| UN experts: Islamic State steps up attacks in Syria and Iraq Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:34 PM PST ![UN experts: Islamic State steps up attacks in Syria and Iraq]( "UN experts: Islamic State steps up attacks in Syria and Iraq") Islamic State extremists are mounting increasingly bold attacks in Syria and Iraq following their loss of territory in both countries and are planning for the breakout of their fighters in detention facilities, U.N. experts said in a new report. The panel of experts said in the report to the U.N. Security Council that the militant group — known as IS and ISIL — is also exploiting weaknesses in security in both countries. The experts monitoring sanctions against the Islamic State and al-Qaida said it is unclear whether the Islamic States' new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi Al-Qurayshi, can effectively lead the extremist group's diverse and far-flung supporters and affiliates.
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| Online misinformation fuels doubt as 2020 vote kicks off Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:20 PM PST  Well before Iowans cast the first ballots of the 2020 presidential race, an insidious campaign to seed distrust in the election process was already underway. Conservative and liberal activists took to social media to push outright false or unproven claims to their online followers. Suspicions even reached President Donald Trump, who questioned the Democratic primary's fairness to his tens of millions of Twitter followers.
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| AP Exclusive: Border apprehensions drop 8 straight months Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:17 PM PST  The number of border apprehensions has dropped for the eighth straight month, following crackdowns by the Trump administration that include forcing asylum seekers back over the U.S.-Mexico border to wait out their claims, a Homeland Security official said Monday. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official results have not been released. The tally for the month of January was about 36,000, including apprehensions of people crossing illegally and migrants who were declared inadmissible by border officers at a port of entry .
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| Sinn Fein Moves Into Lead as Varadkar Trails Before Election Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:00 PM PST ![Sinn Fein Moves Into Lead as Varadkar Trails Before Election]( "Sinn Fein Moves Into Lead as Varadkar Trails Before Election") (Bloomberg) -- Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, moved into the lead ahead of the Feb. 8 general election, a poll showed, with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael pushed to third place.The party scored 25%, the Irish Times said late Monday in Dublin, citing a poll of 1,200 voters taken between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, up 4 points from a survey for the newspaper taken two weeks ago. Fianna Fail dropped 2 points to 23%, while Fine Gael dropped 3 points to 20%.Both Varadkar and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin pledge not to enter government with Sinn Fein, who aren't running candidates to approach a majority in government. In an RTE radio interview, Varadkar warned of "massive" tax rises if Sinn Fein came to power, a charge rejected by the party.Varadkar has placed Brexit at the center of his bid for power, claiming his government is best placed to protect Ireland while the EU and U.K. negotiate a future trade agreement. Voters though appear more focused on domestic issues including a housing shortage and struggling health care system, a mood Sinn Fein appears to be capitalizing on.Some 41% of voters are satisfied with Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, the poll showed, compared with 30% who are happy both with Varadkar and Fianna Fail's Martin.Martin remains the most likely candidate to be prime minister, according to bookies' odds, as he's best placed to form a coalition with smaller parties, the Labour Party and the Greens.The Greens scored 8% in the poll, with Labour at 4%. The margin of error in the poll is 2.8%, the Irish Times said.To contact the reporter on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor 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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| China’s Massive Economic Power Shapes Global Response to Virus Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:59 PM PST ![China's Massive Economic Power Shapes Global Response to Virus]( "China's Massive Economic Power Shapes Global Response to Virus") (Bloomberg) -- As countries around the world enact measures to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, there's an additional factor shaping their response: China's enormous economic clout.While wealthy countries such as the U.S. and Australia -- both key trading partners of China -- are currently barring entry to all non-resident travelers from the mainland as the virus spreads and fatalities rise, less developed countries that rely on Beijing are taking a softer approach as they balance public health concerns, the potential economic fallout and domestic political consequences.Particularly in countries where China is the biggest trading partner and largest source of inbound tourists, moves that restrict the flow of mainland visitors could end up hurting growth. Restrictive measures also risk angering Beijing's officials as they battle the outbreak and try to avoid further damage to China's global image."Countries imposing travel restrictions on China will try to carefully manage any potential political tensions," said Kaho Yu, a senior Asia analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft."A serious pandemic threat -- a potential outbreak in these countries -- will have an impact on their domestic politics, such as elections, and would transcend geopolitics," he added. "But these countries are also very careful with how they present the travel restrictions, in order to avoid upsetting Beijing and having geopolitical consequences."Holocaust ComparisonChina has already made its displeasure known over some travel restrictions, which have not been advised by the World Health Organization. The acting Chinese ambassador to Israel compared the country's travel restrictions on Chinese visitors to Jews being turned away at borders during the Holocaust. The embassy later apologized, the Associated Press reported.After the U.S. State Department issued its highest do-not-travel alert for China -- on par with Iraq and Afghanistan -- Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said "the U.S. comments and actions are neither based on facts, nor helpful at this particular time."In a briefing on Monday, Hua blasted the U.S. for being the first to withdraw consulate staff from Wuhan and announce a travel ban on Chinese citizens."The WHO doesn't approve of, and even rejects, travel and trade bans on China," Hua said. "In the face of a public health crisis, countries should work together to overcome the difficulties, rather than resort to beggar-thy-neighbor practices -- let alone take advantage of others' difficulties."Economic WorriesSome poorer countries with close relations with China, such as Cambodia, have explicitly emphasized the potential economic and diplomatic damage from a ban on visitors.As President Xi Jinping's most reliable partner in Southeast Asia, the Cambodian government has attracted around $8 billion from China between 2016 to August 2019, more than a third of its foreign investment, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Banning flights to China would "destroy the Kingdom's economy and affect the good relationship between the two countries," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's office said in a statement.Cambodians "who are currently working or studying in China, including those in Wuhan, have to remain there and join the Chinese people to fight this disease," Hun Sen said during a speech in Phnom Penh on Jan. 30, according to Voice of America. "Don't run away from the Chinese people during this difficult time."Pakistan, a key Chinese diplomatic and military ally, canceled flights to China but quickly resumed them after just five days in line with WHO guidelines, according to Zafar Mirza, a special assistant to Pakistan's prime minister on health. He added that China's health plans were "the best" and, as a neighbor, Pakistan needed to "respect their policies."China has invested billions of dollars and exports military hardware to Pakistan. The Muslim-majority country's prime minister, Imran Khan, has repeatedly declined to comment publicly on the condition of China's Uighur Muslims. As many as a million of them are detained in prison-like camps in China's far west region of Xinjiang.Sri Lanka, a major recipient of Chinese loans and investment, even praised "great diplomatic relations" with China for allowing evacuations of their citizens.For many dependent on China's trade, investment or tourism -- including jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, which are under pressure from residents to implement wholesale travel bans -- there is an additional risk: Once a restriction is in place, it could prove very difficult to reverse it. And with the virus predicted not to peak for months, that could have huge consequences."Once these measures are in place, they can be sticky -- they can take a long time to rescind," said Yanzhong Huang, who directs the Center for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall University and is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. "And that can cause economic damage, not just to China but to the countries that implement these measures -- and it could be a lose-lose situation."Stringent PrecautionsWhile China has criticized the U.S. response, including an entry ban on any foreign national that has been to China in the last two weeks, several Southeast Asian countries have taken more stringent precautions.The Philippines, which saw the first death from the virus outside of China, is banning visitors from all of China, including Hong Kong and Macau, and also prohibiting Filipinos from traveling to those areas. President Rodrigo Duterte said the move was to prevent the spread of the outbreak, and slammed "xenophobia" from people blaming China. "We are a community of nations -- we cooperate," Duterte told reporters Monday night. "China has been kind to us. We can only also show the same favor to them."On Friday, Singapore suspended the visas of Chinese citizens wishing to travel to the city-state. At the same time, it imposed a similar restriction on any foreign national having recently visited China.Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Saturday the restrictions were "purely to protect our public health" and complementary to China's border control efforts, Today Online reported. He denounced anti-Chinese sentiment, and said all countries must work together to stop the outbreak."We wish China well in their efforts to fight the virus," Today quoted Lee as saying. "We have confidence that China and the other countries will work together to win this battle."'Keep Our House Clean'Myanmar, which currently has no confirmed cases of the virus, announced a temporary ban on all visitors from China while also evacuating 59 students from Wuhan over the weekend.The government "always prioritizes the national interest while trying to maintain our good relationship with China," said Monywa Aung Shin, a spokesman for the ruling National League for Democracy party.While Thailand on Monday remained one of the few Southeast Asian countries not to bar Chinese visitors, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a briefing on Friday that his priority was to stop the spread of the disease."The economic standpoint is secondary," Anutin said, adding that travel from China is already down by 80% and that there was no need to ban travel or curb visas for Chinese citizens. "We need to keep our house clean," he said. "If not, the economic impact could be devastating."(Updates with Duterte comments)\--With assistance from Dandan Li, Ismail Dilawar, Khine Lin Kyaw and Siraphob Thanthong-Knight.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Philip J. Heijmans in Singapore at pheijmans1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Chris KayFor 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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| Man in Arizona accused of leading 2006 attacks in Iraq Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:47 PM PST ![Man in Arizona accused of leading 2006 attacks in Iraq]( "Man in Arizona accused of leading 2006 attacks in Iraq") An Iraqi man living in metro Phoenix is accused of leading an al-Qaida group that authorities say killed two police officers 14 years ago on the streets of Fallujah in attacks carried out by masked men. Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri was arrested last week in Arizona as part of an extradition request made by the Iraqi government, which charged the 42-year-old with murder in the 2006 shooting deaths. Court records unsealed Monday reveal details of the two attacks in which armed men who were wearing masks jumped out of cars, fired on the officers and fled.
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| AP VoteCast: Health care, climate are top issues in Iowa Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:56 PM PST  Iowa Democrats came to the state's caucuses Monday with key issues dominating their thoughts: health care, climate change and a fierce motivation to unseat President Donald Trump. More than the economy, immigration or foreign policy, Democrats in the nation's opening round of presidential primaries were mostly focused on access to medical treatment and the health of a planet being rapidly warmed by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities. AP VoteCast is a survey of more than 2,700 voters who said they planned to take part in Monday's Democratic caucuses in Iowa, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
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| Experts prepare but new China virus not a pandemic yet Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:39 PM PST  Health authorities are preparing for a possible pandemic as they work to contain a respiratory illness in China that's caused by a new virus. U.S. health officials already have tapped into a $105 million rapid response fund and notified Congress that they may need $136 million more. The virus is an epidemic in China, where more than 17,000 cases have been reported, but has not affected enough people around the globe to be considered a pandemic.
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| Johnson Tightens U.K. Climate Goals Amid Dispute Over UN Summit Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:30 PM PST ![Johnson Tightens U.K. Climate Goals Amid Dispute Over UN Summit]( "Johnson Tightens U.K. Climate Goals Amid Dispute Over UN Summit") (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson will seek to position the U.K. as a leader on climate change on Tuesday, just days after firing the president of the next global climate talks.Johnson will formally launch the process leading to a United Nations summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November with the announcement that the U.K. is bringing forward its target to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035.He will enlist the help of revered wildlife filmmaker David Attenborough at the launch event in London, but the occasion is likely to be overshadowed by a dispute with Claire O'Neill, who he fired as president of the talks on Friday.In a tweet that has since been deleted, O'Neill accused Johnson's government of failing to prioritize climate change. "A shame we haven't had one climate cabinet meeting since we formed," she wrote Friday. Saying that she was "very sad" to be ousted, she added that Johnson's government "can't cope with an indy cop unit."Johnson's spokesman James Slack said the decision had been taken to make the presidency a ministerial role, ruling out O'Neill, who stepped down as a member of Parliament last year. The new president will be appointed in the next ministerial reshuffle, expected in the coming weeks.COP26, the abbreviated name of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is seen as key to the process, as it marks the year when all countries are supposed to submit long-term pollution goals. It will also need to finish the work of COP25 last year in Madrid, which ended in failure.Musk, Thunberg Among the Green 30 Countering the Climate Crisis"Hosting COP26 is an important opportunity for the U.K. and nations across the globe to step up in the fight against climate change," Johnson will say in extracts of his speech released by his office. "2020 must be the year we turn the tide on global warming – it will be the year when we choose a cleaner, greener future for all."To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Robert JamesonFor 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 VoteCast: Iowa Democratic voters seek fundamental change Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:06 PM PST  The first voters to make their choice in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination are desperate for fundamental change to the political system. Roughly two-thirds of Iowa caucusgoers said supporting a candidate who would transform how the system in Washington works was important to their vote, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of voters who said they planned to take part in Monday's Democratic caucuses in Iowa. The survey also found that two issues that have been front and center during the campaign were at the top of Iowa Democrats' minds: health care and climate change.
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| UN Security Council to meet with Kushner on Mideast plan Posted: 03 Feb 2020 01:02 PM PST  The United States has requested a closed-door UN Security Council meeting for Thursday at which President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, is to present the administration's new Mideast plan which is opposed by the Palestinian leadership, diplomats said. Kushner, a key architect of the plan, will brief the 14 other members at noon (1700 GMT) on Thursday, said Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve of Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council. The Belgian envoy said he was also expecting a formal Palestinian request for a meeting on the plan with their president Mahmud Abbas, who set to visit the United Nations on February 11.
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| EU top diplomat holds talks in Iran to de-escalate tensions Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:21 PM PST  Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell on Monday held talks in the Iranian capital during a mission aimed at lowering tensions over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. Borrell's trip, his first to Iran since taking office, follows a spike in tensions between arch foes Washington and Tehran after the January 3 assassination in Baghdad of a top Iranian general in a US drone strike. Borrell started his visit by meeting Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, discussing the situation in the region and ways of reducing tensions as well as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the ministry said.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Bracing for Trump's 'relentless optimism' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:13 PM PST  The most jagged edges of President Donald Trump's day-to-day rhetoric may be sanded at the edges Tuesday night. The blue-collar "boom" that Trump has recently taken to talking about is a mixed bag. In essence, any president would have things to crow about from this time of low unemployment, stock market records and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.
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| Iran may block UN inspectors if it faces a 'new situation' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:11 PM PST  ML--Iran-Nuclear (AP) — Iran's president said Monday that Tehran might reconsider providing U.N. inspectors with access to Iran's nuclear facilities if the country were confronted with "a new situation," the official IRNA news agency reported. Hassan Rouhani's remarks came during a meeting with Josep Borrell, the European Union's new foreign affairs chief, who was on his first visit to Iran since taking office. The visit is seen as the latest move by the EU to save Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
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| Some hospitals wary as new liver transplant rules begin Posted: 03 Feb 2020 11:54 AM PST ![Some hospitals wary as new liver transplant rules begin]( "Some hospitals wary as new liver transplant rules begin") Long-delayed rules that will more broadly share scarce donated livers go into effect Tuesday, to the dismay of some hospitals in Tennessee, Kansas and other states that fear their patients may lose out. Where you live makes a difference in how sick you have to be to get an organ transplant, and wealthier patients sometimes travel to other states to get on shorter waiting lists. The aim is to make the wait for livers, and eventually all organs, less dependent on your ZIP code.
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| AP Explains: In Iowa, complex caucus now even more intricate Posted: 03 Feb 2020 11:37 AM PST  The Iowa caucuses, a staple of the early election season in a U.S. presidential election year, are never simple. Three sets of results will be reported. On Monday, voters who gather at more than 1,700 caucus sites begin their night by declaring support for their preferred presidential candidate.
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| Part company? Or be good company? Posted: 03 Feb 2020 11:37 AM PST ![Part company? Or be good company?]( "Part company? Or be good company?") In China's isolation, Brexit, and American politics, those who offer a helping hand can lessen the decoupling of ties.
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| 2 women killed, child hurt in shooting at Texas dormitory Posted: 03 Feb 2020 11:35 AM PST  Two women were killed and a child was wounded in a shooting Monday morning at a university dormitory in Texas, officials said. A recommendation for students and employees to shelter in place was lifted early Monday afternoon at Texas A&M University-Commerce, and police said there appeared to be no other threats. University police Chief Bryan Vaughn said officers responding to a call at about 10:17 a.m. found two dead women in a room at Pride Rock residence hall on the campus in Commerce, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northeast of Dallas.
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| 2 Iranian students challenge removal from country Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:49 AM PST  Two college students from Iran have filed civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying they were mistreated and illegally denied entry into the country by federal officials at Boston's Logan International Airport. Shahab Dehghani, who attends Northeastern University, and Reihana Emami Arandi, who had been set to start classes at Harvard University, recently filed separate complaints with the agency's civil rights office, requesting the agency investigate the conduct of Customs and Border Protection officials.
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| Snubbing Iowa, Bloomberg charts his own path in 2020 contest Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:37 AM PST  On the day the 2020 presidential election kicks off with the Iowa caucuses, Michael Bloomberg was half a continent and a leap of faith away in California, where the Democratic candidate sought to bring attention to a campaign that has forsworn early voting states and anchored its ambitions to California, Texas and other delegate-rich battlegrounds to come. The billionaire former New York City mayor took to the air in a chartered jet Monday, with a retinue of reporters and TV cameras in tow, and touched down around the state to remind voters that California's election, like Iowa's, is underway.
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| WHO virus team could go to China this week, may include US - officials Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:24 AM PST  A WHO-led international team of experts could go to China as early as this week to investigate the coronavirus outbreak, as agreed between the WHO chief and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and could include U.S. experts, a WHO spokesman said on Monday. China accused the United States on Monday of whipping up panic over a fast-spreading coronavirus with travel restrictions and evacuations. The death toll in China from the newly identified virus, which emerged in Wuhan, capital of the central province of Hubei, rose to 361 as of Sunday, the National Health Commission said.
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| First UN 'mercy flight' leaves Yemen's rebel-held Sanaa Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:19 AM PST  Yemeni children in critical need of medical care were evacuated Monday from the rebel-held capital Sanaa, in what the United Nations hopes will be the first of many "mercy flights". Seven young patients and their relatives flew out of Sanaa airport, which a Saudi-led coalition supporting the embattled Yemeni government has kept closed to commercial flights since 2016. The UN-marked plane later landed in the Jordanian capital Amman, where passengers were placed in buses which immediately ferried them to hospitals, an AFP photographer said.
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| UK, EU clash over vision for post-Brexit trade ties Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:15 AM PST  Britain and the European Union on Monday set out their red lines for post-Brexit trade talks, offering conflicting visions of their future relationship that raise the prospect of clashes to come. Three days after Britain took a historic step to leave the EU, Prime Minister Boris set out a plan for his country to become a global champion of free trade. "I see no need to bind ourselves to an agreement with the EU," Johnson said in a speech in London.
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| Boris Johnson Wants to Be Superman and Working Class Hero Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:45 AM PST ![Boris Johnson Wants to Be Superman and Working Class Hero]( "Boris Johnson Wants to Be Superman and Working Class Hero") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Immediately after his December election victory, Boris Johnson declared his principle domestic policy objective to be the rebalancing of Britain's economy, "leveling up" those parts of the U.K. that have been left behind financially. On Monday, speaking in the Baroque splendor of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the prime minister set out his prime foreign policy goal: making Britain a global "Superman" in championing free trade.These are both reasonable goals — noble, even. Johnson's government was voted into power to deliver them, backed by a strange mixture of working class former Labour voters and older Conservative Brexiters who want a swashbuckling U.K. unencumbered by ties to the European Union. The problem, as Johnson dives into trade negotiations with Brussels, is that keeping one of these constituencies happy may involve disappointing the other.If he's to hold this new Conservative coalition together, Johnson will need to deliver economic benefits to the former Labour heartlands in England's industrial north. And if he's to deliver the Global Britain promised by Brexiters after quitting the EU, he'll have to be free to strike trade agreements with countries around the world.There's a strong moral case for a domestic agenda that tries to rebalance the U.K. economy away from the dominance of finance and the City of London. It may be a prerequisite for fixing Britain's weak productivity and providing better growth prospects. Johnson has a point on free trade too. "[It] is being choked, and that is no fault of the people, that is no fault of individual consumers," he said. "I'm afraid it is the politicians who are failing to lead, the mercantilists are everywhere, the protectionists are gaining ground."Yet the flaws in Johnson's effort to keep all sides of his support base happy were there in his speech on Monday, probably the most important of his career. Johnson insisted that the U.K. cannot sign up to the EU's so-called "level playing field" provisions — which guarantee broad alignment between the U.K. and Europe on rules and regulations governing policy areas from social policy to environmental policy, tax and state aid. But without that undertaking, the EU says it cannot give Britain the zero-tariff, zero-quota arrangement on goods that it wants.Johnson won't want to be seen to capitulate on the level playing field, because it wouldn't tally with a newly sovereign Britain free to go where she likes on global trade — instead, the U.K. would be a "rule-taker" from Brussels. Johnson has begun talking of an Australian-style deal if the Canada-type trade arrangement he wants isn't possible. Australia doesn't have a free trade deal with the EU, so this is largely a euphemism for moving to World Trade Organization terms — or a "no deal" split from the EU trading partnership to put it more bluntly, perhaps with some side deals in important sectors.Unfortunately for the prime minister, the further Britain moves away from its current zero-tariff, zero-quota arrangement on goods with the EU, the more pain it might inflict on those northern England regions that voted for him. Even Canada has to pay tariffs on poultry, meat and eggs and respect quotas. The U.K. Treasury estimated that a Canada-style free-trade agreement would mean a hit of 4.9% of GDP growth; a WTO arrangement would no doubt be worse. And not all parts of the U.K. economy are equally exposed to these new trade costs. The areas that will be hardest hit by new trade frictions with the EU are the very places that he's trying to "level-up."Of course, Johnson's speech — and the negotiating proposals put forward by the EU's Michel Barnier at the same time — are just the opening gambits of the mother of all trade negotiations. Much could change as the clock ticks down to the deadline at the end of this year. The EU might give way on some level-playing field provisions, in exchange for continued access to British fishing waters. The EU proposals also hold out Gibraltar as a bargaining chip.To achieve both his domestic and foreign policy objectives Johnson's biggest post-Brexit bet must be proved right: that while the EU may be the larger negotiating partner, Britain's geopolitical clout, closeness with the U.S. and geographical proximity gives it similar weight. He also seems to be gambling that whatever the economic damage from a more distant trading relationship with the EU, it will be gradual and spread over time and can be mitigated by extra spending on hard-pressed regions.Relief that Britain's endless Brexit debate is over, a strong parliamentary majority and a prime minister who manages to make retreat sound like a bold charge, might buy Johnson time. But he will inevitably have to concede that, as the giant trading bloc on Britain's doorstep, the EU will remain influential. He may want to be a trading Superman, but Brussels still has plenty of Kryptonite.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics 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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| Ukraine says Iran 'knew from start' missile downed plane Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:41 AM PST  Kiev on Monday accused Tehran of knowing from the start that an Iranian missile had downed a Ukrainian airliner last month, after leaked recordings emerged from Iranian air traffic control. The recordings, aired on Ukraine's 1+1 TV channel on Sunday, feature a conversation between an air traffic controller and the pilot of another plane at the time the Ukrainian airliner was hit on January 8, killing all 176 people on board. Iran initially denied Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing 737 had been brought down by one of its missiles.
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| Trump trial closing arguments aim at voters, history Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:40 AM PST  Closing arguments Monday in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial were directed more toward history than to sway the outcome, one final chance to influence public opinion and set the record ahead of his expected acquittal in the Republican-led Senate. The House Democratic prosecutors drew on the Founding Fathers and common sense to urge senators — and Americans — to see that Trump's actions are not isolated but a pattern of behavior that, left unchecked, will allow him to "cheat"' in the 2020 election.
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| Michigan governor to take national stage to rebut Trump Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:29 AM PST  Democrats are putting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan on the national stage Tuesday to rebut President Donald Trump, elevating a fresh face and casting an election-year spotlight on a swing state in the Midwest as the party looks to win back states Trump narrowly captured. The 48-year-old's ascendance comes as Democrats hope to solidify gains with female voters and as two men in their late 70s, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, lead national primary polls. Whitmer, who rarely mentions Trump, has advised Democratic presidential candidates that Michigan voters are less focused on his Twitter feed than on the "fundamentals" such as fixing deteriorating roads and helping train people for better-paying jobs.
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| Brexit Bulletin: Back for More Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:26 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.What's Happening? After the ceremonies and the displays of respect, battle is being joined once again.Boris Johnson won't talk about Brexit anymore — "It's not banned, it's just over, it's happened," he said on Monday. "It's gone, it's receding behind us in history."Yet whatever he says, Brexit is the reason the U.K. prime minister now faces an 11-month deadline for shaping a new relationship with the European Union. That process began on Monday, with a pair of speeches that left few in doubt as to the tenor of the talks to come. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said in Brussels that a "highly ambitious" trade deal is on offer for the U.K. — if Johnson signs up to strict rules to prevent unfair competition. Speaking minutes later in London, Johnson rejected Barnier's demand and insisted the U.K. will thrive even if negotiations fail. Each side released a document setting out its negotiating positions. Johnson spoke loftily of Britain's free-trade ideals, and insisted the U.K. would maintain high standards in areas such as environmental protection, but refused to allow enforcement through a binding international treaty. Barnier talked of the need for "robust commitments."Read More: EU Tries to Bind U.K. With Strict State Aid, Tax StandardsThese tensions have long been telegraphed, including in this newsletter. They flow from Johnson's decision that Brexit should include U.K. departure from the EU's single market and customs union. They are heightened by the prime minister's pledge that he will not seek an extension to the 11-month transition period; even now, in early February, that raises the odds on an abrupt rupture in the U.K.-EU trading relationship on Jan. 1 next year. The pound noticed: Sterling slipped early on Monday and continued to fall after Johnson and Barnier spoke. It was down more than 1.3% by mid-afternoon in London, heading for its biggest one-day slump in seven weeks. Johnson today framed the choice as a "Canada-style" free-trade agreement with the EU, or one "more like Australia's." You can read more about those models here. Canada's agreement with the bloc took seven years to negotiate and ratify; Australia effectively trades on World Trade Organization terms and is in fact seeking a fuller deal with the EU.The negotiations have yet to begin in earnest. But these are the tramlines within which the drama will play out.Beyond BrexitClimate models are running red hot, and scientists don't know why. The 2020 U.S. presidential election begins tonight. Here's how the Iowa caucuses work. The coronavirus outbreak is forcing the world's largest work-from-home experiment.Brexit in BriefBrexited-out | Leo Varadkar: Cool-headed Irish leader or a poser who "stands like a god, and behaves like a god"? Bloomberg's Dara Doyle reports from an Irish election campaign that's proving a chastening experience for the 41-year-old taoiseach.Sacrificial City | The City of London fears Johnson will sacrificed Britain's key services sector in the rush to get a deal. The U.K. and European financial sectors are highly connected but links could be in danger without a so-called " equivalence" arrangement.Terms of Trade | It's hard to overstate how much promised changes in the narrative on trade and the global economy are at the center of the 2020 hopes of both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump — and how what is happening in China threatens both their plans, Bloomberg's Shawn Donnan writes for our sister newsletter, Terms of Trade. Sign up to get Terms of Trade in your inbox every weekday.Nissan | Japanese carmaker Nissan could attempt to seize more market share in the U.K. if tariffs make imported vehicles more expensive after Dec. 31, the Financial Times reported.Under the Hood | Britain's departure from the EU can no longer camouflage the country's deep problems, Helen Lewis writes for the Atlantic.High-Speed Politics | Spare a thought for politics-watchers in the U.S. Their week will take them from the Iowa caucuses through the impeachment saga to the State of the Union address and back to the election again.Want to keep up with Brexit?You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. It's live at midday on Bloomberg Radio and is available as a podcast too. Share the Brexit Bulletin: Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here. For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition.For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.To contact the author of this story: Adam Blenford in London at ablenford@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Guy Collins at guycollins@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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| Israel's Holocaust museum apologizes for inaccurate videos Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:11 AM PST  The January 23 event in Jerusalem was the largest gathering of its kind and hosted 45 world leaders, including Britain's Prince Charles, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Yad Vashem said the videos neglected to mention Poland's division between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 or Nazi Germany's conquest of Western Europe in 1940, showed incorrect borders of Poland and labeled concentration camps as extermination camps.
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| Damaged Air Canada plane lands in Spain after tense hours Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:08 AM PST  Passengers on an Air Canada Boeing 767 that made a safe emergency landing in Madrid Monday evening have described how they spent hours flying in circles to burn fuel in a tense calm. "We are still in a little bit of shock but glad to be safe," Mierzejewski said shortly after the plane landed at the Adolfo Suárez-Barajas international airport. "Landed safely, everything is ok!" said Guido Fioravantti, from New York, whose father was on the plane and had told him that the cabin had remained "calm and collected" during the ordeal.
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| Halkbank Wins Reprieve in U.S. Prosecution Over Iran Sanctions Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:02 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A federal appeals court granted a temporary halt in the U.S. prosecution of Turkish lender Halkbank over sanctions violation charges while it weighs other requests by the bank.Halkbank had previously sought to pursue a dismissal of the case without entering a plea on the charges. A judge denied the request, and the bank is appealing that ruling. A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will weigh the request on an expedited basis.Prosecutors have deemed the bank a fugitive from justice, asking a judge to hold it in contempt and impose fines until it begins answering the charges.Halkbank, which is owned by the Turkish government, was charged in October with helping Iran access billions of dollars in oil revenue that had been frozen in its accounts under U.S. sanctions. A senior bank executive was previously convicted in the case, and a money launderer pleaded guilty to charges of orchestrating the scheme.The case has become a persistent thorn in the side of Turkey's president, Recep Erdogan, who has pressed President Donald Trump to intervene. The charges were brought at the height of tensions between Washington and Ankara over Turkey's military offensive in Syria. The geopolitical context is complicated by Trump's campaign to hobble Iran.Read More: Turkey's Halkbank Faces U.S. Charges as Tensions MountTo contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor 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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| 'Othered' in America: An old story, still playing out daily Posted: 03 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST  Activist Hoda Katebi rarely takes a break from organizing. As tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated in recent weeks, she became even busier. On a recent Sunday afternoon, the 25-year-old Iranian American sat in her Chicago apartment shifting between monitoring her Twitter feed, taking phone calls and texting via encrypted messaging: She and other organizers had word that an Iranian student was being detained at O'Hare International Airport.
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| EXPLAINER-Maple syrup or Vegemite? - UK looks to Canada and Australia for EU deal template Posted: 03 Feb 2020 07:03 AM PST ![EXPLAINER-Maple syrup or Vegemite? - UK looks to Canada and Australia for EU deal template]( "EXPLAINER-Maple syrup or Vegemite? - UK looks to Canada and Australia for EU deal template") British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pitched two models for his country's trade ties with the European Union after Brexit: a deal based on the EU's accord with Canada, or the basic terms the bloc has with Australia. Johnson used the two countries as examples of EU trade partners which do not adhere to the bloc's rules, something he has vowed Britain will not do from Jan. 1 2021 when the current 11-month no-change Brexit transition period ends. The EU's trade deal with Canada entered force in 2017, eight years after talks began, but the EU does not yet have an agreement with Australia.
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| 4 Iranian separatists arrested in Denmark and Netherlands Posted: 03 Feb 2020 07:00 AM PST ![4 Iranian separatists arrested in Denmark and Netherlands]( "4 Iranian separatists arrested in Denmark and Netherlands") Four members of an Iranian separatist group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, have been arrested in Denmark and the Netherlands. Three were arrested Monday in Ringsted, 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Copenhagen, for the suspected spying of people and companies for an unnamed Saudi intelligence service over a period of six years from 2012. Another was arrested in the historic Dutch city of Delft for allegedly plotting one or more terror attacks in Iran and for membership of a terrorist organization.
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| Iran decries French 'pressure' over jailed academics Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:39 AM PST  Pressure from France to secure the release of two academics detained in Iran since June is unproductive, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday. Mousavi was responding to remarks made Sunday by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who called the detention of French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and her French colleague Roland Marchal "unacceptable".
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| 1st medical relief flight in 3 years departs Yemen's capital Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:20 AM PST  A United Nations medical relief flight carrying patients from Yemen's rebel-held capital took off Monday, the first such aid flight in over three years. Saudi Arabia controls Yemen's airspace and has prevented any flights from leaving the capital, Sanaa, since August 2016. Eight patients and their families were flown to Egypt and Jordan to receive "life-saving specialized care not available in Yemen," according to the U.N. heath organization.
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| EU says financial relations with UK will be linked to trade deal Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:01 AM PST ![EU says financial relations with UK will be linked to trade deal]( "EU says financial relations with UK will be linked to trade deal") Access to the European Union market for Britain-based financial firms will be linked to the overall results of trade talks with London, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday. Britain and the EU will lose privileged access to their respective financial markets when the Brexit transitional period ends next year.
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| Macron Seeks Poland Reset as Warsaw Tightens Grip on Courts Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:52 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Emmanuel Macron struck a conciliatory tone in a bid to rekindle France's relationship with Poland.In the first visit to Warsaw by a French head of state in six years, he's seeking to mend relations strained by his criticism of Poland's controversial overhaul of the judiciary and its rejection of a deal with Airbus in 2016.After meeting his counterpart Andrzej Duda on Monday, Macron said he wants to move on from "misunderstandings" in the past, though stressed concerns remain about the rule of law."I mentioned with president Duda, in all frankness since we are partners in Europe, the worries that arise from the ongoing justice reforms," he said. "I hope that dialogue with the European Commission will intensify in the coming weeks because I know the values of freedom and justice are anchored in Poland."Macron's attempt to patch over strains with the European Union's biggest ex-communist member is central to his plans to strengthen the bloc after the U.K.'s departure and as Germany's role as the main engine of EU integration fades.He's committed to visit every EU leader to beef up engagement with the union, including political "frenemies" like Hungary's Viktor Orban.Not 'Pro-Russian'But Macron has also extended an olive branch to the Kremlin while making strongly worded comments on the limits of NATO, which Poland sees as its main defense from potential aggression from its Cold-War master Russia.France hasn't become "pro-Russian," Macron said Monday.While Poland and France agree on areas including the need for a digital tax, a European car-battery industry and fighting tax fraud, there are also major differences.Poland's reluctance toward the bloc's climate-change and migration policies weigh on the relationship. Macron has said Poland shouldn't access EU climate-transition funds until it explicitly backs the bloc's emissions-cutting goals. Telling pro-environment activists to go demonstrate in Poland rather than France also didn't go down well.Constitutional CrisisDefense is another sticking point. Poland's confirmation it will purchase 32 F-15 aircraft from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin is another blow to Macron's push for European defense cooperation underpinned by EU-made equipment. Poland enraged the French in 2016 by handing a $3.5 billion helicopter deal to Lockheed despite having an outline agreement with Airbus.The most difficult topic for Macron may be Poland's deep constitutional crisis, as top courts remain locked in a clash over the validity of the government's sweeping overhaul of the judiciary.The EU is increasingly fed up with Warsaw for its drive to politicize the courts and is considering tying EU funds to members' adherence to democratic standards. That may potentially deal a painful blow to the biggest net recipient of financial aid from the bloc.Nevertheless, the tone on Monday was softer."I strongly believe this visit will be a breakthrough," Polish President Duda said. "It's a historic moment, we just had Brexit, France is now an even stronger European superpower, and President Macron's visit here is a strong signal of French interest in the region."(Updates with Macron, Duda comments starting in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ania Nussbaum in Paris at anianussbaum@bloomberg.net;Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Andrew LangleyFor 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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| 1 dead, 5 wounded in shooting on Greyhound bus in California Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:13 AM PST  A man cursing and muttering incoherently opened fire aboard a packed Greyhound bus in Southern California early Monday, killing one person and wounding five others in a seemingly random attack before passengers disarmed him, authorities and a witness said. The driver of the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco bus pulled off onto the shoulder, where some of those aboard led the killer off the vehicle, and he was quickly taken into custody, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Brian Pennings said. The driver continued on to the next exit as passengers performed first aid on the wounded, he said.
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| Abu Dhabi marks interfaith effort a year after Pope's visit Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:12 AM PST ![Abu Dhabi marks interfaith effort a year after Pope's visit]( "Abu Dhabi marks interfaith effort a year after Pope's visit") Interfaith leaders gathered on Monday in Abu Dhabi to mark one year since Pope Francis' historic trip to the Arabian Peninsula, a visit that saw leading Muslim clerics gather alongside the pope to promote co-existence. The United Arab Emirates has worked to promote itself over the past year as a beacon of religious tolerance, despite it's hard limits on political speech. Abu Dhabi hosted Monday's meeting to showcase its continued efforts in promoting interfaith dialogue as it prepares to break ground this year on a compound that will house a mosque, church and synagogue side by side.
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| Americans Demand a Rethinking of the 'Forever War' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:10 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- Nearly two decades after the fall of the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon, U.S. troops continue to wage war in Iraq, Afghanistan and lesser-known corners of the globe. President Donald Trump almost opened another front last month when he approved the killing of Iran's most powerful general."We took one of the world's deadliest terrorists off the battlefield for good," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said recently, justifying the drone strike on Gen. Qassem Soleimani.In other words, in the "war on terror," the Iranian leader was fair game.Last week, Democrats and some Republicans in the House voted to repeal a measure that has been used to justify all kinds of all manner of U.S. military action abroad since 2002. It was a challenge not only to Trump's ability to take military action against Iran, but also to the thinking in Washington that has sustained the war-fighting since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.For more than 18 years, the war on terrorism -- the "forever war" or "endless war," as many call it -- has been used as the basis for an ever-expanding range of military actions: an invasion of Iraq that, by one count, has left nearly 300,000 dead; airstrikes in Afghanistan that have sometimes killed scores at wedding parties as well as al-Qaida leaders; and now the Soleimani drone strike. Trump said the general, who had helped arm anti-American militias in the Iraq War, had been plotting new "imminent and sinister attacks."On Tuesday, Trump is expected to articulate the direction of U.S. foreign policy in his State of the Union address. Weeks after the United States and Iran nearly went to war, many Americans will want to know not just whether an attack was really "imminent," the question that consumed Washington. They are asking whether the United States should continue fighting these wars at all, when the presence and actions of U.S. troops ignite hostility and can sometimes heighten risks as much as limit them, critics say.The sheer length of the conflicts has clarified for many Americans a stark moral question: whether any of the wars are still justified given the tolls -- psychological, physical and spiritual -- they have exacted on the United States and many other nations.The concerns have come from both ends of the political spectrum. In condemning the killing of Soleimani, Tucker Carlson, the conservative Fox News host, said the situation created by the Iraq War was "immoral" and that "we should leave, immediately." Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, said in a televised debate in January, "We should stop asking our military to solve problems that cannot be solved militarily.""Our keeping combat troops there is not helping," she said of the Middle East.That most politicians in Washington last month instead debated "imminence" reveals the enduring consensus over foreign policy that justifies the wars. The premise is that aggressive intervention abroad, forward deployments and fighting perceived enemies "over there" keep the United States safe. And besides protecting Americans, so it goes, these policies are necessary for the United States to carry out its mission.In explaining last month why the United States would not discuss a troop withdrawal from Iraq -- as demanded by Iraqi leaders furious over the drone strike on their soil -- the State Department turned to that rationale, saying, "America is a force for good in the Middle East." And in a recent speech on Iran policy, Pompeo invoked American exceptionalism: "America is a truly special place."But more Americans are starting to believe that military adventurism after the Sept. 11 attacks has created greater dangers to the nation.In a USA Today/Ipsos poll, 52% of respondents said the killing of Soleimani had made the United States less safe. Online searches for "World War III" and "draft" surged in the days afterward. American citizens around the world received emails from embassies warning them of greater risks."The escalation over the past month is likely not over, especially now that we've crossed the line from proxy conflict to a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran," said Dalia Dassa Kaye, an Iran expert at RAND Corp., a research group. "We're in a vicious cycle where escalation leads to more force presence, but more force presence may make the potential for escalation higher."In January, more than 16 years after President George W. Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq on false premises, the State Department renewed a code-red travel alert for the country because of "terrorism, kidnapping and armed conflict." About 5,200 U.S. troops remain.Many Americans in Iraq at the height of that war could foresee the outcome. The U.S. military occupation helped fuel an insurgency and a civil war. The invasion is now considered by some historians and national security experts to be the greatest policy disaster of the United States since the Vietnam War: hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and nearly 4,500 U.S. troops killed, trillions of dollars spent and a destabilized Middle East that both strengthened Iran and gave birth to al-Qaida in Iraq and its successor, the Islamic State.Afghanistan was supposed to be the "good war," because Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida had their base there, protected by the Taliban. But 18 years after the United States toppled the Taliban, 13,000 troops remain, propping up an embattled Afghan government. More than 2,400 U.S. service members and more than 38,000 Afghan civilians have died, in a war costing the United States at least $2 trillion.In September, Trump called off peace talks with the Taliban, dimming hopes of a withdrawal, though negotiations have since restarted.Despite his denunciations of endless wars, Trump's policies and actions have gone in the opposite direction. In December, he ordered 4,500 troops to the Middle East, adding to the 50,000 already there. In the past two years, the U.S. military dropped bombs and missiles on Afghanistan at a record pace. In April, Trump vetoed a bipartisan congressional resolution to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen's devastating civil war.Perhaps most significant, Trump withdrew in 2018 from a landmark nuclear containment deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions, setting off the chain of events that led to the killing of Soleimani and a retaliatory missile strike by Iran that caused traumatic brain injuries to at least 64 U.S. service members."The policies aren't changing; in some ways, they're getting worse," said Stephen Wertheim, a historian and the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a new research group in Washington financed by prominent billionaires -- George Soros, a liberal, and Charles Koch, a conservative -- who advocate U.S. restraint.Some lawmakers are trying to revoke the war authorizations of 2001 and 2002 -- the first used for fighting Sept. 11-related terrorism and the second for invading Iraq -- and looking for other ways to constrain Trump's ability to expand the wars. In January, senators in the Republican-led chamber sponsoring legislation to limit military action against Iran said they had enough votes to pass the bill, the War Powers Resolution. The Democratic-led House passed a similar measure last month."I think the Soleimani killing and the escalation with Iran have clarified the stakes for some people who hadn't been paying attention to the ongoing wars," Wertheim said. "We very nearly got into another major war in the Middle East that's not warranted by U.S. interests, and we still might."Even some hawkish foreign policy officials have begun to advocate a drawdown in the Middle East and Central Asia because of what they call the opportunity costs to America's mission."One of the very odd pathologies of Washington and the defense establishment is this enthrallment with the Middle East, which just isn't that important," said Elbridge Colby, a former senior Pentagon official in the Trump administration. "America has become energy independent. And we're not very good at achieving our preferred outcomes in the Middle East."Colby was the main author of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which recommended turning America's war-fighting focus to the "revisionist powers" of China and Russia.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Iran says it will launch an observation satellite 'in the coming days' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:05 AM PST  Iran is set to become the latest country to launch an observation satellite, according to the country's national space agency. The satellite, named Zafar (which means victory in Farsi), began development three years ago. It will be launched by a Simorgh rocket 329 miles above the Earth, and will make 15 orbits daily, collecting imagery to help with the study of natural disasters and agriculture.
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| Boris Johnson criticises 'protectionists' in the Trump administration for 'letting the air out of the tyres of the world economy' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:50 AM PST  Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the US to scrap 'punitive' barriers to British goods in a speech on UK trade after Brexit.
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| Probe of Lebanese-American who worked for Israel postponed Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:44 AM PST ![Probe of Lebanese-American who worked for Israel postponed]( "Probe of Lebanese-American who worked for Israel postponed") A Lebanese judge postponed Monday the questioning of a Lebanese-American who confessed he'd worked for Israel during its occupation of Lebanon, state-run National News Agency reported. The agency said that because Amer Fakhoury is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, the investigative judge's questioning session will be postponed until Feb. 17. Fakhoury was detained after returning to his native Lebanon from the U.S. in September.
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| Israeli PM meets Sudan's leader, aims for 'normalization' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:27 AM PST  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the leader of Sudan on Monday and said they began talks on normalization, a major diplomatic breakthrough with an Arab and African state two days after the Arab League rejected a U.S. Mideast initiative that heavily favors Israel. Sudan is a longtime member of the Arab League and joined other members in rejecting President Donald Trump's plan.
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| U.S. and U.K. Hopes for Trade Dimmed by China Virus Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST ![U.S. and U.K. Hopes for Trade Dimmed by China Virus]( "U.S. and U.K. Hopes for Trade Dimmed by China Virus") (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Terms of Trade newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Economics on Twitter for more.If there was ever a Downing Street script for what the first working day after Brexit would look like, this almost certainly wasn't in it. The slump in Chinese markets and pretty much every financial instrument and commodity related to the Chinese economy on Monday is a bad omen for the U.K.'s newfound ReadyToTrade freedom (as the government's hashtag goes). Then again, if there was ever a script for President Donald Trump's Monday of the 2020 Iowa caucus, a looming pandemic and related turmoil in financial markets wasn't in it either.It's hard to overstate how much promised changes in the narrative on trade and the global economy are at the center of the 2020 hopes of both Boris Johnson and Trump. And how what is happening in China threatens both their plans.Johnson needs a resolution in 2020 to the myriad questions posed by Brexit over the trade relationship with the European Union and to at least make progress on new free trade deals with the U.S. and others. Inject an economic shock such as a virus-related slump in China's growth and global trade and all those plans become more complicated. Never mind the likely impact on the U.K.'s growth.Trump's strongest case for re-election is an economic one. He has pivoted from trade wars to touting his trade deals and the boost his advisers are telling voters they will bring. And so far a strong U.S. economy propped up by some old-fashioned fiscal juicing and a central bank eager to offset any presidential policy mistakes have helped mask the costs of his tariffs and trade wars.But the impact in the U.S. of a significant slowdown in China will be harder to hide.Last year featured both manufacturing and business investment recessions in the U.S. thanks partly to the uncertainty fed by Trump's trade wars. The case for an American bounce in growth from the 2.3% last year hinges on both manufacturing and investment recoveries.China's slowdown, however, is only likely to breed more uncertainty. If global supply chains are frozen — or even just slowed — by a pandemic, Trump's economic case will take a visible blow.The coronavirus now spreading also threatens the credentials of Trump's trade peace with China, of course.First, it makes the $200 billion Chinese buying spree at the center of the phase one deal that Trump signed triumphantly last month even less likely.It's also not hard to make the case that it raises more doubts about a phase two in which Trump has promised to extract meaningful Chinese reforms to its system of industrial subsidies. With a crisis upon them, the last thing Xi Jinping and his advisers in Beijing seem likely to countenance dismantling is a pillar of their economic model.Johnson just gave a speech laying out his trade plans and a case for British economic optimism. Trump is due to deliver his annual State of the Union and the American case for the same on Tuesday ahead of his anticipated acquittal in his impeachment trial on Wednesday.Waking up in Washington on Monday the case for optimism already looks damaged, though. By the end of this month — maybe even this week — it could be seriously wounded. That wasn't in anybody's plan so early in 2020.Charting the Trade WarBritain and the EU have until the end of this year to hammer out the terms of their future relationship including a trade agreement. While much of the focus has been on how the divorce might impact the U.K. itself, EU businesses also have plenty at stake. A list of tariffs compiled by the British government last year in preparation for a hard Brexit, still stands as a potential fallback if negotiations fail. To get a sense of how that would impact trade, we looked at previous exports from the remaining EU countries to Britain, and found that of the 301.2 billion euros of goods exported in 2018, roughly 47.3 billion euros (16%) would likely be exposed to the new tariffs.Today's Must ReadsThree's company | Trump is setting himself up to be a geopolitical disruptor again — this time on the sidelines of the U.K. and EU's negotiations for a post-Brexit trade deal. A day in the life | To capture an ordinary day during this extraordinary period in the history of the global economy, Bloomberg deployed reporters across the world to see the inner workings of trade up close. Vietnam in the middle | The Cold War battleground once looked like one of the few winners as the U.S. and China vied for dominance. Now it's bracing for trouble. Korea's slump | A decline in South Korean exports worsened in January despite signs of green shoots in global trade as the Lunar New Year holiday reduced the number of working days at the end of the month. North Asian tensions | Japan filed fresh dispute proceedings at the World Trade Organization against South Korea over alleged shipbuilding subsidies, a sign that tensions may be resurfacing. Economic AnalysisCentral bank outlook | From trade wars to a health crisis, uncertainty mounts for world's monetary authorities. China contagion | Bloomberg Economics explains what the coronavirus shock means for ECB and BOE.Coming UpFeb. 5: U.S. trade balance Feb. 7: German trade balanceLike Terms of Trade?Don't keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here. We also publish Balance of Power, a daily briefing on the latest in global politics.For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for full global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.How are we doing? We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our trade tsar know.\--With assistance from Demetrios Pogkas and Jeremy Diamond.To contact the author of this story: Shawn Donnan in Washington at sdonnan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Zoe SchneeweissFor 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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| EU top diplomat holds talks in Iran 'to de-escalate tensions' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:49 AM PST Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell on Monday held talks in the Iranian capital on a mission aimed at lowering tensions over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. Borrell's trip, his first to Iran since taking office, follows a spike in tensions between arch foes Washington and Tehran following the January 3 assassination in Baghdad of a top Iranian general in a US drone strike. The 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and a group of world powers has been crumbling since US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018, and Washington has since stepped up sanctions and a campaign of "maximum pressure" against Iran.
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| Irish PM Varadkar Warns of ‘Double Trouble’ Amid Sinn Fein Surge Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:38 AM PST ![Irish PM Varadkar Warns of 'Double Trouble' Amid Sinn Fein Surge]( "Irish PM Varadkar Warns of 'Double Trouble' Amid Sinn Fein Surge") (Bloomberg) -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned that the rise of the nation's opposition parties spells "double trouble," as a poll showed Sinn Fein vying for top position ahead of the Feb. 8 general election. Varadkar's governing Fine Gael party fell to third in an opinion poll published Sunday, trailing rivals Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein. In an RTE radio interview on Monday, Varadkar warned of "massive" tax rises if Sinn Fein came to power, a charge rejected by the party.Both Varadkar and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin pledge not to enter government with Sinn Fein, though a number of Fianna Fail lawmakers have said they are open to co-operation with the party, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army.Varadkar has placed Brexit at the center of his bid for power, claiming his government is best placed to protect Ireland while the EU and U.K. negotiate a future trade agreement. Voters though appear more focused on domestic issues including a housing shortage and struggling health care system.Varadkar's Fine Gael polled 21% in a Business Post/Red C poll published Sunday. That was down two percentage points from a week ago. Main opposition party Fianna Fail dropped two points to 24% while Sinn Fein jumped five points to 24%."The risk for the country is that by having a Fianna Fail led government or a Sinn Fein led government or what I call the double trouble option, the two of them together, that the economy will go into decline again, back into recession and the massive amounts of money we need to build social housing will be gone," Varadkar said.To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Dara DoyleFor 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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| UN medical evacuations to begin from Yemen's rebel-held Sanaa Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:24 AM PST ![UN medical evacuations to begin from Yemen's rebel-held Sanaa]( "UN medical evacuations to begin from Yemen's rebel-held Sanaa") Critically ill Yemeni children in need of medical care are to be evacuated from rebel-held Sanaa on Monday, in what the United Nations said it hopes will be the first of many mercy flights. Seven young patients and their families gathered at Sanaa airport, which has been closed to commercial flights since 2016, clutching their transport documents ahead of their journey to the Jordanian capital Amman. "This is the first of what we hope and believe will be many flights," UN Resident Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande said as the first humanitarian flight was prepared to depart from the war-torn country.
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| From Iowa to D.C., a Political Week to Remember Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:09 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.To say it's a big week in U.S. politics would be an understatement.After months of campaigning that have only somewhat whittled a historically large field of Democratic presidential contenders, tonight's Iowa caucuses kick off the formal part of the nominating process.A late surge from Bernie Sanders has some party strategists worried about the prospect of a self-proclaimed socialist leading the ticket in November and has prompted advisers to former Vice President Joe Biden — once the clear Democratic front-runner — to temper expectations for his early-round performances.But the outcome in Iowa is famously hard to predict and, as Gregory Korte explains, could come down to spur-of-the-moment decisions by thousands of voters.With the Democrats likely remaining splintered for the foreseeable future, President Donald Trump has an opportunity with his annual State of the Union address tomorrow to refocus attention on his economic record and what he views as his first-term accomplishments.The speech carries added intrigue this year. When the president steps behind the rostrum to address a joint session of Congress, he will be in the same chamber that voted seven weeks ago to impeach him. It will come on the eve of an almost certain Senate acquittal on charges he abused the power of his office and obstructed the legislature.This may be just the formal start of the 2020 race, but the events of the next several days will undoubtedly be remembered when the history of this campaign season is written.Global HeadlinesContainment efforts | Hong Kong will close more border checkpoints with China to ward off the spread of the deadly coronavirus that has killed more than 360 on the mainland. It comes as Beijing says the U.S. "inappropriately overreacted" to the virus and hasn't done much to counter the outbreak, disputing the Trump administration's claim it offered aid.China markets sank — almost 3,500 stocks by their daily limit — after the elongated Lunar New Year break. The virus lockdown has hit Chinese oil demand. The virus is perhaps the biggest challenge yet for President Xi Jinping. Here's why. Click here for a look at the risks mounting for Hong Kong's economy.Brexit quarrels | Prime Minister Boris Johnson has threatened to walk away from talks over a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union rather than accept demands the U.K. signs up to the bloc's single market regulations and the rulings of its court. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier today said a "highly ambitious" trade deal is on offer only if Johnson signs up to strict rules to prevent unfair competition. The dueling positions mark the start of 11 months of bargaining that risks ending in economically damaging failure.Deadly clash | Four Turkish soldiers died and nine were wounded in Syria after government forces attacked their positions. Turkey responded with F-16 airstrikes and artillery fire, killing as many as 35 Syrian troops. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Damascus will soon realize how big a mistake the assault was and urged Syria's main backer, Moscow, not to try to stop the Turkish operation, saying its only target is Bashar al-Assad's regime.Huawei resistance | Chancellor Angela Merkel's efforts to rule out a ban on any role for Chinese tech giant Huawei in Germany's next-generation wireless networks face resistance in parliament. She's failed to forge a compromise with hard-line lawmakers in her Christian Democratic-led bloc in a standoff that pits trade interests with China against security concerns raised by Washington and her own intelligence agencies.Wake-up call | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is getting an earful about the dire state of his nation's finances and economy from almost everyone — from the IMF to political and corporate leaders. While they're warning that business confidence in Africa's most industrialized nation is close to an all-time low, Ramaphosa's own finance minister has taken to Twitter to vent his frustration at the slow pace of reform. Ramaphosa's office said today it's making progress, but it will take time.What to Watch This WeekEmmanuel Macron makes the first visit to Warsaw by a French head of state in six years today as he seeks to mend ties strained by his criticism of Poland's drive to politicize its courts and its rejection of a deal with Airbus. Vice President-elect Lai Ching-te will make the most high-profile visit to the U.S. by a Taiwanese politician in decades when he attends the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Wednesday, setting up the possibility of a meeting with Trump. Malawi's top court is due to rule today whether to annul last year's elections after the opposition claimed the vote that returned President Peter Mutharika to power was rigged. Trump is scheduled to meet Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Washington on Thursday when they will announce the start of talks on a free-trade deal, the U.S.'s first with a sub-Saharan nation. The eighth Democratic presidential debate is scheduled for Friday in Manchester, New Hampshire.Thanks to all who responded to our pop quiz Friday and congratulations to reader Donald Douglas, who was the first to correctly name Matteo Salvini as the European politician who failed to score a knock-out blow in a regional vote to accelerate his rise to national power. Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally ... Vietnamese businessman Quach Ngoc Thien sleeps fitfully, reaching for his iPhone each morning to scan news from faraway capitals that could threaten his fabric-dyeing company. That's because Vietnam, the bloodiest battlefield of the Cold War five decades ago, finds itself at the nexus of U.S.-China rivalry. Its ability to dance between opposing forces has lifted the country from postwar poverty to economic success. But needing unfettered access to U.S. markets and imports from China, it increasingly feels squeezed, as John Boudreau and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen report. \--With assistance from Onur Ant.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.net, Rosalind MathiesonFor 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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