| Global Electronic Security Systems (ESS) Industry Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:01 PM PDT |
| World Trade Organization: How an African head could make a difference Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:38 PM PDT  An African has never been at the helm of the global trade body, but that could soon change.
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| UK urges 'more realism' in crunch EU trade talks Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:02 PM PDT  Britain demanded "more realism" from the European Union Monday ahead of crucial post-Brexit trade talks, but the mood was soured by reports that London was looking to rewrite an agreement the two sides had already signed.
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| Global Cardiovascular Disease Monitoring and Diagnostic Devices Industry Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:01 PM PDT |
| Global Research ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Industry Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:41 PM PDT |
| Global Wireless Health and Fitness Devices Industry Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:21 PM PDT |
| Nigerian men arrested over German PPE 'scam' Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:04 PM PDT  The men are accused of cloning the website of a Dutch company to obtain an order from a German state.
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| Tunisia: Islamic State group claims Sousse knife attack Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:03 PM PDT  Monday's incident happened in Sousse, where 38 people, mostly Britons, were killed in a 2015 attack.
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| Global Intranasal Drug Delivery Industry Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:01 PM PDT |
| 'Mighty mice' stay musclebound in space, boon for astronauts Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:50 PM PDT  Bulked-up, mutant "mighty mice" held onto their muscle during a monthlong stay at the International Space Station, returning to Earth with ripped bodybuilder physiques, scientists reported Monday. A research team led by Dr. Se-Jin Lee of the Jackson Laboratory in Connecticut sent 40 young female black mice to the space station in December, launching aboard a SpaceX rocket. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lee said the 24 regular untreated mice lost considerable muscle and bone mass in weightlessness as expected — up to 18%.
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| Abduction of the Woman Leading the Belarus Revolution Is Classic KGB ‘Terror’ Ploy Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:31 PM PDT  MOSCOW—Men in civilian clothes with masks covering their faces grabbed the woman inspiring a revolution in Belarus on Monday. They pushed Maria Kolesnikova into a minivan at about 10am local time (3am ET)—the opposition leader hasn't been seen since.Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus' brutal leader for the past 26 years, has been cracking down on protests and threatening to arrest members of the opposition Coordination Council for an alleged "attempt to seize power," but this is not simply a case of heavy-handed policing. It was a classic abduction, a technique of repression favored by the likes of the KGB and its Russian successor the FSB for generations. The Belarusian KGB has been known for making people "disappear" since the early years of Lukashenko's rule; for more than a quarter of a century, he has chosen to repress his opponents. His willingness to abuse power is the main reason so many Belarusians want to see him forced out of office and put on trial. Two other members of the 600-strong Coordination Council also went missing on Monday. Frantic opposition staff and their lawyers have been touring the prisons and police stations in a desperate search for their kidnapped colleagues."We still do not know where they keep Maria," Kolesnikova's aide Gleb German told The Daily Beast, six hours after his boss vanished. "The authorities are openly using methods of terror, which will only cause a bigger crisis in the country." Millions of Belarusians have come to recognize the tall, broad-shouldered figure of Kolesnikova since this summer's rigged presidential election, which threatens to bring down the last dictatorship in Europe even though Lukashenko fixed the result. Opposition leaders Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo united behind Svetlana Tikhanovskaya forming a powerful triumvirate of women challenging Lukashenko.The opposition say the people of Belarus chose to boot Lukashenko from power and elected Tikhanovskaya to replace him.Tikhanovskaya and Tsepkalo fled the country in the aftermath of the disputed election. Kolesnikova stayed, and during a month of subsequent rallies, protesters have emulated her trademark heart sign and repeated her slogan: "Belarusians, you are amazing! There is nothing impossible for you."Dictator's Gun-Toting Son, 15, Is Being Groomed as Belarus' King JoffreyKolesnikova, who is just 38 with short blond hair and a wide smile, has been continually greeted in the street by fellow citizens who simply wanted to congratulate her on her bravery. One such well-wisher was the last person to see her on Monday before she was kidnapped outside the National Museum on Lenin Avenue in Central Minsk. "I heard the sound of a phone dropping on the ground and the stomp of somebody's feet, turned around and saw some men dressed in civilian clothes and face masks pushing Kolesnikova into a minibus," a woman told Tut.By, an independent news agency. One of the abductors picked up Kolesnikova's phone, she added. The secret services in both Belarus and Russia have been practicing abductions for years. In some cases, people went missing for a few hours, in others for weeks or months. The chairman of the Memorial human rights center, Alexander Cherkasov, warned that there was an increasing sense of impunity in Belarus. "Thousands of Russian citizens have gone missing since the first war in Chechnya in 1994-96; as a rule, the FSB abduct a person to interrogate unofficially, before registering the arrest. We are currently urging authorities to find a man in Ingushetia, the FSB abducted him a week ago," Cherkasov told The Daily Beast. "From the moment of abduction to the moment of police registration, Kolesnikova has no status, police can torture her, threaten her to get any information or confession." Out of several hundred abduction cases documented in a seven-year period in the Northern Caucasus, the Russian courts punished only four law enforcement officers for acting unlawfully, Cherkasov said.By Monday evening all of Belarus' major law enforcement agencies, including police, the Investigative Committee and the KGB denied they had anything to do with Kolesnikova's disappearance. For a journalist accustomed to working in the former Soviet Union, these tactics are all too familiar. I was abducted in the disputed Donbas region of Ukraine, where armed men in masks regularly kidnapped journalists. Some of the pro-Russian militia said they were former Ukrainian military or former officers of the secret services. They would put bags over their victims' heads and deny them their basic rights all while holding them outside of the rule of law.I Was Snatched at the MH17 'Morgue'The Kremlin has signaled its support for keeping Lukashenko in power and the Kremlin's propaganda arms are accusing the Belarusian opposition of an attempted coup. President Vladimir Putin has promised to send forces to Belarus if the protests "get out of control." Belarusians have reported seeing "little green men" in unidentified uniforms on the streets of their towns, but officially Putin says they have not intervened.Sergey Markov, a Kremlin adviser, admitted to The Daily Beast that Russians had crossed the border to assist Lukashenko. "Russian advisors are already on the ground in Belarus; I don't think Russian special services are there yet but they are trained, of course, to control the situation," he said. Markov, who is a member of the Russia-Belarus Union's public chamber, said the Belarusian leader was acting within his rights. "Lukashenko is going to arrest and investigate all organizers of the state coup; most of them will end up abroad in Lithuania or Poland," he said. Life has changed very fast for Kolesnikova. A year ago, she lived in Germany, where she played flute and organized cultural events. She only entered politics a few months ago when the KGB arrested her close friend, Viktor Babariko, Lukashenko's most serious opponent and a presidential candidate. She is now a revolutionary leader fighting to topple the dictator in her own right.After the disputed election, Belarusians refused to accept another election rigged in Lukashenko's favor. Women in white dresses stood in chains in Minsk's squares in solidarity, actors and journalists quit working for the state, thousands of workers went on strike with red-and-white flags, the symbol of independence. Kolesnikova invited both Russian and Belarusian authorities for a dialogue. She proposed re-running the election and other members of the Coordinating Council called for peaceful reforms and changes, it was hardly an armed power-grab. "This is false to say that all of us, 600 members of the Coordinating Council were going to do something," said one of the leaders Svetlana Alexievich, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015. "A Belarusian nation is being born right in front of our eyes."Nicolai Khalezin, the director of the Belarusian Free Theater, has known Kolesnikova for many years. He told The Daily Beast he was upset that she had been out walking in the street without protection. He fears the worst. "Lukashenko is obviously going after every leading member of the Coordinating Council," he said. "So I would not be surprised if Kolesnikova is in the KGB prison on Gorodskoi Val and that Lukashenko has ordered her to be investigated on charges of staging a coup." 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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| Lithuania fears Lukashenko will sign away Belarus independence to Russia Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:00 PM PDT |
| South African protesters close stores over offensive ad Posted: 07 Sep 2020 11:04 AM PDT  Protests over an advertisement viewed as racially offensive forced the closure Monday of at least 60 outlets of a chain of drugstores. Leaders of the leftist opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters led the protests against the nationwide retailer Clicks, in which some of its supporters vandalized some stores. The advertisement that sparked the protests depicts two different types of hair.
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| Formidable Typhoon Haishen triggers landslides in Japan, deluges South Korea Posted: 07 Sep 2020 10:21 AM PDT  Typhoon Haishen became the latest in a series of punishing typhoons to batter eastern Asia when it pummeled both Japan and the Korean Peninsula over the weekend and into early this week.Already reeling from Typhoon Maysak's damaging impacts last week, both North and South Korea as well as Japan are now left to deal with more destruction from the even stronger Haishen.The one-two punch of both Maysak and Haishen brought heavy rainfall, flooding and damaging winds. However, Haishen became the first super typhoon of the season in the western Pacific Ocean, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.Haishen made landfall near Ulsan, just north of Busan in South Korea, on Monday morning, local time, according to The Korea Herald. At landfall, the typhoon had the equivalent strength of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale in the Atlantic or East Pacific basins.Haishen continued to lose intensity after making landfall and, as of Monday evening, was a strong tropical storm according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.Additionally, Haishen became a record breaker for South Korea. A satellite view of Typhoon Haishen bearing down on Japan during Saturday afternoon, local time. (CIRA/RAMMB) Haishen became the fifth named tropical system to make landfall in the country this far in 2020. Typhoon Haishen's landfall in South Korea broke the previous record for the number of named storms to make landfall in a single year.Haishen is also the fourth tropical system to impact the Korean Peninsula in the past 30 days, with each system stronger than the last.As of Monday evening, rainfall totals of 100-150 mm (4-6 inches) were common for coastal areas along the eastern portion of the peninsula, while rainfall totals were generally in the 25-75 mm (1-3 inches) range for inland and western areas.Significant travel disruptions ensued from the deluge of water, including flooded and blocked roadways, according to Busan's Metropolitan City Traffic Information Service Center on Twitter.> 2020-09-07 08:39 < 기타 > 사상구-가야대로, 사상구청교차로 내 침수로 인해 통행이 어려우니 참고운전 바랍니다 pic.twitter.com/DKkU3z5yAu> > -- 부산교통정보서비스센터 (@BusanTIC) September 6, 2020The Korea Herald reported that Haishen also caused power cuts and tree damage across the region. Work was shut down at the Hyundai Motors factory in Ulsan after the power was knocked out, and the company said it may take some time for the factory to become fully operational.According to the Associated Press, more than 100 homes were destroyed or flooded, and at least 80 fishing boats were sunk as Haishen battered the area on Monday.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPBefore Haishen left its mark on the Korean Peninsula, the typhoon had first swept through southern Japan over the weekend.Late last week, Japanese officials told residents to brace for impacts from the typhoon, urging many to evacuate their homes. By Sunday morning, local time, more than 810,000 people across four prefectures in southwestern Japan were ordered to evacuate. A landslide site caused by Typhoon Haishen where local media say four people are missing is seen in Shiiba Town, Miyazaki prefecture, southwestern Japan on September 7, 2020 (Photo:Kyodo/via REUTERS). Minamidaitojima, a small island in southern Japan, spent much of Saturday and Saturday night in the eye wall of Haishen and reported a wind gust of 185 km/h (115 mph).Rainfall totals ranged from 100-150 mm (4-6 inches) across southwestern Japan. As of Monday night, Miyakonojo in southern Kyushu had received 255 mm (10.04 inches) of rain from the storm. This much rainfall in a short amount of time contributed to several landslides across the country.According to the Associated Press, Japanese disaster management officials in Kagoshima confirmed a woman in her 70s died of a head injury after falling into a roadside ditch while evacuating from a coastal town over the weekend. Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said at least 38 other people were injured as a result of Haishen, five of them seriously.According to the Kyushu Electric Power Co., at least 107,540 households were still without power across the Kyushu region as of Monday night. The Japanese Coast Guard is set to resume the search and rescue mission for missing sailors in the East China Sea on Tuesday. Dozens of sailors have been missing since the middle of last week after a cargo ship carrying cattle capsized in the rough surf from Typhoon Maysak. The mission was temporarily suspended as Haishen moved through the area.Because of these impacts, Haishen is expected to be a 4 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Tropical Cyclones in Japan and a 4 in South Korea. The RealImpact™ Scale is a 6-point scale with ratings of less-than-1 and 1 to 5. In comparison to the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, which has been used by meteorologists for decades and classifies storms by wind speed only, the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale is based on a broad range of important factors. The scale covers not only wind speed, but also flooding rain, storm surge and economic damage and loss. This communicates a more comprehensive representation of the potential impact of a storm to lives and livelihoods.Widespread heavy rain will continue to fall across the Korean Peninsula and spread into northeastern China. Rainfall from Haishen, in addition to the recent heavy rain from Maysak, could lead to significant and widespread flooding. The threat of flooding rainfall will shift out of South Korea and into portions of North Korea, China and Russia through Tuesday."Haishen will move across northeastern North Korea into Jilian province, China, into early Tuesday, local time. During this time, the storm will rapidly lose wind intensity but continue to impact the region as a tropical rainstorm," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said.Widespread flooding across North Korea and China could lead to significant agricultural impacts and crop loss as the storm sweeps through these regions early this week.North Korea is a country that relies heavily on agriculture, so the threat for widespread flooding may put a strain on the country's food supply.There are no immediate tropical threats in the Western Pacific in the wake of Haishen, but South Korea and Japan could receive more rain this week thanks to several approaching cold fronts, AccuWeather forecasters said.The West Pacific tropical season was unusually quiet earlier this summer, but it has turned active and even record breaking through August and the beginning of September.Haishen's landfall marks the third significant typhoon strike within a week's time on the Korean Peninsula, following Maysak on Sept. 3 and Typhoon Bavi, which made landfall in North Korea on Aug. 27. Residents had little time to recover from these storms prior to Haishen's arrival.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| EXPLAINER-Wrangling over Northern Ireland threatens Brexit, again Posted: 07 Sep 2020 09:40 AM PDT |
| Economists stick to Brexit forecasts despite no-deal rhetoric Posted: 07 Sep 2020 08:27 AM PDT |
| France's Macron: "very good exchange" with UK PM on Brexit, other issues Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:56 AM PDT |
| Southern Africa's hunger upsurge blamed on climate, COVID-19 Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:41 AM PDT  An estimated 45 million people in southern Africa are food insecure, with the number of people without access to adequate affordable and nutritious food up 10% from last year, the World Food Program said Monday. The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with climate change and the struggling economies of several countries, are the main causes of the food insecurity, said international aid organizations in a webinar organized by the Foreign Correspondents Assocition of Southern Africa. Zimbabwe is the worst affected country, with its number of food insecure people expected to reach 8.6 million by the end of this year, World Food Program director in southern Africa, Lola Castro, said.
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| Stalled by pandemic, migrants press in quest for better life Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:09 AM PDT  Duperat Laurette fled Haiti after her country's massive 2010 earthquake, making her way first to the Dominican Republic, then Chile and five years later to Panama, all with the dream of reaching the U.S. and finding a job to help support 14 siblings left behind in Haiti. Panama, the slender bottleneck between the North and South American coninents, is a transit point for virtually every migrant heading from South America to the United States by land and it closed its borders on March 16 to halt the spread of COVID-19. The closure left nearly 2,000 migrants from Haiti and a handful of African and Asian countries stuck in camps in the jungle along Panama's northern and southern borders.
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| UK's Johnson, France's Macron agree on need for Brexit deal, UK says Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:03 AM PDT |
| AccuWeather's 2020 Asia autumn forecast Posted: 07 Sep 2020 07:02 AM PDT  Autumn will begin with multiple tropical threats to populated areas in both the western Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, which will add to the flooding risk as many areas are already saturated from heavy rainfall during the summer season.With weak La Niña conditions forecast to prevail during the autumn season, associated cool waters over the central Pacific will contribute to warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures over the western part of the Pacific basin during much the upcoming season. La Niña is part of a routine cycle of tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures. During a La Niña, water temperatures are higher than average in the western part of the Pacific and lower than average in the eastern part of the Pacific. The cycle can reverse from one year to the next or take a few years to complete and remain neutral in between warm and cool cycles for a time. As a general rule, where waters are warmer than average, an uptick in storms and tropical activity generally occurs.The anticipated conditions may tone down the overall number of storms birthed in the central Pacific, but threats from the Philippines to Taiwan, eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan will be a concern as is often the case during the autumn season."Heavy rain during the summer caused severe flooding in Japan, and multiple tropical impacts across the Koreas and Japan in recent weeks have kept the ground saturated and river levels high," AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said.Kaohsiung International Airport, Taiwan, located on the southwestern part of the island picked up 17.60 inches (447 millimeters) of rain during August compared to a normal of 5.34 inches (137 millimeters). From June 1 through the end of August, the location received more than double its normal rainfall with 28.56 inches (725 millimeters).At Naha, Japan, located on the island of Okinawa, 51.28 inches (1,303 millimeters) of rain fell from June 1 through Aug. 31, which is more than three times that of average. Meanwhile, Seoul, South Korea, had more than double its normal summer rainfall with 43 inches (1,092 millimeters).Following Maysak's blow at the start of September, Haishen took a similar track and became the second of a one-two punch to part of the area in East Asia already hit hard by summer's heavy rainfall. This Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, satellite image released by NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) shows Typhoon Maysak over South Korea, hidden behind the white circle at upper left, as another tropical cyclone, Haishen, lower center right, strengthens and sweeps northward. (NASA via AP) As of Sept. 3, there have been 13 tropical depressions, of which 10 have strengthened into tropical storms and five have gone on to become typhoons. Haishen is the only system to reach super typhoon status so far in 2020.Because the Pacific is so large, the typhoon season typically runs through the end of the year. This year, AccuWeather meteorologists, led by top tropical weather expert Dan Kottlowski are expecting a total of 29 tropical storms, with 17 typhoons. The 2020 West Pacific typhoon season has gotten off to a slow start with the first system not forming until Vongfong developed in mid-May. Even though overall numbers of named storms may end up below original expectations, a bumper crop of tropical systems is likely in the coming months and especially during the early to middle part of the autumn season."It is quite possible there will be one or two named tropical systems per week through much of October the way conditions appear," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist John Gresiak said.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"The ongoing tropical threats coupled with non-tropical rains will keep the flooding risk elevated from eastern China to the Korean Peninsula and Japan this season," Nicholls added. A part of a park near the Han River are flooded due to heavy rain in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Heavy rains in southern China have eased up in recent weeks, but the region remains saturated and river levels remain high from widespread rainfall this summer. Rainfall in September is not forecast to be excessive but near normal."Given the elevated water table, flooding will remain a concern in southern China through at least October," Nicholls stated.Drier conditions forecast in November can help to ease the flooding problems late in the season.The warm temperature anomaly in western Pacific waters will also help to fuel substantial rain across Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia this autumn. Rescuers work at the site of a mudslide triggered by heavy monsoon rain in Idukki district, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. A mudslide triggered by heavy monsoon rain and flooding killed at least 15 people and buried 20 homes of tea plantation workers in southern India, police said. (AP Photo) Adding to the flooding concern will be the threat from tropical systems and the torrential rain they are expected to unleash from Vietnam to Thailand.Barring late-season tropical threats, late-season drying is forecast to reach the Korean Peninsula. Near- to above-normal rainfall in northeastern and central China early in the autumn is forecast to be followed by drier conditions as the East Asia monsoon begins its seasonal withdrawal.Meanwhile, the Southwest (India) monsoon is forecast to begin its withdrawal through South Asia slower than average this season. "We do not expect the withdrawal to begin in northwestern India until the week of Sept. 6 or 13," Nicholls said.On average, the monsoon begins its retreat in northwestern India at the very start of September.With the later withdrawal of the Southwest monsoon, the Northeast monsoon onset in southern India may be delayed until late October."Some of the rain from non-tropical systems will be excessive and can lead to flooding across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia," Nicholls said."Onset of the Northeast monsoon in Chennai, India, can be delayed a week or perhaps more from its average Oct. 20 start date," Nicholls added.AccuWeather's team of international meteorologists expects a normal to above-normal monsoon season across much of southern India from October through December. This Northeast monsoon brings a surge of rainfall to parts of eastern and southern India as dry air invades the main Asia continent. Far southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala, India, and Sri Lanka could be drier than average due partially to the late onset of the monsoon."Sri Lanka may make up for rainfall deficits from October to December as the Northeast monsoon and associated wet weather may last into January," Nicholls said.Tropical depressions or cyclonic storms are forecast for both basins of the northern Part of the Indian Ocean this autumn."The wild card for rainfall in South Asia will be the threat from tropical systems," Nicholls said.Long-term weather and sea surface conditions are predicted to favor more storms over the Bay of Bengal, but the Arabian Sea will be quite active this season, too."Steering winds may favor most storms in the Bay of Bengal to impact northeastern India and Bangladesh, but tracks into southern India cannot be ruled out," Nicholls said. "Systems in the Arabian Sea could impact western India, but the favored areas for impacts look to be toward the southern Arabian Peninsula."Drier weather is forecast to return to the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula during November.Much of the rest of the Middle East will be drier and warmer than average for the autumn as a whole. But as is sometimes the case, an uptick in stormy and wetter conditions is forecast across Turkey and perhaps the northern parts of Iraq and Iran late in the season."The higher elevations of Turkey and the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia could get the first snow of the season during late October or November this year," Nicholls said.Much of East Asia is forecast to have near- to above-normal temperatures during this autumn, but as is sometimes the case, late-season cold shots are forecast to spread southward from Siberia and into Mongolia and northeastern China. Cold air is also forecast to settle into portions of Kazakhstan later in the autumn.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Saudi court issues final verdicts in Khashoggi killing Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:53 AM PDT  A Saudi court issued final verdicts on Monday in the case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his son, who still resides in the kingdom, announced pardons that spared five of the convicted individuals from execution. While the trial draws to its conclusion in Saudi Arabia, the case continues to cast a shadow over the reputation and international standing of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose associates have been sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. for their alleged involvement in the brutal killing, which took place inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Riyadh Criminal Court's final verdicts were announced by Saudi Arabia's state television, which aired few details about the eight Saudi nationals and did not name them.
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| South Africa's Clicks beauty stores raided after 'racist' hair advert Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:48 AM PDT  The advert showed African hair labelled dry and dull while white hair was described as fine and flat.
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| In battlegrounds, absentee ballot rejections could triple Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:36 AM PDT  This year, that problem could be much worse and potentially pivotal in hotly contested battleground states. With the coronavirus creating a surge in mail-in balloting and postal delays reported across the country, the number of rejected ballots in November is projected to be significantly higher than previous elections. If ballots are rejected at the same rate as during this year's primaries, up to three times as many voters in November could be disenfranchised in key battleground states when compared to the last presidential election, according to an Associated Press analysis of rejected ballots.
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| Trump, Biden spar over economy, workers in Labor Day blitz Posted: 07 Sep 2020 06:01 AM PDT  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump spent Monday diminishing each other's credentials on the economy and understanding of the American worker as the presidential campaign entered its final, post-Labor Day stretch. While workers live by an "American code," Biden said Trump "lives by a code of lies, greed and selfishness" as he met with labor leaders in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a key swing state. Trump, meanwhile, tried to put the halting economic recovery under the best light in a White House press conference where he said Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would "destroy this country and would destroy this economy."
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| Bold hopes for virus antibody tests still unfulfilled Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:50 AM PDT  At the height of the coronavirus lockdown, President Donald Trump and his top health advisers trumpeted a new test that would help Americans reclaim their lives — one that would tell them if they already had the virus and were protected from getting it again. Months later, the U.S. is awash in the tests but the bold predictions about their usefulness have yet to materialize. "There was definitely a lot of wishful thinking that there was going to be a magical test that was going to save us all, but we're not there yet," said Dr. Jennifer Rakeman of New York City's Public Health Laboratory.
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| Tunisia arrests 7 suspects after deadly weekend attack Posted: 07 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Tunisian authorities say that they have arrested seven people suspected of involvement in a deadly weekend attack that left one security officer dead and another wounded. National guard spokesman Housameddine Jbabli said Monday on Radio Shems that seven suspects are being held by anti-terrorism authorities. The Islamic State group's Amaq agency carried a brief claim of responsibility on Monday for the attack.
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| Coronavirus: Is the rate of growth in Africa slowing down? Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:56 AM PDT  The overall rate of increase may be changing, but there have still been sharp rises in some countries.
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| Russian delegation in Syria to expand trade, economic ties Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:55 AM PDT  Russia and Syria plan to sign an economic pact before the end of the year that is partly aimed at circumventing U.S. sanctions, Russia's deputy prime minister said Monday as he led a high-level delegation on a visit to Damascus. Yuri Borisov said the Russian side is expecting to sign the pact on his next visit in December, adding that it includes more than forty new projects in the energy sector, reconstruction of a number of power stations and offshore oil extraction. Borisov spoke at a joint press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus after the delegation met with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
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| Belarus activists go missing, colleagues fear detention Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:42 AM PDT  A leading opposition activist in Belarus and two other members of an opposition council went missing Monday, raising fears they were detained as authorities seek to squelch nearly a month of protests against the re-election of the country's authoritarian leader. Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Coordination Council created by the opposition to facilitate talks with President Alexander Lukashenko on a transition of power, was reportedly put on a minibus in the capital, Minsk, and driven away by unidentified people. Last week, Kolesnikova announced the creation of a new opposition party.
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| Boris Johnson plans to tear up parts of his Brexit agreement with the EU and says leaving with no trade deal is a 'good outcome' Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:37 AM PDT  The prime minister plans to use legislation to effectively overwrite the UK's Brexit deal with the EU, according to a report.
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| Nearly 300 Rohingya reach Indonesia 'after seven months at sea' Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:10 AM PDT  Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reached Indonesia on Monday claiming to have been at sea for seven months, the United Nations refugee agency said, in one of the biggest such landings by the persecuted Myanmar minority in years.
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| Trump admires Putin because he is rich and runs Russia like it's his personal company, according to Michael Cohen's new book Posted: 07 Sep 2020 04:05 AM PDT  Michael Cohen's new book "Disloyal: A Memoir" claims that Trump is mesmerized by Putin's riches and how he runs Russia like a personal corporation.
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| Greece to boost military amid tensions with neighbor Turkey Posted: 07 Sep 2020 03:46 AM PDT  Greece will bolster its military with new arms, more personnel and by developing the country's defense industry, the government said Monday, as a tense standoff with neighboring Turkey has led to concerns of open conflict between the two NATO allies. Ankara is facing off against Greece and Cyprus over oil and gas exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Greece and Turkey have deployed naval and air forces to assert their competing claims.
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| EU warns Serbia, Kosovo over Israel embassy move Posted: 07 Sep 2020 03:04 AM PDT  The European Union warned Serbia and Kosovo on Monday that they could undermine their EU membership hopes by moving their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem, as U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement about the change left officials in Belgrade and Pristina scrambling to limit the political fallout. In an unexpected move last week, Trump said that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to normalize economic ties as part of U.S.-brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.
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| EU: Britain should honour deal with EU if it wants any future partnership Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:53 AM PDT |
| European Commission president warns trade talks will be off if UK reneges on Brexit treaty Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:38 AM PDT  The president of the European Commission has threatened to not do business with Britain if "trust" is broken by the UK reneging on the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Ursula von der Leyen said respect for the divorce treaty that paved the way for the UK to leave the EU on January 31 this year was a "prerequisite" for any free trade agreement with Brussels. Boris Johnson is planning to use the internal market bill, due to be published on Wednesday, to renege on provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement, according to reports on Sunday. If the bill does undermine commitments made in the Brexit divorce treaty, it will make it extremely difficult politically for Michel Barnier to offer the UK any concessions in the trade negotiations, which restart on Tuesday. Ministers have denied that the Government plans to tear up the treaty (see video below).
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| UK judge rejects bid to delay Assange extradition hearing Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:05 AM PDT  A British judge on Monday rejected a request by lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to delay his extradition hearing until next year to give his lawyers more time to respond to U.S. allegations that he conspired with hackers to obtain classified information. The adjournment request came on the first day of a London court hearing where Assange is fighting American prosecutors' attempt to send him to the U.S. to stand trial on spying charges.
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| Insights on the Corrosion Inhibitor Global Market to 2025 - by Manufacturers, Regions, Technology, Application, and Product Type Posted: 07 Sep 2020 02:03 AM PDT |
| How a Soviet Triple Agent Recruited New Spies in the West Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:59 AM PDT  Austrian financier Jan Marsalek disappeared on June 18, the same day the 40-year old was fired from his position as chief operating officer of Wirecard, a German financial services provider. A €1.9 billion hole had been discovered in Wirecard's accounts by an independent auditor and Marsalek had been fingered as the one responsible for it.Investigative journalists affiliated with Bellingcat, a digital forensic website, suggested that Marsalek fled from Germany to Belarus via Estonia, and then had been taken to Russia by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service. Further reporting by the Financial Times revealed that Marsalek appeared to have close links to the GRU, which has been very busy of late.Among the classified materials Marsalek possessed before his escape from Austria were a set of papers related to an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. Those documents included the formula for Novichok, the deadly nerve agent used by two GRU assassins in their attempted murder of Skripal, a former GRU officer turned MI6 agent, in Salisbury two years ago. The OPCW was able to trace the origin of the papers Marsalek was carrying—it turned out that they had been leaked to him from the Austrian ministries.If Marsalek's Russian connections are true, he was simply the latest in a long line of Austrian citizens who, whether by accident or design, became hirelings of Moscow.* * *In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hans Adolf Baumgarten (as far as we can tell, a pseudonym) served as an adviser in the foreign affairs department of the office of the Austrian president. Initially, Soviet agents attempted to recruit him "on a material basis," meaning that they simply offered him money in return for information. They failed; Baumgarten refused to cooperate with the Soviets. They were almost ready to shelve his case, but reconsidered when they realized he'd been misevaluated and approached in the wrong way. Still a potentially important asset to them, they wanted to try a more elaborate scheme.They discovered that Baumgarten was an anti-Hitler German nationalist who believed that liberal democracy could help West Germany achieve primacy in the world and that Austria should rejoin it to enhance this prospect. That seemed to be a clue for the Soviets, who decided to recruit Baumgarten on behalf of the West German intelligence. It was here that an otherwise straightforward "false-flag" recruitment effort transformed into a labyrinthine saga of double, and even triple, identities. 'Adviser': Survey of the Topic False-Flag Recruitment, is the first in a series of KGB training manuals obtained by Michael, the curator of the Lubyanka Files project, to be told in a compelling autobiographical fashion by the operatives themselves. Published in 1965, and circulated internally for educational use at the Department of Special Discipline I at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, this document offers a rare first-person account of the moods, mindsets and behaviors of Soviet agents in the field as well as their perception of a high-valued Western target they snared. All of this material, still classified in Russia owing to its continued curricular use, is presented publicly here for the first time.The value for the historian and the espionage junkie in 'Adviser' is less to do with its eponymous victim, the hapless Herr Baumgarten, than it is with his wily and witty recruiter-agent, "Safo," a man in his mid-fifties who worked for three different spy agencies in an extraordinary lifetime but faithfully served only one.Safo (a fake codename invented for the manual) was on the verge of retirement in 1960. Born into a family of Volga Germans, he'd been recruited by Soviet military intelligence, in which capacity he worked as a pro-communist journalist during the Soviet-Finnish war in 1939. He was soon transferred to the civilian NKVD (the prior incarnation of the KGB) in 1940, formally trained, and tasked with infiltrating the spy networks of the Third Reich, this time posing as a pro-fascist correspondent. Safo performed his duties only too well because he was subsequently recruited by the Abwehr, Hitler's military intelligence service, in which capacity he was dispatched behind enemy lines following Operation Barbarossa, Germany's ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union. He was posted undercover in besieged Stalingrad, where, we are told, working ostensibly for the Nazis, he burned their penetration agents on behalf of the Kremlin while sabotaging Soviet military infrastructure. After the Second World War, Safo became a legalized Austrian with the help of his Soviet handlers. He resumed his journalism cover, this time for a large-circulation, pro-American, anti-Soviet newspaper in Salzburg. He therefore transitioned from a Red to a Brownshirt to Christian Democrat—all within the space of a single decade. Safo again acquitted himself with distinction and it wasn't long before West Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) uncovered his earlier role in the Abwehr. Given that the founder of the BND, Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, was himself once a member of the Abwehr, this only counted as a qualification for a recruitment. And so, as with any number of former servants of the Third Reich—and quite a few secret servants of Stalin and Khrushchev—Safo joined the BND, making him very well situated to catch a big fish in the Austrian chancellery.He started by arranging a seemingly chance encounter with Baumgartner and his wife at a swank ski resort in the Tyrol Alps using two unwitting accomplices as bait: a none-too-bright Austrian journalist named "Krantzl" (or so-called in the manual) and Krantzl's obsequious girlfriend. Krantzl had previously worked in the Austrian chancellery and knew Baumgarten slightly and so who better to facilitate an introduction? Safo's amusing digression about his travel companions more than makes up for the flashes of turgid homo sovieticus-speak in this manual:"By nature, [Krantzl] was quite direct, a dimwit, and in the presence of his girlfriend capable of not paying attention to anything except her. Thus, he was quite suitable for the role which I assigned him in our plans. Of course, I did not breathe a word to him about the fact that Adviser was vacationing in the Alps. I needed Krantzl to see Adviser first in Arlberg and express a wish to introduce me to him. And I had no doubts that Krantzl would not refrain from such a proposal… She clung to Krantzl, adored him, and it seemed could think of nothing in the world without this guileless fat man. She was—I'm sorry—a hausfrau by nature. I am certain then when they get married, Gisela will become a real housewife, will bear Krantzl a bunch of children and will not be interested in anything accept their offspring, the kitchen and her husband's paycheck."Safo recounts in similar vivid detail the scenery and setting of his high-altitude rendezvous with destiny; also the frustrations of a well-laid plan not proceeding as such, namely his belated realization that he had failed to confirm that this was indeed the same hotel Baumgarten was staying in. A stunning lapse in tradecraft for an otherwise meticulous agent.Luckily for Safo, it was. Baumgarten turned up and expressed admiration for the KGB agent's German reportage, which dealt primarily with economic affairs in Eastern Europe. Safo responded by evidently demonstrating a little too obviously his admiration for Baumgarten's attractive wife. An acquaintanceship was formed and solidified after recruiter convinced mark that his intentions toward his better half were nothing short of gentlemanly. Acquaintanceship then evolved into friendship and friendship into involuntary collaboration as Safo proceeded to his next phase of target development: compromising Baumgarten by getting him to pass on privileged information.Safo published this information in the Rheinischer Merkur, a conservative West German newspaper to which he was attached, then offered Baumgarten an "honorarium" for his help as an anonymous but well-informed source. After an initial protest, Baumgarten accepted the modest fee. The first hook of recruitment was therefore in place.At this point, what already seemed a complex game of cat-and-mouse grew into an even more complex one when the BND inconveniently instructed Safo to recruit Baumgarten to work on its behalf. In order to save the KGB's brainchild, Safo secretly recorded several meetings with Baumgarten; at one he successfully recruited him as a BND agent. Or so Baumgarten was led to believe. Safo carefully edited the recordings and re-assembled Baumgarten's answers and statements so as to make the resulting tape seem as if he ardently refused to cooperate with West Germany. Safo then sent this edited recording to Gen. Gehlen as proof that he had, regrettably, failed in his mission.A further wrinkle with tricking Baumgarten into thinking he spied for West Germany was that the Soviets could only plausibly ask him to deliver material of potential interest to Bonn—specifically, information on Austria's relations with the Eastern Bloc nations, which Moscow scarcely needed, rather than on Austria's relations with the West, which Moscow most wanted. So it became necessary to somehow let Baumgarten know which service he was really working for while agreeing to have him continue to do so.Safo and his KGB bosses decided the only way to reveal their true identities without blowing the entire operation was to slowly and subtly change Baumgarten's opinion of his beloved Fatherland such that he might be persuaded to honestly help the Motherland instead.Over the course of several months, Safo put on a show: choreographed descents into black moods and pseudo-drunken bouts of self-recrimination for serving the wrong master. He began criticizing Bonn for being little more than a satrapy of American capital and American military imperialism, and for integrating former Nazis (such as himself, although he didn't dare mention that item on his c.v.) and clearing the way for the revival of "fascism" in West Germany. This, it was determined, would appeal to Baumgarten's innate loathing for Hiterlism as he'd experienced it from his own involuntary service in the German army.undefinedAs a psychological influence operation it didn't quite have the intended effect of changing Baumgarten's mind completely. But it whittled away his confidence. He became less and less resistant to Safo's criticism of their ostensible side of the Iron Curtain.In the end, the KGB used this phantom threat of recrudescent Nazism, as well as evidence of Baumgarten's treason in Austria, to force him to open connivance with the Soviet Union. Safo and his commanding officers played the deceptively edited tapes of Baumgarten back to him. The game was over.He came along, bitterly and reluctantly at first, having no choice given the kompromat on him. Perhaps as sop to his own battered conscience, Baumgarten allowed that he was open to learning more about the Soviet "worldview." He remained a dutiful servant of the Kremlin as of the time of the manual's publication. An ambivalent footnote suggests his name, too, might have been altered for the sake of security. It's unknown if he was ever caught by Austrian counterintelligence or simply retired from active KGB work sometime after 1965, as so many spies did.Safo, meanwhile, was smuggled out of Austria and back to Russia via an intricate exfiltration plan via Canada. He got to enjoy his long-awaited retirement and no doubt was awarded the state honors for his remarkable and lengthy career, which ended on a high note.Given the use of false names throughout, it is not possible to corroborate or debunk any of the claims made in this manual. But it remains unlikely that the "Adviser" operation was a fabrication since it was never meant for public consumption and only ever described to educate future generations of spies. A former officer of the Federal Security Service, or FSB—one of two successor agencies to the KGB—said this manual is genuine and still in curricular use at the academy where he was trained. Jan Neuman defected to the United States with his wife, Victorya, a fellow FSB officer; the two then became informants for the FBI and CIA. Neuman confirmed to one of us that despite their age, KGB "Special Discipline" manuals, such as this one, are considered highly relevant at the FSB Academy for studying the theory and practice of tradecraft. "If you've already written the Bible," Neuman said, "why rewrite it?" * * *Austria has long been Europe's spook central. Kim Philby, the primus inter pares of the Cambridge Five, first began his working for Soviet intelligence as a courier for the Comintern in Vienna in the early 1930s. It was there that he met and was recruited by Teodor Maly, the legendary Hungarian priest turned spy for the NKVD—the precursor to the KGB—who sent Philby back to England to infiltrate British government. Years later, on New Year's Day, 1953, a short, 30-year-old Russian approached the American vice-consul in Vienna's International Sector and asked for directions to the American Commission for Austria. He handed the vice-consul a letter offering "certain services" to Washington. And so Lt. Col. Pyotr Popov became the first GRU officer ever to be recruited by the newly created CIA as a defector-in-place. The Baumgarten operation took place not long afterward. Austria gained independence from Germany, which had annexed it in 1938, at the end of the Second World War but it wasn't a true independence. The country remained occupied by the American, British, French, and Soviet forces until 1955—around the time of Safo's joining the BND. That year, foreign occupation forces finally agreed to withdraw from the country and allow it to re-establish a free, democratic and sovereign state. But the Soviets made a provision for their withdrawal: Austria had to remain neutral, which, against the background of West Germany's accession to NATO earlier that year, essentially implied that the country would not join this military alliance.Brilliant Codebreakers Exposed Soviet Spies—And Launched the McCarthy EraAustria's neutral status was fixed in the country's constitution and made Austria dependent on the Soviet/Russian relations with NATO in its own dealings with the Alliance. For example, Austria joined NATO's Partnership for Peace in 1995, but that took place only after the majority of post-Soviet republics, including Russia, joined the same program in 1994. But perhaps more importantly, "permanent neutrality" was internalized by the Austrian society: neutralism became an inherent national trait of Austrians, the majority of whom believe that their country should remain a bridge between the West and East.Economic links, especially those in the energy and banking sectors, are also an important factor determining Austria's relations with Russia. In 1968, Austria became the first Western nation that started importing Soviet gas, and this agreement made Austria a key country in the European natural gas network even after the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2018, the Russian gas giant Gazprom signed an agreement with the Austrian integrated oil and gas company OMV to extend the existing contract for Russian gas supplies until 2040. Moreover, Russian economic and business leadership enjoys mutually beneficial and high-profile relations with the Austrian bank Raiffeisen Bank International, the subsidiary of which, namely ZAO Raiffeisenbank, is one of Russia's major banks. And in recent years, Austria—in league with Germany—has been most actively lobbying for the building of Nord Stream 2, yet another gas pipeline delivering Russian natural gas to Europe and, consequently, deepening Europe's energy dependence on Russia.But apart from Austria's neutrality and its leaders' unwearied endeavors to maintain and intensify economic relations with Russia, Vienna's lack of determination in putting a bridle on Moscow's disruptive actions has a third source: historical infiltration of Austria's state institutions by Russian agents, spies and informants such as Baumgarten and, more recently, it appears, Marsalek. And they've not simply betrayed Austrian national interests for material or ideological reasons or for fear of blackmail; they have contributed to the emergence of a political culture that is highly tolerant to Russian misbehavior on many levels. Austria was one of the very few Western countries that declined to expel any Russian diplomats as part of the coordinated Western response to the GRU's poisoning of Skripal in 2018. Perhaps in retaliation for this lack of solidarity, British intelligence exposed a retired colonel of the Austrian Federal Army who had spied for Russia for about 20 years. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called upon Vladimir Putin to give an explanation, saying that espionage against Austria was unacceptable, while Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister Karin Kneissl cancelled her planned trip to Moscow. But both Kurz and Kneissl seemed to be the bad cop in that situation—they needed to show Austria's assertiveness in dealing with Russia after the damage the Austrian leadership had done to its reputation among the Western allies earlier that year. The good cop was Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen who called not to dramatize the espionage case, adding that it would not "seriously tarnish our relationship with the Russian government in the long run."There's little fear of that happening. Putin twice visited Austria since the nerve agent attack in the U.K. The second visit was a private one: the Russian president attended Kneissl's wedding, and even had a chance to dance with the happy bride. Following Putin's informal visit to Austria, former head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service August Hanning said that it was not safe for NATO to share secrets with Vienna. The following year, the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that British and Dutch intelligence services had "almost completely cut off contact with Vienna" because of the Russian connections of the ruling Freedom Party that controlled, at that time, the ministries of Defense and Internal Affairs.One wonders how many more Baumgartens there are lurking in those ministries, even today.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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| The Big Charlie Hebdo Trial Is a Sham Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:57 AM PDT  PARIS—In the first week of the Charlie Hebdo terror trial, it's hard to find solace for any party involved. The terrorist attackers themselves are dead. The survivors and families of the victims—-living in fear and agony ever since—will sit through 10 weeks of details and denials of the twisted terror plots. These suspects have already been found guilty in the court of public opinion—and yet most of them are just minions and losers, whose chance of a fair trial is questionable.One by one the handcuffed suspects were ushered into the unforgiving setting of the main courtroom here in central Paris. They were brought to their seats in two glass boxes with steel frames that look awkwardly similar to those seen in Russia's show trials. With them in the box, is a cluster of police officers from the terror squad, wearing flak jackets and balaclavas. Each suspect is seated slightly apart from the next, a police officer standing right behind them. The suspects, who are also masked due to the coronavirus pandemic, are mainly young and most are from Paris' 'banlieues,' the poor, demoralized suburbs of the capital, or the desperate northern French town of Charleville-Mézières, or Gilly in Belgium, where unemployment is rife and petty crime is commonplace. Calmly, resignedly, they await their turn to be heard.Are the Terrorists Winning a Year After 'Charlie Hebdo'?The facts in the cases are well-known; on the morning of Jan. 7, 2015, the Kouachi brothers, Cherif and Saïd, forced their way into the Parisian offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had printed a series of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. They rushed past the front desk and embarked on an horrific killing spree, murdering 12 people and leaving 11 wounded. Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed the attack two weeks later and added that "it had been planned for years," by Anwar-al-Awlaki the infamous al Qaeda figurehead killed by a CIA drone strike in 2011.One day after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, a man called Amedy Coulibaly executed his own murderous plot, killing a female police officer in Montrouge, a Parisian suburb.An unprecedented third day of violence, which had the world glued to 24-hour news channels, erupted when the brothers were engaged in a shoot-out with cops and Coulibaly began a siege in HyperCacher, a kosher supermarket where he murdered another four men. Coulibaly pledged alliance to the so-called Islamic State.The Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were killed on Jan. 9, 2015. Five years later, the men now on trial are said to be their facilitators. They allegedly arranged their safe houses and vests, their rocket launchers, tasers, Kalashnikovs and knives. Because both cases are linked, the trials are taking place together.In France, the spotlight is intense. The wounds of this attack—and the coordinated attacks on Paris including the Bataclan theater later in the same year—have yet to heal, and the issues are still bitterly contested. When lawyers for one of the victims linked a suspect's Muslim faith to jihadism, his lawyer leapt in. "France is a secular country," she said, "We shouldn't be arguing his religion." The legal team representing the victims could not control themselves. "How dare you?" one defense lawyer shouted, clearly upset. "With the victims here, present in this room!" The defense lawyer in question was Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, she is infamous in her own right; best known for defending Carlos the Jackal and then marrying him.Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez-Sanchez, committed several terrorist attacks in the '70s and '80s for the militant wing of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was convicted of 16 murders and linked to many more. Coutant-Peyre embraces an almost anarchist stance, claiming there is never a fair trial for those charged with terrorist offenses. There is no doubt that the array of terrorist attacks unleashed in France since January 2015, which killed 258 people, has caused a collective trauma and left deep scars. Many agree that a fair trial for the 13 men and one woman on trial over the coming weeks is almost impossible."Giving terror suspects a just trial is a true test of the judicial system." Elpiniki Kolokatsi, a criminal lawyer attending the trial, told The Daily Beast. Kolokatsi is part of the legal team representing Dutch women in Syrian refugee camps who want to return to Europe after traveling to the Islamic State. Kolokatsi said the fairness of the trial had been damaged well in advance when files were leaked to the press."It's objectionable and incomprehensible," she said. "To leak investigation files is illegal and clearly against the interests of the suspects and their right to presumption of innocence."The ramifications of the case continue to be felt all over the world. Iran condemned Charlie Hebdo last week for republishing of the Mohammed cartoons on the day the trial began. This new issue features a weeping prophet on the cover. "It's hard to be loved by assholes," he says. "All this for that," it reads in big bold yellow letters, all that bloodshed for a few cartoons. The formal architecture of the Paris Tribunal—a stack of four giant glass rectangles by Renzo Piano—betrays little of the drama that is unfolding inside, although there are rows of dark blue police vans filled with anti-terror police lining the side streets. Center stage, like a flock of crows, are the 94 lawyers involved in the process, in their black robes and white bands. All are masked. Lifted slightly above the crowd are the chairs of the five judges. The presiding judge, Regis de Jorna, dressed in bright red velvet robes trimmed with black and white fur, sits in the center.The air in the courthouse is filled with anticipation—but there is also the occasional whiff of disinfectant. The coronavirus looms heavy over the court proceedings. The mandatory masks hide most feelings, including those of the accused. Only the eyes can betray emotions, all other detail gets lost behind the pieces of cloth. After a lengthy debate the first two days of the trial, the judges have allowed people testifying to drop their masks. The main suspect being tried in person is Ali Riza Polat, who is facing a life sentence for his alleged role in supporting both the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo staff, as well as the terror plot on the kosher HyperCacher supermarket.The other 10 suspects present are charged with crimes varying from weapon sales to logistical support. Allegedly, they traded illicit goods for arms used in the attacks; arranged for safe houses; aided; and abetted. Hayat Boumedienne, the widow of Coulibaly, is the only female suspect on trial, she is being tried in absentia for financial complicity in the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the HyperCacher supermarket. The two others being tried in absentia, Mohamed and Mehdi Belhoucine, are both presumed dead, killed on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq. All three left to join the Islamic State, but Boumedienne is the only one still believed to be alive in Syria. Her sister Kaltoum Boumedienne, who testified on Friday afternoon, last received a telephone call from her sister in October 2019. Since then, all contact has been cut off.The supposed mastermind, Peter Cherif, aka Abu Hamza, is not part of the line-up. He was apprehended in Djibouti in December 2018, handed over to French authorities and remains in custody awaiting a separate trial. Of all the charges that have been brought against the 14 on trial, the heaviest are against Mohamed Belhoucine and Ali Riza Polat, a man of Turkish-Kurdish descent who was an important player behind both attacks, according to the French public prosecutor.His charge sheet reads 'complicity to terrorist murder,' a crime punishable by life without parole in France. The others stand trial for the lesser charge of 'complicity to criminal terrorism' and are facing a maximum of 20 years in prison. Only one suspect, Willy Prevost, risks a minor 10 year sentence.When Polat stood up to speak on Friday—a shaven-headed, chubby 35-year-old in a white shirt and sand-colored trousers—he said: "This has gone too far, they lie, they surprised me, but I will explain myself."During questioning he never took off his mask. Defiant, arms crossed, he stood behind his microphone. How France Let the Charlie Hebdo Killers Go FreeThis part of the trial is reserved for something called 'personality questioning.' The judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers can question the suspects, but only to find out more about their backgrounds. "I started dealing cannabis when I was 17," Polat told the judge. In 2009 he was jailed for the first time; "In prison there were people who had lots of money, and were hardly doing any time. I thought 'I want more,' that's what I've learned in prison: I want to die rich, not poor." As his criminal career advanced, Polat started shipping heroin from Lebanon and Turkey, earning him $120,000 per kilo. That was one business, the other was his arms trade. He claimed he's simply a criminal opportunist, driven by money, nothing more. One of the victim's lawyers said: "In 2015, you told a female prison guard: 'You know Charlie Hebdo? I'll do the same to you.'" Polat sharply denied it. "Lies", he said. Sure, he knew Coulibaly, but he knew nothing of any terror plans. Next week, the plight of the victims and the families of the deceased will be heard. Many will testify, but how much satisfaction can they derive from the trial?"I don't expect much," Maryse Wolinksi told France 24. Her husband, George Wolinski, was one of the founders of Charlie Hebdo and died in the attack. "It's the intermediaries who will be judged here. It's their trial, not the trial of the attack… We will not find out why the attack took place."An article in Charlie Hebdo published after the first days of the trial asked a fundamental question: "Are we being taken for a ride, or are we giving our time, our ear, to little lost bandits that have nothing to do with the horror in our heads?"It could be that this kind of terror trial is about something else entirely, as author Yannick Haenel suggests: "The big thing may be... to get the chance to question. Thát is what is called justice. And it is unfolding in front of us."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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| How Geography on the Crossword Grid Can Teach You A Thing or Two Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:55 AM PDT  Geography is a subject well-represented in crosswords. The worldwide diversity of geographical place names gives puzzle writers a huge and handy set of entries to choose from. Just in the category of "four-letter countries" we've got PERU, OMAN, LAOS, IRAN, and MALI, among others, which have proven helpful to crossword writers time and again. Place names are also a good way to learn about the wider world. For example, we had JAPAN clued this week with reference to its prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who just resigned after a historic eight years in power. If you didn't already know that, then solving the Sunday puzzle clued you in. Similarly you may have already known that DUBAI is home to the world's tallest building (1-Down, Thursday), or that HAITI is the setting for a new book about Haitian national hero Toussaint Louverture (20-Down, also Thursday) – but if not, I'm here for you! The all-time geography champ in crosswords is of course Lake ERIE, which has appeared 419 times in the New York Times Crossword since Will Shortz took over its editorship in 1993, making it the 11th-most common entry overall. The next highest in geography is ASIA, with 283 entries, and then Mount ETNA with 265. And spare a final geographical thought for the poor ARAL Sea, which used to appear all the time in crosswords, but nowadays not so much. Until the 1960s it was the fourth-largest lake in the world, just a bit bigger than Lake Michigan. But poor resource management in the Soviet Era led to its degradation and severe diminishment, in both real life and then in crosswords. Its Wikipedia page describes the lake in the past tense, and its echo grows fainter in crosswords each year as it's used less and less. Alas, Aral Sea.Been somewhere fun lately? Tweet it to beastxword and let everyone know (especially if it's 3, 4, or 5 letters long).Play today's puzzle and sign up for our weekly crossword newsletter on the bottom of the puzzle page. MORE ON CROSSWORDSHow I Have Fun with Grid Patterns When Building Crossword PuzzlesWhy Full Celebrity Names in Crossword Puzzles Are Fun – And Hard to Come ByHow This Common Crossword Puzzle Trap Could Easily Trip You UpRead 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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| Chinese firm to run Laos electric grid amid default warnings Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:43 AM PDT  The poor, small Southeast Asian country of Laos is set to cede majority control of its electric grid to a Chinese company, as it struggles to stave off a potential debt default, people with direct knowledge of the agreement said. The deal comes at a time when critics accuse Beijing of "debt trap diplomacy" to gain strategic advantage in countries struggling to repay loans taken out under President Xi Jinping's global "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative. China is Laos's biggest creditor, and the deal will bind the landlocked, mountainous country of seven million people closer to its giant neighbour. The power grid shareholding deal was signed on Tuesday between state-owned Electricite du Laos (EdL) and China Southern Power Grid Co., according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, which did not give details of the new ownership. Three people with knowledge of the matter said it would give majority control of the new Electricite du Laos Transmission Company Limited (EDLT) to the Chinese company. Power exports are central to Laos's development plans. "It will give the Laos state grid better bargaining power with regional countries and start to make a profit," said one of the people with direct knowledge of the discussions.
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| Boris Johnson Takes Brexit in a Crazy Direction Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As the eighth round of trade talks with the European Union is about to start, U.K. government officials from the chief trade negotiator, David Frost, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have put out the word that Britain is ready to walk away. To underscore the point, Boris Johnson is setting a deal deadline of Oct. 15.The prime minister is also threatening something much more serious. According to a Financial Times report on Sunday, the government will introduce legislation this week contravening the international treaty that sealed Britain's EU exit. If Johnson follows through with the new law, which would weaken the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement's provisions on Northern Ireland, he will probably scupper chances of a trade deal and undermine Britain's international standing and credibility. At a time when his error-ridden Covid policies are under fire, it seems an odd gamble."This would be a very unwise way to proceed," tweeted Simon Coveney, Ireland's foreign and defense minister. That's diplomat speak for, "Are you out of your mind?" The idea of effectively ripping up the Northern Ireland Protocol is so extreme it's tempting to dismiss the suggestion as an empty threat. And yet, even the posturing is worrying.Ireland, for those who can remember back to the herky-jerky ride of the Brexit talks, has a big stake in this. The purpose of the Protocol in the exit agreement is to keep the Irish border free of any customs infrastructure and allow the EU to enforce its own customs regime, while letting the U.K. pretend it hadn't ceded any sovereignty by letting this happen. Johnson has always hated that concession.Trade negotiations are stuck primarily over the question of state-aid rules. The EU argues that Britain should hew closely to the trading bloc's regulations to avoid unfair competition; Johnson's government argues that as a non-member it no longer has to obey the EU.Only it sort of does. Under the terms of the Protocol, the U.K. cannot diverge from EU state aid rules in any way that impacts trade between Northern Ireland and the EU. That may sound minor, but as the lawyer George Peretz has noted, the bar for determining such trade effects may be low. And it will be independent regulators, the courts, the European Commission and ultimately even the European Court of Justice who are the arbiters of a breach. Johnson himself will have very little say.Regardless of the prime minister's frustrations, abrogating an international treaty that he only recently signed would do lasting damage to Britain's EU relationships. Once you lose trust in that way, it's not hard to imagine the implications for cooperation on security, counter-terrorism, migration policing and other important issues. It would have knock-on effects for future trade talks with other countries. How would anyone sign a deal with the Johnson government after that?It's not clear how his government would pull it off, either. Johnson's 80-seat majority means he can generally pass any legislation he wants. But international treaties take precedence over domestic law, so the courts would presumably invalidate any provisions that undermine the Withdrawal Agreement. Even if Johnson is bluffing on the legislative threat, the collapse of trade talks is a real possibility, with its own set of consequences. As much as I think he must be taken at his word when he says he'd like an agreement, the situation isn't a repeat of last year's crunch dealmaking ahead of the withdrawal deal. Johnson isn't trying to win an election this time, so there is no political imperative to fudge a deal.It's long been clear that Britain is unlikely to get a trade deal that's significantly better in economic terms than not having one. And to strike any deal, Johnson would have to agree to compromises that would displease the ardent Brexiters in his party.He may also have calculated that during the economic ravages of the pandemic, some increased trade friction won't be noticed as much and an already swollen government budget can be used to soften the blow. Or he may be betting that, following a cooling-off period, negotiations will resume: The two trading partners need each other too much to stay mad.Indeed, a big punch-up with the EU may seem just the thing right now. Labour leader Keir Starmer has gained in popularity with his accusations of government incompetence over Covid. Refocusing attention on Brexit gives the Tories a rallying point and hands Labour a reminder of that party's own divisions on the subject of Europe, which nearly tore it apart last year.However, none of the arguments for walking away are compelling on grounds other than short-term political expediency. Britain has already left the EU and on Dec. 31 will lose its access to Europe's single market. People are going to feel some impact after Jan. 1. Will they really just blame Brussels?Of course a no-deal exit will impact business and U.K. Consumers. Whether or not the aggregate impact pales in comparison with the pandemic's wrecking ball is beside the point. If we learned anything from the recent U.K. fiasco over school exam grades, it's that individual stories matter greatly. How will Johnson respond should small U.K. businesses start closing because of new trade frictions?All of the theatrics could be just that — an attempt to concentrate minds as another round of U.K.-EU trade negotiations kick off. If there is a deal to be done, however, it will require political will, from Johnson and the EU governments. So far, the U.K. prime minister is signalling he's not very interested. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.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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| In pandemic, Nigerian teacher can 'teach the whole world' Posted: 07 Sep 2020 01:01 AM PDT  For many 12th graders, the closure of Nigeria's public schools to combat the spread of COVID-19 presents a particular problem: How to prepare for crucial, final exams? Basirat Olamide Ajayi, a math teacher in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, came up with a solution. Students watch her short math videos -- no more than 5 minutes long -- and respond to her questions.
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| Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reach Indonesia 'after seven months at sea' Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:42 AM PDT  Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reached Indonesia early Monday claiming to have been at sea for seven months, United Nations officials said, in one of the biggest landings by the persecuted Myanmar minority in years.
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| How Merkel Can Calm the Conflict Between Greece and Turkey Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When Turkey and Greece last came to the brink of war, phone calls from President Bill Clinton to the leaders of both countries persuaded them to pull back. Now, as the two NATO allies again face off in the eastern Mediterranean, President Donald Trump's desultory efforts to defuse the tensions are having no effect.After the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both sides stood down — though only briefly. Hostilities have since resumed in earnest. Ankara and Athens are dialing up their belligerent rhetoric, and two of their warships recently collided during a confrontation. The stakes are higher than in 1996. Then, the clash was primarily over a cluster of islets in the Aegean Sea. Now, territorial claims are being invoked to support assertions of exclusive drilling rights over large deposits of natural gas under the eastern Mediterranean.Outright military conflict is possible. With the U.S. lacking both the will and the influence with allies it would need to intervene effectively, Merkel needs to redouble her efforts.Turkey is isolated. Other countries with energy interests in those waters — especially Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel — also harbor grievances against Ankara, and are siding with Greece. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for economic sanctions against Turkey and recently dispatched a frigate and jets to the area. The Trump administration, having failed to resolve the crisis, might have made it worse by choosing this moment to ease a longstanding arms embargo on Cyprus.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unlikely to be cowed. International pressure perfectly suits his populist-nationalist narrative of Turkey against the world. Military adventurism abroad, notably in Libya and Syria, has allowed him to distract attention from the parlous state of Turkey's economy and his mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis. He will also be buoyed by the recent natural gas find off Turkey's other shore, in the Black Sea. Even so, Erdogan does listen to Merkel. At her request, he paused Turkish exploration activities near Cyprus last month, resuming only when Greece announced a maritime-border agreement with Egypt, akin to one between Turkey and Libya last year. The renewed reciprocal brinkmanship has made Merkel's task harder, but not impossible. Having shown that she can get the principal protagonists in the confrontation to pause, she should strive to mediate a permanent resolution. It helps that Germany is a major trading partner of the interested parties, and that Berlin currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.Bringing Turkey into the East Mediterranean Gas Forum would be a good place to start. This was created by the littoral states to establish a regional gas market and an export hub to Europe. Turkey was left out because the forum includes Cyprus, which Ankara doesn't recognize. Membership would allow Turkey a share of the resources and access to mechanisms for resolving disputes over where it can drill.Getting Turkey and Cyprus to agree on this would be a challenge for any mediator, to be sure. Greece and Merkel's other European partners, vexed by Erdogan's intransigence on other issues, may balk. She could remind them that access to the eastern Mediterranean's natural gas reserves offers Europe its best alternative to energy dependence on Russia — while telling Turkey and Cyprus that Europe is the logical market for the gas and that the shortest route is through both countries.That seems like a basis for talks. If Merkel steps up, she might make the difference.Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.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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| UK overriding Brexit divorce deal would be "self-defeating" - EU diplomats Posted: 06 Sep 2020 11:25 PM PDT |
| US Navy searches for missing Nimitz sailor in Arabian Sea Posted: 06 Sep 2020 11:20 PM PDT |
| UK PM gives October 15 deadline for Brexit deal Posted: 06 Sep 2020 11:14 PM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given an October 15 deadline for a post-Brexit trade agreement with the European Union, brushing off fears about "no-deal" chaos if talks fail.
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