| PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Dec 3 Posted: 02 Dec 2019 04:56 PM PST ![PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Dec 3]( "PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Dec 3") The EU's financial services chief Valdis Dombrovskis says UK could be cut out if it diverges from Brussels standards post-Brexit, in a sign of the pressure Britain will face to stay closely aligned with European rules after it leaves the bloc. Amancio Ortega, the founder of retailer Inditex, is close to acquiring McKinsey's London headquarters for 600 million pounds, in the billionaire's latest bet on the top end of the UK property market.
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| China Spares Trade in First Retaliation to U.S.’s Hong Kong Law Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:32 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- China avoided measures related to trade in its first actions retaliating against the U.S. over a law supporting Hong Kong's protesters, instead vowing to sanction some rights organizations and halt warship visits to the city.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing Monday that U.S. groups targeted for sanctions included the National Endowment for Democracy, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House. Hua said that China would also suspend further Hong Kong port visits by U.S. Navy ships over the legislation, which Trump signed into law Wednesday.Hua didn't provide details on how China would sanction the rights groups, which are already restricted from operating on the mainland. Similarly, China had already refused visits by a pair of American warships in August."This seems to be an empty threat because these groups don't operate inside mainland China," said Patrick Poon, a Hong Kong-based China researcher at London-based Amnesty International, which wasn't named. "But if there are more tangible threats on staffers and representatives for these organizations operating in Hong Kong, it would be a serious clampdown on freedom of expression."China's yuan weakened to 7.0449 per dollar, the lowest level in more than a week, following the foreign ministry's statement. The currency pared that decline to 7.0412 as of 5:20 p.m. in Shanghai.While China has promised retaliation since it became clear that U.S. lawmakers intended to pass the legislation, President Xi Jinping has limited options for hitting back exacerbating his own economic slowdown at home. China summoned the U.S. ambassador, Terry Branstad, over the law, prompting speculation that its passage could weigh on trade negotiations between the world's two largest economies.Hong Kong has become a persistent source of friction between Beijing and Washington since historic protests broke out almost six months ago, leading to often violent clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators. The legislation requires annual reviews of the former British colony's special trade status under American law, as well as sanctions against any officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses or undermining the city's autonomy."China urges the U.S. side to correct its mistakes and stop any words and deeds that interfere in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal politics," Hua told reporters Monday in Beijing. "China will take further necessary actions in light of the development of the situation to firmly safeguard Hong Kong's stability and prosperity, as well as China's sovereignty, security and development interests."The International Republican Institute, one of the groups mentioned by Hua, said China was trying to "scapegoat others for its own failures of governance." The National Endowment for Democracy didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, while Human Rights Watch declined to comment.'Very Tough'"The people of Hong Kong may welcome our solidarity, but they do not need our leadership," Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, said in a statement, citing a landslide win for pro-democracy candidates in last month's local elections. "The Chinese Communist Party's most recent actions will only strengthen our resolve as we continue to oppose its well-documented efforts to undermine fundamental human rights."While signing the bills, Trump signaled that he didn't want the broader relationship with China to veer off track. He expressed concerns with unspecified portions of the new law, saying they risked interfering with his constitutional authority to carry out American foreign policy.Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of state-run Global Times, said last week that China was considering putting the law's drafters a no-entry list. Hua made no mention of any such action.Still, Zhu Feng, the dean of the Institute of International Relations at Nanjing University, called the countermeasures "very tough and unprecedented," especially the decision to halt port visits. "For the first time in the four decades since China and U.S. established diplomatic ties, China has suspended the review of these requests," Zhu said.(Updates with statements from human rights groups)\--With assistance from Tian Chen and Li Liu.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net;Shelly Banjo in Hong Kong at sbanjo@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Daniel Ten KateFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why Is Europe Bailing Out Iran’s Regime Now? Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:30 PM PST ![Why Is Europe Bailing Out Iran's Regime Now?]( "Why Is Europe Bailing Out Iran's Regime Now?") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Iranians have been protesting their regime since last month. Only in the last few days, however, has the world begun to learn the full scope of the repression they face.There are the videos posted to social media and aggregated by news sites that show security forces firing on demonstrators. There are statements from leading Iranian opposition figures such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 uprising who has been under house arrest since 2011. There are headlines reading, "With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Is Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years." There is the report from Amnesty International saying that at least 208 people have been killed.So it's puzzling that America's European allies chose last weekend to announce that six more countries are joining a bartering system, known as Instex, designed to evade the U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden announced Saturday they were joining France, Germany and the U.K.."Do they think we don't see what is happening in Iran?" asked Alireza Nader, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who is closely tracking the unrest. "To push Instex at this moment reveals a remarkable lack of attention to human rights. I hope they come to their senses."The dissonance of the moment for Europe was captured Monday in a tweet by the U.K.'s ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire. "Surprised by the tone of some reactions to this statement," he wrote. "We continue to express concern about the human rights situation in Iran. But Instex shows we will work to support trade — which benefits all Iranians — as long as the JCPOA continues."Those last two sentences (the JCPOA is the Iran nuclear agreement, which Europe still honors but which the U.S. does not) amount to the kind of feel-good cliche many Westerners have been using for decades to justify trade not just with Iran but with other repressive regimes. It doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Consider Iran's banking crisis. Corruption and cronyism were causing bank failures as early as 2017 — before President Donald Trump's administration re-imposed the crippling sanctions on Iran's economy. Investment in Iran too often goes to the regime's elites, not those who suffer from its mismanaged and now sanctioned economy.But corruption is only part of the story. Iran also diverts its wealth to its foreign interventions. The U.S. State Department estimated in 2018 that Iran has spent $18 billion since 2012 in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, including paying the salaries of thousands of non-Iranian militia fighters. Iranians know this, too. A popular slogan among protesters is: "No Gaza, No Lebanon, Our Lives Are for Iran."It's too soon to say whether the latest protests in Iran are the beginning of the end of the Islamic Republic. What's clear, however, is that the current government is facing a crisis of legitimacy. Ten years ago, when hundreds of thousands of supporters of Mousavi took to the streets, it was largely the urban, educated classes expressing their fury about a stolen election. Today, the unrest in Iran has spread to the working poor. Even Kurdish parties — which have traditionally pursued their own agenda — are now working with organizers of the national movement.Mousavi himself captured this crisis in legitimacy with his statement last weekend, comparing the widespread shootings of demonstrators to the 1978 killings that preceded Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. "The murderers of '78 were representatives of a non-religious government and the shooters of 2019 are representatives of a religious regime," Mousavi said. "There the chief commander was the shah and here today is the supreme leader with absolute powers."Perhaps Europeans believe the supreme leader has more staying power than the shah did. But if history is any guide, Iranians will not soon forget the violence and torment their regime has inflicted on them. Nor will they forget those foreign powers that offered that regime an economic lifeline.To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump in London for NATO summit amid election race Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:36 PM PST  Fellow NATO leaders will be relieved that Trump, who derailed last year's summit agenda with his demands, appears to be satisfied with how the allies have stepped up their military investment. The pro-Brexit premier is the favourite in the opinion polls to win a majority in next week's vote, but opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked him for his closeness to Trump.
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| 'The United States is still in': Nancy Pelosi defies Trump over Paris climate change agreement in Spain Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:06 PM PST  House speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged the United States is still dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even though Donald Trump has begun the process of pulling America out of the Paris Climate Accord.The House Speaker made the claim during an appearance at the two-week long United Nations climate summit, which is being held in Spain this year.
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| Islamic State Is Losing Afghan Territory. That Means Little for Its Victims. Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:50 AM PST  KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Islamic State group's main stronghold in eastern Afghanistan collapsed in recent weeks, according to American and Afghan officials, following years of concerted military offensives from U.S. and Afghan forces and, more recently, the Taliban.President Ashraf Ghani recently claimed that the Islamic State, often known as ISIS, had been "obliterated" in Nangarhar Province, the group's haven in the east. And in an interview in Kabul on Sunday, Gen. Austin S. Miller, the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the group's loss of the terrain it stubbornly held for few years would severely restrict their recruitment and planning.But Miller also warned that the Islamic State could remain a threat in Afghanistan even if it does not hold territory, with attention required to track militants on the move and the group's remaining urban cells."It was instructive in Iraq and Syria -- when you take away big terrain from them, they move into smaller cells and they pop up in strange places," Miller said.Miller's reluctance to affirm any type of major victory over the offshoot is indicative of the broader inroads Islamic State cells have made in Afghanistan -- and of a long history of militant groups in Afghanistan bouncing back after seemingly unsustainable losses.Western and Afghan officials see a combination of factors that led to the Islamic State's losses in the east, forcing many of the fighters to either move or surrender. One Western official estimated that the group's strength was now reduced to around 300 fighters in Afghanistan, from an estimated 3,000 earlier this year.The Islamic State's presence in Afghanistan has been cited by military officials and lawmakers as one of the reasons to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan following any peace settlement with the Taliban. Those officials have long argued that the Taliban would not be able to defeat the group, and that the insurgents still had not done much to distance themselves from al-Qaida, the group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.What particularly worried officials was the Islamic State's continued ability to plan attacks and recruit within Kabul, the Afghan capital city, despite intensified campaigns against the group there. Some of the recruits involved in the planning or execution of deadly bombings there came from the city's top schools, officials say.But for Karimullah, a resident of Jawdara, a small village in eastern Afghanistan where a suicide bombing attributed to the Islamic State killed more than 70 people in October, battlefield victories, political posturing or even the recent death of the Islamic State's supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, means little."If he's dead or not, what does it matter?" said Karimullah, who uses just one name and lost his uncle in the blast. "We were destroyed."His ambivalence is not uncommon here. To many Afghans, the group's name or differences from the Taliban are barely noteworthy. But there is no doubt that extreme violence by the Islamic State has become an enduring facet of the war, deepening the already egregious suffering across the country.The Islamic State has managed to penetrate parts of Afghan society that had been mostly untouched by the broader war for years. And the group's resilience, even in light of its recent defeats, raises the grim prospect of an unending war even if the Taliban negotiate a peace.Far from the central ISIS branch in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State in Afghanistan started as a collection of disenfranchised Pakistani Taliban fighters who pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi in early 2015. It has since slowly turned into a formidable threat in Afghanistan's mountainous east, with a reach that extends across the country, including in Kabul, the capital.Though the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria sent money to its Afghan affiliate to support its initial growth, the connection between the two groups is minimal, said Arian Sharifi, who was the director of threat assessment of the Afghan National Security Council until late last year.One of the group's goals, officials say, is to hold territory in Afghanistan and elsewhere in south and Central Asia, trying to establish a caliphate much like the group's earlier iteration in the Middle East.Sharifi thinks that the Islamic State in Afghanistan will try to become the group's global hub in the coming years, after losing territory in Iraq and Syria following concerted Western-backed offensives and airstrikes.The Afghan government noted that more foreign fighters were slowly arriving in Afghanistan to fight for the group there as the central branch lost territory in Iraq and Syria, an assessment supported by U.S. intelligence officials.But, Sharifi cautioned, "The Islamic State in Afghanistan is much less ideological than its Middle Eastern counterparts," he said in a recent interview. "It is very much influenced by regional politics as well."U.S. officials have been divided over how much global threat the Islamic State in Afghanistan poses. While military officials emphasize the group's ambitions, some intelligence officials believe the group remains more of a threat within the immediate region.One thing the Afghan branch shares with the central body is a hatred of Shiite Muslims, and a tendency to single them out for attacks. Still, the militants are not exclusive with their violence, as was the case in Jawdara, a mostly Sunni village.There, Karimullah and some other residents think it was more personal: The village had stood up to the Islamic State in a dispute over the town's water supply, and they believe the mosque bombing was meant to break their spirit.In its early days, the Islamic State in Afghanistan distinguished itself from other terrorist organizations operating in Afghanistan, including al-Qaida, by taking another cue from counterparts in Iraq and Syria: Its media arm distributed gruesome videos of beheadings and fighters forcing victims to sit on explosives before detonating them.But when the Islamic State detonated a suicide bomb in a wedding hall in Kabul over the summer, killing 63 people, there was little mention of ideology or local aims."I think ISIS is just a name in Afghanistan," said Hajji Hussain, the owner of the wedding hall. "We don't know who they are, and we can't trust anyone."He added, "They just enjoy killing people."And that is what makes the Islamic State stand out in Afghanistan's unending war. The Taliban often try to justify or disown attacks that killed civilians, Sharifi said.The Islamic State, he added, does not bother.While the number of Islamic State attacks declined in recent months, according to United Nations data, American officials attributed more than 20 high-profile attacks in Kabul alone last year.For years, U.S. and Afghan Special Operations forces, on the back of a relentless airstrike campaign, had kept the pressure to try to contain the group. The Taliban, also, increased their operations against the group in Nangarhar, according to Western and Afghan officials. Some reports claimed that the insurgents had sent some of their elite units to the province to strike at the Islamic State.The timing of the Taliban intensifying its offensives against the Islamic State was particularly interesting, as the insurgents tried to persuade the Americans in peace negotiations that they would act against international terrorist groups.But following any peace agreement, the number of hard-line insurgents defecting to the Islamic State to keep fighting has been a concern among Afghan and western officials.But still, with the group constricting, its damage to Afghanistan, by way of cruel bombings in the capital and rampant death among innocents, has reshaped Afghans' understanding of violence, a trauma that will linger for years to come.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Amnesty says at least 208 killed in Iran protests, crackdown Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:45 AM PST  At least 208 people in Iran have been killed amid protests over sharply rising gasoline prices and a subsequent crackdown by security forces, Amnesty International said Monday, as one government official acknowledged telling police to shoot demonstrators. Iran has yet to release any nationwide statistics over the unrest that gripped the Islamic Republic beginning Nov. 15 with minimum prices for government-subsidized gasoline rising by 50%.
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| ICC prosecutor again refuses 2010 Gaza flotilla raid probe Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:45 AM PST ![ICC prosecutor again refuses 2010 Gaza flotilla raid probe]( "ICC prosecutor again refuses 2010 Gaza flotilla raid probe") The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Monday again refused to open an investigation into the 2010 storming by Israeli forces of an aid flotilla heading to the Gaza strip. Appeals judges in September ordered Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to reconsider her earlier refusals to open a formal investigation into the May 31, 2010, storming of the Mavi Marmara. Bensouda has acknowledged that war crimes may have been committed in the raid but decided that the case wasn't serious enough to merit an ICC probe.
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| After Libya arms embargo breaches, U.N. Security Council warns countries to stop Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:39 AM PST ![After Libya arms embargo breaches, U.N. Security Council warns countries to stop]( "After Libya arms embargo breaches, U.N. Security Council warns countries to stop") The United Nations Security Council called on all countries on Monday to implement an arms embargo on Libya and to stay out of the conflict after U.N. sanctions monitors accused Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey of repeated violations. The council "called for full compliance with the arms embargo," but any action over reported sanctions violations is unlikely, diplomats said. Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is "highly probable" that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center, U.N. experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions on Libya reported last month.
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| Trump re-election could sound death knell for Nato, allies fear Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:34 AM PST  The US president's ambivalence or even hostility towards the alliance will hover over the 70th anniversary meeting in the UKDonald Trump has repeatedly complained about Nato's demands on the US. His former national security adviser John Bolton recently warned he could 'go full isolationist' in a second term. Photograph: Olivier Matthys/APDonald Trump arrives in the UK on Monday to meet Nato allies who are fearful that he could pose a serious threat to the survival of the alliance if he wins re-election next year.Days before Wednesday's leaders' meeting just outside London to mark Nato's 70th anniversary, the US announced it was cutting its contribution to joint Nato projects.Nato officials say the cut (which reduces the US contribution to equivalence with Germany's) was mutually agreed, but it comes against a backdrop of Trump's longstanding ambivalence about the value of the alliance, and suggestions that US security guarantees to allied nations were dependent on their military spending.John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser until September, heightened fears among allies about the president's intentions in a private speech to a hedge fund last month, in which Bolton (according to a NBC report) warned that Trump could "go full isolationist" if he wins re-election next November, withdrawing from Nato and other international alliances.Trump has continually complained about the defence spending of European allies who committed less than the agreed 2% to defence, particularly Germany. And he has cast doubt on US commitment to its obligations under article 5 of Nato's founding document, the Washington Treaty, under which an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all allies.Before leaving Washington on Monday, Trump repeated his complaint about "other countries that we protect, that weren't paying"."They were delinquent. So we'll be talking about that," he told reporters, though he noted that allies were now spending $130bn more than before he took office, a development he took credit for.Tweeting from Air Force One on the way to the UK, Trump declared: "In the 3 decades before my election, NATO spending declined by two-thirds, and only 3 other NATO members were meeting their financial obligations. Since I took office, the number of NATO allies fulfilling their obligations more than DOUBLED, and NATO spending increased by $130B!"In fact the number of allies meeting the 2% commitment has tripled to nine since 2016, though some of that increase was already planned and Russian aggression in Ukraine is also an important factor.A European diplomat in Washington pointed out that under the Trump administration, the US military presence on the alliance's eastern flank has been stepped up, but expressed concern that such reinforcements were driven by other administration officials seeking to compensate for Trump's personal affinity for Vladimir Putin and his denigration of his European allies."The greatest fear is what he would do in a second term. He would be more free from constraints," the diplomat said, adding that he was under pressure from his capital to assess what a second Trump term would look like. "It is impossible to predict," he said.Trump last year publicly called into question whether the US would intervene in defence of the newest member, Montenegro, under article 5. In an July 2018 interview, Trump described Montenegrins as "very aggressive people" and expressed concern they would somehow drag the US into a conflict "and congratulations, you're in World War III".The New York Times has reported that Trump has said privately several times that he would like to withdraw from Nato.A Montenegrin guard of honor stands next to a Nato flag during a 2017 ceremony to mark the accession to Nato of Montenegro in Podgorica. Photograph: Stevo Vasiljevic/Reuters"I think what Bolton says resonates with people because it is something that has worried people since Trump took office and there is concern that he would feel less constrained in a second term, and could actually do something," said Amanda Sloat, a former senior state department official now at the Brookings Institution."Given that you have someone who was working very closely with the president over the last year expressing that concern himself, I think it is bringing back to the fore the possibility that this is something that could happen in a Trump second term."Susan Rice, national security adviser in the Obama administration, said that congressional Republicans would step in to prevent Trump pulling the US out of Nato, but she expressed concern about the long-term draining effect of Trump's ambivalence on Nato cohesion."I still do think that Congress would throw its body in the way of a move to withdraw from Nato," Rice told the Guardian. "But, you know, Congress has surprised me in the recent past, by its inability or unwillingness to challenge Trump. What I think is more likely is this continued erosion of confidence in our leadership within Nato, and more efforts that call into question our commitment, and more signals to the authoritarians within Nato and Russia itself that this whole institution is vulnerable."It's hard to envision the United States withdrawing from Nato, but I could see it suffering a death by a thousand cuts," Rice said.Nato's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has credited the $130bn in increased defence spending by Nato allies to Trump. In a further effort to appease the US president, Stoltenberg has also brokered a deal by which the US contribution the Nato common funding for shared projects, was reduced from 22% of the roughly $2.5bn total to just over 16%, in line with the share paid by Germany, which has a significantly smaller economy.Other countries are supposed to make up for the consequent shortfall, but France is reportedly refusing to contribute more on grounds that the redistribution represents pandering to Trump."It's actually a very small budget within the Nato context," said Rachel Ellehuus, deputy director of the Europe programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies."So it's largely symbolic that the US is cutting its contribution. But the US administration was very clear that we wanted to have our share of common funding more in line with what Germany was paying."
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| Trump administration quietly releases Lebanon military aid Posted: 02 Dec 2019 11:18 AM PST  The Trump administration has quietly released more than $100 million in military assistance to Lebanon after months of unexplained delay that led some lawmakers to compare it to the aid for Ukraine at the center of the impeachment inquiry. The $105 million in Foreign Military Financing funds for the Lebanese Armed Forces was released just before the Thanksgiving holiday and lawmakers were notified of the step on Monday, according to two congressional staffers and an administration official. The money had languished in limbo at the Office of Management and Budget since September although it had already won congressional approval and had overwhelming support from the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council.
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| Ukrainian President Criticizes Trump, U.S. Officials For Spreading Misinformation Posted: 02 Dec 2019 10:58 AM PST  In a sprawling interview with Time and European media, President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed Trump, impeachment, Vladimir Putin and more.
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| Russia's Putin signs law to label people foreign agents Posted: 02 Dec 2019 10:44 AM PST ![Russia's Putin signs law to label people foreign agents]( "Russia's Putin signs law to label people foreign agents") Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation allowing individuals to be labelled foreign agents, drawing criticism from rights groups that say the move will further restrict media freedoms in the country. An initial foreign agent law wa sadopted by Russia in 2012, giving authorities the power to label non-governmental organisations and human rights groups as foreign agents - a term that carries a negative Soviet-era connotations. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, had called for the initiative to be dropped as it was being approved by lawmakers.
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| University of Illinois joins campaign against climate change Posted: 02 Dec 2019 10:33 AM PST ![University of Illinois joins campaign against climate change]( "University of Illinois joins campaign against climate change") The University of Illinois has joined more than 200 higher-education institutions worldwide in a letter declaring a climate emergency ahead of a major United Nations global warming conference in Madrid. The SDG Accord is an effort by colleges and universities to support global sustainable development goals and urge action to prevent climate change. It calls on governments and higher-education institutions to back up the declaration with actions that will help create a better future for both people and the planet.
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| UN Security Council to head to Washington, and Kentucky Posted: 02 Dec 2019 10:10 AM PST  The United Nations Security Council is set to meet President Donald Trump over lunch Thursday, then travel later this month to part of the U.S. that's off the beaten path for world diplomats: Kentucky. It's the home state of Ambassador Kelly Craft, who announced the plans in brief remarks to reporters Monday as the U.S. began a stint in the council's rotating presidency.
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| How Women Can Win in the Age of AI Posted: 02 Dec 2019 09:59 AM PST  Preparing women to succeed in the age of AI must be a global priority as we work toward one key United Nations Sustainable Development Goal: to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls.The post How Women Can Win in the Age of AI appeared first on Worth.
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| Congressional Leaders At UN Climate Summit: ‘We're Still In’ Posted: 02 Dec 2019 09:43 AM PST  House and Senate Democrats assured world leaders discussing the Paris climate agreement at a United Nations conference in Madrid that the U.S. "will be back."
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| EU Seen Using Carbon Markets to Tighten Climate Ambition Posted: 02 Dec 2019 09:35 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The European Union will only use carbon markets under the Paris climate deal to achieve even tighter emission-reduction targets, according to Germany's climate minister.The EU "would use these market mechanisms exclusively to increase our ambition" by tightening emission-reduction targets, Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said in an official document seen by Bloomberg News.Almost 200 nations are meeting for two weeks for United Nations climate talks starting Monday. The conference in Madrid is aiming to draw up rules for carbon market mechanisms under Paris, Schulze said. That's something envoys have so far failed to do after several years trying.German Ursula von der Leyen, who took office as president of the European Commission on Sunday, has pledged to toughen the bloc's existing 2030 emissions goal, which is for a 40% cut on 1990 levels, to 50% or even 55%. Such a move is designed to spur other countries to agree on more ambitious goals.Carbon trading can encourage ambition because emerging nations selling carbon credits to rich nations may be willing to implement pollution-cutting policies if they bring in revenue from the sale of carbon credits.The UN talks are seeking to improve or replace the Clean Development Mechanism of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, where prices have plunged as demand dried up.A prerequisite for the tighter EU target is that the international markets "reliably exclude" the ability of both buying and selling nations in carbon markets from claiming the emission cuts, Schulze said. Without those rules, the new system would effectively allow "double counting" of emissions-cutting effort, she said.A year ago, a dispute on the issue -- pitting two groups of nations led respectively by Germany and Brazil -- held up work creating the new global markets.Carbon credits from new markets could be used to help meet emission targets under the Paris agreement and they could also be bought by airlines in a new global market for that industry being set up by the UN, Germany said.The Paris climate deal applies after 2020. It allows for a wide diversity of targets that are self determined by nations. In some cases, they are straight economy-wide carbon budgets created by targets, such as in the U.K. Others are carbon-intensity based, such as in China, which limits pollution per unit of economic production."So coming up with a system to rigorously account for transfers among these very diverse target types is technically very complex," said Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of C2ES, an environmental lobby group in Arlington, Virginia.(Updates with Germany official's comments in ninth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net;Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net;Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Andrew ReiersonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Brexit Bulletin: Ten Days Posted: 02 Dec 2019 08:34 AM PST  Days to General Election: 10(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.What's Happening? With the clock ticking to next week's U.K. election, terror and trains are higher up the agenda than Brexit.After a weekend dominated by grief for the victims of Friday's London Bridge terror attack, and arguments over who was to blame, the Brexit debate feels a long way away. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn both attended a vigil in London this morning to commemorate Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25.Yet 10 days from now British voters will have to make a choice that will indelibly shape the U.K.'s divorce from the European Union. A new ICM poll on Monday confirmed that the election campaign has tightened — the survey put Johnson's Conservatives on 42%, with Labour on 35%. That's in the zone pollsters feel could herald another hung Parliament, where no party wins an outright majority. And that could be the difference between Johnson's Brexit deal cruising through the House of Commons or Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn going back to Brussels for a new renegotiation.Even with the Brexit stakes so high, the centrifugal pull of an election campaign means it's nigh-on-impossible to keep the focus on one subject for any length of time. Johnson is happy to talk tough on security, even if the father of one of those killed keeps upbraiding him on social media. And Corbyn is on firmer ground talking up his domestic policy plans, as he did on railways earlier today. Theresa May's 2017 election campaign was also interrupted by terror, in Manchester and London. The former prime minister's bid for an expanded majority was derailed, in part at least, because Labour followed up with sharp criticism of her cuts to police numbers. But Brexit was more of a concept back then than a reality looming just around the corner: the two-year Article 50 process had only just been triggered.This year's election could be the last chance Britons get to vote on Brexit — but it could end up being decided by a wholly different debate. Today's Must-ReadsWant to know where the rival parties stand on the key issues? You can explore the competing plans right here. Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat is unimpressed by Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader "is ashamed of our country, and incapable of distinguishing between our friends and enemies," he writes in the Telegraph. Guardian columnist John Harris tells readers that "some kind of Brexit must happen before progressive politics has a chance again in post-industrial England."Brexit in BriefUnlocking Investment | Leaving the European Union with an "ambitious deal" on trade will help unlock U.K. investment and lead to a gradual improvement in growth, the Confederation of British Industry said Monday.City Warning | The European Union could cut off the City of London's access to post-Brexit markets if the U.K. diverges significantly from European rules after it leaves the bloc, EU financial-services chief Valdis Dombrovskis told the Financial Times.Fortunes in Flux | Bank stocks could plunge as much as 30% if Labour wins control next week, according to HSBC analyst Robin Down. By contrast, Down sees a rally of up to 10% if Boris Johnson wins a majority.Facebook Blitz | The Conservatives launched a blizzard of online advertisements over the weekend, pushing out 451 new ads to U.K. Facebook users on Sunday alone, according to data compiled by First Draft, a journalism non-profit tackling online disinformation. The Tories ran more than 2,600 ads from Nov. 29 to Dec 2.No Trust for 'Santa' | Brexit voters in the Midlands are unimpressed by Jeremy Corbyn's policy on leaving the EU and don't believe the Labour leader can deliver on all the spending promises laid out in his party's manifesto, a focus group run by HuffPost UK and Edelman suggests.Yellows in Peril | Half of U.K. adults now view Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson unfavorably, according to pollster Ipsos MORI. That's up from 41% just a week earlier. Meanwhile, the proportion of respondents saying Labour is having a "good campaign" rose to 28% from 21% two weeks ago. Not Notting Hill | Who needs a popular leader? The Liberal Democrats have been graced by celebrity royalty on the doorsteps of London in recent days. Hugh Grant accompanied candidate Luciana Berger on the trail in Finchley and Golders Green on Sunday and took to the stump with Chuka Umunna in central London on Monday.Want to keep up with Brexit?You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. It's live at midday on Bloomberg Radio and is available as a podcast too. Share the Brexit Bulletin: Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here. For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition.For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.To contact the author of this story: Adam Blenford in London at ablenford@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Guy Collins at guycollins@bloomberg.net, Edward EvansFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Red Cross slams 'unacceptable' politicisation of Venezuela aid Posted: 02 Dec 2019 08:33 AM PST  A top Red Cross official decried Monday a dire lack of international funding for humanitarian aid in Venezuela, warning that assistance was being politicised and desperate civilians were paying the price. Francesco Rocca, President of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said the organisation's emergency appeal in September for some 50 million Swiss francs ($50.1 million, 45.5 million euros) for aid to Venezuela was less than 10-percent funded. United Nations agencies and other humanitarian actors were facing the same lack of funds for Venezuela operations, and as a result, many people in the country were "starving and dying", Rocca said.
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| Pompeo says Iran the common villain in Mideast protests Posted: 02 Dec 2019 08:21 AM PST  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that Iran was the uniting factor behind protests around the Middle East, saying demonstrators in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran itself opposed the clerical regime. While acknowledging diverse local reasons for the unrest that has swept the Middle East as well as other regions, Pompeo pointed the finger at Iran, considered an arch-enemy by President Donald Trump's administration.
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| UK Conservatives ramp up Facebook election ads Posted: 02 Dec 2019 08:06 AM PST ![UK Conservatives ramp up Facebook election ads]( "UK Conservatives ramp up Facebook election ads") Britain's governing Conservative Party has ramped up its campaigning efforts on social media platform Facebook with a surge of ads highlighting policy areas to younger voters. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives have raised record campaign funds before the Dec. 12 election, but until this point have spent comparatively little on Facebook advertising. A Facebook report of advertisements run in the seven days to Nov. 30 showed just 201 Conservative adverts were in the platform's Ad Library, with the party spending thousands of pounds less than the Liberal Democrats, Labour or Brexit Party in that time.
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| U.S. House Speaker Pelosi says at climate summit: "We are still in" Posted: 02 Dec 2019 07:46 AM PST ![U.S. House Speaker Pelosi says at climate summit: "We are still in"]( "U.S. House Speaker Pelosi says at climate summit: \"We are still in\"") U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi took her duel with Donald Trump to a climate summit on Monday, pledging that Congress would urgently tackle global warming despite the president's opposition to an international pact. "By coming here we want to say to everyone we are still in, the United States is still in," Pelosi told reporters on the first day of the two-week United Nations climate talks in Spain. Many governments and environmental groups are aghast at Trump's move last month to begin formal proceedings to yank the United States, one of the world's biggest polluters, from the 2015 Paris Agreement to avert catastrophic temperature rises.
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| Trump Signals Hong Kong Law Complicates China Trade Talks Posted: 02 Dec 2019 07:31 AM PST ![Trump Signals Hong Kong Law Complicates China Trade Talks]( "Trump Signals Hong Kong Law Complicates China Trade Talks") (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump suggested legislation he signed that expresses U.S. support for Hong Kong protesters complicates his efforts to reach a trade deal with China.Asked on Monday if the measure makes it harder to reach a trade pact, Trump told reporters at the White House: "It doesn't make it better, but we'll see what happens.""The Chinese are always negotiating," he said. "I'm very happy where we are."The measure, which Trump signed on Nov. 27, prompted China to suspend further Hong Kong port visits by U.S. Navy ships. While China has promised retaliation since it became clear that U.S. lawmakers intended to pass the legislation, President Xi Jinping has limited options for hitting back exacerbating his own economic slowdown at home.The new law requires annual reviews of Hong Kong's special trade status under American law, as well as sanctions against any officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses or undermining the city's autonomy. A second Hong Kong measure also bans the export of crowd-control items such as tear gas and rubber bullets to the city's police.While signing the bills, Trump signaled that he didn't want the broader relationship with China to veer off track. He expressed concerns with unspecified portions of the new law, saying they risked interfering with his constitutional authority to carry out American foreign policy.Trump said on Nov. 26 the two sides were in the "final throes" of a deal that would start to unwind tariffs on about $500 billion in products traded between them.To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Parker in Washington at mparker22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Joshua GalluFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Dictionary.com picks 'existential' as its word of the year because of Trump, climate change, Forky, and more Posted: 02 Dec 2019 07:29 AM PST ![Dictionary.com picks 'existential' as its word of the year because of Trump, climate change, Forky, and more]( "Dictionary.com picks 'existential' as its word of the year because of Trump, climate change, Forky, and more") Conversations about President Trump, climate change, and even Toy Story 4's Forky all tie in to Dictionary.com's word of the year for 2019: "existential."Dictionary.com announced the selection Monday, with the site saying searches for "existential" spiked throughout the year, such as after former Vice President Joe Biden labeled President Trump an "existential threat to America" or after people like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and activist Greta Thunberg referred to climate change as an "existential crisis" or an "existential emergency."And yes, Forky, the sentient spork from Disney's Toy Story 4 who goes through an existential crisis while questioning his reason for being in the film, was also taken into consideration. Dictionary.com writes that "his dilemma actually speaks to a broader theme of threat and crisis reflected not only in culture and news, but also in our dictionary work throughout this year."Talk about a depressing way to end the decade. Other word-of-the-year selections aren't much cheerier, though. Oxford Dictionaries went with "climate emergency," and its shortlist included words like "eco-anxiety" and "extinction." Last year, Dictionary.com's word of the year was "misinformation," while in in 2017, it was "complicit."Other stories Dictionary.com ties in to its pick include the Hong Kong protests, Brexit, and the mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas. The word existential "captures a sense of grappling with the survival -- literally and figuratively -- of our planet, our loved ones, our ways of life," the site bleakly writes.Happy New Year, everyone!More stories from theweek.com House Republicans have put together a 123-page anti-impeachment report GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter to plead guilty to misusing campaign funds, hints at possible resignation George Conway fires back at Kellyanne Conway's Joe Biden insults
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| UPDATE 1-Germany's Scholz to carry on as finance minister despite SPD defeat Posted: 02 Dec 2019 07:26 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Germany's Scholz to carry on as finance minister despite SPD defeat]( "UPDATE 1-Germany's Scholz to carry on as finance minister despite SPD defeat") Germany's Olaf Scholz will carry on for now as finance minister despite losing a bid to lead his Social Democratic Party because he sees it as his duty not to sink the ruling coalition, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Scholz and his running mate lost a vote for leadership of the SPD on Saturday to two leftist critics of the party's coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, putting Europe's largest economy at a political crossroads.
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| U.K. Conservatives and Labour Fight Over Tackling Terrorism After London Attack Posted: 02 Dec 2019 07:09 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson is seeking to present his Conservatives as the party of security amid a bitter row with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour over the circumstances that led to last week's terrorist attack. U.S. President Donald Trump's arrival for a NATO summit is a potential wild-card in the campaign.Must Read: U.K.'s Johnson Doubles Down on Security Theme After Knife AttackFor more on the election visit ELEC.Key Developments:Johnson, Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan attended vigil for victims of Friday's London Bridge attackHome Secretary Priti Patel says Brexit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen the U.K. borderJohnson holds campaign event in eastern England this eveningCorbyn pledges to cut regulated rail fares by 33% from JanuaryPolls released over the weekend showed the Conservatives' lead narrowing, with one signaling a possible hung parliamentThere is a 69% chance of a Tory majority, according to BetfairTories Lead Labour by 7 Points in ICM Poll (3 p.m.)The Conservatives lead Labour by 7 points, according to the first poll conducted entirely since Friday's terrorist attack by London Bridge.The ICM survey for Reuters put Boris Johnson's ruling Tories on 42%, with Jeremy Corbyn's opposition Labour Party on 35%. Both parties gained a point from last week, with the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 13% and the Brexit Party down a point on 3%.The 7-point Tory lead is the sort of margin that makes party leaders twitchy, because it's in hung parliament territory.Corbyn Pressures Johnson Over NHS (1:30 p.m.)Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to demonstrate the National Health Service will not be part of negotiations with the U.S. over a post-Brexit trade deal.Though Johnson has repeatedly said the NHS won't be on the table in talks, Corbyn demanded concrete actions in a letter to Johnson on Monday. It's a clear attempt to put the spotlight on the Tories with U.S. President Donald Trump due to arrive in the U.K. tonight for a NATO summit.Corbyn's demands include the postponement of talks until U.S. negotiating objectives are amended to exclude any reference to pharmaceuticals. He also said the U.S. must accept U.K. authority to set the threshold for the cost-effectiveness of drugs used by the NHS, and said Johnson's government must rule out giving U.S. companies access to British public services via dispute mechanisms beyond the reach of U.K. courts.Corbyn Says Big Spending Needed After Austerity (11 a.m.)Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party's pledge to massively ramp up government spending is necessary after a decade of austerity has left the U.K. lagging behind European peers in terms of public services."If all of our spending commitments -- the whole of our manifesto -- is carried out to every last letter, we still barely reach the levels of public services of France or Germany," Corbyn said on Monday, according to the Press Association. "That's how far behind we've fallen because of the strategy that's been followed."Corbyn was speaking at an event to cut regulated rail fares by a third as part of broader plans to bring the railways back into public ownership and lower the financial burden on commuters. Train companies plan to raise prices by an average 2.7% next year.Corbyn: Terrorists Should Be Released If Rehabilitated (Earlier)Last Friday's terrorist attack is dominating campaigning ahead of the Dec. 12 election. At an event to launch his Labour Party's pledge to cut regulated rail fares by 33% from January, leader Jeremy Corbyn was again quizzed about prisons and sentencing amid a deepening row with Boris Johnson's Tories."Terrorists should be sentenced, as they are, and they should be released as and when they have completed a significant proportion of their sentence and they've undergone rehabilitation and they are considered safe to the public as a whole," Corbyn said, according to the Press Association.The row comes after Johnson pledged to end a 2008 law brought in under the last Labour government that gives prisoners automatic early release. Corbyn responded by blaming a decade of cuts to the prison service under the Conservatives for weakening its ability to detect risk and rehabilitate inmates.Johnson Using Trump Playbook on Security: Lee (Earlier)Former Conservative justice minister Phillip Lee, who defected to the Liberal Democrats this year in protest at the government's Brexit strategy, accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of channeling the Trumpian playbook in the wake of the London Bridge terrorist attack last week."He's just pressing buttons. We know this is the Trump playbook," Lee said, referring to Johnson's pledge to toughen sentencing. "The practical reality is it's extremely difficult to do that if you haven't got the prison places. And we never really had enough prison places in all the time I was a justice minister."Lee's comments on Sky News illustrate the risk for Johnson as he seeks to blame policies under the last Labour government -- which was voted out in 2010 -- for the circumstances surrounding last week's attack. The premier has been framing his Tories as the party of law and order, but that means having to distance himself from justice system cuts made by his Tory predecessors."We knew there was a problem with the probation service, which had been privatized in 2012 under Chris Grayling," said Lee, who became justice minister in 2016. "It's a cycle -- from police, courts, probation. They've all got to be working well if you want to reduce crime, reduce pressure on prisons, and be able to lock up the people like Usman Khan for much longer, indeed forever," he said, referring to the convicted terrorist who carried out Friday's attack.U.K. to Investigate Terrorists on Early Release (Earlier)Government officials are looking at all 70-odd cases of individuals convicted of terrorism who have been released on license, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told BBC radio on Monday."We are satisfying ourselves about the details and making sure that first of all, any license conditions are being complied with," Buckland said. "If not, then individuals can be and will be recalled to prison, and secondly making sure that any license conditions are as comprehensive as possible."Officials have decided that none will be allowed at events like the one attended by the perpetrator of Friday's attack, he said. They'll also examine early release programs and said it's "right" to look again at the sentencing of terrorists and put public protection at the center of a future regime.Terrorists "can in effect hoodwink trained professionals," Buckland said. He added that politicians need to "pause, and get the tone of this debate right."Earlier:Johnson Bolsters Security Message After London Knife AttackJohnson and Corbyn Play Blame Game After U.K. Terrorist AttackTories Focus on Security Before NATO Summit: U.K. Campaign TrailTo contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| ‘Are you worried you’ve been duped?’: Republican senator confronted for sharing Russian propaganda live on TV Posted: 02 Dec 2019 06:36 AM PST  A Republican senator accused of "peddling Russian propaganda on national television" insisted he was not worried that he'd been duped by Vladimir Putin.Speaking to NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday morning, GOP politician John Kennedy insisted that both Ukraine and Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election, and that Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko had "actively worked" for Hillary Clinton.
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| Oman top diplomat visits Iran after US trip Posted: 02 Dec 2019 06:22 AM PST  Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced support on Monday for reducing tensions in the Gulf as he hosted his counterpart from traditional mediator Oman for talks in Tehran. The visit by Oman's minister of state for foreign affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi, came a week after he held a meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It is the second time since late July that bin Alawi has been sent to Iran by the sultanate, a past mediator between foes in the Middle East.
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| Jailed Kurdish leader in Turkey sent to hospital for tests Posted: 02 Dec 2019 05:58 AM PST ![Jailed Kurdish leader in Turkey sent to hospital for tests]( "Jailed Kurdish leader in Turkey sent to hospital for tests") The jailed ex-leader of a Kurdish party in Turkey has been sent to hospital for examinations, authorities said Monday, shortly after the politician's lawyer said he suffered chest pains and lost consciousness in prison last week. Selahattin Demirtas, 46, has been in prison for more than three years, facing terror charges. Lawyer Aygul Demirtas — who is also the politician's sister — tweeted Monday that Demirtas lost consciousness for some time.
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| China suspends US Navy visits and sanctions American NGOs over bill supporting Hong Kong protests Posted: 02 Dec 2019 05:55 AM PST  China has introduced sanctions against US pro-democracy NGOs and restrictions on US military presence in Hong Kong, after US President Donald Trump signed a bill supporting Hong Kong protesters last week. On Monday, China's Foreign Ministry said that US military vessels and aircraft would not be able to visit Hong Kong. The move followed Beijing's threat that it would take "firm counter measures" if Mr Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which could lead to US sanctions on human rights violators in Hong Kong. US military ships normally visit Hong Kong at least once a year, most recently last April, when the USS Blue Ridge command ship stopped off in the region. Two months later, in June, protests kicked off in the city over a proposed extradition bill between Hong Kong and China, before developing into a huge pro-democracy campaign. Protesters climbing over a highway dividers fleeing from police arrests as their comrades help on the other side during a demonstration Credit: PA Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said: "We urge the US to correct the mistakes and stop interfering in our internal affairs. China will take further steps if necessary to uphold Hong Kong's stability and prosperity and China's sovereignty." Beijing announced that US-based NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican Institute would be sanctioned. China said on December 2, 2019 it had suspended rest and recuperation visits by US warships in Hong Kong in response to a US bill supporting pro-democracy protesters Credit: AFP Ms Hua said the move was to make the organisations "pay the price" for supporting Hong Kong protesters. She said: "There is a lot of evidence proving that these NGOs have supported anti-China forces to create chaos in Hong Kong, and encouraged them to engage in extreme violent criminal acts and 'Hong Kong independence' separatist activities." With China having already restricted the work of foreign NGOs operating within China since Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in 2013, the sanctions are likely to be largely symbolic. Many NGOs, particularly those protecting human rights, have been forced to stop working in China due to pressure from the government. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said: "We have repeatedly called on the Chinese central government, as well as the Hong Kong government, to fulfil the Hong Kong people's rights to vote and to stand for elections. "Rather that target an organisation that seeks to defend the rights of the people of Hong Kong, the Chinese government should respect those rights." On Sunday tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets again in Hong Kong. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as businesses linked to mainland China were attacked by mobs.
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| With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years Posted: 02 Dec 2019 05:26 AM PST  Iran is experiencing its deadliest political unrest since the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, with at least 180 people killed -- and possibly hundreds more -- as angry protests have been smothered in a government crackdown of unbridled force.It began two weeks ago with an abrupt increase of at least 50% in gasoline prices. Within 72 hours, outraged demonstrators in cities large and small were calling for an end to the Islamic Republic's government and the downfall of its leaders.In many places, security forces responded by opening fire on unarmed protesters, largely unemployed or low-income young men between the ages of 19 and 26, according to witness accounts and videos. In the southwest city of Mahshahr alone, witnesses and medical personnel said, Revolutionary Guard members surrounded, shot and killed 40 to 100 demonstrators -- mostly unarmed young men -- in a marsh where they had sought refuge."The recent use of lethal force against people throughout the country is unprecedented, even for the Islamic Republic and its record of violence," said Omid Memarian, deputy director at the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based group.Altogether, between 180 to 450 people -- possibly more -- were killed in four days of intense violence after the gasoline price increase was announced Nov. 15, with at least 2,000 wounded and 7,000 detained, according to international rights organizations, opposition groups and local journalists.The last enormous wave of protests in Iran -- in 2009, after a contested election, which was also met with a deadly crackdown -- left 72 people dead over a much longer period of about 10 months.Only now, nearly two weeks after the protests were crushed -- and largely obscured by an internet blackout in the country that was lifted recently -- have details corroborating the scope of killings and destruction started to dribble out.The latest outbursts not only revealed staggering levels of frustration with Iran's leaders but also underscored the serious economic and political challenges facing them, from the Trump administration's onerous sanctions on the country to the growing resentment toward Iran by neighbors in an increasingly unstable Middle East.The gas price increase, which was announced as most Iranians had gone to bed, came as Iran struggles to fill a yawning budget gap. The Trump administration sanctions, most notably their tight restrictions on exports of Iran's oil, are a big reason for the shortfall. The sanctions are meant to pressure Iran into renegotiating the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major world powers, which President Donald Trump abandoned, calling it too weak.Most of the nationwide unrest seemed concentrated in neighborhoods and cities populated by low-income and working-class families, suggesting this was an uprising born in the historically loyal power base of Iran's post-revolutionary hierarchy.Many Iranians, stupefied and embittered, have directed their hostility directly at the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who called the crackdown a justified response to a plot by Iran's enemies at home and abroad.The killings prompted a provocative warning from Mir Hossein Mousavi, an opposition leader and former presidential candidate whose 2009 election loss set off peaceful demonstrations that Khamenei also suppressed by force.In a statement posted Saturday on an opposition website, Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since 2011 and seldom speaks publicly, blamed the supreme leader for the killings. He compared them to an infamous 1978 massacre by government forces that led to the downfall of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi a year later at the hands of Islamic revolutionaries who now rule the country."The killers of the year 1978 were the representatives of a nonreligious regime, and the agents and shooters of November 2019 are the representatives of a religious government," he said. "Then the commander in chief was the shah and today, here, the supreme leader with absolute authority."Authorities have declined to specify casualties and arrests and have denounced unofficial figures on the national death toll as speculative. But the nation's interior minister, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, has cited widespread unrest around the country.On state media, he said that protests had erupted in 29 out of 31 provinces and 50 military bases had been attacked -- which, if true, suggests a level of coordination absent in the earlier protests. The property damage also included 731 banks, 140 public spaces, nine religious centers, 70 gasoline stations, 307 vehicles, 183 police cars, 1,076 motorcycles and 34 ambulances, the interior minister said. Iran's official media have reported that several members of the security forces were killed and injured during the clashes.The worst violence documented so far happened in the city of Mahshahr and its suburbs, with a population of 120,000 people in Iran's southwest Khuzestan province -- a region with an ethnic Arab majority that has a long history of unrest and opposition to the central government. Mahshahr is adjacent to the nation's largest industrial petrochemical complex and serves as a gateway to Bandar Imam, a major port.The New York Times interviewed six residents of the city, including a protest leader who had witnessed the violence; a reporter based in the city who works for Iranian media and had investigated the violence but was banned from reporting it; and a nurse at the hospital where casualties were treated.They each provided similar accounts of how the Revolutionary Guard deployed a large force to Mahshahr on Monday, Nov. 18, to crush the protests. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Guard.For three days, according to these residents, protesters had successfully gained control of most of Mahshahr and its suburbs, blocking the main road to the city and the adjacent industrial petrochemical complex. Iran's interior minister confirmed that protesters had gained control over Mahshahr and its roads in a televised interview last week, but the Iranian government did not respond to specific questions in recent days about the mass killings in the city.Local security forces and riot police officers had attempted to disperse the crowd and open the roads but failed, residents said. Several clashes between protesters and security forces erupted between Saturday evening and Monday morning before Guard members were dispatched there.When the Guard arrived near the entrance to a suburb, Shahrak Chamran, populated by low-income members of Iran's ethnic Arab minority, they immediately shot without warning at dozens of men blocking the intersection, killing several on the spot, according to the residents interviewed by phone.The residents said the other protesters scrambled to a nearby marsh and that one of them, apparently armed with an AK-47, fired back. The Guard immediately encircled the men and responded with machine-gun fire, killing as many as 100 people, the residents said.The Guard piled the dead onto the back of a truck and departed, the residents said, and relatives of the wounded then transported them to Memko Hospital.One of the residents, a 24-year-old unemployed college graduate in chemistry who had helped organize the protests blocking the roads, said he had been less than 1 mile away from the mass shooting and that his best friend, also 24, and a 32-year-old cousin were among the dead.He said they both had been shot in the chest and their bodies were returned to the families five days later, only after they had signed paperwork promising not to hold funerals or memorial services and not to give interviews to media.The young protest organizer said he, too, was shot in the ribs Nov. 19, the day after the mass shooting, when the Guard stormed with tanks into his neighborhood, Shahrak Taleghani, among the poorest suburbs of Mahshahr.He said a gunbattle erupted for hours between the Guard and ethnic Arab residents, who traditionally keep guns for hunting at home. Iranian state media and witnesses reported that a senior Guard commander had been killed in a Mahshahr clash. Video on Twitter suggests tanks had been deployed there.A 32-year-old nurse in Mahshahr reached by phone said she had tended to the wounded at the hospital and that most had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and chest.She described chaotic scenes at the hospital, with families rushing to bring in the casualties, including a 21-year-old who was to be married but could not be saved. "'Give me back my son!'" the nurse quoted his sobbing mother as saying. "'It's his wedding in two weeks!'"The nurse said security forces stationed at the hospital arrested some of the wounded protesters after their conditions had stabilized. She said some relatives, fearing arrest themselves, dropped wounded loved ones at the hospital and fled, covering their faces.On Nov. 25, a week after it happened, the city's representative in parliament, Mohamad Golmordai, vented outrage in a blunt moment of searing anti-government criticism that was broadcast on Iranian state television and captured in photos and videos uploaded to the internet."What have you done that the undignified Shah did not do?" Golmordai screamed from the parliament floor as a scuffle broke out between him and other lawmakers, including one who grabbed him by the throat.The local reporter in Mahshahr said the total number of people killed in three days of unrest in the area had reached 130, including those killed in the marsh.In other cities such as Shiraz and Shahriar, dozens were reported killed in the unrest by security forces who fired on unarmed protesters, according to rights groups and videos posted by witnesses."This regime has pushed people toward violence," said Yousef Alsarkhi, 29, a political activist from Khuzestan who migrated to the Netherlands four years ago. "The more they repress, the more aggressive and angry people get."Political analysts said the protests appeared to have delivered a severe blow to President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate in Iran's political spectrum, all but guaranteeing that hard-liners would win upcoming parliamentary elections and the presidency in two years.The tough response to the protests also appeared to signal a hardening rift between Iran's leaders and sizable segments of the population of 83 million."The government's response was uncompromising, brutal and rapid," said Henry Rome, an Iran analyst at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy in Washington. Still, he said, the protests also had "demonstrated that many Iranians are not afraid to take to the streets."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| What the Key Actors Want in Germany’s Latest Political Drama Posted: 02 Dec 2019 05:24 AM PST ![What the Key Actors Want in Germany's Latest Political Drama]( "What the Key Actors Want in Germany's Latest Political Drama") (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition suffered a potentially fatal blow with the election of government skeptics Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken as co-leaders of Germany's Social Democrats at the weekend.How much longer her fourth government will survive -- and whether she can make it through to the end of her term in late 2021 -- depends on who comes out on top.Merkel's CDU, its Bavarian CSU sister-party and the SPD hammered out a blueprint for government last year, which Walter-Borjans and Esken have said they now want to revise. Something has to give, or Merkel's 14-year reign could end ahead of time and Europe's biggest economy will suffer a fresh bout of political turbulence.Here's a look at the main players and their motives:Angela MerkelThe collapse of the coalition would end Merkel's political career. That's the key reason why she wants the government to remain in place, with her vice chancellor, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, keeping his job despite losing out in the SPD leadership vote. Merkel last week urged SPD lawmakers in the Bundestag not to jump ship. "We've done a great deal, we've started a lot, but much still remains to be done," she said. "Therefore I think we should continue working long in this legislative period. That's my opinion. I'm in." On Monday, she avoided a public statement on the outcome of the SPD vote. However, her chief spokesman, Steffen Seibert, indicated that she is open to talks on possible new initiatives but rules out a renegotiation of the coalition agreement.Annegret Kramp-KarrenbauerA year ago, CDU leader -- and Merkel's chosen successor -- Kramp-Karrenbauer would have favored a breakup of the coalition because it would likely have propelled her into the chancellery. In the meantime, she has suffered a series of setbacks and the party has been hammered in regional elections. That means that she also wants the coalition to survive -- at least for the time being. But as soon as her situation stabilizes, AKK, as she is typically known, may be tempted to challenge Merkel and force the CDU to confirm her as its chancellor candidate. She has taken a much firmer line with the SPD than Merkel, categorically rejecting their demand for a reworking of the coalition deal. AKK's uncompromising position could give some members of the SPD a welcome excuse to walk away.Saskia EskenEsken represents the far left of the SPD and is the most vocal critic of Merkel's government. She blames the coalition for her party's recent decline and wants to stop it before it becomes terminal. Esken entered politics relatively late in life after jobs as a parcel courier, typist, chauffeur and waitress. A qualified computer scientist, she is an idealist rather than a pragmatist and had never held a leading post in the party before. She wants wide-ranging concessions in areas including public investment, a minimum wage and measures to tackle climate change and is prepared to leave the government if Merkel's bloc is unwilling to compromise.Norbert Walter-BorjansThe former finance minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, who made a name for himself chasing down tax dodgers, is a left-leaning pragmatist. He blames the previous SPD leadership for failing to give the coalition a clear Social Democratic identity, accusing them of making too many concessions. He is said to favor remaining in government but wants to make full use of the threat of bringing it down to secure a better deal that could lift the SPD from historic lows in the polls.Olaf ScholzDespite the painful setback of his rejection by the SPD rank and file, Scholz will -- at least for now -- remain a force in the government and the party. He will work to ensure the coalition lasts until the end of the legislature in 2021. But his influence has been greatly diminished and his failure to get the backing of his party has damaged his hopes of running for chancellor.To contact the reporters on this story: Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net;Birgit Jennen in Berlin at bjennen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers, Raymond ColittFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Libya health ministry: Airstrike in Tripoli kills 4 children Posted: 02 Dec 2019 05:06 AM PST  An airstrike that hit a civilian area in a southern neighborhood of the Libyan capital killed at least four children, the country's health ministry said Monday. Tripoli has been the scene of fighting since April between the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, and an array of militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported but weak government, which holds Tripoli. It wasn't immediately who was behind the Sunday airstrike on the al-Sawani neighborhood, about 30 kilometers, or 18 miles, from the city center but the Libyan interior ministry blamed the Libyan National Army.
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| Case against Netanyahu includes billionaire witnesses Posted: 02 Dec 2019 04:57 AM PST  Israel's attorney general on Monday officially submitted his indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges, laying out a sweeping case in which over 300 people, including a number of well-known billionaires, could be called to testify. The ruling raised the likelihood the country will be heading to elections for the third time in under a year. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced on Nov. 21 that he was charging Netanyahu with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.
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| Germany’s Political Crisis Will Unfold in Slow Motion Posted: 02 Dec 2019 04:25 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A German political crisis isn't a raging, unstoppable, unpredictable forest fire: It starts with seemingly irreconcilable positions but then evolves into a tedious, detail-focused negotiation and, more often than not, a compromise. That's the direction things appear to be taking after the election of two determined leftists as co-leaders of the Social Democratic party (SPD), the junior member of Germany's ruling coalition.When Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans campaigned for the party leadership against Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz, they spoke scathingly about the coalition. Esken declared it had "no future." The more cautious Walter-Borjans said he was "firmly convinced" it couldn't meet the SPD's demands. That probably helped them win the leadership election, in which only 54% of the party membership took part.But their victory on Saturday, with just over half of the vote, doesn't give them a mandate to pull the ailing party out of government. Such a momentous decision would have to be taken by the party conference set for this weekend. While surprises are possible, it's more likely that the SPD will vote instead to amend the 2018 coalition agreement.On Sunday, the new leaders spoke on German TV about the revisions they'd like to see. Walter-Borjans focused on the government's climate package, now making its way through the parliament; he'd like a much higher carbon price than the currently envisaged 10 euros ($11) per ton of CO2 and, accordingly, higher spending to offset that price for low-income households.Esken called for more infrastructure spending to make up for years of underinvestment at a communal level. Plugging that hole, estimated at more than 138 billion euros ($152 billion), would require deviating from the balanced budget policy of the senior coalition partner, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) — the famous "black zero."The new leadership duo, then, isn't going to call for their party's unconditional withdrawal from the coalition. What Walter-Borjans and Esken really want is to try to extract concessions from the CDU, using a two-year revision clause in the current coalition agreement to the maximum. Whether they have the leverage to get much is doubtful. Both uncharismatic functionaries, they don't have enough influence on their own party, especially its elite cadre made up of the heads of state governments and the parliamentary faction. The latter isn't ready for a snap election that the SPD is highly likely to lose miserably. A split in the party as its senior politicians abandon a sinking ship is a fearful prospect for the new leaders, forcing them to go softer on Merkel than they perhaps would like. The CDU, for its part, theoretically could try running a minority government (though that's never been Merkel's preference). Besides, it stands to come first in any early election, and perhaps to form a new ruling coalition with the Greens, completing the SPD's descent into irrelevance.So, as the new SPD leaders try to stake out a tough negotiating position, CDU politicians, starting with the party leader, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, are doing the same, insisting that the revision clause doesn't imply a renegotiation of the coalition treaty. This doesn't mean the CDU won't talk. It will aim to placate, if not the fiery Esken, then the SPD elite and broader membership, which gave a stronger vote of approval to the coalition deal last year (66% support on a 78% turnout) than to the new leadership duo at the weekend. The behind-the-scenes bargaining has already begun, and it will affect the outcome of the weekend's SPD conference. Scholz, whom the new leaders formally support as finance minister, has plenty of backers, especially among the party brass, and he's not in favor of abandoning the black zero policy. This group within the SPD will work to prevent the conference from making this demand, a potential coalition-breaker. If the SPD's final proposals stop short of such sweeping ambition, it wouldn't be impossible for the CDU to allow some extra spending: Economic forecasts tracked by Bloomberg predict a German budget surplus of 1% of economic output this year.What's happening to the SPD is a tragedy for the party, whose new leaders hardly have the magnetism needed to draw voters back to a weakened, directionless political force. But it's not a tragedy for the last Merkel government — at least not yet."We have started quite a lot of things, but there's still much to do," the chancellor remarked in a speech to parliament last week. "That's why I believe we should work up to the end of the legislative period." Then she added: "I'm up for it. Great if you are, too."Though she's acted increasingly tired and distant, she's definitely capable of one last negotiation with her coalition partners to avoid disrupting the stability she's proud to have brought to Germany. The opportunity is the SPD's to waste, and the consequences of doing that would be largely the SPD's to suffer. To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.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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| Germany’s Political Crisis Will Unfold in Slow Motion Posted: 02 Dec 2019 04:25 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A German political crisis isn't a raging, unstoppable, unpredictable forest fire: It starts with seemingly irreconcilable positions but then evolves into a tedious, detail-focused negotiation and, more often than not, a compromise. That's the direction things appear to be taking after the election of two determined leftists as co-leaders of the Social Democratic party (SPD), the junior member of Germany's ruling coalition.When Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans campaigned for the party leadership against Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz, they spoke scathingly about the coalition. Esken declared it had "no future." The more cautious Walter-Borjans said he was "firmly convinced" it couldn't meet the SPD's demands. That probably helped them win the leadership election, in which only 54% of the party membership took part.But their victory on Saturday, with just over half of the vote, doesn't give them a mandate to pull the ailing party out of government. Such a momentous decision would have to be taken by the party conference set for this weekend. While surprises are possible, it's more likely that the SPD will vote instead to amend the 2018 coalition agreement.On Sunday, the new leaders spoke on German TV about the revisions they'd like to see. Walter-Borjans focused on the government's climate package, now making its way through the parliament; he'd like a much higher carbon price than the currently envisaged 10 euros ($11) per ton of CO2 and, accordingly, higher spending to offset that price for low-income households.Esken called for more infrastructure spending to make up for years of underinvestment at a communal level. Plugging that hole, estimated at more than 138 billion euros ($152 billion), would require deviating from the balanced budget policy of the senior coalition partner, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) — the famous "black zero."The new leadership duo, then, isn't going to call for their party's unconditional withdrawal from the coalition. What Walter-Borjans and Esken really want is to try to extract concessions from the CDU, using a two-year revision clause in the current coalition agreement to the maximum. Whether they have the leverage to get much is doubtful. Both uncharismatic functionaries, they don't have enough influence on their own party, especially its elite cadre made up of the heads of state governments and the parliamentary faction. The latter isn't ready for a snap election that the SPD is highly likely to lose miserably. A split in the party as its senior politicians abandon a sinking ship is a fearful prospect for the new leaders, forcing them to go softer on Merkel than they perhaps would like. The CDU, for its part, theoretically could try running a minority government (though that's never been Merkel's preference). Besides, it stands to come first in any early election, and perhaps to form a new ruling coalition with the Greens, completing the SPD's descent into irrelevance.So, as the new SPD leaders try to stake out a tough negotiating position, CDU politicians, starting with the party leader, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, are doing the same, insisting that the revision clause doesn't imply a renegotiation of the coalition treaty. This doesn't mean the CDU won't talk. It will aim to placate, if not the fiery Esken, then the SPD elite and broader membership, which gave a stronger vote of approval to the coalition deal last year (66% support on a 78% turnout) than to the new leadership duo at the weekend. The behind-the-scenes bargaining has already begun, and it will affect the outcome of the weekend's SPD conference. Scholz, whom the new leaders formally support as finance minister, has plenty of backers, especially among the party brass, and he's not in favor of abandoning the black zero policy. This group within the SPD will work to prevent the conference from making this demand, a potential coalition-breaker. If the SPD's final proposals stop short of such sweeping ambition, it wouldn't be impossible for the CDU to allow some extra spending: Economic forecasts tracked by Bloomberg predict a German budget surplus of 1% of economic output this year.What's happening to the SPD is a tragedy for the party, whose new leaders hardly have the magnetism needed to draw voters back to a weakened, directionless political force. But it's not a tragedy for the last Merkel government — at least not yet."We have started quite a lot of things, but there's still much to do," the chancellor remarked in a speech to parliament last week. "That's why I believe we should work up to the end of the legislative period." Then she added: "I'm up for it. Great if you are, too."Though she's acted increasingly tired and distant, she's definitely capable of one last negotiation with her coalition partners to avoid disrupting the stability she's proud to have brought to Germany. The opportunity is the SPD's to waste, and the consequences of doing that would be largely the SPD's to suffer. To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.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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| Brazil's climate negotiators in dark on Bolsonaro's aims - sources Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:59 AM PST ![Brazil's climate negotiators in dark on Bolsonaro's aims - sources]( "Brazil's climate negotiators in dark on Bolsonaro's aims - sources") Brazil's negotiators already face a tough job at United Nations climate talks, given anger at President Jair Bolsonaro's stance on the Amazon, but it has become doubly difficult as they are in the dark on their own government's aims. The right-wing leader has become a target for environmental lobbyists since Amazon destruction surged to an 11-year high and terrible fires raged in August, with Bolsonaro's policies encouraging deforesters and cowing environmental enforcers.
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| Putin, Xi launch 'historic' Russian gas pipeline to China Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:55 AM PST  Russia and China on Monday launched a giant gas pipeline linking the countries for the first time, one of three major projects aimed at cementing Moscow's role as the world's top gas exporter. Presiding by video link-up over an elaborate televised ceremony, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping hailed the "Power of Siberia" pipeline as a symbol of cooperation. "Today is remarkable, a truly historic event not only for the global energy market, but first of all for us and for you, for Russia and China," Putin said.
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| UPDATE 2-Don't fiddle while the planet burns, U.N. chief warns climate summit Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:50 AM PST ![UPDATE 2-Don't fiddle while the planet burns, U.N. chief warns climate summit]( "UPDATE 2-Don't fiddle while the planet burns, U.N. chief warns climate summit") The world must choose hope over surrender in the fight against climate change, U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Monday, warning a summit in Madrid that governments risked sleepwalking past a point of no return. The latest round of annual negotiations to bolster the 2015 Paris Agreement to curb global warming began against a backdrop of unusually severe weather disasters this year, from fires in the Arctic, Amazon and Australia to intense tropical hurricanes.
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| 10 things you need to know today: December 2, 2019 Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:33 AM PST ![10 things you need to know today: December 2, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: December 2, 2019") 1.Congressional Republicans on Sunday attacked the legitimacy of the House impeachment inquiry against President Trump as the process enters a new phase this week. The House Intelligence Committee is scheduled to start reviewing its report on depositions and public hearings it has held. Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said he wants Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the Intelligence Committee, to testify. "If he chooses not to, then I really question his veracity and what he's putting in his report," Collins said on Fox News Sunday. A White House lawyer said in a letter released Sunday evening that Trump doesn't plan to participate in the Judiciary Committee's first hearing on Wednesday, because "it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings." [NPR, The Washington Post] 2.President Trump plans to leave Monday for what could be a tense NATO summit in London, where he will meet with leaders who he has pushed to increase defense spending. Trump will meet separately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who announced last week that NATO members had agreed to lower America's contribution to NATO's $2.5 billion annual budget to 16 percent from 22 percent. Several countries have agreed to increase their military spending. The summit comes as Trump faces an ongoing impeachment inquiry at home, and calls from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for Trump avoid commenting on a looming U.K. election intended to break a stalemate over Brexit. [Reuters, USA Today] 3.The death toll from weekend gun battles between Mexican security forces and drug-cartel gunmen rose to at least 20 on Sunday, when government agents killed seven cartel members, Mexican authorities said. The violence began Saturday when dozens of armed cartel associates attacked a town hall in northern Mexico. It was the latest in a series of troubling signs about the state of security in the country. The attack came on the eve of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's first anniversary in office. López Obrador, a leftist leader who is popular except for his failure to reduce violence, is under pressure from President Trump to get tougher on the cartels. Trump wants to brand Mexican cartels as terrorist groups, but the Mexican leader said he would not return to a "war on drugs" run by the military, calling it an "absurd and deranged strategy." [New York Post, The Washington Post] 4.Iraqi lawmakers on Sunday approved the resignation of embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi following two months of pro-reform protests that have left more than 430 demonstrators dead. Parliament now heads into a showdown over who will lead the country next. Demonstrators are demanding a new election law and a halt to a power-sharing arrangement dividing control of the government among powerful political groups. Iraqis also are fed up with high unemployment, poor government services, and corruption. The grassroots movement represents the most serious internal challenge to the government since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. [The Washington Post] 5.U.S. retailers are offering big discounts on Cyber Monday, hoping to outpace record Black Friday online sales of $7.4 billion. The Black Friday record marked the second biggest online shopping day ever seen in the U.S., second only to last year's Cyber Monday mark of $7.9 billion, according to Adobe Analytics data. Online sales have increased by 20 percent over the same period in last year's kick-off of the holiday shopping season. Shoppers also spent $4.2 billion online on Thanksgiving, another record. Adobe expected this year's Cyber Monday to set another record, with sales climbing 18.9 percent over last year to reach $9.4 billion. [CNBC] 6.Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced his resignation on Sunday under pressure over a 2017 car bombing that killed anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Muscat said he would step down as leader of the governing Labor Party on Jan. 12, and "in the days after I will resign as prime minister." Hours before the announcement, nearly 20,000 people protested in the capital, Valletta, demanding his departure. The slain reporter's family said Muscat's resignation wouldn't satisfy a population demanding an end to corruption. "People will be out in the streets again tomorrow," tweeted one of her sons, Matthew Caruana Galizia, also a journalist. Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech was arraigned Saturday on charges of complicity in the killing. Muscat's former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and Fenech are old friends. [The Associated Press, The New York Times] 7.Former Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired three-star admiral, ended his longshot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday. "Without the privilege of national press, it is unfair to ask others to husband their resolve and to sacrifice resources any longer," Sestak tweeted. Sestak announced his candidacy in June, but never mustered enough support to make it onto the stage in any of the party's debates. He never got above 1 percent in the polls. His policy positions were in sync with those of the other moderates in the crowded Democratic field, but he had counted on his military leadership experience to help him stand out. [CNBC] 8.Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, whose text messages with colleague Peter Strzok have drawn frequent criticism from President Trump, broke two years of silence in an interview published Sunday by The Daily Beast. "I'm done being quiet," Page said. Page left the FBI 18 months ago, about six months after The Washington Post first reported that the Justice Department inspector general was investigating her, and that she and Strzok, an FBI investigator, had an affair. Page said the Trump administration "cherry-picked" text messages she and Strzok exchanged belittling Trump to suggest that there was a deep-state conspiracy. Trump has accused her of treason. Page called the attacks "very intimidating," but said, "I know there's no fathomable way that I have committed any crime at all, let alone treason." [The Daily Beast] 9.A deadly winter storm is hitting the Northeast with snow and ice on Monday, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights as the last travelers return from Thanksgiving trips. The storm disrupted holiday travel for days after hitting the West Coast as a powerful "bomb cyclone" and pushing through the Plains and the Midwest. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told non-essential employees to stay home, with sleet, snow, and rain forecast through the day. State police had already responded to more than 550 storm-related crashes across the state by 7 p.m. Sunday. Icy roads also were blamed for crashes in Pennsylvania. At least six storm-related deaths were reported in recent days in Arizona, Missouri, and South Dakota. [The Associated Press] 10.Disney's Frozen 2 dominated the domestic box office for the second straight week, with $85.2 million in ticket sales over the weekend. The animated blockbuster also brought in a record $123.7 million over the full five-day Thanksgiving holiday period, smashing a mark of $109 million set by 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Frozen 2 now has a North America total of $278 million. Its $130 million debut set a record for Disney Animation. The fantasy film raked in another $164 million overseas to bring its international total to $451 million. Its global total now stands at $739 million, positioning it to soon become the sixth Disney movie in 2019 to make more than $1 billion. The whodunit Knives Out took the No. 2 spot in North America with weekend ticket sales of $27 million. [Variety]More stories from theweek.com House Republicans have put together a 123-page anti-impeachment report GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter to plead guilty to misusing campaign funds, hints at possible resignation George Conway fires back at Kellyanne Conway's Joe Biden insults
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| Traditional 'foreign policy' no longer exists. Democrats are the last to know Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:27 AM PST  Progressives need a new doctrine, championing the interests of the global 99% against a transnational oligarchy 'The rules of the global game have changed for good. Donald Trump and his allies see it clearly. Democrats must now step up and confront reality, or risk losing ground for good.' Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThere are few phrases as fundamental to US politics as foreign policy. It shapes the balance of power between branches of government. It separates a special class of public servants. And it commands sober respect from both sides of the partisan aisle.Indeed, in American politics, "foreign policy" is a phrase used so unthinkingly that it may be strange to point out what it really is: a paradigm first developed to protect the English monarchy, imported across the Atlantic by our nation's founders, stretched to breaking point by over two centuries of geopolitical change, and broken – at last – by the presidency of Donald Trump.embedAccording to the old paradigm of foreign policy, there is a clear line between domestic and foreign: inside our borders, we may fight about taxes, transfers and fundamental rights; but once we venture outside those borders, it is our "national interest" against the world. In the immortal words of Senator Arthur Vandenberg: "Politics stops at the water's edge."The concept of "foreign policy" emerged in 18th-century England as a strategy to insulate the Crown's authority abroad from parliamentary pressure at home. "We ought not to pry into such secrets as relate to foreign affairs," implored Sir William Yonge of his fellow Members of Parliament in 1743. "As our business relates chiefly to domestick affairs, we ought to keep within that province." But in the US, foreign policy – and its notion of a national interest protected by the executive – became a cherished ideal behind which the founders promised to lead their city on the hill.Trump has laid waste to this worldview. From welcoming Russian electoral interference in the US to seeking dirt on rivals in relations with China and Ukraine, Trump has eschewed the traditional rules of foreign policy to practice a novel form of foreign politics: a framework of international affairs with little regard for Vandenberg's cardinal rule.To the horror of the Beltway establishment, he leaves half the state department empty and elevates transactional horse-trading above institutional protocol. Rather than relying on career diplomats and respecting old alliances, he takes to Twitter and courts useful dictators. Rather than pretending to represent the national interest, he openly advocates for a narrow swath of supporters and cronies.This is a paradigm shift long in formation. Over the course of the last two centuries, the Westphalian system that inspired the founding architects of US foreign policy – a world of sovereign nation-states communicating through their respective executives – has broken down, displaced by a new set of transnational networks often dominated by non-state actors: Facebooks and Googles, Blackrocks and Deutsche Banks.> Trump has eschewed the traditional rules of foreign policy to practice a novel form of foreign politicsIn this new global context, the boundaries between foreign and domestic have blurred. China, for example, owns more US debt, trades more with the US, and emits more greenhouse gases than any other country. Unlike with past adversaries, the interests of countless American businesses cannot be disentangled from Chinese economic success.The notion of a single "national interest", for its part, has degraded to mere farce. After five decades of stagnant wages and inflamed wealth inequality, few believe that the boats still rise together. When the US government protects the intellectual property of its pharmaceutical companies – raising prices for American patients while guaranteeing offshore profits – whose interest does it really serve?Trump's election was a symptom of a foreign policy paradigm in terminal decline; his foreign politics a dark premonition of what might replace it. Not only were his supporters reacting to a general sense that they had lost control over their national borders in the process of rapid international integration; they were also reacting to a more acute sense that the US government and its army of diplomats merely channeled the interests of a transnational economic elite. Trump promised to attack that elite, and – through his diplomacy-by-Twitter – cut out the middlemen unworthy of trust.Trump is, of course, not alone. From Benjamin Netanyahu to Vladimir Putin, rightwing leaders are practicing foreign politics to advance their personal interests, linking up in a network of like-minded authoritarians who have little respect for the cherished norms of the liberal international order.Where does that leave the Democratic party and its presidential contenders?Broadly divided into three camps: the Restorers, the Restrainers and the Transformers. Each takes a different view of foreign policy, though none faces up to the paradigm shift at hand.Restorers like Joe Biden view Donald Trump as the great aberration who pushed US foreign policy off its stable path; their policies aim, therefore, to reset the clock: rejoin the Paris accords, re-sign the Iran deal. This is a platform of nostalgic denial: Restorers neither appreciate the fragility of Obama's foreign policy victories, nor recognize his many failings.> The rules of the global game have changed for good. Trump and his allies see it clearlyRestrainers, by contrast, reckon with the failings of foreign policy past – in particular, a string of broken promises with respect to America's armed intervention abroad. Their core commitment is to "end the endless war", drastically downsizing the US military and demanding greater oversight of its operations. In other words, their aim is not necessarily to replace the old foreign policy toolkit wholesale, but to catch the arm of the US government as it reaches for its most lethal tool.In this sense, the Restrainers ultimately defend the foreign policy paradigm, appealing to the more noble traditions of American diplomacy. But by calling for a more "responsible" form of statecraft, the Restrainers betray their own nostalgia for the calm waters of the liberal international order. The principle of restraint is certainly an important virtue in international affairs. But it is a brittle one: it implies that the US is holding back from serving its true interests, and is therefore vulnerable to strongmen who vow to break taboos and serve them better.This is where the Transformers should come in. Represented in the presidential race by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the Transformers recognize the profound shift in international affairs and the range of new methods that will be necessary as a result.Sanders speaks, for example, of the need for an "international progressive front" that supports "partnerships not just between governments, but between peoples". Elizabeth Warren describes a similar seismic shift in our foreign affairs. "The world was changing before President Trump took office, and it will continue to change after he has gone," Elizabeth Warren wrote in her pitch for a "Foreign Policy for All".But the Transformers, too, have offered little to move us beyond the old paradigm. Sanders provides few concrete plans to build a progressive front or international institutions to facilitate people-to-people partnerships. And Warren's vision remains faithful to its core myth of a unified national interest. Her "foreign policy for all" is a contradiction in terms: protecting some American interests on the global stage will require undermining others.Here, we can start to see the outline a different kind of a foreign politics: a progressive foreign politics, which begins from the same premise as Trump – that politics no longer stops at the water's edge – but inverts its strategies, policies and priorities. One that builds new multilateral institutions, rather than wrecking them; one that powers democratic movements, rather than squashing them; one that is unafraid to champion the shared interests of a global 99% against those of a consolidated transnational oligarchy.The rules of the global game have changed for good. Trump and his allies see it clearly. Democrats must now step up and confront their new reality. Politics no longer end at the water's edge. But from watching these debates, Democrats seem like the last to know. * David Adler is a policy leader fellow at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute. * Ben Judah is a fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC
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| Cryptocurrency Community Divided Over Developer's Arrest For 'Helping' North Korea Posted: 02 Dec 2019 03:15 AM PST ![Cryptocurrency Community Divided Over Developer's Arrest For 'Helping' North Korea]( "Cryptocurrency Community Divided Over Developer's Arrest For 'Helping' North Korea") The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in a statement on Friday said that it arrested Griffith at the Los Angeles International Airport on Thanksgiving Day. Griffith is charged for "traveling to [North Korea] to deliver a presentation and technical advice on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to evade sanctions" in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the statement said. "Griffith jeopardized the sanctions that both Congress and the president have enacted to place maximum pressure on North Korea's dangerous regime," John Demers, the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division said in the statement.
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| London Showdown Looms for NATO Frenemies Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:50 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.For movie fans, the words "Brain Dead" usually bring to mind a cult New Zealand zombie splatter flick directed by Peter Jackson.It's not the verbiage you'd expect leaders to be throwing around when the member states of NATO — Europe's security umbrella since World War II — meet in London. But brain dead is exactly how French President Emmanuel Macron is describing the alliance as he questions its current direction and future relevance.Macron is not the only one to watch. He and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan are sniping before the meeting even starts. Erdogan responded to Macron's criticism of his move to send troops into Syria by describing the French leader as, wait for it....brain dead.And that's before we get to Donald Trump. The U.S. president has been a frequent critic of NATO, saying the U.S. carries too much of the cost burden of defending Europe. He has a penchant for off-the-cuff Tweets and comments about it. Still, he may be distracted this week by the hearings back home into his potential impeachment.NATO has survived turbulent periods before. It retains strong support from Germany and others who see it as a way to knit together ideologically-different nations across Europe and prevent fresh conflicts.But this week Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will have quite the task keeping everyone in line.Global HeadlinesLaw and order | Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives are hammering home the message that they're the party to keep the U.K. safe, just three days after a convicted terrorist killed two people near London Bridge. The NATO summit provides an opportunity to reinforce that — opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn is a lifelong antiwar campaigner who has criticized the alliance. Corbyn says the Tories' spending cuts resulted in the prison service wrongly releasing the attacker.Impeachment heats up | The U.S. House — faced with a sharply divided public, a compressed timetable and doubts about White House participation — this week begins the task of deciding whether to bring articles of impeachment against Trump. As the case moves to the Judiciary Committee, it's a chance for the Democrats to synthesize weeks of testimony into a convincing narrative.Click here for an explanation of the wild cards Trump would face during an impeachment trial in the Republican-led Senate.Pulling punches | China vowed to sanction some American rights organizations and halt warship visits to Hong Kong in response to Trump's decision to sign legislation supporting the city's protesters. The move appeared designed to avoid further economic damage both to China, which is in trade talks with the U.S., and Hong Kong, which saw retail sales suffer a record drop in October as almost six months of unrest drags down growth.The Maltese problem | Joseph Muscat has agreed to step down as prime minister after his closest aides were tied to a car bomb attack that killed an investigative journalist. But he does intend to stay in office until his party has picked a successor — in January at the earliest. That may not be good enough for those demanding a proper probe of suspected links between the murderers and the government.Tough audience | Joe Biden is working to breathe new life into his campaign in Iowa, a state where he's struggled to keep up with his competitors despite leading the crowded 2020 field of Democratic contenders in most national polls. Biden kicked off an eight-day bus tour on the weekend that focuses on rural areas, and he's enlisting the help of a popular ex-governor.What to Watch This WeekChancellor Angela Merkel's coalition was thrown into crisis after the Social Democrats elected a new left-leaning leadership seen as a threat to the survival of the government. All eyes are on China as negotiators from nearly 200 nations head to Madrid for United Nations climate talks. Delegates are quietly building a legal framework to support money aimed at guiding the world in a greener direction. The U.S. will announce today what retaliatory action, if any, it will take in response to a digital tax France instituted this year that will hit large American tech companies. The Supreme Court hears arguments today on New York City's curbs on the transportation of licensed handguns, the first time in more than a decade it considers a case dealing with the reach of the Second Amendment. Russia's eastward pivot deepened today with the opening of a pipeline that will deliver as much as 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually to China under a 30-year contract. Namibian President Hage Geingob has won a second term despite the worst performance yet for his party amid a stuttering economy.Thanks to all who responded to our pop quiz Friday and congratulations to reader Lee Lambert, who was the first to name Crimea as the territory that Apple identified in its Maps application as part of Russia instead of Ukraine. Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally ... Perhaps only in Japan can the cherry blossom become the source of political intrigue. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has seen his poll numbers slide in recent weeks amid questions about whether he rewarded supporters with invitations to a publicly funded party to behold the botanical beauty of Japan's national flower. The scandal deepened after revelations that key documents including the guest list were shredded. \--With assistance from Daniel Ten Kate, Brendan Scott, Alex Morales and Ben Sills.To contact the author of this story: Rosalind Mathieson in London at rmathieson3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Kathleen Hunter at khunter9@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Is China going to destroy itself and everyone else with coal? Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:50 AM PST ![Is China going to destroy itself and everyone else with coal?]( "Is China going to destroy itself and everyone else with coal?") For many years, China has been the world leader in green energy, directing massive subsidies toward solar panels, wind, and other renewable technology. But it has also been the world leader in greenhouse gas emissions, putting out about twice as much as the United States, the second largest emitter, today. It appeared as recently as 2017 that the Chinese government -- recognizing its extreme vulnerability to climate change, and its ability to cook human society completely by itself -- would tip toward the green end of the scale.But not now. China is radically scaling back its green subsidies, and ramping up its coal power investment. China, it seems, cannot be relied on for any kind of climate leadership. If it is up to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they and everyone else will be fried."Chinese investment in clean energy is plummeting -- down from $76 billion during the first half of 2017, to $29 billion during the first half of this year," reports Leslie Hook at the Financial Times. Meanwhile it is planning to add 148 gigawatts of new coal power capacity -- just one gigawatt short of the entire European Union coal fleet. Meanwhile, China's massive Belt and Road imperial investment project is spreading low-grade coal power across half the planet, including to places that previously had little access to it like Egypt and Pakistan. Partly as a result, world greenhouse emissions were up 1.7 percent last year. The Chinese pivot back to coal, should it be completed, all but ensures devastating climate impacts for the world in general and China in particular.So what is going on? The main reason, FT reports, is the slowing economy. China has run squarely into middle-income country problems, where mainly investment-led growth must give way to consumer-led growth. That's a challenging transition for any country, and it's happening at the same time that its largest trade partner started an enormously damaging trade war for no good reason. Growth is at its lowest point in more than 20 years, and so the party has dropped everything to try to boost it back up.But just as important is the brutally authoritarian character of CCP rule. Like all dictatorships, the Chinese state struggles with consent and fears rebellion; it relies on an enormous police and surveillance apparatus to stifle dissent, and perpetual economic growth to buy off a population that has few freedoms. The CCP simply can't pursue a normal democratic government strategy, which would be to rely on the legitimacy of an electoral victory and explain to the population that lower growth is simply the price to be paid so Shanghai isn't drowned by the rising seas.Worse, President Xi Jinping appears to have some of the classic diseases of dictators. He has consolidated power in his own hands, and has a paranoid fear of subversion. Under his watch the Chinese state has imprisoned perhaps a million Uyghur Muslims in appalling concentration camps, and set up the most pervasive AI-backed surveillance state in world history. Far from creating some ultra-efficient techno-dystopia, as Henry Farrell writes in some ways it appears to be enabling the CCP's worst impulses. A CCP attempt to strengthen its grip over Hong Kong only led to stupendous street protests, lent desperation by the Uyghur example. In recent elections there, the pro-Beijing candidates were trounced. There "is a very plausible set of mechanisms under which machine learning and related techniques may turn out to be a disaster for authoritarianism, reinforcing its weaknesses rather than its strengths, by increasing its tendency to bad decision making, and reducing further the possibility of negative feedback that could help correct against errors," Farrell writes.In other words, it may be impossible for the Chinese state to see that its strategic interest relies on cutting out fossil fuel power.Now, some blame must fall on the United States and President Trump for all this as well. He has pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, and enabled a substantial ramp-up in American fossil-fuel production and consumption, throwing a wrench in all other nation's efforts to cut emissions. (Why bother if the U.S. isn't going to pull its weight?) Trump's trade war has destabilized China, prompting the CCP to turn inward, while to this day it's not even clear what Trump wants from China (probably because he has no idea himself), and hence it is not clear what China could do to stop it.But ultimately, that is no excuse. From 1991 until quite recently, the United States was the unchallenged global hegemon, and used that lack of accountability to go on an imperialist crime spree of jaw-dropping proportions. Whole subcontinents were torched in our madcap quest to spread "democracy" (that is, capitalism) at the barrel of a gun. So as China has risen to displace the U.S. as the world's largest economy, it seemed that perhaps even an Orwellian dictatorship couldn't be any worse. Instead, China has fallen at the first hurdle. It is still by far the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, and by sheer mechanical necessity must play a major role in any global climate policy. Now, both of the top global powers are pulling in the wrong direction on the biggest problem in human history. If the U.S. (which at least could theoretically change direction) doesn't get its act together soon, it's hard to see how that might be stopped.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 House Republicans have put together a 123-page anti-impeachment report GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter to plead guilty to misusing campaign funds, hints at possible resignation George Conway fires back at Kellyanne Conway's Joe Biden insults
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| Merkel’s Party Plays Hardball With Coalition Future in Doubt Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:46 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's party told the new leadership of the Social Democrats that there will be no renegotiation of the terms of their alliance and they can quit the governing coalition if they can't accept that.The SPD on Saturday picked government critics Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken to take the party forward over Merkel's Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The new leaders said they will demand policy changes if they are to maintain their support, and their terms will be set out at a three-day SPD conference starting Friday in Berlin.Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, head of Merkel's CDU party, said that there's no way they will open up a debate on the coalition deal signed in March last year. "We're not a therapy service for the parties in government," she said in an interview Monday with ZDF television."This new SPD leadership must decide whether they want to stay in this coalition or not," Kramp-Karrenbauer added. "We made a pledge to the voters. We want to govern on the basis of what was agreed. We are focusing on that and not on the mental state of any coalition partner."The rebellion against the SPD establishment pushes Merkel a step closer to the exit after 14 years in power. It also throws up a potential conflict between the chancellor -- keen to see out her final term -- and Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is trying to exert her authority as party leader and may be less willing to compromise as she positions herself to succeed Merkel.Merkel's chief spokesman, Steffen Seibert, sounded a more conciliatory tone than Kramp-Karrenbauer on Monday while also ruling out any renegotiation of the current deal.'Fundamentally Open'"It's of course good practice that when a coalition partner wants to discuss new proposals, you come together and if you can establish unity, then new initiatives can be taken," Seibert said at a regular news conference in Berlin. "The chancellor is fundamentally -– and that's the way it should be in a coalition –- open to cooperation and open to talks."Ricardo Garcia, euro-region chief economist at UBS AG, said the appointment of Walter-Borjans and Esken could herald demands for "a more ambitious climate-change package, higher minimum wages, broader agreed wages and changes to fiscal rules."While not all of these would be acceptable to the CDU, and its Bavarian sister-party the CSU, he still expects the coalition to hold until the scheduled end of the legislature in September 2021. "If snap elections do take place, some market volatility may materialize," Garcia wrote in a note.The Social Democrat leadership crisis was triggered in June when chairwoman Andrea Nahles resigned after the party was crushed in elections for the European Parliament. The succession contest reopened a party split between establishment figures and the left, which hoped to rebuild the SPD's credentials with its working-class base.In comments after their victory on Saturday, Walter-Borjans said the party has no intention of abruptly leaving the coalition. The SPD is more likely to put forward a set of demands, such as abandoning Merkel's balanced-budget stance and raising Germany's minimum wage. He also indicated that Scholz will stay on as finance minister.'Sensible Results'Johannes Kahrs, the SPD's parliamentary caucus budget spokesman and a party moderate, said Monday he does not expect the government to collapse. If a general election is triggered, the party is at risk of finishing in fourth place behind the Greens and the far-right AfD."Both sides in the coalition know that we have to find some sensible results for this country," Kahrs said in an interview with DLF radio."The voters have the right to expect that this nation is ruled sensibly until September 2021," he added. "That there is some disagreement over content is completely acceptable."Any breakup would likely be a drawn out process. In addition to a straight vote on leaving the coalition, there will be proposals at the SPD convention setting out conditions for staying, potentially paving the way for prolonged negotiations with the CDU.Malu Dreyer, who served as an interim SPD leader following the resignation of Nahles, told ZDF Monday that the coalition agreement contains ample wiggle room to adapt to "changing circumstances" if necessary."We can't behave as if chaos is breaking out here," Dreyer said. "It's actually not."(Updates with Merkel spokesman from sixth paragraph)\--With assistance from Patrick Donahue.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Rogers in Berlin at irogers11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Chad ThomasFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russia Opens Giant Gas Link to China as Putin Pivots East Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:28 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The world's biggest natural gas exporter and one of the globe's top consumers of the fuel cemented their energy cooperation on Monday with the launch of Russia's giant Power of Siberia pipeline to northern China.Gas started flowing toward China through the link, which has become a symbol of President Vladimir Putin's pivot to the fast-growing economies of Asia as relations deteriorate with the West. The pipeline, which runs from Russia's enormous reserves in eastern Siberia and will eventually be 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) long, will help satisfy China's vast and expanding energy needs."The tap is open, gas is being supplied to the gas transportation system" of China, Alexey Miller, chief executive officer of Gazprom PJSC, told Putin via videolink from the compression station near the Chinese border.Gazprom, Russia's biggest gas producer, signed the $400 billion contract to supply as much as 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually for 30 years with China National Petroleum Corp. in 2014, after more than a decade of talks. It's Gazprom's biggest contract ever."This step is bringing Russian-Chinese strategic cooperation in energy to a whole new level," Putin said to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping via videolink. Xi called it "a milestone project for the bilateral energy cooperation."Read: QuickTake on How Russia-China Gas Pipeline Changes Energy CalculusGazprom plans to start with deliveries of 10 million cubic meters a day and aims to reach peak capacity by 2025. Minimum exports to China via the pipeline will be 5 billion cubic meters in 2020, 10 billion in 2021 and 15 billion in 2022, according to the company.Gazprom hasn't disclosed the price of the gas, but Putin has said it'll be linked to oil prices, similar to the formula for European consumers. While Russia will have to compete with seaborne supplies of liquefied natural gas from producers such as Qatar and Australia, the expectation is that growth in China's energy needs will require more pipeline and LNG capacity. That will benefit other Russian firms such as Novatek PJSC, which is developing LNG on the Yamal peninsula in the Kara Sea.Gas consumption in China, Asia's biggest economy, has surged in recent years as the government pressures homes and factories to use it in place of coal to combat air pollution. Imports reached 43% of total gas supply in 2018, with about two-fifths of that arriving via pipeline from Central Asia and Myanmar, with the rest sourced as LNG.(Updates with Putin, Xi comments.)\--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh.To contact the reporters on this story: Olga Tanas in Moscow at otanas@bloomberg.net;Dina Khrennikova in Moscow at dkhrennikova@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Rakteem Katakey, Amanda JordanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| EU leads international help to Albania quake recovery Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:25 AM PST  Dozens of structural engineers from Europe and elsewhere are heading to Albania to help rebuild the country after a devastating earthquake last month killed 51 people and destroyed thousands of buildings, officials said Monday. The European Union and the United Nations are coordinating international efforts to assist Albania after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Nov. 26, affecting more than half of the country's population. An EU team is leading the damage assessment and distribution of aid.
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| New UN nuclear agency chief: “firm and fair” stance on Iran Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:21 AM PST  The incoming head of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency said Monday he will take a "firm and fair" approach toward inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, and plans to visit Tehran in the near future. Argentine diplomat Rafael Mariano Grossi's comments came after he was confirmed as the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously at a special session. The 58-year-old succeeds Yukiya Amano, who died in July, and takes over at a time when the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is unraveling.
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| 21 die in Syria as airstrike targets market, school shelled Posted: 02 Dec 2019 02:08 AM PST  A suspected Syrian government airstrike on a market in a northwestern rebel-held town killed 13 civilians on Monday while Turkish artillery shells landed near a school in a Kurdish-held town, killing at least nine, including eight children, activists said. The violence is part of rising tension in Syria's north, along the border with Turkey. Syrian government troops have renewed their push to reclaim the last opposition stronghold in Idlib province while Turkey, which sees Syrian Kurdish fighters as an existential threat, has been widening its military operations there to push them away from its borders.
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