room for Clarke, a grand old man of British politics and an MP for almost half a century, and Hammond, who was chancellor less than four months ago. The second comes when Parliament returns.Johnson will be counting on the Conservative who replaces Hammond being more loyal, and more willing to vote the way he wants. But their disagreement was about the threat of a no-deal Brexit, a possible outcome rejected by the former Chancellor.Now Johnson has got a deal, his worry is less about MPs on Hammond's side of the argument, who will vote for a deal. The danger will come from ardent supporters of Brexit, who would prefer to leave without an agreement. It's possible Hammond's replacement will be in that mold.To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Alex MoralesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iran's Maximum Pressure Plan: Invest in a New Nuclear Threat Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:10 AM PST  By injecting uranium hexafluoride gas into the centrifuges at Fordow, Iran is breaking a key part of the deal—and beginning the process to enrich uranium, which can be used as nuclear fuel.
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| Iran announces most provocative step yet since US withdrawal from nuclear deal: injecting uranium gas into centrifuges Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:07 AM PST  Iran's president announced Tuesday that his government will begin injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo -- the latest step away from the nuclear deal that Tehran signed with the U.S. and other world powers after President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement. It's also the most provocative move yet by Iran because of Fordo's symbolic importance in the tense nuclear negotiations that led to the nuclear deal, which is increasingly unraveling in a slow march towards a nuclear crisis the world seems to be paying little attention to.
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| Trump tariffs cost China $35 bln, hurt both economies - UN Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:00 AM PST  A trade war between the world's top two economies cut U.S. imports of Chinese goods by more than a quarter, or $35 billion, in the first half of this year and drove up prices for American consumers, a U.N. study showed on Tuesday. If that fails, nearly all Chinese goods imports into the United States - worth more than $500 billion - could be affected.
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| Yemen's government, separatists sign deal to stop infighting Posted: 05 Nov 2019 08:59 AM PST  Yemen's internationally recognized government signed a power-sharing deal on Tuesday with southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. The two groups are in an alliance against Yemen's Houthi rebels.
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| UK govt denies suppressing Russia meddling probe ahead of polls Posted: 05 Nov 2019 08:51 AM PST  Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government on Tuesday rejected claims it was suppressing a parliamentary report about possible Russian interference in British politics to avoid a scandal ahead of next month's snap election. The probe by parliament's intelligence and security committee into suspected Russian covert actions in Britain's democratic process reportedly includes examining whether Moscow tried to interfere with the 2016 Brexit vote and the 2017 general election. Moscow has been accused of spearheading sophisticated disinformation campaigns around the world to further its interests, including trying to manipulate elections in the United States.
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| Britain says Iran's move on nuclear deal is a threat to national security Posted: 05 Nov 2019 08:32 AM PST ![Britain says Iran's move on nuclear deal is a threat to national security]( "Britain says Iran's move on nuclear deal is a threat to national security") Foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Tuesday that Iran's decision to take a new step to reduce commitments to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal posed a threat to Britain's national security. Iran said on Monday it had launched a new batch of advanced centrifuges to accelerate uranium enrichment, following the withdrawal from the nuclear pact by the United States. "Iran's latest actions clearly contravene the deal and pose a risk to our national security," Raab said.
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| Pompeo Faces Political Peril and Diplomats' Revolt in Impeachment Inquiry Posted: 05 Nov 2019 08:23 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- As President Donald Trump's first CIA director, Mike Pompeo was briefed by agency officials on the extensive evidence -- including U.S. intercepts of conversations between participants -- showing that Russian hackers working for the government of Vladimir Putin had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. In May 2017, Pompeo testified in a Senate hearing that he stood by that conclusion.Two and a half years later, Pompeo seems to have changed his mind. As Trump's second secretary of state, he now supports an investigation into a discredited, partisan theory that Ukraine, not Russia, attacked the Democratic National Committee, which Trump wants to use to make the case that he was elected without Moscow's help. "Inquiries with respect to that are completely important," Pompeo said last month. "I think everyone recognizes that governments have an obligation -- indeed, a duty -- to ensure that elections happen with integrity, without interference from any government, whether that's the Ukrainian government or any other."Pompeo's spreading of a false narrative at the heart of the Ukraine scandal is the most striking example of how he has fallen off the tightrope he has traversed for the past 18 months: demonstrating loyalty to the president while insisting to others he was pursuing a traditional, conservative foreign policy. Pompeo, 55, now finds himself at the most perilous moment of his political life as veteran diplomats testify to Congress that Trump and his allies hijacked Ukraine policy for political gain -- and as congressional investigators look into what Pompeo knew of the machinations of Trump and Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer.It was Pompeo who helped Trump and Giuliani oust the respected U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, in April. Both Michael McKinley, a senior adviser to. Pompeo and a four-time ambassador, and Philip T. Reeker, the acting assistant secretary for Europe, testified that they asked State Department leadership to defend Yovanovitch from false accusations, only to be rejected. McKinley said he personally urged Pompeo three times to issue a defense; the revelation of that detail in a transcript released on Monday undercut a declaration Pompeo made in an interview last month that he "never heard" McKinley "say a single thing" about Yovanovitch's ouster.Two weeks ago, Pompeo did not speak out on behalf of the war veteran he asked to fill Yovanovitch's job, William B. Taylor Jr., after Trump attacked the diplomat over his blistering testimony on the president's quid pro quo demands. In fact, Pompeo has tried to block officials under him from testifying.At the same time, Pompeo is facing a revolt in the State Department. Confidence in his leadership has plummeted among career officials, who accuse him of abandoning veteran diplomats criticized by Trump and letting the president's personal political agenda infect foreign policy.Many diplomats now contend that Pompeo has done more damage to the 75,000-person agency than even his predecessor Rex Tillerson, an aloof oil executive reviled by department employees."In my view, and I say this with a great deal of reluctance as Secretary Pompeo tried at the start of his tenure to lift up the career service, he has failed the men and women of the department in his most important responsibility -- to support them in the deepest crisis the service has faced in memory," said Nicholas Burns, the State Department's top career official under President George W. Bush and now a Harvard professor who advises Joe Biden's presidential campaign.Some State Department officials have resorted to back channels to voice their complaints, congressional aides said. Over the summer, as confidence in Pompeo eroded, a stream of career officials spoke quietly with congressional offices about their concerns over administration policy -- on the hold on Ukraine military aid, a move to cut $4 billion of foreign aid and arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.On Oct. 23, the three congressional impeachment committees said Pompeo had overseen a "culture of harassment and impunity." That echoed what Yovanovitch had told investigators: The State Department was being "attacked and hollowed out from within," she said.In interviews Oct. 30 with Fox News and The New York Post, two of Trump's favorite media organizations, Pompeo pushed a new conspiracy theory involving Biden's son and President Barack Obama's policy of military aid to Ukraine -- a theory that career officials under him find outlandish."Pompeo has consistently demonstrated that the only safe place on Trump's foreign policy team is to be more Trumpian than the president himself," said Andrew Weiss, a former official with the White House National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon in Democratic and Republican administrations. "Whether that means trafficking in over-the-top partisan attacks on Trump's opponents or conspiracy-mongering about the 2016 election and the Ukraine scandal, he's always willing to go there.""It seems that the only thing Pompeo is consistently prioritizing is his own personal political ambitions as opposed to what's actually good for the country's long-term national interests or the institutional well-being of the State Department," added Weiss, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.The recent wave of criticism has made Pompeo, known for a short fuse, even more testy in public. When a reporter asked Pompeo whether Trump's abandonment of Kurdish partners in Syria had undercut U.S. credibility, he lashed out, saying, "The whole predicate of your question is insane."A battered diplomatic corps is finding some solace in the nomination by Trump and Pompeo last Thursday of their North Korea envoy, Stephen E. Biegun, as the deputy secretary of state. Biegun is a longtime national security professional who worked for Condoleezza Rice in the Bush administration.Still, Pompeo's problems are growing as his frequent trips to Kansas, his adopted home state, come under greater scrutiny.Last Tuesday, Sen. Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to look into whether Pompeo was violating the Hatch Act by traveling to Kansas four times this year, three on taxpayer-funded official trips. Many people speculate that Pompeo, a former Republican Tea Party congressman backed by the Koch family, plans to run for the Senate next year, and that the trips amount to a shadow campaign.On Oct. 25, as Pompeo was on his most recent visit, made with Ivanka Trump, The Kansas City Star ran an editorial with the headline "Mike Pompeo, Either Quit and Run for U.S. Senate in Kansas or Focus on Your Day Job.""He should by all means focus on U.S. diplomacy -- remember diplomacy? -- and stop hanging out here every chance he gets," it said.But it is Pompeo's murky role in the shadow Ukraine policy that is keeping him in the cross hairs. Congressional investigators have subpoenaed his old friend and former business partner, Ulrich T. Brechbuhl, the State Department's counselor.The State Department did not answer detailed questions submitted for this article. In a combative interview with ABC News on Oct. 20, Pompeo declined to discuss Ukraine. He addressed the issue of low morale in his department by saying, "I see motivated officers."The revelations on Ukraine have shown Pompeo had direct knowledge of Trump's shadow policy, and seems to have enabled it.In October, after the publication of news reports, Pompeo admitted he took part in the pivotal July telephone call between. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine. That was the same call that prompted a CIA employee to file the whistleblower complaint that ignited the impeachment inquiry.And in August, Pompeo received an urgent cable from Taylor, the chief of mission in Ukraine, saying it was "folly" to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine.Though Taylor said that he heard Pompeo brought that Aug. 29 cable to the White House, Pompeo has refused to say what he advised. Some people familiar with the issue say he urged the president to resume military aid in September, fearful that the pressure on Ukrainian leaders for political favors would come back to bite the administration.In April, Pompeo complied when Trump ordered Yovanovitch removed from her ambassador post, the result of a right-wing media campaign by Giuliani and his associates that asserted, without evidence, that the ambassador had disparaged Trump.John J. Sullivan,. Pompeo's deputy and Trump's nominee for ambassador to Russia, conceded at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he knew Giuliani was among those trying to "smear" Yovanovitch, but said he was told by Pompeo only that the president "had lost confidence in her."Yovanovitch testified that Sullivan had told her that department leaders feared that if they did not remove her immediately from her post, Trump would humiliate her with a tweet.For career officials, Yovanovitch, a three-time ambassador, is a rallying point. Multiple op-eds and open letters with scores of signatures from former officials have called on Pompeo to defend Yovanovitch and the other officials who are shedding light on policies.The latest letter, with more than 400 signatures from mostly former employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said State Department colleagues were "under siege." "We are angered at the treatment of dedicated, experienced and wise public servants like Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch," it said.McKinley told lawmakers Oct. 16 that he resigned recently because department leaders had failed to support diplomats caught up in the impeachment inquiry, and because of "the engagement of our missions to procure negative political information for domestic purposes," according to a transcript of the testimony.He said he believed the State Department was being used to dig up dirt on a political opponent of the president. "In 37 years in the Foreign Service and different parts of the globe and working on many controversial issues, working 10 years back in Washington, I had never seen that," he said.McKinley also spoke of low morale arising from the leadership's inaction after the department's inspector general released a report in August that detailed how two political appointees in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs -- assistant secretary Kevin Moley and his senior adviser Marie Stull -- had harassed career employees. The inspector general is finalizing a similar investigation into another appointee, Brian H. Hook, the special representative on Iran."Morale at the State Department is rock bottom, but spirits have been lifted by the courage of these patriots," Wendy Sherman, the department's third-ranking official under President Barack Obama, said of McKinley and others testifying.While failing to back his veteran diplomats, Pompeo has taken to the airwaves to defend Giuliani.Pompeo told CBS News on Sept. 22 that Giuliani's request of Ukraine to investigate Biden was appropriate. "I think the American people deserve to know," he said.Giuliani said Pompeo had told him that he "was aware of" Giuliani's efforts, and Giuliani passed a dossier of questionable documents on Ukraine to Pompeo. The State Department special representative for Ukraine, Kurt D. Volker, was involved in Giuliani's interactions with Ukrainian officials.Gordon D. Sondland, a Trump campaign donor and ambassador to the European Union who was a main player in the quid pro quo demands on Ukraine, told congressional investigators on Oct. 17 that Pompeo had endorsed his activities."I understand that all my actions involving Ukraine had the blessing of Secretary Pompeo as my work was consistent with long-standing U.S. foreign policy objectives," he said. "Indeed, very recently, Secretary Pompeo sent me a congratulatory note that I was doing great work, and he encouraged me to keep banging away."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Palestinian photographer finds 2nd calling as wire sculptor Posted: 05 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PST  After 14 years as a photographer in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one Palestinian man has found his second calling through sculpture, telling stories by recycling metal wire into art. In the garden of his small house in the village of Bilin, 43-year-old Haitham Khateeb twists and binds wires into images of the Palestinian experience — both tragic and joyous. For over a decade, Khateeb's village was itself a flashpoint for protests against Israel's separation wall.
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| Hammond Quits Parliament After Expulsion by Johnson: U.K. Votes Posted: 05 Nov 2019 07:54 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg was forced to apologize after saying some of the 72 people killed in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London might have survived if they'd shown "common sense.'' The comments angered victims' families and stoked criticism from opposition parties that the ruling Conservatives are out of touch.Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Boris Johnson of seeking a hard-right agenda under the banner of Brexit while former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond quit parliament with a swipe at the prime minister for not allowing a wide range of views in his Tory party.Key Developments:Labour leader Corbyn says Johnson is trying to "hijack Brexit to sell out our NHS and working people"Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson rules out helping Corbyn take power in a hung ParliamentBBC poll tracker shows the Conservatives on an upward trajectory, and some signs of recovery for Labour. The Brexit Party is seen losing supportRead more: Johnson and Corbyn Trade Brexit Barbs as U.K. Election Heats UpFormer Chancellor Hammond Quits Parliament (3:30 p.m.)Philip Hammond, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer less than four months ago, has announced he's quitting Parliament after his expulsion from the Parliamentary Conservative Party. In a letter to constituents posted on Twitter, Hammond, who was thrown out of the party for opposing Boris Johnson's Brexit strategy, said he couldn't run in the coming election as a Conservative and wouldn't run as an independent against the party he joined 45 years ago. He said the situation left him "saddened," and that in the past, the Conservative Party had "always had room for a wide variety of opinions and been tolerant of measured dissent."London Poll Shows Corbyn Lead Halved (3:15 p.m.)Labour's lead over the Conservatives in London has halved since 2017, according to a YouGov poll, potentially putting six of the opposition party's seats at risk.The survey -- commissioned by Queen Mary University of London's Mile End Institute -- shows both the Tories and Labour have lost ground to the Liberal Democrats since the 2017 general election, but Labour more so. Labour did particularly poorly in polling in inner London, where they were on 38% -- down from 65% at the last general election."Compared to the position in 2017, these figures mean a fall of 16 points in the Labour share of the vote and just a four point drop in the Conservative share," said Philip Cowley, the institute's director. "In practice, assuming no change by polling day, this would almost certainly mean seats being lost by Labour and gained by the Conservatives."However, he warned against making firm constituency-by-constituency predictions based on the poll. "Seat projections are a tricky business at the best of times -- and these aren't the best of times," he said.Rees-Mogg Apologizes for Grenfell Fire Comments (2:25 p.m.)Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg was forced to apologize after saying some of the 72 people killed in the Grenfell Tower might have survived if they'd shown "common sense'' and ignored fire service instructions to stay in their apartments when the tower block in West London caught fire.Rees-Mogg made the comment on LBC radio on Monday, sparking anger from groups representing the families of those who died in the disaster in 2017."I profoundly apologize. What I meant to say is that I would have also listened to the fire brigade's advice to stay and wait at the time," Rees-Mogg said in a statement to the Evening Standard newspaper. "However, with what we know now and with hindsight, I wouldn't and I don't think anyone else would.''There was anger in Downing Street at the comments by Rees-Mogg, who revels in his image as a member of the English upper class. The Conservative Party is keen not to give any ammunition to Labour claims that its MPs are out of touch with ordinary people.Corbyn Aiming for All-Out Victory (12:50 p.m.)While the smaller opposition parties squabble over who night or might not prop up a minority Labour government, Jeremy Corbyn refused to entertain anything but victory as he campaigned in Harlow, north of London."We are campaigning to win," the Labour leader said when asked if he would accept the Liberal Democrat policy of blocking Brexit if it was a condition for the party propping up a Labour government. "We are not campaigning to form a coalition with anybody."Corbyn said he is proud that Labour's policy straddles the Brexit divide. "Why would I only want to talk to one half of the country?" he asked.But in a YouGov poll published Tuesday, 65% of respondents said they are unclear about Labour's position on Brexit, whereas the majority said they do understand the policies of the Conservatives, the Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats. YouGov polled 1,606 adults on Oct. 30-31.Barnier Warns Cliff-Edge Risk Remains (12:30 p.m.)Away from the election campaign, Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, issued a warning to Downing Street over its ambition of striking a trade deal by the time the transition period expires at the end of 2020.The government has ruled out taking up the option of extending that deadline beyond the year-end. Johnson has been clear that he expects the talks to be "extremely simple."Speaking in Lisbon, Barnier pointed out that the 11 months left to negotiate a trade deal after Brexit on Jan. 31 would be "extremely short" and that the talks would be "difficult and demanding" because the U.K. would probably want to diverge from EU rules. He described the summer of 2020, the last point at which the U.K. could request an extension, as "the moment of truth."Earlier, Johnson's spokesman, James Slack, said the government won't give MPs a vote on extending the transition period -- a position that apparently contradicts Justice Secretary Robert Buckland's commitment on Oct. 22 to give Parliament a say "on the merits of an extension."A U.K. official said that commitment from the government was no longer applicable given the Brexit bill was not passed.Swinson Leaves Door Open to Supporting Labour (12:15 p.m.)It's worth noting that Liberal democrat Leader Jo Swinson used very specific language in ruling out helping Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn into power (See 11:10 a.m.). That leaves open the door to Liberal Democrat support for Labour under a different leader in the event no party secures a majority.The Liberal Democrats have repeatedly fielded questions about who they might support in a hung Parliament, but they're wary of forming a coalition after their 5-year stint in government with the Conservatives ended in electoral disaster in 2015.Nevertheless, after the last three elections yielded two hung Parliaments and a narrow Tory win, questions about cross-party cooperation aren't going away.Raab Mocks Question on Cummings and Russia (12 p.m.)Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab mocked Labour's Emily Thornberry after she asked whether Boris Johnson's adviser Dominic Cummings has connections with Russian intelligence. Thornberry questioned Cummings' level of security vetting after the Sunday Times reported that a whistleblower had raised concerns."I think the insinuation in her letter that Number 10 is in the grip of a Kremlin mole is frankly ridiculous even by the standards of the loony left," Raab said. He added that the Intelligence and Security Committee Report into alleged Russian electoral interference (see 10:55 a.m.) had not had the necessary time to be processed by officials.Social Media Companies Told to Block Abuse (11:40 a.m.)Social media companies must work together to protect candidates in the run-up to the Dec. 12 general election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman James Slack told reporters.The use of internet platforms for the abuse of rivals in the vote was discussed at cabinet on Tuesday morning after Home Secretary Priti Patel briefed ministers on steps being taken to block threatening behavior.The U.K. wants a single standard agreed by social media companies and for them to co-operate over the issue, Slack said. "This is not a new issue. This is not a surprise. This is something we believe - and the country believes - the companies should take seriously," Slack said.Corbyn: Johnson Brexit Deal Means Thatcherism (11:30 a.m.)Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked Boris Johnson's Brexit deal as a hard-right, Thatcherite plot to sell the National Health Service to U.S. companies."Johnson is trying to hijack Brexit to sell out our NHS and working people," Corbyn said in a speech in Harlow, north of London. He is trying to cash in the votes of millions who voted to leave the EU, to buy political power for himself and then sell them out."Harlow, in Essex, is seen as a bellwether seat because the government of the day has won it in every election since 1983. Labour is now trying to win back this marginal Brexit-backing seat after it swung to the Tories in 2010.Health service chiefs have tried to dissuade parties from using the state-funded health service as a battleground but, with the election taking place in winter when hospitals are under strain, it's unlikely those warnings will be heeded.Swinson Rules Out Helping Corbyn (11:10 a.m.)Jo Swinson said she would "categorically" rule out any pact that put Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street in the event no party secures a majority at next month's general election.Swinson said she didn't trust Corbyn on Brexit -- she previously said the Labour leader wants to take the U.K. out of the European Union -- and also pointed to the atmosphere in Labour that had led to MPs including Luciana Berger (see 10:50 a.m.) quitting the party due to antisemitism.Don't Abuse Statistics, Watchdog Warns Parties (11 a.m.)David Norgrove, chairman of the U.K. Statistics Authority, warned politicians campaigning for the Dec. 12 election not to abuse data in their attempts to win votes.Sources of statistics should be clear and accessible, Norgrove said in a letter to party leaders as he called on them to avoid selectively using numbers to back their positions."Statistics can be a powerful support for an argument, but misuse damages their integrity, causes confusion and undermines trust,'' Norgrove said in a statement. "This is particularly important during the intense public scrutiny of an election campaign, where misinformation can spread quickly.''Grieve: Time Running Out for Russia Report (10:55 a.m.)Dominic Grieve, chairman of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, said time is running out for the publication of a report into alleged Russian activity in the U.K. -- including claims of espionage, subversion and interference in elections.Even though the report was finalized in March and given to Boris Johnson's office on Oct. 17, the government has yet to publish it. Grieve, who was expelled from the Tory party for opposing the prime minister's Brexit strategy, says ministers are attempting to bury its findings.He will question the government on the issue in the House of Commons at about 12:30 p.m. As it's Parliament's last sitting day before the election, "time is running out" as the report must be made available while MPs are in session, he said in an interview.Lib Dems Pledge to Beat 'Old Tired Parties' (10:50 a.m.)Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson launched her party's general election campaign on Tuesday with a pledge to stop Brexit and plow billions of pounds into public services."Any form of Brexit will damage our jobs, our economy and our public services, starving them of vital cash as the economy struggles along," Swinson said in a speech in London. Canceling Britain's departure from the European Union, she said, would yield a 50 billion-pound ($65 billion) dividend that her party would plow into public services over the next five years.Swinson was introduced by Luciana Berger, a former Labour MP who's one of eight defectors from other parties to swell the ranks of the Lib Dems. She called Swinson the party's candidate for prime minister, showing the grand ambitions of a party that won just 12 seats in 2012.Swinson said it was time to break away from the "big old tired parties," and that change is possible. "When I look at Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, I am absolutely certain I could do a better job than either of them."New Speaker Concerned About Candidate Safety (8:30 a.m.)Lindsay Hoyle, the new House of Commons speaker, said he's concerned about the security of candidates on the campaign trail. He said the police are working on a letter of advice about personal security."I do worry about the abuse and level of threat," Hoyle told BBC radio. His comments come after several MPs said they are stepping down at the election due to online and personal abuse.Labour, Tories Dispute Timescale for New Deal (8:15 a.m.)Labour's Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said that if his party wins next month's election, he could renegotiate a Brexit deal with the European Union within three months, judging by discussions he has already had.But in an open letter to Corbyn, Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Labour of offering nothing but uncertainty and delay, and on Tuesday, Cabinet minister Michael Gove stuck to that line of attack. Corbyn "would go back to Brussels, he would re-negotiate the whole deal -- that would take months, possibly years," Gove told the BBC.SNP Hints at Backing for Corbyn (7:40 a.m.)Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon hinted her party could support Jeremy Corbyn's Labour if no one wins an outright majority at the election. Another so-called hung Parliament would put the SNP in a strong position to hold the balance of power, she said.Sturgeon told the BBC her party will not enter into formal coalition with any party, and ruled out backing the Conservatives under any circumstances."We could be facing a hung Parliament," Sturgeon said. "If the SNP is holding the balance of power after that, then that's an incredibly powerful and influential position for Scotland to be in."She added that while Corbyn is guilty of "prevarication" and "lack of leadership" if he were in government it would be better to have "strong SNP voices in there, making sure that Scotland's interests are protected."Earlier:Johnson and Corbyn Trade Brexit Barbs as U.K. Election Heats UpU.K. Parliament Picks Speaker With Pledge to Heal Brexit DivideCorbyn Goes on the Attack in Brexit Speech: U.K. Campaign Trail\--With assistance from Thomas Penny and Jessica Shankleman.To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| France to set 'annual quotas' for migrant workers in taboo-breaking move Posted: 05 Nov 2019 07:44 AM PST  France is to introduce annual quotas for non-EU migrant workers in a taboo-breaking move seen as part of President Emmanuel Macron's attempt to toughen his stance on immigration to ward off the far-Right. Starting next year, authorities and bosses will earmark industries in need of qualified staff and make it easier to hire foreigners to fill the gap, said Labour minister Muriel Penicaud. "This is about France hiring based on its needs. It's a new approach, similar to what is done in Canada or Australia," Ms Penicaud told BFM TV. Others measures due to be official unveiled on Wednesday by prime minister Edouard Philippe include suspending health care for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants for the first three months in the country. The government says it wants to stamp out "health tourism", particularly from Albanians and Georgians, who don't require visas to enter the Schengen passport-free zone. "Lots come to get healthcare. They know it's free," a ministerial source told Le Monde. Mr Macron recently warned his centrist colleagues not to shy away from tackling immigration or risk being dismissed by many voters as an out-of-touch "bourgeois party". After initially rejecting the idea of quotas, he mooted the idea in January during a national debate in the wake of "yellow vest" protests. President Emmanuel Macron initially mooted cutting immigration during the revolt of the "yellow vests" some 40 per cent of whom are estimated to support Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration party Credit: Kiran Ridley/ Getty Images Europe A large majority of French feel there are too many foreigners in the country, which received a record 122,743 asylum requests last year, up 22 per cent from the year before, while most EU members saw a drop in numbers. The measures come as polls suggest that Mr Macron's main political rival in the run-up to 2022 presidential elections remains Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-Right National Rally. A survey out this week saw her gain 45 per cent of voter intentions in case of a run-off with Mr Macron compared to 34 per cent in 2017. The pair would be neck and neck in round one. Currently employers have to justify why a French citizen cannot be hired in an arcane process, which resulted in around 33,000 economic migrants being granted visas last year. Its list of sectors lacking national candidates has not been updated since 2008. While France's unemployment remains at 8.5 per cent - high by British standards but the lowest in the country in a decade - there are shortages of people willing to accept low-paid work in areas such as construction, hotels and restaurants, and some retailing sectors. At the higher end, there is a dearth of qualified national candidates in areas from the IT and engineering industries to vets. Ms Penicaud said that nationality was not a criteria and that the "professional" migrant would have "a visa for a fixed period and for a given job". French conservatives tentatively welcomed the quota plan. "It's an idea we have defended for many years so I won't say it's a bad idea," said Aurélien Pradié of the conservative party, The Republicans. But he said Mr Macron would be only taken seriously if it was put to parliamentary vote and MPs fixed quota levels. Nicolas Sarkozy, the former conservative French president, shelved an idea setting professional quotas for migrants back in 2009 Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/ AFP In fact, ex-Right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy already announced the idea in 2007 only to quietly shelve it after a report warned they would be "unrealisable and without interest". Critics say the professional quota system is pointless as economic migrants only represented a tiny slice of the 256,000 people handed legal stay permits last year. On the Left, Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist Party, slammed the measures as "politically cynical, scandalous on a humanitarian level and reckless in terms of public health". Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT, France's biggest union, said the government was needlessly "waving the red flag" on immigration and that denying migrants health care for three months would have "disastrous consequences for the people concerned, for social workers, volunteers in charities, people in health centres etc." France has also called for a shake-up in EU efforts to stem the surge of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa since 2015. Mr Macron has repeatedly called on EU members to better share the distribution of migrants, pointing the finger notably at states in Eastern and Central Europe. He sparked anger in Bulgaria last week after telling a Right-wing French magazine that he would rather take legal migrants from Guinea or Ivory Coast than "clandestine networks of Bulgarians and Ukrainians". Read more from Henry Samuel, and our other foreign correspondents, in the World View column, featured in our brilliant Brexit Bulletin newsletter. 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| The epic struggle behind Iraq’s protests Posted: 05 Nov 2019 07:41 AM PST ![The epic struggle behind Iraq's protests]( "The epic struggle behind Iraq's protests") Demonstrators are rejecting Iran's influence and, along with it, cleric-based rule. The Middle East will be better off with their assertion of self-governance.
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| Turkey says Kurdish fighters still remain near Syrian border Posted: 05 Nov 2019 07:38 AM PST  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Tuesday for Russia and the United States to keep to their promises and ensure that Syrian Kurdish fighters pull out of a so-called safe zone along Syria's northern border with Turkey. In his weekly speech to ruling party legislators, Erdogan said Syrian Kurdish fighters were still present in some of the border areas in northeastern Syria.
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| Russia is reportedly 'going all in' on Libya conflict Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:55 AM PST ![Russia is reportedly 'going all in' on Libya conflict]( "Russia is reportedly 'going all in' on Libya conflict") Russia is looking to amp up its influence in the Middle East and North Africa by sending about 200 mercenaries in recent weeks to Libya, where they may be turning the tide in the country's conflict in a trajectory reminiscent of Moscow's role in the Syrian civil war, The New York Times reports.Russia -- alongside the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and occasionally France -- is backing the militia leader Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who is battling the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. While there is fear Hifter would rule Libya as a military strongman, Russia and the other foreign powers appear to appreciate that attribute. They believe he's the best chance to stave off the rise of political Islam in the country."It is very clear that Russia is going all in on this conflict," said Gen. Osama al-Juwaili, the top commander of the Tripoli government-aligned forces. Al-Juwaili criticized Western countries -- many of whom (including the United States) technically support the U.N.-backed government -- for doing nothing to mitigate the attempts to push Hifter into power by Russia and the other foreign governments. President Trump has reportedly praised Hifter's fight "against terrorism," despite Hifter's airstrikes on former U.S. allies."Why all this pain? Just stop this now and assign the guy to rule us," al-Juwaili "sardonically" told the Times, referring to Hifter. Read more at The New York Times.
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| Iran to Enrich Uranium at Fordow in Nuclear Deal Rollback Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:46 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Iran will renew enrichment of uranium at its Fordow research plant, a serious escalation of its retreat from its crippled nuclear deal with world powers.Tehran has been gradually scaling back its commitments under the 2015 accord in response to U.S. sanctions, and on Tuesday it told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the enrichment would resume at the plant with the injection of uranium gas into centrifuges the following day. The decision is its most serious deviation yet from the pact, and will add to a stockpile of enriched uranium that has already exceeded caps.President Donald Trump's decision to abandon the accord in May 2018, along with Europe's inability to offer economic relief from sanctions, triggered Iran's decision to expand its nuclear work.It was the second time in as many days that Iran announced planned retreats from the nuclear agreement, and came after Washington said it would sanction officials reporting to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including his son.President Hassan Rouhani had said earlier Tuesday that the latest steps would be reversed if European nations ensure Iran can sell its oil and reap the economic benefits promised by the international accord that was meant to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing an atomic bomb.The United Nations nuclear agency will still be allowed to inspect Iran's activities, Rouhani said, including work at Fordow."Iran will continue to maintain and remain committed to behind-the-scenes negotiations," Rouhani said at a business event in Tehran. "Sanctions should be lifted, Iran should be able to sell its oil with ease and have easy access to its money in banks."Iran Adds Advanced Centrifuges in Further Weakening of Deal (1)Scaling BackTrump unilaterally left the accord last year and renewed sanctions including the total ban on Iranian oil sales, the country's economic lifeline.European signatories say they remain committed to the nuclear accord but have struggled to devise a mechanism that wouldn't expose European companies to penalties if they trade with the Islamic Republic. The severe economic fallout from the reimposition of sanctions has prompted a surge in tit-for-tat attacks on Gulf oil facilities, drones and shipping traffic that raised fears of a new military conflict in the Middle East.U.S. Sanctions Key Iranians Reporting to Supreme Leader (1)"This is another measure that Iran intends to use to put pressure on both the Europeans and the U.S. to provide it with some economic relief," said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "This isn't Iran secretly inching toward a nuclear bomb scenario -- if they wanted to do that, they would've completely withdrawn from the agreement and ratcheted up nuclear enrichment levels to 20%."Iran began to scale back its compliance in May by exceeding a 300-kilogram (660-pound) cap on the storage of enriched uranium and heavy water imposed by the accord. It then broke the 3.67% limit on uranium purity. On Monday, its nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said it had added a further 30 IR-6 centrifuges, which can enrich uranium 10 times faster than first generation machines.While officials said Iran had "set aside" limits on uranium enrichment, it has so far held off enriching to anywhere near 20%, the level required for research reactors. Weapons-grade uranium needs to have an enrichment level of 90% or higher. Iran denies its nuclear work is aimed at developing weapons.(Updates from first paragraph with Iranians to inject uranium gas, restart uranium enrichment at Fordow)\--With assistance from Yasna Haghdoost.To contact the reporter on this story: Arsalan Shahla in Dubai at ashahla@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Kremlin defends Putin decorating Bulgarian 'spy' Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:38 AM PST  The Kremlin on Tuesday defended President Vladimir Putin's decision to confer a state award on a Bulgarian charged with spying for Russia and warned of "very negative consequences" if this affected ties. NATO and EU member Bulgaria was previously a Soviet satellite and is now a rare ally of Russia in Europe. Malinov however travelled to Moscow to attend the televised award ceremony at the Kremlin on Monday as Russia marked Unity Day, a public holiday.
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| Hong Kong leader says she has Xi's backing to tackle unrest Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:36 AM PST  Embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that she has received the backing of Chinese President Xi Jinping in her handling of five months of anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, as hundreds of masked demonstrators took to the streets again. Xi and Lam unexpectedly held talks Monday night on the sidelines of a trade event in Shanghai amid signals from China's central government that it may tighten its grip on Hong Kong to quell the unrest that has at times challenged Chinese rule. Lam told a news conference in Shanghai that Xi expressed "care and concern" during their brief meeting, along with support for measures taken by her government to end the crisis.
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| UK car sales resume slide as Brexit hits buffers Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:22 AM PST  New car sales in Britain dropped in October after a brief rise, as consumers slammed the brakes on purchases once more with Brexit hitting the buffers, industry data showed Tuesday. Sales slid 6.7 percent last month compared with October 2018, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said in a statement. The renewed drop in new car sales in October "reflects continued uncertainty over diesel and clean air zones, stunted economic growth and uncertainty over Brexit", the SMMT said Tuesday.
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| Germany's Merkel: Discontent doesn't bring 'right to hatred' Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:17 AM PST  Chancellor Angela Merkel says that disillusionment and discontent with the German government don't give people any "right to hatred," an allusion to a far-right party's strong recent election performance in eastern Germany. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has polled over 20% and finished second in state elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia in the past two months. Asked about those election performances, Merkel acknowledged in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine published Tuesday that some people and regions in eastern Germany haven't had it easy.
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| Iran to fuel centrifuges in new step away from nuclear deal Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:07 AM PST  Iran will start injecting uranium gas into over a thousand centrifuges at a fortified nuclear facility built inside a mountain, the country's president announced Tuesday in Tehran's latest step away from its atomic accord with world powers since President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal over a year ago. President Hassan Rouhani's announcement means that Iran's Fordo nuclear facility, publicly revealed only 10 years ago, again will become an active atomic site rather than a research facility as envisioned by the landmark 2015 accord. The State Department announced days ago that it would renew a waiver allowing Russia's state-run Rosatom nuclear company to continue its conversion work at the site.
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| UPDATE 1-Zero tariff, zero quotas 'not enough', EU's Barnier tells UK Posted: 05 Nov 2019 05:45 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Zero tariff, zero quotas 'not enough', EU's Barnier tells UK]( "UPDATE 1-Zero tariff, zero quotas 'not enough', EU's Barnier tells UK") The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Tuesday predicted "difficult and demanding" negotiations with Britain on a future trading relationship, saying the bloc would not accept any "unfair competitive advantage" for London. Britain is now scheduled to leave the EU on Jan. 31 after Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to meet a previous Brexit deadline of Oct. 31 and instead called an election for Dec. 12, hoping to win a majority large enough to ensure the smooth passage of a withdrawal agreement he negotiated with Brussels.
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| India says supports FTA talks with EU after refusing to join China-led accord Posted: 05 Nov 2019 05:07 AM PST ![India says supports FTA talks with EU after refusing to join China-led accord]( "India says supports FTA talks with EU after refusing to join China-led accord") India should hold talks with the European Union for a free trade agreement, the government said on Tuesday, a day after it refused to join a China-backed regional trade pact for fear of a flood of cheap Chinese imports. Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said sectors such as gems, textiles and agriculture have pushed for a trade pact with the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also called for talks to restart to finalise an agreement.
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