| Hero in Hanukkah attack declining $20K reward over Zionism Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:21 PM PST |
| Australia Says Climate Change Targets Can’t Risk Economy, Jobs Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:18 PM PST |
| Security adviser: I've seen no intel of Moscow helping Trump Posted: 22 Feb 2020 03:14 PM PST  President Donald Trump's national security adviser said he's seen no intelligence indicating that Russia is doing anything to try to help get the president re-elected. Robert O'Brien's comments were released Saturday in a transcript of an interview with ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" set to air on Sunday. "The national security adviser gets pretty good access to our intelligence," O'Brien said.
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| No Evidence Russia Helping Trump, Top U.S. Security Aide Says Posted: 22 Feb 2020 02:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump's top security aide said he's seen no evidence that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. election in an effort to support the president's re-election bid.On the other hand, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told ABC News that it would be "no surprise" if Moscow was trying to help Senator Bernie Sanders win the election, as reported on Friday."I haven't seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected," O'Brien said in an interview set for broadcast Sunday on "This Week.""So if it's out there, it hasn't been shared with me," he said, according to a transcript of the remarks posted by ABC. "And I get pretty good access."O'Brien's comments come after a senior intelligence official briefed House lawmakers recently that Russia is continuing to interfere in the U.S. election and that the Russian government favors Trump's re-election, according to people familiar with the matter.The president felt blindsided when he learned belatedly that intelligence official Shelby Pierson on Feb. 13, under questioning from Democrats, told lawmakers about Russia's preference for Trump, the people said.Maguire OutOn Wednesday, the president announced that he was replacing acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, a veteran intelligence official, with Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and a staunch Trump supporter.O'Brien on ABC denied that the end of Maguire's service had anything to do with the briefing on Russian interference."Admiral Maguire had to leave his acting position on March 11. And so that's why he left," said O'Brien. "All I know is that the Republicans on the side of the House hearing were unhappy with the hearing, and said that there was no intelligence to back up what was being said.""I mean, why would the Russians want the president, who's increased NATO spending $400 billion from non-American NATO member states over through 2024, who has spent $ 2.2 trillion in upgrading our military, which had been in a terrible state of readiness because of sequestration of the prior administration, and who's moving out of endless wars and moving American troops into Europe and Asia to confront the great powers," O'Brien said."Why would they want him re-elected? That doesn't make any sense to me."O'Brien said, however, that reports that Russia is trying to help Sanders, the Vermont senator win the election were credible.Read more: Sanders Tells Putin to Stay Out After Briefing on Meddling"Well, there are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president. That's no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow," he said.Sanders traveled to the Soviet Union in 1988 shortly after getting married. His long-ago trip has become regular fodder for Trump and his re-election campaign.To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Linus ChuaFor 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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| Charter bus rollover kills 3, injures 18 outside San Diego Posted: 22 Feb 2020 12:58 PM PST  A charter bus swerved on a rain-slicked Southern California highway and rolled down an embankment Saturday, killing three people and injuring 18 others, authorities said. Several passengers were thrown from the bus, and one of the dead was trapped under the vehicle after it landed on its roof shortly after 10 a.m. off Interstate 15 in Pala Mesa, an unincorporated community about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of San Diego, North County Fire Protection District spokesman John Choi said. "There were no seat belts on this bus," Choi said.
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| Egypt to try doctor, parents for female genital mutilation Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:48 AM PST |
| Iran shuts schools, cultural centres as coronavirus kills five Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:46 AM PST  Iran on Saturday ordered the closure of schools, universities and cultural centres after a coronavirus outbreak that has killed five people in the Islamic republic -- the most outside the Far East. The moves came as Iranian authorities reported one more death among 10 new cases of the virus. Since it emerged in December, the new coronavirus has killed 2,345 people in China, the epicentre of the epidemic, and 17 elsewhere in the world.
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| Health officials worry as untraceable virus clusters emerge Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:28 AM PST  In South Korea, Singapore and Iran, clusters of infections are leading to a jump in cases of the new viral illness outside China. World Health Organization officials said China's crackdown on parts of the country bought time for the rest of the world to prepare for the new virus. "A number of spot fires, occurring around the world is a sign that things are ticking along, and what we are going to have here is probably a pandemic," said Ian Mackay, who studies viruses at Australia's University of Queensland.
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| Some Israelis, Palestinians asked to self-quarantine Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:20 AM PST |
| Judge halts plan to move virus patients to California city Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:19 AM PST  A court temporarily blocked the U.S. government from sending up to 50 people infected with a new virus from China to a Southern California city for quarantine after local officials argued that the plan lacked details about how the community would be protected from the outbreak. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday to halt the transportation of anyone who has tested positive for the new coronavirus to Costa Mesa, a city of 110,000 in the heart of Orange County. U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Stanton scheduled a hearing on the issue Monday.
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| Coronavirus politicized in Lebanon as some blame Iran Posted: 22 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  Some in Lebanon are casting blame on Iran, the supporter of the country's powerful Hezbollah group, after the country's first case of the new virus was discovered on a flight from the Iranian city of Qom this week. The existence in Lebanon of the new virus that first emerged in China has been politicized by some in Lebanon's deeply divided population. Many Lebanese who support an Iran-backed coalition led by Hezbollah have remained silent on the issue of the virus, while some supporters of rival groups supported by the west blame Iran for the introduction of the virus into the country.
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| Top aide: detained Lebanese-American isn't guilty of murder Posted: 22 Feb 2020 10:50 AM PST  Naz Durakoglu, senior foreign policy adviser to Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said in a conference call with media outlets Friday that colleagues in different U.S. government offices have found no evidence that Amer Fakhoury is guilty of the murder, prison torture and other allegations levied by his native country. Durakoglu said that in such cases there are often made-up allegations or charges, forcing defendants to try to refute lies. "In this case we're confident that he is not who they say he is," Durakoglu said.
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| In South Korea, Coronavirus Meets the Second Coming Posted: 22 Feb 2020 10:35 AM PST  SEOUL—A South Korean church whose founder says, rather mysteriously, that he represents the second coming of Christ on Earth and has unique insights into God's revelations is getting much of the blame for a major surge in the spread of the deadly coronavirus here.Coronavirus Now a 'Tremendous Public Health Threat': CDCFear of the disease now known as COVID-19 actually had been on the decline in South Korea until a fresh outbreak was traced to a 61-year-old woman who belonged to the Shincheonji Church in Daegu, a city of 2.4 million about 170 miles southeast of Seoul. Now it appears scores of church members are infected, representing more than half the 433 cases so far reported in the entire country, including three who have died. A former member of the church told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that Shincheonji's practices during worship may heighten the risk of coronavirus contagion, since participants kneel close together and sing songs with their arms on each others' shoulders during services. There are also concerns about its presence outside South Korea, possibly including Hubei province in China, the epicenter of the growing epidemic. Lee Man-hee, the 88-year-old founder and leader of the church, has called the disease the "devil's deed" and a test of faith meant to stop the growth of Shincheonji, according to Yonhap.Leaders of more traditional churches have been quick to denounce Shincheonji, which means "New Heaven and Earth." And the spread of COVID-19 from one of the 74 Shincheonji "sanctuaries" strengthens the view among the mainstream that Shincheonji is a dangerous cult that keeps many of its 200,000 members in secret compounds while pressuring them to absorb its teachings and recruit other followers.Christian critics for years have denounced Lee Man-hee as "a heretic" who has exploited thousands of adherents since opening his first congregation 36 years ago. He calls himself "the promised pastor.""They are not real Christians," says a member of Korea's Presbyterian church, the country's largest Christian organization. "They are fake."* * *SEWING UP SEOUL* * *Park Won-soon, the mayor of Seoul, has picked up on the hostile sentiment, warning against the evil the church poses in the metropolitan region of the Korean capital. "Shincheonji sect, also known as 'Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony' in Daegu, has become a hotbed of the infections in local communities," he warned in a lengthy media briefing as the extent of the outbreak became known, calling for measures to stop the disease from spreading.Already, he said, confirmed cases elsewhere were "related to the church in Daegu" and "another confirmed patient in Seoul attended the chapel in that church." It was "to proactively prevent the further spread of the virus," he said, that "the Shincheonji churches in Seoul will be closed."That crackdown was not the only severe measure ordered by Park. He also banned street demonstrations, notably by conservatives hostile to his own municipal government and the national government.Park, a left-leaning politician who has long advocated dialogue with North Korea, insisted he had in mind the health of old people who join in such protests waving American and Korean flags. "The symptoms and prognosis of the confirmed cases could be fatal to people with underlying conditions, and the elderly in particular," he said, ordering the closure of welfare facilities, senior citizen centers and an historic park in central Seoul where old men frequently gather.Conservatives, hoping to defeat ruling party legislators in national assembly elections in April, denounced the ban as "politics" and promised to turn out in defiance of rows of policemen massed on the main avenue running by city hall.* * *MESSIANIC TENDENCIES* * *The role of Shincheonji in spreading the disease, however, seems far more important than political protests in a country where religious groupings often fight one another. About a third of South Korea's 51 million people identify as Christians, but there are deep divisions among them, and these movements like Shincheonji draw adherents despite social and cultural barriers to proselytizing and preaching. Cults and cult-like groupings have proliferated, seeming to fill some sort of spiritual void in this fast-moving fast-growing country always under threat from its neighbor to the north. If the COVID-19 epidemic is striking down members of Shincheonji its critics "will say God has struck heretics," says Michael Breen, author of books on Korean culture and a former member of the Unification Church of the late Rev. Moon Sun-myung. "A lot of people will be thinking, they kind of deserve this."In fact, in the years since Lee Man-hee first mesmerized young Koreans with his claim to embody Jesus Christ, the Shincheonji Church has proven about as controversial as the "Moonie" Unification Church. Lee may not call himself "the messiah" or "true parent" of mankind as did Moon, but he preaches an extremist view of Christianity whose message is essentially that he came to know the meaning of Christ on Earth through the Bible's Book of Revelation."More people are upset with Lee than with Moon," says Breen. "They will go after him. They are very dogmatic and judgmental."The secrecy of the church adds to the build-up of emotions against its activities. "Health authorities are having difficulties as they could not reach or contact more than 400 followers of the church," reported Dong A Ilbo, a leading newspaper in Seoul. It was only through GPS tracking, the paper said, that the church member who was first diagnosed was discovered to have visited Cheongdo, where an outbreak was reported in a hospital and the first person in Korea died of the disease."Since the entire nation is experiencing a national crisis, Shincheonji religious followers should voluntarily report symptoms and self-quarantine at home while fully cooperating with the authorities in quarantine efforts," the paper editorialized. At the same time, Dong A called on citizens not to attack patients "even for the sake of ensuring the success of quarantine efforts."Kukmin Ilbo, a Christian newspaper with strong ties to South Korea's largest congregation, the evangelical Full Gospel Church in Seoul, suggested Shincheonji members are reluctant to cooperate with authorities tracing the course of the disease.North Korea's Secret Coronavirus Crisis is Crazy Scary"It seems to be the tendency to act in a closed manner without showing much of its beliefs," said the paper, describing Shincheonji as "a pseudo-religion or cult." It claimed that "there were even allegations that Shincheonji sent an internal notice to the congregation telling them to say, 'I didn't go to church that day' and 'I worshipped somewhere other than there.'"Shincheonji says such claims are concocted by its mortal enemies. "There is no such thing as an internal notice," a church official responded. More to the point, Mayor Park said, "Anyone who attended the chapels of the Shincheonji Church in Daegu must report to an emergency telephone number." Seoul will quickly get the list of names, he said. "This is an inevitable measure to ensure and protect the health, safety and life of citizens." Seoul, he promised, "will exert all its administrative effort."Michael Lamm, who got his doctorate from the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul, attributes the power of the church to high-pressure tactics, discipline and secrecy. "They are well organized," says Lamm, now based in Washington. "They recruited me. They put a large amount of pressure on me. They were taking my picture and introducing me to people."Shin Hyun-wook, a pastor who specializes in deprogramming Shincheonji members, says they are told not to let their families know they belong to the church. "They believe in eternal life," he says, dying only from "lack of faith."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| German Voters Are Getting a First Verdict on Political Chaos Posted: 22 Feb 2020 10:03 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Germany has been mired in political turmoil, and a regional vote on Sunday will give an early indication of the fallout.Chancellor Angela Merkel's succession plan collapsed on Feb. 10 when her chosen heir, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, unexpectedly announced she would resign as head of the Christian Democratic Union.The Hamburg city-state election takes place a day before the party leader is due to move forward with a plan to select a replacement as party chief. The winner will likely be the candidate to run for chancellor in the next election.Germany's political establishment was rocked this month after the CDU's chapter in Thuringia cast its lot in with the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to install the eastern state's premier. The fallout sent shock waves across the nation and was the main catalyst for Kramp-Karrenbauer's resignation.To add to the sense of chaos, tensions around extremist activity in Germany intensified late Wednesday, when an assailant killed 11 people, including himself, in the city of Hanau near Frankfurt. Authorities said the lone gunman, a 43-year-old German national, was motivated by xenophobia. Merkel vowed to eradicate such racist "poison."In Thuringia, Merkel's party sought to restore a semblance of stability on Friday by agreeing to support the re-election of the previous state premier, whose anti-capitalist Left party is anathema to the Christian Democrats at the national level. The deal would avoid relying on AfD votes in the state legislature.The plan was clouded on Saturday as several national CDU leaders, including former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, raised objections, saying it would harm the party's credibility.Biggest PortHamburg, Germany's second-largest city with 1.8 million inhabitants, has been led by the Social Democrats since 2011. Polls show the SPD -- the junior partner in Merkel's national coalition -- maintaining a lead, albeit with less support than the 45.6% secured in the 2015 election.While the city-state isn't representative of the parties' national standings, a strong showing -- or even victory -- by the Greens, or a weak performance by the CDU, could reverberate across the country.The SPD had 34% support in Hamburg, with the Greens trailing by only two percentage points. The CDU is a distant third with 12%, according to a Feb. 20 Hamburg University poll. An Insa survey for Bild newspaper two days earlier showed the SPD well ahead of the Greens with 38%.Germany's biggest port city is run by Social Democratic Mayor Peter Tschentscher, who succeeded Olaf Scholz in March 2018 when Scholz moved to Berlin to become Merkel's finance minister and vice chancellor.On the campaign, Tschentscher has faced political pressure stemming from media reports that the state government didn't claim back around 47 million euros ($51 million) in tax refunds from Privatbank M.M.Warburg tied so-called cum-ex trades.The Greens have been the SPD's junior coalition partner in Hamburg since 2015, and the party's local leader Katharina Fegebank, who is deputy mayor, has supported calls for a parliamentary investigation. Tschentscher has denied that there was any political influence.Earlier polls showed the Greens in a dead heat with the SPD, and a Greens victory would be another blow for the SPD, whose fading support has prompted parts of the party base to call for an end to Merkel's national coalition.Another focus will be the fortunes of the far-right AfD, which entered the Hamburg parliament in 2015 with 6% of the vote. Recent polls show little improvement, and one putting the party at 5%, below which the anti-immigrant party would be ejected from the city legislature.Also in peril are the pro-business Free Democrats, which played a key role in the Thuringia alliance with the AfD on Feb. 5 state premier vote. The rogue maneuver brought a wave of protest against the FDP, which took a hit in polls -- at least one showing they could lose their place in the Hamburg parliament.(Updates with CDU criticism of state government plan in seventh paragraph.)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, Iain Rogers, Chris ReiterFor 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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| Donald Trump pounces on reports Russia is seeking to help Bernie Sanders Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:47 AM PST  * President claims Democrats are rigging process * Trump calls Russian meddling on his behalf 'a rumor' * Nevada: Democrats prepare to vote in most diverse state yetAs Democrats in Nevada went to the polls on Saturday, Donald Trump gleefully stirred the pot over reports that US intelligence believes Russia is trying to aid Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner for the nomination to face the president in November.In a tweet, Trump said: "Democrats in the Great State of Nevada (Which, because of the Economy, Jobs, the Military & Vets, I will win …) be careful of Russia, Russia, Russia."According to Corrupt politician Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, they are pushing for Crazy Bernie Sanders to win. Vote!"US intelligence has determined that Russian interference in the 2016 US elections not only supported Trump but included efforts to boost Sanders in his bitter primary against the eventual Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the House intelligence committee had been briefed that Russia was once again trying to interfere in favour of Trump.Schiff is the Democratic chair of that committee and as a leading figure in Trump's impeachment over his approaches to Ukraine has become a regular target for presidential vitriol.Reports about the briefing described a furious reaction from Trump which led to the departure of Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, and his replacement by a Trump loyalist, the ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell. On Saturday, ABC News released an interview in which Robert O'Brien, Trump's fourth national security adviser, said he had not seen "any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump reelected".On Friday, the Post reported that Sanders, Trump and "lawmakers on Capitol Hill" had been briefed about "Russian assistance to the Vermont senator" this year, but said it was not clear what the effort involved.In a statement, Sanders said: "I don't care, frankly, who [Russian president Vladimir] Putin wants to be president. My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do."In 2016, Russia used internet propaganda to sow division in our country, and my understanding is that they are doing it again in 2020. Some of the ugly stuff on the internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters."In Nevada, "ugly stuff" attributed to Sanders supporters has included abuse aimed at female leaders of the Culinary Workers Union, an influential presence in the state which opposes the Vermont senator's plan for Medicare for All healthcare reform.Nonetheless, Sanders seems set to win. On Saturday morning the realclearpolitics.com polling average for Nevada put the progressive star 16.5 points up on two moderates, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden.Nationally, Sanders leads the same site's average by 11.4 points, over Biden and the former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is not competing in Nevada.Some suggest Trump wants to face Sanders at the polls, rather than Biden or Bloomberg.Rick Wilson, a former Republican consultant turned author and ardent Trump critic, recently told the Guardian that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who sits in the Senate as an independent, would be "the easiest person in the world to turn into the comic opera villain Republicans love to hate, the Castro sympathiser, the socialist, the Marxist, the guy who wants to put the aristos in the tumbril as they cart them off to the guillotine".The special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election did not establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow but did lay out extensive contacts and numerous instances in which the president seemed to seek to obstruct the course of justice.Trump has claimed vindication but the investigation remains a running sore and at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Friday, he duly took aim at his political opponents."I see these phoneys, the do-nothing Democrats," Trump said. "They said today that Putin wants to be sure that Trump gets elected. Here we go again. Here we go again. Did you see it? ... Now I just see it again. I was told that was happening, I was told a week ago. They said you know they're trying to start a rumor. It's disinformation."In tweets and retweets after the event, the president loosed off shots at another favourite target, the media.Referring to MSNBC as "MSDNC (Comcast Slime)", he said that network and CNN "and others of the Fake Media, have now added Crazy Bernie to the list of Russian Sympathizers, along with Tulsi Gabbard [and] Jill Stein (of the Green Party), both agents of Russia, they say."Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman still in the running for the Democratic nomination but not registering significantly in the polls, has sued Hillary Clinton for allegedly calling her a "Russian asset".Stein was the Green nominee for president in 2016, taking nearly 1.5m votes nationally (while the Libertarian Gary Johnson took more than 4m) in a contest Clinton won by nearly 3m. Trump took the White House in the electoral college.Clinton beat Trump by two points in Nevada, a key swing state again this year.On Twitter, Trump claimed the reason for media reports that "President Putin wants Bernie (or me) to win … is that the Do Nothing Democrats, using disinformation Hoax number 7, don't want Bernie Sanders to get the Democrat Nomination, and they figure this would be very bad for his chances."It's all rigged, again, against Crazy Bernie Sanders!"
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| The Latest: Klobuchar upbeat after trailing in Nevada Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:23 AM PST  Amy Klobuchar is telling supporters her presidential campaign has "exceeded expectations" and she plans to carry on, even as she trailed far behind several rivals in Saturday's Nevada caucuses. Klobuchar finished in fifth place in the kickoff Iowa caucuses before a strong debate performance helped lift her to third place in New Hampshire. On Monday she will be in South Carolina, which holds its primary Saturday and where she will participate in a Tuesday debate.
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| Caught between extremes, Merkel's party mired in crisis Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:04 AM PST  Senior members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union warned Saturday the party was in crisis as it tries to keep its distance from both the hard right and left. The issue has come to a head in recent weeks in the small eastern state of Thuringia, where uproar followed a move by CDU regional lawmakers to join the far right AfD in voting to oust a popular Left party politician as state premier. The breaching of a "firewall" preventing any cooperation between centrist parties and the anti-immigrant AfD has sparked soul searching on both wings of the CDU.
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| Netflix series explores the assassination of Malcolm X Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST  A new Netflix series is tackling questions around the 1965 assassination of civil rights icon Malcolm X. The show available now on the streaming service comes as Friday marked the 55th anniversary of Malcolm X's death. The series follows activist-scholar Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who revisits the assassination through interviews and archives.
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| Syria reopens highway linking largest cities after 8 years Posted: 22 Feb 2020 08:58 AM PST  The highway that links the Syrian capital with the northern city of Aleppo is open for public use for the first time in nearly eight years after government forces recently captured parts of it that had been held by insurgents, the transportation minister said Saturday. The reopening of the M5 highway came as another Turkish soldier was killed in northwestern Syria in shelling by government forces, according to Turkish state media. The full control of the highway known as the M5 by government forces earlier this month marked one of the biggest prizes for President Bashar Assad in the nearly nine-year conflict.
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| Conservatives ahead as Iran poll results trickle in Posted: 22 Feb 2020 08:44 AM PST  Conservatives took a lead Saturday as the first results of Iran's parliamentary election came in, boosted by a predicted low turnout following the disqualification of nearly half the candidates. Friday's election followed months of steeply escalating tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch foe the United States. About half of the 16,000-odd candidates were barred.
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| Conservatives poised to make gains in Iran elections amid sanctions, domestic problems Posted: 22 Feb 2020 08:07 AM PST  Iran held its 11th parliament election on Friday amid the toughest sanctions on the country and after a few hectic months, domestically. The competition for more than 290 seats in the parliament seems an already-won game for the conservative parties in the absence of many well-known reformist candidates. The initial, yet unofficial, results indicate that the conservative party candidates are likely to take all 30 parliament seats in Tehran, Fars News Agency reported on Saturday.
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| Libya Asks U.S. to Set Up Military Base Against Russia Posted: 22 Feb 2020 07:21 AM PST |
| Richard Grenell Begins Overhauling Intelligence Office, Prompting Fears of Partisanship Posted: 22 Feb 2020 07:20 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- Richard Grenell's tenure as the nation's top intelligence official may be short-lived, but he wasted no time this week starting to shape his team of advisers, ousting his office's No. 2 official -- a longtime intelligence officer -- and bringing in an expert on Trump conspiracy theories to help lead the agency, according to officials.Grenell has also requested the intelligence behind the classified briefing last week before the House Intelligence Committee in which officials told lawmakers that Russia was interfering in November's presidential election and that President Vladimir Putin of Russia favored President Donald Trump's reelection. The briefing later prompted Trump's anger as he complained that Democrats would use it against him.Joseph Maguire, the former acting director of national intelligence, and his deputy, Andrew Hallman, resigned Friday. Grenell told Hallman, popular in the office's Liberty Crossing headquarters, that his service was no longer needed, according to two officials. Hallman, who has worked in the office or at the CIA for three decades, expressed confidence in his colleagues in a statement but also referred to the "uncertainties that come with change."The ouster of Hallman and exit of Maguire, who also oversaw the National Counterterrorism Center, allowed Grenell to install his own leadership team.One of his first hires was Kashyap Patel, a senior National Security Council staff member and former key aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Patel will have a mandate to "clean house," CBS News reported, citing a person close to the matter.Patel was best known as the lead author of a politically charged memo two years ago that accused FBI and Justice Department leaders of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. The memo was widely criticized as misleading, although an inspector general later found other problems with aspects of the surveillance.Working with Nunes, Patel began what they called Objective Medusa to examine the FBI's investigation into whether anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired with Russia's election interference in 2016."I hired him to bust doors down," Nunes told author Lee Smith for his book "The Plot Against the President," which chronicles Patel's investigations on behalf of the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. Patel was interviewed extensively in the book, which claims without proof that journalists, diplomats, law enforcement and intelligence officials engaged in a vast plot to undermine Trump's campaign and then bring him down as president.As acting director of national intelligence, Grenell has access to any secrets he may want to review. And he has requested access to information from the CIA and other intelligence agencies, according to two people familiar with the matter.The revelations about last week's briefing reignited fears about Russia's continuing efforts to interfere in the U.S. election, including in the Democratic primary races.During the briefing, which was supposed to focus on coordination among government agencies to fight election interference, not the acts themselves, Republicans challenged the intelligence agencies' conclusion that the Russians continue to favor Trump. Some officials said the briefing was not meant to be controversial and that intelligence officials intended to simply reiterate what they had told the Senate Intelligence Committee weeks earlier.Intelligence officials have already documented instances of the Kremlin trying to influence U.S. politics, namely attempts by Russian military intelligence officers to hack into the Ukrainian energy company that once employed the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. Officials want to know whether the breach was an effort to help Trump, whose efforts to persuade Ukraine to announce investigations into Biden helped prompt his impeachment.And during the congressional impeachment hearings, Fiona Hill, a former senior White House official who worked on Russia issues, warned about Moscow's continued efforts to spread disinformation.Trump himself wrote in a January letter accompanying the administration's national counterintelligence strategy that "Russia remains a significant intelligence threat to United States interests -- employing aggressive acts to instigate and exacerbate tensions and instability in the United States, including interfering with the security of our elections."Intelligence officials were scheduled to brief the full House and Senate on election security March 10, arrangements that were made weeks ago, accounting to congressional aides.How long Grenell will be able to stay as the acting director is an open question. For him to remain past March 11 -- a limit imposed by federal law -- Trump must formally nominate someone else for the director of national intelligence post.Trump told reporters late Thursday that he was considering Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the intelligence committee, but Collins took himself out of the running Friday morning.Collins, who helped lead the president's impeachment defense, had received no advance notice that he was under consideration for the top intelligence post. He saw no reason to entertain a job he did not want, especially as he wages a special election battle for a Senate seat in his home state of Georgia."I know the problems in our intelligence community, but this is not a job that interests me at this time," Collins said on Fox Business. "It's not one that I would accept because I'm running a Senate race."People close to Collins have speculated that the president might have been trying to entice Collins out of that election to tamp down a messy intraparty fight that could cost Republicans control of the seat. Party leaders have converged around Sen. Kelly Loeffler since Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia appointed her to fill the state's vacant Senate seat late last year and have made no secret of their disdain for Collins' refusal to exit the race.A nomination to a Cabinet-level position would have required Collins to drop out of the race. But given his lack of intelligence experience and political track record, there was little likelihood the Senate would have confirmed him to the post.With Collins off the table, Trump will need another potential nominee. The White House is considering Pete Hoekstra, the former Republican congressman who is now the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, according to three officials.Whether the Senate would be willing to formally consider Hoekstra is unclear. But if Trump were to send a nomination to the Senate it would, under federal law, allow Grenell to serve for at least another six months.In a statement praising Maguire and Hallman, Sen. Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made no reference to Grenell.On Friday, questions arose about Grenell's past employment after ProPublica reported that he had done work for a Moldovan oligarch named Vladimir Plahotniuc who was banned from entering the United States because of his involvement in significant corruption.Grenell wrote articles defending Plahotniuc but did not disclose he had been paid for his work, ProPublica reported. A lawyer speaking on Grenell's behalf said he was not required to register with the Justice Department because he was not working at the direction of a foreign power.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Trump Dismisses Warning of Russian 2020 Meddling as a Democratic 'Hoax' Posted: 22 Feb 2020 07:15 AM PST  LAS VEGAS -- President Donald Trump said Friday that the disclosure by American intelligence officials that Russia was again meddling in a presidential election in his favor was merely another partisan attack against him, continuing a pattern in which he has sought to dismiss warnings of foreign interference in U.S. elections."Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Hoax number 7!"Trump was responding to reports of a classified briefing in which intelligence officials told members of the House Intelligence Committee that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential campaign to aid his reelection. Republicans on the committee challenged the conclusions, and Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing the briefing to happen.Intelligence officials have also concluded that the Russians are seeking to help Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic presidential primaries.At an afternoon campaign rally, Trump continued with his accusations that Democrats were behind the reports and said they were trying to "poison our democracy" and circulating "vile" hoaxes."I was told a week ago," Trump said. "They said, 'you know they're trying to start a rumor.' It's disinformation. That's the only thing they're good at. They're not good at anything else. They get nothing done. Do-nothing Democrats."During the final event of a four-day swing through the West, Trump suggested that President Vladimir Putin of Russia would prefer Sanders. Trump claimed, inaccurately, that Sanders "honeymooned in Moscow." And while Sanders did visit Yaroslavl in the Soviet Union in 1988 a day after his wedding, the trip was made to work out a sister-city relationship between Yaroslavl and Burlington, Vermont, where Sanders was mayor at the time. In his 1997 autobiography, Sanders described the trip as a "very strange honeymoon," but he and his wife went on a more traditional honeymoon a year later in St. Lucia, in the Caribbean.Trump, who has been cheerful in public and private about his reelection prospects, used the trip to raise millions from high-dollar donors and charm his political base at rallies in three states. And by returning every night to Las Vegas and holding his final rally there, he also tried to divert attention from Saturday's Democratic caucuses in Nevada.The president has visited every state that has held a primary or caucus so far this year, making trolling Democratic candidates a cornerstone of his campaign strategy.At his rally Friday, the president called up members of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" men's hockey team to take the stage behind him and waxed at length about his reality show "The Apprentice.""Speaking also of reality television: This is the greatest show of all time, huh?" the president said. "I have to get back to Washington and work. I feel guilty. This is too much fun."Trump spoke for nearly two hours and fired the crowd up with a litany of claims about his accomplishments during his first three years in office, many of them exaggerated or misleading.During an extended discussion about the dangers of illegal immigration, Trump noted that "illegal crossings are down 75% from last spring." He did not mention that the decrease followed a huge surge in border apprehensions on his watch, leaving the number about where it was when he took office.Aside from appearing unbound and ebullient on the campaign trail, Trump also used the trip as an opportunity to take on some favorite targets, casting doubt on assorted institutions at every turn.He voiced his suspicions about Saturday's Nevada caucuses, comparing it to the disastrous ones held in Iowa earlier this month."I hear their computers are all messed up just like they were in Iowa," he said.The president described members of the media as "the most dishonest human beings in the world" and accused law enforcement of harboring "dirty cops."He also repeatedly joked with the crowd that he would stay president longer than two terms, a comment he has made at other events.Trump has a long history of dismissing the assessments made by intelligence agencies that he has deemed unfair or unflattering.Multiple agencies have determined that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and, before the 2018 midterms, delivered warnings that Russia was prepared to do it again. Early in his presidency, Trump grudgingly accepted those assessments before falling back on personal assurances from Putin."He said he didn't meddle," Trump said in November 2017. "I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. Every time he sees me, he says, 'I didn't do that.' And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it."Since then, Trump, with the assistance of his Justice Department, has moved to retaliate against the intelligence community rather than Putin. A federal prosecutor is scrutinizing how intelligence officials assessed Russia's 2016 election interference, targeting former CIA director John O. Brennan in particular.Trump's anger at the intelligence assessment delivered Feb. 13 to lawmakers was magnified by the presence at the briefing of Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., who is the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and played a lead role in the impeachment proceedings against Trump.The president's decision to remove Maguire and install Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and a fervent loyalist, was also seen as a direct outcome of the briefing.On Thursday evening, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, an ally and a vocal opponent of impeachment, was one of the candidates under consideration as a permanent successor. By Friday morning, Collins said he was not interested."This is not a job that interests me; at this time, it's not one that I would accept because I'm running a Senate race down here in Georgia," Collins said in an interview on Fox News. Trump then wrote on Twitter that he had a list of four candidates to succeed Grenell and that he would make his decision in the coming weeks.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Sri Lanka briefs UN rights official on resolution pullout Posted: 22 Feb 2020 06:57 AM PST |
| 10 things you need to know today: February 22, 2020 Posted: 22 Feb 2020 06:52 AM PST |
| East Libya FM demands 'fair distribution' to end oil closure Posted: 22 Feb 2020 06:01 AM PST  The closures came about when powerful tribal groups loyal to Libyan military commander Khalifa Hifter in January seized several large export terminals along Libya's eastern coast, as well as southern oil fields. Hifter is allied with the interim government based in the east. Oil is the lifeline of Libya's economy and the loss in revenues has exacerbated the humanitarian situation in the country.
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| Mnuchin Says Congress Key Hurdle to Europe’s Digital Tax Demands Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:43 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world threatened by trade wars. Sign up here. European finance chiefs arrived at a meeting of their global peers in Riyadh demanding the urgent creation of a new global tax system for the 21st century that would capture the profits of tech multinationals. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin responded: it's not that simple.New rules for taxing companies like Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook Inc. have stirred intense debate at this weekend's Group of 20 meeting of finance chiefs. Finding a solution this year is key to maintaining a tariff truce the U.S. and Europe struck after France agreed to delay the collection of a national levy.While finance ministers from France and Germany were among those expressing confidence on Saturday that a compromise could be found in time, Mnuchin warned that he is somewhat hamstrung. "Let me emphasize: in the U.S., depending upon what the solutions are, these may require congressional approval," he said during a discussion, sitting alongside France's Bruno Le Maire.The pair have held tense discussions since France introduced a 3% levy last year on the digital revenue of companies that make their sales primarily online. The move was supposed to give impetus to international talks to redefine tax rules, and the government has pledged to abolish its national tax if there is agreement on such rules.The U.S. has argued the French measure discriminates against American companies, and threatened tariffs as high as 100% on $2.4 billion of French goods. Donald Trump's government agreed to hold fire on import duties and France pushed back collecting the digital tax until the end of 2020."One of the things we're balancing is sticking with the fundamental issue of taxing based upon where companies are -- the more we change that to broaden this, the more we run into other issues," Mnuchin said. He indicated Congress as a hurdle before any major changes on taxes can be agreed upon, but added "there's a tremendous desire to get this done."Spain, Italy and Austria also want to impose a digital service tax. Turkey, a G-20 member, introduced a 7.5% levy in December, targeting companies from Google and Facebook to Netflix Inc."It is our collective responsibility to reach a global agreement on this issue by the end of this year," the finance ministers of the euro area's four largest economy said in an editorial published in European newspapers. "We now have a unique opportunity to recast the global tax system to make it fairer and more effective."Sticking PointThe key sticking point is a U.S. proposal to make the new digital tax rules a safe-harbor regime. Doing that, the U.S. has said, would address concerns of taxpayers about mandatory departure from longstanding rules. France and others have contested that could render the rules effectively optional, which would make agreement impossible.In Riyadh, Mnuchin countered this interpretation."What a safe harbor is -- and there's lots of safe harbors that exist -- you pay the safe harbor as opposed to paying something else, and you get tax certainty," he said. "People may pay a little bit more in a safe harbor knowing they have tax certainty."Le Maire said he welcomed Mnuchin's clarification."We are in the process of technically assessing what it really means and what might be the consequences of such a solution," he said. "It is fair and useful to give all the attention to this U.S. proposal."To get agreement, Le Maire also said France would be open to a "phased" or "step-by-step" approach.German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said there's more than a 50% chance that a deal is struck before the end of the year."Everyone has understood that it would be bad to push the debate into the next year or the year after that," he told reporters. "We need something that helps protect us against the race to the bottom on taxes."The framework -- developed under the leadership of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development -- will also include a deal on a global minimum tax, which the group is close to agreeing on, according to Mnuchin.Most countries want any OECD deal to be accepted as a package: the digital service tax along with a global minimum tax. The OECD has said both reforms together could boost government tax revenues by around $100 billion.To contact the reporters on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.net;William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Jana Randow, Paul AbelskyFor 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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| AP FACT CHECK: Donald Trump and the audacity of hype Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:33 AM PST  In their boisterous presidential debate, several Democrats sold short the health care plans of rivals or glossed over aspects of their own record. In an audacious league of his own, President Donald Trump celebrated the elimination of a tax that still exists and went deep and wide in distorting what he's done in office. The 2017 tax overhaul doubled the threshold at which the estate tax gets levied.
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| Iran’s Hardliners Make Gains, Nevada’s Turn: Weekend Reads Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Iranian hardliners won key seats in an election that's expected to hand control of the legislature to conservatives empowered by the country's turbulent and economically damaging standoff with the U.S.Nevada becomes the first state with significant minority populations to hold a presidential nominating contest. Bernie Sanders will try to cement his front-runner status, but today's caucuses could deal a harsh blow to several other candidates limping toward Super Tuesday on March 3. Dig deeper into these topics — and check out some others that may have missed your radar — with the latest edition of Weekend Reads. Harry Reid Tells Candidates Hoping to Stop Sanders to 'Speak Up'Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a message for the Democratic candidates desperate to stop Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination. "If you don't like what Bernie's doing," he told Joshua Green ahead of today's Nevada caucuses, "speak up."A Mother's Pain Bares the Rifts That Are Tearing Iran ApartWhen Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran in 2013, supporters pinned their hopes on him to revive the country's fortunes and rehabilitate its relationship with the rest of the world. But, as Golnar Motevalli explains, the shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet full of Iranians has alienated those that swept Rouhani to power. The U.S.-Iran Pistachio War Is Heating UpForty years of vicious geopolitical competition between the U.S. and Iran came close to open war in January, and it's still too soon to call a winner — except in one field. American farmers have deposed Iran as king of the global pistachio industry, Marc Champion reports. Mass Shooting Adds Urgency to Merkel's Push to Curb Hate SpeechA shooting near Frankfurt this week that left 11 people dead -- by a far-right activist who published a racist screed online before the incident -- has added momentum to Merkel's long-standing efforts to eliminate hate speech and fake news from websites such as Facebook and Twitter, Stefan Nicola and Sarah Syed report. Brexit's New Paradox: How to Build an Economy With Fewer PeopleThe U.K. only wants highly skilled workers now, but, as Olivia Konotey-Ahulu explains, construction companies say that's not enough to fulfill big infrastructure projects.U.K. Labour Faces a Long Recovery to Catch Boris JohnsonThe next general election is still four years away, and Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson enjoys a huge parliamentary majority. But who will next lead the Labour Party still matters. With voting set to open Monday, Robert Hutton and Konotey-Ahulu break down why. A Rising Political Star Aims to Lure Italy Further to the RightGiorgia Meloni went from bartending at a Roman nightclub to leading one of Italy's main political forces. Just how she has gotten so far was clear one afternoon last year at a rally in central Rome dubbed "Italy pride." John Follain takes a closer look. Clouds of Black Smoke Darken South Sudan's Growing Oil ProfitsGrass is black from oil spills, air is dark from pillars of black smoke and layers of "black gold" cover water supplies. Crude oil, key to boosting South Sudan's economy, is destroying crucial pasture land, polluting water, and increasing birth defects. Now, Okech Francis reports, it's finally bad enough for the government to take notice. And finally ... A desire to bear witness to recent developments along the almost 1,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico — and to the impact of Trump's policy of separating migrant families and jailing asylum seekers — led James Hertling and his wife to spend part of a recent vacation doing volunteer work in and around Brownsville, a border city at the southeastern tip of Texas. To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@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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| Egypt extends detention of activist who criticized president Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:38 AM PST  Egyptian prosecutors Saturday extended the detention of an activist and vocal critic of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the activist's lawyer said. Police detained Patrick George Zaki, 28, an Egyptian student at the University of Bologna in Italy, after he arrived in Cairo earlier this month on what was supposed to be a brief visit home. Zaki has denied the claims against him.
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| Report finds Catholic charity founder sexually abused women Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:09 AM PST  The report produced for L'Arche International said the women's descriptions provided enough evidence to show that Jean Vanier engaged in "manipulative sexual relationships" from 1970 to 2005, usually with a "psychological hold" over the alleged victims. Although he was a layman and not a priest, many Catholics hailed Vanier, who was Canadian, as a living saint for his work with the disabled. "The alleged victims felt deprived of their free will and so the sexual activity was coerced or took place under coercive conditions," the report,commissioned by L'Arche last year and prepared by the U.K.-based GCPS Consulting group, said.
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| Egypt court acquits former president’s sons of corruption Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:01 AM PST |
| Israeli police shoot, kill alleged stabbing attacker Posted: 22 Feb 2020 03:38 AM PST  Israeli police said officers shot and killed a man Saturday after he allegedly tried to stab a soldier outside Jerusalem's Old City. Amateur footage showed a man in blue jeans and a black jacket lying still on the ground at the Lion's Gate, on the eastern side of the Old City. Israeli medics said that Israeli security forces, while firing on the suspect, had lightly wounded a 42-year-old woman in the leg.
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| Iran's hard-liners take early lead in Tehran after vote Posted: 22 Feb 2020 03:10 AM PST  Iranian state TV on Saturday announced the first partial results from the country's parliamentary elections, indicating a strong showing by hard-liners in the capital Tehran, although authorities have not released full results or the all-important turnout figure. Among those disqualified were 90 sitting members of Iran's 290-seat parliament who had wanted to run for re-election. State TV, without providing the number of votes, announced the names of the leading candidates in Tehran's 30 parliamentary seats.
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| Locusts Could be the Next Plague to Hit China Posted: 22 Feb 2020 02:34 AM PST  HONG KONG—Swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in East Africa, hit the Middle East and moved into South Asia. They're breeding fast thanks to changes in global climate patterns that have brought about major cyclones and heavy rains, and they are feeding off human food supplies across continents. So far, India has managed to prevent a swarm of biblical proportions from spilling over into Bangladesh, Burma, and then China—where the coronavirus has already paralyzed much of the country's activity. But it's not clear how long that line will hold. The Next Coronavirus Nightmare Is Closer Than You ThinkEastern Africa has been hit the hardest by the xanthic bugs, with fields in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia ravaged by 360 billion locusts. Swarms can be city-sized, and one of the largest—located in Kenya—covers about 37 miles by 25 miles. It is so dense that it turns daylight to darkness for anyone caught within. Alarmist headlines are proliferating, too, many of them drawing parallels with the plagues in scripture. "Bible coming to life?" asked the Jerusalem Post. The swarms appear in the Old Testament, most notably in Exodus as one of the plagues Moses calls down on Egypt, which also is referenced in the Quran. In the New Testament locusts are associated with Revelation 9:3, where they emerge in ferocious swarms that also have the sting of scorpions. Allusions to the Apocalypse aside, the real life potential for disaster is huge.A square mile of a swarm can be formed by up to 210 million locusts, which can eat as much food as 90,000 people in a day. In East Africa, the bugs have been tearing through maize, sorghum, cowpeas, as well as vegetation that cattle graze on.Kenya hasn't seen a swarm this size in seven decades, while Ethiopia and Somalia have managed to avoid these conditions for a quarter of a century. The governments of Kenya and Ethiopia have each dispatched several planes to dump pesticides from the air, which the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says is the only effective way to kill desert locusts. Farmers attempt to chase the bugs off, blasting the claxons on their motorbikes, or rigging contraptions that make loud, metallic noises when shaken. These methods have not made a dent in the locust population. There are simply too many of them.The FAO calls locusts the "most dangerous migratory pest." They are highly mobile, able to travel up to 90 miles a day if wind conditions are in their favor, and wreak havoc along the way. Female locusts can lay up to 300 eggs within their life span of three to five months. As many as 1,000 egg pods, each holding up to 80 eggs, can incubate underground within a square meter (10.7 square feet). Australian Bushfires and Heat Are Killing Flying Foxes by the ThousandsIn the past, desert locusts have been a key factor that aggravated famines in Ethiopia. And in 1915, they stripped Ottoman-era Palestine of nearly all vegetation.Nowadays, desert locusts are still hard to control, chiefly because they tend to breed and thrive in large swathes of remote land, making it difficult for authorities to tackle the problem before it emerges. The countries that are most severely affected also tend to have weaker infrastructure, making them slower to move the necessary supplies and information to parties that need them.In the East African countries where locusts are swarming now, 20 million people already face food insecurity.The bugs multiplied and some swarms went north to Egypt, threatening a nation where food insecurity is a massive concern, particularly outside of the capital and major cities. (Headline in British tabloid The Express: "'We are in the last days' Locust swarm approaching Egypt sparks Bible apocalypse fears.")But most swarms crossed the Red Sea and made their way to Western Asia, chewing through Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran in early January and laying more eggs along the way.The Middle Eastern nations' pest control operations failed to cull the locusts, so beds of eggs will hatch by mid-March, releasing new hungry bugs. In the first two weeks of this year, fields in Pakistan and India came under attack too, the swarms intensifying day after day. In India's Rajasthan and Gujarat—two states in the country's northwestern quadrant that share borders with Pakistan—more than 380,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged. The season's harvest of mustard, cumin, and wheat has been consumed by the swarm.What makes the current surge of locusts stand out is not only their numbers and intensity, but also that they are active in the subcontinent during winter months. In the past, swarms typically would dissipate by October. Now it's February, and they are still going strong.The Indian government was quick to identify the locusts as a major problem, and dispatched experts to work with their counterparts from the FAO in the affected regions. They're tracking the swarms and destroying beds of locust eggs to limit the bugs' propagation. And the government has diverted $4.3 million as compensation for farmers who have lost their crops.For now, the Himalayan range is acting as a natural barrier for China, insulating its southwestern border from the scourge that is in Pakistan. But the locusts could bank into Southeast Asia, flowing through Bangladesh and up into Burma, landing in China's Yunnan province, hitting a country that is already locked down because of the coronavirus' rapid spread.As fears rise, the state-run media outlet Global Times has been offering ludicrous consolation to the public, claiming that the desert locusts are "eaten by ducks, fried for food," and "not a threat to China." And the international arm of state-run CCTV even released a bizarre video of "duck troops" amassing at the border. But the species of locust that is on the country's doorstep emits phenylacetonitrile, a foul-smelling secretion that is meant to deter predators. Birds typically do not seek them out as a food source.Spokespersons for China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs claim that there is a "very low risk" of locust plagues hitting China, but a researcher at the Beijing-headquartered Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences suggests more caution. The agriculture expert, Zhang Zehua, said that Yunnan province (which borders Burma), Guangxi (an autonomous region east of Yunnan), and Sichuan province (north of Yunnan) could be affected in June or July if the plagues are not brought under control in neighboring countries.Zhang may be right, at least according to India's Ministry of Agriculture, which issued a notice saying that it expects 200,000 square kilometers (77,200 square miles) of farmland to be blanketed by locusts in June during the onset of monsoon season—when conditions are perfect for ravenous insects to breed.For now, whether the summer may bring another catastrophe to China depends chiefly on Delhi and Karachi's efforts to exterminate a storm of insects in a race against the seasons.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran now says 6th person dead of new virus Posted: 22 Feb 2020 01:47 AM PST  Iranian officials Saturday reported a sixth death from the new virus that emerged in China. The governor of Markazi province told the official IRNA news agency that tests of a patient who recently died in the central city of Arak were positive for the virus. Ali Aghazadeh said the person was also suffering from a heart problem.
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| Iran reports one death among 10 new coronavirus cases Posted: 22 Feb 2020 01:31 AM PST Iran on Saturday reported one more death among 10 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the Islamic republic to five and infections to 28. "We have 10 new confirmed cases of COVID-19," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on state television. "One of the new cases has unfortunately passed away," he added, noting that eight of them had been hospitalised in Qom and two in Tehran, without specifying where the death occurred.
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| Coronavirus: US facing 'tremendous public health threat' as imported infections rise; World Health Organisation set to launch Wuhan probe Posted: 22 Feb 2020 01:30 AM PST  A top US health official on Friday said the United States " so far free of community spread of the deadly coronavirus epidemic " faces a "tremendous public health threat" as the number of imported infections continues to rise in the country.Nancy Messonnier, the Centres for Disease Control's senior official, told a media briefing that the number of infections in the US now stands at 34. The figure includes 13 infections classified as US cases and 21 "repatriated cases".Of the repatriated cases, 18 were aboard the 3,700-passenger Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. Over 600 people on the vessel have been sickened by Covid-19 " the disease the virus causes " and two have died. The 18 cases linked to the cruise ship were among 329 US citizens flown back home on a government-chartered plane earlier this week."Let me be clear that we are not seeing community spread in the United States yet, but it is very possible, even likely, that it may eventually happen," said Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases."Our goal continues to be slowing the introduction of the virus into the US," Messonnier said. "This buys us more time to prepare our communities for more cases and possibly sustained spread. This new virus represents a tremendous public health threat."Messonnier said the CDC believed Washington's "aggressive travel precautions" " which include restrictions that virtually ban entry to mainland-based Chinese passport holders " were working, as the US was still not seeing evidence of the "community spread" that has hit several Asian countries.Among the countries or territories that have said they have detected cases without knowing the infection's source are Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan.Separately on Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said its team of public health experts " currently in China to help local authorities investigate the coronavirus epidemic " is set to visit Wuhan, the outbreak's epicentre.Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, said the CDC believed Washington's "aggressive travel precautions" were helping to prevent a community spread of the virus in the US. Photo: Reuters alt=Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, said the CDC believed Washington's "aggressive travel precautions" were helping to prevent a community spread of the virus in the US. Photo: ReutersWHO Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a daily media briefing in Geneva that the team is to travel to the virus-ravaged city on Saturday. It already has visited Sichuan, Beijing and Guangdong since arriving on the mainland last week.Its 12 specialists, including US citizens, have been working with their Chinese counterparts to learn more about the unknowns related to the virus, such as its exact transmission rate and the most effective way to treat Covid-19, the disease it causes.Before the team was dispatched to China, American officials had expressed concern at China's lack of a response to the US' early January offer to send experts to the mainland.Also in Friday's briefing, Tedros urged the world's governments to remain vigilant against the virus after new infections were reported in Lebanon and Iran with no immediate clue how the pathogen had reached these Middle Eastern countries."The cases that we see in the rest of the world, although the numbers are small, but not linked to Wuhan or China, it's very worrisome," Tedros said.Asked if the epidemic had reached a tipping point, the WHO chief said he believed there remained a narrow "window of opportunity" to contain it " a phrase he has repeatedly used in recent weeks to beat back assertions that a global pandemic is inevitable."This outbreak could go in any direction," Tedros said. "If we do well, we can avert any serious crisis, but if we squander the opportunity, then we will have a serious problem on our hands."Purchase the China AI Report 2020 brought to you by SCMP Research and enjoy a 20% discount (original price US$400). This 60-page all new intelligence report gives you first-hand insights and analysis into the latest industry developments and intelligence about China AI. Get exclusive access to our webinars for continuous learning, and interact with China AI executives in live Q&A.; Offer valid until 31 March 2020.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| Conservatives ahead as Iran poll results trickle in Posted: 22 Feb 2020 12:42 AM PST Conservatives appeared to be in the lead as the first results of Iran's parliamentary election came in Saturday, amid expectations of a low turnout after the disqualification of many candidates. Friday's election came after months of steeply escalating tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch foe the United States. There were still 167 other constituencies to tally, said a spokesman for the committee, including bigger provinces such as Tehran and Fars.
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| US leads training exercises in Africa amid focus on Sahel Posted: 21 Feb 2020 11:43 PM PST  Crouching in the sparse brush, maneuvering into formations through a divide, and then shooting at a target, about 10 soldiers from Burkina Faso are among a select group of African soldiers being trained to battle West Africa's fast-growing extremist threat. A Pentagon decision on the size of the U.S. force in Africa is pending as part of a global review with the aim of better countering Russia and China.
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| Germany admits there's a far-right problem, but what to do? Posted: 21 Feb 2020 11:27 PM PST  As Germany's president expressed his sympathy and shock during a candlelight vigil for nine people killed by an immigrant-hating gunman, a woman called out from the crowd, demanding action, not words. The shooting rampage Wednesday that began at a hookah bar in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau was Germany's third deadly far-right attack in a matter of months and came at a time when the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has become the country's first political party in decades to establish itself as a significant force on the extreme right. In the wake of the latest spasm of violence, Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced the "poison" of racism and hatred in Germany, and other politicians similarly condemned the shootings.
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| Iran counts votes in election stacked in favour of hardliners Posted: 21 Feb 2020 10:48 PM PST |
| Why Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Is So Dangerous Posted: 21 Feb 2020 10:33 PM PST  They are the real power in Iran.
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| Sanders wins Nevada caucuses, takes national Democratic lead Posted: 21 Feb 2020 10:31 PM PST  Bernie Sanders scored a resounding victory in Nevada's presidential caucuses on Saturday, cementing his status as the Democrats' national front-runner amid escalating tensions over whether he's too liberal to defeat President Donald Trump. While Sanders scored a strong victory, a cluster of candidates fought for a distant second place — and any momentum that may come with it heading into next-up South Carolina and then Super Tuesday on March 3. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren were trailing far behind Sanders.
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| Afghan truce worry: 1 militant could threaten peace process Posted: 21 Feb 2020 10:17 PM PST  Hopes for ending America's longest war hinge on maintaining a weeklong fragile truce in Afghanistan that U.S. officials and experts agree will be difficult to assess and fraught with pitfalls. Or, if a U.S. airstrike targeting Islamic State insurgents takes out Taliban members instead, does that destroy the deal? The agreement, which took effect Friday, calls for an end to attacks around the country, including roadside bombings, suicide attacks and rocket strikes between the Taliban, Afghan and U.S. forces.
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| UN: 100,000 civilians casualties in Afghanistan in 10 years Posted: 21 Feb 2020 08:49 PM PST  A United Nations report says Afghanistan passed a grim milestone with more than 100,000 civilians killed or hurt in the last 10 years since the international body began documenting casualties in a war that has raged for 18 years. The report released Saturday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan comes as a seven-day "reduction of violence" agreement between the U.S. and Taliban takes effect, paving the way for a Feb. 29 signing of a peace deal Washington hopes will end its longest war, bring home U.S. troops and start warring Afghans negotiating the future of their country.
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