| Israel hits Hamas target in Gaza as balloon attacks resume Posted: 16 Jan 2020 02:06 PM PST ![Israel hits Hamas target in Gaza as balloon attacks resume]( "Israel hits Hamas target in Gaza as balloon attacks resume") The Israeli military said an attack helicopter struck a Hamas target in the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday in response to the launch of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory earlier in the day. Israeli police said the balloons touched down in southern Israel and a bomb squad was dispatched. The Israeli military said its airstrike targeted "infrastructure used for underground activities" by Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group.
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| UN official warns Yemen could face brink of famine again Posted: 16 Jan 2020 02:03 PM PST ![UN official warns Yemen could face brink of famine again]( "UN official warns Yemen could face brink of famine again") War-battered Yemen could face the threat of famine again because of the rapid depreciation of its currency and disruptions to salary payments, a senior U.N. humanitarian official warned the Security Council on Thursday. At the same time, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen reported a major reduction in military operations and other initiatives that will hopefully lead to talks between the government and Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite rebels on ending the five-year conflict in the Arab world's poorest nation. Both Ramesh Rajasingham, head of the U.N. humanitarian office's Coordination Division, and U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths stressed the volatility and fragility of the current situation in Yemen, especially following recent actions by the United States and Iran that raised tensions and fears of further military action in the Middle East.
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| Iran says enriching more uranium than before 2015 nuclear accord as countries demand compensation over downed airliner Posted: 16 Jan 2020 01:00 PM PST  Iran is now enriching more uranium than it was before agreeing to a nuclear accord with world powers in 2015, Iran's president declared on Thursday, as countries that lost nationals in the downed passenger jet threatened to sue Tehran for compensation. Hassan Rouhani, in a televised speech, said "pressure has increased on Iran but we continue to progress" after Britain, France and Germany triggered a dispute resolution in response to Iran's violations of the terms of the agreement. Iran has gradually scaled back its commitments under the pact in retaliation to US's withdrawal in 2018 and its reimposition of sanctions that have crippled the country's economy. Tehran has since resumed research and development of centrifuges, which European governments fear will lead to irreversible technological breakthroughs and reduce the "break-out" time Iran would need to build a nuclear bomb. So far, Tehran has only modestly increased its nuclear activity. In recent months it has boosted its enrichment of uranium to 4.5 per cent - higher than the 3.67 per cent limit set by the agreement but far from the 20 per cent enrichment it was engaged in before the deal. Uranium must be enriched to 90 per cent to be used in a nuclear weapon. Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, had until now resisted US demands that they too quit the deal, insisting it is the only way to keep Iran in check. Iranians in Tehran burn an Israeli and a US flag during an anti-US protest over the killings during a US air strike of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani Credit: AFP Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, who has praised Donald Trump, the US president, as a great deal-maker, called on Tuesday for the president to replace Iran's pact with major powers with his own one. Mr Rouhani dismissed the proposal for a new deal aimed at resolving the row, saying it was a "strange" offer and criticised Mr Trump for always breaking promises. "The government is working daily to prevent military confrontation or war," Mr Rouhani added, saying that dialogue with the international community was difficult but remained "possible". Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary, defended the deal yesterday, saying: "We don't think it is finished. We think there's still life left in it. But we also want Iran to play its full part as a civilised nation in the world and to do that it must address some of its other behaviours. "We take all our threats seriously, from whoever they come from," he said of Mr Rouhani's statement on uranium enrichment. "We take statements like that from the President seriously but recognise that is not the way to deescalate the situation." Logo: The Think Tank It came amid reports that days before the E3 triggered the mechanism, which if not resolved could see a "snap back" of global sanctions on Tehran, the Trump administration has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on European car imports unless they took action against Iran for defying its nuclear agreement. Though Mr Trump has previously made threats to place such a duty on Europe's export of automobiles, the intent behind them was to receive better terms for Washington within the US-European trade relationship, not to shift European foreign policy, according to the Washington Post. It was not clear if the threat was necessary since the Europeans had signalled an intention to trigger the dispute mechanism for weeks The Telegraph understands that they had first seriously discussed such a move in December. It was taken last week after Iran announced it was suspended all limits on centrifuge installation and uranium enrichment under the JCPOA under its "fifth and final" step back from the agreement. A woman attending a candlelight vigil, in memory of the victims of Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737, talks to a policeman following the gathering in front of the Amirkabir University in Tehran Credit: AFP Mohammad Javid Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, said that Britain and its partners had succumbed to US threats when they triggered the dispute mechanism and likened Washington to a "high-school bully". "Appeasement confirmed. E3 sold out remnants of JCPOA to avoid new Trump tariffs. It won't work my friends. You only whet his appetite. Remember your high school bully?" he wrote on Twitter. "If you want to sell your integrity, go ahead. But DO NOT assume high moral/legal ground." Meanwhile, the countries who lost citizens when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner over Tehran said they expected the Islamic Republic to pay compensation and allow a criminal investigation leading to prosecution of the perpetrators. Iran has already arrested a number of people over the downing of the jet. Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine issued a five-point list of demands that also included unfettered access for consular officials, a transparent identification and repatriation of victims remains, and access for foreign officials to take part in the air accident probe, including decoding of the black boxes.
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| Libyan rebel Gen Haftar has agreed to abide by ceasefire and will join conference in Berlin, Germany says Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:50 PM PST  Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar has agreed to abide by a ceasefire and said he was ready to participate in an international conference in Berlin on Sunday, Germany's foreign minister said. Libya's UN-recognised government in Tripoli has been under attack since April from Gen Haftar's forces, with clashes killing more than 280 civilians and 2,000 fighters and displacing tens of thousands. The leaders of the North African state's warring factions were in Moscow early this week at talks aimed at finalising a ceasefire orchestrated by Russia and Turkey. "During my visit to Libya today, General Haftar made clear: He wants to contribute to the success of the Libyan conference in Berlin and is in principle ready to participate in it. He has agreed to abide by the ongoing ceasefire," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted after talks in Benghazi. After the Moscow talks, Gen Haftar had walked away without signing the permanent truce, sparking fears about the shaky ceasefire. A fighter loyal to Libya's UN-backed government on the outskirts of Tripoli Credit: REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic Mr Maas had travelled to meet Gen Haftar in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi - one of the general's strongholds - in a bid to persuade him to join in the peace initiative. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, welcomed the news, and said the conference must try to get a weapons embargo enforced again. "It is a good message that he is willing to keep to the ceasefire," Mrs Merkel said at a news conference with the Croatian prime minister on Thursday. The trip came days after Mr Maas spoke with Gen Haftar's rival Fayez al-Sarraj, who serves as head of the UN-recognised government in Tripoli. Separately in Tripoli, Mr Sarraj announced he would attend the Berlin talks held under the auspices of the United Nations. The battle over Tripoli is the latest unrest to wrack Libya since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Since then, Libya has been caught up in fighting between rival armed factions, including Islamist militants.
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| American Family Stuck in Saudi Arabia While Father Stands Trial Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:15 PM PST  BEIRUT -- Five months after Saudi Arabia released a doctor with dual Saudi American citizenship from jail, he and seven family members remain barred from leaving the kingdom while he stands trial on charges the United States contends are meritless, a son and a senior State Department official said.Saudi authorities detained the doctor, Walid Fitaihi, during what they called an anti-corruption campaign in late 2017 and released him pending trial last summer. He has told confidantes that Saudi jailers tortured him. Authorities have confiscated his family's passports, leaving eight dual Saudi American citizens stuck in the kingdom, the son and the official said."My family's freedoms have been taken," the son, Ahmad Fitaihi, 27, said by phone from California.While U.S. diplomats have worked to restore the rights of the doctor and his family, President Donald Trump has never spoken publicly of the case, leaving Fitaihi's son wondering why his father has not received the same attention from the White House as other Americans detained abroad."President Trump has a great record in saving Americans, so why has he not saved my dad?" Ahmad Fitaihi said.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Trump has called securing the release of Americans detained abroad a "priority" and vowed on Twitter last year, "We will not rest as we continue our work to bring the remaining American hostages back home!"But not all cases appear to receive the same attention. Trump has taken pride in getting Americans released from countries such as Yemen, Turkey, Egypt and North Korea. Last month, he celebrated the release of Xiyue Wang, an American graduate student who had been imprisoned in Iran since 2016.But he has not spoken publicly about Moustafa Kassem, an American who died in Egypt this month after six years in detention and a hunger strike, nor criticized President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, whom he has jokingly called his "favorite dictator."At least two dual Saudi American citizens are detained in Saudi Arabia in addition to Fitaihi: Salah al-Haidar, the son of a prominent women's rights activist, and Bader al-Ibrahim, a writer and medical doctor, according to Human Rights Watch. Both were detained last April.Trump has not publicly spoken of them, either -- perhaps to avoid causing tension with Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Trump sees as a key partner in the Middle East.A spokesman at the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on Fitaihi's status. Saudi officials have said that the kingdom does not torture people.Fitaihi, a Harvard-trained physician, was born in Saudi Arabia but became a U.S. citizen while living and working in the Boston area. He returned to the kingdom around 2006, where he opened a private hospital and became a motivational speaker.He was arrested in November 2017 during a sweep of arrests that Saudi officials described as an anti-corruption campaign. But while most of the hundreds of princes, former officials and businessmen who were arrested then and locked in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton were released within a few months, Fitaihi was transferred to prison and held for 21 months before he was released pending trial last July.The senior State Department official said Fitaihi faces charges including obtaining U.S. citizenship without permission from the Saudi government and working with an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamic organization that Saudi Arabia -- but not the United States or other Western nations -- considers a terrorist group.The senior official said that diplomats and other U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had raised Fitaihi's case with a range of Saudis, so far to no avail."We do not believe there is merit to the case," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocols. He said the Saudis had presented no information that would justify Fitaihi's incarceration or the travel ban facing him and other members of his family, which the official described as "sort of collective punishment."Fitaihi's son said that his mother, Lana Angawi, was born in Texas and has U.S. citizenship, as do his six younger siblings. The family once traveled to the United States every year or so for vacation; Newport Beach, California, was a favorite spot.Ahmad Fitaihi said a brother, Yusuf Fitaihi, 19, had planned to attend a U.S. university after high school; and a sister, Mariam Fitaihi, 24, had planned to move to Britain, where she earned a master's degree, to get engaged.But after their father's arrest, security officers came to their home and seized their passports, barring them from leaving the kingdom and putting their lives on hold. Their father's assets were also frozen, Ahmad Fitaihi said, further limiting their options.The family had initially been optimistic when their father was released, expecting that the charges against him would be dropped and that they would be able to travel.But five months later, their father has returned to work while his court case proceeds, and they all remain stuck in Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Fitaihi said. His sister opted for a smaller engagement party in the kingdom, and his brother has applied to several U.S. universities, hoping the travel ban will be lifted by fall."My whole family's social and financially situation has been flipped upside down," Ahmad Fitaihi said.The next session in Walid Fitaihi's court case is scheduled for Feb. 2.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Trump’s evangelical rally in Miami was a wake-up call to stand against war, polarization | Opinion Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:12 PM PST  Peace had been shattered only a few hours before when news of the U.S. airstrike killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's second-most senior official, hit. We'd already made the decision to join the Lights for Love vigil outside the El Rey Jesus Ministry Church in Kendall where President Trump was slated to launch Evangelicals for Trump shortly after the New Year.
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| Man charged in Hanukkah attack pleads not guilty Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:02 PM PST ![Man charged in Hanukkah attack pleads not guilty]( "Man charged in Hanukkah attack pleads not guilty") The man charged in an attack at a suburban New York Hanukkah celebration that left five people wounded, one critically, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges on Thursday. Grafton Thomas appeared in Rockland County Court. Thomas was arrested hours after five people were stabbed at an attack at a rabbi's home in Monsey, an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City.
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| Mikhail Mishustin confirmed as Russian prime minister amid questions over property portfolio Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:57 AM PST  Russia's parliament on Thursday approved a former tax chief as the country's new prime minister the day after Vladimir Putin proposed sweeping constitutional changes, amid questions over his $10 million (£7.7m) property portfolio. Mikhail Mishustin, 53, was voted in as Russia media and opposition politicians raised questions about his lavish property and his wife's income. Mr Mishustin was nominated for prime minister on Wednesday after Dmitry Medvedev, the outgoing premier, announced a surprise resignation, which he said was necessary to let Mr Putin see through the constitutional changes that he floated several hours earlier. Mr Putin's proposals, which focus on cutting the president's powers, were widely seen as an indication that after 20 years in power he still intends to stay in charge but in a different job. Before the vote, Mr Mishustin said in a speech in parliament that he would focus on cutting red tape and improving living standards during his tenure. Twenty years of Putin "People should begin to feel tangible changes for the better right now," he said. Russian media and the opposition raised questions about Mr Mishustin's wealth shortly before he was confirmed. Investigative website Proyekt quoted property records showing that Mr Mishustin bought an upscale property in an exclusive Moscow suburb worth hundreds of millions of rubles when he was a deputy tax minister without an income to match it. Separately, anti-corruption campaigner and opposition leader Alexei Navalny quoted public records, saying that Mr Mishustin's wife declared a total of 800 million rubles (£9.9 million) in income from an unnamed source in the past nine years. "If you wanted to become the second most important person in the country… can you be so kind and tell us what kind of business has been bringing in millions for your family?" Mr Navalny wrote on his blog. A government spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. Pop Idol? | The new Russian prime minister's creative outlets Former Duma lawmaker and businessman Ilya Ponomarev who has known Mr Mishustin for more than 15 years dismissed the allegations, telling The Telegraph that the future prime minister would be able to afford that property as he made at least several million dollars from his IT projects in the 1990s. "I'd be surprised if he was involved in some corruption dealings - he's not the type," he said. Mr Mishushin, who trained as an engineer, is a relatively obscure bureaucrat who has been lauded for sweeping reforms at the Federal Tax Service which he had been leading since 2010. Herman Gref, CEO of Russia's largest lender Sberbank, in televised comments on Thursday hailed the former tax chief as a "pioneer of digital technology" and credited him for creating an "innovative platform" for tax collection that would be the envy of the most progressive nations. Under Mr Mishustin, Russia's tax service, once one of the most corrupt bodies in the country, underwent a swift transformation by getting rid of the red tape for which it had become notorious. Dmitry Marinichev, Russia's internet ombudsman who has known Mr Mishustin for more than 10 years, described him as a talented engineer and a "fast-paced person who speaks fast and always moves forward." Mikhail Mishustin was tapped for the post by Mr Putin Credit: The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation via AP "As a prime minister, he will be efficient, focused on a digital economy," he told the Telegraph, adding that the former taxman reminds him of Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs. Mr Ponomarev, the former Duma deputy, described Mr Mishustin as a "progressive bureaucrat in the best sense of the word." "He has a good head on his shoulders," Mr Ponomarev said of Mr Mishustin, adding that the former tax official is likely to view his new job as a "business task, not a political one. Mr Ponomarev, a scathing critic of Mr Putin, said he wishes Mr Mishustin well but conceded that "it will be tough to achieve results as long as Vladimir Putin is in power."
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| Pompeo hits the road as impeachment trial gets underway Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:46 AM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to Europe and then Latin America this weekend, leaving Washington ahead of the Senate trial for President Donald Trump on impeachment charges, the State Department said Thursday. Pompeo will leave on Saturday to attend an international conference in Germany on the conflict in Libya the next day that is being co-hosted by the United Nations.
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| Egypt releases four, days after raid on Turkish media outlet Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:27 AM PST ![Egypt releases four, days after raid on Turkish media outlet]( "Egypt releases four, days after raid on Turkish media outlet") Egyptian authorities released four people Thursday, including two Egyptian journalists, arrested in a police raid on the Cairo bureau of Turkey's state-run news agency, a judicial official said. Turkey's Anadolu agency said Wednesday four of its staff members, including a Turkish citizen, were arrested the previous day by Egyptian police after they raided the agency's office. Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafiz, a senior board member of the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate, wrote on his Facebook page that Anadolu's Egyptian correspondents Hussein Qabbani and Hussein Abbas were released.
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| Bureaucracy to brutality: New evidence reveals IS hierarchy Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:13 AM PST  Documents compiled by a U.S.-based Syrian rights group reveal how Islamic State militants used one of their most powerful bureaucratic bodies to regulate daily life and impose and execute penalties. The Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center said Thursday that the evidence — documents produced by IS itself — could help identify individuals responsible for atrocities during the militants' four-year reign of terror and lead to criminal prosecutions. The 24-page report, called "Judge, Jury and Executioner," is based on dozens of documents obtained by SJAC from inside Syria and collected by a local activist from abandoned IS offices in Raqqa province, where the militants also had their self-declared capital in a city that carries the same name.
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| US and Iran have a long, troubled history Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:38 AM PST  Relations between the United States and Iran have been fraught for decades – at least since the U.S. helped overthrow a democracy-minded prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953. The U.S. then supported the long, repressive reign of the shah of Iran, whose security services brutalized Iranian citizens for decades.The two countries have been particularly hostile to each other since Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, resulting in, among other consequences, economic sanctions and the severing of formal diplomatic relations between the nations. Since 1984, the U.S. State Department has listed Iran as a "state sponsor of terrorism," alleging the Iranian government provides terrorists with training, money and weapons. Some of the major events in U.S.-Iran relations highlight the differences between the nations' views, but others arguably presented real opportunities for reconciliation. 1953: US overthows MossadeghIn 1951, the Iranian Parliament chose a new prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, who then led lawmakers to vote in favor of taking over the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, expelling the company's British owners and saying they wanted to turn oil profits into investments in the Iranian people. The U.S. feared disruption in the global oil supply and worried about Iran falling prey to Soviet influence. The British feared the loss of cheap Iranian oil. Unable to settle the dispute, President Dwight Eisenhower decided it was best for the U.S. and the U.K. to get rid of Mossadegh. Operation Ajax, a joint CIA-British operation, convinced the shah of Iran, the country's monarch, to dismiss Mossadegh and drive him from office by force. Mossadegh was replaced by a much more Western-friendly prime minister, hand-picked by the CIA. 1979: Revolutionaries oust the shah, take hostagesAfter more than 25 years of relative stability in U.S.-Iran relations, the Iranian public had grown unhappy with the social and economic conditions that developed under the dictatorial rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi enriched himself and used American aid to fund the military while many Iranians lived in poverty. Dissent was often violently quashed by SAVAK, the shah's security service. In January 1979, the shah left Iran, ostensibly to seek cancer treatment. Two weeks later, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in Iraq and led a drive to abolish the monarchy and proclaim an Islamic government.In October 1979, President Jimmy Carter agreed to allow the shah to come to the U.S. to seek advanced medical treatment. Outraged Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, taking 52 Americans hostage. That convinced Carter to sever U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980. Two weeks later, the U.S. military launched a mission to rescue the hostages, but it failed, with aircraft crashes in the Iranian desert killing eight U.S. servicemembers.The shah died in Egypt in July 1980, but the hostages weren't released until Jan. 20, 1981, after 444 days of captivity. 1980-1988: US tacitly sides with IraqIn September 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, an escalation of the two countries' regional rivalry and religious differences: Iraq was governed by Sunni Muslims but had a Shia Muslim majority population; Iran was led and populated mostly by Shiites. The U.S. was concerned that the conflict would limit the flow of Middle Eastern oil and wanted to ensure the conflict didn't affect its close ally, Saudi Arabia.The U.S. supported Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in his fight against the anti-American Iranian regime. As a result, the U.S. mostly turned a blind eye toward Iraq's "almost daily" use of chemical weapons against Iran. U.S. officials moderated their usual opposition to those illegal and inhumane weapons because the U.S. State Department did not "wish to play into Iran's hands by fueling its propaganda against Iraq." In 1988, the war ended in a stalemate, with a combined total of more than 500,000 military deaths and 100,000 civilians dead on both sides. 1981-1986: US secretly sells weapons to IranThe U.S. imposed an arms embargo after Iran was designated a state sponsor terrorism in 1984. That left the Iranian military, in the middle of its war with Iraq, desperate for weapons and aircraft and vehicle parts to keep fighting. The Reagan administration decided that the embargo would likely push Iran to seek support from the Soviet Union, the U.S.'s rival in the Cold War. Rather than formally ending the embargo, U.S. officials agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran starting in 1981. Later, the transactions were justified as incentives to help Iran persuade militants to release U.S. hostages being held in Lebanon. The last shipment, of anti-tank missiles, was in October 1986. In November of that year, a Lebanese magazine exposed the deal. That revelation sparked the Iran-Contra scandal in the U.S., in which Reagan's officials were found to have collected money from Iran for the weapons, and illegally sent those funds to anti-socialist rebels – the Contras – in Nicaragua. 1988: US Navy shoots down Iran Air flight 655On the morning of July 8, 1988, the USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser patrolling in the international waters of the Persian Gulf, entered Iranian territorial waters while in a skirmish with Iranian gunboats. Either during or just after that exchange of gunfire, the Vincennes crew mistook a passing civilian Airbus passenger jet for an Iranian F-14 fighter. They shot it down, killing all 290 people aboard. The U.S. called it a "tragic and regrettable accident," but Iran believed the plane's downing was intentional. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay US$131.8 million in compensation to Iran. 1997-1998: The US seeks contactIn August 1997, a moderate reformer, Mohammad Khatami, won Iran's presidential election. U.S. President Bill Clinton sensed an opportunity for improved relations between the two countries. He sent a message to Tehran through the Swiss ambassador there, proposing direct government-to-government talks. Shortly thereafter, in early January 1998, Khatami gave an interview to CNN in which he expressed "respect for the great American people," denounced terrorism and recommended an "exchange of professors, writers, scholars, artists, journalists and tourists" between the United States and Iran. However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei didn't agree, so not much came of the mutual overtures as Clinton's time in office came to an end. In 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke to the U.S.-based American-Iranian Council and acknowledged the government's role in the 1953 ouster of Mossadegh, but punctuated her remarks with criticism of Iranian domestic politics. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush characterized Iran, Iraq and North Korea as constituting an "Axis of Evil" supporting terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction, straining relations even further. 2002: Iran's nuclear program raises alarmIn August 2002, an exiled rebel group announced that Iran had been secretly working on nuclear weapons at two installations that had not previously been publicly revealed. That was a violation of the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran had signed, requiring countries to disclose their nuclear-related facilities to international inspectors. One of those formerly secret locations, Natanz, housed centrifuges for enriching uranium, which could be used in civilian nuclear reactors or enriched further for weapons. Starting in roughly 2005, U.S. and Israeli government cyberattackers together reportedly targeted the Natanz centrifuges with a custom-made piece of malicious software that became known as Stuxnet.That effort, which slowed down Iran's nuclear program was one of many U.S. and international attempts – mostly unsuccessful in the long term – to curtail Iran's progress toward building a nuclear bomb. 2003: Iran writes to Bush administrationIn May 2003, senior Iranian officials quietly contacted the State Department through the Swiss embassy in Iran, seeking "a dialogue 'in mutual respect,'" addressing four big issues: nuclear weapons, terrorism, Palestinian resistance and stability in Iraq.Hardliners in the Bush administration weren't interested in any major reconciliation, though Secretary of State Colin Powell favored dialogue and other officials had met with Iran about al-Qaida.When Iranian hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran in 2005, the opportunity died. The following year, Ahmadinejad made his own overture to Washington in an 18-page letter to President Bush. The letter was widely dismissed; a senior State Department official told me in profane terms that it amounted to nothing. 2015: Iran nuclear deal signedAfter a decade of unsuccessful attempts to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Obama administration undertook a direct diplomatic approach beginning in 2013.Two years of secret, direct negotiations initially bilaterally between the U.S. and Iran and later with other nuclear powers culminated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal. The deal was signed by Iran, the U.S., China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom in 2015. It severely limited Iran's capacity to enrich uranium and mandated that international inspectors monitor and enforce Iran's compliance with the agreement. In return, Iran was granted relief from international and U.S. economic sanctions. Though the inspectors regularly certified that Iran was abiding by the agreement's terms, in May 2018 President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement. 2020: US drones kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem SoleimaniOn Jan. 3, 2020, on the orders of President Trump, an American drone fired a missile that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran's elite Quds Force, as he prepared to leave the Baghdad airport. Soleimani is described by analysts as the second most powerful man in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.At the time, the Trump administration asserted that he was directing an imminent attack against U.S. assets in the region, but officials have not provided clear evidence to support that claim.Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles that hit two American bases in Iraq. As Iran entered a heightened state of alert, preparing for a possible U.S. retaliation, it accidentally shot down a commercial Ukrainian airliner departing Tehran for Kyiv, killing all 176 people aboard.[ Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation's email newsletter. ]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Iran and America: A forgotten friendship * What Iranians think of the US and their own governmentJeffrey Fields receives funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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| Russia's entire cabinet resigned en masse in a plan that would help Putin keep power indefinitely. Here's everything we know. Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:22 AM PST  The resignation came moments after President Vladimir Putin Putin suggested big constitutional changes.
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| Boris Johnson’s $160,000 Blunder Over Big Ben Brexit Bongs Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:56 AM PST ![Boris Johnson's $160,000 Blunder Over Big Ben Brexit Bongs]( "Boris Johnson's $160,000 Blunder Over Big Ben Brexit Bongs") (Bloomberg) -- Part of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's appeal as a politician is that he shoots from the hip and freely speaks his mind. But Johnson's latest spontaneous pronouncement has left his officials struggling to clear up a mess that has already cost the public 122,000 pounds ($160,000).Johnson supported calls for Big Ben, the bell in the clock tower that rises above Parliament, to be rung to mark the moment the U.K. leaves the European Union at 11 p.m. on Jan. 31. He said his officials were "working up a plan so that people can bung a bob for a Big Ben bong" to cover the costs. The problem is, the plan did not exist.After Johnson's comments, in a TV interview on Tuesday, viewers started donating cash to cover the estimated 500,000 pound cost of ringing Big Ben for Brexit. The bell is currently silenced while the clock tower undergoes refurbishment. Making it ready to ring would involve stopping the repair work, building a temporary floor under the bell and reinstalling and testing the mechanism.So far more than 122,000 pounds has been raised on crowd-funding websites even though the Parliamentary authorities made clear the work would set back the program of urgent repairs by as much as a month.The House of Commons Commission also said it would be "unprecedented" to pay for the work through donations and "any novel form of funding would need to be consistent with principles of propriety and proper oversight of public expenditure."By Thursday afternoon, Johnson's exasperated spokesman Jamie Davies was left repeating the same answer to all questions from reporters. "It's a matter for the House," he said. "Our focus is on our plans to mark Brexit on Jan. 31. We'll set out our plans as soon as we can."To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump 'might' discuss Russian hacking of Ukrainian energy company with Putin, says White House Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:53 AM PST  Donald Trump "might" discuss the Russian hacking of a Ukrainian energy company – which is at the heart of his impeachment – with Vladimir Putin the next time the two leaders meet, according to White House advisor Kellyanne Conway.A Ukrainian official said that it will seek the FBI's support in its investigation of the hack, reported by a US cybersecurity firm that says it discovered Russian military hackers attempted to steal emails from the energy company.
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| US military training for Saudi students could resume soon Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:30 AM PST  U.S. training for more than 800 Saudi Arabian military students could be restarted "in the coming days," the Pentagon said Thursday, nearly six weeks after a shooting by one Saudi trainee killed three sailors at a Florida base. The Pentagon had stopped all flight and field training for the approximately 850 Saudi students amid fears that others may have known about or been involved in the shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Jonathan Hoffman, chief spokesman for the Defense Department, said officials probably will have an announcement soon about the training resumption.
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| Merkel Rejects Proposal From Bavarian Ally to Reshuffle Cabinet Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:13 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected a proposal from her Bavarian ally to reshuffle her cabinet this year, doubling down on a potential political standoff that could define her final act as German leader."I've already said that I work well with the ministers and that I don't foresee a cabinet reshuffle – so there's nothing to add to that today," Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Thursday. It was the first time she directly responded to the proposal by the leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union, Markus Soeder.Soeder, the state premier in Bavaria, raised the the possibility this month, saying the coalition government led by Merkel needs a shakeup as it heads into new elections next year at the latest. The issue also involves who will succeed Merkel as chancellor.To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Michael WinfreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why Putin’s political shake-up isn’t just about power Posted: 16 Jan 2020 08:52 AM PST ![Why Putin's political shake-up isn't just about power]( "Why Putin's political shake-up isn't just about power") Vladimir Putin's plan to change the Russian Constitution allows him to keep control after his presidency. But it also broadens politics in Russia.
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| Thursday evening news briefing: Prince Harry breaks cover Posted: 16 Jan 2020 08:21 AM PST  If you want to receive twice-daily briefings like this by email, sign up to the Front Page newsletter here. For two-minute audio updates, try The Briefing - on podcasts, smart speakers and WhatsApp. Prince Harry shrugs off attention in first appearance The Duke of Sussex has been seen in public for the first time since he and the Duchess announced their intention to split from the Royal family. Prince Harry hosted the Rugby League World Cup 2021 draw at Buckingham Palace this afternoon - in what could prove to be his last public appearance as a fully-fledged member of the "Firm". Read the answer he gave when a reporter asked him about the progress of talks on his future. As Camilla Tominey reports, Meghan is in Canada with their son, Archie, and the Duke is expected to join her there soon. It comes amid a development about the other senior member of the Royal family to recently "step back" - the Duke of York. Prince Andrew could be stripped of his round-the-clock armed bodyguards in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The Duke, 59, faces losing his Metropolitan Police protection following a proposed downgrade of his security. A final decision rests in the hands of the Home Secretary and, ultimately, the Prime Minister. Read on for a senior source's comments. Angela Merkel tells EU that Brexit is a 'wake-up call' Brexit is a "wake-up call" for the European Union, Angela Merkel has said in a warning that Britain will emerge as an economic competitor to the bloc after it leaves the EU. The German Chancellor called on the remaining EU leaders to make Europe more competitive to meet the challenge of Brexit, as well as economic heavyweights such as the US and China. Her comments come as this analysis by James Crisp indicates the EU will point to the government's rescue of Flybe to help justify its demands for "level playing field guarantees" in the post-Brexit trade deal. And bad news for those banging on about Big Ben bonging. Downing Street has appeared to pull the plug on Big Ben chiming on Jan 31 to mark Brexit. Here's what the Prime Minister's spokesman had to say. Blow for Bake Off as Sandi Toksvig quits Sandi Toksvig is leaving the Great British Bake Off to focus on other projects, she has announced. In a blow for the Channel 4 show, the comedian abruptly announced she was leaving via a press release she posted on Twitter. The show, once the most-viewed programme in Britain, has seen its viewers halve since its peak. In 2015, Nadiya Hussein's win pulled in 14.5 million viewers. The latest show had a peak of 6.9 million. Click here to read Toksvig's statement. News digest Labour race | Momentum to 'mobilise thousands' for Long-Bailey Knife offences | Crimes hit ten-year high with 60 recorded every day Megaphone trial | Man cleared of assaulting police with loud hailer Volcano threat | 'Heartbreaking' moment family left uncle of 80 Food fury | Why millennials are killing off the full English breakfast Video: 'I think you called me a liar on national TV' Elizabeth Warren accused Bernie Sanders of calling her a liar during a confrontation after the Democratic debate, according to a released audio clip of the exchange. The tense interaction occurred as the candidates were congratulating one another on the debate stage - and was broadcast live without sound. The audio was released on Wednesday by CNN, which co-hosted the debate in Des Moines, Iowa. Watch the video below. Comment Asa Bennett | Is EU ready for stark reality of Brexit 'wake-up call'? Robin Pagnamenta | Why Boris Johnson has no choice about Huawei Andrew Faxall | Leader-for-life Putin has condemned Russia Melanie Mcdonagh | Crazy epitaphs are out of place in churchyards Sam Wallace | How will Christian Eriksen be remembered at Spurs? World news: The one story you must read today... Avalanche rescue | A 12-year-old girl was found alive after being buried for 18 hours when an avalanche in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir engulfed the family house, her mother said. Click here to see Samina Bibi, who recalled screaming for help as she lay trapped in a room under the snow. The death toll from Monday's avalanches is believed to be at least 74. Editor's choice Where to buy | How to find a better value home with a shorter commute if you work in London 'I can still hear the engines' | The brutal reality of life in Bomber Command 'You made me look a fool' | Inside Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water feud Business and money briefing Uber faces competition | An Estonian rival to Uber has raised €50m (£43m) from the EU's development bank as the bloc aims to accelerate the growth of its domestic contender to America's ride-hailing operators. Cheers to that! | Pub numbers rise for the first time since 2007 Battle of the billionaires | Jeff Bezos locked in e-commerce fight On top of markets | Live stocks and shares updates 24 hours a day Sport briefing South Africa v England | The series is tied with two Tests to play. Click here to see how the tourists performed after winning the toss and electing to bat on the opening day of the third Test in Port Elizabeth. Man Utd transfer | Bruno Fernandes agrees personal terms with club Heading the ball | Scottish FA set to recommend ban for under 12s Australian Open draw | Coco Gauff to face Venus Williams again And finally... Savaged by critics | Universal has barely had a moment to shake the shame off its whiskers after Cats, but now it's got another big-budget disaster on its hands: Dolittle. With multiple re-shoots following a bad reception from test audiences two years ago, the film seems to have been doomed from the start. Read on for what has been said.
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| Europe giving in to 'high school bully' Trump over nuclear deal, says Iran Posted: 16 Jan 2020 08:19 AM PST  Iran's foreign minister has criticised the United Kingdom, France and Germany, signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal, for yielding to Donald Trump, calling the US president a "high school bully".Mohammed Javid Zarif posted on Twitter a screenshot of a Washington Post report that revealed the Trump administration had "secretly" threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on European cars if the three European countries (known as the E3) did not formally accuse Iran of breaking the deal.
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| Bloody Mutiny in Sudan Casts Shadow Over Drive for Democracy Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:57 AM PST ![Bloody Mutiny in Sudan Casts Shadow Over Drive for Democracy]( "Bloody Mutiny in Sudan Casts Shadow Over Drive for Democracy") (Bloomberg) -- When disgruntled Sudanese spies took up arms and gunfire rang out across Khartoum, even members of the most powerful pro-government militia were startled.As mutiny rocked three security buildings in the capital on Tuesday afternoon, fighters from the notorious Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group rushed to respond. By the next morning, five people -- two of them soldiers -- were dead, and the transitional government said the bloodshed sparked by a pay dispute was over.But less than a year after President Omar al-Bashir was ousted in the wake of mass protests, the violence that left people cowering in the homes, canceled flights and temporarily cut oil production was a stark sign of the challenge still represented by elements of the Islamist leader's 30-year regime.As Sudan races toward what are supposed to be democratic elections in 2022. reforming the security sector is "a key fault line along which the transition could founder," said Jonas Horner, an analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group."These reforms require considerable political tact and deftness to avoid mobilizing a constituency still loyal to the ousted regime," he said. "That constituency cannot be ignored or forgotten -- after three decades in total control, they retain considerable power and hold over Sudanese politics and military."On paper, Africa's third-largest country is edging toward democracy after the fall of Bashir, who swept to power in a 1989 coup and eventually turned the country into an Islamist-backed international pariah. Sudan now has a government of technocrats, including former United Nations economist Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister, an ex-World Bank official as finance minister, and experienced women in charge of justice and foreign affairs.All the same, some key figures from the political-security alliances that helped sustain Bashir's rule through years of economic devastation and regional rebellions have either retained many of their powers or may be lying low with plans to regroup. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which have typically acted to maintain the status quo, have pledged financial aid to the government.The mutiny shows "the threat that Sudan's sprawling military and security apparatus poses to the democratic transition," said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, an academic researching the country. "For democracy to take hold in Sudan, civilians will need to continue to disarm, demobilize or otherwise establish control" over all the groups, including the RSF.The head of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan 'Hemedti,' who once led brutal janjaweed militias in the western region of Darfur as Bashir's enforcer, has pledged support for the revolution even after his fighters were accused of a crackdown in June that killed more than 100 protesters.Late Tuesday, the militia leader who's assumed a senior government rule and whose fighters often seem to wield more influence than the army, accused Salah Gosh, the ex-head of the now-restructured national intelligence service, of fomenting the unrest.Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army chief who now heads the sovereign council that has quasi-presidential powers, also called the violence an attempt to abort the revolution and said 40 agents had been arrested. "The armed forces will remain cohesive to protect the transitional period," he said.Authorities said the mutiny originated in the Operations Unit, a paramilitary branch of the re-branded General Intelligence Directorate, among agents who chose not to be integrated into the RSF or military. A revolt also occurred in al-Obeid, a regional capital, while two southern oil fields were briefly shut down, removing 25,000 barrels per day, or at least a quarter, of Sudan's output.The head of the spy agency, Lieutenant General Abu Bakr Demblab, resigned after helping contain the incident and is being replaced, the General Intelligence Directorate said Thursday in a statement. About 5,800 of the agency's roughly 11,700 staff have chosen to retire since Dec. 28 and are collecting financial compensation, it said.The sovereign council said Gamal Abdul Magid, the head of military intelligence, would replace Demblab.While the revolt was "poorly organized and seemed anarchic," said Harry Verhoeven, author of 'Water, Civilisation and Power in Sudan,' "the unrest was a reflection of the deep divisions within the Sudanese security establishment and a logical outcome of the power struggles between Hemedti, Burhan's army and the civilians around Hamdok that have been evident across Sudan."(Updates with resignation of intelligence chief in third-last paragraph)\--With assistance from Okech Francis.To contact the reporters on this story: Mohammed Alamin in Khartoum at malamin1@bloomberg.net;Samuel Gebre in Abidjan at sgebre@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Gunn at mgunn14@bloomberg.net, Karl MaierFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| As Brexit clock ticks, UK in ding-dong over Big Ben bongs Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:50 AM PST  The question exercising Britons as they face their last few days of EU membership is not about trade or sovereignty but whether Big Ben should ring out for Brexit. The world famous bell in parliament's Elizabeth Tower has been largely silent since August 2017 while undergoing repairs, but some Brexit supporters want it to sound on exit day on January 31. The House of Commons authorities rejected the idea after being told it could cost up to £500,000 (585,000 euros, $653,000), which Speaker Lindsay Hoyle noted was about "£50,000 a bong".
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| Every Day Europe Dithers Brings Iran More Enriched Uranium Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:46 AM PST ![Every Day Europe Dithers Brings Iran More Enriched Uranium]( "Every Day Europe Dithers Brings Iran More Enriched Uranium") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- If the administration of President Donald Trump did indeed try to bully Europe into doing the right thing on Iran's dangerous brinkmanship, this reflects poorly on both sides. Threatening Germany, France and Britain with a tariff on automobile exports to the U.S. is the diplomatic equivalent of a nuclear option — the more egregious for being invoked against close allies. But while the Europeans certainly didn't deserve to be blackmailed by Washington, their invertebrate response to blackmail by Tehran dilutes sympathy for their predicament.The influence of the tariff threat on the European decision to trigger a dispute mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is hard to know. They met earlier such bluster by Trump with warnings of their own: Only a few months ago, the European Union's trade commissioner was pledging retaliation against any U.S. tariffs on automobiles.Sadly, the Europeans have not been so dauntless in the face of intimidation by the Islamic Republic. From the moment last May when Iran announced it would no longer abide by the enrichment limits in the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Europeans have tended to cut Tehran some slack, when stern warnings were warranted. This accommodation encouraged the regime to progressively discard the JCPOA's restrictions, while the leaders in Berlin, Paris and London wrung their hands.The Europeans seem to have persuaded themselves that Iran's actions were a natural, perhaps even justifiable, reaction to Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal the previous year. In their anxiety to keep the deal alive, and give their companies access to business deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the Europeans lost sight of the JCPOA's purpose: to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat.The possibility of action was renewed when Iran stepped up enrichment, but Europe used the letter of the deal as an excuse to do nothing even as its spirit was being flouted. Their reward from the regime in Tehran has been only scorn. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has derided Europe's efforts to salvage the JCPOA, dismissing them as a "joke," and warning his countrymen to "give up all hope" that these would amount to anything. Tehran knows it can count on European timorousness in the face of its truculence: Notice that the Iranians rarely chastise — much less taunt — China and Russia, the JCPOA's other signatories, for failing to keep their end of the bargain. Tehran was expecting the EU to find another excuse for inaction two weeks ago, when the regime announced it was suspending limits on uranium enrichment and removing all curbs on the number of centrifuges required to induce a fission chain reaction.And true to form, the Europeans first instinct was to avoid triggering the JCPOA's dispute mechanism. It took them nine days to initiate the formal proceedings. They now have two weeks to meet with Iran to resolve their concerns; if that effort fails, it gets kicked up to the level of foreign ministers, who could decide after another 15-day period (which can be extended by mutual consent) to bring the matter to the United Nations Security Council.Will the Europeans persist, though? France seems to cling to the idea that the JCPOA might yet be saved by discussion. Britain has come around to the Trump administration's view that the deal is dead, and that a new one must now be negotiated. Absent the sudden excavation of a backbone, the most likely outcome is more dithering.From Iran, meanwhile, has come only more—and more open—blackmail. Even President Hassan Rouhani, often touted as the regime's kinder, gentler face, has descended to bald-faced threats. If the EU pressures Iran on its enrichment program, he said, "tomorrow, European soldiers may also be in danger." As of this writing, the Europeans have not responded to Rouhani.Their hands, one imagines, are occupied with more wringing.To contact the author of this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Bobby Ghosh is a columnist and member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Every Day Europe Dithers Brings Iran More Enriched Uranium Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:46 AM PST ![Every Day Europe Dithers Brings Iran More Enriched Uranium]( "Every Day Europe Dithers Brings Iran More Enriched Uranium") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- If the administration of President Donald Trump did indeed try to bully Europe into doing the right thing on Iran's dangerous brinkmanship, this reflects poorly on both sides. Threatening Germany, France and Britain with a tariff on automobile exports to the U.S. is the diplomatic equivalent of a nuclear option — the more egregious for being invoked against close allies. But while the Europeans certainly didn't deserve to be blackmailed by Washington, their invertebrate response to blackmail by Tehran dilutes sympathy for their predicament.The influence of the tariff threat on the European decision to trigger a dispute mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is hard to know. They met earlier such bluster by Trump with warnings of their own: Only a few months ago, the European Union's trade commissioner was pledging retaliation against any U.S. tariffs on automobiles.Sadly, the Europeans have not been so dauntless in the face of intimidation by the Islamic Republic. From the moment last May when Iran announced it would no longer abide by the enrichment limits in the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Europeans have tended to cut Tehran some slack, when stern warnings were warranted. This accommodation encouraged the regime to progressively discard the JCPOA's restrictions, while the leaders in Berlin, Paris and London wrung their hands.The Europeans seem to have persuaded themselves that Iran's actions were a natural, perhaps even justifiable, reaction to Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal the previous year. In their anxiety to keep the deal alive, and give their companies access to business deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the Europeans lost sight of the JCPOA's purpose: to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat.The possibility of action was renewed when Iran stepped up enrichment, but Europe used the letter of the deal as an excuse to do nothing even as its spirit was being flouted. Their reward from the regime in Tehran has been only scorn. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has derided Europe's efforts to salvage the JCPOA, dismissing them as a "joke," and warning his countrymen to "give up all hope" that these would amount to anything. Tehran knows it can count on European timorousness in the face of its truculence: Notice that the Iranians rarely chastise — much less taunt — China and Russia, the JCPOA's other signatories, for failing to keep their end of the bargain. Tehran was expecting the EU to find another excuse for inaction two weeks ago, when the regime announced it was suspending limits on uranium enrichment and removing all curbs on the number of centrifuges required to induce a fission chain reaction.And true to form, the Europeans first instinct was to avoid triggering the JCPOA's dispute mechanism. It took them nine days to initiate the formal proceedings. They now have two weeks to meet with Iran to resolve their concerns; if that effort fails, it gets kicked up to the level of foreign ministers, who could decide after another 15-day period (which can be extended by mutual consent) to bring the matter to the United Nations Security Council.Will the Europeans persist, though? France seems to cling to the idea that the JCPOA might yet be saved by discussion. Britain has come around to the Trump administration's view that the deal is dead, and that a new one must now be negotiated. Absent the sudden excavation of a backbone, the most likely outcome is more dithering.From Iran, meanwhile, has come only more—and more open—blackmail. Even President Hassan Rouhani, often touted as the regime's kinder, gentler face, has descended to bald-faced threats. If the EU pressures Iran on its enrichment program, he said, "tomorrow, European soldiers may also be in danger." As of this writing, the Europeans have not responded to Rouhani.Their hands, one imagines, are occupied with more wringing.To contact the author of this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Bobby Ghosh is a columnist and member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| AP visits immigration courts across US, finds nonstop chaos Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:37 AM PST  In a locked, guarded courtroom in a compound surrounded by razor wire, Immigration Judge Jerome Rothschild waits -- and stalls. A Spanish interpreter is running late because of a flat tire. Rothschild tells the five immigrants before him that he'll take a break before the proceedings even start.
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| Watchdog: White House violated law in freezing Ukraine aid Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:20 AM PST  The White House violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine, an action at the center of President Donald Trump's impeachment, a federal watchdog agency said Thursday. The aid in question was held up last summer on orders from Trump but was released in September after Congress pushed for its release and a whistleblower's complaint about Trump's July call with the Ukrainian leader became public.
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| Did Russian Prime Minister Medvedev Drop a Grim Hint About Putin’s Latest Power Grab? Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:14 AM PST  At a celebration of the Russian Orthodox New Year on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev chose a grim message, the sarcasm of which left his audience on edge. But, then, Medvedev probably knew what Wednesday would bring—the resignation of his entire government—and the audience did not.Putin's Power Play: Shuffle the Cabinet But Keep CommandOn national television, the prime minister read at length from Anton Chekhov's story "A Night in the Cemetery," which suggests with ironic wit that celebrating the coming of the New Year is a foolish pursuit, unworthy of a properly functioning mind, since "every coming year is as bad as the previous one," and the newest year is bound to be even worse. Instead of celebrating the New Year, Chekhov wrote—and Medvedev read—one should suffer, cry and attempt suicide. Every new year brings you closer to death, makes you poorer, your bald spots larger and your wife older, he said.Medvedev's sour greetings brought on some awkward laughs and sparse applause from confused Russian bureaucrats in the studio audience, most of whom remained stone-faced. The prime minister seemed nervous and almost dropped his papers at the end of the speech.Then Wednesday dawned, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in his annual state of the nation address proposed a constitutional overhaul. It supposedly is designed to boost the powers of parliament and the cabinet, but more likely is intended to give Putin, 67, a firm grip on the country for many more years, even decades, to come. A few hours later, Medvedev submitted his resignation, and his entire cabinet submitted theirs as well. And while some of them may stay on, Medvedev, who once served a term as Putin's placeholder president, will move to a previously nonexistent post.Putin offered the prime minister slot to Mikhail Mishustin, the head of the Russian Tax Service, who has been described as "the taxman of the future," digitally acquiring receipts of every transaction in Russia within 90 seconds. It's unclear whether Mishustin will be a placeholder technocrat or assume other responsibilities currently known only to Putin. But in his annual address, Putin articulated the need to identify any persons with current or former double citizenships and foreign holdings, eliminating them from government service. Mishustin might become instrumental in such a reshuffling of Russia's power elites, who are perceived to be unpatriotic by maintaining residences or bank accounts abroad. The added pressure will also give Putin further leverage over them. In the past, Putin and Medvedev have choreographed moves that allowed Putin to remain in charge under different titles, swapping places to circumvent term limits.This time around, Medvedev will assume a newly created position as the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council and all current ministers will remain in an acting capacity until a new government is appointed.Meanwhile, the leader of Chechnya in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, Ramzan Kadyrov has declared himself to be "temporarily incapacitated," relegating his duties to the current prime minister of Chechnya, Muslim Khuchiyev.Putin's sweeping changes are widely interpreted as designed to weaken his successor, reshaping Russia's power structure in order to create additional opportunities for Putin's continued control over the government, even after the conclusion of his fourth presidential term in 2024. Putin proposed amending the Russian constitution to expand the powers of the legislative branch and investing additional powers in the State Council, leading to speculation Putin is contemplating his future return at the helm of a newly empowered Parliament, after the expiration of his current presidential term.Commentary on the Russian president's likely intention to carve out a new position for himself has been skillfully avoided by the Russian state media. Instead, Kremlin-controlled news outlets chose to focus on promised subsidies for families with young children, designed to address Russia's demographic crisis by boosting the birth rate, and the general claim that Putin has, as it were, made Russia great again.On the Russian state television show, The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, the host proclaimed, "The greatness of the country is indisputably tied to the name of Putin." Soloviev argued that the Russian president "restored respect" towards their country globally. His take was echoed by the State Duma Deputy Chair Irina Yarovaya, who pontificated that Putin, having achieved his foreign policy and national security objectives, could now move on to his domestic agenda. Yarovaya said, "We remember statements by [U.S. President Barack Obama] in 2014—very recently—that Russia is a regional power of minor importance. We remember all of that. We remember how the sanctions started. We remember how we weren't invited to the G8. And today there is a line of world leaders waiting just to talk to our president over the phone…"The sanctions started and Russia was disinvited after it seized and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, then incited and abetted a separatist war in Ukraine's east. They were intensified after Russia's flagrant interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.Russian state media also highlight Putin's promises of socioeconomic largesse and his prediction that "Russia's economy will grow faster than the global average in 2021." During the last decade, the Russian leader has promised in vain that Russia will become the world's fifth largest economy by 2024. It is currently ranked as the 11th largest economy in the world, with a smaller GDP than that of California. President Putin's current growth prediction is much more modest. It's still not realistic, but such promises had to be made as Russia's declining standards of living have led to political unrest and mass protests.Without providing any direct answers as to his own plans, the Russian leader—who has now been in power for 20 years—created new venues for his continued reign in yet-to-be-revealed future capacities.Amid all the uncertainties, maybe it shouldn't surprise us that Medvedev was reading Chekhov's story about a blind drunk civil servant who stumbles out of a New Year's celebration only to get lost in a graveyard—and then discovers in the morning he was somewhere else entirely.Russia Loves the Impeachment Hearings Because GOP Is Parroting Kremlin PropagandaRead 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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| Putin's new PM promises 'real changes' for Russians Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:07 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin's new prime minister promised "real changes" on Thursday as he was approved by lawmakers after the Kremlin announced sweeping reform plans. Putin tapped Mikhail Mishustin for the role as part of a series of bombshell announcements on Wednesday, which sparked speculation that Russia's longtime leader could be preparing his own political future. The lower house State Duma voted overwhelmingly to approve Mishustin as premier, less than 24 hours after Russia's political order was shaken by Putin's announcement of constitutional reforms and the resignation of the government.
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| Rep. Liz Cheney to stay in House, decline Wyoming Senate run Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:05 AM PST  Rep. Liz Cheney, a junior but rising GOP leader in the House, is opting to stay on that chamber's leadership track rather than run for a Senate seat in her home state of Wyoming. The move keeps the combative second-term lawmaker positioned to advance in the House GOP hierarchy. Cheney told her colleagues at a closed-door meeting Thursday that she's staying put.
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| Report: Israeli home demolitions in east Jerusalem spiked Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  Israeli authorities demolished homes in Palestinian areas of east Jerusalem at a significantly higher rate in 2019 than the previous year, according to an Israeli advocacy group. In a new report, Ir Amim said 104 housing units were demolished in 2019, compared() to 72 units in 2018. Aviv Tatarsky, the Ir Amim researcher who wrote the report released Wednesday, said the group found that only 7% of housing units advanced by city planners last year were for Palestinian neighborhoods.
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| Operation Options Open: How Vladimir Putin plans to retain his grip on power Posted: 16 Jan 2020 06:58 AM PST  The constitution of the Russian Federation is clear: no president may remain in office for more than two consecutive terms. So come 2024 Vladimir Putin should - in theory - retire. But few believe that the man who has ruled Russia for 20 years will find it easy to let go of the reins of power, even if he wants to. So how will he cling on? Before January 15, there were three basic scenarios debated in the salons, bars, and think-tanks of Moscow: a repeat of his 2008-2012 job swap with Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister; rewriting the constitution to lift presidential term limits; or an anschluss with Belarus to create an entirely new country. Mr Putin's dramatic announcement on January 15 has now offered clarity, and will have been met with a sigh of relief in Minsk. A forced merger seems to be off the table. Instead, he is going for a complex amalgamation of the first two options. As in 2008, Mr Putin appears to have declined the brusquely despotic option of remaining president for life. He will leave the Kremlin in 2024 as planned, and he will appoint a successor he believes he can trust. But instead of a repeat of the "Castling" of 2008, he has outlined a radical readjustment of the balance of power at the centre of the Russian state that could ultimately create an entirely new role. And he has fired Dmitry Medvedev, who served as his previous stand-in president, clearing the way for a completely new face. Twenty years of Putin There are three elements to Mr Putin's proposals. First, power will be taken from the president and given to parliament by allowing the State Duma, Russia's lower house, to nominate and approve cabinet ministers, including the prime minister. The president, Mr Putin said, would not be able to veto their choice. That mean's Mr Putin's successor will not enjoy the sweeping authority he himself does. Secondly, the loophole in the Russian constitution that made Mr Putin's castling with Mr Medvedev in 2008 possible will be closed. In future, presidents will be restricted to two terms, or 12 years, in total, whether consecutive or not. That means Mr Putin can never return to the Kremlin as president. But nor can any successor stay in power as long as he has. There will be no more Vladimir Putins. Thirdly, the role of the State Council, a currently vaguely defined advisory body made up of key regional governors, senior MPs, and party leaders, will be enshrined in the constitution - suggesting a new pole of power to balance the executive and the legislature. The icing on the cake is the bar on presidential candidates who have not lived in Russia for 25 years and who have ever held residency in any other country - neatly disqualifying opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who spent a year studying at Yale in 2010. In short, Mr Putin will not remain president, but will remain in public life and retain his grip on the levers of power. Who will be president, and where exactly Mr Putin will land in the new constitutional landscape, is for now being kept deliberately opaque. There are several reasons for this new approach. Mr Putin will turn 72 in 2024. Unless he wants to spend his twilight years agonizing over federal budgets and public services reforms, he needs to move on. Another "castling" with Mr Medvedev, who is also widely unpopular, is not going to cut it. But like any dictator, he cannot afford to completely relinquish his grip on power. The risks of a rival coming to power are too great. That means carving out a new role that allows him the power to intervene when necessary - think of Iran's Grand Ayatollahs. The second element is a competent but pliant successor. Mr Medvedev will not do. He is too unpopular and too well-known, in a bad way, which is probably why he was fired. Nor will the other big beasts of the Russian political landscape. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin may be loyal now, but they are too powerful and too ambitious to remain subservient to their predecessor. That makes Mikhail Mishustin, the tax chief promoted to the premiership, an unlikely but possible candidate. But Mr Putin still has four years to play with. Operation options open has a long way to run yet.
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| Nations of Iran crash victims seek compensation for families Posted: 16 Jan 2020 06:17 AM PST  The governments of five countries that lost citizens when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner demanded Thursday that Tehran accept "full responsibility" and pay compensation to the victims' families — though they had little to offer besides moral pressure to get Iran to comply. After a meeting in London, foreign ministers from Canada, the U.K., Afghanistan, Sweden and Ukraine urged Iran to allow a "thorough, independent and transparent international investigation," as well as a criminal probe and "impartial" judicial proceedings against those found responsible for downing the plane. All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines aircraft died when it was brought down by ballistic missiles shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on Jan. 8.
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| High-Tech Taxman Who Loves Hockey Is Putin’s New Premier Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:58 AM PST ![High-Tech Taxman Who Loves Hockey Is Putin's New Premier]( "High-Tech Taxman Who Loves Hockey Is Putin's New Premier") (Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin is putting his trust in an obscure technocrat with little political experience to be prime minister and revive Russia's flagging economy, as he prepares the country for the most significant constitutional overhaul in a generation.Mikhail Mishustin, head of the Federal Tax Service, last held a political post in the government as a deputy tax minister for five years to 2004. Putin signed the order appointing him formally on Thursday after lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted overwhelming to confirm his candidacy, with 383 in favor and none against.His nomination won plaudits from economic reformers and business leaders, aware of his record of transforming tax collections through efficient use of modern technology and encouraged by expectations he'll focus on boosting growth."Mishustin can relate to business like no one else," said Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister and now head of the Audit Chamber, a government watchdog. "He has a vision for the economy that I hope will lead to a modern and effective development program."While he's not widely known outside of the tax authority, Mishustin developed a rapport with Putin as a member of the president's Night Hockey League. A long time hockey enthusiast, he sits on the supervisory board of Moscow's CSKA club together with Igor Sechin, a Putin confidant who runs Russia's state-run oil giant Rosneft PJSC.The new prime minister is also an amateur musician and has penned pop songs as a hobby, including for singer Grigory Lepsveridze, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2013 for alleged ties to organized crime.Mishustin, 53, led the tax service from 2010, creating a state-of-the-art system that involves real-time reporting to minimize avoidance. It helped tax payments grow far more quickly than Russia's gross domestic product for the last five years.'Brave New World'"Before, you needed a bottle of vodka to figure out your declarations," Yandex NV Deputy Chief Executive Officer Tigran Khudaverdyan said of Mishustin's reforms. "But now it's a brave new world where everything is simple."Prior to taking over the tax authority, Mishustin spent two years as president of UFG Asset Management, a Russian investment business that was set up by U.S. investor Charles Ryan and former Finance Minister Boris Fedorov. The PhD economist also led state agencies including the federal land registry and a body responsible for managing special economic zones.His unexpected nomination capped a day of surprises after Putin accepted the resignation of the government of the long-serving prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, on Wednesday. Medvedev said the president needed a new team to implement the vision Putin had outlined hours earlier in his state-of-the-union address, involving sweeping constitutional changes aimed at boosting the powers of parliament and another body called the State Council.Medvedev's job had long been rumored to be at risk as Russia's economy stagnated and wages shrank for five years running, helping to erode Putin's popularity. The president also announced a raft of new spending measures that are expected to boost growth.Mishustin told lawmakers that he will work to restore trust between business and the authorities while speeding up Putin's National Projects infrastructure-spending program. Those initiatives stalled in the bureaucracy last year, failing to deliver the hoped-for stimulus and prompting Putin to criticize the government."Mishustin revolutionized tax collection in Russia, where tax evasion has long been a national sport," said Max Nalsky, a co-founder of IIKO, one of Russia's leading software providers for restaurants. "I can't think of any other state agency that is as progressive in IT and digitalization."(Updates with confirmation vote in second paragraph)\--With assistance from Ilya Arkhipov.To contact the reporters on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net;Evgenia Pismennaya in Moscow at epismennaya@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Gregory L. WhiteFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump threatened UK with 25% car tariffs unless it agreed to accuse Iran of breaking nuclear deal Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:42 AM PST  Donald Trump threatened the UK with a 25 per cent tariff on its cars unless the British government officially accused Iran of breaking the 2015 nuclear deal, it has been reported.The secret threat last week, first reported by The Washington Post, which cited unnamed European officials, would have seen the tariff imposed on all European automobile imports to the US unless Britain, France and Germany agreed to the ultimatum.
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| Ukraine opens probe of possible surveillance of ambassador Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:14 AM PST  Police in Ukraine are investigating whether the U.S. ambassador came under illegal surveillance by an unknown party before the Trump administration recalled her from Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday. The announcement came two days after Democratic lawmakers in the United States released documents and text messages that showed an associate of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer communicating with Rudy Giuliani about Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's r emoval.
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| Six dead, 19 injured in Abu Dhabi after bus slams into truck Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:14 AM PST ![Six dead, 19 injured in Abu Dhabi after bus slams into truck]( "Six dead, 19 injured in Abu Dhabi after bus slams into truck") A bus and a truck collided on a major road in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, killing six people and injuring 19, police said. The Abu Dhabi police released surveillance footage of the accident on their Twitter account, showing a white car in front of an 18-wheeler truck and the truck suddenly braking to a near-halt. According to a report in the Abu Dhabi-based The National newspaper, police said the accident was the result of "reckless behavior" from the driver in the white car who had cut in front of the truck driver.
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| Turkey targets Kurdish rebels in Iraq, killing 4 Yazidis Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:09 AM PST ![Turkey targets Kurdish rebels in Iraq, killing 4 Yazidis]( "Turkey targets Kurdish rebels in Iraq, killing 4 Yazidis") Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group have killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels, an Iraqi army official said Thursday. The strikes, which took place on Wednesday, hit a military pickup truck in the northern town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, said the army official, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations. The pickup was carrying members of the Iraqi Yazidi militia known as the Shingal Resistance Units, affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, which is fighting an insurgency in Turkey and has been outlawed by Ankara.
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| Lebanese protesters decry security forces' use of violence Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:06 AM PST  Lebanese protesters Thursday decried security forces' use of violence during rallies over the past two days, including attacks on journalists and the detention of over 100 people. Dozens of people, including journalists, rallied outside the Interior Ministry denouncing what they said was the systematic use of force against members of the media. Many raised photos of journalists getting beaten by riot police.
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| U.S. intelligence chiefs reportedly want to scrap their public global threat testimony to avoid angering Trump Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:06 AM PST  The U.S. director of national intelligence and the heads of the CIA, FBI, NSA, and other intelligence agencies testify each year on the global threats facing the U.S., with a part of the hearing in public and the other part behind closed doors. This year, Politico reports, "the U.S. intelligence community is trying to persuade House and Senate lawmakers to drop the public portion" of the Worldwide Threat briefing so agency chiefs can't "be seen on-camera as disagreeing with the president on big issues such as Iran, Russia, or North Korea," as happened last year, provoking "an angry outburst" from President Trump.Lawmakers, especially in the Senate, are expected to reject the request, so far broached only through staff-level channels. The intelligence community has rejected the House Intelligence Committee's invitation for public global threats testimony for the past two years, and "a third refusal could cause tensions between the two sides to boil over," Politico says. On the other hand, at the Senate's hearing last year, the agency chiefs presented intelligence on ISIS, Iran, and North Korea's nuclear ambitions that didn't mesh with Trump's statements, and Trump "blistered them on Twitter" as "passive" and "naive.""Trump later claimed his top intelligence chiefs, including then-DNI Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel, told him that they had been misquoted in the press — even though their remarks had been broadcast and the video footage was publicly available," Politico recalls. Coats stepped down in August and the current DNI, Joseph Maguire, has been doing the job for five months in an acting capacity. You can read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com Ukraine gives Trump the corruption investigation he asked for Mitch McConnell should recuse himself Trump declares major disaster in Puerto Rico
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| Iran accuses EU of abandoning nuclear deal for fear of 'bully' Trump Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:06 AM PST  Iran accused European governments Thursday of sacrificing a troubled 2015 nuclear deal to avoid trade reprisals from US President Donald Trump who has spent nearly two years trying to scupper it. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Trump was again behaving like a "high school bully" and the decision by Britain, France and Germany to heed his pressure to lodge a complaint over Iranian compliance deprived them of any right to claim the moral high ground. The three governments "sold out remnants of #JCPOA (the nuclear deal) to avoid new Trump tariffs," Zarif charged.
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| She Was Known in China by Her Weight: 47 Pounds. Her Death Sparked Outrage. Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:01 AM PST  HONG KONG -- To save money for her brother's medical bills, the woman in a Chinese village often ate only rice and chili peppers or plain steamed buns. Years later, malnutrition wasted her body and worsened a heart problem -- and she turned to the internet for help.The woman, Wu Huayan, was a 24-year-old college student, but she weighed less than 50 pounds and stood at a mere 4 feet and 5 inches, according to state news reports. She became an instant symbol of the harsh effects of poverty and hunger, and set off an outpouring of $140,000 in donations -- a significant amount in rural China.Then, Monday, Wu died in a hospital -- and public sympathy quickly turned to grief and outrage.The images of her frail, stunted body touched off a torrent of criticism that officials had failed to help the disadvantaged at a time when China's leader, Xi Jinping, has vowed to eliminate extreme poverty. For many Chinese, Wu's plight was a stark reminder that despite the party's pledges and the leaps the country has made economically, poverty was still a harsh reality in parts of rural China. Some also drew a link between the tragedy and the country's problem with official graft that eats up public resources."How much money do corrupt officials have to embezzle before they get caught? Hasn't this already damaged our country and our people?" Yu Fannuo, a tech commentator, wrote on a blog. "Why is it that Wu Huayan, the girl in Guizhou, was only discovered and helped when she was on the brink of death?"Wu's death also cast a spotlight on the widespread public skepticism and distrust of philanthropy, which is a nascent concept in China. Questions arose over how several charities handled the money that had flooded in to pay for the woman's hospital treatment and why only a tenth of the funds was used. In a commentary, People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, asked if the charities had exploited a tragedy for commercial gain."At what scale is phony fundraising and tragedy consumption happening?" the paper said.Wu grew up in a village in the poor, heavily rural province of Guizhou, state media reported. She subsisted for several years on a meager diet to help care for her younger brother.The malnutrition caused her to lose her eyebrows and some of her hair, and made her untreated illnesses worse. She began to have trouble breathing in 2018 and was admitted to a hospital in October for heart and kidney problems.That month, she started an appeal on Shuidichou, an online crowdfunding site, saying that medical costs that would add up to nearly $30,000 were far beyond her means. Family and friends had already made loans, and she was desperate, she said."I'm only asking for help because I have no other way out," she wrote. "I still want to live a proper life. I still want to contribute to society and will use all my strength to fight my illness."Her story was reported by national news outlets in October and then widely circulated on social media. Wu said after that in a video interview that she had received 100 calls and messages.Speaking in a soft voice from a hospital bed and wearing fuzzy blue pajamas, she thanked her donors, saying that the support made her feel less alone."I feel as though I can suddenly see the sun again after being abandoned in the dark night," she said. "I don't know your name, where you are and what lives you are living, and I haven't appeared in your lives before -- but I want to thank you for your sacrifices for an ordinary stranger like me."A few charities also helped to raise money, including the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, a private organization that is overseen by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.The charity started a crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $30,000 for Wu. It said it wired about $3,000 of that amount to her hospital in November. Under pressure to account for the rest of the money, the foundation said in statements that swelling in her organs had prevented Wu from undergoing surgery and that Wu's family had requested that the money be used for the operation and her recovery.The foundation acknowledged the public criticism of how it handled the donations and said it was investigating the matter. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.Wu died of heart and kidney diseases Monday, according to an announcement posted by the school she attended, Guizhou Forerunner College. That was three months after she started her crowdfunding appeal.Philanthropy is in the early stages of development in China, and the sector has been roiled in recent years by scandals. The Red Cross Society of China, a state-run organization that is one of the country's largest charities, was badly hit by a 2011 scandal that hurt public trust, especially in efforts that are led by the government.Concerns about transparency and accountability in philanthropy have surged alongside the popularity of crowdfunding for charitable causes.Internet platforms created by Chinese technology giants have enabled charities and nonprofits to finance their projects, and those efforts have been met with increasing scrutiny, said Shawn Shieh, an independent expert on Chinese philanthropy and civil society."China's social media culture demands immediate responses to questions on funding quite often without understanding the whole story," Shieh said. "We're seeing the charity sector go through growing pains on how to deal with public criticism about these public cases."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| President Trump's Mistake: Maximum Pressure Is a Path to War with Iran Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:57 AM PST  In the aftermath of averting a war between the U.S. and Iran, the maximum pressure campaign has gone full steam ahead, with new sanctions announced last week on Iranian officials. Proponents of the maximum pressure campaign against Iran argue that it avoids war with Iran. However, viewed with clear eyes, the deliberate strangling of Iran's economy is a path to war.
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| There is No 'Suleimani Doctrine' on North Korea (That Won't Start a War) Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:49 AM PST  Briefly put, any 'Suleimani Doctrine' in North Korea would run a huge risk of escalation.
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| Russia Moves Quickly to Make Putin’s New Vision a Reality Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:46 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin's new prime minister pledged to work with business and overhaul the cabinet after a surprise shakeup that may enable the president to extend his 20-year rule.Mikhail Mishustin won a confirmation vote in the lower house of parliament Thursday with 383 of the State Duma's 450 lawmakers voting in favor. Putin had moved quickly to nominate the former tax chief after the departure of his long-serving prime minister on Wednesday."To ensure further growth of GDP, first of all we must stimulate investment, that's very important," Mishustin said in the Duma ahead of the vote. The government should "restore the trust lost between the authorities and business and talk seriously about reducing costs and excess pressure."Surprise ShakeupPutin's proposed constitutional amendments include granting more powers to the parliament and another body called the State Council, while the presidency would see its sweeping authority reduced somewhat. The changes could allow the Russian leader, who faces a constitutional ban on running again when his current term ends in 2024, to retain power in another role.Dmitry Medvedev, one Putin's longest-serving lieutenants, tendered the resignation of his government after the speech, saying that the president needed a new team to implement his vision. Removing Medvedev, widely blamed for lackluster economic performance and stagnant living standards in recent years, could help the Kremlin boost public support. An increase in government spending set for this year is expected to accelerate sputtering growth."Our hope and expectation of the new government is that it will more effectively implement the National Projects and work more actively on economic issues," Vyacheslav Volodin, State Duma speaker, told reporters. "Without achieving growth rates above the global average we can't resolve social issues."Mishustin, 53, told legislators he'd focus on implementing Putin's National Projects infrastructure-spending program as a top priority. Implementation of those initiatives had stalled in the bureaucracy last year, slowing economic growth and drawing public criticism of the government from Putin. Mishustin also vowed to stick with the current tight-money policies that have helped bring down inflation."The replacement of the government has for many increased hopes that the new team will be able to do more" on reforms, Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister and now head of the Audit Chamber, a government watchdog, told a conference Thursday. Mishustin "has a better feel for the situation in business and knows how to balance the interests of business and the state," he said.Cabinet PicksIt's the first time since 1996 that a nominee for prime minister received no votes against his candidacy from lawmakers, Volodin said. Mishustin told reporters after the vote that he'll present his proposed new government to Putin soon.Investors are watching closely the fate of Anton Siluanov, who as first deputy prime minister and finance minister in the last government won a reputation as a steward of tight budget policies that made Russia a favorite for foreign bond-buyers. Russian bond yields recovered Thursday after jumping the most in two months on the news of the cabinet shakeup Wednesday."Without knowing the names of the new ministers and their views, policy continuity is not certain," Morgan Stanley economist Alina Slyusarchuk wrote in a note. "We could see more expansionary fiscal policy, or more structural reforms, or the changes could be purely political with economic policy unchanged."Mishustin said there would be changes in the cabinet and the appointments would be announced soon, according to Alexander Khinshtein, a ruling-party legislator who attended the meeting. A Communist lawmaker said Mishustin had pledged to make major changes in the government but didn't give specifics, RIA Novosti reported.A PhD economist who ran an investment business, Mishustin has a reputation as an efficient technocrat with a low political profile. Named to head the tax service in 2010, he tamed legendary Russian evasion by installing a nationwide computerized reporting system that works in real time, making the agency one of the government's most technologically sophisticated.Yandex BoostShares in Yandex NV, Russia's leading Internet company, jumped as much as 7% after a legislator said in an online post that Mishustin had promised to support the company."Without a doubt, the government should be a digital platform that's created for people. That's what we tried to do with the tax system," Mishustin told legislators Thursday, according to a video posted by a parliamentary official. "The most important thing is to remove limits for business."Prior to the tax authority, Mishustin led reforms at several other state agencies, including the federal land registry. He also has a background in private business and served as president of UFG Asset Management, part of one of Russia's biggest investment houses, from 2008 to 2010.As Mishustin was addressing legislators, Putin led a meeting of the new panel of dignitaries -- including legislators, officials, as well as prominent musicians and athletes -- set up to draft the constitutional changes, Interfax reported. A national vote on the proposals could come before May 1, Tass quoted a senior legislator from the upper house as saying.(Updates with Mishustin winning parliamentary vote)\--With assistance from Jake Rudnitsky, Ilya Arkhipov and Anna Baraulina.To contact the reporters on this story: Andrey Biryukov in Moscow at abiryukov5@bloomberg.net;Stepan Kravchenko in Moscow at skravchenko@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Natasha DoffFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Republicans Should Fear the Unknown on Trump Impeachment Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:40 AM PST ![Republicans Should Fear the Unknown on Trump Impeachment]( "Republicans Should Fear the Unknown on Trump Impeachment") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Get Jonathan Bernstein's newsletter every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe.It's not yet clear how much of what Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and the New York Times in an interview will turn out to be true. Parnas, a Soviet-born businessman under indictment for campaign-finance violations, may have strong incentives to make things up. On the other hand, he's also turned over a considerable amount of supporting evidence that he worked closely with Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer. And what he alleges — that Trump was fully informed all along of a plot to pressure Ukraine to help Trump's re-election by throwing dirt at Joe Biden — is generally consistent with the evidence that the House considered when it drew up and voted on impeachment. Still, the legal analyst Susan Hennessey was correct Wednesday when she cautioned on Twitter that everyone should be duly cautious about the Parnas allegations. There's danger here for those building the case against Trump; false accusations based on the word of a criminal could be damaging. But the danger for Republicans is pretty obvious, too. As someone said Wednesday evening on Twitter, Republican senators don't even know what they're covering up for, or at least what they would be covering up for if they follow the White House's preference to rush through the Senate impeachment trial that starts next week and refuse to hear from relevant witnesses and collect relevant documents. Some of those senators, to be sure, just don't care. They've decided they can live with (both politically and ethically) any revelations that may come down the road — that no one who they care about will hold them accountable for burying important evidence, no matter what it turns out to be. Others may really be so fully inside the conservative information-feedback loop that they sincerely think that Trump is an honest, innocent man being railroaded by partisans; they may not even be aware of the considerable evidence to the contrary.But for anyone else? As I said just 24 hours and a couple rounds of ugly revelations ago: "If new ugly details are still emerging, who's to say that more won't turn up later?"Of course, that doesn't make decision-making easy for Republicans who are worried — that is, Republicans who are comfortable voting to acquit on the current evidence, but are concerned that they'll be abetting a coverup if they try to cut the trial short and then will be exposed as more evidence comes out anyway. It's easy to say that they should just demand a thorough trial. But that, too, has real costs for them; it means voting against the leader of their party on procedural issues, and therefore winning the wrath of the White House and some of their strongest supporters. That's not something that any politician does lightly. And even a thorough trial could end up producing no new significant reasons to vote to remove Trump, either because that evidence doesn't exist or because the House Democratic impeachment managers can't produce it.It's easy to say that the political side of those considerations should be irrelevant and that Republican senators should care only about justice. To that I'll only say: Good luck getting politicians to ignore politics.A better argument might be that those Republican senators should factor into their considerations the institutional and personal self-interest they have in keeping constraints on the presidency in general and this president in particular. Allow him to treat impeachment as a joke, and both he and all future presidents will be more likely to treat the threat of future impeachments as minor inconveniences. That would be true in any case. It's especially true if they suspect that Trump really is trying to get away with something, even if they think the proof isn't there or that it doesn't quite rise to the level of removal from office.1\. David M. Edelstein at the Monkey Cage on the U.S., Iran, China and Russia.2\. Matt Grossmann talks with Justin Grimmer, Will Marble, John Sides, and Lynn Vavreck about bigotry and Trump voters.3. I really like Paul Waldman's item on Trump and dishwashers. 4\. Charles Gaba on the individual mandate.5\. S.V. Date on Trump and the truth.6\. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Conor Sen looks back on a great decade for the wealthy.7\. And Alyssa Rosenberg on what a woman in the Oval Office would face.Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe. Also subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more. You'll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close.To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Republicans Should Fear the Unknown on Trump Impeachment Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:40 AM PST ![Republicans Should Fear the Unknown on Trump Impeachment]( "Republicans Should Fear the Unknown on Trump Impeachment") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Get Jonathan Bernstein's newsletter every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe.It's not yet clear how much of what Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and the New York Times in an interview will turn out to be true. Parnas, a Soviet-born businessman under indictment for campaign-finance violations, may have strong incentives to make things up. On the other hand, he's also turned over a considerable amount of supporting evidence that he worked closely with Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer. And what he alleges — that Trump was fully informed all along of a plot to pressure Ukraine to help Trump's re-election by throwing dirt at Joe Biden — is generally consistent with the evidence that the House considered when it drew up and voted on impeachment. Still, the legal analyst Susan Hennessey was correct Wednesday when she cautioned on Twitter that everyone should be duly cautious about the Parnas allegations. There's danger here for those building the case against Trump; false accusations based on the word of a criminal could be damaging. But the danger for Republicans is pretty obvious, too. As someone said Wednesday evening on Twitter, Republican senators don't even know what they're covering up for, or at least what they would be covering up for if they follow the White House's preference to rush through the Senate impeachment trial that starts next week and refuse to hear from relevant witnesses and collect relevant documents. Some of those senators, to be sure, just don't care. They've decided they can live with (both politically and ethically) any revelations that may come down the road — that no one who they care about will hold them accountable for burying important evidence, no matter what it turns out to be. Others may really be so fully inside the conservative information-feedback loop that they sincerely think that Trump is an honest, innocent man being railroaded by partisans; they may not even be aware of the considerable evidence to the contrary.But for anyone else? As I said just 24 hours and a couple rounds of ugly revelations ago: "If new ugly details are still emerging, who's to say that more won't turn up later?"Of course, that doesn't make decision-making easy for Republicans who are worried — that is, Republicans who are comfortable voting to acquit on the current evidence, but are concerned that they'll be abetting a coverup if they try to cut the trial short and then will be exposed as more evidence comes out anyway. It's easy to say that they should just demand a thorough trial. But that, too, has real costs for them; it means voting against the leader of their party on procedural issues, and therefore winning the wrath of the White House and some of their strongest supporters. That's not something that any politician does lightly. And even a thorough trial could end up producing no new significant reasons to vote to remove Trump, either because that evidence doesn't exist or because the House Democratic impeachment managers can't produce it.It's easy to say that the political side of those considerations should be irrelevant and that Republican senators should care only about justice. To that I'll only say: Good luck getting politicians to ignore politics.A better argument might be that those Republican senators should factor into their considerations the institutional and personal self-interest they have in keeping constraints on the presidency in general and this president in particular. Allow him to treat impeachment as a joke, and both he and all future presidents will be more likely to treat the threat of future impeachments as minor inconveniences. That would be true in any case. It's especially true if they suspect that Trump really is trying to get away with something, even if they think the proof isn't there or that it doesn't quite rise to the level of removal from office.1\. David M. Edelstein at the Monkey Cage on the U.S., Iran, China and Russia.2\. Matt Grossmann talks with Justin Grimmer, Will Marble, John Sides, and Lynn Vavreck about bigotry and Trump voters.3. I really like Paul Waldman's item on Trump and dishwashers. 4\. Charles Gaba on the individual mandate.5\. S.V. Date on Trump and the truth.6\. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Conor Sen looks back on a great decade for the wealthy.7\. And Alyssa Rosenberg on what a woman in the Oval Office would face.Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe. Also subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more. You'll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close.To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Rights group demands Israel rein in murky spyware company Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:39 AM PST  An Israeli court heard a case Thursday calling for restrictions to be slapped on NSO Group, an Israeli company that makes surveillance software that is said to have been used to target journalists and dissidents around the world. The case, brought by Amnesty International, calls for Israel to revoke the spyware firm's export license, preventing it from selling its contentious product abroad, particularly to regimes that could use it for malicious purposes. "They are the most dangerous cyber weapon that we know of and they're not being properly overseen," said Gil Naveh, spokesman for Amnesty International Israel.
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| Southern Accent Has Top Selling Power in the US Closely Followed by the British Accent According to Moneypenny Survey Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:32 AM PST  Hopes for a good US/UK trading relationship post Brexit were boosted by a new survey of US consumers by Moneypenny into the power of regional accents, which revealed that 13.3% said the British accent would make them most likely to buy something, which was second only to the Southern US accent cited by 20.2%. In contrast only 6.7% said a Spanish accent would clinch a sale from them, while 5.2% voted for a French accent and only 2% voted for an Irish accent.
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| Entire Russian cabinet resigns as Putin eyes a post-presidential role Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:10 AM PST  Putin will have to step down from the top job in 2024, but he's proposed constitutional changes to limit his successor's power, and empower his allies.
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| No, the 1953 Coup in Iran Didn’t Start U.S.-Iran Dilemma Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:08 AM PST  There is much to debate in U.S. policy, but facile readings of history do neither the United States nor Iran right. Indeed, to suggest that 1953 drives current conflict not only is dangerous because it appears to justify any outrage men like Soleimani might want to commit, but it also condescending to deny Iranians agency and responsibility for their own actions.
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