| UPDATE 1-Colombia foreign minister to move to top defense post Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:29 PM PST ![UPDATE 1-Colombia foreign minister to move to top defense post]( "UPDATE 1-Colombia foreign minister to move to top defense post") Colombia's foreign minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, will move to head the Defense Ministry, President Ivan Duque said on Tuesday, where he will focus on everyday security and the fight against armed groups and drug trafficking. Trujillo will be replaced by Claudia Blum, a former senator and United Nations ambassador, Duque said.
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| UN: Al-Shabab remains 'potent threat' in Somalia and region Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:43 PM PST ![UN: Al-Shabab remains 'potent threat' in Somalia and region]( "UN: Al-Shabab remains 'potent threat' in Somalia and region") Al-Shabab extremists in Somalia remain "a potent threat" to regional peace and are now manufacturing home-made explosives, expanding their revenue sources and infiltrating government institutions, U.N. experts say. The report said al-Shabab's assault on Jan. 15 on a commercial business complex in Nairobi, Kenya, containing the DusitD2 Hotel "illustrates the danger the group continues to pose to regional peace and security." That attack killed 21 people as well as four gunmen.
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| First death reported in nationwide protests wracking Lebanon Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:17 PM PST  A local official for a Lebanese political party was shot dead by soldiers trying to open a road closed by protesters in southern Beirut late Tuesday, the army reported, marking the first death in 27 days of nationwide protests. The incident was sure to inflame tensions already running high in the country, which has been engulfed by nationwide protests against the country's entire political class since Oct. 17. The leaderless, economically driven protests were triggered by new proposed taxes and have quickly evolved into the most spread and most sustained Lebanon has seen in years.
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| Your Evening Briefing Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:47 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every afternoon? Sign up here Wealthy people around the globe are hunkering down for a potentially turbulent 2020. A majority of rich investors expect a significant drop in markets before the end of next year. The U.S.-China trade conflict is their top geopolitical concern, while the upcoming presidential election is seen as another significant threat to portfolios. Here are today's top storiesA key issue in that election may be the potential impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors under the U.S. Constitution. Televised public hearings begin tomorrow in the House.Senate Republicans have almost universally defended Trump against the charges—substantiated by a reconstructed White House telephone transcript, several impeachment witnesses and his own chief of staff—that he asked Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential frontrunner Joseph Biden in exchange for releasing military aid approved by Congress. But they've also left themselves some wiggle room.The five conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court, including two appointed by Trump, seemed inclined to let the president cancel an Obama-era program that shields almost 700,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation in a case with broad humanitarian ramifications.Hong Kong protesters seeking democratic reforms and investigations of police violence called for disruption to the city's busy commuter trains Wednesday. Fake news and rumors are stoking the conflict.A federal appeals court ruling might change how home loans are valued in the secondary market, Stephen L. Carter writes in Bloomberg Opinion.We asked 5,000 owners about what it's like to live with Elon Musk's electric car. Here's what we found, and it's bad news for BMW.What's Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director is thinking about "Green QE," or having a central bank stimulate the economy while providing financing to climate initiatives by buying green bonds. Joe contends that, if you start to break down such killing-two-birds-with-one-stone proposals, they may not work out. Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann recently gave a speech arguing that central banks should not be in the business of fighting climate change.What you'll need to know tomorrowA nurses' union endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for president. Putin pounces on Netanyahu when he's down. Corporations pile into the bond market as borrowing costs drop. There may be a huge hole in California's new rooftop solar rule. Saudi Arabia gives its first permanent residencies to foreigners. Charges against Russians in the 2016 election probe will expand. Businessweek explains the rag trade that "bails out everyone."What you'll want to read in Bloomberg PursuitsIt's rare to get good news from the sea. Water temperatures are rising, fish stocks are falling and the ones we eat are increasingly full of microplastics. But the oceans do hold one positive portent: seaweed. It's regenerative and carbon- and nitrogen-sequestering. Research suggests that, per acre, it can absorb more than 20 times as much carbon dioxide as a forest. And it's really good as part of your favorite hot sauce, jerky or gin. To contact the author of this story: David Rovella in New York at drovella@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mina Chang: Senior Trump official 'faked Time magazine cover and inflated claims in CV' Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:46 PM PST  A senior State Department's impressive resume appears to be loaded with exaggerated claims that inflate her credentials and experience, according to reports.NBC News claims that Mina Chang, a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations, also faked an issue of Time magazine with her face on the cover and made false claims about graduating from Harvard University and her appointment to a nonexistent position with the United Nations, among other misleading lines in her State Department biography and LinkedIn experience.
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| Why Republicans should admit there was a quid pro quo Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:07 PM PST ![Why Republicans should admit there was a quid pro quo]( "Why Republicans should admit there was a quid pro quo") Any discussion of Wednesday's impeachment hearings should begin with two acknowledgements.First, regardless of what happens, no matter how many stories are written about the testimony of an ever-increasing number of witnesses with varying degrees of credibility or how dastardly the plot is made to sound on cable television and on the campaign trail, the result is going to be anticlimactic. Even if the current proceedings eventually lead to an up-or-down vote on impeachment (which is far from certain), the Republican-controlled Senate is not going to remove President Trump from office. As Matthew Continetti put it recently, it's like knowing what the score of a football game is going to be before the opening kickoff.The second thing worth pointing out is that Republicans have no idea how they are going to talk about Trump's guaranteed victory going forward. Being on the same page with this White House has never been easy, and the president's own preferred arguments for his innocence change daily, sometimes even hourly. But sooner or later his party is going to have to decide what exactly they are acquitting him of.The current line about there being no quid pro quo is, I think, untenable. Some of the president's supporters will insist (correctly) that Ukraine did in fact receive the aid it had been expecting and that no investigation of the Biden family's activities in that country ever took place. But the Watergate burglary was a failure too. The relevant question here is about what Trump attempted to do, not whether it worked.This is why Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana is right to call the endless wrangling about quid pro quo a "red herring." But he gets no closer by attempting to apply a bizarre "intentions" test to Trump's actions. Whether he had "a culpable state of mind" is a question for the president's confessor, not for members of Congress.As far as I am aware, with the exception of Matthew Whitaker, the astonishingly indiscreet former acting attorney general, the only Republican official of any consequence who seems to understand the reality of the situation is Rand Paul. The junior senator from Kentucky rightly observes that the disbursement of foreign aid is always contingent. The United States gives billions of dollars to other countries each year on the condition that they will behave in a manner that aligns with America's national interest.How exactly we define the national interest is an open question. But politicians have a curious way of making it line up neatly with their own political fortunes at home. Was the four-day Operation Desert Fox bombing of Iraq by Bill Clinton at the height of his own impeachment in the national interest? What about Richard Nixon's attempt to sabotage Lyndon Johnson's peace talks in Vietnam in advance of the 1968 election? Nixon genuinely believed that the appearance of success in Paris would lessen his chances of being elected, which would mean that Hubert Humphrey, whom he considered less likely to bring the war to a swift and honorable conclusion, would be in charge.This is not cynicism. A president cannot do what he thinks is right for the country abroad if he is hampered by difficulties at home, including the difficulty of not being elected (or re-elected) president. Since the conduct of foreign policy is the prerogative of the chief executive, without whom we could not have relationships with other leaders, it is difficult to draw hard-and-fast distinctions between what is good for the president and what is good for the country -- at least ones that do not depend upon our prior judgments about the president in question.Paul, of course, does not quite frame his argument this way. As befits a libertarian, he uses his own well-established opposition to foreign aid to argue that the whole process is inherently corrupt, which makes Trump no more or less guilty than any other president who has ever dangled something in front of a Third World honcho in the hope of securing certain real or perceived advantages for himself and the nation. This is not quite synonymous with claiming that the granting of foreign aid is straightforwardly within the purview of the executive branch and thus not a legitimate subject of congressional scrutiny, much less grounds for impeachment and removal from office. But it amounts to the same thing.What are the rhetorical advantages of putting the issue this way, as opposed to the proceduralist grumbles and semantic splitting of hairs about quid pro quos offered by Paul's colleagues thus far? The main one is simply that it is true. Instead of asking Republicans and the voters with whom they will be communicating to inhabit a universe in which Trump is a Boy Scout, admitting that he did exactly what his opponents have accused him of keeps everyone firmly within what we might call the reality-based community.More important still, I think this line is a winner. I would very much like to know how many of the people who voted for Trump in 2016 did not expect to learn that this president would be doing things like this. When you elect the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal, you expect him to spend at least some of his time making deals, including ones that involve giving people things in exchange for screwing over the bad guys. The supposed Ukraine scandal is, whether shown in its barest outline or presented with every excruciatingly tedious chronological detail, a perfect illustration of Trump's pitch to voters from 2015 onward: Here is a guy who realized that he was probably going to have to do this thing -- give the Ukrainians money -- no matter what. So he decided to see whether he could get something -- an investigation of the no-good very-bad Bidens -- for nothing, as it were. It didn't work out that way, but oh well. Like the man himself said: "I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first." This is how you double down on Trump as our dealmaker-in-chief, someone who has done his best to win for the American people everywhere -- in China and North Korea, in Canada and Mexico, at our own southern border, and now in Ukraine -- despite constant cynically minded obstruction.Democrats think they have found a smoking gun? Great. Reload it and keep firing.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.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?
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| Trump's authentically untruthful response to impeachment Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:01 PM PST ![Trump's authentically untruthful response to impeachment]( "Trump's authentically untruthful response to impeachment") In the last minute of a Today interview on her new book Tuesday, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley described President Trump as a "truthful" person. Did Haley have "any doubt about his truthfulness, his ability to tell the truth?" asked host Savannah Guthrie. "Did you think he was a truthful person?""Yes," Haley replied. "In every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened, and he was great to work with."It is possible, I suppose, that Haley's personal interactions with the president were so limited that she either never encountered or never recognized any of the literally thousands of lies -- many of them petty, obvious, and apparently pointless -- he has told on record while in office. More likely, however, is that Haley is using "truthful" to mean something more like "authentic." But these are not the same thing, and they should not be conflated.Authenticity as it is commonly used today is about self-representation. When we say people are authentic, we mean they are not pretentious. They do not disguise their character (or lack thereof) or bow to social convention. They are unfiltered in their language and open about their flaws. In this paradigm Trump is "perhaps the most authentic" president ever, as former White House communications aide Cliff Sims put it earlier this year, because he "basically looked at the American people and said, 'This is who I am. You know everything about me.'"Truthfulness is about accurate conveyance of reality, not personal affect. Granted, being truthful will sometimes entail being truthful about oneself, but one also could be quite personally guarded -- "inauthentic," if you will, even operating under anonymity or pseudonymity -- and yet be truthful. Older models of authorship and commentary, which did not rely on establishment of a personal brand and platform as is generally required now, permitted writers to publish without revealing much, if anything, about themselves. By our standards this may be deemed inauthentic, but it does not mean their work failed to communicate truth.Conversely, an authentic person can be a habitual liar. The president is an exemplar here. Trump is demonstrably not truthful, to the point that the brazenness of his lies has become part of his authenticity. His deception is shameless and communicative. He tells us what he wants to be true as if it were true, and that works as a sort of self-revelation.For example, Trump wanted the largest inaugural crowd, so he claimed he had it. Truthful? No. Authentic? Well, the lie did clearly convey his priorities and character. Or consider Trump's net worth, which he infamously said in a 2007 deposition "fluctuates, and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even [his] own feelings." So he lies about his money but in doing so communicates authentically how he feels about himself. Or take his announcement, on the occasion of GDP growth falling from 2 to 1.9 percent at the end of October, that this is the "Greatest Economy in American History." Unrestrained, counterfactual boasting is authentic Trump, but his superlative is clearly a lie. This is who he is. You know everything about him.Of late Trump has been preoccupied with the impeachment inquiry congressional Democrats have opened against him, and his self-defense is predictably authentic and untruthful. His tweeting pace has accelerated since the inquiry began -- he posts at a dizzying pace, seemingly sharing every thought as soon as it comes to mind -- and so has his rate of lies, moving from an average of 14 false claims per day to 22, as measured by the Washington Post's fact-checkers. He has claimed, among other impeachment-related counterfactuals, that the whistleblower is not actually a whistleblower; that his administration is the "most Transparent ... in history;" and that the whistleblower's report "bore no relationship to what the call was."No doubt they authentically express the president's feelings and desires, but these are not truthful statements. They do not correspond to reality.Maintaining the distinction between authenticity and truthfulness is imperative. Authenticity as we talk about it in politics is mostly a matter of personal style -- maybe you like the unfiltered, "what you see is what you get" presentation, or maybe you prefer more propriety and discretion -- but truthfulness is not subject to taste. The very act of mislabeling authenticity as Haley has done is negligence toward the truth, and the truth is Trump is a liar, however authentic he may be.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.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?
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| UK Prime Minister Johnson to declare Britain can end 'the groundhoggery of Brexit' Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:00 PM PST ![UK Prime Minister Johnson to declare Britain can end 'the groundhoggery of Brexit']( "UK Prime Minister Johnson to declare Britain can end 'the groundhoggery of Brexit'") British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Wednesday declare that the UK can "end the groundhoggery of Brexit" if he wins next month's election, saying the rest of the world was wondering why so much time has been spent agonising over whether to leave the European Union. Britons will vote on Dec. 12 after parliament agreed to an early election, seeking to end three years of deep disagreement over Brexit that has sapped investors' faith in the stability of the world's fifth largest economy and damaged Britain's international standing. "The UK is admired and respected around the world but people are baffled by our debate on Brexit and they cannot understand how this great country can squander so much time and energy on this question and how we can be so hesitant about our future," Johnson will say at an electric vehicle manufacturer in the West Midlands, according to prepared remarks.
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| Trump says US on the hunt for new Islamic State's leader Posted: 12 Nov 2019 01:56 PM PST  Trump didn't mention the name of the new target, but he is likely referring to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the man who has been named to replace Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as head of the terror group. Al-Baghdadi took his own life last month as U.S. commandoes closed in on him in northern Syria. In a speech Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. got al-Baghdadi, then got "his second" and now, "we have our eye on his third.
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| U.S. Expands Mueller Election-Fraud Case Against 13 Russians Posted: 12 Nov 2019 01:43 PM PST ![U.S. Expands Mueller Election-Fraud Case Against 13 Russians]( "U.S. Expands Mueller Election-Fraud Case Against 13 Russians") (Bloomberg) -- American prosecutors expanded an election-fraud case against 13 Russians that was first brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, adding details to flesh out how the defendants allegedly defrauded the U.S. by interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential race.The superseding indictment is the latest signal that U.S. prosecutors are aggressively pursuing matters set in motion by Mueller's investigation of Russian election interference -- even as the Justice Department is also conducting a politically charged investigation of the probe's origins. Prosecutors used the filing to bolster their legal arguments after an attorney for one of the Russians mounted an aggressive defense challenging the premise of Mueller's February 2018 indictment. With Mueller's grand jury disbanded earlier this year, prosecutors secured the latest indictment from a different panel.The filing aims to spell out the reasoning behind the primary charge against the Russians, namely that they were engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Mueller's original indictment accused the Russians of interfering with the lawful functions of the Federal Election Commission, the Justice Department and the State Department by obtaining visas through fraudulent statements, making expenditures related to the 2016 campaign without proper disclosure and failure to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities in the U.S.A company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a restaurateur nicknamed "Putin's chef" because he catered the Russian president's functions, opted to fight the case and hired Washington lawyer Eric Dubelier. Dubelier repeatedly demanded that prosecutors show how his client knowingly violated any statute.Tuesday's filing specified the "lawful functions" that the defendants allegedly violated. It said the Russians' conduct, which started in 2014, interfered with the proper enforcement of U.S. prohibitions of certain election-related expenditures by foreign nationals, and prevented election authorities from enforcing requirements for the timely filing of reports about those expenditures.The Russians also undermined U.S. attempts to enforce the statutory ban against unregistered individuals acting as agents of a foreign entity, according to the filing. Finally, the superseding indictment said several of the defendants obstructed the enforcement of requirements that foreign nationals seeking entry to the U.S. provide truthful and accurate information to the government when applying for visas.The federal judge overseeing the case has given Dubelier two weeks, until Nov. 26, to respond.The case is USA v. Internet Research Agency, 18-cr-00032, in U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.(Updates with superseding indictment)To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Farrell in New York at gregfarrell@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at hsmith26@bloomberg.net, Steve StrothFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Boris Johnson Asks Troops to Fight Floods as Weather Hits U.K. Ballot Posted: 12 Nov 2019 01:23 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson deployed extra troops to help flood-hit parts of Northern England as he tried to ensure that a natural disaster didn't damage his election chances.The prime minister convened a meeting of the government's "Cobra" emergency committee on Tuesday evening, after opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Johnson of failing to take the problem seriously. It agreed to request military support, and offered cash grants to affected areas.Around 1,000 properties have been vacated in Yorkshire after two rivers burst their banks. The flooding shows the danger of Johnson's decision to hold an election in winter, when cold, wet weather adds to the list of things that can go wrong for a government during an election campaign. Although only an extra 100 troops will be involved, their presence will deliver pictures that show the government taking action."In the next few weeks and months the rainfall could cause flooding in many parts of the country, and we simply have to be prepared," Johnson said after the Cobra meeting. "I know there will be people who feel that that isn't good enough. I know there will be people who are worrying about the damage to their homes, who will be worried about the insurance situation, worried about the losses they face. All I want to say to those people is that there are schemes to cover those losses."While the main Conservative attack line of the week has been that a Labour government would let public spending run out of control, the floods work well for the Labour argument that the Conservative focus on cutting spending over the last decade has hurt essential services, including the agencies that protect against flooding, and deal with its consequences.One of the electoral districts most affected by the floods, Don Valley, is an example of the kind of seat Johnson aims to capture for his Conservative Party in the election: Labour-held, but strongly in favor of Brexit. Corbyn is using the floods to make the argument to voters there that the Tories don't have their interests at heart. In a speech Tuesday morning, the Labour leader said that had the floods hit traditionally Conservative areas in the South of England, the response "would have been a very different story."That's a narrative that Johnson can't allow to run. in 2017, his predecessor, Theresa May, tried to win the same pro-Brexit seats that he's aiming for. She was undone by plans to use the value of people's houses to pay for their elderly care, something that repelled the voters she was trying to reach. Those around Johnson have said they won't repeat her mistake, but if the government appears uncaring while people are flooded out of their homes, it could have the same effect.To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The Latest: 8 die as Israeli planes hit Gaza Posted: 12 Nov 2019 12:52 PM PST  Israel has targeted two senior commanders from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, killing one in the Gaza Strip and missing the second in Syria as it steps up its battle against Iran and its proxies across the region. Bahaa Abu el-Atta and his wife died as they slept in their home in eastern Gaza. Gaza militants fired scores of rockets into Israel throughout the day, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv.
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| Israel targets Islamic Jihad leader, sending message to Iran Posted: 12 Nov 2019 12:22 PM PST  Israel on Tuesday targeted two senior commanders from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, killing one in the Gaza Strip and missing the second in Syria as it stepped up its battle against Iran and its proxies across the region. The death of Bahaa Abu el-Atta and his wife as they slept in their home in eastern Gaza set off the heaviest fighting in months between Israel and Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group that is even more hard-line than Gaza's Hamas rulers.
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| Iraqi protesters rally as UN steps up mediation efforts Posted: 12 Nov 2019 11:30 AM PST  Iraqi protesters shut down state institutions Tuesday as the United Nations stepped up pressure on the government to enact a raft of reforms in response to anti-government rallies. Backed by the country's top Shiite authority, the UN's phased plan demands an immediate end to violence that has killed more than 300 people since protests erupted in October. It comes just days after Iraq's influential neighbour to the east Iran brokered an agreement among Iraq's main political forces to close ranks around the government.
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| MSNBC’s Malcolm Nance: Trump Was on the Russians’ Radar as ‘Early as 1977’ Posted: 12 Nov 2019 10:23 AM PST  MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance, long one of the network's loudest voices when it comes to pushing Russiagate conspiracies, claimed Tuesday morning that President Donald Trump is a Russian asset who was on the Russians' radar "as early as 1977" via his first marriage to Czech-born Ivana Trump.Nance appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe, in a segment first spotted by Mediaite, to hawk his latest Trump-centric Russia book and was immediately congratulated by host Willie Geist for being "out front before most people" were aware of the Kremlin's attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.Nance, a retired naval intelligence operator, went on to boast that he saw early in Trump's presidential campaign that the U.S. was under attack by a "wide-ranging information warfare attack" by Russia that was designed to make Trump president, adding that he saw it "about a year before anyone would really understand that."Pointing to Russia's hack of the DNC servers, Nance said that "Russia was trying to do Watergate" and that this "set off a chain of activities in my brain" based on previous Cold War activities from the then-Soviet Union that made it clear that this was an attack on the United States.Having established that he was aware that Russia was looking to interfere in the election at an early stage, Nance then dove headfirst into conspiratorial waters about Trump.Citing reporting by The Guardian, Nance said that there were indicators that Trump had been "under Russian intelligence surveillance for a very long time—as early as 1977 with his first wife, Ivana." Noting that Ivana was from Czechoslovakia, then part of the Eastern Bloc, Nance claimed that the country's intelligence community at the time was monitoring her and thus gained access to Trump's communications.From there, the cable news pundit asserted that "Russia became very interested" in Trump during the mid-'80s as he first considered building a Trump Tower Moscow and began tossing around the idea of a presidential run."They had ten years of collection and then they brought him to Moscow for what he wanted, which is Trump Tower," Nance added. "But from that moment on, an enormous dossier of information was collected on him and more importantly, how to exploit him and his simple exploit—as we call it in the intelligence community—and he is avaricious to a fault. He wants money, they now own him. Modern Russia, with a former KGB director as president, they know how to exploit people, they know how to manipulate people, and they know how to buy people."Geist, meanwhile, suggested he bought what Nance was selling, remarking that "Putin and Russia never could have dreamed in the 1980s" that when they looked at Trump as an asset that he'd eventually be president. The host would go on to ask Nance when the Russians then decided to start using that information to make sure Trump was elected.According to Nance, "supervillain" Putin "took all the files of everyone he had ever flipped" during his Soviet days and "brought that into the business world when it became modern Russia," claiming it was around 2014 they decided to move Trump from "useful idiot" to an "unwitting asset, where he's being used and he doesn't know it.""And then by 2014, it's pretty clear that he knows it when they back Trump Tower Moscow 2.0, and then they put a set of rose-colored glasses on his face," Nance concluded. "Donald Trump sees the world only through Moscow's point of view because he knows that is where an enormous quantity of money that he cannot access exists and will be made available to him. Is the next step a Russian asset, where he is aware of those activities? Robert Mueller said yes. That he was well aware that he was going to benefit from Russia."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.
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| A look at Israel's targeted killings of militant leaders Posted: 12 Nov 2019 09:50 AM PST  Israel killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in an airstrike on Tuesday, resuming a contentious policy of targeted killings of militant leaders. While once frequent, Israel has resorted to the strategy only occasionally in recent years. Tuesday's strike on the Gaza City home of Bahaa Abu el-Atta was the second such attack in five years to be claimed by Israel.
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| Brexit Party leader Farage snubs calls not to contest Labour seats Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:59 AM PST ![Brexit Party leader Farage snubs calls not to contest Labour seats]( "Brexit Party leader Farage snubs calls not to contest Labour seats") Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said on Tuesday he is planning to put up candidates in seats held by the opposition Labour Party in next month's general election, ignoring warnings that it might lead to opponents of Brexit controlling the next parliament. On Monday, Farage agreed to help Prime Minister Boris Johnson by withdrawing candidates in 317 seats won by his Conservatives in the last election in 2017. 300 nominations have been signed off — time to get on the road!" Farage said on Twitter.
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| Warren Pledges Corporate Perjury Law to Fight Misinformation Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:54 AM PST ![Warren Pledges Corporate Perjury Law to Fight Misinformation]( "Warren Pledges Corporate Perjury Law to Fight Misinformation") (Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren unveiled a new policy proposal Tuesday to prosecute large corporations for perjury if they mislead the public and government regulators.The Democratic presidential candidate's proposal takes aim at companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., which she said had spent millions of dollars to spread misinformation about the effects of fossil fuels on climate change.If Warren's idea becomes law, companies would be subject to as much as $250,000 in fines, and executives could face jail time if regulators determined they knowingly submitted false or misleading information to regulatory agencies. Her latest policy roll-out is part of a larger anti-corruption plan that she has made a centerpiece of her campaign."If bad actors like Exxon break the rules and deliberately lie to government agencies, my plan will treat them the same way the law treats someone who lies in court – by subjecting them to potential prosecution for perjury," Warren wrote in a Medium post on Tuesday.Exxon's scientists work "in an open and transparent way," the oil producer said in a statement. The Irving, Texas-based company "has supported climate science in partnership with government and academic institutions for nearly 40 years," it said, citing dozens of peer-reviewed publications and work with Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S. government and the United Nations.A New York judge is currently presiding over a case in which the state's attorney general's office is accusing Exxon of making misleading statements about the financial effects of climate change policies. Last week, the state dropped two claims that formed part of the original case.Warren would also ban federal agencies and courts from considering research that has been financed by a specific industry and has not been peer-reviewed. Corporations would be required to disclose how their research was funded and make clear any financial relationships between the researchers and their corporate backers before being considered by federal agencies. Any conflicts of interest would exclude that research from the rulemaking process, she said.She also assailed tobacco companies for backing what she called misleading information on the health risks of smoking.Warren's proposal comes a few weeks after she stepped up her criticism of major U.S. corporations, including Facebook Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., BP Plc and Walmart Inc. and singled out senior-level government officials who accepted jobs with them after working for the federal government.The Massachusetts senator has vowed to increase oversight of lobbying and to impose hiring restrictions for people who have worked in top government posts.(Updates with Exxon comment in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Kevin Crowley.To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada, Joe CarrollFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Nikki Haley defends Trump, calling him 'truthful' Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:53 AM PST  Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley vigorously defended Donald Trump on Tuesday, pushing back against concerns about his mental acuity and fitness to serve and describing the president as "truthful" during her time in his administration. "I talked to him multiple times, and when I had issues, he always heard me out," Haley said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "What about his truthfulness?" host Savannah Guthrie pressed, repeating her question.
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| Corbyn Slams Johnson’s ‘Woeful’ Response to Floods: U.K. Votes Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:52 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson chairs a meeting of the British government's "Cobra" emergency committee after opposition parties accused him of downplaying the severity of flooding in northern England -- a key battleground in the election campaign. Around 400 homes have been flooded and 1,200 properties have been evacuated, according to the BBC.Key Developments:Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacks the government response to flooding, in a speech in Blackpool, northwest EnglandLabour says it suffered a cyber attack, which a security official described as low level. That was followed by a second denial-of-service attack on Tuesday afternoonLiberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson pledges 5 billion pounds ($6.4 billion) of spending over five years on flood defenses; Labour says it would spend 5.6 billion pounds over 10 yearsRead more: As Britain Votes, Your Enemy's Enemy Is Your Friend: QuickTakeLabour Hit By Second Denial-of-Service Attack (4.30 p.m.)Labour suffered a second denial-of-service attack on Tuesday afternoon, according to a person familiar with the situation. A party spokesperson said they were dealing with ongoing issues "quickly and efficiently."Green Party Says Coalition Agreement Unlikely (4 p.m.)Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, said his members would find it difficult to enter a formal coalition government with another party in the event of a hung Parliament. In an interview, Bartley said he was more inclined to operate in a so-called confidence and supply arrangement to maintain their freedom on issues including the Trident nuclear weapons system.But he also described the Green Party's agreement with other anti-Brexit parties not to run against each other in 60 seats across England and Wales as a "breakthrough moment." The Greens will wait and see how that goes before considering any further pacts, he said.Corbyn Says Johnson Only Offers Division (12:30 p.m.)Jeremy Corbyn said Nigel Farage's decision to stand the Brexit Party down in Tory-held seats shows how Boris Johnson is in an "alliance"with Farage and U.S. President Donald Trump.The Labour Party leader sought to stoke voter fears that Johnson's Brexit plan will lead to a U.S. trade deal that will undermine the National Health Service. It's a theme he's likely to keep revisiting through the campaign."What we have before us is an alliance between Donald Trump and Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson," Corbyn said at a campaign event in Blackpool. "Farage and Johnson only offer division, division, division, and a deal with Donald Trump, and you'll then be saying whatever happened to our wonderful National Health Service,? whatever happened to all the regulations that we had that protected our rights at work, our rights to a clean environment and our rights to safe food?"Corbyn: Attack on Labour Computers 'Suspicious' (12:15 p.m.)Jeremy Corbyn told an election event the attack on the Labour Party's computer systems worried him even though it wasn't successful."If this is a sign of things to come then I feel very nervous about it all," he said in Blackpool, northwestern England. "A cyber attack against a political party in an election is suspicious and something one is very worried about."Corbyn may seek to use the attack to draw attention to the government's refusal to release the Intelligence and Security Committee's report into Russian involvement in British elections (see 8:20 a.m.).The Labour leader compared the internet assault on his party to the 2018 Wannacry cyber-attack on NHS systems, which was classed by the intelligence agency GCHQ as a level two attack -- serious, but with no immediate threat to life. The attack on Labour's systems by contrast was set at the lowest level of six.Security Official: Labour Cyber Attack Low-Level (12 p.m.)A U.K. security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack on Labour's computer systems had been low-level. It was a category six attack, which intelligence agency GCHQ defines as "early activity aimed at a medium-sized organization."Labour reported the attack Monday night and it was resolved Tuesday morning. Suggestions on social media Russia and Brazil had been involved were wide of the mark, the official said.Corbyn Slams 'Woeful' Response to Floods (11:50 a.m.)Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked Johnson's response to floods in northern England, saying it "has been woeful." He criticized the premier for waiting five days to call a meeting of the government's emergency committee, and then for only doing so after Corbyn had demanded it."Just imagine if this had been in Surrey, instead of Yorkshire and the east Midlands" he said, referring to a wealthy county in London's commuter belt. "I think it would have been a very different story."Corbyn was in Blackpool, northwest England to announce Labour's new policy to help adults gain access to education and training throughout their lives (see post at 9 a.m.).EU Sets Johnson New Ultimatum (11:45 a.m.)As the Brexit process remains in limbo during the election, Boris Johnson was given a dressing down by the European Commission in Brussels.The commission's president-elect Ursula von der Leyen sent another letter to Johnson reminding him of the U.K.'s legal obligation to nominate a new Commissioner, according to her spokeswoman Dana Spinant. After von der Leyen's previous letter on the matter went unanswered, the president-elect now expects a nomination by the end of this week at the latest, her spokeswoman said.The new EU executive arm can't be confirmed by the bloc's assembly and sworn in before the U.K. nominates a Commissioner. EU leaders can take a unanimous decision to waive this obligation, but there are no signs they are willing to do so.Von der Leyen's spokeswoman said the latest letter reminded Johnson of his government's promise not disrupt the functioning of the bloc.Tories Ramp Up Attack on Labour Spending Plans (10:30 a.m.)The Conservative Party is using its first billboard of the campaign to attack Labour's spending plans under leader Jeremy Corbyn, which reads: "You'd pay £2,400 more tax under Labour." It also includes a snapshot of a banking app with a payment to "new tax bill" payment to "Jeremy." A tweet on the Conservative Party's main Twitter account highlights the message.Labour Says It Blocked Major Cyber Attack (10:20 a.m.)The U.K.'s main opposition Labour Party said it blocked a "sophisticated and large scale attack" on its digital platforms."The integrity of all our platforms was maintained and we are confident that no data breach occurred," Labour said in a statement.U.K. Labor Market Weakens (9:30 a.m.)The U.K. economy lost jobs in the third quarter and vacancies posted their largest annual decline since the financial crisis. The figures from the Office for National Statistics are further evidence that Brexit uncertainty is finally hitting the labor market, which has defied the wider economic troubles since the 2016 Brexit vote and supported consumer spending.The data, which also show wage growth unexpectedly slowing, add to the fierce debate over the economy as the campaign for the Dec. 12 vote intensifies.Labour Pledges Free Adult Education (9 a.m.)The opposition Labour Party is focusing on education and skills, with leader Jeremy Corbyn and education spokeswoman Angela Rayner giving speeches in Blackpool. Announcements will include free education for six years for all adults to "give them opportunities for the future," Rayner told BBC radio.A Labour government would also abolish university tuition fees "no ifs, no buts," Rayner said -- a move that will put pressure on both the ruling Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, who have long been tainted with the government's decision in 2012 to raise the cap on tuition fees in England to 9,000 pounds ($11,600) from 3,000 pounds a year.The Liberal Democrats, who pledged in the 2010 election campaign not to raise fees, were coalition partners with the Tories at the time. This time around, Jo Swinson's party has pledged a grant of 10,000 pounds for all adults in England to put toward education and training.Clinton: U.K. Must Publish Russia Meddling Report (8:20 a.m.)Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Johnson should release a report by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee into Russia's alleged involvement in U.K. democracy."I'm dumbfounded that this government won't release the report about Russian influence," Clinton told BBC radio. "Because every person who votes in this country deserves to see that report before your election happens."The report assesses the threat posed to Britain's democratic processes and stems from an 18-month inquiry into illicit Russian activities. But the government refused to publish it before the general election campaign, and Treasury minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday repeated the government's position that officials hadn't had enough time to vet the report."There's a lot of evidence Russia played in the Brexit" referendum, Clinton said, without giving details.Farage: Trump Involvement Is 'Conspiracy Theory' (8 a.m.)Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage dismissed a suggestion put forward by critics that Donald Trump had influenced his decision to withdraw candidates in Conservative-held areas, calling it a "wild conspiracy theory." He told the BBC he hasn't spoken to the U.S. president in weeks.Farage's decision not to contest 317 seats has left open the possibility his party may still split the vote in areas Johnson's Conservatives need to gain from Labour to secure a parliamentary majority."What is clear is that the Conservative Party care more about themselves than they do about Brexit or the country," Farage said when asked about the pressure he was facing to withdraw in more areas. He also repeated his claim -- denied by the Tories -- that "people close" to Johnson's office had offered him a seat in Parliament's upper House of Lords.Earlier:Farage Won't Fight Tories in Election Boost for U.K.'s JohnsonFarage Retreat Aids Johnson's Election Push: U.K. Campaign TrailU.K. Recent Election Polls Summary: Conservative 39%, Labour 28%\--With assistance from Brian Swint, Nikos Chrysoloras, Robert Hutton and James Bullock.To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Is Nikki Haley auditioning to replace Pence on Trump's 2020 ticket? Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  Less than three months ago, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations tried to tamp down speculation that she might replace the vice president on Trump's 2020 ticket. But multiple political observers say her new book tour is doubling as an audition for the role.
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| AP Explains: A look at the Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:10 AM PST  An Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip has killed Bahaa Abu el-Atta, a senior official with the Islamic Jihad militant group, setting off the worst bout of fighting in recent months. Islamic Jihad is one of several groups fighting Israel, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
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| Nikki Haley says Trump is "truthful" Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:01 AM PST  The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations decried the impeachment inquiry into President Trump
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| Nikki Haley insists Donald Trump is 'truthful' as she returns to spotlight Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PST  * Rex Tillerson denies Haley's claim he undermined president * Opinion: Why Haley isn't jumping off the Trump trainThe former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley: 'In every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with.' Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/ReutersThe former UN ambassador Nikki Haley continued her dogged and faithful defence of Donald Trump on Tuesday, maintaining that the president is a "truthful" person."In every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with," Haley told NBC's Today. "I never had any concerns on whether he could handle the job ever."In fact, Trump's tendency to be economical with the truth is a much-studied phenomenon. By mid-October, the Washington Post's Fact Checker column said Trump had made "13,435 false or misleading claims over 993 days" in power.Tuesday saw the publication of With All Due Respect, a carefully crafted memoir that many people see as an attempt to set up the former South Carolina governor for a return to national political life, even a White House run in 2024. Haley, who left the Trump administration last year, has denied rumours she could replace Mike Pence as Trump's vice-presidential pick next year.On Monday night, Rex Tillerson, Trump's first secretary of state, hit back at Haley's claim in the book that he worked to undermine aspects of Trump's agenda in an effort to "save the country"."During my service to our country as the secretary of state, at no time did I, nor to my direct knowledge did anyone else serving along with me, take any actions to undermine the president," Tillerson said in a statement."Once the president made a decision, we at the state department undertook our best efforts to implement that decision."Tillerson was responding to Haley's claim that he and the former White House chief of staff John Kelly invited her to join their attempts to subvert the president on several contentious issues, including pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, and moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.In his statement, Tillerson said Haley "was rarely a participant in my many meetings and is not in a position to know what I may or may not have said to the president".In her book, Haley claims the two advisers "confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren't being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country".She also reveals the depth of animosity between advisers surrounding Trump. Tillerson, she writes, "was dismissive of my opinions, and he didn't make any secret about the fact that he believed his views carried more weight".Haley reiterated her accusations on Tuesday, telling NBC what Tillerson and Kelly did was "dangerous" and describing Tillerson as "arrogant and condescending"."To undermine a president because you think you know better than him is wrong," Haley said."If you disagree with getting out of the Iran nuclear arms deal, if you disagree with moving our embassy or getting out of the Paris climate agreement, go tell the president. If you still don't like it, quit."In his own response to Haley's claims, Kelly said that if providing the president "with the best and most open, legal and ethical staffing advice from across the [government] so he could make an informed decision is 'working against Trump', then guilty as charged."Haley also hit out at the impeachment inquiry, into Trump's conduct regarding Ukraine, which will bring public hearings on Wednesday."Impeachment is serious," she said, after saying Trump may not have acted appropriately but had not merited impeachment and possible removal."The other side of this is we are less than a year away from the election. Instead, let the people decide. Let them hear the testimony, that's fine, but let them decide."
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| Nikki Haley Offers Weak Defense Of Trump's Ukraine Call In Tense Live Interview Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:31 AM PST  NBC's Savannah Guthrie grilled the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations about the impeachment inquiry into the president.
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| UPDATE 4-Trump says China trade deal 'close' but dashes hopes for signing details Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:31 AM PST  President Donald Trump on Tuesday dangled the prospect of completing an initial trade deal with China "soon," but offered no new details on negotiations in a campaign-style speech touting his administration's economic record. Markets had been on edge about Trump's highly anticipated remarks to The Economic Club of New York, but barely moved after the speech, which contained no major policy announcements. Rumors early on Tuesday that Trump might announce a venue and date for signing a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping proved unfounded.
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| Nikki Haley’s Damning Defense of Trump Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:30 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, has made news twice during her book tour. She has said that Trump should not be impeached "for asking for a favor that didn't happen" and for holding up aid that was eventually delivered to Ukraine. And she has said that former administration officials Rex Tillerson and John Kelly asked her to join them in resisting the president from within. She says she rejected the idea because it would have meant subverting the Constitution.In both cases, Haley disappointed opponents of Trump who had hoped, or imagined, that she was one of them. Her remarks show that she has thrown in her lot with the president. But there is a tension between her comments, and it mirrors the tension of working in this administration.On the one hand, Haley insists that it's a constitutional duty for the president's will to be followed. On the other hand, it's a constitutional excuse for him that his will wasn't followed. When Kelly, who served as chief of staff, and Tillerson, Trump's first secretary of state, second-guess the president, they are usurping power our Constitution gave him. But when the president issues a command, sometimes it's really more of a suggestion.Trump's underlings have certainly been willing to treat his wishes as idle talk before, and sometimes even to defy him. Their insubordination has kept Trump out of trouble before, too. As the report from special prosecutor Robert Mueller detailed, former White House counsel Don McGahn refused to fire Mueller when Trump directed him to do so. If McGahn had obeyed, Trump would likely have faced an earlier and more bipartisan impeachment.Was McGahn, by Haley's standards, serving Trump or undermining him? What about the reports that Trump has sometimes urged aides to break laws and promised to pardon them afterward? The aides decided to treat those remarks as a "joke." Assuming Haley believes these reports, were these aides, too, acting illegitimately?One way of trying to get around this dilemma would be to assume that some presidential directives are serious and others are just venting or jesting. Haley has gestured toward this possibility, telling the Washington Post that "there was no heavy demand insisting that something had to happen" when Trump asked for a Ukrainian investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. As far as we can tell from what Haley has told us, though, Kelly and Tillerson may have had the same idea. Maybe they just wanted officials to err on the side of construing Trump's orders as "light" demands.Haley is right to be uncomfortable about presidential aides seeing themselves as checks on their boss. She's right, too, that defiance raises a constitutional concern. Article II vests executive power in the president, not in his aides. The aides, who were not elected, have to be accountable to the president who was. It can't be the other way around.But this president has chosen, or defaulted to, a different mode of governance. He either tolerates a high degree of insubordination or has not figured out a way of squelching it. When his appointees anger him, he often vents about it on Twitter instead of firing them.No wonder Haley's remarks sound so dissonant. The president has created a working environment in which either following his orders or not following them is a threat to the proper functioning of the government. Even the most highly accomplished diplomat could not resolve this tension, which may help explain why Haley, like Tillerson and Kelly, is no longer in the Trump administration.To contact the author of this story: Ramesh Ponnuru at rponnuru@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and contributor to CBS News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Danish court jails repatriated Islamic State fighter Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:24 AM PST ![Danish court jails repatriated Islamic State fighter]( "Danish court jails repatriated Islamic State fighter") A foreign fighter from Denmark has been jailed in pre-trial custody for 27 days, a day after the man was deported from Turkey, which has begun to send home people who fought for the Islamic State group. Prosecutor Sidsel Klixbull told the Copenhagen City Court on Tuesday that it was "a very serious case." Ahmad Salem el-Haj was held on preliminary charges of violating Danish terror laws. Copenhagen police say Denmark in 2017 had asked Turkey for his extradition but in vain.
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| Turkey tries to shed light on White Helmets founder's death Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:10 AM PST  Turkish officials were performing an autopsy and other procedures Tuesday as they tried to understand how a former British officer who helped found the White Helmets volunteer aid group in Syria died. James Le Mesurier's body was found near his home in Istanbul early Monday by worshippers on their way to morning prayers. Turkish police believe he fell to his death from his home and are investigating the circumstances.
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| Japan, US say 3-way ties with S. Korea are key to security Posted: 12 Nov 2019 06:59 AM PST  The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, agreed with Japanese officials Tuesday that three-way cooperation with South Korea is key to regional security and that an intelligence sharing pact between Tokyo and Seoul should not be scrapped. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said he told Milley that discord among the three countries would only destabilize the region and benefit North Korea, China and Russia. "We shared a view that Japan-U.S.-South Korea cooperation is more important now than ever, as we discussed the latest situation related to North Korea, including the North's latest launch of ballistic missiles," Motegi said.
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| European Democracy Is Broken. Here's How to Fix It. Posted: 12 Nov 2019 06:54 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- What do Spain, Israel, Austria, Belgium and the German state of Thuringia and perhaps, soon, the U.K., have in common? Elections whose outcomes make reasonable, cohesive parliamentary governing coalitions next to impossible. This isn't just political fragmentation, which is becoming the norm in Europe and beyond. It's compromise-defying deadlock. Breaking it may require substantial change to political traditions and parliamentary procedures.Spain has just held the fourth inconclusive election in as many years and the second this year. The problem for the plurality winner, caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, is that he's already tried and failed to make deals with political parties on the leftist flank and in the political center. Policy differences with the remaining parties would probably paralyze a coalition government that included them. Such a scenario is unfolding in Germany now under a reluctant, uneasy coalition of the center-right and the center-left.In Austria, where the election took place on Sept. 29, more than a month of indecision ensued because the plurality winner, center-right leader Sebastian Kurz, had no willing coalition partners except on the far-right. Kurz had already tried governing in that combination and failed at it. On Monday, the Greens announced they'd talk to Kurz, and he launched negotiations with them despite what now appear to be irreconcilable differences on climate-change policies and migration. The talks probably will last well into next year. It's impossible to predict how long Belgium will go without a government after the May election. Negotiators appointed by the king to explore coalition possibilities resigned last week without getting anywhere because the strongest parties — the Flemish nationalists and the Francophone socialists — have no discernible common interests.In Thuringia, there's no majority coalition in sight following the state's October election. The far left, led by incumbent Minister-President Bodo Ramelow, won a plurality, but parties that agree to work with his political force don't have a combined majority. Nor can his opponents work together without breaking clear promises to their voters.Unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party in the U.K. can win an outright majority next month, the country will find itself in a similar situation, with any workable coalition difficult to imagine on ideological grounds.In all these places, caretaker cabinets without full parliamentary support are perfectly capable of running the nations' day-to-day business, keeping government offices open and public employees paid. But politics are as fragmented as they are today because many voters want change, and that's not possible without powerful governments pushing it. Meanwhile, it's getting harder to overcome ideological differences simply for the sake of stability and responsibility, since voters tend to dismiss such attempts as self-seeking and ineffective.At least in Israel, which has held two inconclusive elections this year, the biggest parties are willing to try something new to break the deadlock, like a prime ministerial rotation with the current leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, remaining in office for a year and then handing things over to his rival and possible coalition partner Benny Gantz. The Europeans should get more creative, too. Government formation talks are getting more protracted everywhere and junior coalition partners are getting harder to recruit because of mounting statistical evidence that playing the role usually leads to dramatic election losses. Leader rotations are an ingenious solution, but they hardly spell stability. It might be less damaging to move toward the minority government-friendly Scandinavian model. In Norway, appointing a prime minister doesn't require a confirmation vote by the majority of parliament as in Spain or Germany. The ruling party is usually just the plurality winner in the election, while smaller parties often display a coalition aversion: They can achieve more in opposition, helping form ad-hoc majorities only on measures they can support instead of working inside governments. In Sweden, there is a confirmatory vote, but only to make sure an absolute majority of the parliament doesn't oppose a new prime minister. In other words, legislators are only required to tolerate rather than actively support a government.A minority-government tradition hands a lot of power to plurality winners in elections, but at the same time, they must work more actively with the opposition than parties ruling in majority coalitions. The advantage is that all the parties can maintain their political identities and only make compromises that they can accept sincerely.Decision-making without stable majorities could be even more efficient with broader use of ranked-choice voting, in which legislators could rank various versions of a bill in order of preference to break deadlocks like the Brexit stalemate that afflicts the U.K. Parliament. The power of this procedure would allow a minority government to push through important legislation, but it wouldn't completely eliminate the need for compromises. Part of the opposition, no matter how fragmented, could unite against competing measures and assemble a bigger plurality than the government's.Breaking with political traditions and reforming voting rules is hard: Political systems are stabilized by inertia. But politicians should be able to see that democracy works differently now than it did in previous decades. Unless they make changes today, while responsible, traditional parties are still winning pluralities, voter disappointment with ineffective, constantly bickering governments or months-long cabinet formation processes can lead to outright victories by so-called anti-elite forces, often on the far right. Then, it'll be too late for reasonable forces to unite against them. 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.
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| European Democracy Is Broken. Here's How to Fix It. Posted: 12 Nov 2019 06:54 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- What do Spain, Israel, Austria, Belgium and the German state of Thuringia and perhaps, soon, the U.K., have in common? Elections whose outcomes make reasonable, cohesive parliamentary governing coalitions next to impossible. This isn't just political fragmentation, which is becoming the norm in Europe and beyond. It's compromise-defying deadlock. Breaking it may require substantial change to political traditions and parliamentary procedures.Spain has just held the fourth inconclusive election in as many years and the second this year. The problem for the plurality winner, caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, is that he's already tried and failed to make deals with political parties on the leftist flank and in the political center. Policy differences with the remaining parties would probably paralyze a coalition government that included them. Such a scenario is unfolding in Germany now under a reluctant, uneasy coalition of the center-right and the center-left.In Austria, where the election took place on Sept. 29, more than a month of indecision ensued because the plurality winner, center-right leader Sebastian Kurz, had no willing coalition partners except on the far-right. Kurz had already tried governing in that combination and failed at it. On Monday, the Greens announced they'd talk to Kurz, and he launched negotiations with them despite what now appear to be irreconcilable differences on climate-change policies and migration. The talks probably will last well into next year. It's impossible to predict how long Belgium will go without a government after the May election. Negotiators appointed by the king to explore coalition possibilities resigned last week without getting anywhere because the strongest parties — the Flemish nationalists and the Francophone socialists — have no discernible common interests.In Thuringia, there's no majority coalition in sight following the state's October election. The far left, led by incumbent Minister-President Bodo Ramelow, won a plurality, but parties that agree to work with his political force don't have a combined majority. Nor can his opponents work together without breaking clear promises to their voters.Unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party in the U.K. can win an outright majority next month, the country will find itself in a similar situation, with any workable coalition difficult to imagine on ideological grounds.In all these places, caretaker cabinets without full parliamentary support are perfectly capable of running the nations' day-to-day business, keeping government offices open and public employees paid. But politics are as fragmented as they are today because many voters want change, and that's not possible without powerful governments pushing it. Meanwhile, it's getting harder to overcome ideological differences simply for the sake of stability and responsibility, since voters tend to dismiss such attempts as self-seeking and ineffective.At least in Israel, which has held two inconclusive elections this year, the biggest parties are willing to try something new to break the deadlock, like a prime ministerial rotation with the current leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, remaining in office for a year and then handing things over to his rival and possible coalition partner Benny Gantz. The Europeans should get more creative, too. Government formation talks are getting more protracted everywhere and junior coalition partners are getting harder to recruit because of mounting statistical evidence that playing the role usually leads to dramatic election losses. Leader rotations are an ingenious solution, but they hardly spell stability. It might be less damaging to move toward the minority government-friendly Scandinavian model. In Norway, appointing a prime minister doesn't require a confirmation vote by the majority of parliament as in Spain or Germany. The ruling party is usually just the plurality winner in the election, while smaller parties often display a coalition aversion: They can achieve more in opposition, helping form ad-hoc majorities only on measures they can support instead of working inside governments. In Sweden, there is a confirmatory vote, but only to make sure an absolute majority of the parliament doesn't oppose a new prime minister. In other words, legislators are only required to tolerate rather than actively support a government.A minority-government tradition hands a lot of power to plurality winners in elections, but at the same time, they must work more actively with the opposition than parties ruling in majority coalitions. The advantage is that all the parties can maintain their political identities and only make compromises that they can accept sincerely.Decision-making without stable majorities could be even more efficient with broader use of ranked-choice voting, in which legislators could rank various versions of a bill in order of preference to break deadlocks like the Brexit stalemate that afflicts the U.K. Parliament. The power of this procedure would allow a minority government to push through important legislation, but it wouldn't completely eliminate the need for compromises. Part of the opposition, no matter how fragmented, could unite against competing measures and assemble a bigger plurality than the government's.Breaking with political traditions and reforming voting rules is hard: Political systems are stabilized by inertia. But politicians should be able to see that democracy works differently now than it did in previous decades. Unless they make changes today, while responsible, traditional parties are still winning pluralities, voter disappointment with ineffective, constantly bickering governments or months-long cabinet formation processes can lead to outright victories by so-called anti-elite forces, often on the far right. Then, it'll be too late for reasonable forces to unite against them. 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.
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| The U.S. detained more child migrants than ever before in 2019 and more than anywhere else in the world Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:47 AM PST ![The U.S. detained more child migrants than ever before in 2019 and more than anywhere else in the world]( "The U.S. detained more child migrants than ever before in 2019 and more than anywhere else in the world") The Trump administration held a record 69,550 migrant children in U.S. government custody in fiscal 2019, up 42 percent from the previous year, and it detained the children for longer periods of time, The Associated Press and PBS Frontline reported Tuesday. The number of migrant children detained away from their parents also outpaced any other nation in the world, according to United Nations researchers. Canada, for instance, detained 155 separated children in 2018, and Britain sheltered 42 migrant children in 2017; Australia detained 2,000 children during a maritime surge in 2013.The U.S. government has acknowledged that detaining children can lead to long-term physical and emotional trauma. "Some of these migrant children who were in government custody this year have already been deported," AP reports. "Some have reunited with family in the U.S., where they're trying to go to school and piece back together their lives. About 4,000 are still in government custody, some in large, impersonal shelters.""Early experiences are literally built into our brains and bodies," says Dr. Jack Shonkoff at Harvard's Center on the Developing Child. He warned Congress earlier this year that detaining kids away from their parents or primary caregivers rewires their brains. The American Academy of Pediatrics said in the September issue of journal Pediatrics that migrant children who are detained "face almost universal traumatic histories." The longer the detention and the younger the detainees, the greater chance of serious trauma.When President Trump took office, the Department of Health and Human Services was caring for about 2,700 children, most of whom were reunited with parents or relatives in about a month, AP reports. In June, HHS had more than 13,000 children in custody and they stayed in detention for about two months. On Nov. 5, a federal judge ordered the government to immediately provide mental health treatment and screening to detained migrant families, ruling that there is sufficient evidence government policy "caused severe mental trauma to parents and their children" and U.S. government officials were "aware of the risks associated with family separation when they implemented it."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?
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| Feud Between Trump Advisers Underscores a White House Torn by Rivalries Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:40 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's chief of staff and former national security adviser clashed in court Monday. Two new books describe how top aides to the president secretly plotted to circumvent him. And nearly every day brings more testimony about the deep internal schism over the president's effort to pressure Ukraine for domestic political help.In the three years since his election, Trump has never been accused of running a cohesive, unified team. But the revelations of recent days have put on display perhaps more starkly than ever the fissures tearing at his administration. In the emerging picture, the Trump White House is a toxic stew of personality disputes, policy differences, political rivalries, ethical debates and a fundamental rift over the president himself.The fault lines were most clearly evident Monday when Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, abruptly withdrew his effort to join a lawsuit over impeachment testimony after a sharp collision with his onetime colleague John Bolton, the former national security adviser. Mulvaney retreated only hours after a lawyer for Bolton and his former deputy, Charles Kupperman, went to court arguing that his clients wanted nothing to do with the staff chief because they had vastly different interests.In withdrawing his motion, Mulvaney indicated that he would now press his own lawsuit to determine whether to comply with a subpoena to testify in the House impeachment inquiry. But it left him at odds with the president, who has ordered his team not to cooperate with the House, an order Mulvaney essentially has refused to accept as other administration officials have until he receives separate guidance from a judge.Mulvaney's lawyers emphasized that he was not trying to oppose Trump, maintaining that he was actually trying to sue House Democrats, and an administration official who insisted on anonymity said there was "no distance" between the president and his chief of staff. Still, Mulvaney hired his own lawyer instead of relying on the White House counsel, and he consciously made clear that he was open to testifying if left to his own devices.The situation underscored long-standing enmity between Mulvaney and the counsel, Pat Cipollone, who have repeatedly been at odds throughout the impeachment inquiry, according to four administration officials briefed on the events.Mulvaney, who has been left with an "acting" title for more than 10 months and therefore insecure in his position, is said to see Cipollone as angling for his job as chief of staff. People close to Cipollone deny that and say he is not interested, although they acknowledged that there were previous discussions with Trump about such a shift.Hoping to bolster his own place in the White House, Mulvaney has recommended to Trump that he hire Mark Paoletta, the general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget, where Mulvaney is still technically the director, according to people familiar with the maneuvering. Paoletta would not displace Cipollone but would give Mulvaney an ally on the legal team as the impeachment battle plays out.Another person familiar with the latest moves said that Paoletta was considered but that West Wing officials decided they were pleased with the hiring of Pam Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, and Tony Sayegh, a Republican strategist, both of whom began full time this week.The latest personnel struggle echoed an attempt by Mulvaney several weeks ago to hire former Rep. Trey Gowdy, a fellow South Carolina Republican, to join the president's legal team. Cipollone and others were said to take issue with the idea, concerned it was an effort by Mulvaney to run his own legal team. Cipollone told allies he had no such concerns, but eventually, Gowdy bowed out, facing an issue with a ban on former House members lobbying Congress.Despite his own tenuous job status, Mulvaney has privately told associates in recent days that there is no easy way for Trump to fire him in the midst of the impeachment fight, the implication being that he knows too much about the president's pressure campaign to force Ukraine to provide incriminating information about Democrats.The court fight between Mulvaney and Bolton on Monday brought their long-running feud into the open. Mulvaney was among those facilitating the Ukraine effort while Bolton was among those objecting to it. At one point, according to testimony in the impeachment inquiry, Bolton declared that he wanted no part of the "drug deal" Mulvaney was cooking up, as the then national security adviser characterized the pressure campaign.Their clash was just one of many inside Trump's circle spilling out into public in recent days. The legal conflict Monday came just a day before Nikki Haley, the president's former ambassador to the United Nations, plans to publish a memoir accusing Trump's former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and former chief of staff, John Kelly, of conspiring behind his back while in office. Her account in effect is a mirror image of another book coming out this month by an anonymous senior administration official describing how concerned aides mounted their own internal resistance to Trump.Kelly disputed Haley in a statement Sunday and Tillerson added his own refutation Monday. "During my service to our country as the secretary of state, at no time did I, nor to my direct knowledge did anyone else serving along with me, take any actions to undermine the president," Tillerson said in a statement.While he offered Trump frank advice, he said, once the president made a decision, he did his best to carry it out. "Ambassador Haley was rarely a participant in my many meetings and is not in a position to know what I may or may not have said to the president," Tillerson added.Tillerson was never enamored of Haley when they were both in office, seeing her as a rival trying to upstage him and run foreign policy from her perch at the United Nations. Haley's portrayal of herself fighting off Trump's internal enemies was met Monday with scoffs from several administration officials, who said they were aware of little evidence to back up her self-description. But a former senior administration official who witnessed some of the interactions Haley had with the president described her as heavily involved with policy.The books are being published at the same time new transcripts are released by the House documenting how Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and a coterie of allies, including Mulvaney, sought to sideline career diplomats and other foreign policy officials who warned against enlisting Ukraine to help the president's personal political interests.The dispute pitted one part of Trump's administration against another in a struggle over foreign policy that now has the president on the precipice of being impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.The lawsuit that Mulvaney sought to join was filed by Kupperman, a longtime associate of Bolton, and asked a court to decide whether Kupperman should obey the president's dictate to stay silent or a House subpoena to testify.While not technically a party to the lawsuit, Bolton, who left his post in September after clashing with Trump, is represented by the same lawyer, Charles Cooper, and is taking the same position as Kupperman in waiting for the court to decide whether he should testify or not.Mulvaney's effort to join the lawsuit late Friday night stunned many involved in the impeachment debate because he still works for the president. Mulvaney did not ask Bolton or Kupperman for permission to join the lawsuit nor did he give them a heads up. Bolton and his team considered it an outrageous move since they were on opposite sides of the Ukraine fight and did not want their lawsuit polluted with Mulvaney.Not only did the motion filed Monday by Bolton's camp seek to keep Mulvaney out of the lawsuit, it even advanced an argument that the acting chief of staff may have to testify before House impeachment investigators. The motion noted that in a briefing with reporters last month, Mulvaney appeared "to admit that there was a quid pro quo" before later trying to take back the admission, meaning that he might not have the right to defy a House subpoena since he had already discussed the matter in public."Accordingly, there is a serious question as to whether Mulvaney waived the absolute testimonial immunity claimed by the president," the motion said.Mulvaney's lawyers rejected that. "The idea that Mr. Mulvaney has somehow waived broad immunity by speaking about this" at a briefing "doesn't have any legs," Christopher Muha, one of the lawyers, told the judge in the case Monday afternoon, according to a transcript of a conference call released by the court.Nonetheless, Judge Richard Leon, of the U.S. District for the District of Columbia, indicated at the end of the call that he was inclined to reject Mulvaney's request to join the suit. Mulvaney then withdrew it and said he would file his own separate action.The motion filed by Bolton's camp noted that Kupperman does not take a position on who is right, the president or Congress, and "will remain neutral on the merits of the constitutional issue," while Mulvaney "has made it clear that he supports the executive" branch interpretation.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Nikki Haley's new book says Trump was 'surprised' when she was the first to confront him over his head-scratching Helsinki summit with Putin Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:36 AM PST  Nikki Haley says she told President Donald Trump she was uncomfortable with the Vladimir Putin meeting when he played down Russian election meddling.
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| Germany: 3 Islamists detained over suspected attack plot Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:08 AM PST ![Germany: 3 Islamists detained over suspected attack plot]( "Germany: 3 Islamists detained over suspected attack plot") Authorities in Germany detained three alleged supporters of the Islamic State group Tuesday on suspicion of preparing a deadly attack against non-Muslims. Frankfurt prosecutors said some 170 police officers searched three apartments in the nearby city of Offenbach and detained the men, who were already known to authorities. "The intervention occurred in time to prevent a concrete threat," chief prosecutor Nadja Niesen told reporters in Frankfurt.
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| Europe Expands Defense Projects Amid Macron Warnings on NATO Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST ![Europe Expands Defense Projects Amid Macron Warnings on NATO]( "Europe Expands Defense Projects Amid Macron Warnings on NATO") (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.European Union governments approved a new set of defense-cooperation projects that would bolster Europe's military clout as French President Emmanuel Macron warned that global institutions, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, needed urgent overhauls.EU defense ministers endorsed 13 more initiatives under the Permanent Structured Cooperation -- or PESCO -- program, bringing the total to 47.The latest projects, which were given the go-ahead on Tuesday in Brussels, range from a French-Italian goal to design a new class of military ship called "European Patrol Corvette" to a planned cyber coordination center by Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.The PESCO program and a planned 13 billion-euro ($14.3 billion) European Defense Fund mark the cornerstones of the EU's efforts to do more for its own security, which has depended for decades largely on the U.S.-dominated NATO.'Unprecedented Crisis'The European move comes as Macron reiterated his warning about the threats to global institutions, telling leaders at a conference in Paris that there is an "unprecedented crisis" of the international social and economic order due to inequality, unilateralism, migration, climate change and doubts about democracy. Last week, the French president warned of "brain death" at NATO."I've perhaps offended a few people here in recent days or weeks. I think we need truth: Prudishness and hypocrisy don't work these days," Macron said on Tuesday. "Laziness -- intellectually or in action -- is not a solution."German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Macron's comments about NATO "drastic" and said the 29-nation alliance was "irreplaceable."While U.S. President Donald Trump has been outspoken in pressing European countries to foot more of the transatlantic security bill, his administration has warned them against shutting American companies out of joint defense projects.The EU has approved in principle rules for the participation of foreign businesses in the planned European Defense Fund. But the bloc's national governments are still split over any involvement by non-EU companies in the PESCO program, with France leading a group keen to restrict access.To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net;William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Flavia Krause-JacksonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Nikki Haley’s Damning Defense of Trump Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, has made news twice during her book tour. She has said that Trump should not be impeached "for asking for a favor that didn't happen" and for holding up aid that was eventually delivered to Ukraine. And she has said that former administration officials Rex Tillerson and John Kelly asked her to join them in resisting the president from within. She says she rejected the idea because it would have meant subverting the Constitution.In both cases, Haley disappointed opponents of Trump who had hoped, or imagined, that she was one of them. Her remarks show that she has thrown in her lot with the president. But there is a tension between her comments, and it mirrors the tension of working in this administration.On the one hand, Haley insists that it's a constitutional duty for the president's will to be followed. On the other hand, it's a constitutional excuse for him that his will wasn't followed. When Kelly, who served as chief of staff, and Tillerson, Trump's first secretary of state, second-guess the president, they are usurping power our Constitution gave him. But when the president issues a command, sometimes it's really more of a suggestion.Trump's underlings have certainly been willing to treat his wishes as idle talk before, and sometimes even to defy him. Their insubordination has kept Trump out of trouble before, too. As the report from special prosecutor Robert Mueller detailed, former White House counsel Don McGahn refused to fire Mueller when Trump directed him to do so. If McGahn had obeyed, Trump would likely have faced an earlier and more bipartisan impeachment.Was McGahn, by Haley's standards, serving Trump or undermining him? What about the reports that Trump has sometimes urged aides to break laws and promised to pardon them afterward? The aides decided to treat those remarks as a "joke." Assuming Haley believes these reports, were these aides, too, acting illegitimately?One way of trying to get around this dilemma would be to assume that some presidential directives are serious and others are just venting or jesting. Haley has gestured toward this possibility, telling the Washington Post that "there was no heavy demand insisting that something had to happen" when Trump asked for a Ukrainian investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. As far as we can tell from what Haley has told us, though, Kelly and Tillerson may have had the same idea. Maybe they just wanted officials to err on the side of construing Trump's orders as "light" demands.Haley is right to be uncomfortable about presidential aides seeing themselves as checks on their boss. She's right, too, that defiance raises a constitutional concern. Article II vests executive power in the president, not in his aides. The aides, who were not elected, have to be accountable to the president who was. It can't be the other way around.But this president has chosen, or defaulted to, a different mode of governance. He either tolerates a high degree of insubordination or has not figured out a way of squelching it. When his appointees anger him, he often vents about it on Twitter instead of firing them.No wonder Haley's remarks sound so dissonant. The president has created a working environment in which either following his orders or not following them is a threat to the proper functioning of the government. Even the most highly accomplished diplomat could not resolve this tension, which may help explain why Haley, like Tillerson and Kelly, is no longer in the Trump administration.To contact the author of this story: Ramesh Ponnuru at rponnuru@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and contributor to CBS News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| WFP chief vows more 'aggressive' action on sexual harassment Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:58 AM PST  In the wake of an internal survey that detailed multiple allegations of rape and sexual harassment of its female staffers, the leader of the World Food Program is vowing to go after abusers. David Beasley, the U.N. agency's executive director, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that he is "making hard choices to bring change" to the WFP. "If we have a claim of rape by anyone in the WFP, if we can substantiate, I can't begin to tell you how aggressive" actions will be, he told the AP in a phone interview from the agency's Rome headquarters.
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| Don’t Sweat U.S. Presidential Vote, Russia Says It’s on the Case Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:52 AM PST ![Don't Sweat U.S. Presidential Vote, Russia Says It's on the Case]( "Don't Sweat U.S. Presidential Vote, Russia Says It's on the Case") (Bloomberg) -- With Donald Trump facing the threat of impeachment and a field of Democratic contenders that's still larger than a soccer team, the contest for the 2020 presidential elections remains wildly unpredictable for U.S. voters. But help from Russia may be at hand."We will resolve the problem, don't worry," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov joked at a Paris peace forum on Tuesday, prompting laughter from the audience, after the moderator had asked him how Moscow was getting ready for the elections that are now less than a year away.While Lavrov was clearly trolling critics who've accused the Kremlin of meddling, Russian intervention on the winning side would repeat a feat achieved in 2016, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. They concluded that Russia was behind hacking attacks aimed at damaging the then Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and boosting Trump's chances of winning the presidency.The Kremlin rejects those allegations, though Russian President Vladimir Putin said at last year's Helsinki summit with the U.S. president that he'd wanted Trump to win. Trump has repeatedly denied any Russian collusion and denounced Special Counsel Robert Mueller's lengthy inquiry into the subject as a witch hunt.To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony HalpinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 3-UN urges Lebanon to build gov't of "competence", banks close Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:46 AM PST ![UPDATE 3-UN urges Lebanon to build gov't of "competence", banks close]( "UPDATE 3-UN urges Lebanon to build gov't of \"competence\", banks close") The United Nations urged Lebanon on Tuesday to form a competent new government better able to seek international aid after weeks of protests against the ruling elite, warning the country was in a critical financial and economic situation. Lebanon's banks and schools were shut in a new wave of disruption as politicians struggled to agree on a new government to steer the country out of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
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| Its Economy in Crisis, Lebanon Again Appeals to Arab Neighbors Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:21 AM PST ![Its Economy in Crisis, Lebanon Again Appeals to Arab Neighbors]( "Its Economy in Crisis, Lebanon Again Appeals to Arab Neighbors") (Bloomberg) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun appealed to Arab neighbors on Tuesday for help to revive his country's economy, driven to the brink of collapse after weeks of unrest that have brought down the government.Aoun met with Arab ambassadors in Beirut to discuss Lebanon's ongoing upheaval, according to his Twitter account. He's scheduled to speak live on television at 8:30 p.m. local time.Attempts to secure financial assistance from Gulf allies have so far come up empty. Meanwhile, Lebanon's finances are becoming ever more precarious as it suffers shortages of foreign currency and even fuel, while struggling to attract bank deposits, a key source of funding for the government.The president is leading the search for a new government after the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The premier had been backed by Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom gradually withheld support as the influence of Iranian-backed Hezbollah over the government grew. It ignored Hariri's pleas for financial aid to avert a looming debt crisis.Aoun also met with representatives of the International Support Group, which was created in 2013 and includes the United Nations and the governments of China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. The president has yet to schedule binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier who would then form a government.In ParalysisThe country has been paralyzed for nearly a month as nationwide protests ramp up pressure. Their momentum shows no signs of stopping, with demonstrations outside key state-run entities including the electricity company and ministries. Protesters Tuesday also held a sit-in outside the Judicial Palace, asking judges to remain neutral and look into corruption allegations.Protesters say the political elites have misused public funds for their own profit for years, neglecting living conditions and leading the country on the brink of bankruptcy. The are demanding a government of experts that's able to steer Lebanon through a financial crisis.Bank employees observed an open-ended nationwide strike Tuesday, asking lenders to be more flexible with clients to avoid possible confrontations. Videos of people clashing with bank employees have surfaced in recent days after restrictions imposed on withdrawals and the transfer of funds abroad.Central bank Governor Riad Salameh asked lenders Monday to ease some of the curbs, particularly those that have impacted traders and businesses, to avoid a possible shortage of goods. He also allowed lenders to borrow from the central bank in dollars at an interest rate of 20%.Public and private schools are also shut and employees of the telecommunications sector have announced a strike, demanding that any privatization of the industry as announced by the government should preserve their rights.To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| U.N. official calls for new, competent Lebanese govt Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:56 AM PST ![U.N. official calls for new, competent Lebanese govt]( "U.N. official calls for new, competent Lebanese govt") A top U.N. official in Lebanon called on Tuesday for the urgent formation of a new government made up of people known for their competence, which he said would be in a better position to appeal for international support. "The financial and economic situation is critical, and the government and other authorities cannot wait any longer to start addressing it," the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, said in a statement after meeting President Michel Aoun.
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| US troops at Syria base say they'll keep pressure on IS Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:26 AM 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.
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| Turkey to tell Trump to keep to promises on Kurdish fighters Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:13 AM PST  Turkey's president says Syrian Kurdish fighters have failed to vacate areas along the Turkish border despite agreements with Russia and the United States, and says he will raise the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking Tuesday before departing for Washington, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would also give Trump documents listing terror attacks allegedly carried out by Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish-led force. Turkey wants U.S. officials to arrest Abdi.
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| Rights group file Syria torture case in Norway Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:45 AM PST ![Rights group file Syria torture case in Norway]( "Rights group file Syria torture case in Norway") A human rights group says it has asked Norwegian prosecutors to open a criminal investigation against senior Syrian officials over allegations of torture and crimes against humanity. The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights said Tuesday it filed the complaint together with four other groups on behalf of five torture survivors. The plaintiffs want Norwegian prosecutors to investigate and issue arrest warrants against 17 senior members of Syria's security apparatus allegedly linked to 14 detention facilities in the country.
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| Fight Over Hong Kong's Future Grows More Grim Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:45 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.The pictures out of Hong Kong over the past few days have been particularly worrisome: a protester shot by police at point-blank range, an older man set ablaze, a truck driver beaten by demonstrators.While only one fatality has been linked to the protests since they began five months ago, that number could easily be higher. Police and protesters are locked in a fight over how much control Beijing has in one of Asia's top financial hubs.For the protesters, the use of force has always been a necessary evil. At the start of the unrest, the government ignored a peaceful street march by hundreds of thousands of people. It was only when demonstrators stormed the legislature that authorities shelved a bill allowing extraditions to mainland China.The danger now is that all this plays into Beijing's hands. A top Chinese official over the weekend suggested more stringent security laws were needed to stop the violence, raising concerns that Beijing could look to further subvert the city's democratic freedoms — starting with a district council election later this month.Either way, things look set to get worse before they get better.Global HeadlinesTV drama | Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives take their drive to impeach Donald Trump into a risky phase tomorrow with public hearings that the president is keen to turn into a made-for-TV personal battle, Billy House reports. Center stage will be three career diplomats who, in previous closed-door depositions, outlined attempts by Trump's advisers to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation into 2020 election rival Joe Biden.A Pentagon official told House impeachment investigators that she and other defense officials learned of Trump's "concerns" about U.S. military aid to Ukraine a week after a hold was placed on the funding. How to watch the impeachment hearings: viewer's guide.Farage factor | Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, is as famous as Boris Johnson and has been a disruptive force in U.K. politics as well as a thorn in the side of the Conservatives. He had threatened to compete in every seat in the Dec. 12 general elections, a move that would have harmed the Tories. His decision not to contest Conservative-held seats aids Johnson but Farage remains an unpredictable player in this most unpredictable of polls.Targeted killing | Israel assassinated a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip today, unleashing a barrage of Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities in retaliation, the most serious confrontation between the sides in months. The predawn missile strike killed Bahaa Abu al-Ata, a mastermind of hundreds of attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians who was planning another assault, according to the military. Banking union | Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled support for her finance minister's plan to break an impasse over European banking integration. The German initiative offers hope of progress in a seven-year effort to bridge differences between the fiscally conservative northern European countries against their neighbors in the south. But Italy has said German conditions are still unacceptable.Who's in charge? | Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has fled to Mexico after the backlash against his election win forced him to resign. He's leaving behind a vacuum: It's unclear who might take over - though opposition senator Jeanine Anez has surfaced as acting head of Congress and would be one option - and when or how elections may take place.Read here how Bolivia's first change in government in more than 13 years leaves bond investors wary.What to WatchTurkey's purchase of a Russian missile system will top the agenda at "critical" talks between Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington today that may shape the future of ties with the U.S., according to the Turkish president's top aide. Bushfires have broken out in the Australian city of Sydney, fanned by strong winds and soaring temperatures, while more than 70 wildfires are burning across the state of New South Wales, devastating rural areas left dry by a two-year drought. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 95, was admitted to an Atlanta hospital last night to undergo a surgery to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding.Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally … Russian President Vladimir Putin has snubbed repeated requests from Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to free a woman jailed for 7.5 years for carrying a small amount of hashish in a Moscow airport during a layover. The plight of Israeli army veteran Naama Issachar, 26, has become a cause célèbre in Israel. With the embattled Netanyahu struggling to keep power and avoid a corruption trial, "Putin wants to keep his options open," one analyst said. \--With assistance from Rosalind Mathieson, Ruth Pollard, Ben Sills and Flavia Krause-Jackson.To contact the author of this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Hong Kong at dtenkate@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Halpin at thalpin5@bloomberg.net, Karl MaierFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| With Rising Violence, China Pushes Hong Kong Toward Civil War Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:21 AM PST  A traffic police officer in Hong Kong shot an unarmed 21-year-old pro-democracy protester at point-blank range on Monday. Hours later, a man was set on fire after defending Beijing in an argument. Both individuals were listed in critical condition.Over the weekend, wide-scale disturbances scarred the territory, a semi-autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. There is essentially a rebellion in Hong Kong. Riot police in green uniforms are doing battle with youthful demonstrators dressed in black. How Hong Kong Protesters Show Which Businesses Are Friend or FoeProtests began in April after Chief Executive Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's top official, proposed legislation authorizing the extradition of fugitives to various jurisdictions, including Mainland China. Starting June 9, when an estimated one million Hong Kongers marched in the streets, demonstrations have been almost continuous. Lam has since permanently withdrawn the extradition bill from consideration, but the protests have not abated. Especially this week. Hong Kong braced for a weekend of disturbances after Chow Tsz-lok, a 22-year-old student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, died on Friday after falling from a car park the preceding Sunday while running away from police tear gas. Many have accused the police of delaying medical assistance to the mortally injured Chow.Chow has been called "the first fatality linked to police action during a protest," but many believe the police have killed others. Demonstrators believe three of their number were beaten to death on August 31 in the Prince Edward Mass Transit Railway station in Mong Kok. Since then, the above-ground entrance to the station has become a shrine, protestors have repeatedly rallied in front of the adjacent Mong Kok police station, and youth have continually trashed MTR trains and stations because they believe management of the rail system has withheld surveillance-camera footage.Even a single death creates a cycle of revenge and retaliation that is almost impossible to control. Chow's passing sparked a weekend of rage.Moreover, Chief Executive Lam added to the tensions. In her most recent press conference, held Monday after the shooting and burning incidents, she called protesters the "enemy of the people." Her provocative Cultural Revolution-speak comment came on the heels of her November 4 meeting with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping. China is apparently controlling events, and either out of obliviousness or maliciousness, it is making the situation worse. Beijing has been doing that by forcing Lam to take a hard line. Apart from the withdrawal of the extradition bill—doomed because the normally pro-Beijing business community came out against it early on—she has been intransigent. That intransigence was evident from her Monday remarks. She said she would not yield to violence, but she had previously left Hong Kong people no choice. She had, with her stubbornness, earlier foreclosed the possibility of peaceful change.Hong Kong people may not be able to change her mind, but she cannot change theirs either. The army in black—as well as many other people in the territory—have continued to protest.Analysts say Beijing will eventually lose patience and use force. "This kind of extreme, violent, and destructive activity would not be tolerated or accepted in any country or society in the world nowadays," said Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng as he met with Lam early this month in Beijing.Han's words were taken as a threat to formally deploy units of the People's Liberation Army or the People's Armed Police to the streets of Hong Kong to "crush" the protests and reestablish order. Beijing could move in troops, but the move is unlikely to work. Hong Kong, after all, is ideal territory for defenders, like guerilla fighters supported by an overwhelming portion of the public. Every apartment building there is a fort where hostiles can rain down explosives or petrol bombs on Chinese troops and then disappear into their homes or back alleys. Xi Jinping surely does not want his first war to take tens of thousands of soldiers, last years if not decades, and end in a loss for China.In the meantime, there is credible evidence suggesting Mainland Chinese personnel—troops or police—are now operating on Hong Kong streets in police uniforms. This sly tactic is not working, however. Why not? The Hong Kong police department, once considered the most professional force of its kind in Asia, has lost discipline, something evident from the shooting of the protester Monday and countless other incidents. The breakdown in discipline roughly coincides with early evidence that Chinese forces were mixed in with the Hong Kong police, and the resulting rough tactics have resulted in a loss of support of ordinary residents tired of being tear gassed, clubbed, and manhandled. All this raises the question whether Beijing has given the green light to police officers to act as brutally as they want. Yet whether China did so or not, harsh action by the police is sustaining support for the protesters. Demonstrators this past weekend were chanting "Revenge." Hong Kong is now at war with itself. There is no end in sight to the fighting.LeBron James Bends the Knee to China, Fails His First Big Test as the NBA's ConscienceRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Angered at EU, Turkey threatens to release IS prisoners Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:15 AM PST  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday issued a veiled threat suggesting Turkey could release the Islamic State group prisoners it holds and send them to Europe, angered at a EU decision to impose sanctions on his country over its drilling for gas in Mediterranean waters off Cyprus. Speaking to reporters before a visit to the United States, Erdogan also said Turkey would continue repatriating foreign Islamic State militants to their home countries, even if those countries decline to take them back. "You should revise your stance toward Turkey, which at the moment holds so many IS members in prison and at the same time controls those in Syria," Erdogan warned European nations, a day after the EU unveiled a system to sanction Turkey.
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| US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions could make investing environment volatile next year, Goldman Sachs says Posted: 12 Nov 2019 01:30 AM PST ![US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions could make investing environment volatile next year, Goldman Sachs says]( "US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions could make investing environment volatile next year, Goldman Sachs says") Investors could face a bumpy ride next year as geopolitical tensions, including the US-China trade war, continue to bring volatility to the markets, according to Goldman Sachs Asset Management.But, the global economy, while at a late stage in the economic cycle, is likely to avoid a recession next year, meaning there are opportunities for investors in equities, James Ashley, head of the asset management business's international market strategy team, said."From a macro perspective, I think the key question going into the new year is going to be do we have a further extension of what is already unprecedented, really long global expansion or do we see the economy roll over? When you see the start of a recession, our view is very firmly in the camp of the former ... there will not be a global recession," Ashley said."That does not mean it's going to be a smooth ride. That does not mean there will be an absence of shocks along the way and those shocks I think next year can take multitudes of forms. They could be geopolitical, that could be political, they could be markets related, they could be macro related, uncertainty around central banks and what the monetary policy outlook is, and, indeed, uncertainty around the fiscal policy outlook."" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2019The United States and China have been embroiled in a trade war for more than a year as the Trump administration tries to use tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to force Beijing to change decades of trade and industrial policy.US President Donald Trump said in October that the two countries had reached a "substantial phase-one deal" to ease tensions, but an agreement has yet to be signed. Trump told reporters last week he had not agreed to roll back tariffs on Chinese products despite media reports that Beijing was pressing for tariffs to be rescinded to reach a deal. Trade war forces Asia's companies to look homeward for growthThe trade tensions have forced some companies to relocate parts of their supply chains, cut into global trade and weighed on business sentiment, causing firms to delay future investment.In its latest Global Capital Confidence Barometer report, EY said 72 per cent of Asian-Pacific executives surveyed said they believe the global economy continues to grow. Confidence has declined somewhat in the region, but executives still believe the region's economy will remain resilient, the professional services firm said."Challenges arise from tariff and trade concerns and uncertainties over geopolitics and national politics. These risks are putting downside pressures on export-oriented countries," said Alex Zhu, China North transaction advisory services leader at EY. "However, 70 per cent of Chinese respondents do not expect an economic slowdown in the short and medium term. While there has been more speculation about the potential of a global correction, executives do not see this on the immediate horizon and a majority does not expect a severe downturn. Companies should be taking advantage of today's market conditions to reassess their portfolio vulnerabilities and divest assets that are not part of their future growth strategy."The survey interviewed more than 2,900 senior executives globally across 14 sectors in August and September, including 176 executives from China.Of Chinese executives interviewed, 56 per cent said they expect the global merger and acquisitions market to improve in the next 12 months. That compared with 52 per cent of business leaders globally who said they intend to actively pursue deals in the next 12 months, according to EY.Goldman expects growth to moderate in China over the medium term, but supportive monetary policy in the mainland will extend the cycle into 2020, with an economic growth rate slightly below 6 per cent next year. Goldman remains "moderately overweight" on Chinese equities, Ashley said. M&A; will pick up as companies rush to repair broken supply chains"What is important is to recognise the Chinese authorities, whether it's the [People's Bank of China] or whether it's the government through local government financing initiatives, is making sure that transition to a lower growth rate is done in an orderly way," Ashley said.Trade tensions with the US have been the "most troublesome and challenging aspects" for investors in the past year, but have created opportunities for investment, Ashley said."We know about what's on the table at the moment. You know about trade wars, we know about Brexit, we know about Middle East tensions and the list goes on and on, but what the next shock might be is obviously inherently a surprise and thinking about what that might mean, not just in terms of the primary impact on the markets, but the secondary impacts and thinking about how you should adjust portfolios to that. That's one of the more challenging aspects of what we have to deal with.""Yes, it is creating challenges, but also creating opportunities," he said. "Where we do see those big dislocations, where a shock of whatever form we might take " whether it is geopolitical or something else " where that shock comes along the market often reacts in a very aggressive way, one way or another, to start with and our job is then to say, well is that justified?"This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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