| Johnson Gets to Work Naming Cabinet and Taking U.K. Out of EU Posted: 15 Dec 2019 02:30 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson will appoint top ministers to his cabinet on Monday as he pushes ahead with Brexit, emboldened by the historic majority he won in last week's British general election.The prime minister needs to fill the roles of culture secretary, Welsh secretary and environment minister that were vacated after Nicky Morgan quit politics, Alun Cairns was forced to resign and Zac Goldsmith lost his seat.Johnson will name his senior team as he welcomes 109 new Conservative members of Parliament to London to take their seats in the House of Commons.After years of political chaos following the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, Johnson reordered Britain's political landscape with a resounding victory over Labour in the Dec. 12 election. With his 80-seat majority -- the biggest Tory win for 32 years -- Johnson now has the power to implement his vision for Brexit and for reshaping the economy.Scottish RevoltBut he faces a longer term battle to stop Scotland splitting away from the rest of the country. Last Thursday's vote gave the Scottish National Party a near clean sweep of seats north of the border, taking districts from Johnson's Tories on the strength of a promise to oppose Brexit and campaign for another vote on independence.SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon -- who is first minister of Scotland -- says the election now gives her a mandate for a fresh referendum on whether to become an independent country, after voters chose to stay part of the U.K. in 2014.Scotland "cannot be imprisoned" in the U.K. "against its will," Sturgeon told BBC TV on Sunday. "If the United Kingdom is to continue, then it can only be by consent."On Sunday, Johnson's team gave its most emphatic rejection of Sturgeon's demand so far, ruling out a second Scottish independence referendum. "We are not going to have an independence referendum in Scotland," Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told Sky News. But the argument is unlikely to go away.Brexit FirstJohnson, meanwhile, plans to plow on with taking the U.K. out of the EU by the Jan. 31 deadline. His office said he will introduce a law to deliver Brexit before Christmas. This will be the government's first priority.On Thursday, Johnson will announce his program for government in a Queen's Speech building on the agenda put forward in October. The monarch will make a new speech outlining the plans, which include a bill to enshrine in law an extra 34 billion pounds ($45 billion) per year of pledged spending on health care by 2024. The NHS became a crucial battleground during the election and Johnson has said he is determined to honor his pledges to voters to safeguard state health care.After Brexit, a reorganization of government is widely expected. An official familiar with the matter said that the Brexit department will be scrapped. The Sunday Times reported that the energy and climate change department -- abolished by Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May -- will be recreated, with the business and international trade departments merged.While the prime minister pushes ahead with his plans, the main opposition Labour Party is gearing up for a leadership battle that's likely to pit candidates loyal to the defeated leader Jeremy Corbyn against more moderate MPs who want to reclaim the political center ground.Labour finance spokesman John McDonnell said the party will have a new leader before elections in London and local districts next May. He touted the party's spokeswomen for business, education and women, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Angela Rayner and Dawn Butler as potential candidates, as well as justice spokesman Richard Burgon. Backbencher Lisa Nandy told the BBC on Sunday that she's "seriously" thinking about running.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Ian FisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China's Chip Quest Is All Heart, Not Enough Brain Posted: 15 Dec 2019 02:00 PM PST ![China's Chip Quest Is All Heart, Not Enough Brain]( "China's Chip Quest Is All Heart, Not Enough Brain") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- China has made developing its own chip industry a matter of patriotic pride. It helps that "China chip" and "China heart" sound the same in the local language. The strain of this 1.7 trillion yuan ($243 billion) endeavor may be too much for the debt-clogged arteries of its municipal governments, though.Over the past decade, Beijing hasn't hesitated to deploy its fiscal might in pursuit of economic and social objectives. After the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, the government spent 4 trillion yuan building roads and railways to bolster the economy, sending growth into overdrive. Between 2015 and 2018, authorities poured roughly 3.5 trillion yuan into shanty-town developments to aid the poor.Lately, fiscal spending has turned to loftier aspirations. With its national champions ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. pinched by U.S. sanctions, China has become more determined to develop its own 5G, artificial-intelligence and chip technologies. More than 50 large-scale semiconductor projects have sprung up across the country, with a total of 1.7 trillion yuan of investment pledged, online media outlet Caixin estimates. Most of these multibillion-dollar projects will be state-financed. For instance, the government holds 74% of the equity in three-year-old Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. The company is managed by Tsinghua Unigroup Co., the business arm of prestigious Tsinghua University, President Xi Jinping's alma mater. Yangtze Memory's NAND memory technology shows potential, and is only half a generation behind the global flash memory leaders. Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon, meanwhile, is seen as a leading design house for smartphone applications.These promising examples are too few and far between, though. Elsewhere, it's mostly too much effort for too little reward. China's chip manufacturing technology is three to five years behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's leading contract supplier, and the country is sub-scale in assembly and testing, industry experts say. Meanwhile, financial cracks are showing. A chip park in eastern China, with 4.5 billion yuan already spent, has ground to a halt after the impoverished municipal government failed to cough up more money, a Caixin investigation found. Another industrial park in the central city of Wuhan had its land usage rights frozen by a court because of financial difficulties. Wuhan has positioned itself as an inland technology hub in the mold of Phoenix, Arizona.As Korean and Taiwanese industry leaders know, chip manufacturing is a terribly expensive business. Samsung Electronics Co., for instance, splashed out about $25 billion annually in capital expenditure over the past five years. To catch up with TSMC's leading-edge wafer capacity, a Chinese chip park needs to spend about $60 billion to $80 billion on equipment alone, Credit Suisse Group AG estimates. To make matters worse, bureaucrats from regions rich and poor are vying with each other to produce a national champion, seeing that the project is close to President Xi's heart. As I wondered a year ago, what's the advantage for Xiamen, a sleepy coastal city in southern China, or Guizhou, one of China's poorest provinces, of getting into chip manufacturing? The result is resources spread too thin, wages bid up, and billions of dollars wasted in a business that's all about scale.To be sure, bureaucrats the world over launch pet projects to please their bosses. But this chip craze begs the question of whether public funding is being properly used, especially as China's economy struggles. The central government's Big Fund and its clones aren't dumb money — they will only finance true national champions such as Yangtze Memory; local industrial parks will have to be funded locally. The Tianjin government, for instance, doesn't have the cash to bail out state-owned commodities trader Tewoo Group Corp., but nonetheless has a $16 billion fund for AI technology, another theme close to Xi's heart.China's local governments are notoriously poor: Municipals do all the dirty work of generating cash, but remit those funds to the Ministry of Finance, which then decides how to dole it out. As a result, even cities as wealthy as Beijing are deep in the red. As the economy slows and tax collection sputters, the situation will only get more severe. Local governments continue to spend more than they earn, with this year's funding gap at 7.6 trillion yuan, Moody's estimates. China's desire for self-reliance is understandable. Last year, its trade deficit in chips widened to $228 billion, more than double what it was a decade earlier. Meanwhile, U.S. restrictions on exports of chip technology have provoked an intense nationalist backlash in China. Yet so far, this semiconductor drive has been all heart and no brain. To contact the author of this story: Shuli Ren at sren38@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron's, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Hong Kong Protesters Clash With Police as Lam Visits Beijing Posted: 15 Dec 2019 11:11 AM PST ![Hong Kong Protesters Clash With Police as Lam Visits Beijing]( "Hong Kong Protesters Clash With Police as Lam Visits Beijing") (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's demonstrators clashed with police late Sunday as Chief Executive Carrie Lam visited Beijing where she's expected to update Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials on the violent protests that have gripped the city for the past six months.Roads in Mong Kok, a tourist area known for its night market, were blocked with bricks as protesters threw glass bottles and other items at police officers at about 11 p.m. Sunday. Police sprayed tear gas to disperse the crowds, according to a statement from the city's government.A traffic light was smashed and dismantled as protesters set boxes on fire to block more roads at about 1:30 a.m. Monday. Riot police responded through a loudspeaker that it was their "final warning."The clash late Sunday followed a more subdued weekend for the city's demonstrations. Protests have raged in Asia's premier financial hub since June, when large crowds took to the streets to oppose a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.Although Lam's government eventually withdrew the proposed law, the protesters' demands have broadened to include universal suffrage and the creation of an independent inquiry into police conduct during the increasingly violent unrest.The visit by Lam, whose administration has been criticized for its handling of the unrest, comes after an estimated 800,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration last week. It also follows a landslide victory by opposition pro-democracy parties over her pro-establishment allies in local elections."The purpose of the duty visit is to give a full account of what has happened in Hong Kong over the past year," Lam said in a press briefing last week. "Particularly what has happened in Hong Kong in the last six months."Throughout the chaos, China has steadfastly supported Lam, even as her popularity in the former British colony sunk to record lows. Chinese officials have condemned the protesters and voiced their backing for the city's police.Economic ImpactThe clashes have taken a toll on Hong Kong's economy, which is expected to enter its first annual recession in a decade.Tourists have stayed away in droves -- arrivals from mainland China were down 35% in September compared with the same month of 2018, and the hotel occupancy rate averaged 63%. The Hong Kong International Airport handled 5 million passengers in November, down 16% from a year earlier, the Hong Kong Airport Authority said in a statement.Financial Secretary Paul Chan wrote in his weekly blog that foreign investors may choose centers other than Hong Kong if unrest continues in the city, RTHK reported.Adam Kwok, executive director of Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., one of the city's biggest developers, called on the government to help the hospitality sector. Hotel revenue for the company had fallen by as much as 40% in November and December due to the unrest, he said. This half, hotel revenue is forecast to be down around 30%."We strongly urge the government to help the hotel industry," Kwok said in a rare public address for a new hotel Friday. "We really need it."The clash in Mong Kok late Sunday followed a gathering of several hundreds in Edinburgh Place in central Hong Kong earlier in the evening, calling for a strike by social workers in support of the protests. In the New Territories town of Shatin, police said they had taken "enforcement actions" after scuffles with protesters in a mall broke out earlier in the day. Demonstrators threw a smoke bomb and blocked entrances of the shopping center, security forces said in a statement.Masked demonstrators also clashed earlier with bystanders who were trying to prevent them from drawing graffiti on walls and windows of a mall in the New Territories town of Shatin. Riot police moved into the shopping center to disperse the groups of protesters.Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of people also gathered in Tamar Park in Hong Kong's city center for a rally in support of the government. People waved China flags and chanted "say no to violence" as speakers called for an end to anti-Beijing protests.On Saturday, police arrested three people suspected of making an explosive device in Tuen Mun, the force said in a statement on its Facebook page. On Monday, security services defused what they described as two homemade bombs in Wanchai.Earlier in the day, police also arrested five people between the ages of 15 and 18 in connection with the death of a 70-year-old man who was hit by a brick near the site of a protest in Sheung Shui last month, according to a government press release.\--With assistance from Jinshan Hong.To contact the reporters on this story: Gregor Stuart Hunter in Hong Kong at ghunter21@bloomberg.net;Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Ian FisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Democrats seek Bolton, Mulvaney for impeachment trial Posted: 15 Dec 2019 09:32 AM PST  Senate Democrats are proposing a weekslong Senate impeachment trial seeking testimony from four new witnesses including John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney over President Donald Trump's actions toward Ukraine, according to a detailed outlined released Sunday. Trump faces two charges — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden while withholding military aid to the ally.
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| Comey: 'Real sloppiness' in Russia probe but no misconduct Posted: 15 Dec 2019 08:48 AM PST  Former FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Sunday that a Justice Department inspector general report identified "real sloppiness" in the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide and said he was wrong to have been "overconfident" about how the Russia investigation was handled.
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| Toxic air, gases hamper search for last 2 volcano victims Posted: 15 Dec 2019 08:24 AM PST  A second land search of New Zealand's volcanic White Island on Sunday failed to locate the bodies of the last two victims of an eruption that has now claimed 16 lives, most of them tourists. New Zealand police confirmed the 16th victim died Saturday at Sydney's Concord Hospital, one of several Australian hospitals where survivors suffering from severe burns were being treated. Ten of the dead are thought to be Australians.
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| Egypt’s el-Sissi says militias hold Libyan gov’t 'hostage' Posted: 15 Dec 2019 08:02 AM PST  Libya's U.N.-supported government is held hostage by "armed and terrorist militias" in the capital, Tripoli, Egypt's leader said Sunday. The GNA is backed by Egypt's regional rivals Turkey and Qatar and Egypt's relations with the two countries have been strained since 2013.
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| Global climate change efforts have stalled due to lack of ambition, warns UN Secretary-General Posted: 15 Dec 2019 07:40 AM PST  Global efforts to tackle climate change have stalled due to a lack of ambition, the UN Secretary General has said, as the COP25 conference in Madrid drew to a close with a watered-down agreement. "The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition," said Antonio Guterres. "But we must not give up, and I will not give up." The 197 parties to the UN talks agreed to the need for new emissions cuts on Sunday morning after negotiators worked through the night. But they stopped short of concrete commitments and left the outstanding issues of the Paris Agreement undecided. "The result of this COP25 is really a mixed bag, and a far cry from what science tells us is needed," said Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 agreement and the CEO of the European Climate Foundation. Brazil, Australia and the United States were singled out for their refusal to compromise on their own emissions targets. The lack of progress in Madrid sets up the UK for a difficult diplomatic challenge in November when it will host the next COP in Glasgow, at a time when the government will be focused on resolving the next stage of Brexit. The European Union had led a coalition of countries at the talks who were calling for greater commitments and pushing back on compromises over carbon trading - the remaining unsolved aspect of the Paris Agreement. Brazil in particular had led a push to "double count" its carbon emissions cuts, selling credits to other countries while also counting them towards its own targets. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission climate chief, had earlier in the week told the conference that "no deal was better than a bad deal" when it came to carbon markets. Climate change activist Greta Thunberg leaves after a meeting at Complutense University, as COP25 climate summit is held in Madrid Credit: Reuters In the wake of the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement, the EU is under pressure to fill the diplomatic vacuum. Perhaps the most important moment during the two-week talks came in Brussels this week, when the commission launched its Green New Deal plan to cut EU carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. "COP25 was above all a failure of political will," said Jennifer Tollmann, a policy adviser at environmental think tank E3G. "From countries who felt this was an unimportant bump in the road en-route to Glasgow, and from a Presidency that in the face of opportunistic blockers (including US, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia) defaulted to proposing a lowest common denominator outcome." The snail's pace of the talks was in marked contrast to the alarm raised by activists and scientists and a growing global commitment to reducing emissions. Nearly 100 international businesses have so far signed up to a pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050. In the days leading up to the agreement, new reports noted that global emissions have risen since 2015, and current warming is on track to lead to a 3 degree celsius increase in world temperature, an outcome scientists say would have devestating impact. On Saturday night, as the talks reached record time, activists from Extinction Rebellion dumped manure outside the conference centre in a bid to express their frustration. As talks appeared to unravel over the weekend Greta Thunberg, who this week was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, said "the science is clear, but the science is being ignored." The teenage activist apologised over the weekend for suggesting world leaders should be "put against a wall", blaming the fact English is her second language.
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| 10 things you need to know today: December 15, 2019 Posted: 15 Dec 2019 06:21 AM PST ![10 things you need to know today: December 15, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: December 15, 2019") 1.The Trump administration is expected to announce the withdrawal of around 4,000 troops from Afghanistan, multiple current and former U.S. officials said. The drawdown — which would reportedly be done in phases over a few months — would ultimately leave between 8,000 and 9,000 U.S. forces in place. The intended announcement is reportedly part of Washington's negotiations with the Taliban in the hopes that the 18-year conflict in the country will finally wind down, one former defense official told NBC News. The withdrawal is viewed as a concession that could possibly sway the Taliban to promise a cease-fire in return. President Trump has been pushing for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan for some time. The announcement could come as early as next week, but officials said the timing is not set. [NBC News, CNN] 2.For the first time in more than 30 years, the United States secretly expelled two Chinese embassy officials after they drove on to a sensitive military base in Norfolk, Virginia, in September, The New York Times reports. The officials, who were with their wives, were reportedly told to go through the gate and turn around after they were denied access at the base's checkpoint, but they continued driving before being stopped. The officials reportedly said they didn't understand the English instructions and got lost, but American officials reportedly believe at least one of the officials was a Chinese intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover. The Trump administration reportedly fears China is ramping up its espionage in the U.S. as economic and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to simmer. [The New York Times] 3.Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.) — one of only two House Democrats to vote against formalizing an impeachment inquiry in October — apparently met with President Trump, who urged him to switch parties, and the congressman reportedly told aides he plans on doing so. He's reportedly going to announce the decision as soon as next week as the House gets ready to vote on two articles of impeachment. Van Drew is a centrist freshman lawmaker who considers impeachment too divisive and hails from a district that swung from supporting President Obama by eight points in 2012 to backing Trump by five points in 2016, although it reportedly leans red historically. By crossing the aisle, Van Drew would be less likely to face a primary threat, two Democrats and one Republican told the New York Times on condition of anonymity. [The New York Times, The Washington Post] 4.The longest United Nations climate talks on record ended in Madrid on Sunday with no decision on how to regulate global carbon markets, postponing the debate for another year. The delegates did agree that all parties will need to put new carbon cutting plans on the table when they reconvene next year in Glasgow, and an agreement to compensate the world's most vulnerable countries for the effects of extreme weather events was also reached. As for leaving carbon market regulation untouched for now, several countries said they preferred no deal to a weak one out of fear that it would undermine other emission-reducing efforts. [The Associated Press, BBC] 5.Small groups of pro-democracy, anti-government protesters gathered in some of Hong Kong's shopping centers Sunday. The demonstrations turned violent, breaking a rare peaceful streak in the city which has been mired in turmoil for months. Police reportedly responded to at least two of the protests with pepper spray and arrested two demonstrators. Protesters reportedly vandalized multiple locations and trashed restaurants run by the catering firm Maxim's as a result of the owner's daughter criticizing the movement. The brief skirmishes that broke out were the first instances of more aggressive protests in three weeks after a series of peaceful marches. The demonstrations may have intensified, in part, because Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam is scheduled to meet China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday. [The Guardian, Reuters] 6.China announced Sunday that it will not impose new tariffs on American imports after an interim agreement between Washington and Beijing was reached Friday to avoid escalating the trade war between the global powers. Beijing had previously threatened to introduce 5 to 10 percent tariffs on selected U.S. goods that would have gone into effect Sunday, but backed down when the U.S. canceled plans to introduce new tariffs on Chinese imports as part of Friday's agreement. A 25 percent tariff on about $250 billion in Chinese goods will remain in place, however. China said Sunday it hopes the two sides continue negotiating "on the basis of equality and mutual respect to address the concerns of both parties." [The South China Morning Post, Bloomberg] 7.In an open letter Sunday, Jeremy Corbyn apologized to the United Kingdom's Labour Party supporters for the party's defeat in the country's elections Thursday, accepting responsibility for the loss. "I will make no bones about it," Corbyn wrote. "The result was a bloody blow for everyone who so desperately needs real change in our country. I'm sorry that we came up short and I take my responsibility for it." He added that Labour is determined to regain the trust of lifelong Labour voters, who jumped ship to Boris Johnson's Conservative Party this time around. Corbyn is expected to step down as Labour leader early next year. [The Mirror, BBC] 8.Former Gary, Indiana, Mayor Richard Hatcher died Friday night at a Chicago hospital, his daughter announced. He was 86. Hatcher in 1967 became the first black mayor of a large U.S. city in a groundbreaking election despite efforts from the city's Democratic political machine to prevent his victory. He ended up serving five terms, and The Associated Press described him as a political force for Gary's black citizens. Hatcher went on to serve as the chair of Jesse Jackson's 1984 Democratic presidential campaign, as well as Jackson's vice chair in 1988. "Mayor Richard Hatcher was not just a historical figure, he was a transformational figure," Jackson said. "We thank him, and we miss him." [The Associated Press] 9.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Democratic presidential candidate, sent a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Saturday about the league's threat to completely sever ties with its affiliate minor league baseball teams. Sanders said he was "outraged" and noted that Manfred, who initially proposed cutting 42 minor league teams, had previously promised the senator he was going to negotiate with Minor League Baseball in "good faith" in an effort to "preserve professional baseball in the communities that currently have it." The current deal tying MiLB to MLB expires in 2020, and the latter said if "significant issues" aren't addressed, MLB clubs will be able to affiliate with any minor league team in the U.S., including independent league teams. [The Hill, Bernie Sanders] 10.Louisiana State University quarterback Joe Burrow won the Hesiman Trophy — college football's most prestigious award — on Saturday, beating out University of Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts, and two Ohio State University standouts in quarterback Justin Fields and defensive end Chase Young. Burrow, who led LSU to an undefeated season, a Southeastern Conference championship, and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff while throwing for a conference-record 48 touchdowns, finished with the largest margin of victory ever in a Heisman race. He picked up a record 90.7 percent of all available first-place votes. Despite LSU's tradition of success, Burrow is only the second Tiger to ever win the award and the first since 1959. Burrow and LSU will return to action for a national semi-final against Hurts and the No. 4 Sooners on Dec. 28. [ESPN]More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes
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| Smog forces schools shut in Iran Posted: 15 Dec 2019 06:11 AM PST  Air pollution forced schools to close on Sunday in parts of Iran including Tehran, as the capital lay under a thick cloud of smog considered hazardous to health. The pollution level in the capital was "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and officials warned the young, elderly and people with respiratory illnesses to stay indoors, with sporting activities suspended. The decision to shut schools in the capital was announced late Saturday by deputy governor Mohammad Taghizadeh, after a meeting of an emergency committee on air pollution.
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| Indonesia nabs 2 suspected smugglers of leopard, lion cubs Posted: 15 Dec 2019 05:31 AM PST  Indonesian police said Sunday that they have arrested two men suspected of being part of a ring that poaches and trades in endangered animals and seized from them several lion and leopard cubs and dozens of turtles. One of the suspects, identified only as Yatno, was arrested Saturday in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, after picking up suspicious boxes from a speedboat at a port in Dumai district, said Andri Sudarmadi, Riau police's chief detective. Police found several boxes containing four lion cubs, a leopard cub and 58 turtles in his van.
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| Horse-trading Iran hawks seize on Pompeo's Senate interest Posted: 15 Dec 2019 05:15 AM PST  In recent days, Iran hawks in Congress leveraged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's interest in a Senate run to win a key concession from the Trump administration that could help their bid to kill the nuclear deal with Tehran. Late last week, the State Department agreed to release a portion of an internal legal opinion that says the U.S. has the right to demand that all U.N. sanctions on Iran be reinstated, despite President Donald Trump pulling the U.S. out of the nuclear deal.
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| Gove Rules Out Scottish Independence Referendum: U.K. Politics Posted: 15 Dec 2019 03:15 AM PST ![Gove Rules Out Scottish Independence Referendum: U.K. Politics]( "Gove Rules Out Scottish Independence Referendum: U.K. Politics") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on a collision course with Scotland's leader Nicola Sturgeon over the future of the U.K. Sturgeon says Scotland needs a new referendum on whether to split away from the rest of the U.K. but Johnson's team ruled out another independence vote.The premier is preparing to re-shape his cabinet after winning a big majority in last week's election. His opponent Jeremy Corbyn accepted responsibility for the crushing defeat his Labour party suffered, as potential candidates jostle to succeed him.Key developments:Minister Michael Gove rules out another Scottish independence referendum (8:40 a.m.) but Sturgeon says London cannot imprison Scotland "against its will" (9:30 a.m.)Johnson prepares to name his cabinet MondayPremier will outline government program in Queen's Speech on Thursday.Corbyn says he takes responsibility for Labour's heavy defeatLabour MP Lisa Nandy says she's considering a run for the leadership (10 a.m.)Must read: Johnson's Big Win Raises Tensions That Threaten to Unravel U.K.Sunak Sees Brexit Debate Before Christmas (10:45 a.m.)Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak said the government plans to put its Brexit legislation before Parliament before Christmas to ensure everything is ready for the country's planned EU departure at the end of January."One overriding mandate we have from this election is to get Brexit done," Sunak told the BBC. "Our intention is to bring the withdrawal bill, the legislation, back to parliament before Christmas."He said a budget can be expected "reasonably soon" after Brexit. He suggested Johnson is considering plans to reorganize government departments and the civil service to deliver priorities such as immigration reform and recruiting police. "How we do that, how the prime minister organizes government to deliver those things, is something of course he's thinking about that," Sunak said.Labour Leadership Race Heats Up (10 a.m.)The contest to succeed Corbyn is heating up with several names entering the fray. Backbencher Lisa Nandy told the BBC on Sunday that she's "seriously" thinking about running after Labour's "shattering" defeat in the Dec. 12 election, while the party's justice spokesman, Richard Burgon, endorsed its business spokeswoman, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and told Sky News he's debating running to be deputy leader.Also speaking to the BBC, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the process of choosing a new leader is likely to last 8 to 10 weeks and will "obviously be sorted before" London and local elections in the spring. He said neither he nor Corbyn would remain in the shadow cabinet, and suggested Long-Bailey, Burgon, education spokeswoman Angela Rayner and women and equalities spokeswoman Dawn Butler as potential candidates to lead the party."We'll have a new generation of leaders coming in who are incredibly talented, incredibly enthusiastic and now experienced as well," McDonnell said. "My view is I think it should be a woman leader next."Sturgeon Says Scots Vote Must be Legal (9:30 a.m.)Scottish National Party Leader Nicola Sturgeon suggested she wouldn't hold a rebel referendum on independence without the consent of the London government because it would not be legally valid. A vote needs to be sanctioned by the U.K.'s central government in Westminster."A referendum has to be legal because it has to be accepted and legitimate if we are to win independence," Sturgeon said in a BBC TV interview.At the same time, Sturgeon said Johnson's rejection of a second Scottish referendum "won't hold" because the SNP "overwhelmingly won the election" in Scotland, while Johnson's Conservatives "got roundly defeated." Scotland can't be "imprisoned" in the U.K., she said."You cannot hold Scotland in the union against its will," Sturgeon said. "You cannot just lock us in a cupboard and turn the key and hope that everything goes away. If the United Kingdom is to continue, then it can only be by consent."Lib Dems Probe Election Failure (8:58 a.m.)The Liberal Democrats are investigating why they failed to cut through in Thursday's general election.The party went into the election with its leader, Jo Swinson vowing to cancel Brexit and saying she could be prime minister. But the party ended up winning one fewer seat than in 2017 – with Swinson losing her own place in parliament."Clearly we must have made mistakes or we wouldn't have had the results that we did," acting Leader Ed Davey said on Sunday in a Sky News interview. "I think we didn't get the other messages over about what the Liberal Democrats stand for. We didn't get beyond the Stop Brexit message."Gove Rules Out Scottish Referendum (8:40 a.m.)Cabinet minister Michael Gove ruled out a second referendum on Scottish independence, giving an emphatic "no" when asked about the prospect in a Sky News interview. "We were told in 2014 that that would be a choice for a generation," Gove said. "We are not going to have an independence referendum in Scotland."Gove's comments set up a battle with the Scottish National Party after its leader Nicola Sturgeon said her party's election dominance north of the border – it won 48 of 59 parliamentary seats – meant she had the mandate to demand a fresh vote.Gove also said the government will legislate to guarantee extra spending for the National Health Service, and that he's "confident" the U.K. can conclude a trade deal with the European Union on time next year. He promised to put Johnson's Brexit divorce deal to a vote in Parliament "in short order," while refusing to be drawn on whether that will be before Christmas.Johnson May Fire Third of Government (Earlier)The premier plans to fire ministers and scrap government departments in a reshuffle of his administration planned for February, The Sunday Times reported, citing a senior person in government.As many as a third of cabinet ministers could be dismissed in the planned reshaping of government in February as the prime minister brings in new people to try build a "transformative" team, the newspaper said. Among planned changes include scrapping the Brexit department, setting up a department for borders and immigration, and rolling the Department for International Trade into the Business Department, the paper said.Corbyn Accepts Responsibility for Defeat (Earlier)Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn accepted responsibility for his party's biggest electoral defeat since 1935, but also defended the policy platform he stood for.Writing in the Sunday Mirror, he described the result as a "body blow for everyone who so desperately needs real change in our country," while he went further in the Observer, saying: "We have suffered a heavy defeat and I take my responsibility for it.""There is no quick fix to overcome the distrust of many voters," Corbyn wrote. "Patronising them will not win them over. Labour has to earn their trust."But Corbyn also stuck to the lines he and his top team have taken since the scale of the defeat became apparent: people voted on the issue of Brexit rather than on other policies, and Labour had been subject to "media attacks" that were "more ferocious than ever."To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Sara MarleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The struggle for Hong Kong Posted: 15 Dec 2019 03:15 AM PST ![The struggle for Hong Kong]( "The struggle for Hong Kong") For centuries, the city has been a cultural and economic crossroads between East and West — and a flash point for conflict. Here's everything you need to know:Why are people protesting? Most of Hong Kong's population wants to continue to operate under the political freedoms it enjoyed during a century of British rule. The protests began when Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, appointed by Beijing, offered legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China, where kangaroo courts operate in secret and 99 percent of the cases end in conviction. Protesters believed that the repressive Communist government in Beijing would utilize the law as a means of prosecuting Hong Kongers for political dissent. But what began as peaceful demonstration with a single objective has mushroomed into a violent, six-month struggle over the future of the island. Hong Kong is often described as the city where "East meets West," with its Chinese culture strongly influenced by a long-standing British occupation. It's a tension that has been simmering for centuries, or since shortly after the first Europeans arrived in the area at the start of the 16th century.Which country arrived first? Portuguese explorers sailed into the area in 1513, and by 1557, Portugal had established a leasehold in Macao, about 40 miles from Hong Kong. Trading was brisk, albeit one-sided. Europeans eagerly bought Chinese silks, tea, and porcelain, but China was interested mostly in Europe's bullion, not its manufactured goods. In the 18th century, the Portuguese began trading a product that did interest the Chinese: opium imported from India. By 1729, addiction had become so rampant that the Chinese Emperor Yongzheng banned its sale and consumption. The ban failed, and by the end of the 19th century, nearly one-third of China's 300 million people were hooked. In 1838, the Daoguang Emperor appointed a viceroy, Lin Zexu, to solve the problem.What did Lin Zexu do? He wrote an open letter to Queen Victoria — a florid, rambling 2,700-word missive that demanded the British sovereign put a stop to the opium trade that had "caused every province of the land to overflow with that poison." The letter was not answered. Lin then sacked the European merchants' hub in the city of Canton (modern-day Guangzhou, located about 100 miles from Hong Kong). In all, Lin's troops seized and destroyed about 21,000 chests of opium, or 1,400 tons.How did Britain respond? At first, Charles Elliot, chief superintendent of British trade in China, ordered British opium runners to avoid Chinese ports; then he blockaded the Pearl River leading to Canton to ensure they obeyed his edict. When a rogue British ship tried to evade the blockade, a naval battle between British and Chinese ships triggered the First Opium War. The superior Royal Navy inflicted a series of defeats on the Chinese forces, eventually sailing up the Pearl River and occupying Canton. On Aug. 29, 1842, the Chinese ceded Hong Kong Island as part of the Treaty of Nanjing. Eighteen years later, the British won Kowloon Peninsula after the Second Opium War. In 1898, with Western powers carving up a weakened China, the British secured a rent-free, 99-year lease on the third region of Hong Kong, an area known as the "New Territories" that comprises 86 percent of the city's 426 square miles and more than half of its current population.How did Hong Kong fare? It grew and eventually flourished under British rule. The New Territories became integrated with the rest of Hong Kong, and through a series of public infrastructure projects during the 1970s, the city blossomed into a world financial center. Hong Kong attracted banks and international corporations through a combination of low taxes, a stable currency backed by sterling, independent judiciary, low levels of corruption, and a world-class harbor, and as a gateway for foreign investment into China's vast market. That gateway became even more important as China began liberalizing its economy, which grew at a rapid pace.How did the Chinese take over? As the end of the 99-year lease approached, China and Britain negotiated the city's future. On Dec. 19, 1984, the two nations agreed that Britain would hand over Hong Kong to the People's Republic on July 1, 1997, and that Hong Kong would continue as a capitalist entity with guarantees of free speech and a free press under a version of English Common Law until 2047. China, however, insisted that the city would be governed by a chief executive appointed by Beijing. Hong Kong has since operated under a "one country, two systems" principle by which China controls its foreign affairs and defense but the city is otherwise independent. This has left Hong Kong in a kind of political limbo — half Western, half Chinese — with no easy resolution in sight. "On the current trajectory, another confrontation is inevitable," said Steve Tsang, director of the University of London's SOAS China Institute. China's rulers, he said, "just don't get it. Their default is to use repression, which will only breed more protest."When two systems become one No one knows what will happen when the deal negotiated with Britain expires and full control of Hong Kong reverts to the Chinese Communist Party in 2047. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made no commitments, although he did tell his party in 2017 that "maintaining lasting prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and Macao and achieving China's full reunification are essential to realizing national rejuvenation.... We should ensure that the principle of 'one country, two systems' remains unchanged, is unwaveringly upheld, and in practice is not bent or distorted." Some have interpreted his words to suggest an openness to leaving the current arrangement in place past the deadline, but he does have options. He could, for instance, allow the city to possess a version of the enhanced freedoms granted to other dynamic areas of the country — such as the special economic zone that includes the nearby city of Shenzhen. But those freedoms primarily concern business, not politics. As China's Communist Party moves deeper into authoritarian control of its population, it's hard to imagine it will continue to tolerate Hong Kongers' dissent and political independence.More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes
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| Protests turn violent for 2nd day in Lebanon's capital Posted: 15 Dec 2019 03:11 AM PST  Lebanese security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons Sunday to disperse hundreds of protesters for a second straight day, ending what started as a peaceful rally in defiance of the toughest crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in two months. The violence comes on the eve of a meeting between the president and parliamentary blocs in which resigned Prime Minister Saad Hariri is widely expected to be renamed to the post. Hariri resigned Oct. 29 amid nationwide protests that have accused the entire political elite of corruption and mismanagement amid Lebanon's worst economic crisis in decades.
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| Democrats beware – the UK election was actually a terrible night for centrists Posted: 15 Dec 2019 03:10 AM PST  The Labour party's defeat has been taken as a warning not to stray too far left but the real story has a different lesson for 2020Britain's Conservative party won big last on Thursday, and its Labour party –under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn – lost handily, giving Boris Johnson's Tories their biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher.Not long after exit poll results came in, pundits across the pond started making bold claims: if Corbyn – what with his leftwing manifesto and socialist politics – could lose so badly against Johnson, surely this spells doom for any allied efforts in the United States, namely the primary candidacies of Bernie Sanders and (to a lesser extent) Elizabeth Warren. Hand either of them the Democratic party's nomination, they warn, and deliver the country to Trump for another four disastrous years.This is, to borrow a phrase from our comrades in the UK, bollocks.There's plenty of reflection to be done in the coming weeks, months and probably years about why Labour failed to get a victory or even a hung parliament this election – much of it unflattering of Labour and with plenty of lessons for the electoral left stateside.But what all the finger-wagging about Corbyn and Sanders ignores is that the kind of tepid politics these pundits espouse had an awful night too. The centrist Liberal Democrats – who campaigned harder against Jeremy Corbyn than Boris Johnson – failed to deliver a surge in seats. Its leader, Jo Swinson, lost her own seat after her performance in the general election devolved rapidly. The Lib Dems presented themselves similarly to establishment Democrats across the pond: a respectable third way between the Conservatives and Labour, and effectively a single-issue party committed to staying in the EU by any means necessary. Last spring Nancy Pelosi met with members of Change UK, a collection of Labour MPs who quit the party over opposition to its leftward shift. Two of the three MPs she met with lost their seats last night. The other spent this election season urging marginals – think swing districts, in US-speak – to vote for Johnson.Let's also not forget these politicians' and pundits' recent record in the US. Democrats lost over 1,000 seats under Obama and handed a rash of state legislatures over to Republican trifectas, neglecting the kind of decentralized, grassroots organizing that fueled his campaign to victory. They lost miserably in 2016 mounting a wildly unpopular candidate committed to maintaining the status quo. And none of them have faced any consequences, continuing to lead the party into what may well be an abyss. Their counterparts elsewhere are losing ground to the far right, or ceding on points like migration. The left may have lost, but the center is hollowing out.> This UK election was ultimately an election about Brexit, and Brexit won. There's no clean analogue to that in the USAs they were in 2017, Labour's policies remain highly popular across party affiliation. Six in 10 people support Labour's policy of free broadband for all, and 64% support renationalizing the country's railways. A full 56% back a total decarbonization of the UK economy by 2030 and 63% support a Green New Deal to do so, and making considerable public investments in jobs and infrastructure. Similar figures hold in the US, where Sanders enjoys wildly higher favorability ratings than Corbyn. These kinds of policies helped Corbyn to mobilize tens of thousands volunteers to canvass around the country and bring millions into the work of politics, energy (and votes) not likely to disappear any time soon.This UK election was ultimately an election about Brexit, and Brexit won. There's no clean analogue to that in the US. If Americans are in fact voting on a single issue, it's on whether Donald Trump should be president. The two have some things in common, of course. Both votes in 2016 emerged out of some mix of disillusionment, racism, disinformation and frustration with a business as usual that has left working people behind. But the latter is friendlier ground for the Democratic party, an odd bedfellows coalition of what in UK politics would be the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and some more moderate Tories. While Brexit never fit so cleanly within party politics, all members of our messy Democratic coalition are committed to making sure Trump is not the president come this time next year. How that fight gets waged is a different matter.From Brexit to Catalan separatism, a politics that contests over the bounds of national identity is awkward at best for an internationalist left and poison at worst. And 2016 should have shown that simply fear-mongering about what a monster Donald Trump is or how many crimes he's committed won't yield wins for the opposition. Come 2020, will Democrats offer a vision to voters for change and a credible shot at handily beating Trump that can mobilize millions to knock doors and vote, or a Lib Dem-style defense of keeping things mostly as they are, simply subbing out the temporary inconvenience posed by Trump? Only one option has a fighting chance.
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| 75 years on, Battle of the Bulge memories bond people Posted: 15 Dec 2019 12:43 AM PST  THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium (AP) — As a schoolboy three quarters of a century ago, Marcel Schmetz would regularly see open trucks rumble past to a makeshift American cemetery — filled with bodies, some headless, some limbless, blood seeping from the vehicles onto the roads that the U.S. soldiers had given their lives to liberate. Sometimes, Schmetz said, there were over 200bodies a day, casualties of one of the bloodiest and most important battles in World War II: The Battle of the Bulge which started 75 years ago on Monday and effectively sealed the defeat of Nazi Germany. "It gave me nightmares," Schmetz said.
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| Russia Seeks to Lift Ban on ‘Blood Diamonds’ From African Ally Posted: 15 Dec 2019 12:00 AM PST ![Russia Seeks to Lift Ban on 'Blood Diamonds' From African Ally]( "Russia Seeks to Lift Ban on 'Blood Diamonds' From African Ally") (Bloomberg) -- Russia is proposing to move toward ending the ban on selling so-called blood diamonds from the Central African Republic, a former French colony that's struck recent military and commercial ties with Moscow, amid resistance from the U.S. and Europe.The CAR, which is mired in civil conflict, should be granted a "road map" outlining the steps it needs to take to get the suspension of diamond sales lifted, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said in an interview in Moscow."We need to ensure that illicitly traded diamonds move to the legal marketplace, bringing income for people and taxes for the state," Moiseev said. "The situation in CAR isn't getting any better, and we can't delay this any more."Russia's pressing for action as President Vladimir Putin seeks to challenge the U.S. and other major powers in a new push to restore Soviet-era influence in the resource-rich African continent. He hosted more than 50 African leaders in the first Russia-Africa summit in October and his ally Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenary venture is active in about a dozen countries, including the CAR.Russia next year takes over the rotating chair of the Kimberley Process, a group of countries and non-governmental organizations that monitors the trade in diamonds to avoid illegal armed groups benefiting from it. The CAR was blacklisted in 2013, though the embargo was eased slightly three years later with the establishment of government-run "green zones" where the precious stones are mined.Russia argues that the full export of CAR diamonds, whose registered sales have slumped to 39,000 carats a year from 300,000 carats prior to the ban, would benefit the impoverished nation of 5 million, where residents continue to be involved in the illicit diamond trade. They have no other choice and "they get very little money for their work" as the smuggled gems fetch much lower prices, said Moiseev.'First Step'The Indian-chaired plenary of the Kimberley Process in New Delhi last month agreed to grant the CAR government the right to issue certificates for the export of rough diamonds from the green zones. Previously, the precious stones could be exported only after approval from the international group's monitoring team. The Russian Finance Ministry called this a "first step" toward the legalization of CAR diamonds."Our proposals don't reflect commercial interests," Moiseev said. "I know certain participants are starting to introduce politics into the discussion of this issue. Particularly now, when diamonds are being smuggled from the CAR, there are many benefiting from the situation."The CAR is "very much in agreement" with Russia's proposal, Communications Minister Ange-Maxime Kazagui said by phone. "We think the embargo should be lifted across our nation."The European Union won't support the lifting of the restrictions without a "convincing" indication, including by United Nations experts, that gems are mined in conflict-free zones and that the CAR authorities can guarantee full control over exports, the EU said in an emailed statement. "This is not currently the case," it added.Russian activities in the CAR appear to seek to "exploit the country's fragile institutions and weak rule of law rather than supporting good governance, transparency and sound economic growth," the U.S. State Department said by email.Neither the EU nor the U.S. responded to a request for comment on the specific Russian proposal for a "road map" enabling the CAR to meet the criteria for lifting the embargo.Putin's ChefRussia deployed military personnel in the CAR after obtaining a UN waiver early last year to arm and defend the government, which appealed for help after France ended a three-year peacekeeping mission. Putin's ally Prigozhin has also dispatched contract fighters to the country and appointed an associate as official security adviser to President Faustin Archange-Touadera, according to Russian media reports. Prigozhin didn't respond to an emailed request for comment via his Concord catering company.In return for assistance, Prigozhin secured gold and diamond concessions in the CAR, the reports say. Three Russian journalists murdered in the CAR in mid-2018 were investigating Prigozhin's activities, according to exiled tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who funded their trip.While Russia seems unlikely to swing opinion within the Kimberley Process behind lifting the embargo on the CAR, which would require a consensus, the initiative marks a crisis for the legitimacy of the international mechanism to keep the trade in diamonds clean, according to activists."Russia is effectively saying the process has failed completely and is no longer of use," said Joanne Lebert, executive director of Impact, a Canada-based NGO that quit the Kimberley Process in 2017, arguing the certification process gave consumers false confidence that diamonds are coming from non-conflict areas.Russia's trying to bring the CAR's exports into line with the Kimberley Process, which aims to help the country "start trading diamonds legally" rather than outlaw sales permanently, the Finance Ministry's press service said in a phone message.\--With assistance from Pauline Bax, Mahmoud Habboush, Swansy Afonso and Yuliya Fedorinova.To contact the reporters on this story: Evgenia Pismennaya in Moscow at epismennaya@bloomberg.net;Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Karl MaierFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Strong quake kills 1, collapses building in Philippines Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:48 PM PST  A strong earthquake jolted the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least one person and causing a three-story building to collapse, setting off a search for people feared to have been trapped inside, officials said. The magnitude 6.9 quake struck an area about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) northwest of Padada town in Davao del Sur province at a depth of 30 kilometers (18 miles), according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. A child was killed in a village in Davao del Sur's Matanao town when a wall of her house tumbled down as the ground shook and hit her in the head, officials said.
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| Disappointment as marathon climate talks end with slim deal Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:38 PM PST  Marathon U.N. climate talks ended Sunday with a slim compromise that sparked widespread disappointment, after major polluters resisted calls for ramping up efforts to keep global warming at bay and negotiators postponed debate about rules for international carbon markets for another year. Organizers kept delegates from almost 200 nations in Madrid far beyond Friday's scheduled close of the two-week talks. In the end, negotiators endorsed a general call for greater efforts to tackle climate change and several measures to help poor countries respond and adapt to its impacts.
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| Home-cooked food in Iraqi square brings protesters together Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:06 PM PST  In Baghdad's Tahrir Square, there are the anti-government protesters demonstrating for a better future for Iraq, and there are the volunteers who feed them. From stuffed lamb and fish, to the giant pots of soups and rice, to the plates of lentils and other beans, there is no shortage of food to go around. Volunteers from the capital and southern provinces cook traditional dishes that reflect the country's rich cuisine and bring protesters together.
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| Iran says it's defused 2nd cyberattack in less than a week Posted: 14 Dec 2019 10:28 PM PST ![Iran says it's defused 2nd cyberattack in less than a week]( "Iran says it's defused 2nd cyberattack in less than a week") Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in a short Twitter post that the alleged attack was "identified and defused by a cybersecurity shield," and that the "spying servers were identified and the hackers were also tracked." He did not elaborate. Last Wednesday, Jahromi told the official IRNA news agency that a "massive" and "governmental" cyberattack also targeted Iran's electronic infrastructure. On Tuesday, the minister dismissed reports of hacking operations targeting Iranian banks, including local media reports that accounts of millions of customers of Iranian banks were hacked.
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| The lies have it: Republicans abandon truth in Trump impeachment defence Posted: 14 Dec 2019 10:00 PM PST  As the GOP counter-offensive runs on fake news and conspiracy theories, critics say truth itself is under attack"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four," George Orwell wrote in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. "If that is granted, all else follows."The pro-Donald Trump industrial complex has not yet denied basic arithmetic. But as impeachment looms, his allies appear to be waging an increasingly frantic political and media counter-offensive that puts truth itself in the dock.A bewildering array of fake news, warped facts and conspiracy theories have been propagated in the past week by conservative media, Republican politicians, White House officials and the president in his own defence. It is, commentators say, a concerted disinformation war, intended to crowd out damaging revelations as the House of Representatives prepares its ultimate sanction."The more facts come out, the more desperate they get," said Kurt Bardella, a former spokesman and senior adviser on the House oversight committee. "They know in a debate centred on facts, truth and reality, they lose. Their only mechanism to survive is to muddy the waters, distort, distract and hope if they repeat lies often enough, they become real."Trump this week became the only fourth US president to face articles of impeachment. The two against him charge him with abuse of power by pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations that would boost his 2020 re-election campaign, and obstruction of Congress by ordering witnesses to defy subpoenas.> These guys are in an abusive relationship with Trump … They behave the way you see victims of domestic violence behave> > Rick WilsonAt public hearings and in countless media interviews, Republicans sought to argue that Trump was, in fact, justified in seeking the two investigations: one into whether Ukraine meddled in the 2016 the presidential election, the other into a Ukrainian gas company with ties to Hunter Biden, the son of potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, even flew to Ukraine with the ardently pro-Trump One America News Network (OANN) to interview officials for a "docu-series". The Wall Street Journal reported that when Giuliani got back to New York last week, the president called him on the runway and demanded: "What did you get?"The former New York mayor reportedly replied: "More than you can imagine."Giuliani visited Trump at the White House on Friday.The entire US intelligence community has found no evidence to support the claim of Ukrainian interference in 2016. Fiona Hill, formerly top Russia expert at the White House, has warned that to spread "the fictional narrative" is to spread Russian propaganda and do the bidding of Vladimir Putin. Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, said this week there was "no indication" that Ukraine interfered.Yet several Republican senators continue to peddle this counter-narrative. Last Sunday Ted Cruz, runner-up to Trump in the 2016 primary, told NBC's Meet the Press: "Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election."Host Chuck Todd's eyebrows shot up with surprise."Senator, this sort of strikes me as odd," he said, noting how Trump viciously went after Cruz during the primary campaign, questioning his birthplace and religion and insulting his wife.But Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist and author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, said: "I'm not surprised at Ted Cruz being sycophantic to Trump. Trump broke Ted Cruz a long time ago. The Republicans have the worst political Stockholm syndrome we've ever seen."These guys are all in an abusive relationship with Trump. I don't mean that in a flippant way. They behave the way you see victims of domestic violence behave. But they've got culpability in this thing: they're not just victims, they're enablers."Wilson noted there is no punishment for Trump's allies."There are no consequences for being untruthful. It's become a feature, not a bug. The audience expects them to lie. There's a certain liberty in not having a conscience and being able to lie about anything and watch Trump blow stuff up. Trump revels in paying the joker and they revel in him playing that role."Republicans have also worked hard to justify Trump's demand for an investigation into Biden. All week they continued to push for Hunter to appear as a witness, even though there is no evidence of wrongdoing on his part. On Thursday, Matt Gaetz of Florida presented an amendment to the impeachment articles that would replace a reference to investigations into Joe Biden with "the true topic of the investigation, Burisma and Hunter Biden".> If Fox News did not exist, the Republican embrace of wild conspiracy theories would not be tenable or possible> > Kurt BardellaAnother Republican defence hinges on political tribalism. Full of righteous indignation, they claim Democrats had been plotting to impeach Trump all along and so the inquiry is a "sham". Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, said Democrats "can't get over the fact Donald Trump is president of the United States and they don't have a candidate that they think can beat him". 'It is incredible'The impeachment inquiry is not the only glimpse into Trump and his allies' parallel universe. This week saw the release of a justice department inspector general report that debunked the conspiracy theory that the investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign and its ties to Russia originated with political bias. The report quoted the FBI deputy general counsel as saying: "The FBI would have been derelict in our responsibility had we not opened the case."Trump's long-held contention that the Russia investigation was a hoax and witch-hunt was demolished before his eyes. Yet his first response from the White House came from a parallel universe in which up is down and two plus two equals five."The IG report just came out, and I was just briefed on it, and it's a disgrace what's happened with respect to the things that were done to our country," he told reporters."It should never again happen to another president. It is incredible. Far worse than I would have ever thought possible. And it's an embarrassment to our country. It's dishonest. It's everything that a lot of people thought it would be, except far worse."Trump turned to Pam Bondi, a special adviser on impeachment and former Florida attorney general to whom he once donated. Like Cruz, she did not disappoint."You know, so many of us who are career law enforcement today are outraged," she said. "And I think the American people really should be terrified that this could happen to you when we're supposed to live in a society of integrity and honesty."Sometimes, Trump just makes stuff up. At a campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, he made the baseless allegation that the former FBI agent Peter Strzok needed a restraining order against ex-colleague Lisa Page when their affair ended. The couple's anti-Trump text messages are a favourite Republican talking point."This poor guy, did I hear he needed a restraining order after this whole thing, to keep him away from Lisa?" Trump asked the crowd. "I don't know if it's true, the fake news will never report it, but it could be true."Page tweeted: "This is a lie. Nothing like this ever happened. I wish we had a president who knew how to act like one. SAD!" 'The attorney general is a Fox News bot'The president has found another useful enabler in Bill Barr, the attorney general, who joined him in dismissing most of the inspector general's findings and promising that his handpicked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the final word.Jeffrey Toobin, a lawyer and legal analyst, told CNN: "The attorney general of the United States is a Fox News bot. And it's an outrage. [Barr] keeps demanding investigation after investigation until he gets the results that he wants? That's something that happens in the Soviet Union, not in the United States."Trump has far more tools at his disposal than Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton did when facing impeachment in the 1970s and 90s. No matter how outlandish, his assertions are amplified and seldom questioned by loyal hosts on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network.Bardella said: "If Fox News did not exist, the Republican embrace of wild conspiracy theories would not be tenable or possible. They are the editorial centre of the Republican party now."This is further augmented by social media. Under the headline "Fact-based impeachment can't penetrate the pro-Trump Web", the Washington Post highlighted how Friday's impeachment hearing was watched by a private Facebook group with more than 75,000 members under the banner "The Trump deplorables".It reported: "The defense mounted by Trump's allies made perfect sense to those following live on social media, in groups sealed off from general scrutiny, where facts are established by volume, and confirmation comes from likes. The effect of social media is to jack up the tenor of everything."This calibrated, multi-pronged Republican assault has left the nation in what some call a state of "truth decay" as all sense of shared reality breaks down. The tactics offer a chilling preview of how the president intends to fight next year's election.Bardella said: "We have one chance to return to a certain amount of normality and respect. Much more than Donald Trump is on the ballot, fact and truth and our democratic way of life are on the ballot."
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| Could This Be The End Of Iran? Posted: 14 Dec 2019 09:05 PM PST  Iran is facing serious internal and external problems.
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| Brexit Bonanza: Is Boris Johnson Ready for His Next Big Win? Posted: 14 Dec 2019 01:30 PM PST  What kind of Brexit will Britain now 'get done' now that Boris Johnson is officially steering the country toward the future?
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| Newtown football title brings joy on painful anniversary Posted: 14 Dec 2019 05:39 AM PST  Newtown marked the seventh anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School with vigils, church services and a moment of joy when the community's high school football team — with a shooting victim's brother as linebacker — won the state championship Saturday in a last-minute thrill. The Newtown High School Nighthawks won the Class LL state championship on a 36-yard touchdown pass as time expired, beating Darien 13-7. The title was the first for Newtown since 1992.
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