| Bolivia armed forces pledge to tackle violence as new election looms Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:24 PM PST  Bolivia's armed forces agreed on Monday to conduct joint operations with the police to prevent violence as Mexico announced it had granted asylum to Evo Morales, who resigned from the Bolivian presidency on Sunday. The senator set to succeed him as interim president, Jeanine Anez, pledged to call fresh elections in the troubled South American country. The United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS) earlier voiced fears of a breakdown in security in a country that appeared increasingly rudderless after dozens of officials and ministers resigned along with Morales, some seeking refuge in foreign embassies.
|
| Pneumonia kills a child every 39 seconds, health agencies say Posted: 11 Nov 2019 04:01 PM PST ![Pneumonia kills a child every 39 seconds, health agencies say]( "Pneumonia kills a child every 39 seconds, health agencies say") Pneumonia killed more than 800,000 babies and young children last year - or one child every 39 seconds - despite being curable and mostly preventable, global health agencies said on Tuesday. In a report on what they described as a "forgotten epidemic", the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, the international charity Save The Children and four other health agencies urged governments to step up investment in vaccines to prevent the disease and in health services and medicines to treat it. "The fact that this preventable, treatable and easily diagnosed disease is still the world's biggest killer of young children is frankly shocking," said Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccines alliance.
|
| Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day Posted: 11 Nov 2019 03:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on what's moving Asia's markets in your inbox every morning? Sign up here.More gunshots have fueled tensions in Hong Kong, Sydney faces a "catastrophic" fire warning, and Boeing soared after providing more detail on how soon the 737 Max will return to the skies. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.Rumors AboundFake news is taking a sinister role in stoking violence in Hong Kong. As anti-government protests stretch into their 23rd straight week, the city is being inundated with online rumors, fake news and propaganda from both sides of the political divide. Soon after a 22-year-old student Alex Chow fell off the edge of a parking garage last week, allegations that he was chased — and maybe even pushed — by police began spreading on social media and messaging apps. Never mind that the claims were unsubstantiated: Hundreds of protesters seized on Chow's Nov. 8 death to engage in clashes with police that resulted in one person being shot on Monday, and another st on fire. Both remain in critical condition. The day's chaos also showed the strains facing Hong Kong's police, which the China-appointed government has relied on to suppress increasingly violent protests aimed at securing greater democracy. Markets UpStocks in Asia looked set to claw back some of Monday's losses as investors awaited further developments on a trade deal and kept an eye on the volatile situation in Hong Kong, while the dollar fell for the first time in six days. Futures pointed higher in Tokyo, Sydney and Hong Kong, where shares dropped as much as 3% Monday to lead a slide in regional markets on continued unrest in the city. In the U.S., the S&P 500 Index dropped for the first time in four sessions on below average volume. Treasuries were closed for the Veterans' Day holiday, and the pound rallied as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's efforts to leave the European Union got a boost from the Brexit Party. Elsewhere, emerging market shares fell the most in more than two months. Crude oil edged lower.Sydney in SmokeAfter Sydney was issued a " catastrophic" fire danger warning for Tuesday — the highest level that's ever been issued for Australia's largest city — waking up to the smell of smoke came as no surprise to Sydney-siders this morning. As the country's bushfire season becomes longer and more intense, the threat to lives and homes across the nation has grown. High temperatures and strong winds are expected to fan more than 50 fires burning across New South Wales state, with authorities warning that embers could be blown 30 kilometers from the numerous fire fronts and trigger more outbreaks. With three people dead and 150 homes destroyed in recent days, and almost million hectares of land burned this season, the fires have thrust the threat posed by global warming back into the headlines in a nation that gets the bulk of its energy from burning coal. Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government has largely sidestepped the issue of climate change when asked about the bushfires.Boeing SoarsBoeing surged the most since June after providing more detail on how the 737 Max will return to the skies — even as the company backed away from saying the grounded jet would win full regulatory approval next month. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is on track to certify redesigned flight-control software by mid-December, Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Monday in an email. That could enable the planemaker to begin shipping new jets that have been stashed away across the Pacific Northwest and Texas during a flying ban imposed back in March, after two crashes killed 346 people. While the Max won't be cleared to resume commercial flights until regulators also sign off on updated training material for pilots — expected to occur in January — the more detailed road map eased investor jitters over Boeing's prospects. Farage Forgoes FightIt's been all quiet on the Brexit front for a couple of days, but now, Nigel Farage has boosted Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chances of winning a majority by dramatically announcing his Brexit Party won't fight to oust Conservatives at next month's U.K. general election. The pound rose on the news. The Brexit Party leader told a rally in Hartlepool, northeast England, on Monday that it was a difficult decision to stand down candidates in the 317 seats the Tories won in the last national vote in 2017, but said he's reassured by Johnson's plans for a sharper split with the European Union. Farage said he's "unilaterally" creating an "alliance" for Brexit to stop pro-EU politicians winning seats, as a means of preventing a triggering of a second referendum to keep Britain in the bloc.What We've Been ReadingThis is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours.Alibaba smashes last year's Singles' Day sales record. Apple Card's sex-bias issue shows AI hasn't tackled a '70s problem. Malaysia's airline-safety ranking has been downgraded. WeWork is searching for a new CEO to turn around the troubled co-working company. A $100 billion fund manager is debunking stock-bubble theories. A record $173 billion is flowing from Korea into riskier assets. This Patek Philippe watch just sold for $31 million. To contact the author of this story: Sybilla Gross in Sydney at sgross61@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Alyssa McDonald at amcdonald61@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Mexico grants asylum to Bolivia's Evo Morales Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:34 PM PST  Mexico granted asylum to Bolivia's former President Evo Morales on Monday as unrest shook the South American nation, helping cement the Mexican government's emerging role as a bastion of diplomatic support for left-wing leaders in Latin America. Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Morales' life was in danger, and the decision to grant him asylum was in Mexico's long tradition of sheltering exiles. Morales' government collapsed on Sunday after ruling party allies quit and the army urged him to step down in the wake of a disputed election, adding to a sense of crisis in Latin America, which has been hit by weeks of protests and unrest. Looting and roadblocks convulsed Bolivia after Morales stepped down. He said "violent groups" attacked his house. His exact whereabouts were unknown, though it was believed he had left in the presidential plane for his stronghold of Chapare province. "His life and integrity is at risk," Ebrard told reporters. "We will immediately proceed to inform Bolivia's foreign ministry that under international law, it should offer safe conduct." Mexico has informed the Organization of American States, and will inform the United Nations, he added. The Washington-based OAS delivered a report on Sunday citing serious irregularities during Bolivia's October vote. The departure of Bolivia's first indigenous president, one of a wave of leftists who dominated Latin America's politics at the start of the century, comes amid a widespread rejection of incumbent leaders from either side of the political divide in the region, from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina. Mexico elected its first left-leaning government in decades last year, moving closer to like-minded governments and distancing itself from diplomatic initiatives aimed at pushing socialist President Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela. Argentina last month elected a left-leaning leader, as voters rejected economic policies aimed at stabilizing the economy but that deepened poverty and inflation. The resignation of Morales, who governed for 14 years, followed protests in Ecuador and Chile that forced their governments to step back from policies raising fuel and transport prices. Ebrard said earlier on Monday his government viewed Sunday's events in Bolivia as a "coup" because the military broke with the constitutional order by pressing Morales to resign. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador praised Morales saying he chose to resign rather than put the lives of Bolivia's citizens at risk
|
| Top Shiite leader backs UN plan to resolve Iraqi crisis Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:15 PM PST  Iraq's most powerful Shiite religious leader said Monday he backs a U.N. roadmap aimed at meeting the demands of anti-government protesters who have been rallying in recent weeks despite a bloody crackdown by security forces, but he expressed concern that political parties would not carry them out. At least 12 protesters were wounded in new confrontations with security forces in and around central Baghdad's Khilani Square. Most were hit directly with tear gas canisters, according to security and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
|
| Bolivia’s Morales Granted Asylum in Mexico, Minister Says Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:09 PM PST ![Bolivia's Morales Granted Asylum in Mexico, Minister Says]( "Bolivia's Morales Granted Asylum in Mexico, Minister Says") (Bloomberg) -- Bolivia's Evo Morales accepted Mexico's offer of political asylum, thrusting leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government into the center of a crisis that has split Latin America's government allegiances.The asylum was granted due to "humanitarian reasons and by virtue of the emergency situation he faces in Bolivia, where his life and integrity are at risk," Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a news conference in Mexico City on Monday.Mexico has asked Bolivia's Foreign Ministry to ensure Morales's safe passage to the country under international law, he said, without giving details of when the former president would travel.Bolivia is in chaos after a night of arson attacks and clashes. Morales quit Sunday following election irregularities that triggered weeks of violence and intervention from the armed forces.Mexico, along with Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina's president-elect, Alberto Fernandez, has called the military intervention a "coup." U.S. President Donald Trump, in the meantime, applauded the armed forces for "abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia's constitution."Read More: Trump Applauds Exit of Bolivia's Morales as Clashes ContinueThe offer of asylum was originally made public by Ebrard via Twitter on Sunday night, saying that the Mexican government has received 20 Bolivian executive and legislative officials seeking asylum at the nation's official residence in La Paz and would offer the same to Morales.An Aymara Indian in a country historically ruled by a wealthier, white elite, Morales took power in 2006, the year that Lopez Obrador made the first of his two unsuccessful runs for the president before he finally won election last year. Morales was a champion for the poor and an icon of the region's left.Ebrard on Sunday had decried the military's intervention to push Morales aside, saying it was reminiscent of Latin America's bloody coups of the 20th century. On Monday, he again criticized the armed forces for interrupting Bolivia's proper constitutional order.Mexico has a long tradition of granting asylum to foreign leaders. The Shah of Iran, who fled during the revolution in 1979, took refuge in the resort city of Cuernavaca, with former U.S. President Richard Nixon coming to visit him. Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, who became an exile after clashing with Joseph Stalin, moved to Mexico in 1937 and was welcomed by leftist President Lazaro Cardenas, who is a hero for Lopez Obrador.Morales said in a post on Twitter Monday that his house and his sister's house were attacked, and that his ministers have received threats. Banks, supermarkets and government offices in the center of La Paz were closed following looting Sunday night, local media reported.Read More: Bolivia Faces Power Vacuum and Chaos After Morales QuitsMorales was the lone survivor of the so-called pink tide of leftist leaders that reshaped the continent's politics during the 2000s. Unlike his ally Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, he presided over strong economic growth, rising incomes and falling poverty. But his democratic credentials were questioned after he ignored the result of a 2016 referendum on presidential term limits.\--With assistance from Nacha Cattan.To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in Mexico City at emartin21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Video raises questions about Israeli shooting of Palestinian Posted: 11 Nov 2019 01:53 PM PST  An amateur video taken in the West Bank indicated a Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces Monday was shot at close range, apparently while he was unarmed and posed no threat to soldiers. It was the second video to emerge in the past week showing the shooting of an unarmed Palestinian by Israeli forces, and the latest example of how amateur videos are changing the operating environment for soldiers in the West Bank.
|
| US troops at Syria base say they'll keep pressure on IS Posted: 11 Nov 2019 01:05 PM PST  At a base in eastern Syria, a senior U.S. coalition commander said Monday that American troops who remain in Syria are redeploying to bases, including in some new locations, and working with the Kurdish-led forces to keep up the pressure on the Islamic State militants and prevent the extremists from resurging or breaking out of prisons. The commander, Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric T. Hill, said even though Bradley armored vehicles have arrived in eastern Syria, the mission's focus has not changed. Speaking at a remote base in Syria where the Bradleys arrived last week, he said "our primary way that we do that" is through working with the U.S. partners, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
|
| James Le Mesurier, British ex-army officer who trained Syria's White Helmets, found dead in Istanbul Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:58 PM PST  Mystery surrounds the death of the former British soldier who backed Syria's White Helmets after his body was found in the street days after the Kremlin accused him of being an MI6 agent with terrorist connections. James Le Mesurier, an ex-Army officer, is thought to have fallen from the balcony of his home in Istanbul where he lived with his wife. British intelligence agencies are monitoring the situation with Whitehall sources stressing it was too soon to say if Mr le Mesurier was a victim of foul play. The intelligence services have warned against persistent Russian smears, of Mr le Mesurier over his support for the rescue group. One Syrian expert said he had faced "unimaginable pressure and targeting as a result". Istanbul detectives are investigating his death and while the exact circumstances remain unclear, Turkish security officials suggested it was being treated as a suspected suicide. Mayday Rescue, the organisation Mr Le Mesurier set up, confirmed he had died but warned against "unnecessary speculation about the cause of his death until the investigation is completed". Mayday Rescue organised and trained the White Helmets rescue group, which was set up in 2013. A Turkish police officer stands guard outside the Mayday Rescue offices Credit: BULENT KILIC / AFP It has since grown into a vast network of volunteers operating in opposition-held areas of Syria and scrambled to rescue civilians targeted in air raids conducted by the Assad regime and aided by the Syrian president's Russian allies. "James dedicated his life to helping civilians respond to emergencies in conflicts and natural disasters," Mayday Rescue said in a statement. "[The White Helmets'] work has saved countless lives of civilians affected by the conflict." He was awarded an OBE in 2016 for his work to protect civilians in Syria and both he and the White Helmets received international media attention and were the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary. But Mr Le Mesurier was the target of a disinformation campaign by the Kremlin, which accused him - sources insisted falsely - of being a British intelligence agent and even an al-Qaeda supporter. As recently as three days ago, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had accused Mr Le Mesurier of being a 'former agent of Britain's MI6' and working for the agency in the Balkans, Middle East and Kosovo. In the Twitter posting, the Russian authorities added: "His connections to terrorist groups were reported back during his mission in Kosovo." Karen Pierce, the UK ambassador to the United Nations, said claims that Mr Le Mesurier was a spy were "categorically untrue" and she urged Turkey to carry out a thorough investigation of his death. She called him a "true hero" and humanitarian. Turkish security sources said Mr le Mesurier had been found dead in the early hours of yesterday morning outside his home in central Istanbul's Beyoglu district. "He appeared to have fallen from a height. Current information suggests he had committed suicide," the source told Middle East Eye news website. A second Turkish source claimed his apartment could only be accessed using fingerprint identification. "Mesurier and his wife appear to be alone in the building at the time of the death," said the source. A security source told Reuters news agency: "Le Mesurier's wife told police that she and her husband had taken sleeping pills around 4am and went to bed. "She said she was later woken by knocking on the door and discovered that her husband was lying on the street surrounded by police." The Turkish news-wire Demioren News Agency reported that police had found his face had been cut by a sharp object. Police forensic officials at the scene in Istanbul Credit: Emrah Gurel /AP On Twitter, the White Helmets said in a statement: "We have learned with shock and sadness the news of the death of James Le Mesurier, founder and director of the humanitarian organization Mayday Rescue, early on Monday at his home in Tophane in Istanbul, Turkey. Mayday is one of the institutions supporting the White Helmets." Emma Beals, editor of the Syria In Context website, said: "James is one of only a few people in the world who took concrete action to save Syrian lives. He faced unimaginable pressure and targeting as a result." Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former Army officer who served with Mr Le Mesurier in the military and later worked with him on advising humanitarian NGOs in Syria, said he seemed in "good heart" when he met him in Istanbul last month. He said Mr Le Mesurier knew he was the target of Russian-fuelled vitriol and took precautions. "He took security seriously," he said. "He was a soldier and he knew the risks of operating in this world and did all he could to minimise them." Mr Le Mesurier's body was due to be handed over to the Forensic Medicine Institute for an autopsy before being repatriated to the UK. "The Syrian civil defence family extends its deepest condolences to James's family, and we express our deepest sorrow and solidarity," the White Helmets said in a statement. Mr Le Mesurier was born in Singapore into a military family. He graduated from Sandhurst and served with the Royal Green Jackets in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Kosovo. He is understood to have married last year. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of James Le Mesurier. Our condolences go out to his family and friends at this difficult time."
|
| 'Uranium particles' detected at undeclared site in Iran: IAEA Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:20 PM PST  The United Nations' nuclear watchdog has detected uranium particles at an undeclared site in Iran, it said in its latest report on the country's nuclear programme on Monday. The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), seen by AFP, also confirmed that Iran has ramped up uranium enrichment, in breach of a landmark 2015 deal with international powers. While the IAEA itself has not named the site in question, diplomatic sources have previously said the agency has been posing questions to Iran relating to a site where Israel has alleged secret atomic activity in the past.
|
| UN reports increasing violations of Iran nuclear deal Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:00 PM PST  Uranium particles of man-made origin have been discovered at a site in Iran not declared to the United Nations, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Monday as it confirmed a litany of violations by Tehran of the 2015 nuclear deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has begun enriching uranium at a heavily fortified installation inside a mountain, is increasing its stockpile of processed uranium, and is exceeding the allowable enrichment levels. All such steps are prohibited under the agreement Iran reached with world powers to prevent it from building a bomb.
|
| Egypt lawmaker refutes UN report about ex-president's death Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:57 AM PST ![Egypt lawmaker refutes UN report about ex-president's death]( "Egypt lawmaker refutes UN report about ex-president's death") Egyptian lawmakers said Monday that the late President Mohammed Morsi was treated well in prison, just days after a U.N. report attributed Morsi's death to "brutal" conditions inside the country's jails. Alaa Abed, head of the Parliament's human rights committee, told The Associated Press that allegations of Morsi's mistreatment were an attempt to slander the government. As defense minister, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the 2013 military overthrow of Morsi in 2013.
|
| Jordan, UAE, Turkey, Sudan accused of violating sanctions on Libya -U.N. report Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:56 AM PST ![Jordan, UAE, Turkey, Sudan accused of violating sanctions on Libya -U.N. report]( "Jordan, UAE, Turkey, Sudan accused of violating sanctions on Libya -U.N. report") Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is "highly probable" that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center, according to U.N. experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions on Libya. A report to the U.N. Security Council Libya sanctions committee, seen by Reuters on Monday, also accused Sudan and the head of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo - known by his nickname Hemeti - of violating U.N. sanctions by deploying 1,000 Sudanese troops to Libya.
|
| A Brexit threat in Labour's heartlands? Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:53 AM PST  In places like eurosceptic Hartlepool in northeast England, long-held party allegiances being reshaped by Brexit could trigger a political earthquake at next month's election. The former shipbuilding and steel hub on Teesside, which voted by almost 70 percent to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, has been a traditional stronghold of the Labour Party. "Labour has done nothing for this town," said Pat Stamper, 81, a recent convert to the Brexit Party set up by populist eurosceptic Nigel Farage.
|
| Turkey starts returning IS fighters; deports US national Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:48 AM PST  Turkey on Monday deported citizens of the United States and Denmark who fought for the Islamic State and made plans to expel other foreign nationals as the government began a new push to send back captured foreign fighters to their home countries, a Turkish official said. The move comes just over a week after the Turkish interior minister said Turkey was not a "hotel" for IS fighters and criticized Western nations for their reluctance to take back citizens who had joined the ranks of the extremist militant group as it sought to establish a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last week that about 1,200 foreign IS fighters were in Turkish prisons and 287 members, including women and children, were recaptured during Turkey's offensive in Syria.
|
| Nigel Farage Won’t Fight Tories in Election Boost for Boris Johnson Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:44 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Nigel Farage boosted Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chances of winning a majority by dramatically announcing his Brexit Party won't fight to oust Conservatives at next month's U.K. general election. The pound rose.The Brexit Party leader told a rally in Hartlepool, northeast England, on Monday that it was a difficult decision to stand down candidates in the 317 seats the Tories won in the last national vote in 2017, but said he's reassured by Johnson's plans for a sharper split with the European Union.Farage said he's "unilaterally" creating an "alliance" for Brexit to stop pro-EU politicians winning seats and triggering a second referendum to keep Britain in the bloc. He didn't rule out withdrawing more of his party's candidates in the future, if it might help the Tories win more of their target seats."I have got no great love for the Conservative Party," Farage said. "But I can see right now that by giving Boris half a chance, by keeping him honest and holding him to account," it will be possible to deliver the Brexit he said voters want.Farage's decision will be a relief for Conservative strategists. The biggest headache for Johnson has been the prospect of Farage's Brexit Party splitting the euroskeptic vote in key districts. That could allow Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, or the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, to gain seats at the Tories' expense.If that happened, it would significantly undermine Johnson's chances of winning a majority. With the Brexit Party out of the way in these districts, pro-Brexit voters will have little choice but to vote for Johnson's Conservatives.'Ignite the Campaign'"This is set to really ignite the campaign," Andrew Hawkins, chairman of the polling company ComRes, said in an interview. "This will definitely help the Tories." Johnson's Conservatives can win in key northern Tory-Labour marginal seats because the Labour vote is going to be split, Hawkins said."I'm glad that there is a recognition that there's only one way to get Brexit done and that is to vote for us and vote for the Conservatives," Johnson told reporters during a campaign visit to Wolverhampton, which returned three Labour MPs in 2017. "We have a fantastic plan for this country."Bookmakers' odds also suggest Johnson now has an easier route to an overall majority in Parliament. Betway said there's now about a 66% chance, compared with about 55% before Farage's announcement.SkepticalNot everyone is convinced it will be the game changer on Dec. 12, because Farage still intends to field candidates in seats the Tories hope to gain from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said Farage's move is "not offering the Conservatives much help" except in seats targeted by the Liberal Democrats. The Brexit Party retreat will reverse the gains made by the pro-EU party via its electoral pact with fellow anti-Brexit groups, Curtice said.Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly also appeared to play down the significance of Farage's decision, while welcoming what he called "the pragmatic thing to do." He told the BBC on Monday he still sees a risk that the Brexit Party standing in Labour or Liberal Democrat-held seats "might actually prevent the chances of a majority Conservative government."Speaking to reporters, Farage would not say if he would withdraw more Brexit Party candidates to help the Tories win seats from Labour where the race is close. He claimed the government had offered to make him a Lord, and give him a seat in the unelected upper chamber of the U.K. Parliament, but insisted he is not interested and would refuse any such inducements."We have decided ourselves that we absolutely have to put country before party and take the fight to Labour," he said.Corbyn said U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he wanted Farage and Johnson to do a deal, had "got his wish."The Labour leader said the "Trump alliance" of Johnson and Farage could pave the way for a free-trade deal with the U.S. that would open up the U.K.'s state-funded National Health Service to American companies. "It must be stopped," he said.(Updates with Farage quotes throughout.)\--With assistance from Robert Hutton, Greg Ritchie and Dara Doyle.To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in Hartlepool at tross54@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| UPDATE 2-France, Germany, Britain urge Iran to reverse nuclear deal breaches Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:36 AM PST ![UPDATE 2-France, Germany, Britain urge Iran to reverse nuclear deal breaches]( "UPDATE 2-France, Germany, Britain urge Iran to reverse nuclear deal breaches") France, Britain and Germany said on Monday they would consider a dispute resolution mechanism enshrined in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that could lead to United Nations sanctions being reimposed for recent breaches of the pact. In a joint statement, the three countries, known as the E3, warned Iran that its latest actions were hindering their efforts to defuse tensions in the region. "Iran's action ... has potentially severe proliferation implications," the three countries said in the statement.
|
| UN, top Iraq cleric urge 'serious' reforms after protests Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:32 AM PST  The top UN official in Iraq and the country's most senior Muslim cleric on Monday urged authorities to get "serious" about reforms after anti-government demonstrations that have cost hundreds of lives. Mass rallies calling for an overhaul of the ruling system have rocked the capital Baghdad and the country's Shiite-majority south since October 1 -- the largest and deadliest popular movement in Iraq in decades. The bloody unrest has sparked serious concern from the United Nations, human rights groups and the White House, which has called on Iraq "to halt the violence against protesters" and to pass electoral reform.
|
| Brexit Party shifts tactics, won't challenge Tories in vote Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:24 AM PST  Brexit Party chief Nigel Farage changed course Monday, announcing that his party would not challenge Conservative candidates in nearly half of the U.K.'s districts, a tactical move that may make it easier for pro-Brexit forces to prevail in the Dec. 12 election. Farage said his party will not put forward any candidates in 317 seats that the Conservatives won in the last election so as not to split the pro-Brexit vote. The move should boost the chances that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives win a majority in an early election that Johnson sought to increase his Brexit mandate.
|
| Women In Japan Are Fighting For The Right To Wear Glasses To Work Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:09 AM PST  Participants join the Women's Day march in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, March 8, 2019. The United Nations first recognized International Women's Day in 1975, sparking 38 years of annual demonstrations, private and public proclamations and a general recognition that even in the modern era, gender equality has a long way to go. Photographer: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAh, the tangled web of sexist workplace dress code violations women of the world must navigate daily.This week, it's women in Japan who are protesting edicts from companies than ban (only women, not men) from wearing glasses in the workplace. During a segment that ran on the Japanese network Nippon TV on Wednesday, employers cited "reasons" why anti-glasses policies were necessary in their workplaces. In some retail outlets, managers said that glasses give a "cold impression" to saleswomen; airline managers claimed that wearing frames could impede workers' ability to see properly, creating safety concerns; restaurateurs suggested that they clashed with traditional outfits, like kimonos, that employees are required to wear on the job.The glasses bans have been a flashpoint for women across the country, speaking to how rules dictating what women are allowed to wear — but not men — are a form of workplace discrimination. A Twitter hashtag, メガネ禁止 (which translates to "glasses are forbidden") inspired thousands of tweets in solidarity with Japanese women who have to comply with what they refer to as outdated and oppressive beauty standards. But, this is only the most recent example of a growing and vocal movement pushing back against sexist dress code policies in the country."The emphasis on appearance is often on young women and wanting them to look feminine," Banri Yanagi, a 40-year-old sales associate from Tokyo, told the Japan Times. "It's strange to allow men to wear glasses but not women."The ban on glasses isn't the first dress code policy to incite outrage in Japan in recent months. In June, more than 20,000 women signed an online petition protesting the near-ubiquitous social expectation that women should wear high heels in the workplace. That movement picked up steam under the hashtag KuToo — a play on the US-based MeToo movement and the Japanese words for shoe, "kutsu," and pain, "kutsū."Yumi Ishikawa, the actor and freelance writer who first launched the KuToo petition, told Bloomberg News that the trend of Japanese workplaces banning glasses is no different from the sexist rules about footwear that are prevalent in the country. "If wearing glasses is a real problem at work it should be banned for everyone — men and women," she said. "This problem with glasses is the exact same as high heels. It's only a rule for female workers."If the Japanese government's response to the KuToo petition is any indicator of the successes of future petitions, however, women concerned about their right to wear glasses to work shouldn't get their hopes up. After protestors submitted their signatures to the government last spring, then-Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Takumi Nemoto said that he saw no issue with women being compelled to wear high heels to work, which he called "generally accepted by society."The glasses controversy (one of the many struggles for women in Japan trying to achieve gender equality) is similar to another incident that recently sparked outcry in the region: In 2018, South Korean news anchor Lim Hyeon-ju became the first woman presenter on any major network in the country to sport frames on national TV. Lim, who delivers the news on MBC's morning news program "MBC News Today," told Korea's Yonhap News agency at the time that the glasses made her job easier on her eyes, which had grown dry and fatigued from constantly wearing contact lenses and false eyelashes.While it might prove difficult to shift longstanding cultural attitudes about beauty and presentation in the short term, by standing together, Japanese women can help to undermine the idea that such attitudes should go unquestioned or unchallenged. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
|
| UPDATE 1-Putin, Merkel say Ukraine's Donbass should get special status - Kremlin Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:28 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Putin, Merkel say Ukraine's Donbass should get special status - Kremlin]( "UPDATE 1-Putin, Merkel say Ukraine's Donbass should get special status - Kremlin") MOSCOW/BERLIN, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on Monday that Ukraine should give its separatist-led Donbass region a special status set out in Ukrainian law, the Kremlin said. It gave no further details of the leaders' discussions on the future of Donbass during a phone call, but agreement on its status would be a step towards convening a four-nation summit on ending five years of conflict in the eastern region. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said last month that Kiev had agreed to grant Donbass special status and let local elections go ahead there.
|
| Jordan's king visits enclave day after reclaimed from Israel Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:27 AM PST  Jordan's king visited one of two small areas of land that — until a day earlier — were leased to Israel as part of their 1994 peace agreement on Monday. Jordan's decision to not renew the 25-year lease and to reassume control over the two small territories comes amid rocky relations with Israel. Jordan's peace agreement with Israel, signed in 1994, is only the second peace deal between Israel and an Arab country, following Egypt.
|
| 'Uranium particles' detected at undeclared site in Iran: IAEA Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:14 AM PST  The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said it had detected uranium particles at an undeclared site in Iran in its latest report on the country's nuclear programme issued on Monday. The particles are understood to be the product of uranium which has been mined and undergone initial processing, but not enriched.
|
| Briton who helped found Syria's White Helmets dies in Turkey Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:14 AM PST  A former British army officer who helped found the White Helmets volunteer organization in Syria was found dead in Istanbul early Monday, Turkish officials and the group said. James Le Mesurier's body was found near his home in the Beyoglu district by worshippers on their way to a mosque, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The Istanbul governor's office said "comprehensive administrative and judicial investigations" had been initiated into Le Mesurier's death.
|
| Bernie Sanders declares it's 'not antisemitic' to criticize Israel Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:07 AM PST ![Bernie Sanders declares it's 'not antisemitic' to criticize Israel]( "Bernie Sanders declares it's 'not antisemitic' to criticize Israel") Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has his own plan for "how to fight antisemitism."In an op-ed published Monday on the progressive site Jewish Currents, Sanders reflects on something he usually doesn't "spend a lot of time talking about:" his experience as a "proud Jewish American." But it's been a year since "President Donald Trump's own words helped inspire the worst act of antisemitic violence in American history," Sanders said, so he's outlining policies and ideologies he feels are needed to "confront this hatred."Last October, 11 people were killed at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synogogue, with the shooter using Trump's term of "invasion" to justify his attack. That's an obvious example of how "antisemitism is rising in this country," with the FBI reporting "hate crimes against Jews rose by more than a third in 2017," Sanders wrote. And the only way to combat this is to "do exactly the opposite of what Trump is doing and embrace our differences to bring people together," Sanders continued.Sanders called out how false "accusations of antisemitism" are often lobbied at progressives, saying "it is not antisemitic to criticize the policies of the Israeli government," Sanders declared, though some of that criticism can "cross the line." "I will always call out antisemitism when I see it," Sanders said, also adding that he will also "rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council, which Trump withdrew from" and immediately appoint a "special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism." From there, Sanders will continue to call for independent Israeli and Palestinian states and push for "solidarity" among all people working for that same goal.Find all of Sanders' plan at Jewish Currents.More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
|
| 3 blasts hit Syrian town near border with Turkey, 6 killed Posted: 11 Nov 2019 09:15 AM PST  Three car bombs went off Monday in the northeastern Syrian town of Qamishli near the border with Turkey, killing at least six people, while a priest was shot dead in a nearby area by extremists, state media and activists said. Northern Syria has been hit by several explosions that have killed and wounded scores of people over the past month. Syria's state news agency SANA, which has reporters in Qamishli, said the explosions were triggered by car bombs.
|
| Egypt opens jail after UN report on inmate Morsi's death Posted: 11 Nov 2019 09:06 AM PST  Egyptian authorities Monday opened up Tora prison in Cairo for a media tour, following a UN report on the "brutal" conditions in which jailed ex-president Mohamed Morsi was held before his death. In a rare tour of the sprawling jail complex, journalists were shown an exhibition of furniture made by inmates, a farm with cows and ostriches, and a brief football match between prisoners. The guided tour comes ahead of a mission to Geneva by Egyptian officials for a review on Wednesday before the United Nations Human Rights Council.
|
| Israel says Expo 2020 in Dubai is a bridge to Arab world Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:42 AM PST  Israel's newly appointed commissioner to Expo 2020 said Monday that next year's world fair in Dubai offers the country a unique opportunity to present a fresh face to the Arab world, just as Israel is growing closer to the United Arab Emirates and other Arab Gulf states. Elazar Cohen presented plans for the Israeli pavilion at the world's largest exhibition, in which it aims to project its technological, scientific and agricultural innovations to the 25 million visitors expected to descend upon the glitzy city-state. "There is curiosity, mixed with concern, about this thing called Israel and we want to alleviate that concern," he said in a briefing at Israel's Foreign Ministry.
|
| Boris Johnson Still Has a Nigel Farage Problem Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:30 AM PST ![Boris Johnson Still Has a Nigel Farage Problem]( "Boris Johnson Still Has a Nigel Farage Problem") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A little over a week ago, Nigel Farage described the Brexit deal that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought back from Brussels as a travesty and a betrayal of the 2016 referendum. He threatened to stand Brexit Party candidates in 600 constituencies against the Conservative Party in the forthcoming general election if Johnson didn't repudiate his own agreement.On Monday, Farage reversed course and the Conservatives cheered, as the threat of splitting the pro-Brexit vote appeared to diminish. Yet the reality of the Tory gain is less than clear cut.In 317 Conservative-held constituencies, Farage said his party will stand down so as not to hurt the the party's chances or produce a hung parliament that might threaten Brexit altogether. The decision came after Farage was attacked by Conservatives and the Brexit-supporting media for his purist stance. Nick Timothy, who advised the former prime minister Theresa May, wrote that Farage "has tragically turned into the Frodo Baggins of Brexit," likening him to the Tolkien hero who survives his perilous journey to destroy the One Ring only to succumb to its lure at the last minute and seek to possess it himself.Sufficiently chastened, Farage took an escape route offered by Johnson on Sunday, when the prime minister declared that a Conservative government wouldn't extend the Brexit transition period beyond 2020 — meaning a free trade agreement would have to be done by then. That promise, as I wrote on Friday, is either insincere or folly. But it was enough to get Farage to abandon his previous threat.The Brexit Party leader already looked a little silly with his decision not to stand as a candidate. Monday's announcement may allow Farage to focus his firepower on fewer seats, but he's essentially conceded the Conservative argument that backing the Brexit Party puts Brexit itself at risk.His decision will come as a relief to Conservative lawmakers who worried that a split in the Brexit vote in their constituencies would allow either Labour or the Liberal Democrats to take advantage. Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor at the University of Kent, notes that 35 of the 50 smallest Conservative majorities are in Leave-voting seats, so Farage has removed a major threat to those members of Parliament.Even so, there's a danger in overdoing the Tory celebrations. The Brexit Party will still be contesting seats in Leave-voting, Labour-held parts of the country, particularly in the Midlands and the North. The whole Tory electoral strategy — its big-spending pledges, its stance on immigration and its pledge of a quick Brexit with Johnson's deal — is based on capturing those seats."This announcement may help the Tories hold on slightly better against the Lib Dems, particularly in Leave-voting rural southwest England, and perhaps even against the Scottish National Party in the North East of Scotland," notes pollster and analyst Matt Singh. "But Johnson still needs seats won last time by Labour, so Farage standing candidates in those seats is still highly likely to hurt the Conservatives." And even if this has become more of a two-party race and the Conservatives capture a majority, Farage can still claim a substantial victory. He may find it cold comfort personally, but his long-standing Brexit campaign, dating back to his days as the head of the U.K. Independence Party, has had an out-sized influence on the Tories. It has produced an internal revolution in which moderate Conservatives and remainers have been purged in favor of a new coalition of working class Brexit voters and traditional social conservatives. He's as much the father of the new-look Tories as Johnson.If we're talking Lord of the Rings, the Brexit Party leader may be looked upon more as a sort of reconstructed Gollum, the slippery trickster of singular purpose who fell under the ring's spell and couldn't let it go. Gollum was destroyed ultimately at Mount Doom by his greed, but not before he helped Frodo and Sam accomplish their mission.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Boris Johnson Still Has a Nigel Farage Problem Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:30 AM PST ![Boris Johnson Still Has a Nigel Farage Problem]( "Boris Johnson Still Has a Nigel Farage Problem") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A little over a week ago, Nigel Farage described the Brexit deal that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought back from Brussels as a travesty and a betrayal of the 2016 referendum. He threatened to stand Brexit Party candidates in 600 constituencies against the Conservative Party in the forthcoming general election if Johnson didn't repudiate his own agreement.On Monday, Farage reversed course and the Conservatives cheered, as the threat of splitting the pro-Brexit vote appeared to diminish. Yet the reality of the Tory gain is less than clear cut.In 317 Conservative-held constituencies, Farage said his party will stand down so as not to hurt the the party's chances or produce a hung parliament that might threaten Brexit altogether. The decision came after Farage was attacked by Conservatives and the Brexit-supporting media for his purist stance. Nick Timothy, who advised the former prime minister Theresa May, wrote that Farage "has tragically turned into the Frodo Baggins of Brexit," likening him to the Tolkien hero who survives his perilous journey to destroy the One Ring only to succumb to its lure at the last minute and seek to possess it himself.Sufficiently chastened, Farage took an escape route offered by Johnson on Sunday, when the prime minister declared that a Conservative government wouldn't extend the Brexit transition period beyond 2020 — meaning a free trade agreement would have to be done by then. That promise, as I wrote on Friday, is either insincere or folly. But it was enough to get Farage to abandon his previous threat.The Brexit Party leader already looked a little silly with his decision not to stand as a candidate. Monday's announcement may allow Farage to focus his firepower on fewer seats, but he's essentially conceded the Conservative argument that backing the Brexit Party puts Brexit itself at risk.His decision will come as a relief to Conservative lawmakers who worried that a split in the Brexit vote in their constituencies would allow either Labour or the Liberal Democrats to take advantage. Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor at the University of Kent, notes that 35 of the 50 smallest Conservative majorities are in Leave-voting seats, so Farage has removed a major threat to those members of Parliament.Even so, there's a danger in overdoing the Tory celebrations. The Brexit Party will still be contesting seats in Leave-voting, Labour-held parts of the country, particularly in the Midlands and the North. The whole Tory electoral strategy — its big-spending pledges, its stance on immigration and its pledge of a quick Brexit with Johnson's deal — is based on capturing those seats."This announcement may help the Tories hold on slightly better against the Lib Dems, particularly in Leave-voting rural southwest England, and perhaps even against the Scottish National Party in the North East of Scotland," notes pollster and analyst Matt Singh. "But Johnson still needs seats won last time by Labour, so Farage standing candidates in those seats is still highly likely to hurt the Conservatives." And even if this has become more of a two-party race and the Conservatives capture a majority, Farage can still claim a substantial victory. He may find it cold comfort personally, but his long-standing Brexit campaign, dating back to his days as the head of the U.K. Independence Party, has had an out-sized influence on the Tories. It has produced an internal revolution in which moderate Conservatives and remainers have been purged in favor of a new coalition of working class Brexit voters and traditional social conservatives. He's as much the father of the new-look Tories as Johnson.If we're talking Lord of the Rings, the Brexit Party leader may be looked upon more as a sort of reconstructed Gollum, the slippery trickster of singular purpose who fell under the ring's spell and couldn't let it go. Gollum was destroyed ultimately at Mount Doom by his greed, but not before he helped Frodo and Sam accomplish their mission.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| UPDATE 3-Iran adds to breaches of nuclear deal with enrichment push -IAEA report Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:06 AM PST ![UPDATE 3-Iran adds to breaches of nuclear deal with enrichment push -IAEA report]( "UPDATE 3-Iran adds to breaches of nuclear deal with enrichment push -IAEA report") Iran is enriching uranium at its underground Fordow site and rapidly accelerating enrichment more broadly, a report by the U.N. atomic watchdog showed on Monday, outlining Tehran's latest breaches of its 2015 nuclear deal with major powers. Iran is overstepping the deal's limits on its nuclear activities one after the other in response to the United States' withdrawal from the accord last year and its reimposition of sanctions that have crippled Iran's oil trade.
|
| The Hong Kong Police Gunshot That Unleashed a Day of Mayhem Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PST ![The Hong Kong Police Gunshot That Unleashed a Day of Mayhem]( "The Hong Kong Police Gunshot That Unleashed a Day of Mayhem") (Bloomberg) -- Even before most of Hong Kong got to work Monday, protesters already had a fresh grievance against the police.A traffic cop seeking to break up a rush-hour roadblock grabbed a masked protester in a headlock and shot another in the abdomen at close range. The demonstrator collapsed on the crosswalk as blood pooled under him, prompting speculation that he could be the first to die from police gunfire after five months of unrest. He is in critical condition.The incident -- caught on video and widely circulated on social media -- added new fuel to criticism of police tactics already raging after a student died Friday from injuries suffered near a clash between cops and protesters. Moments later, another police officer was filmed repeatedly driving a motorcycle through a group of retreating protesters, striking several.Activists attempted to use the shooting to rally support for more protests on Tuesday, circulating flyers on social media featuring an image of a revolver and calling on people to disrupt traffic during the morning commute. The University of Hong Kong canceled all classes on Tuesday. Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union urged a suspension of all classes at schools and kindergartens, according to a statement on its Facebook page.Monday's chaos showed the strains facing Hong Kong's police, which the China-appointed government has relied on to suppress increasingly violent protests aimed at securing greater democracy. The shooting led protesters to flood the city's central business district at lunch time -- spurring fresh outrage at police when they fired volleys of tear gas into streets and luxury malls, sending office workers sprinting to safety and to wash out their eyes."People in Hong Kong are getting more and more angry that the violence from the police is increasing," said Tommy, 52, an accountant in Hong Kong who was with hundreds gathered in Central on Monday. "They just beat on protesters like terrorists. The most important solution is to have an independent investigation. But our government just doesn't listen."Although police said they suspended the motorcycle officer pending an investigation, they defended the officer who discharged his weapon, saying he feared for his safety. Police have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to restraint, despite criticism from the United Nations, U.S. and U.K. lawmakers, and Amnesty International, which accused the force of torturing detained protesters. Police have denied that claim.The shooting Monday was the third time a protester has been shot in the past two weeks, although all the victims have survived. The student who died Friday had fallen earlier in the week from a parking garage deck near a clash between protesters and police, making him the first such fatality.Protesters have seized on police tactics to justify their own escalations in a city once known for its non-violent demonstrations. Hard-core activists now show up at protests wearing gas masks and body armor and hurl petrol bombs at police lines.On Monday, a man was set on fire while arguing with one group in the northeastern area of Ma On Shan. He is also in critical condition."The level of violence used by the rioters has escalated significantly throughout these five months," senior superintendent Kong Wing-cheung told a news briefing Monday. "I do not agree that our officers are out of control with their use of force, but of course we are under great pressure and our officers also encounter difficult times during our operations."Worn out by months of protests and trying to contain rallies that often pop up out of nowhere, the police find themselves outnumbered and surrounded. That's what happened to the traffic officer who opened fire Monday. While he fired three shots, only one hit a protester."One of the most dangerous things any police officer can do is move away independently," said Clifford Stott, a professor at Keele University in the U.K., who was one of the experts on an international panel appointed to advise Hong Kong's Independent Police Complaints Council on the protests. "It's highly stressful, they're highly vulnerable, and in that context we're likely to see extremely high levels of use of force."Numerous police officers have been injured since more than one million people flooded Hong Kong's streets in June for what started out as a largely peaceful movement against legislation that would've allowed extraditions to mainland China. Officers have accused protesters of splashing them with noxious fluids and exposing them and their families to threats by circulating their personal information online.Meanwhile, Chief Executive Carrie Lam has vowed not to give into violence and meet the protesters' demands, including calls for direct leadership elections. The Chinese government last week reaffirmed its support for Lam, seemingly dashing any prospects for political change that could ease tensions between protesters and police."You can imagine that if you work constant overtime, you need to be cautious communicating with your friends, you can imagine the immense pressure," said Lawrence Ka-ki Ho, an assistant professor at the Education University of Hong Kong who studies policing and public order management.Stott said the "unprecedented" scale and violence of the city's protests make Monday's incidents "perhaps unsurprising." However, he said firing tear gas in the financial district at lunch time was rarely a good idea."We know from decades of research that those forms of policing tactics escalate disorder," he said, stressing he wasn't speaking in his capacity as an adviser to the IPCC. "The question for Hong Kong is: How does one deescalate the situation?"\--With assistance from Blake Schmidt, Natalie Lung and Erin Roman.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Colin Keatinge, Caroline AlexanderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Bosnia: Citizens who fought for IS in Syria can return Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:53 AM PST ![Bosnia: Citizens who fought for IS in Syria can return]( "Bosnia: Citizens who fought for IS in Syria can return") SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia on Monday said it will take back the country's citizens who have been captured while fighting for the Islamic State group and who will face legal proceedings upon return to the Balkan country. About 260 Bosnian citizens remain in the camps in Syria, including approximately 100 men and 160 women and children, said Security Minister Dragan Mektic. Mektic insisted that only confirmed Bosnian citizens will be taken in.
|
| Palestinian shot in back says Israelis abused him for hours Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:50 AM PST  A young Palestinian man who was shot in the back by Israeli forces in an incident caught on video last year says the footage shows just a small part of what was a horrifying day for him. Speaking to The Associated Press after the video emerged last week, Karam Qawasmi said he was run over by a military jeep, then beaten for several hours before troops released him, only to shoot him in the back with a painful sponge-tipped bullet as he walked away. "I died several times that day," he said in an interview at his home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
|
| UK's Farage withdraws Brexit threat to PM Johnson Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:42 AM PST  Populist Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage on Monday withdrew his threat to challenge the governing Conservatives at every seat in next month's general election, in a boost for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Farage, a leading force behind the movement to leave the EU, had faced growing criticism that his party could split the eurosceptic vote on December 12, allowing pro-EU parties to seize a working majority and hold a second referendum on Brexit. Instead, he vowed to contest hundreds of seats held by pro-European parties and the main opposition Labour Party, including those that backed "Leave" in the 2016 referendum -- which could still see him take votes from Johnson's Tories.
|
| Atomic watchdog: Iran's stockpiles of uranium still growing Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:40 AM PST  The U.N. atomic watchdog says Iran's stockpiles of low-enriched uranium are still growing in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal. In a confidential quarterly report distributed to member states, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium still exceeds the amount allowed by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. It also said Iran continues to enrich uranium up to 4.5%, above the 3.67% allowed.
|
| Nikki Haley is plotting a loopy path to the presidency Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:07 AM PST ![Nikki Haley is plotting a loopy path to the presidency]( "Nikki Haley is plotting a loopy path to the presidency") Nikki Haley wants you to know two things: First, she is very loyal to President Trump. Second, she feels kind of bad about the things he does.If that sounds incoherent, well, too bad. Those contradictions -- on display in her new memoir, With All Due Respect -- contain her road map for becoming president.Public impeachment hearings against Trump start this week in Washington, D.C., but Haley, Trump's former U.N. ambassador, pretty clearly is already looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election. If you want to know how the Republican Party plans to salvage its electoral prospects in the wake of Trump's presidency, when women and suburban voters have fled the GOP en masse, look no further than Haley's book.There are two things that are likely to be true for a few years after Donald Trump leaves the presidency. The first is that the GOP base will remain essentially Trumpist, and Trump himself will probably remain a kingmaker within the party for the foreseeable future. The second is that the broader electorate -- which has never really liked Trump -- might well reject any GOP candidate too closely associated with him.Haley's game plan? Split the difference.Her book -- as reported on Sunday afternoon by The Washington Post -- suggests she plans a careful balancing act, simultaneously demonstrating her loyalty to Trump and her independence from him.The question is whether it is truly possible to do both things at once.She accomplishes the first half of the task by rebuking two of her colleagues, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-Chief of Staff John Kelly. According to the Post, Haley writes that she disdained their efforts to circumvent some of the president's decisions -- while she remained steadfast in her loyalty to the boss."It should've been, 'Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don't like what he's doing,'" Haley told CBS News. "But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive."The problem is that Haley herself provides several examples of the president's questionable judgment. Many of these incidents are known -- Trump's equivocating between racists and anti-racists in the aftermath of violence in Charlottesville is probably the best known -- but Haley wants us to know that while she was silent publicly, she was firm with the president behind closed doors."A leader's words matter in these situations. And the president's words had been hurtful and dangerous," Haley wrote. "I picked up the phone and called the president."In the book -- and in interviews promoting the book -- Haley attempts this balancing act over and over again. She doesn't always approve of the president. His opponents, though, are somehow always worse.Should Trump have said that Democratic women of color should "go back" to where they came from? No, Haley says, but she understands why he did so. "I can also appreciate where he's coming from, from the standpoint of, 'Don't bash America, over and over and over again, and not do something to try and fix it,'" she said.Should the president have pressured Ukraine to investigate his political opponents? No, Haley says, but neither is the act impeachable. "So, do I think it's not good practice to talk to foreign governments about investigating Americans? Yes," she said, in a bit of a grammatical loopty-loop. "Do I think the president did something that warrants impeachment? No, because the aid flowed."One key test of whether Haley's "yes, but" approach to defending Trump is whether Trump himself allows it. The president hasn't exactly shown himself to be fond of subordinates who are loyal but independent. Indeed, on Sunday he was on Twitter, urging Republicans to declare his communications to be "perfect" -- better than merely unimpeachable. "Loyal but independent" might well be insufficiently loyal in Trump's eyes. If he does play the kingmaker role going forward, that could be a problem for Haley.> The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don't be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2019Her two-pronged approach may well offer Republicans their best chance at winning elections in the post-Trump era, however -- unless the party decides to go all-in on voter suppression. Successful politicians often find themselves trying to be all things to all people.Nikki Haley, it appears, is getting ready to put that proposition to the ultimate test.More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
|
| The Latest: Corbyn: Brexit Party move is a "Trump alliance" Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  Labour Party chief Jeremy Corbyn has denounced the decision by Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage not to challenge the Conservative Party in seats it won at the last British election. Corbyn tweeted Monday that the emerging alliance between Farage's Brexit Party and Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives ahead of the Dec. 12 national election must be stopped.
|
| Why Nikki Haley isn't jumping off the Trump train any time soon Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  In her new book, Haley is doubling down on her support for Trump – and hoping it will lead to fame and fortune in the Republican party'Haley is making a bet that her future depends on devotion to Trump and his brand of populism.' Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty ImagesHistorians know that there are two types of political memoirs. The first are the books that politicians write at the end of their careers. These are often self-centered and biased, but they at least generally tell us something useful about the past. Such books take time to write – Barack Obama still hasn't finished his. Then there is the second type of memoir, those books that are dashed off quickly by politicians and their publicists in order to take their career to the next level. These memoirs tell us more about how the author imagines the future than they do about the past.Nikki Haley's new memoir, With All Due Respect, is the second type. Haley has written the book in just over a year since leaving her job as United States ambassador to the United Nations. Haley also sat in Donald Trump's cabinet, and she would undoubtedly have some interesting stories to tell if she chose to. For the most part, she does not. Instead, Haley is using the book to try to position herself for fame and fortune in the Republican party of the future. Specifically, Haley is making a bet that her future depends on devotion to Trump and his brand of populism.While others who worked for Trump have tried to suggest they acted as a check on his worst instincts, Haley does the opposite. She says that she refused to support the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff, John Kelly, when they confided in her that sometimes ignoring or undermining Trump was necessary to "save the country". The subtext – nefarious agents of the deep state being resisted by a loyal devotee of the president – could hardly be clearer, or more calculated to appeal to the president and his supporters.During her time as ambassador to the United Nations, Haley developed an undeserved reputation in some quarters as a moderate who was willing to push back against the administration. But the statements that won her this reputation – such as saying that women who have accused Trump of sexual assault "should be heard" – barely counted as criticisms at all. They only made waves because the rest of the president's party was engulfed in cowardly silence.So, even though she might think that those women "should be heard", she still went to work for a man who has bragged of sexual assault. She might be of immigrant heritage, but she still defended family separation at the border against criticism from the United Nations, claiming that the policy was necessary to "control our borders and protect our people". And she might have privately complained to Trump about his "both sides" remarks following the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, but she declined to do so in public – instead saying that "no one can question that he's opposed to bigotry and hate in this country."> She clearly sees a future in which bigotry and populism will continue to define the Republican brandIn a recent interview, Haley even defended the racist taunt that Trump directed at four Democratic members of Congress, all women of color, who he said should "go back" to their countries. While calling the president's remark "not appropriate", she also said "I can appreciate where he's coming from", because the congresswomen in question "bash America". Haley frequently rationalizes Trump's actions in such a way, portraying the president as the defender of "real people" against bigoted and corrupt elites. She dismisses the impeachment investigation against the president in similar terms.That someone with a reputation – however undeserved – for putting daylight between herself and the president would choose instead to double down on Trumpism in such a way is telling. It is doubly so given that Haley, an Indian-American, is the most prominent woman of color in the Republican party. She clearly sees a future in which bigotry and populism will continue to define the Republican brand, and believes that her personal survival requires her to toe the party line as closely as possible. Meanwhile, hate crimes against Indian-Americans are surging, and advocacy groups blame the party's anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric.This crude attempt to ride the populist wave all the way into the Oval Office, which seems to be Haley's ultimate goal, confirms just how narrow and insular the Republican party has become. But it also says something about Haley herself. Had she possessed the necessary moral fiber, she could have made a shot at redemption, calling out Trump's bigotry and corruption. Haley is young, and will be in Republican politics for many decades yet – long enough for Trumpism to be exorcised, if there are those willing to do it. Instead, she opted to be a follower and not a leader, and to follow the Republican party into dark places, even if she quibbles a little along the way. The real memoirs, when they get written, will not be kind. * Andy Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University in the Netherlands
|
| Court orders Dutch state to repatriate children from Syria Posted: 11 Nov 2019 06:31 AM PST ![Court orders Dutch state to repatriate children from Syria]( "Court orders Dutch state to repatriate children from Syria") A Dutch court says the government must attempt to bring home children whose mothers traveled to Syria to join Islamic extremist groups. The decision Monday at a court in The Hague came in a case filed by lawyers on behalf of 23 women and their 56 children who are housed in camps in northern Syria. The government has long said it is too dangerous to go to Syria to repatriate Dutch citizens.
|
| Why Bolivian Politics Suddenly Matters to Putin Posted: 11 Nov 2019 06:20 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Russian opposition leaders rejoiced at the forced resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales, while the Russian foreign ministry branded it an "orchestrated coup." The interest in the drama playing out so far from Moscow is understandable, and not just because Morales had handed lucrative projects to Russian state companies. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin faces the same choice that Morales faced this year — to obey the constitutional term limit or to sweep it aside and try to keep power.Bolivia has a long history of military coups and aborted presidencies. Carlos Mesa, the current opposition leader, resigned after two years as president in 2005 amid mass protests. That paved the way for the first electoral victory of Morales in December of that year. The new president declared that power now belonged to the indigenous people of Bolivia and that the country's natural resources would be nationalized — a decision that had been backed by a referendum held during Mesa's presidency but not implemented by him.Morales, who doesn't have a college degree, has turned out to be the most successful leader in Bolivia's dolorous history of poverty, strife and military defeat. Poverty declined during his rule.Per-capita economic output, meanwhile, rose faster than the regional average.Morales, however, was an authoritarian ruler who quickly found rapport with the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela — and with the Putin regime in Russia, which finds it easy to do arms and energy business with autocrats. Rosatom Corp., the Russian state nuclear monopoly, got a contract to build a $300 million nuclear center near La Paz, the Bolivian capital, and began negotiating a concession to develop Bolivia's large lithium reserves. Gazprom PJSC, the Russian state-controlled natural-gas company, has been present in Bolivia since 2010. Russia also has been trying to sell weapons to Bolivia, especially helicopters; Putin himself has tried to talk Morales into it, but actual sales have been held back by Bolivia's shortage of funds.Bolivia's constitution has included a two-term limit for presidents since 2009, meaning Morales could serve for three terms because his first one started before the limit took effect. In 2016, he tried to remove the cap but lost a referendum.Morales appeared to accept that he'd have to leave, but in 2017, the country's constitutional court controversially ruled against the term limit, and he was allowed to run again. Rosatom reportedly even sent a team of Russian election experts to back his campaign and thus protect the Russian state companies' interests. On Oct. 20, however, Morales was still unable to beat Mesa by the margin he needed to avoid a runoff, and then major vote-counting irregularities became so obvious that mass protests erupted and even Bolivia's labor unions turned against the president.But Morales only resigned when the military said it wouldn't crush the protests and urged him to go. Clearly, Bolivian generals have learned the lessons of 2003, when they followed then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's orders to use force against protesters demanding the nationalization of the country's natural-gas deposits. At least 67 people were killed and some 400 injured; Lozada was sued by the victims' families in the U.S., where he lives now, but was cleared last year because the judge found the evidence of his culpability insufficient. (Mesa, who served as Lozada's vice president, had opposed the violence).Morales described the events that forced him to resign as a coup, and his words were echoed not just by Russia, whose contracts in Bolivia are at risk now, but by a roster of international leftists, ranging from U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Putin's opponents in Russia were, on the contrary, encouraged.Corruption fighter Alexei Navalny tweeted a photo of Morales with Putin, accompanied by this caption: "A corrupt president who was illegally holding on to power through lies and falsifications, has fled the country. For now, just the one on the left."Leonid Volkov, another leading opposition figure, tweeted, "I really wish we could be like Bolivia."The jubilation and the envy won't pass unnoticed in the Kremlin. Putin has more than four years to explore his options for 2024, when his own presidency comes up against a constitutional term limit, but there is no obvious quasi-legitimate scenario that would allow him to stay in the Kremlin. There appears to be no appetite for a risky move to a parliamentary republic, which would make the prime minister's office the most powerful and allow Putin to get re-elected as many times as he can. And ruling by proxy, as Putin did during Dmitry Medvedev's presidency between 2008 and 2012, clearly disappointed Putin himself since he moved to undo Medvedev's feeble attempt at liberalizing the country.The most obvious option is simply to alter the constitution to remove the term limit. But the Morales example shows the pitfalls of this strategy. While he's respected and his contribution to reducing poverty is widely acknowledged, even his supporters are tired of him after 13 years in power; it's only natural for people to grow restless without change. When that happens, critical decisions must eventually be taken by the military and the police.In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro has managed to keep the military loyal, and he still hasn't been deposed. In Bolivia, Morales had retained the military's support throughout his rule because he didn't demand too much from his enforcers. But when popular protest reached a high point, the generals wouldn't move against them, and Morales was finished.All this Latin American experience, closely monitored in Moscow because of state companies' business dealings in the region, will serve to convince Putin that an authoritarian's natural term limit isn't the one specified in the constitution. In reality, he can rule until his enforcers decide they can't afford to follow his orders. That means Putin must keep buying the loyalty of Russia's vast security apparatus, which is already costing the government about 10% of its non-classified budget. The National Guard, which includes riot police, is slated for big spending increases in the next four years.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Why Bolivian Politics Suddenly Matters to Putin Posted: 11 Nov 2019 06:20 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Russian opposition leaders rejoiced at the forced resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales, while the Russian foreign ministry branded it an "orchestrated coup." The interest in the drama playing out so far from Moscow is understandable, and not just because Morales had handed lucrative projects to Russian state companies. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin faces the same choice that Morales faced this year — to obey the constitutional term limit or to sweep it aside and try to keep power.Bolivia has a long history of military coups and aborted presidencies. Carlos Mesa, the current opposition leader, resigned after two years as president in 2005 amid mass protests. That paved the way for the first electoral victory of Morales in December of that year. The new president declared that power now belonged to the indigenous people of Bolivia and that the country's natural resources would be nationalized — a decision that had been backed by a referendum held during Mesa's presidency but not implemented by him.Morales, who doesn't have a college degree, has turned out to be the most successful leader in Bolivia's dolorous history of poverty, strife and military defeat. Poverty declined during his rule.Per-capita economic output, meanwhile, rose faster than the regional average.Morales, however, was an authoritarian ruler who quickly found rapport with the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela — and with the Putin regime in Russia, which finds it easy to do arms and energy business with autocrats. Rosatom Corp., the Russian state nuclear monopoly, got a contract to build a $300 million nuclear center near La Paz, the Bolivian capital, and began negotiating a concession to develop Bolivia's large lithium reserves. Gazprom PJSC, the Russian state-controlled natural-gas company, has been present in Bolivia since 2010. Russia also has been trying to sell weapons to Bolivia, especially helicopters; Putin himself has tried to talk Morales into it, but actual sales have been held back by Bolivia's shortage of funds.Bolivia's constitution has included a two-term limit for presidents since 2009, meaning Morales could serve for three terms because his first one started before the limit took effect. In 2016, he tried to remove the cap but lost a referendum.Morales appeared to accept that he'd have to leave, but in 2017, the country's constitutional court controversially ruled against the term limit, and he was allowed to run again. Rosatom reportedly even sent a team of Russian election experts to back his campaign and thus protect the Russian state companies' interests. On Oct. 20, however, Morales was still unable to beat Mesa by the margin he needed to avoid a runoff, and then major vote-counting irregularities became so obvious that mass protests erupted and even Bolivia's labor unions turned against the president.But Morales only resigned when the military said it wouldn't crush the protests and urged him to go. Clearly, Bolivian generals have learned the lessons of 2003, when they followed then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's orders to use force against protesters demanding the nationalization of the country's natural-gas deposits. At least 67 people were killed and some 400 injured; Lozada was sued by the victims' families in the U.S., where he lives now, but was cleared last year because the judge found the evidence of his culpability insufficient. (Mesa, who served as Lozada's vice president, had opposed the violence).Morales described the events that forced him to resign as a coup, and his words were echoed not just by Russia, whose contracts in Bolivia are at risk now, but by a roster of international leftists, ranging from U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Putin's opponents in Russia were, on the contrary, encouraged.Corruption fighter Alexei Navalny tweeted a photo of Morales with Putin, accompanied by this caption: "A corrupt president who was illegally holding on to power through lies and falsifications, has fled the country. For now, just the one on the left."Leonid Volkov, another leading opposition figure, tweeted, "I really wish we could be like Bolivia."The jubilation and the envy won't pass unnoticed in the Kremlin. Putin has more than four years to explore his options for 2024, when his own presidency comes up against a constitutional term limit, but there is no obvious quasi-legitimate scenario that would allow him to stay in the Kremlin. There appears to be no appetite for a risky move to a parliamentary republic, which would make the prime minister's office the most powerful and allow Putin to get re-elected as many times as he can. And ruling by proxy, as Putin did during Dmitry Medvedev's presidency between 2008 and 2012, clearly disappointed Putin himself since he moved to undo Medvedev's feeble attempt at liberalizing the country.The most obvious option is simply to alter the constitution to remove the term limit. But the Morales example shows the pitfalls of this strategy. While he's respected and his contribution to reducing poverty is widely acknowledged, even his supporters are tired of him after 13 years in power; it's only natural for people to grow restless without change. When that happens, critical decisions must eventually be taken by the military and the police.In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro has managed to keep the military loyal, and he still hasn't been deposed. In Bolivia, Morales had retained the military's support throughout his rule because he didn't demand too much from his enforcers. But when popular protest reached a high point, the generals wouldn't move against them, and Morales was finished.All this Latin American experience, closely monitored in Moscow because of state companies' business dealings in the region, will serve to convince Putin that an authoritarian's natural term limit isn't the one specified in the constitution. In reality, he can rule until his enforcers decide they can't afford to follow his orders. That means Putin must keep buying the loyalty of Russia's vast security apparatus, which is already costing the government about 10% of its non-classified budget. The National Guard, which includes riot police, is slated for big spending increases in the next four years.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Nigel Farage Stands Down Hundreds of Candidates, Handing Election Boost to Boris Johnson Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:57 AM PST  REUTERS / Phil NobleJust over a week ago, President Donald Trump urged his two closest allies in British politics—Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and the Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson—to "come together" and attempt to rescue the calamitous Brexit project. Today, he got his wish.Farage, who committed to standing more than 600 candidates in next month's general election at his campaign launch last week, has handed Johnson a boost by dramatically scaling back his ambitions. The Brexit Party leader announced he will not stand candidates in the 317 seats which were won by the Conservative Party at the 2017 general election.At a press conference on Monday, Farage said his climbdown came after months of trying to create a pro-Brexit alliance with the Conservatives. He said he'd now decided was time to put the Brexit project before his party's ambitions and to set up a "unilateral Leave alliance."The Brexit Party leader said he had concluded that, if his party had stood a candidate in every seat in England, Scotland, and Wales, it would split the Brexit vote and hand dozens of seats to the pro-EU parties, preventing the Conservatives from securing a majority."The Brexit party will not contest the 317 seats the Conservatives won at the last election," said Farage. "We will concentrate our total effort into all the seats that are held by the Labour party, who have completely broken their manifesto pledge in 2017 to respect the result of the referendum, and we will also take on the rest of the Remainer parties. We will stand up and fight them all."While Farage's rollback is welcome news for Johnson, it's far from a guarantee that he will win the majority of seats he will need to be able to force through his vision of Brexit. By standing in every seat the Conservatives didn't win in 2017's election under Theresa May, Farage will still make it very difficult for Johnson to make any gains. May's 317 seats fell short of a majority, forcing her to make a deal with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party and severely undermining her power.However, Farage appears to believe that his announcement will help keep the pro-Brexit vote from splitting in Conservative seats and prevent them from being lost to pro-EU parties such as the Liberal Democrats, which has advocated for a second EU referendum or unilaterally cancelling the Brexit process with the agreement of European leaders.Farage has been highly critical of the Brexit deal agreed between Johnson and the EU in Brussels last month, and previously said he would only stand aside if the prime minister pledged to abandon the deal.Explaining his change of heart, Farage said: "I have got no great love for the Conservative party at all, but I can see right now that by giving Boris half a chance … and stopping the fanatics in the Liberal Democrats—they even want to revoke the result of the referendum—I think our action, our announcement today prevents a second referendum from happening."The other parties seized on Farage's announcement. Even for many Conservatives, Farage's brand of populist anti-immigration rhetoric is toxic and the scent of some kind of arrangement between him and Johnson could go down badly among swing voters. That appears to be the hope of the Labour Party, which attacked the announcement Monday.Ian Lavery, the Labour Party Chairman, said: "This is a Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson alliance with Donald Trump to sell out our country and send £500 million per week from our NHS to US drugs companies. We urge voters to reject this Thatcherite 1980s tribute act, which would lead to more savage Tory attacks on working class communities."Anna Soubry, a former Conservative member of parliament who resigned from the party over Brexit and is now standing as a candidate and leader of the pro-EU Independent Group, echoed that statement. She wrote: "It's official the Conservative Party just became the Brexit Party. One Nation Conservatives will now lend their votes to the Remain Alliance and other moderate centrists."Johnson appeared pleased by the announcement, telling Sky News shortly afterwards: "I'm glad that there is a recognition, that there's only one way to get Brexit done." However, he refused to say whether or not Farage's climbdown will help his chances in the election.The move was also welcomed by Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly who said he was glad Farage had belatedly recognized the risk of his candidates "preventing a stable majority government." But he added there was still a "danger" the party could split the vote in target seats, leading to the election of lawmakers who could "frustrate the Brexit process."Despite Monday's goodwill gesture, which will undoubtedly help Johnson's quest for a majority, Farage and his Brexit Party still have the potential to be an electoral barrier that stands in the way of the very thing they claim to value most.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Palestinian leader boasts he has 'slapped' US in the face Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:50 AM PST ![Palestinian leader boasts he has 'slapped' US in the face]( "Palestinian leader boasts he has 'slapped' US in the face") The Palestinian president says he has "slapped" the U.S. Administration in the face by rejecting President Donald Trump's promised peace plan. Trump has not yet released the plan or said when it will be released.
|
| Farage Lifts Johnson by Standing Aside in Tory Seats: U.K. Votes Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:32 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Nigel Farage said his Brexit Party will stand aside in 317 seats won by the Conservatives in 2017, to avoid damaging Boris Johnson's efforts to secure a parliamentary majority to end the impasse over leaving the European Union. The pound rose the most in more than three weeks.Read more: Farage Won't Fight Tories in Election Boost for U.K.'s JohnsonKey Developments:Farage says he wants to prevent a second referendum on Brexit; pledges to "take the fight" to LabourPound rises 0.8%Three weekend polls give Tories double-digit lead over LabourTories say 'eye-watering' Labour spending plans to cost 1.2 trillion pounds; Labour calls the analysis 'fake news'GDP figures show U.K. returned to growth in third quarter, but figures were weaker than expectedFarage Plan 'Doesn't Make Much Difference' (1:20 p.m.)John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University and a prominent U.K. polling expert, said Nigel Farage's decision not to challenge Boris Johnson's Tories in seats they won in 2017 was "not offering the Conservatives much help."Curtice told the BBC that while it will give Johnson a boost in those seats, the Brexit Party can still hurt the Tories by standing in key districts the Tories hope to gain from Labour. "In truth, Nigel Farage's statement today doesn't make much difference."Johnson Welcomes Farage Decision on Tory Seats (1 p.m.)Boris Johnson welcomed the Brexit Party's decision not to stand candidates in the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in 2017 (see 12:25 p.m.)."We welcome Nigel Farage's recognition that another gridlocked hung Parliament is the greatest threat to getting Brexit done," Johnson said in a tweet. "Only a Conservative majority can get Brexit done by the end of January with a deal that's agreed and ready to go."Asked in a Sky News interview if Farage's decision boosts his chances, Johnson said: "What we're saying to the country is that we only need nine more seats to get a working majority government. If we get a working majority in Parliament, then we will have a Parliament that works for the British people."Analysts Cautious on Farage Impact (12:40 p.m.)The pound surged on the back of Nigel Farage's announcement (see 12:25 p.m.) and bookmakers quickly shortened their odds on the Dec. 12 general election yielding a parliamentary majority for Boris Johnson's Conservatives.But not everyone is convinced it will have a deciding impact."It is good news for the Conservatives, but not great news," Tim Bale, deputy director of The U.K. In a Changing Europe think tank, said in an interview. "Farage is still standing Brexit candidates in seats the Tories hoped to take from the Labour Party, and all the research shows that the Brexit candidate is more likely to take votes from the Tories than from Labour."Meanwhile Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly told the BBC that Farage's decision was the "pragmatic thing to do," but added he still sees a risk in the Brexit Party standing in Labour- or Liberal Democrat-held seats that "might actually prevent the chances of a majority Conservative government."Farage Hands Johnson Boost (12:25 p.m.)Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said he will not contest the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in 2017, a move that potentially alters the course of the election in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's favor. At a rally in Hartlepool, northern England, Farage said his party will instead concentrate efforts in "taking the fight" to the Labour Party.Farage said he made the decision on Sunday night because he didn't want to risk a majority of Remain-supporting MPs in the House of Commons who could then hold a second referendum on Brexit and put the whole project in jeopardy."If we do field 600 candidates, there will be a hung Parliament," Farage said. "This announcement today prevents a second referendum from happening, and that to me is -- right now -- the most important thing in this country."Farage said private polling showed significant Liberal Democrat gains, including in southwest London and southwest England, if the Brexit Party stood against the Tories in those areas.Javid Attacks Labour's Economic Plans (12:10 p.m.)Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid defended his party's analysis of the Labour Party's spending plans after Javid's opposite number, John McDonnell, earlier dismissed the Tory estimate as "fake news."In a series of broadcast interviews, Javid described Labour's plans as "economic vandalism" and challenged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to provide an alternative figure if it disagreed with the Conservatives' 1.2 trillion-pound estimate. "If it isn't 1.2 trillion, then what is it?"But pressed on how much a Conservative government would borrow if they win the election, Javid refused to give a figure. "If we win the election, then we will have within weeks our first budget as a new government," Javid told Bloomberg TV. "In that budget you would expect to see the detail and the independent research from the Office of Budget Responsibility about the impact of our spending and tax decisions."Javid also said his Conservative Party sees no need to extend Mark Carney's term as Bank of England governor, and that a new central bank chief would be appointed "very, very, quickly" if it wins the election.Bookmakers Say Johnson Headed for Win (11:15 a.m.)Boris Johnson is the overwhelming favorite to remain as prime minister after the Dec. 12 general, according to bookmaker Paddy Power. At odds of 3/1 on to lead the next government, the betting firm effectively gives Johnson a 75% chance of keeping his job.But the odds suggest he's not guaranteed an overall majority in Parliament -- which he has repeatedly said he needs to end the impasse over Brexit. Most betting firms rate his chances of winning an overall majority in the House of Commons at about 50:50, though with sentiment toward a Conservative majority. On Monday, Ladbrokes placed a 60% chance on a Johnson majority.Gove Attacks Labour on Immigration (9:45 a.m.)Cabinet minister Michael Gove accused Labour of reneging on its 2017 pledge to end freedom of movement after Brexit. "Labour is now explicitly in favour of unlimited and uncontrolled immigration," Gove wrote in the Times newspaper.An alliance between Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon would put a "huge strain" on public services and make Briton's "less safe" by allowing unfettered immigration, he wrote. "The Corbyn-Sturgeon policy is extreme, dangerous and out of touch with the British people."A motion passed at the Labour Party's annual conference said it would extend free movement if elected to government, and Corbyn said last week he wants to "make sure that all those European Union nationals do remain here, can come here, will stay here."When asked Sunday in a BBC interview how that differed from the EU principle of free movement, Labour's campaign chief Andrew Gwynne said there would be "bespoke" agreements with EU countries. He said he'd be able to answer "more clearly" whether the party's 2019 manifesto would pledge to end free movement after it's finalized on Saturday.U.K. Avoids Recession, Economy on Weak Footing (9:30 a.m.)Britain dodged a recession ahead of the now-postponed Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, providing an election boost for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.The economy grew 0.3% between July and September, avoiding a second straight quarter of contraction, the Office for National Statistics said on Monday. Still, the figures were weaker than expected and showed the economy had little momentum as it entered the fourth quarter.Read more: U.K. Avoids Recession But Ends Third Quarter on Weak FootingCorbyn's Pacifism Under Spotlight (8:20 a.m.)Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's pacifism is under the spotlight again -- just as it was during the 2017 campaign. Asked in a BBC radio interview to name any occasion when the Labour leader had supported the use of British armed forces, the party's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Emily Thornberry, said: "No, not off the top of my head.""In principle, Jeremy is not a pacifist; we are not pacifists," Thornberry said. "There will be times when we need to use military force, but when we use it, we need to ensure that the use of that military force actually makes the situation better in the long term."While Corbyn has in the past said he wouldn't be prepared to use Britain's nuclear weapons, Thornberry said he "would do anything to protect our country," adding, "it's wrong for us to say in advance in what circumstances we would use nuclear weapons."Within minutes of the interview, the Conservatives released their attack lines in a statement from Defense Minister Johnny Mercer. "If Jeremy Corbyn is unable to make crucial decisions to keep our country safe, he is not fit to be Prime Minister," he said.Parties Announce Benefits for Armed Forces (Earlier)As it's Armistice Day, both the Tories and Labour are touting new policy proposals to boost the armed forces and veterans. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is pledging fair pay, decent housing and better schooling for the children of armed forces.Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will be in the West Midlands, is offering childcare and incentives for employers to hire ex-soldiers. Johnson will also offer legal protection to veterans, the Telegraph says. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace did a morning broadcast round touting plans to end repeat prosecutions over historical allegations against forces who served in Northern Ireland."This isn't an amnesty," Wallace told the BBC. "This is about repeated and vexatious claims."Tories Attack Labour Spending Plans (Earlier)The Conservatives attacked Labour spending plans, which Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid described as "eye-watering" and said could force the U.K. into an economic crisis within months of the opposition assuming power. The Tories said on Sunday the cost of all Labour's policy announcements would total 1.2 trillion pounds over five years.Their 36-page analysis was dismissed as "fake news" by Javid's Labour counterpart, John McDonnell, who promised his party would produce a fully-costed manifesto -- just as it did in 2017.Polls Give Conservatives Double-Digit Lead (Earlier)Three weekend polls gave Boris Johnson's Conservatives a double-digit lead over Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, while a fourth put the margin at 8 percentage points.U.K. Recent Election Polls Summary: Conservative 39%, Labour 27%A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times puts the Tories on 39%, unchanged from its previous survey, with Labour down a point on 26%. The Liberal Democrats are up a point on 17% and the Brexit Party are up 3 points on 10%.An Opinium poll and a Deltapoll survey both gave the same results for the Conservatives (41%), Labour (29%) and the Brexit Party (6%). Opinium has the Liberal Democrats on 15% compared to 16% for Deltapoll.A BMG survey for the Independent on Sunday put the Tories on 37%, with Labour on 29%, the Liberal Democrats on 16% and the Brexit Party on 9%.Earlier:U.K. Tories Switch Focus to Economy, Attack Labour's SpendingConservatives Attack Labour Spending Plans: U.K. Campaign TrailWhich Political Party Has the Best Track Record for U.K. Stocks?Tories Get Nervous as Chaos Hits Johnson's U.K. Election TrainBritain's Election Gamble -- What You Need to Know: QuickTake\--With assistance from David Goodman, Dara Doyle, Peter Flanagan, Robert Hutton and Alex Morales.To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Pound Jumps After Nigel Farage Promises Not to Contest Tory Seats Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:14 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The pound rallied on increased conviction the Conservatives will win December's election after Brexit champion Nigel Farage pledged not to fight the ruling party.The currency rose the most in more than three weeks after Farage, whose Brexit Party could have split votes for the Conservatives, said he wanted to prevent a second Brexit referendum and pledged to concentrate his efforts on preventing Labour Party candidates entering Parliament.The pound has rebounded to near $1.29 since hitting a near three-year low in September, on the back of Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally managing to secure a Brexit deal. For now markets are fixated on the Dec. 12 election and ignoring most other developments, with volatility rising as the vote comes into view."This means the market will price Conservatives getting a majority at this stage," said Jordan Rochester, a strategist at Nomura International Plc. "This is 'pound higher by 1% today' sort of stuff."The currency's focus on politics above all else was once again on show Monday, as the pound barely reacted to U.K. GDP growth, only to move close to 1% on the political developments. Strategists had said a coalition between the Brexit Party and the ruling Conservatives could have been the worst outcome for the pound, as Farage's lawmakers would likely seek a more distant relationship with the EU and even push for a no-deal Brexit.Still, though the news is positive for the U.K. currency, it's not "a game changer," according to Rochester. Even if the Conservatives were to keep all of their seats from last time, that would still mean a hung Parliament, and the Brexit Party still plans to stand in seats which were won by the opposition Labour party last time.The pound climbed nearly 1% to $1.2898, the biggest gain since Oct. 17. The currency strengthened by 0.6% to 85.70 pence per euro after touching a six-month peak.(Writes through.)\--With assistance from Anooja Debnath.To contact the reporter on this story: Charlotte Ryan in London at cryan147@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net, William Shaw, Neil ChatterjeeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Giuliani Associate Says He Gave Demand for Biden Inquiry to Ukrainians Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:12 AM PST  Not long before the Ukrainian president was inaugurated in May, an associate of Rudy Giuliani's journeyed to Kyiv to deliver a warning to the country's new leadership, a lawyer for the associate said.The associate, Lev Parnas, told a representative of the incoming government that it had to announce an investigation into Trump's political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, or else Vice President Mike Pence would not attend the swearing-in of the new president, and the United States would freeze aid, the lawyer said.The claim by Parnas, who is preparing to share his account with impeachment investigators, challenges the narrative of events from Trump and Ukrainian officials that is at the core of the congressional inquiry. It also directly links Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, to threats of repercussions made to the Ukrainians, something he has strenuously denied.But Parnas' account, while potentially significant, is being contradicted on several fronts. None of the people involved dispute that the meeting occurred, but Parnas stands alone in saying the intention was to present an ultimatum to the Ukrainian leadership.Another participant in the meeting, Parnas' business partner, Igor Fruman, said Parnas' claim was false; the men never raised the issues of aid or the vice president's attendance at the inauguration, lawyers for Fruman said.Giuliani denied Parnas' contention that he had delivered the warning at the direction of Giuliani. "Categorically, I did not tell him to say that," Giuliani said.The dispute represents the clearest indication yet that Parnas, who was indicted along with Fruman last month on campaign finance charges, has turned on Trump and Giuliani.Parnas and Fruman, both Soviet-born businessmen from Florida, worked with Giuliani for months in Ukraine outside normal diplomatic channels to further Trump's interests. The men have been subpoenaed to testify before Congress, and Parnas' lawyer has said his client will comply to the extent he can without incriminating himself. It is unclear if Parnas will ultimately be called to testify.Parnas' account of the meeting, if corroborated, would reveal the earliest known instance of U.S. aid being tied to demands for Ukraine to take actions that could benefit Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. It would also represent a more extensive threat -- to pull Pence from the inaugural delegation -- than was previously known.Trump froze nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine shortly before a July 25 call with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump personally sought investigations into the Bidens and claims that Ukrainians had meddled in the 2016 election. In the call, Trump did not explicitly link the aid and the investigations.Trump has denied a quid pro quo involving aid, and Zelenskiy has said he never felt pressured to pursue an investigation.The meeting in Kyiv in May occurred after Giuliani, with Parnas' help, had planned a trip there to urge Zelenskiy to pursue the investigations. Giuliani canceled his trip at the last minute, claiming he was being "set up."Only three people were present at the meeting: Parnas, Fruman and Serhiy Shefir, a member of the inner circle of Zelenskiy, then the Ukrainian president-elect. The sit-down took place at an outdoor cafe in the days before Zelenskiy's May 20 inauguration, according to a person familiar with the events. The men sipped coffee and spoke in Russian, which is widely spoken in Ukraine, the person said.Parnas' lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, said the message to the Ukrainians was given at the direction of Giuliani, whom Parnas believed was acting under Trump's instruction. Giuliani said he "never authorized such a conversation."A lawyer for Fruman, John M. Dowd, said his client told him the men were seeking only a meeting with Zelenskiy, the new president. "There was no mention of any terms, military aid or whatever they are talking about it -- it's false," said Dowd, who represents Fruman along with the lawyer Todd Blanche.In a statement on Friday, Shefir acknowledged meeting with Parnas and Fruman. But he said they had not raised the issue of military aid. Shefir said he briefed the incoming president on the meeting. Shefir was a business partner and longtime friend whom Zelenskiy appointed as his chief adviser on the first day of his presidency."We did not treat Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman as official representatives, and therefore we did not consider that they could speak on behalf of the U.S. government," Shefir said. He added that Parnas and Fruman had requested that Zelenskiy meet with Giuliani.Shefir said in his statement that he had told Parnas and Fruman "that we could consider meeting with Mr. Giuliani, but only publicly and officially and only after the inauguration of the newly elected president."The statement from Shefir, issued in response to an inquiry from The New York Times, did not directly address Parnas' claims that he had delivered an ultimatum about U.S. aid in general and Pence's attendance at the inauguration. A representative for Zelenskiy did not respond to a request for further comment.Bondy, Parnas' lawyer, challenged Shefir's characterization. "It would simply defy reason," he said, "for Mr. Shefir to have attended a meeting with Mr. Parnas if he did not believe Mr. Parnas spoke for the president, and also for Mr. Parnas not to have conveyed the president's message at this meeting."Pence did not attend the inauguration. His office said in response to questions from The Times that it had told Ukrainian officials on May 13, a week before the swearing-in, that the vice president would not be there.Giuliani is under investigation by Manhattan prosecutors and the FBI over whether he illegally engaged in lobbying for foreign interests in connection with the Ukraine efforts. He has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was working for his client, Trump.That investigation grew out of one into Parnas and Fruman. An indictment unsealed on Oct. 10 accused the men of illegally routing a $325,000 contribution to a political action committee supporting Trump through a shell company and linked them to an effort to recall the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, who was the subject of criticism from many of Trump's allies. The men were also charged with funneling campaign contributions from a Russian businessman to other U.S. politicians to influence them in support of a marijuana venture. The two men, and two co-defendants, have pleaded not guilty.The impeachment inquiry was started after a whistleblower complained about the July phone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to look into Burisma, a Ukrainian company that gave Biden's son Hunter a seat on its board and paid him as much as $50,000 a month. Trump suggested to Zelenskiy that Ukraine should contact Giuliani and the United States attorney general, William P. Barr, about the Bidens.With Trump by his side at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Zelenskiy told reporters that his July call with the president had been "normal" and that "nobody pushed me," adding that he did not want to become entangled in U.S. elections.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
|
| Cash, Trolls and a Cult Leader: How Russia Meddles Abroad for Profit Posted: 11 Nov 2019 05:06 AM PST  ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar -- The Russians were hard to miss. They appeared suddenly last year in Madagascar's traffic-snarled capital, carrying backpacks stuffed with cash and campaign swag decorated with the name of Madagascar's president.It was one of Russia's most overt attempts at election interference to date. Working from their headquarters in a resort hotel, the Russians published their own newspaper in the local language and hired students to write fawning articles about the president to help him win another term. Skirting electoral laws, they bought airtime on television stations and blanketed the country with billboards.They paid young people to attend rallies and journalists to cover them. They showed up with armed bodyguards at campaign offices to bribe challengers to drop out of the race to clear their candidate's path.At Madagascar's election commission, officials were alarmed."We all recall what the Russians did in the United States during the election," said Thierry Rakotonarivo, the commission's vice president. "We were truly afraid."Of all the places for Russia to try to swing a presidential election, Madagascar is perhaps one of the least expected. The island nation off the coast of southeastern Africa is thousands of miles from Moscow and has little obvious strategic value for the Kremlin or the global balance of power.But two years after the Russians' aggressive interference in the United States, here they were, determined to expand their clout and apply their special brand of election meddling to a distant political battleground.The operation was approved by President Vladimir Putin and coordinated by some of the same figures who oversaw the disinformation around the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to dozens of interviews with officials in Madagascar, local operatives hired to take part in the Russian campaign and hundreds of pages of internal documents produced by Russian operatives.The meddling in Madagascar began just a few weeks after Putin sat down with the nation's president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, in Moscow last year. The meeting, which has never been reported, also included Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close confidant of Putin who was indicted in the United States for helping to orchestrate Russia's effort to manipulate the 2016 U.S. election, according to Rajaonarimampianina and another government minister present on the trip to Moscow.Putin has repeatedly denied any official effort to tamper with foreign elections. But his sit-down with Madagascar's president -- Prigozhin by his side -- points to his involvement in Russia's electoral interference in even the smallest, most remote countries.In some vital ways, the Madagascar operation mimicked the one in the United States. There was a disinformation campaign on social media and an attempt to bolster so-called spoiler candidates. The Russians even recruited an apocalyptic cult leader in a strategy to split the opposition vote and sink its chances."What surprised me is that it was the Russians who came over to my house without me contacting them," said the cult leader, known as Pastor Mailhol. "They said, 'If you ever need money, we are going to pay all the expenses.'"But while Russia's efforts in the United States fit Moscow's campaign to upend Western democracy and rattle Putin's geopolitical rivals, the undertaking in Madagascar often seemed to have a much simpler objective: profit.Before the election, a Russian company that local officials and foreign diplomats said is controlled by Prigozhin acquired a major stake in a government-run company that mines chromium, a mineral valued for its use in stainless steel. The acquisition set off protests by workers complaining of unpaid wages, canceled benefits and foreign intrusion into a sector that had been a source of national pride for Madagascar.It repeated a pattern in which Russia has swooped into African nations, hoping to reshape their politics for material gain. In the Central African Republic, a former Russian intelligence officer is the top security adviser to the country's president, while companies linked to Prigozhin have spread across the nation, snapping up diamonds in both legal and illegal ways, according to government officials, warlords in the diamond trade and registration documents showing Prigozhin's growing military and commercial footprint.Last year, three Russian journalists were gunned down while investigating his activities there."Prigozhin had tremendous success in 2016, and he is now the guy everyone is watching," said Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "He's got some boots on the ground, people peddling stuff in different countries in Africa. These are countries with authoritarian-style leaders who need a little extra help to win. And in return, he gets access to some of the goodies."But Russia's forays abroad have been far from flawless. For all its efforts, the operation in Madagascar missed its mark at first, plagued by a startling incompetence and corruption that undercuts Russia's image as a master political manipulator.Campaign materials were riddled with grammatical mistakes. Ballpoint pens meant as election giveaways misspelled Rajaonarimampianina's name. Some operatives appeared to undermine the campaign for their own personal gain, demanding fake receipts with double the actual price of publishing the newspaper so they could pocket the difference."They paid well, but they were messing around," said the printing house owner, Lola Rasoamaharo.One person working for the campaign described packets of gold and precious stones piled on the bed in the room of a Russian operative, another sign that the people entrusted with the mission were often more interested in profit than politics.They also chose the wrong candidate. As it became clear that Rajaonarimampianina had little hope of winning, even with their help, Russian operatives pivoted quickly, dumping the incumbent, whom they referred to as "the piano," and shifting their support to the eventual winner, Andry Rajoelina."The piano is very weak," Yaroslav Ignatovsky, a manager of the operation, wrote to a colleague in a text exchange obtained by the Dossier Center, a London-based research organization. "He'll never make it. But we have to make it somehow."The maneuver worked. After the Russians pirouetted to help Rajoelina -- their former opponent -- win the election, Prigozhin's company was able to negotiate with the new government to keep control of the chromium mining operation, despite the worker protests, and Prigozhin's political operatives remain stationed in the capital to this day.'Everything Is Possible in Politics'It all started with a secret meeting.News reports described Rajaonarimampianina's three-day trip to Moscow in March 2018 as mundane: He attended an investment forum, met a foreign ministry official and received an honorary degree from a local university.But at some point, his plans veered from the published itinerary.Slipping away from the press pool, he made his way to the Kremlin. There, in the private office of the Russian president, he met for no more than 30 minutes with Putin and Prigozhin.In an interview, Rajaonarimampianina explained that Prigozhin had set up the meeting and even met him at the airport in Moscow. But he insisted that the presidential election, scheduled for that fall, was not discussed.Others remembered things differently. Harison Randriarimanana, a former agriculture minister who accompanied the president to Moscow, said that after the meeting his boss proudly announced that Putin had agreed to assist with his reelection campaign."Putin said he wanted to help him," Randriarimanana recalled the president saying. "He was going to help us with the election."Just weeks later, local residents were startled by the sudden appearance of Russian operatives in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital.The operation happened alongside an aggressive push by the Kremlin to revive relations with a number of African countries. For Moscow, Africa had been an important ideological battlefield during the Cold War, and Putin, who makes no secret of his nostalgia for the Soviet Union, views the continent as an important front for combating the West's global influence.Last month, Putin played host to more than 40 African heads of state, including Madagascar's, at a summit meeting in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi to showcase Russia's growing stature as a player in the region and present his country as a partner preferable to the West."We see how a number of Western governments have resorted to pressuring, bullying and blackmailing the governments of sovereign African countries," Putin said before the meeting. By contrast, he added, "Our African agenda has a positive, aspirational character."In recent years, many African leaders have paid visits to the Kremlin seeking lucrative deals with Russia's giant state-run companies, including for weapons.In dollar terms, Russia is no match for China or the United States, which have tens of billions of dollars worth of economic investment in the continent. But for some leaders in search of a political edge, Russia has developed a handy tool kit, which is where Prigozhin comes in.After being indicted on charges of intervening in the 2016 U.S. election, he has traveled the world, proffering his services. In Africa, he has found a highly receptive market. He and his operatives have been active in nearly a dozen African countries, including Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe, analysts said.In the interview, Rajaonarimampianina described his meeting with Putin as run-of-the-mill for someone of his stature. During his tenure, he had met with the leaders of China and India and twice visited the White House.But unlike those encounters, the meeting with Putin and Prigozhin was kept secret.Rajaonarimampianina insisted that he took "not one penny from the Russians" for his campaign, although he did not rule out that the Kremlin worked to assist him without his knowledge. "Everything is possible in politics," he said.He stumbled a bit when shown a letter with his signature written to a Russian political operative named Oleg Vasilyevich Zakhariyash. In the letter, written in French and stamped "Projet Confidentiel," the president requests the Russian's help "to resist attempts by international institutions to interfere" in Madagascar's election. Western diplomats had, in fact, been concerned that the president was trying to delay the vote."I am convinced," the president's letter said, "that certain forces will attempt to call into doubt" the election.Rajaonarimampianina confirmed that the signature on the letter was his and acknowledged meeting Zakhariyash in Madagascar, but he said he did not recall writing the letter.Zakhariyash, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment, was later quoted by RIAFAN, a Russian news outlet connected to companies owned by Prigozhin, blaming the United States, Britain and France for interfering in the Madagascar elections.Local residents hired by the Russian operation in Madagascar described Zakhariyash as "the boss." Likewise, one of the Russian unit's internal spreadsheets identified him as the "head of department." He is also one of two authors of a confidential report detailing plans for the Madagascar campaign, including the creation of a "troll factory" to focus on social media, echoing the tactics Prigozhin is accused of unleashing on the United States.The documents -- along with text exchanges and emails between Russian operatives -- were obtained and analyzed by the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative organization founded by Putin's longtime nemesis, former oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Through interviews with officials, candidates and local operatives in Madagascar, The New York Times independently confirmed much of the information in the documents, which the Dossier Center said were provided by moles working within Prigozhin's organization.The spreadsheets name more than 30 Russians working in the country before the election, calling them media managers, lawyers, translators and a "counterpropaganda technologist." People in Madagascar hired by the Russians to work on the campaign verified many of the operatives' identities.Many of them appear to be from St. Petersburg, where Prigozhin's so-called troll factory is based. But not all. Several worked for the Russian-backed separatist government in eastern Ukraine. One attracted attention this year when his wife posted a photo of her battered and bruised face on Facebook, accusing her husband of beating her.Few appeared to have much expertise on Madagascar or on Africa at all -- and it showed, locals said. They often used a translation application on their phones to communicate and had little understanding of local politics."They're always going around with money, they're always going around with women," said one Malagasy man who worked with the Russians and feared reprisals. "They just thought it was all very simple in Madagascar. They arrived and that's it, let's go. That's why it all fell apart."'A Powerful Country Came to My House'Nearly two decades ago, Andre Christian Dieudonne Mailhol, founder and pastor of the Church of the Apocalypse, said he received a message from God that he would be president of Madagascar one day.He did not predict, however, that three Russians would turn up like Magi on his doorstep 18 years later with an offer to help fulfill that prophecy."They said that they came here to help me with the presidential election," he said.The three gathered in his brightly painted living room in 2018, peppering him with questions: "How old are you? Why do you want to run for the presidency?"Mailhol explained God's plan for him, and they offered him cash, promising to fully fund his campaign.They never fully explained who they were, he said, beyond giving their first names -- Andrei, Vladimir and Roman -- and never said what they wanted in return. Mailhol didn't ask."I just thought, a powerful country came to my house and suggested helping me. Why would I bother them with questions like, 'Who are you? What are you here for?'" the pastor, 59, recalled. "No other foreign countries came to help me. They were the only ones, so I did not want to ask much. I was OK with that."The strategy of supporting so-called spoiler candidates is another echo of the 2016 plot to subvert the U.S. election, in which Russian social media bots encouraged support for figures like Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate -- as a way, officials said, to draw votes away from Hillary Clinton.Mailhol said his Russian team wrote some of his speeches and paid for campaign posters and television advertising. On one internal spreadsheet, the "Pastor Group" is identified as Andrei Kramar, Vladimir Boyarishchev and Roman Pozdnyakov. Shown photos of the men from Facebook, Mailhol and his assistants confirmed they were the men who worked with his campaign.They made for a curious team. A photo of Boyarishchev posted to a Russian social media site in 2012 shows him shirtless, flexing his biceps and wearing the blue beret of a U.N. peacekeeper. Other social media posts suggest he served in a U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mailhol said he spoke excellent French, which many educated Malagasy know well.The other two have equally colorful histories. In a Facebook post from a decade ago, Kramar describes himself as a member of Putin's political party, United Russia, but later he popped up in eastern Ukraine as a functionary in a Kremlin-backed separatist enclave that has been fighting a war against Ukraine since 2014.Ukrainian authorities said the third operative, Pozdnyakov, is also involved with the pro-Kremlin rebels. His wife, once a United Russia member of Parliament, is the head of the separatist government's election commission.Other presidential candidates in Madagascar gave similar accounts of Russians turning up out of the blue, some with bags of cash.Onja Rasamimanana, who worked for a history professor-turned-candidate named Jean Omer Beriziky, said she coordinated with a Maksim, an Anastasia and a Margo, who was the interpreter. "And then a Grigori showed up," she said."They were looking for fresh faces," she said. "They didn't explain anything. They didn't mention anything regarding their motivations."She said that her candidate, Beriziky, later told her the Russians offered $2 million in campaign funding but ultimately provided less than $500,000.Two Russians also approached a pop megastar running for president, Rasolofondraosolo Zafimahaleo, also known as Dama. Over four meetings, Zafimahaleo said, the Russians tried to pressure him to support a delay in the election so that the incumbent had more time to campaign."They made big promises," Zafimahaleo said. "'If you do what we want you to do, we'll help your campaign,'" he said they told him. He refused, he said, suspecting that the Russians had come to exploit Madagascar's natural resources.Only three of the Russian operatives identified by local hires of the campaign responded to requests for comment. All acknowledged visiting Madagascar last year, but only one admitted working as a pollster on behalf of the president.The others said they were simply tourists. Pyotr Korolyov, described as a sociologist on one spreadsheet, spent much of the summer of 2018 and fall hunched over a computer, deep in polling data at La Residence Ankerana, a hotel the Russians used as their headquarters, until he was hospitalized with measles, according to one person who worked with him.In an email exchange, Korolyov confirmed that he had come down with measles but rejected playing a role in a Russian operation. He did defend the idea of one, though."Russia should influence elections around the world, the same way the United States influences elections," he wrote. "Sooner or later Russia will return to global politics as a global player," he added. "And the American establishment will just have to accept that."'We Were So Dumb'As the election approached, the Russians grew nervous and frustrated. In one text message, Ignatovsky, who helped oversee the operation, describes Madagascar as a "black hole." One of his colleagues complains that "everything is ass-backward" and that the "unhappy locals" were impeding the team's work.But the Russians were setting off alarms, too.An op-ed in a local newspaper warned that after meddling in the United States, Russia had set its sights on Madagascar."Russia badly wants to make good use of its impressive experience in destabilization" by intervening in Madagascar, the article said. "Vodka will flow like water if they achieve their goal."Relations with the various candidates Russians were backing began to sour. By September, they had dumped the incumbent, Rajaonarimampianina, deciding he was too unpopular to win, according to internal communications.In the interview in Paris, Rajaonarimampianina said he was aware the Russians were supporting other candidates and became indignant when told of the Russians' conclusion that he was a losing bet. "How could they know that I will lose the election?" he said.In the first round, he received less than 9% of the vote, finishing a distant third.The Russians shifted their support to Rajoelina, a young former mayor who had been Madagascar's transitional president after a coup in 2009.In the campaign's final weeks, Mailhol said, the team of Russians made a request: Drop out of the race and support Rajoelina. He refused.The Russians made the same proposal to the history professor running for president, saying, "'If you accept this deal, you will have money,'" according to Rasamimanana, the professor's campaign manager.When the professor refused, she said, the Russians created a fake Facebook page that mimicked his official page and posted an announcement on it that he was supporting Rajoelina.The members of the so-called Pastor Group -- Kramar, Pozdnyakov and Boyarishchev -- were arrested and deported last year after organizing a protest in front of the French Embassy. They left without fully paying what they owed their local operatives, said Niaina Rakotonjanahary, the pastor's campaign spokeswoman."It happened to all of us who worked there," she said. "We were so dumb."As in the U.S. election, it is not clear whether the Russians directly colluded with the eventual winner, Rajoelina, or simply operated a parallel campaign to support him. Before switching sides, the Russians had local hires write articles disparaging Rajoelina, according to one of the people who worked for them."They asked me to write bad things about Andry Rajoelina -- that he sold our lands to the Chinese," said the person, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals. "During the second round of the presidential election, though, they asked me to write good things about Andry Rajoelina."Rajoelina declined to comment, but an official from his campaign said that his team was aware of Russian payments to other candidates.In the end, the Russians retained their prize -- control over the chromium operation. They now maintain a staff of 30 in the country, including engineers and geologists. The contract gives them a 70% stake in the venture, said Nirina Rakotomanantsoa, managing director of the Malagasy company that owns the remaining share."The contract is already signed," he said. "I am thankful the Russians are here."Not all the Russian operatives appeared satisfied. In a moment of doubt, Yevgeny Kopot, a Prigozhin functionary who appears to play a coordinating role for operations in different African countries, sent a text message to a colleague in Madagascar in January."Do you think that we're disgracing our country?" he asked, according to texts obtained by the Dossier Center. "Or devaluing her name?"The colleague told him not to worry. "If you think about it," she replied, "the whole planet is disgraced. Not the planet, precisely, but humanity."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
|
