| Rare Chinese Bureaucratic Shakeup Reveals Future Leaders Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:40 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- China's sprawling bureaucracy is undergoing a regional reshuffle of a rare scale, with new appointments and job swaps offering hints of potential future leaders being groomed by Beijing.At least 32 new mayoral-level officials have been appointed since Dec. 21, with 29 of them being relocated to a new province for the first time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. The other three are being moved for just the second time. While the Communist Party has routinely relocated minister-level officials from one province to another, that's less common among lower-level officials."We have almost never seen the transfer of mid-level officials between provinces at a scale this massive," said Suisheng Zhao, executive director of the Center for China-U.S. Cooperation at the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies. "Grooming the party's talent pipeline is the most important aspect of Xi Jinping's reform of governance modernization."Xi has repeatedly called for training more capable cadres and the Communist Party's Central Committee vowed in March to accelerate that by promoting the exchange of officials across local areas, departments and state-owned enterprises. The equivalent of the party's human resources department is overseeing the current spate of new appointments, underscoring their importance.The personnel moves come has Xi seeks to control a nationwide economic slowdown amid high pork prices and a trade war with the U.S. The Chinese president might touch on the challenges facing the nation Tuesday evening, when he's expected to deliver an annual New Year's Eve address.Future LeadersSince Dec. 21, when two officials from Zhejiang and Shandong in the east were sent to the predominately-Muslim western region of Xinjiang, new positions have been announced every day.On Monday, Huaian -- a city of about 5 million in Jiangsu -- welcomed its new mayor, Chen Zhichang, the former head of Beijing's Shijingshan district. Born in 1974, Chen spent his whole career in Beijing aside from a short stint in Tibet. His profile is similar to most of the cadres who were moved around this month, who spent most of their working lives in one place.Of the 32 officials who got new jobs, 21 were born after 1970, signaling the emergence of a new generation of leaders.Wang Liqi, born in 1977, was appointed China's youngest mayor. He was nominated to manage Jiuquan City in Gansu, pending rubber-stamp approval by the local legislature. Since graduating from Tsinghua University with a master's degree in engineering in 2003, Wang spent his entire political career in Heilongjiang, a northeastern province bordering Russia.Top-down CampaignA local bureaucrat from Inner Mongolia's Organization Department shed light on the changes when welcoming an official from Chongqing as the new mayor of its Wuhai city.The change in leadership was part of the Central Organization Department's decision "to select and send outstanding cadres on cross-provincial and regional exchanges," local media cited Sun Fulong, the director of Inner Mongolia's Civil Service Bureau as saying on Dec. 24.Sun said the swapping of officials across regions was done to implement Xi's instructions on bureaucratic organization and of "extreme significance to the modernization of national governance."Xi has repeatedly complained about a lack of drive among some local officials, and urged cadres to be more daring and take on more challenges. He warned in January that "the party is facing sharp and serious dangers of a slackness in spirit, lack of ability, distance from the people, and being passive and corrupt."As these reshuffles become more institutionalized, they will help "break the curse of the central government's orders not being able to travel beyond the top leadership's compound of Zhongnanhai," said Zhao. "Party central wants to select people who are not only politically reliable but also have an outstanding performance record, and send them to other provinces to effectively disrupt the intertwined local interest groups."(Updates with Xi's speech in fifth paragraph.)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen, John LiuFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Germany's Merkel urges climate action in New Year message Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:20 PM PST  Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling Germans in her New Year message that "everything humanly possible" must be done to tackle climate change. Merkel said that was the principle behind a recently agreed German package of measures aimed at addressing climate change, which include a carbon dioxide pricing system for the transport and heating sectors and lowering value-added tax on long-distance rail tickets. "It's true that, at 65, I am at an age where I personally won't experience all the consequences of climate change that would arise if politicians didn't act," she said.
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| North Korea Signals Escalation Ahead of Kim’s Big Speech Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:17 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- For months, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been threatening to take a "new path" in nuclear talks if President Donald Trump doesn't sweeten the deal by the end of the year. Now, the world might learn where that road leads.Kim's biggest annual speech -- a televised New Year's address to the North Korean people -- will provide an opportunity hours after his self-imposed deadline passes to signal whether he intends to mend fences or escalate tensions. He has used the event to do both before: previewing a breakthrough intercontinental ballistic missile launch in 2017 and opening the door to talks with South Korea a year later.This time, most signs point to escalation. North Korea has expressed increasing frustration with the American side since Trump walked out of their last formal summit in February. Kim resumed missile launches at a record-setting pace and repeatedly warned that his two-year freeze on ICBM and nuclear-bomb tests might be coming to an end.Even as 2019 drew to a close, Kim was huddled behind closed doors with the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang for one of the most significant such meetings since he took power eight years ago. He urged the so-called plenum "to take positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country as required by the present situation," the Korean Central News Agency said Monday.Party leaders were expected to discuss an "important document" as their next agenda item, the state-run news agency said Tuesday, without elaborating."KCNA's reporting of the party plenum suggests Pyongyang is planning a more hard-line approach next year, if Washington doesn't present a satisfactory deal before the year is out," said Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser on Northeast Asia and nuclear policy at the International Crisis Group. Still, she cautioned: "We just don't know the shape and size that provocations might take next year."Speculation about what message Kim Jong Un might deliver in the televised address Wednesday morning has run the gamut. He might offer stronger rhetoric while keeping the door open for talks. Or he might declare negotiations over and signal an impending weapons test.Any message will come against the politically charged backdrop of a U.S. presidential election, in which Trump's Democratic rivals are seeking to portray him as destabilizing to global security and too accommodating toward autocrats. After three unprecedented face-to-face meetings, Trump has only got Kim to halt ICBM and nuclear tests and make a vague pledge to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."In that time, Kim has continued to develop his weapons program, something he might choose to highlight in his speech. This month, a top North Korean general boasted that a weapons test had strengthened its capacity "for reliably restraining and overpowering the nuclear threat of the U.S." -- a pointed message that breaks with the regime's recent practice of playing down its strategic weapons program.Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Fox News that the U.S. was closely watching events in North Korea. The Trump administration still believed that "we can find a path forward to convince the leadership in North Korea that their best course of action is to create a better opportunity for their people by getting rid of their nuclear weapons," Pompeo said Monday.Suit and TieKim delivered last year's address wearing a suit and tie instead of a military-style uniform as he sat in a plush leather chair in a wood-paneled room. That speech began at 9 a.m. local time New Year's Day -- 7 p.m. New Year's Eve in Washington -- and lasted about half an hour.Such speeches are largely directed at a domestic audience, including lengthy passages about development programs that will be closely parsed for clues about the economic impact of the U.S.-led sanctions regime. Mixed in are messages that appear crafted for international consumption, such as when Kim first issued his "new path" ultimatum on Jan. 1 of this year.Any new path will probably look a lot like North Korea's old path of provocations, taunts and defiance. With a small economy and few resources, there's a limit to new initiatives it can undertake.The key will be how much space Kim leaves for resuming the stalled nuclear talks with Trump, whose preference for personal diplomacy offers Kim opportunities that eluded past North Korean leaders. Go too far and he could anger Trump, alienate his allies in Beijing and return to a risky cycle of threats and counter-threats that alarmed the world in 2017.Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, said Sunday that the administration was ready to respond should Kim fire additional long-range missiles or conduct further nuclear weapons tests. "If Kim Jong Un takes that approach, we'll be extraordinarily disappointed and we'll demonstrate that disappointment," O'Brien said on ABC's "This Week."One intermediate option for Kim is ending his moratorium on the tests of nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can deliver them to the U.S. Twice before -- in 2005 and 2013 -- North Korea resumed provocations within months after scrapping self-imposed moratoriums.He might also announce the resumption of North Korea's "civilian" space program -- considered a provocation by the U.S. because it encompasses technology needed for ICBMs. Kim has been trying to portray North Korea as a normal country and may take steps to increase the exposure of his reclusive state on the global stage.Whatever the rhetoric, the North Korean leader has little incentive to return to days when Trump was threatening to "totally destroy" the country. Kim is unlikely to find a better U.S. negotiating partner than the current U.S. president."His comments at the ongoing meeting emphasize the security of his regime, which hints at what he'll be prioritizing in his New Year's speech," said Choi Soon-mi, who researches North Korean social and economic affairs at Ajou University's Institute of Unification. "He will likely leave doors to talks open for talks with the U.S., but with conditions such as a shift in attitude, because he still has a personal relationship with Trump that hasn't been broken yet."(Updates with KCNA report in fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jon Herskovitz in Tokyo at jherskovitz@bloomberg.net;Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Microsoft says North Korea-linked hackers stole sensitive information Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:47 PM PST  Thallium is believed to be operating from North Korea, Microsoft said in a blog post, and the hackers targeted government employees, think tanks, university staff members and individuals working on nuclear proliferation issues, among others. Most of the targets were based in the United States, as well as Japan and South Korea, the company said. Thallium tricked victims through a technique known as "spear phishing", using credible-looking emails that appear legitimate at first glance.
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| Biden questioned about sharing 2020 ticket with Republican Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:32 PM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden entertained the idea of choosing a Republican as a 2020 running mate as he campaigned Monday — though he conceded he didn't have anyone specific in mind. A voter told Biden during an event Monday afternoon in Exeter, New Hampshire, that her son had wondered if the Democratic presidential contender would consider choosing a Republican as a running mate. "The answer is, I would, but I can't think of one now," Biden said as the crowd laughed.
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| Gazprom, Ukraine Finalize Deal to Ship Russian Gas to Europe Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:14 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- With just a day to spare, Russia and Ukraine signed all agreements necessary to continue gas flows to Europe for the next five years, averting a winter supply crisis."After five days of non-stop bilateral talks in Vienna, final decisions have been taken and final agreements reached," Gazprom PJSC Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller said in an emailed statement, adding that the package of agreements ensures that Russia ships its natural gas via Ukraine beyond Dec. 31. The current gas-transit deal between the two nations expires on Jan. 1.Natural gas flows are a key feature in the fraught relationship between the two countries and getting a final deal done before the end of the year will appease energy traders across Europe. Supplies to the region have been cut twice during in the past 13 years at times of peak demand because of financial and political disputes between the two former Soviet allies."It is the end of the year but not the end of achievements," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a separate statement. "The Ukrainian gas transportation system will be filled and that means energy security and welfare for Ukrainians."Despite tense political relations, Ukraine remains the main export route for Russia's gas to Europe. The nation will earn at least $7 billion from gas transit in the next five years, Zelenskiy said.Gazprom is seeking to lower its reliance on Ukraine's Soviet-era pipeline network to ship its gas and is building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany. Work on that link, which had been planned to be completed this year, halted this month because of U.S. sanctions on the company laying it.Eastern European nations have been strongly opposed to Nord Stream 2 as it could allow Gazprom to cut off their supply while continuing to supply its main markets in western Europe."The imposition of the U.S. sanctions related to Nord Stream 2 project" facilitated the negotiations, said Andriy Kobolyev, the chief executive officer of Ukrainian national gas company Naftogaz JSC.In line with a framework deal reached earlier in December with the help of European Union officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to continue gas transit through 2024. The two nations have met all the pre-conditions outlined in that accord, including mutual legal issues, they said.However, Naftogaz is not dropping its claims against Russia regarding its assets seized in the Crimea Peninsula annexed in 2014, the Ukrainian company said.The first bilateral talks between Zelenskiy and Russia's Vladimir Putin earlier this month added impetus to get the deals done. The leaders met during the so-called Normandy peace talks with France and Germany about the military conflict in eastern Ukraine. That meeting also accelerated the process of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and two breakaway regions supported by the Kremlin.The agreements between Russia and Ukraine support European energy security, as Russia has been the EU's dominant, and often cheapest, energy supplier with Gazprom providing about 37% of region's fuel last year.The Russian gas producer has paid Ukraine's gas company Naftogaz $2.9 billion, as awarded by a Stockholm arbitration court in 2018. In return, Naftogaz withdrew its $12.2 billion legal claim relating to transit. At the same time, the Ukrainian government approved an "amicable agreement" with Gazprom on canceling an antitrust claim that has reached about $7.2 billion.Legal ClaimsBoth companies have agreed not to start any new gas lawsuits against each other related to the current contract and to cancel all their current legal claims not subject to court rulings.Gazprom also signed an interconnection agreement with Ukraine's new gas-transportation system operator and an accord with Naftogaz, which will organize the transit of the fuel through Ukraine. Gazprom will pay Naftogaz for provided services. At the same time, Naftogaz reached a separate transit agreement with the nation's gas-pipeline operator to book the necessary capacities. The national regulator will decide on the tariff.It was Gazprom who insisted on the presence of Naftogaz in the transit chain."The fact is that Gazprom isn't ready to work under a standard contract and take on all of the risks of Ukrainian legislation and regulation, especially the risks of changes in the regulatory framework that can happen any day," Yuriy Vitrenko, executive director at Naftogaz, said on Dec. 21. "Naftogaz is more adapted to such risks as it's a national company owned by the Ukrainian government."Ukraine will reserve a pipeline capacity of 65 billion cubic meters for Russian gas next year and 40 billion cubic meters a year in 2021-2024, according to the protocol. These are the minimum volumes, while the actual transit can be higher, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with RBC. There is also a "pump or pay" clause that ensures Ukrainian income, Naftogaz Chief Commercial Officer Yuriy Vitrenko said.Last year Gazprom sent 87 billion cubic meters via Ukraine, just shy of total consumption in Germany, Europe's biggest user of the fuel.The companies also agreed to consider transit through 2034. An extension may be on the same terms as the five-year deal, according to Ukraine's Energy Ministry.The package of the gas agreements does not include a deal on direct Russian gas supplies to Ukraine."Naftogaz noted Gazprom's interest in resuming gas supply to Ukraine" based on prices at the NetConnect Germany gas hub, the Ukrainian company said, confirming an earlier statement from the Russian producer.(Updates with Naftogaz comment in eighth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Khrennikova in Moscow at dkhrennikova@bloomberg.net;Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net;Olga Tanas in Moscow at otanas@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Rob VerdonckFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Woman sues Epstein estate, says she was 14 during encounter Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:06 PM PST  A woman who says she was 14 when she had a sexual encounter with financier Jeffrey Epstein at his mansion sued his estate in Florida court on Monday for coercion, inflicting emotional distress and battery. The woman went to Epstein's Florida mansion in 2003 when she was "a vulnerable child without adequate parental support," the lawsuit said. According to the lawsuit, the teenager was first approached by another teenage girl who offered her $200 to give Epstein a massage at his mansion.
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| Angela Merkel Issues Stark Warning on ‘Real, Alarming’ Climate Change Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel called global warming "real" and "alarming" in her New Year's address, saying she will do "everything in her power" to make sure Germany makes a meaningful contribution to tackling it."It is our children and grandchildren who will have to live with the consequences of what we do, or fail to do, today," Merkel said in the written version of a televised address that will be broadcast on Tuesday."So I am devoting all my powers to ensuring that Germany makes its contribution -- ecologically, economically and socially -- to getting to grips with climate change," added the German leader.Merkel acknowledged the shortcomings of a much-criticized package of measures her coalition government agreed in September, saying she is aware that some are concerned the measures are too demanding, while others fear they do not go far enough.Germany's upper house of parliament approved the core element of the package this month, including a higher levy on carbon pollution than first planned. Critics ranging from environmental activists to utilities decried the initial tax as too low to help stem global warming."The warming of our planet is real. It is alarming," Merkel said. "It, and the crises emerging from global warming, are caused by humans. So we must do everything humanly possible to overcome this challenge to humanity. It is still possible."\--With assistance from Brian Parkin.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Rogers in Berlin at irogers11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Schaefer at dschaefer36@bloomberg.net, Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump sets 'red line' for Tehran amid mounting risks Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:37 PM PST  President Donald Trump's order for airstrikes on a Tehran-backed Iraqi militia group, after resisting retaliating against Iran for months, sent a clear message Sunday that killing Americans was his red line. US officials said Monday that Trump had exercised "strategic patience" during the past year in the face of Iran's stepped-up military activities in the region challenging the US and its allies.
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| US: strikes on Iran-backed militia a response to 'campaign' of attacks by Tehran Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:11 PM PST  Senior official says Tehran has directed campaign against US forces in Iraq and warns further escalation will be Iran's responsibilityAirstrikes against an Iranian-backed militia on Sunday followed an intensifying campaign of attacks directed by Tehran against US forces in Iraq, administration officials have said, warning that any further escalation in the region will be Iran's responsibility.A senior US official said there had been 11 attacks against Iraqi bases hosting coalition forces in Iraq over the past two months, many of them carried out by a Shia militia group, Kata'ib Hizbullah (KH), culminating in an attack on a base near Kirkuk on Friday, killing a US contractor and injuring US and Iraqi soldiers.On Sunday, the US conducted retaliatory airstrikes against five KH bases in Iraq and Syria, which KH said killed 19 of its fighters and injured 35."This was an Iranian-backed rogue militia acting to deny the Iraqi people their basic sovereignty," Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said on Monday, singling out Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the commander of the country's Revolutionary Guard Quds force, Qassem Suleimani, for blame."President Trump's been pretty darn patient, and he's made clear at the same time that when Americans' lives were at risk we would respond, and that's what the department of defence did yesterday."US officials have restated US policy that Washington would make no distinction between Iranian forces and what are deemed to be Iranian-backed militias if US interests come under attack."We know that KH was responsible for the attacks," the senior official said. "Kitaib Hizballah is very well armed and trained by Iran, and they are responsible for many of these attacks against American troops and Iraqi troops.""I would say that this obviously is a campaign," the official added.Russia and Iran have denounced the airstrikes. In the wake of the airstrikes, the commander of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a Shia militia umbrella group in Iraq, warned: "The blood of the martyrs will not be in vain and our response will be very tough on the American forces in Iraq."Asked about the risk of an escalating and increasingly direct conflict between US and Iranian forces, the US official said: "If there's any further escalation, it lies directly at the feet or Iran's proxies in Iraq, not on us.""It's very important that we not tolerate that kind of behavior because if, if we don't respond, it will invite further aggression," a second US official said. "President Trump directed our armed forces to respond in a way the Iranian regime will understand. And this is the language they speak."US officials also vented frustration at the Iraqi government, which has said it would review its relationship with US forces in the wake of Sunday's airstrikes."We're disappointed with those statements," one official said. "We're disappointed that every time that Kitaib Hizballah controls and moves weapons and people on behalf of the Iranians, there's no condemnation.""We have frequent and robust exchanges with the Iraqi government about these threats and have, for some time. And we absolutely told them that we were going to be taking action against this particular attack," he added. "Yeah, it's disappointing, but it's moments like this when you see people's true colours."
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| Iraq warns US ties at stake after deadly strikes Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:38 PM PST  Iraq's government warned Monday that its relations with the United States were at risk after deadly American air strikes against a pro-Iran group sparked anger on the streets, with protesters torching US flags. Baghdad said it would summon the US ambassador while Washington responded by accusing Iraqi authorities of having failed to "protect" US interests. The attacks came as Iraq is caught up in mounting tensions between its allies Tehran and Washington while it also grapples with huge street protests against corruption and Iran's growing political influence in the country.
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| N Carolina diocese publishes list of credibly accused clergy Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:27 PM PST ![N Carolina diocese publishes list of credibly accused clergy]( "N Carolina diocese publishes list of credibly accused clergy") A Catholic diocese in North Carolina on Monday published a list of 14 clergy who it says have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse in the nearly 50 years since the diocese was established. The Diocese of Charlotte also listed six clergy members who served the area before the diocese was formed in 1972, and 23 clergy members from the diocese who were accused of misconduct while working for the church in other places. "To all who have been victimized by Catholic clergy, I apologize on behalf of the diocese and express to you personally my heartfelt sorrow for the physical, emotional and spiritual pain you have suffered," the Rev. Peter Jugis wrote on the diocese's website.
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| Russian New Year attack suspects remanded in custody Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:11 PM PST  The FSB security service announced on its website that the two men had been detained Friday based on information provided from "American partners", and that both have confessed to preparing attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday thanked US President Donald Trump for intelligence that helped foil the attack. The men are 22-year-old Nikita Semyonov and 23-year-old Georgiy Chernyshov, the local court service said in a statement following a closed hearing Monday in Saint-Petersburg, after a judge ruled that they be held pending the investigation.
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| Iranian-backed militia threatens retaliation for US strikes on their forces in Iraq and Syria Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:05 PM PST  An Iran-backed militia vowed on Monday to retaliate for US military strikes in Iraq and Syria which killed 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens. "Our battle with America and its mercenaries is now open to all possibilities," Kataib Hizbollah said in a statement. "We have no alternative today other than confrontation and there is nothing that will prevent us from responding to this crime." Iraq described the attacks on Kataib Hizbollah as a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty, and Iran said the airstrikes were "an obvious case of terrorism". Moqtada al-Sadr, the notorious Iraqi Shia cleric, said on Monday that he was willing to work with Iran-backed militia groups - his political rivals - to end the United States military presence in Iraq through political and legal means. If that does not work, he will "take other actions" in cooperation with his rivals to kick out US troops. Sadr's militia fought US troops for years following Washington's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraqi Shiite cleric and leader Moqtada al-Sadr attends a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister in Najaf on June 23, 2018 The US launched strikes against five targets in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, aiming to damage Kataib Hizbollah – a separate entity to the better-known Hizbollah, based in Lebanon. The US blames the group for the killing last week of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base. The US attack - the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia since 2011 - represents a new escalation in the proxy war between the US and Iran playing out in the Middle East. Russia's foreign ministry called the "exchange of strikes" between Kataib Hizbollah and US forces in Iraq "unacceptable," and called for restraint from both sides. "We consider such actions unacceptable and counterproductive. We call upon all parties to refrain from further actions that could sharply destabilise the military-political situation in Iraq, Syria, and the neighboring countries," a ministry statement said. Thousands of protesters blocked roads and bridges across southern Iraq on Dec 23, condemning Iranian influence and political leaders who missed another deadline to agree on a new prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, praised the "important" strikes, in a phone call to Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state. Mr Netanyahu "congratulated him on the important US action against Iran and its proxies in the region," according to a statement issued by the Israeli leader's office. Mr Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardise American lives. "We have repeatedly – the president, the secretary of state - made clear that if we are attacked by the regime or its proxies we will respond," said Brian Hook, Donald Trump's special envoy to Iran. He refused to comment on further possible actions. The US has maintained some 5,000 troops in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, to help assist in the fight against the Islamic State group. But on Monday Iraq's prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said that invitation could now be rescinded. "The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences," his office said.
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| The U.N. Tried to Save Hospitals in Syria. It Didn't Work. Posted: 30 Dec 2019 11:50 AM PST  A United Nations system to prevent attacks on hospitals and other humanitarian sites in insurgent-held areas of Syria has been ignored by Russian and Syrian forces and marred by internal errors, a New York Times investigation has found.The repeated bombing and shelling of these sites has led relief group leaders to openly criticize the United Nations over the system, which is meant to provide warring parties with the precise locations of humanitarian sites that under international law are exempt from attack. Some of these groups have described the system of identifying and sharing sites, known as the "humanitarian deconfliction mechanism," as effectively useless.A new offensive by Syrian and Russian forces that began in late December has devastated what remains of several towns in northwestern Syria and caused tens of thousands of civilians to flee.U.N. officials only recently created a unit to verify locations provided by relief groups that managed the exempt sites, some of which had been submitted incorrectly, The Times found. Such instances of misinformation give credibility to Russian criticisms that the system cannot be trusted and is vulnerable to misuse."The level and scale of attacks has not really decreased," said Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh, the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports more than 40 hospitals and other sites in insurgent-held areas of northwestern Syria. "We can say categorically that in terms of accountability, in terms of deterrence, that doesn't work."The Times compiled a list of 182 no-strike sites by using data provided by five relief groups and compiling public statements from others. Of those facilities, 27 were damaged by Russian or Syrian attacks since April. All were hospitals or clinics. Such a list is likely to represent only a small portion of the exempt sites struck during the Syrian war, now almost nine years old.Under international law, intentionally or recklessly bombing hospitals is a war crime.The deconfliction system works by sharing the location of humanitarian sites with Russian, Turkish and U.S.-led coalition forces operating in Syria, on the understanding that they will not target those sites. The system is voluntary, but relief groups said they felt intense pressure from donors and U.N.officials to participate. The groups give locations of their own choosing to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the agency that runs the system.A document prepared by the agency warned that participation in the system "does not guarantee" the safety of the sites or their personnel. The document also stated that the United Nations would not verify information provided by participating groups. The system also does not require the Russians, Turks or Americans to acknowledge receipt of no-strike locations.Whether such an arrangement could ever be successful in the brutal Syria conflict, where laws of war are disregarded on a daily basis, is an open question.The forces of President Bashar Assad of Syria, alongside their Russian allies, have acted as if the deconfliction system did not exist. Local journalists and relief groups have recorded at least 69 attacks on no-strike sites since the Russian military intervention to help Assad began in October 2015, all but a few of them most likely committed by Russian or Syrian forces.Jan Egeland, a Norwegian diplomat who was an adviser to the United Nations on Syria from 2015 to 2018, said the United Nations had failed to impose sufficient repercussions on those responsible."In general, deconfliction can work if there is a very loud, very noisy, very reliable investigation follow-up, accountability-oriented mechanism around it," Egeland said, "so that the men who sit with their finger on the trigger understand there will be consequences if they don't check the list or if they even deliberately target deconflicted places."But Russia has repeatedly blocked action in the U.N. Security Council meant to strengthen accountability and humanitarian access in the Syria war, casting 14 vetoes since the conflict began, including for a resolution that would have referred Syria to the International Criminal Court. Russia's latest veto, on Dec. 20, could halt deliveries of humanitarian aid into Syria from Turkey and Iraq starting next month.In August, the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres established a board of inquiry to investigate strikes on deconflicted sites, as well as other locations supported by the United Nations. But the investigators are currently planning to examine only seven of the dozens of attacks since April, and may not identify the perpetrators or even make their report public, a limited scope that has further angered humanitarian groups.Growing frustration over the failure of the deconfliction system led to a June meeting between an association of relief groups and Trond Jensen, a top U.N. humanitarian official in Turkey who has since moved to a new position in Gaza.A summary of the meeting sent to participants afterward by Jensen and obtained by The Times acknowledged "a huge trust deficit in the process and with those who manage it."Relief groups felt they were putting the lives of their colleagues and other civilians at risk by participating, Jensen's summary said.Fadi al-Dairi, chairman of the association that met with Jensen, said that the United Nations and humanitarian groups had acted in "good faith" when they began using the system but that "we've not achieved anything.""There is a sense of frustration, lack of trust in everyone," said al-Dairi, who is a co-founder of Hand in Hand for Aid and Development, which supports 53 deconflicted sites in Syria.Though the deconfliction system has existed for years, al-Dairi and others involved in relief efforts said that the U.N. humanitarian agency had only recently hired dedicated deconfliction staff in southern Turkey and Amman, Jordan, to verify locations of deconflicted sites so that false information was not sent to the warring parties.Previously, U.N. officials had told the groups that they did not have the capacity to hire more people, al-Dairi said."Some NGOs might lack the skills when it comes to reporting the coordinates," al-Dairi said of the groups, "but it's up to the U.N. to confirm it.""It is a matter of life and death," he added, "so that's why they should have been more proactive, like they are now."U.N. humanitarian officials privately told The Times that some relief groups had previously submitted incorrect locations and that, although rare, in a few cases misinformation had been shared with Russia, Turkey and the American-led coalition.The U.N. humanitarian agency has taken steps to improve the system in recent months, including the creation of a "centralized entity" to run it, according to Zoe Paxton, a spokeswoman for the agency. It also is now giving participant organizations a second opportunity to confirm submitted locations. U.N. officials emphasize that under international law, the warring parties are responsible for verifying targets and minimizing harm.Assad's government, which has effectively criminalized the providing of health care in opposition-held areas, has repeatedly bombed humanitarian sites. Russian officials claim their air force carries out only precision strikes on "accurately researched targets," and they have attacked the integrity of the deconfliction system.Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, told a news conference in September that Russian military reconnaissance had discovered "lots of instances of deliberate disinformation" in the system.One site listed as a hospital was actually being used to store firearms, Nebenzia claimed, while other sites had been submitted with coordinates sometimes up to 10 kilometers from their real locations."To get you a sense of an 'iceberg' size here, I will just say that only in July alone we were provided with 12 false coordinates," he said. "And that is only about what we had capacity and time to check."While some of Nebenzia's claims were shown to be false, at least three relief groups did submit incorrect coordinates to the United Nations on various occasions, The Times found.While investigating an airstrike in November, The Times discovered that a relief group had provided coordinates for its health center that were around 240 meters away. When another hospital was bombed in May, The Times found that the coordinates submitted by its supporting organization pointed to an unrelated structure around 765 meters north.After questions from The Times prompted the organization to review its deconfliction list, a staff member discovered that it had provided the United Nations with incorrect locations for 14 of its 19 deconflicted sites. The original locations had been logged by a pharmacist. The list had been with the U. N. humanitarian agency for eight months, and no one had contacted the organization to correct the locations, a member of the organization's staff said.Al-Dairi and others involved in relief work said they assumed Russian and Syrian forces could find and target hospitals and other humanitarian sites without using the information shared by the United Nations. But they said they felt pressured to join the deconfliction system and had to convince skeptical Syrian doctors and aid workers to let them share their locations, knowing the information would go to the Russians and almost assuredly their Syrian government allies.Dr. Munzer al-Khalil, the head of the Idlib Health Directorate, which oversees health care in Syria's last opposition-held province, said many international donors would not support medical facilities unless they joined the U.N.'s deconfliction system."Therefore, we did not have much of an option," al-Khalil said. "We paid a price by sharing the coordinates of the medical facilities with the United Nations. And what we got lately, frankly, was more bombing of medical facilities, and more precise bombing, and more destructive than before."Relief group leaders said that their only remaining hope was that adding their sites to the deconfliction list had left Russia and the Syrian government with no deniability -- important for theoretical war crimes trials decades in the future."We truly believe the world has abandoned us," al-Khalil said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Suspect planning Russia attack pledged to IS: FSB Posted: 30 Dec 2019 10:09 AM PST  A suspect detained for planning an attack in Saint Petersburg during New Year's festivities had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, Russia's FSB security service said on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday thanked US President Donald Trump for intelligence that helped foil the attack. Two men, both Russian citizens, were arrested on Friday suspected of planning the attack.
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| Hasan Minhaj’s 2020 Advice: Be Like Mitch McConnell Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:48 AM PST  Before signing off for 2019, Hasan Minhaj has turned his eye towards 2020. The host of Netflix's Patriot Act ended his final episode of the year by sharing some updates from stories he covered earlier in the year, including an interview during which he tried to get Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accept Islam as his "one true faith." Two weeks later, his brownface scandal erupted. "Little did I know he had actually converted decades ago," Minhaj joked. The biggest problem of 2019, he went on to argue, is that "we're exposed to all the news, all the time, which makes us feel like we have to care about everything all the time." It's called "compassion fatigue" and Minhaj compared it to feeling like you have "50 tabs open in our mental browsers and we're about to crash." "You know who really figured out 2019?" he asked, before adding, "You're not going to like this." He was talking about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "We've shat on Mitch McConnell all year. 'He's a goblin, he's a skin tag with glasses, he looks like something from a wax museum dumpster.' He doesn't give a fuck." To extend Minhaj's analogy, McConnell "closed all tabs, except for the Republican Party and locking down the courts." And he thinks those on the other side of the political divide should do the same.Hasan Minhaj Fires Back at Saudi Arabia for Censoring His Netflix Show 'Patriot Act'"So here's what I'm pitching," he continued. "For 2020, give yourself a break. Just pick a couple things to not care about, for your sanity. I'm not saying shut down your browser. Just close a couple tabs." For himself, Minhaj has decided to let other people worry about plastic straws, North Korea and brownface. "I know, that's supposed to be my issue," he said. "But I've got other tabs to focus on. So if someone comes up to me and is like, 'Did you hear? Joe Biden dressed up as Apu for Halloween!' I'd be like, 'Yo, I bet the accent was funny.'" Minhaj acknowledged that it was "weird" to hear this advice from a host—much like his fellow Daily Show alum John Oliver—who "tells you to care about something new every week." And he promised to keep doing so in 2020, something that was an open question before Patriot Act aired the 32nd episode of its initial 32-episode order this past week. "I'll see you guys in 2020," he concluded. "We've got a few more tabs to open." For more, listen to the most recent episodes of The Last Laugh podcast. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Pompeo to visit Ukraine as Senate weighs impeachment trial Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:40 AM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine this week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Donald Trump's impeachment. As the Senate weighs options for a trial, Pompeo will depart Thursday on a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia. Ukraine will be the first stop on the trip, the State Department said Monday.
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| With births down, U.S. had slowest growth rate in a century Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:25 AM PST  The past year's population growth rate in the United States was the slowest in a century due to declining births, increasing deaths and the slowdown of international migration, according to figures released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. grew from 2018 to 2019 by almost a half percent, or about 1.5 million people, with the population standing at 328 million this year, according to population estimates. For the first time in decades, natural increase — the number of births minus the number of deaths — was less than 1 million in the U.S. due to an aging population of Baby Boomers, whose oldest members entered their 70s within the past several years.
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| Report: Iran's Guard seizes ship over smuggling fuel in Gulf Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:11 AM PST ![Report: Iran's Guard seizes ship over smuggling fuel in Gulf]( "Report: Iran's Guard seizes ship over smuggling fuel in Gulf") Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized on Monday a ship in the Persian Gulf suspected of carrying smuggled fuel, state media reported. The official IRNA news agency said the seized ship was carrying more than 1.3 million liters of fuel near Abu Musa Island at the mouth of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The Guard patrols the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf waters and has seized several ships in the area in the past year.
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| Maximum Pressure on Iran Is Working. That’s Why It’s Lashing Out. Let’s Keep It Up. Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:05 AM PST  In a clear sign that the Islamic regime in Iran is worried about its survival, it has increased its attacks on American interests in the region, including the launch of missiles by its proxy Kataib Hizbollah on Friday that killed one American civilian contractor and injured several U.S. and Iraqi military officers. In response, the Trump administration engaged in some signaling of its own, hitting five targets in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, reportedly destroying the group's munitions depot and control center and killing one commander. Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman, warned Iran that unless it stops its malign behavior the United States will continue to defend itself. Iran Demands a $15 Billion Credit Before Resuming Talks With Trump and EUSo while the Iranian regime may have gambled on a show of force to rally its base, the response from Washington was likely more than the clerics bargained for. Washington is calling the regime's bluff, in fact. Tehran may have believed that America would not retaliate. In the past, Donald Trump showed restraint when a U.S. drone was shot out of the sky and Saudi oil facilities were hit by missiles reportedly coming out of Iran. But the attacks on Friday demanded a military response, and they got one.Good. Exposing the regime's weaknesses, economically and now militarily, may be the best strategy yet of putting the squeeze on Tehran. The 13th century Iranian poet Saadi Shirazi had a saying that perfectly captures Donald Trump's understanding of the regime in Iran: "If you want to bring a mullah down from his high horses, make sure both he and the four-legged animal are hungry." By all accounts the campaign of 'maximum pressure' is wreaking economic and psychological havoc on the regime and the mullahs are scared. During the recent uprisings the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC ) cracked down brutally on the protestors and killed more than 1,500 in the deadliest uprising since the Iranian Revolution.The Islamic leadership continues to blame America, Israel, dissidents like Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's late Shah, and Masih Alinejad, Iranian activist and the founder of the grassroots campaign of civil-disobedience My Stealthy Freedom, for the country's troubles. But the reality is starkly different. Decades of economic mismanagement and political isolation have ruined the lives of Iranians and dashed the hopes of young people. To make matters worse, recent droughts and destructive floods have hurt the farmers and low-income households who traditionally form the base of the regime's support. So while the sanctions are in fact hurting the Iranian people, in a rebuttal to the regime the Iranians refuse to blame America for their misery. Instead, their chants are "Death to the Dictator" and if they feel especially brave "Death to Khamenei," referring to the country's Supreme Leader, who they see as having sold Iran to an outdated revolutionary ideology. Multiple accounts have emerged of Iranian officials demanding grieving parents reimburse the cost of ammunition used to slaughter their children and keep silent if they want to retrieve their bodies. The mullahs are still riding the horse, but the horse, bone-tired and hungry, is refusing to go along.How did we get here?The Iranian Regime has long been running on ideological fumes, imposing strict Islamic law on one of the Middle East's most moderate, well-educated populations. While wide-ranging social freedoms were curtailed, the oil-rich regime stayed in power through a rentier system, providing heavily subsidized goods and a wide social safety net, all funded through oil sales.The U.S. maximum pressure campaign has brought Iranian oil sales crashing down, from 2.1 million barrels in 2017 to as low as 160,000 barrels in August 2019. With the oil valves almost shut, the mullahs have realized that their tired ideology cannot feed the people or grease the machinations of their regional meddling. Can Trump Lie His Way Out of War With Iran? Yep. That's What He's Been Doing.In response to the wide-ranging protests which spread to 29 of Iran's 31 provinces, Iran authorized a brutal crackdown and shut off Iran's internet to keep the world from bearing witness. Many hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests seemed cow the population into relative submission and the latest protests have for the most part fizzled out. But the "moderate" Rouhani regime which seeks engagement with Europe eventually got the internet restored—and then what began as a trickle of videos in response to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's request for footage of the crackdown has, at last count, cascaded into over 20,000 videos showing countless horrors. Where do we go from here?Successive American administrations have sought accommodation with Tehran to no avail. From secret negotiations to multilateral treaties like the landmark nuclear deal, America has failed to curb Iran's malfeasance. The U.S. also has tried and failed to empower reformists and moderates on the streets and in Iranian political circles by funding television broadcasts such as the Voice of America. But Iranian civil rights activist Masih Alinejad believes that "reformers" and "moderates" are a western miscategorization when applied to the Iranian context where the reformists and the conservative are all the same. One need only look at the statements, or silence, of Iran's most prominent reformist and moderate politicians to see that she is correct. True reformers would vigorously defend Iranian protesters—who, under Article 24 of the Islamic Revolution's own constitution, have the right to freedom of expression. True moderates would condemn the killing of unarmed children by the country's security services. But instead, Iranian leaders argued that the protests were sponsored by foreigners or they have kept quiet altogether. As such, we need to realize that the people who need empowering are not in the Iranian parliament or in the President's Office. Rather, they are on the streets of Iran and right here in the U.S., and efforts should be made to widen their audience so their practical ideas about the future of Iran could be heard.We also need to continue the maximum pressure campaign, provide Iranians with the right cyber technology that evades internet shutdowns, blacklist Iranian operatives involved in the slaughter, make public the secret bank accounts of the regime elite, shine light on the opulent lifestyle of their children in western countries, and name and shame the regime for its human rights abuses as ambassador Nikki Haley did when she was at the United Nations. Since the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic regime has repeated the narrative that America is the bane of its existence regardless of what America does. The Obama administration stood by during Iran's violent 2009 uprisings, calculating that any word of support would be used by the regime to blame "the Great Satan." The result? America was blamed anyway, even in the face of a measured, and some say, half-hearted response. The question is, if Washington will be seen as a culprit, why not do something helpful?There is no shame in opposing a heinous regime that kills its own people and President Trump was right to call out the mullahs for their duplicitous ways and dangerous and destabilizing meddling in the region. Judging from the reaction of the Islamic regime to the latest round of protests, this regime's demise may already have begun. The challenge for this administration and the next is making sure to stay the course. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Trump's national security adviser thinks Kim Jong Un's family name is Un Posted: 30 Dec 2019 08:24 AM PST  A national security adviser should probably know what to call the most notorious dictator in the world.But President Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien seemed unsure of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's name in a Sunday interview with ABC News' Jon Karl. When asked about North Korea's threatened "Christmas gift" that failed to materialize, O'Brien referred to Kim as "Chairman Un," which is not how he's supposed to be acknowledged.North Korea has reportedly been ramping up missile tests in the past few weeks, and promised to deliver a "Christmas gift" to the U.S. if denuclearization talks continued to stall. Christmas passed without any sign of a missile launch or attack, and O'Brien said Sunday that Kim may have reconsidered his threat. Still, "we always monitor the situation" because "Chairman Un has said that there would be something over Christmas," O'Brien said.That's where O'Brien swapped Kim's family name for his given name — Chairman Kim would've been the right way of putting it. O'Brien may want a quick refresher on how Korean and other east Asian names work in case he ends up succeeding Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who may step down to run for Senate in Kansas.More stories from theweek.com Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details The best headlines of 2019
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| Lebanese protesters defy capital controls in sit-in Posted: 30 Dec 2019 08:00 AM PST  Lebanese protesters staged a sit-in inside a commercial bank in the capital Beirut on Monday, forcing tellers to give them more than the weekly limit for withdrawal amid a wave of protests against recent capital controls. Amid a spiraling financial crisis, Lebanese banks have imposed informal withdrawal limits of a maximum $300 a week and totally halted transfers abroad. Anti-government protesters, who largely blame the country's dire economy on corrupt politicians, say the limits are illegal and have turned their ire against bank officials and the financial sector.
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| Putin’s Hypersonic Nuclear Missile Stirs Fears of Arms Race Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:30 AM PST ![Putin's Hypersonic Nuclear Missile Stirs Fears of Arms Race]( "Putin's Hypersonic Nuclear Missile Stirs Fears of Arms Race") (Bloomberg) -- A new hypersonic nuclear missile that Russia says it has deployed is fueling concerns of a new arms race with the U.S. as the clock ticks down on the expiry of the last treaty limiting the strategic arsenals of the two former Cold War foes.Russia's first regiment of Avangard missiles was commissioned in the Urals region of Orenberg, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Dec. 27, days after President Vladimir Putin boasted that the new weapon could penetrate any defensive shield."Not a single country possesses hypersonic weapons, let alone continental-range hypersonic weapons," Putin told military chiefs. "They're trying to catch up with us."The Russian leader unveiled the Avangard and five other new-generation weapons in his annual state-of-the-nation address in March 2018, saying it could travel at up to 20 times the speed of sound like a "meteorite" or a "fireball."The new weapon has gone into service amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of a landmark 1987 treaty banning deployment of short- and medium-range missiles, accusing Russia of being in breach of its terms. The Kremlin, which withdrew from the pact in response, denied the allegation.Nuclear TreatyRussia and the U.S. are also confronting each other over alleged Kremlin meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and Iran's nuclear program.The two sides are deadlocked over the future of the 2010 New START treaty that limits their nuclear arsenals and is due to expire in February 2021. The Trump administration has so far rebuffed Russian calls to begin talks on extending the treaty, saying that any new accord should include China, which refuses to accept limits on its much smaller nuclear capability.U.S. experts visited a facility with Avangard missiles in November as part of a system of mutual inspections under the treaty."It is important to note that the Avangard system is being deployed in small numbers and is accountable under the New START agreement for as long as New START lasts," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.The demise of New START "will have a disastrous impact" on the strategic balance between Russia and the U.S., said Alexander Golts, an independent defense analyst in Moscow. "We'll be going back to the period that led up to the Cuban missile crisis" in 1962, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. came close to nuclear war, he said.While the U.S. alongside China is also developing hypersonic technology, it's probably "a couple of years" away from producing a weapon of such a caliber, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in August. The general who oversees U.S. nuclear forces, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, said in February that hypersonic missiles can strike America within 15 minutes, half the time of ballistic weapons.'Technologically Ahead'"This is an unprecedented situation in which we see that Russia is technologically ahead of the U.S. and the Pentagon is playing catch-up," said Nikolai Sokov, a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation. "The U.S. only woke up this year to this technology and has started to throw money at it."Russia successfully tested Avangard in December last year, firing it from a military base in the southern Urals 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) to the Kamchatka peninsula. After a ballistic launch, the Avangard glides toward its target with a high degree of maneuverability.The difference between the hypersonic weapon and a traditional ballistic missile is that it "disappears and we don't see it until the effect is delivered," Hyten said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.Claims the Avangard can evade any defenses are overblown since it can be shot down in the early ballistic phase of its trajectory, said Golts, the defense analyst. The real breakthrough will come when Russia implements the same technology in another weapon class, like cruise missiles, according to Sokov, the disarmament expert.Abandoning New START at this juncture would be a major mistake, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley warned this month. There's bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress for extending the agreement, which "has successfully kept the U.S. and Russia out of a modern-day nuclear arms race," he said on Twitter. "We cannot risk unleashing a new Cold War."(Adds arms control campaigner's comment in ninth paragraph)\--With assistance from Stepan Kravchenko.To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Torrey Clark, Tony HalpinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Moderate quake hits southern Iran Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:48 AM PST ![Moderate quake hits southern Iran]( "Moderate quake hits southern Iran") A magnitude 5.4 earthquake on Monday struck a town in southern Iran, the country's seismology center reported. The quake jolted for about eight seconds the village of Qale Qazi, which is some 40 kilometers northeast of the major port city, Bandar Abbas. Iran is on major seismic faults and experiences one earthquake a day on average.
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| Powerful winter storm lingers in Upper Midwest Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:48 AM PST  A fierce winter storm that created blizzard conditions in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota shut down interstates, led to hundreds of vehicle crashes and brought a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 people to a standstill on Monday morning. Residents in the Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota area who are used to snowstorms were told to stay home after a foot of heavy, wet snow made that fell on top of a sheet of ice made travel difficult and stoked early fears about spring flooding. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning in northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where periods of heavy snow and gusty winds were expected to create difficult travel conditions.
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| Britain leaves EU on Jan. 31. But here’s why Brexit won’t be ‘done.’ Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:30 AM PST ![Britain leaves EU on Jan. 31. But here's why Brexit won't be 'done.']( "Britain leaves EU on Jan. 31. But here's why Brexit won't be 'done.'") Brexit is set to officially happen on Jan. 31. But the trade negotiations with the EU that will follow could be harder than what's come before.
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| Greta Thunberg calls world leaders' attacks on her 'just funny' Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:57 AM PST  Greta Thunberg says it's "just funny" when she's personally attacked by world leaders like President Trump.The 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, who earlier this month was named Time's person of the year, spoke with Today on BBC Radio on Monday and was asked about recent attacks on her, such as when Trump lashed out at her in a tweet by claiming she has an anger management problem or when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called her a "brat.""Those attacks are just funny because they obviously don't mean anything," Thunberg said. "Well, I guess, of course, it means something. It means they are terrified of young people bringing change, which they don't want."Thunberg went on to say that these attacks are "proof that we are actually doing something and that they see us as some kind of threat."This comes after Trump went after Thunberg on Twitter in response to Time's decision to name her person of the year, writing she "must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend!"Asked in the BBC interview whether Trump is one of those people who sees her as a threat, Thunberg said "it's possible.""Not me, of course, me myself alone am not much of a threat," she added. "But it's that I'm a part of a big movement that they probably see as a threat."Thunberg also reiterated that a meeting with Trump at the United Nations earlier this year would not have been productive, saying that even if she did have an opportunity to speak with the president, she "wouldn't have wasted my time."More stories from theweek.com Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details The best headlines of 2019
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| 10 things you need to know today: December 30, 2019 Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:56 AM PST ![10 things you need to know today: December 30, 2019]( "10 things you need to know today: December 30, 2019") 1.Taliban leaders on Sunday agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Afghanistan, providing an opening for a peace deal with the U.S. The Taliban ruling council did not immediately set a date for the start of the ceasefire, The Associated Press reported, citing officials from the Islamist militant group, but it is expected to last for 10 days. The United States has said the only way it will reach a peace agreement with the Taliban is if there is already a ceasefire in place. Under a peace deal, the U.S. presumably would agree to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan; there are now about 12,000 American troops in the country. After the U.S. and Taliban reach an agreement, talks would start between the Taliban and the Afghan government, with both sides mapping out the future of the country. [The Associated Press] 2.Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) announced Sunday that doctors had diagnosed him with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Lewis, a civil rights icon, said he would receive treatment over the coming weeks and return to Washington to continue working. About one percent of patients with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer survive five years after diagnosis. "While I am clear-eyed about the prognosis, doctors have told me that recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable in many cases, that treatment options are no longer as debilitating as they once were, and that I have a fighting chance," Lewis, 79, said in a statement. "I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now." [The Washington Post] 3.Several hundred Hasidic Jews marched in the streets of Monsey, New York, on Sunday to mark the dedication of a new Torah and show solidarity following a stabbing attack at a rabbi's house during a Hanukkah celebration. Five people were wounded in the Saturday attack, which prompted New York police to increase patrols in Jewish communities already traumatized by a series of anti-Semitic incidents. "It's important to show we're not going to be stopped," Sandy Rosenwasser, 65, said at the march. The suspect in the stabbings, identified as Grafton Thomas, was arrested hours after the attack, covered in blood, after his Nissan Sentra was spotted crossing the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and burglary. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attack an "act of domestic terrorism;" family friends said Thomas is mentally ill, not a terrorist. [The Journal News, The New York Times] 4.The U.S. launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed Iraqi militia blamed for rocket attacks on coalition bases, including one that killed an American contractor, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday. The "precision defensive strikes" targeted five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, a Defense Department spokesman said. Esper said the U.S. strikes hit three Kataeb Hezbollah sites in western Iraq and two in eastern Syria. The targets included weapons depots and command and control bases. Esper said the U.S. would "take additional actions" if necessary to "deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from Iran." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the "decisive response" showed that Washington would "not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy." [The Associated Press] 5.A gunman shot and killed two people in a Texas church on Sunday before a member of a volunteer security team fatally shot the attacker. There were as many as 300 people in the West Freeway Church of Christ auditorium when the gunman opened fire. The security team spotted the gunman "acting suspiciously" and acted swiftly when he started shooting, said Jack Cummings, a minister at the church in White Settlement, near Fort Worth. The church has had a security team, made up of church members licensed to carry firearms, for at least a decade. "They saved a lot of lives today," Cummings said. "Because this thing would have been a massacre otherwise." [The New York Times] 6.Political rivals and whistleblower advocates criticized President Trump on Sunday for retweeting a post naming the alleged whistleblower who called attention to the controversial phone call in which Trump allegedly pressured Ukraine's president to investigate Democrats. "The president has a responsibility under the whistleblower statute to ensure protection of the intelligence community" officials who report suspected wrongdoing, said David Colapinto, a lawyer who represents whistleblowers in Washington. He said Trump's retweeting of the post to his 68 million followers amounted to a "willful violation of the law." Trump repeatedly has called for identifying the whistleblower and compelling him or her to testify. [Bloomberg] 7.Regulators in Egypt approved Uber's plan to buy regional rival Careem in a deal worth $3.1 billion, Reuters reported Sunday. Egyptian authorities signed off after Uber agreed to a set of restrictions to limit harm to competitors. The acquisition was announced in March, giving the ride-hailing company a win after several overseas setbacks. Careem will become a wholly owned Uber subsidiary with its own brand and management. "We welcome the decision by the Egyptian Competition Authority to approve Uber's pending acquisition of Careem," an Uber spokesman said. "Uber and Careem joining forces will deliver exceptional outcomes for riders, drivers, and cities across Egypt." [Reuters] 8.The San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 26-21 on Sunday night to end the NFL's regular season and take the NFC West title, the conference's top seed, and home-field advantage in the postseason. The Green Bay Packers finished as NFC North champions and also clinched a berth in the conference semifinals, as have the AFC top seed Baltimore Ravens and AFC West champs the Kansas City Chiefs. The NFC's remaining playoff slots went to the Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Seahawks, and Minnesota Vikings. In the AFC, the New England Patriots, Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills, and Tennessee Titans will play in the wild-card round. The postseason begins on Saturday. [ESPN, USA Today] 9.Tesla on Monday delivered its first Model 3 electric cars built at its Shanghai factory. The company got the $2 billion plant up and running in just 357 days. The Shanghai factory is part of Tesla's effort to build a bigger presence in the world's biggest automobile market. Producing cars in China also allows Tesla to reduce its exposure to tariffs under the U.S.-China trade war. The China-made Model 3 sedans sell for about $50,000, before subsidies. The first vehicles were delivered to 15 Tesla employees who had placed advance orders. The company plans to speed up the pace of deliveries of the vehicles next month. [Reuters] 10.Basketball great LeBron James was named Male Athlete of the Decade on Sunday. James beat out a host of strong contenders, including NFL quarterback Tom Brady, sprinter Usain Bolt, soccer star Lionel Messi, and swimmer Michael Phelps. James started the decade widely seen as a villain after spurning the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat in a controversially televised announcement. He then failed to deliver a title in his first season in Florida, but redeemed himself by leading Miami to two championships. He then returned to Cleveland and brought the long-suffering sports city a championship before signing with the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of the 2018-2019 season. Combined, his teams appeared in eight consecutive NBA Finals and James is now the NBA's all-time leading scorer in the playoffs. [The Associated Press]More stories from theweek.com Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details The best headlines of 2019
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| US, German, Israeli envoys weigh in on Russian WWII claims Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:44 AM PST  The U.S, German and Israeli ambassadors in Warsaw weighed in Monday against claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Poland bears part of the blame for the outbreak of World War II. World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Nazi German troops invaded Poland. Two weeks later, the Soviet Red Army also attacked embattled Poland from the east, in what Poles still refer to as a "stab in the back." Days earlier, Germany and Russia had signed a pact with a secret protocol to carve up Poland and the Baltic states between themselves.
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| Officials: Hanukkah attack suspect researched Hitler online Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:32 AM PST  A man charged with federal hate crimes Monday in a bloody attack on a Hanukkah celebration had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues, authorities said. Grafton Thomas, 37, was held without bail after appearing in federal court in White Plains on five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. Five people were stabbed and slashed in the Saturday attack north of New York City.
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| Turkey seeks parliament approval to dispatch troops to Libya Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:08 AM PST  Turkey's government on Monday submitted a motion to parliament seeking approval to deploy troops to Libya, arguing that the conflict in the North African country could escalate into a civil war and threaten Turkey's interests. Legislators have been summoned to an emergency session in parliament on Thursday to vote for the motion, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, as the government appeared intent on rushing the bill through the assembly. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had initially said the motion would be submitted to parliament after a winter recess that ends on Jan 7.
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| Firearms instructor took out gunman at Texas church service Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:04 AM PST  Alarms went off in Jack Wilson's head the moment a man wearing a fake beard, a wig, a hat and a long coat walked into a Texas church for Sunday services. The attacker shot the other volunteer, Richard White, and then the server, Anton "Tony" Wallace, sending congregants scrambling for cover. Wilson's single shot quickly ended the attack that killed Wallace, 64, and White, 67, at the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth-area town of White Settlement.
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| Pastor pledges safety for immigrants at Miami Trump event Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:02 AM PST  The pastor of a Miami megachurch that will host President Donald Trump at a rally this week is guaranteeing that parishioners who entered the U.S. illegally won't risk deportation by attending. During a Sunday Spanish language service, Pastor Guillermo Maldonado told the audience of hundreds that he's heard people asking how he could bring Trump to the church if those attending include people who lack immigration papers, given the president's hard-line immigration policy. The Miami Herald reported Maldonado also made an appeal to some of his congregation who feel apprehensive about attending Trump's Friday visit to the King Jesus International Ministry church because of his administration's increased immigration raids.
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| Kremlin says Putin called Trump to thank him for information that thwarted terrorist attack Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:44 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Trump over the phone Sunday for information that helped thwart a terrorist attack, the Kremlin says.The Kremlin released a statement saying that Putin "thanked Donald Trump for the information transmitted through the channels of U.S. special services that has helped thwart terrorist acts in Russia."While further details were not provided, The New York Times notes that Russia's Federal Security Service told Russian media it detained two suspects who were allegedly preparing a New Year's Eve attack in St. Petersburg. Russia's news agencies reported that materials were seized from the suspects and that "information about the preparation of the crime was provided by U.S. intelligence," The Wall Street Journal reports.In December 2017, Putin similarly thanked Trump for information that helped thwart a planned attack in St. Petersburg, the Times notes.Putin and Trump on Sunday also discussed a "range of issues of mutual interest and agreed to continue bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism," the Kremlin said, but the White House has yet to comment on the call.More stories from theweek.com Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details The best headlines of 2019
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| Life After Corbyn? The Politicians Vying to Become Labour Leader Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:58 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Labour Party is looking for a new leader after Jeremy Corbyn announced his plan to resign in the wake of the heavy election defeat on Dec. 12.The process is expected to begin in January, with his successor given the task of trying to unite a party that has become bitterly divided over Corbyn's socialist policies and accusations of antisemitism. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair -- the only person to lead Labour to an election victory in 45 years -- has urged a wholesale change of approach.Despite Corbyn's failure to win at a national level, his popularity among Labour members will be critical in deciding who follows him. Here are some of the potential candidates:Rebecca Long Bailey, 40: The Chosen OneIf you were going to build a new Labour leader from scratch, Rebecca Long Bailey would probably tick most of the boxes: a young, female, strong media performer who hails from a northern constituency with a safe majority.Crucially, she's also loyal to the current leadership, even standing in for Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions in June. With the party's membership still remaining firmly to the left of Labour's MPs, this could prove key in gaining her the support needed to win the contest.Laying out her vision for the party, she said the next leader should be a champion for "progressive patriotism" and admitted that trust in Labour's policies was an issue among voters. Significantly, though, she retained a core theme that defined Corbynism -- returning wealth and power to "the people of Britain."Long Bailey is close friends Angela Rayner, and has said she'd back Labour's education spokeswoman to be deputy leader. There have been suggestions they could be the party's next power duo, akin to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, or indeed Corbyn and John McDonnell.Angela Rayner, 39: The One With the Back StoryRayner was at the forefront of the party's election campaign, regularly facing the cameras and leading rallies across the country. Known for her no-nonsense interview style, her backers think she will appeal to traditional supporters Labour has lost in recent years.In her shadow cabinet role, she spearheaded Labour's plans for a National Education Service, which the party hoped would do for education what the National Health Service did for health. She also has a back story unlike almost any other British politician serving today, after leaving school at the age of 16 while pregnant.Given she's on good terms with the leadership but also not a fully-fledged member of the hard-left faction of the party, she might be a compromise candidate who can unite Labour's ideological wings. However, it appears more likely Rayner will run for deputy leader, after her friend, flatmate and leadership front-runner Long Bailey pledged to support her in that role.Jess Phillips, 38: The Corbyn CriticKnown for her blunt and witty speeches, Jess Phillips has said she may put her name forward. Despite sharing many of the same left-leaning views as Corbyn, she's been a vocal critic of the leader, saying he wasn't capable of winning a majority for Labour. For that reason she's proved divisive -- hated by many Corbyn supporters who saw her as undermining his efforts.Phillips, from Birmingham in central England, is characteristically a lone wolf and something of a contrarian. While backing a second Brexit referendum, she declined to join the People's Vote campaign, and she's on friendly terms with Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.The 38-year-old Phillips has "got what it takes," Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh wrote in the Sunday Times. "She connects with people like no other."Lisa Nandy, 40: Cheerleader for TownsLisa Nandy is emerging as one of the "soft-left" front-runners, telling the BBC she's "seriously" thinking about running because Labour's "shattering defeat" left towns like Wigan, where she's been the MP since 2010, feel like "the earth was quaking."A former charity worker, Nandy is media-friendly and her northern roots will be seen as an advantage as Labour seeks to re-engage with traditional voters who abandoned the party in the general election. She co-founded the Centre for Towns, a think tank that aims to revive smaller urban areas.A Corbyn opponent, Nandy quit as Labour's energy spokeswoman in 2016 to join an attempt to overthrow him, and served as co-chair in Owen Smith's failed leadership campaign. She campaigned against Brexit in the 2016 referendum, but since then has argued the EU divorce must be delivered and voted for Johnson's deal in October. She voted against it when it was put before Parliament again in December, because she says Johnson's no longer interested in making cross-party compromises to improve the bill.Keir Starmer, 57: The Arch RemainerCorbyn's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said he is "seriously considering" running for the leadership. He hasn't always been loyal to the current leader -- particularly when it comes to the question of the U.K.'s relationship with the European Union. Starmer backed Corbyn's rivals in the 2015 and 2016 leadership contests and is one of the party's most vocal Remainers.While he has been accused of being out of touch with working class Leave voters in northern England, he's arguably closer to them than Corbyn, who was privately educated.He also has an impressive career behind him. As a young lawyer, he advised two environmental activists in the long-running "McLibel" case after they distributed a fact-sheet critical of the McDonald's burger chain. While McDonald's won the suit, Starmer represented the activists in a subsequent successful case against the U.K. government in the European Court of Human Rights. He went on to be Director of Public Prosecutions, for which he was knighted.He has positioned himself as a middle-ground candidate who is neither Corbynite or Blairite. "I don't need someone else's name, some past leader, tattooed to my head to make decisions," he told the BBC. Starmer also warned the party not to "oversteer" after the election defeat, arguing Labour should "build on" Corbyn's anti-austerity message and radical agenda.Emily Thornberry, 59: Corbyn's NeighborEmily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, was the first to publicly state her intention to run for leader. Writing in the Guardian newspaper, she underlined one of her key strengths: the fact she has a direct record against Boris Johnson. Describing her time opposite Johnson as his shadow while he was foreign secretary, Thornberry said she "took the fight to him every day and pummeled him every week... He hated it, especially coming from a woman."A strong media performer with experience in both Ed Miliband's and Corbyn's senior leadership teams, Thornberry pushed hard for Labour to back holding a second referendum on Brexit.Old gaffes may come to haunt her, however. She was forced to resign her shadow cabinet post in 2014 after tweeting a picture of a white van and English flags which was seen as mocking working-class voters -- the very people Labour needs to win back.She represents Islington South, neighboring Corbyn's district, and members may question whether another Londoner is the right choice to win back nationwide support. Thornberry said members shouldn't judge candidates on "where they live in our country" but instead on whether they have the "political nous and strategic vision" needed.Yvette Cooper, 50: The InquisitorAfter Jeremy Corbyn's election as leader in 2015, Yvette Cooper stepped back from front-line politics for the first time in nearly 17 years. But the decision didn't keep her away from the spotlight as she won a vote of MPs and became chairwoman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, where her forensic scrutiny gained plaudits from both sides of the aisle.In the chamber, too, Cooper has distinguished herself with eloquent contributions testing the government. She tabled what became known as the "Cooper Amendment" in January, depriving the Treasury of tools in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and inflicting an embarrassing defeat on Theresa May's government.One of the many Labour MPs who arrived in Westminster after the party's 1997 victory, she held senior positions in the governments of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But a record of experience is a record to scrutinize, and members may see Cooper as too aligned to the 'New Labour' period of the party's history, which Corbyn railed against. Cooper argues Labour needs to take an entirely new path, telling the BBC "both the left and right of this party are seen as internationalist, not patriotic," and this is costing the party support -- particularly among older voters.David Lammy, 47: The InfluencerA Member of Parliament since 2000, David Lammy has grown in prominence as a key voice for justice for victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. The 2017 disaster claimed the lives of 72 people, including his friend Khadija Saye, an artist, and he has criticized the government response. Also a staunch proponent of staying in the EU, Lammy stood unsuccessfully to be Labour's candidate in the 2016 London mayoral elections.Lammy's social media influence is unparalleled among the leadership hopefuls. Of the current batch of MPs, only the leaders of the two main parties and their immediate predecessors have more Twitter followers than the north London lawmaker. Part of the reason for his strong online following is his combative style, which has seen him take on everyone from TV presenters to U.S. President Donald Trump.Lammy said after the election he was "thinking about" running for leader. He has since written an article for the Observer newspaper calling for "civic nationalism" to counter what he called Boris Johnson's "ethnic nationalism."Clive Lewis, 48: Loyal SoldierShadow cabinet minister Clive Lewis was the second Labour MP to officially declare he's running for leader, laying out his pitch in the Guardian newspaper to give the party's membership more say over Labour's policies and selection of election candidates.On the left of the party, Lewis said in his 2015 victory speech that the ideology of former Prime Minister Tony Blair was "dead and buried, and it needs to stay that way." Later that year, Corbyn credited Lewis for getting his nomination for the leadership "off the ground," the New Statesman magazine reported. He quit Corbyn's frontbench team in early 2017 over the party's Brexit policy, before being welcomed back a year later.Before becoming an MP, Lewis worked as a BBC journalist and served as a soldier in Afghanistan for three months. At the 2017 Labour Party conference, he was criticized for using a misogynistic phrase. He later apologized for his "unacceptable" language.Ian Lavery, 56: The ChairmanIan Lavery is currently Chairman of the Labour Party and a keen defender of Corbyn's controversial leadership. As a former president of the National Union of Mineworkers, the pro-Brexit Lavery could well win the backing of the key trade unions.However, the 56-year-old's majority in the northeast England district of Wansbeck was cut to just 814 votes in the election, which could deter some members from supporting him. Lavery has also faced questions about a redundancy payment he received from the NUM upon leaving in 2010 to become an MP, as well as assistance the union provided toward his mortgage. He's denied any financial irregularities.The Sunday Times has reported Lavery is waiting for Long Bailey to set out her vision before deciding whether to run.To contact the reporters on this story: Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Alex MoralesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Spain: Socialists pin future government on Catalan's release Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:57 AM PST  Two left-wing parties striving to form Spain's first coalition government in decades joined forces Monday announcing plans to hike taxes on the rich and boost social spending if they take office with the key acquiescence of a Catalan pro-independence party. In a move that could ease the way for the coalition, Spain's state attorney called Monday for Junqueras, who remains the head of the Catalan ERC party, to be released temporarily so he can be sworn in as a member of the European Union's legislative body.
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| Saudi security says 2 men shot dead were planning an attack Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:21 AM PST ![Saudi security says 2 men shot dead were planning an attack]( "Saudi security says 2 men shot dead were planning an attack") Saudi Arabia said two men who were shot and killed last week in the eastern city of Dammam had been planning an attack and were in possession of explosives that could have been used to deploy a car bomb. The Presidency of State Security, which deals with counter-terrorism and domestic intelligence, said in a statement published on Sunday by the state-run Saudi Press Agency that the two Saudi men had been wanted by police. Saudi Shiites, who are a minority in the mostly Sunni Muslim kingdom, make up the bulk of the population in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich eastern region, including the city of Dammam where the incident took place.
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| Police, victims warn against firing guns on New Year's Eve Posted: 30 Dec 2019 03:03 AM PST  Kaitlyn Kong thought she had been punched hard in the abdomen as she stood among thousands of people in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, as the new year arrived a year ago. Although rare, people being shot by celebratory gunfire on New Year's Eve and other holidays like the Fourth of July does happen, prompting law enforcement authorities to caution people that bullets fired into the air can endanger people's lives. Raleigh police Lt. Mario Campos said the city receives a small number of calls about gunfire during New Year's Eve celebrations in the city but would not discuss what happened to Kong, saying it remains under investigation.
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| Humanity's decade of disillusionment and decline Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:50 AM PST  Looking back on a historical period from its end is a dicey proposition. Even when it is clear that a turning point has been reached, it is often hard to know with any certainty which way things are about to turn. At the end of the 1960s, how many confidently predicted that the moon landing would mark the high point of America's manned space program? Or, at the end of the 1970s, how many foresaw that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan would prove the last gasp of a dying empire?So it is with some trepidation that I look back over the course of the 2010s and try to sum them up. Unfortunately, the first draft of recent history doesn't make for pleasant reading. It's not hard to make a case for the passing era as the Downer Decade, an age of ever-increasing frustration, and ever-diminishing expectations.The end of the 2000s, in spite of the fiasco of the Iraq War and the disaster of the financial crisis, was a relatively hopeful period in America, particularly in terms of the prospects for functional governance. America's first black president had been granted the strongest governing mandate since Lyndon Johnson: a decisive popular and electoral vote majority combined with control of the House and filibuster-proof control of the Senate.But that moment was evanescent in the extreme. The 2010s began with a ferocious Tea-Party-led reaction that cost Democrats not only control of the House but of a host of governorships and state legislatures. Those losses ushered in six years of gridlock and escalating brinkmanship. The decade ends with the third impeachment in American history, of the relentlessly polarizing President Trump, playing out in an even more obviously partisan fashion than the impeachment of President Clinton. It is difficult for Americans to even imagine government from a widely popular center anymore.Disillusionment in fundamental political institutions has not been confined to the United States. In Europe, the 2000s began with the advent of the Euro — adopted in 1999 and implemented as a replacement for national currencies in 2002. It ended with implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, which deepened the union, beginning its transition to something more like a unified continental government.That turned out to be the last moment of optimism about the European project. Instead, the 2010s saw the rise of insurgent reaction across the continent, with right-wing populist and nationalist parties dramatically gaining strength in France and Germany, sharing power in Italy and taking control of the government in Hungary and Poland. The decade came to a close with the landslide election of Boris Johnson's Conservative party in Britain on a platform of swiftly withdrawing from the European Union. It is no exaggeration to say that the project of European unity looks shakier than it has since its inception, without out any clear map for how it might be unwound or what might replace it.What drove this unraveling of consensus across the West? Three shocks that reverberated across the decade were principally responsible, and though their roots lay before 2010, their impact was felt most profoundly in the decade just concluded.First, the full integration of China into the global trade system put manufacturing enterprises under sudden and profound stress from new competition, accelerating a decline in employment already underway due to the combination of globalization and automation. Second, the financial crisis caused a sharp economic contraction that was exacerbated in the U.S. by a finance-friendly approach to foreclosures in the underwater housing market and in Europe by a turn to fiscal austerity that saw debtor countries' tax bases collapse and unemployment soar. Finally, the dramatic rise in the size of immigrant populations from places as different as Eastern Europe, Central America, and North Africa interacted with these economic dislocations to transform politics across the West, with the right taking a turn towards nativism and the left adopting a more self-consciously transnational and multicultural ethic.The consequences of dislocation have been felt well beyond either politics or economics. In the 2010s, America's total fertility rate plummeted to its lowest level in history, as marriage and childbearing increasingly came to be aspirational goods rather than a baseline expectation for most people. The opioid crisis began in the previous decade with overprescription of addictive painkillers, but it reached a new peak of lethality in the 2010s as first heroin and then fentanyl ravaged the country. America's suicide rate rose and average life expectancy declined.Disappointment and disillusion have been fueled by developments not obviously related to these economic, demographic, and political dislocations. Consider our changing relationship to technology. At the end of the 2000s, optimism about the transformative power of information technology remained high. The internet had put a wealth of information at everyone's fingertips, while ubiquitous cell phones had enabled poor countries to leapfrog a whole generation of of development, and even empowered new political movements.The 2010s were the decade when this technology turned on us. Social media turned the green fields of the internet into a series of personal gardens walled in by our own preferences and prejudices, and increasingly choked with weeds. Smart phones are increasingly implicated in widespread social ills, from a dramatic rise in teen suicide to a similarly striking decline in sexual engament. And far from liberating oppressed people, information technology has given an increasingly repressive China incredibly powerful tools for fine-grained social control. There are still techno-optimists out there, but it's striking that the most Silicon Valley-oriented candidate of the 2020 Presidential race is running largely because he believes automation is going to destroy modern society.If the domestic trend lines look depressing, don't look abroad for solace. The 2010s saw a major retreat for democracy worldwide, and a global rise in populist, authoritarian and nationalist politics, from Russia to Turkey to India to Brazil. They also saw the unraveling of America's two major foreign policy efforts of the post-Cold War era, in the Middle East and in East Asia, with ominous consequences for decades to come.Obama was elected in part because of his opposition to the Iraq War, and promised to turn America's relations with the Islamic world in a more positive direction. The Arab Spring, which began in 2010, raised hopes for a democratic transformation prompted not by American arms but by ordinary citizens armed with cell phones. Meanwhile, the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 raised the prospect of winding down the War on Terror.By the end of the decade, any such hopes had withered entirely. America's intervention in Libya left that country in a state of chaos, and contributed to the destabilization of other countries like Mali. Egypt had reverted to a pro-American dictatorship while Syria's pro-Russian dictator won his own brutal battle to retain power. Under Trump, the U.S. tightened its embrace of the reactionary Saudi regime, assisting it in a near-genocidal war against Yemen, and ripped up Obama's one major diplomatic achievement in the region, the nuclear deal with Iran. Most depressingly, overwhelming evidence emerged that the military and civilian leadership believed we were losing our nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan for nearly the entire length of the conflict, but pretended otherwise. America had long since lost sight of any strategic or moral goals, yet the Forever War ground on.Looking forward, though, it is the change in China that will likely prove to have the most lasting consequences. At the beginning of the 2010s, China had just capped 30 years of astonishing growth, emerging as a great power and potential rival to the United States. During the Great Recession, it invested heavily in its domestic economy, and appeared to have weathered the economic storm far better than America or Europe. The first Pacific president's "pivot" to Asia was largely about trying to manage China's rise in a way least-threatening to America's interests and those of our allies, but that very objective was an implicit compliment. Increasingly powerful and admired, Beijing could reasonably brag that the Chinese Century had arrived.From the vantage point of 2019, the ambition to manage China's rise seems Pollyannish, as does the notion that economic engagement would lead to political liberalization and peaceful coexistence. Under Xi Jinping, China has become a far more threatening adversary, and more openly determined to revise the American-led geopolitical and economic order. The "belt and road" initiative aims to entrench Chinese economic and political influence across Asia and beyond, while China's social credit system has pioneered the use of modern technology for fine-grained social control. Oppression of minority groups like the Uighurs of Xinjiang has escalated dramatically, while Xi's total dominance of Chinese politics arguably has devolved the country into an autocracy. Meanwhile, China's slowing growth — in part a consequence of the very strategies that powered growth in the 2010s — prompt Beijing to be even more truculent in dealing with challenges, whether internal or external. Notwithstanding the supposed trade deal recently announced to much fanfare, the trajectory of Sino-American relations is toward economic disengagement and confrontation, a trend unlikely to be reversible no matter who wins the presidency in 2020.That's a big problem for what is surely the worst trend line of the 2010s: the lackluster response to the looming threat of climate change. It should be no surprise that the decade was the warmest since scientists have been able to make proper measurements. What is more notable is that emissions continue to rise, driven primarily by increased fossil fuel use in China, as well as India and the rest of the developing world. But even climate leaders like Germany have stalled in their efforts to decarbonize their economies, while the United States has abdicated leadership entirely under the Trump administration. It will take extraordinary skill to advance the prospects for global decarbonization in the context of the reemergence of great power rivalry.Meanwhile, the global failure to respond expeditiously to the climate crisis over the past decade means that no matter how aggressively we respond now, we are likely to overshoot the targets needed to stabilize the climate by mid-century. Sustainability may well depend on development and deployment of carbon removal technologies on a mass scale, alongside a program of decarbonization.I'm tempted to end with a bitter and ironic "happy New Year" at this point — but I am mindful of the cautions of the first paragraph of this piece. At the end of 1939, with Poland divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and Imperial Japan in control of large swathes of China, predicting the annihilation of the Axis powers and the formation of the United Nations in less than six years would have seemed extraordinarily optimistic.So we should be wary of assuming that we know how the next decade will play out. Perhaps China will be bankrupted by its own expansionary spending, ecological devastation and demographic contraction, and 10 years from now we'll be reading about the Chinese century that wasn't. Perhaps the right-wing populist wave in the West will be supplanted by an era of decentralizing liberals who break up the big banks and tech companies, dismantle the European Union, and devolve much Federal authority to the states so that a breakthrough treaty between California and Germany can finally turn the climate tide.It's impossible to say. But it is possible to say that we are unlikely to understand the dynamics of the new decade if we do not first see clearly how we got to the all-too depressing pass we're at. If ever an era both called for and promised a new clarity of vision, surely it is the one beginning with the year 2020.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 Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details The best headlines of 2019
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| Australian Jews decry Israeli health minister's appointment Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:54 AM PST  Australia's Jewish community has slammed an Israeli government decision to promote to the post of health minister a legislator who is suspected of aiding an alleged sexual abuser wanted in Australia. The Israeli government on Sunday appointed Yaacov Litzman as health minister, sparking a litany of condemnations from Australia's staunchly pro-Israel Jewish community. In an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, called the decision "a slap in the face to the Australian Jewish community, the Australian people," as well as to the survivors of the alleged abuse.
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| Iran-backed Iraqi militia vows revenge to US strikes Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:43 AM PST  An Iranian-backed Iraqi militia vowed Monday to retaliate for U.S. military strikes in Iraq and Syria that killed 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens, raising concerns of new attacks that could threaten American interests in the region. The U.S. attack — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the calls for retaliation, represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East. The Iraqi government said it will reconsider its relationship with the U.S.-led coalition — the first time it has said it will do so since an agreement was struck to keep some U.S. troops in the country.
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| Putin weighs future options as he marks 20 years in power Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:40 AM PST  As Russian President Vladimir Putin marks two decades in power , he boasts about his achievements but remains coy about his political future — a reticence that fuels wild speculation about his intentions. Putin points to the revival of Russia's global clout, industrial modernization, booming agricultural exports and a resurgent military as key results of his tenure that began on Dec. 31, 1999. On that day, Russia's first President Boris Yeltsin abruptly stepped down and named the former KGB officer his successor, paving the way for his election three months later.
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| BoE's Carney says finance must act faster on climate change Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:21 AM PST  Financial services have been too slow to cut investment in fossil fuels, a delay that could lead to a sharp increase in global temperatures, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in an interview broadcast on Monday. Carney, due to become the United Nations' special envoy for climate change next year when he steps down from the bank, told BBC radio that global warming could render the assets of many financial companies worthless.
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| North Korea's Kim Jong-un calls for 'offensive measures' ahead of nuclear talks deadline Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:17 AM PST  Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, has called for "positive and offensive measures" to ensure national security ahead of his year-end deadline for the resumption of nuclear talks with the US, raising the prospects of a much-anticipated major weapons test. His announcement, at a meeting of top party officials on Sunday, and reported by state newswire, KCNA, on Monday, coincided with a warning from the US that it is prepared to take action if North Korea delivers on its threat of a so-called "Christmas gift", including a potential long-range missile test-fire. "If Kim Jong-un takes that approach, we'll be extraordinarily disappointed and we'll express that disappointment," Robert O'Brien, the national security advisor, said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday when asked whether the US would respond to a North Korean provocation. Mr O'Brien said that the White House was monitoring the situation, but did not provide specifics on Washington's approach, saying only that the US has "a lot of tools in our toolkit". Under a self-imposed moratorium, North Korea has not tested a long-range missile or nuclear warheads since 2017. Kim Jong-un in pictures: Bizarre photoshoots of North Korea's leader The US and its regional Asian allies have been on nervous standby for an escalation in tensions on the Korean peninsula since Pyongyang warned of a "gift" in mid-December due to Kim's growing frustrations that Washington has not responded to his demands to soften its approach to nuclear talks. The North Korean leader has made clear he expects concessions, including the lifting of sanctions, by the end of December, to kickstart stalled negotiations on his nuclear and weapons programmes. North Korea has urged Washington to offer a new approach to resume negotiations, warning that it may take an unspecified "new path" if the US fails to meet its expectations. Kim's decision to convene a meeting of top party officials to pore over important matters including foreign affairs, armaments and the defence industry, has increased expectations of a major policy announcement. The meeting - the largest of the party's central command since 2013, with some 300 attendees - is still underway. A plenary session of North Korea's leadership is still underway Credit: KCNA/Reuters North Korea experts fear that the diplomatic détente, which began in 2018 with unprecedented summits between Kim and both Donald Trump, the US president, and Moon Jae-in, South Korea's leader, may come to a crashing halt in 2020 because of this year's failure to reach a breakthrough. During Sunday's meeting session, Kim stressed the need to take "positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country," KCNA said, without elaborating. Mr Kim discussed state management and economic issues, including measures to improve agriculture, science, education, public health and the environment, it said, as the country's economy has been hit by international sanctions over its weapons programmes. He "presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors of the national economy," KCNA said. North Korea has already resumed shorter range missile tests this year Credit: KCNA via KNS/AFP With North Korea's relations with the US in a downward spiral, United Nations Security Council members are due to meet informally on Monday for a second round of talks on a Russian and Chinese proposal to lift a raft of sanctions against Pyongyang. Russia and China proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution earlier this month that would lift sanctions imposed in 2016 and 2017 on industries that earned North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars. One Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, accused Russia and China of coordinating with North Korea on the draft resolution, including letting Pyongyang make its own additions to the text, before they engaged with the 15-member Security Council. "China and Russia are pushing a sanctions-gutting resolution knowing full well from the beginning that they do not have the votes for the resolution to pass," said the council diplomat.
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| Johnson Won’t ‘Die in a Ditch’ Over Brexit Timeline, Hogan Says Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:05 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. is likely to drop its opposition to extending the Brexit transition period beyond 2020, European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said.In an interview with the Irish Times, Hogan said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously said he'd rather "die in a ditch" than extend an earlier deadline of Oct. 31 to exit the bloc -- before doing just that."I don't believe Prime Minister Johnson will die in the ditch over the timeline for the future relationship either," Hogan said.Johnson's Conservatives swept to victory in this month's general election, campaigning on a promise to "get Brexit done." Legislation to deliver Britain's EU departure on Jan. 31 has already passed its first parliamentary hurdle and will be debated again in the new year.The bill includes a provision that outlaws extending a planned transition period beyond the end of 2020, with Johnson saying he'll be able to negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with the bloc before then.The Irish commissioner, who will play a pivotal role in talks on the future relationship between the EU and U.K., said the ban on any extension was "very odd," suggesting it may have been a political stunt. He said the U.K. has yet to fully grasp the implications of exiting the bloc, and he remained baffled by the decision."Why trade a Rolls Royce for a second-hand saloon?" he told the newspaper.To contact the reporter on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Alex Morales, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Taliban attack Afghan forces in country's north, killing 14 Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:57 AM PST ![Taliban attack Afghan forces in country's north, killing 14]( "Taliban attack Afghan forces in country's north, killing 14") The Taliban targeted a pro-government militia compound in northern Afghanistan before dawn on Monday, killing 14 members of the Afghan security forces, a local official said. Of the 14 fatalities in the predawn attack in Jawzjan province, 13 were members of a pro-government militia and one was a policeman, said Abdul Maroof Azer, the governor's spokesman. Meanwhile, the U.S. military in its daily report of overnight military operations with Afghan forces said that 30 Taliban fighter were killed across the country and several other insurgents detained.
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