| Sinn Fein’s ‘Revolution’ at Ballot Box Rocks Irish Establishment Posted: 09 Feb 2020 04:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Ireland underwent a revolution at the ballot box, according to Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, and she's one of the biggest winners.Long an outsider because of its links to the IRA and left-wing policies, the nationalists could feature in coalition talks after they challenged the traditional Irish parties of government, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, for first place in Saturday's election. Counting continues and a final result is expected late Monday."The election proved to be seismic, historic," McDonald, a 50-year-old Dublin native, said in an RTE interview. "The two-party system is dispatched to the history books. It's clear people want change."Talks on government formation will likely begin in the middle of the week, with attention focusing on the role Sinn Fein might play. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have long excluded the party from government, arguing Sinn Fein's mix of nationalism and populism made them unsuitable for office. The grounds may be shifting, though, with Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin accepting his "obligation" to find a functioning government."Investors will be wary because a role for Sinn Fein in government can't be ruled out," said Dermot O'Leary, chief economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin. "With the rise of Sinn Fein, we are looking at a period of uncertainty around policy direction. It seems clear two of the three biggest parties will be needed to form a government."Flags and SongsState broadcaster RTE projected late Sunday that Fianna Fail would win 45 seats, Sinn Fein 37 seats, and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael 36 seats — all short of the 80 needed for a majority.Sinn Fein, which won 23 seats in 2016, only fielded 42 candidates in the election.At count centers across the country, the party's supporters waved Irish flags, wore green jerseys and occasionally broke into song, celebrating the Irish Republican Army's fight against British rule, as it took seat after seat.Basking in her party's surge, McDonald said it's time to ramp up preparations for a referendum on Irish unity, though ultimately only London can call a border poll.Sinn Fein won 25% of the first preference vote, as it capitalized on voter discontent with a housing shortage and an ailing health service.In the 2016 election, the party won 14%, doubling its 2007 vote. It won its first seat a decade earlier. Rooted in the cause of Irish unity, the party began to seriously contest elections in the 1980s as part of a strategy known as the "Armalite and the Ballot Box."Wealth TaxThe electoral math of a fragmented system means Sinn Fein is unlikely to lead the next government, but its rise speaks to the shifting tectonic plates that are upending traditional power structures across Europe."Certainly, red lines on coalitions will have to be crossed," according to Eoin O'Malley, a politics professor at Dublin City University. "Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein are the only really viable and likely government. It'll be a long negotiation, with a lot of people having to look into their hearts."Before the election, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail both ruled out governing with Sinn Fein. By Sunday, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin was less categorical, though he pointed to "significant incompatibility" with Sinn Fein. Varakdar continued to rule out a "forced marriage" with Sinn Fein.In an election shaped by a demand for change, Sinn Fein offered the most radical options, including:a 1% tax on net wealth of more than 1 million euros ($1.1 million)freezing residential rentsthe biggest public housing program in decadeslowering the retirement ageBrexit BackdropThe Brexit saga may also have played into Sinn Fein's hands, by stoking anti-British sentiment amid fears that the U.K. departure from the European Union could see the return of checkpoints along the border with Northern Ireland.As of 11:15 p.m. in Dublin on Sunday, Sinn Fein had tallied 29 lawmakers, compared to a combined 18 for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, though that picture will change considerably through Monday.Sinn Fein may be tapping into "a latent republican sentiment, also fueled by the long Brexit saga," said Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of history at University College Dublin. But mainly, the party is "a lightning rod for the discontent out there, for the things that people feel are wrong about their lives."But he cautioned against assuming Ireland is set to move toward a European-style left-versus-right divide, pointing to the Labour Party's decline from 20% in the 2011 election to about 5% in 2020."We have seen parties like Labour rise before, and then fade away fairly quickly," he said. "So we need to wait and see."To contact the reporters on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net;Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis, Tony CzuczkaFor 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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| Buttigieg on defense as rivals aim to blunt his momentum Posted: 09 Feb 2020 03:41 PM PST  Pete Buttigieg spent Sunday on defense as his Democratic presidential rivals attacked him on everything from his struggle to connect with black voters to accepting campaign contributions from large donors in an effort to blunt any momentum heading into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. The volley of criticism was fresh evidence that Buttigieg, who was virtually unknown in national politics a year ago, has become an early front-runner in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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| Sinn Fein Surge Leaves Voters in Suspense With Count Ongoing Posted: 09 Feb 2020 02:46 PM PST (Bloomberg) -- Ireland's focus turned to government formation, after a surge in Sinn Fein's support upended the nation's traditional two-party power structure. Counting through Sunday confirmed the nationalists' strength after an exit poll showed a virtual dead heat between Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael as well as the biggest opposition party, Fianna Fail, and Sinn Fein. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin predicted his party would win the most seats, a position which would leave him in prime position to lead a coalition. There's "significant incompatibility" between his party and Sinn Fein, Martin said, although accepting an "obligation" to find a functioning government. Late on Sunday, state broadcaster RTE projected Fianna Fail would win 45 seats, Sinn Fein 37, and Fine Gael, 36 -- all far short of the 80 needed for a majority.The former political wing of the IRA presented itself as a left-wing alternative to the centrist consensus which has largely dominated government since the foundation of the state in the 1920s. While that drove a surge in its support, Varadkar continued to rule out a deal with Sinn Fein. "It's astonishing Fine Gael and Fianna Fail want to wish us away," Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said in an interview with RTE. "People want decent government, working people want a party leading government that stands up for regular citizens."The election represents a "seismic" shift in Irish politics, McDonald said, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail facing an unprecedented threat to their stranglehold on power. The electoral math of a system shattered by its rise means Sinn Fein is unlikely to lead the next government, but its surge speaks to the shifting tectonic plates that are upending traditional power structures across Europe.Compromise NeededIn a sign of the party's rise, its candidate topped Varadkar to take the first seat in his district, though the Irish leader was later elected."The exit poll suggests a great degree of fragmentation, which will make government formation very difficult," according to Eoin O'Malley, a politics professor at Dublin City University. "There'll have to be significant compromise, and rowing back from election commitments, or else Ireland will be voting again this year."As of 10:15 p.m. in Dublin, Sinn Fein had 29 lawmakers, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail a combined 15, though that picture will change considerably through the night.Varadkar's Fine Gael won 22.4% of votes in Saturday's election, according to the exit poll. Sinn Fein won 22.3%, according to the Ipsos/MRBI poll of 5,000 voters, putting it line for its best-ever performance.In the 2016 election, the party won 14% of the vote.Sinn Fein, though, didn't run nearly enough candidates to take advantage of its strength and become the dominant force in parliament. Fianna Fail, which oversaw the nation's international bailout in 2010, secured 22.2% in the poll, which has a margin of error of 1.3 percentage points.The traditional divide in Irish politics runs between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, separated by little except where they stood on the division of Ireland in 1921. Both share Brexit policies, broadly agree on economic and fiscal policy and vow to protect the nation's 12.5% corporate tax rate.'Too Wide'The policy gap with Sinn Fein is "too wide" to form a coalition, Enterprise Minister Heather Humphreys said on Sunday.While Sinn Fein's main historical mission has been to reunite the two parts of the island of Ireland, it has morphed into a broader left of center party, with a particular focus on housing.A Fine Gael or Fianna Fail-led government "would largely mean continuity from a financial and economic policy perspective," said Bert Colijn, an economist with ING Groep NV. "Sinn Fein's proposed policies would represent a significant move to the left."(Adds seat projection in third pararaph)To contact the reporters on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net;Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, Michael HunterFor 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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| Klobuchar pushes to defy expectations in New Hampshire Posted: 09 Feb 2020 01:27 PM PST  Klobuchar is still lagging in most polls, but the crowd was a sign of the energy surrounding her campaign as voters swamped with choices try to make a decision before Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, began the race as a front-runner but is struggling after a disappointing finish in Iowa and another middling result expected in New Hampshire.
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| Iran satellite launch fails, in blow to space programme Posted: 09 Feb 2020 01:13 PM PST  Iran said it "successfully" launched a satellite Sunday but failed to put it into orbit, in a blow to its space programme that the US alleges is a cover for missile development. The attempted launch of the Zafar -- "Victory" in Farsi -- comes days before the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and crucial parliamentary elections in Iran. Arch foes Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice in the past seven months.
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| The Latest: Warren says she's best positioned to beat Trump Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:40 AM PST  Elizabeth Warren is tweaking her standard campaign speech, saying that she's in the best position to win what some see as an "unwinnable" election for any Democrat against President Donald Trump. Warren finished third in last week's Iowa caucus, which was too close to call between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Steyer says he would call for a $22 hourly minimum wage if elected president.
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| Israeli court nixes ban on Arab politician's parliament bid Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:26 AM PST ![Israeli court nixes ban on Arab politician's parliament bid]( "Israeli court nixes ban on Arab politician's parliament bid") Israel's top court on Sunday struck down a decision to disqualify an Arab politician from running in next month's parliamentary election. The Israeli Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn the Central Elections Committee's ruling to bar Heba Yazbak, a lawmaker from the Palestinian nationalist Balad party, saying there was no legal basis for Yazbak's disqualification. The committee, which is made up of Israeli Parliament members, voted 28-7 last month to bar Yazbak.
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| Graham: DOJ has process to review Giuliani's Ukraine info Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:20 AM PST  The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said Sunday that the Justice Department has established a way to review information gathered in Ukraine by Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has targeted Democrat Joe Biden and his son. "Rudy Giuliani is a well-known man," said Graham.
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| US ambassador to Israel warns against West Bank annexation Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:59 AM PST  The U.S. ambassador to Israel has cautioned Israel against "unilateral action" in annexing West Bank settlements, warning that such a move could endanger the Trump administration's recently unveiled Mideast plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had initially sought to move quickly to annex large swathes of the West Bank containing Jewish settlements, following the U.S. plan's announcement on Jan. 28. Netanyahu called for his Cabinet to vote on such a measure, only to call it off a day later.
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| Iran again fails to put satellite into orbit amid US worries Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:26 AM PST  An Iranian rocket failed to put a satellite into orbit on Sunday, state television reported, the latest setback for a program the U.S. claims helps Tehran advance its ballistic missile program. "Stage-1 and stage-2 motors of the carrier functioned properly and the satellite was successfully detached from its carrier, but at the end of its path it did not reach the required speed for being put in the orbit," Defense Ministry space program spokesman Ahmad Hosseini told state TV.
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| North Korea’s Secret Coronavirus Crisis is Crazy Scary Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:20 AM PST  SEOUL–North Korea's not saying a word about deaths or illnesses from the coronavirus, but the disease reportedly has spread across the border from China and is taking a toll in a country with a dismal health care system and scant resources for fighting off the deadly bug.From Lobsters and Steak to Coronavirus: One Couple's Surreal Cruise NightmareOne sure sign of the regime's fears is that it failed to stage a parade in central Pyongyang on Saturday, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the country's armed forces. Last year, Kim Jong Un himself presided over the procession that displayed the North's latest missiles and other fearsome hardware along with goose-stepping soldiers in serried ranks.This year, nothing about the nation's nuclear warheads, much less the "new strategic weapon" that Kim has vowed to unveil. Rodong Sinmum, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, merely cited the armed forces' supposed success combating "severe and dangerous difficulties"—and said nothing at all about the parade.But reports have filtered out about Kim's subjects falling prey to coronavirus despite the country's decision to seal its 880-mile border with China, most of it along the Yalu River into the Yellow Sea to the west, and its 11-mile border with Russia where the Tumen River flows into the Pacific.Among the first to report fatalities in North Korea, the Seoul-based website Daily NK said five people had died in the critical northwestern city of Sinuiju, on the Yalu River across road and rail bridges from Dandong, which is the largest Chinese city in the region and a key point for commerce with North Korea despite sanctions.Daily NK, which relies on sources inside North Korea that send reports via Chinese mobile phone networks to contacts in China, said authorities had "ordered public health officials in Sinuiju to quickly dispose of the bodies and keep the deaths secret from the public."The victims had crossed the porous Yalu River border despite orders to cut off traffic from China as the disease radiated from the industrial city of Wuhan where the virus originated in December. As of Sunday, more than 700 people had died inside China.One of the first patients in North Korea reportedly was hospitalized in Sinuiju "with symptoms similar to a cold and was given fever reducers and antibiotics," said Daily NK, but the patient died as the fever rose. Two more patients died two days later in another hospital in Sinuiju and another two in a nearby town.North Korea's worries about an epidemic are all the more intense because of its shortage of basic medicine and equipment. As cases mount, authorities are working feverishly to contain a disease that, if unchecked, could undermine Kim's grip over his 25 million people, most of whom live in poverty worsened by hunger."Because health conditions and health care in North Korea are so bad," said Bruce Bennett, long-time analyst at the Rand Corporation, "they cannot allow the replication process to develop without severe intervention"—that is, they have to take drastic steps to keep the virus from spreading fast.The country has just streamlined a headquarters to coordinate operations, Rodong Sinmun reported, marshaling 30,000 workers to combat the epidemic.The Coronavirus Whistleblower Died a Martyr for Free Speech in ChinaBesides blocking international traffic, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported the headquarters had ordered tests for everyone entering the capital city of Pyongyang by road and for anyone who had traveled outside the country. Foreigners working in Pyongyang, including those with diplomatic missions or non-governmental organizations, were banned temporarily from venturing outside for shopping. Even so, with hospitals and clinics largely bereft of needed supplies other than those serving the elite in the capital and elsewhere, a certain desperation was evident in the state media. Rodong Sinmun warned that "the fate" of the country was at stake, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency."North Korea lacks a vaccine or medical abilities," said Bennett,"so they have to act by preventing the disease from coming into North Korea." The point is to "rapidly contain any leakage—exactly what they are trying to do by preventing people-to-people contacts."That's virtually impossible, however, as long as people move illicitly across the border, carrying on low-level commerce in the need to survive a decrepit system. JoongAng Ilbo, a leading South Korean newspaper, cited anonymous source saying that a woman had been diagnosed in the capital and that all those with whom she had had contact had been quarantined.Unlike in China, North Korea officially has denied any cases while attempting to get people to cooperate in stopping the spread of the disease. JoongAng Ilbo quoted a North Korean health official, Song In-bom, as having called on North Korean TV for "civil awareness" and unity in dealing with the disease while assuring his audience there had so far been no cases."I believe absolutely nothing of what I'm hearing from Pyongyang," said Evans Revere, a former senior U.S. diplomat who specializes in North Korean issues."It simply defies credibility that a country with a grossly inadequate public health infrastructure and a malnourished population, a country that depends on China for some 90 percent of its trade, and a country that had until recently opened itself up to a major influx of Chinese tourists in order to earn foreign exchange has avoided having a lot of victims," said Revere. "The total closure of the border and other measures Pyongyang has taken reflect a real sense of emergency in the North about the threat."In fact, he went on, "I can't help but think it may also reflect panic if the number of patients is growing."Indeed, "the coronavirus arguably poses a unique threat to North Korea," wrote Victor Cha and Marie DuMond of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in an article in Beyond Parallel, which is published by CSIS."The regime's relative isolation from the international community hinders the widespread penetration of many diseases from abroad," they wrote, but "the porous nature of the border with China and frequent travel is a clear vector for the virus' transmission." Thus, "If there are reports of the virus inside of North Korea, we should expect that the virus would spread rapidly given the state's inability to contain a pandemic."By now, it may be too late for North Korea to stamp out all signs of the disease."Several suspected coronavirus infections have occurred in North Korea even though it shut all its borders," said Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's biggest-selling newspaper, citing anonymous sources. "The infections most likely spread through porous parts of the border with China that see plenty of smuggling and other clandestine traffic," said the paper, reporting suspected cases among those "engaged in smuggling between the North and China." "Bottom line," said Steve Tharp, who's been analyzing North Korean affairs as both an army officer and civilian expert for many years here, "the coronavirus has tightened up sanctions enforcement more than any other measure over the years because the North Koreans are actually self-enforcing the sanctions, against their will, through the tight closing of their borders in order to save the regime from being wiped out by this human pandemic coming."North Korean leaders, said Tharp, "understand very well that this pandemic would rip through their population and be much more dangerous in North Korea than other places because of their inadequate medical infrastructure and the low resistance disease of the general population after so many years of surviving under near-starvation conditions."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran tried and failed for the fourth time in a row to put a satellite into orbit Posted: 09 Feb 2020 09:51 AM PST  Iran, despite US opposition, has tried four times since January 2019 to put a satellite into orbit, but each attempt has been a failure.
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| How 2020 Democrats Plan to Deal With Trump's Remade Judiciary Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:43 AM PST  CONCORD, N.H. -- Through an impeachment trial, a Russia investigation, an Iran crisis and other daily turmoil, President Donald Trump has repeatedly been able to point to one consistent success that has united Republicans: moving conservative justices onto all levels of the federal judiciary.The count now stands at more than 180 judges -- many of whom are endorsed by the conservative legal group The Federalist Society. About 50 of the judges sit on the nation's appeals courts. (By comparison, President Barack Obama appointed about that many circuit court judges during his entire eight-year term.)Trump's ability to push through judges has been possible in large part because of the success that Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has had in holding open seats during the Obama administration and pushing nominees through after Trump took office.On Saturday, eight of the presidential candidates still in the Democratic primary race took turns outlining their views on the federal judiciary; they argued about how and whether they would work with Republicans, if elected, and how they would protect reproductive rights and other Democratic priorities.But for all of the focus on the critical importance of the courts, the candidates recognized the limits of what even a Democratic president could do if Republicans and McConnell remained in control of the Senate."The best solution to the Senate is to make sure that in 2021, Mitch McConnell is no longer in the majority or preferably not in the Senate at all," former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, told the gathering Saturday. He added, "This is our chance. This is our only chance."Why the Stakes Are High"We are going to be, I think, just about No. 1 by the time we finish -- No. 1 of any president, any administration," Trump bragged in November, releasing a fact sheet about his success in confirming judicial nominees.As a result, Democrats fear reversals on a wide array of labor law, civil rights and environmental cases as the courts move steadily to the right. Perhaps no issue has garnered more attention than reproductive rights, in which Democrats fear a conservative-leaning Supreme Court can significantly restrict or even remove the constitutional right to abortion."We have courts that are completely out of balance that have been taken over by activist judges who certainly, absolutely want to end Roe and criminalize abortion," said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, which co-sponsored the forum Saturday. "But abortion is always the tip of the spear on human rights."Counterbalancing Trump's WorkAt the event Saturday, Democratic candidates largely were unified in their pledge to try to balance Trump's judicial appointments with ones of their own. Several candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, said they would be in favor of creating their own lists of qualified justices whom they would be ready to push forward on the first day of their administrations."Let's give Trump and Mitch McConnell some credit," Sanders said. "They were well organized; they knew what they were doing. As a member of the Senate, I can tell you, you know what we do every day? We vote for right-wing, extremist judges."As Tom Steyer, the former hedge fund executive, put it, "Someone's got a steamroller. And they're going right over us."Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts attacked the qualifications of the judges appointed by Trump, calling them "beyond unqualified" and arguing that they would not have been acceptable in previous presidential administrations.Asked by a moderator whether she would seek to appoint young progressive justices to the court to balance conservative appointments by Trump, she said she would."I want judges who believe in democracy, who believe in justice, who believe in the rights of individuals," she said, "because that is the job of a justice."How to Work (or Avoid Working With) RepublicansThe Democratic candidates were repeatedly pressed by moderators to explain how they planned to make any changes to the courts or to enshrine threatened civil rights legislation into law if the Senate remained controlled by Republicans.The most common answer involved winning elections. "If we don't change Congress, we're screwed," Buttigieg said."Power is the only language the Senate GOP responds to right now," he said. "Our party's sense of fair play has come back to bite us."Klobuchar argued that her experience in the Senate had given her insight into how to work the levers of Congress and, if necessary, to conduct a pressure campaign to get judicial openings filled with candidates of her choosing."It's a game that's been going on," Klobuchar said. "You've got to be creative."Pledging to Protect Reproductive RightsAll of the candidates staunchly backed a woman's right to choose, and most pledged to do whatever they could to codify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that established the constitutional right to abortion.Warren said that over the years, the rights afforded by the case had become narrower and narrower, "like we're standing on a ledge, and every couple of months, another rock sort of breaks loose and falls off." And she argued that simply seeking to protect reproductive rights through the courts was no longer sufficient."When you've got a tilted Supreme Court and a tilted court system, we've got to start putting a lot more emphasis on what we can do through Congress," she said. "In a democracy, when 3 out of 4 people want to see something be the law, then it's time for us to mobilize and make it the law."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Biden faces competition for black vote in his SC 'firewall' Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:42 AM PST  Joe Biden is facing increasingly formidable competition in South Carolina, a state his campaign has long assumed was safely in his column and one he's repeatedly described as a "firewall" in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and billionaire activist Tom Steyer are challenging the former vice president's standing in South Carolina. Sanders has generated enthusiasm from younger black voters in South Carolina.
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| Where's Xi? China's Leader Commands Coronavirus Fight From Safe Heights Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:40 AM PST  WUHAN, China -- President Xi Jinping strode onstage before an adoring audience in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing less than three weeks ago, trumpeting his successes in steering China through a tumultuous year and promising "landmark" progress in 2020."Every single Chinese person, every member of the Chinese nation, should feel proud to live in this great era," he declared to applause on the day before the Lunar New Year holiday. "Our progress will not be halted by any storms and tempests."Xi made no mention of a dangerous new coronavirus that had already taken tenacious hold in the country. As he spoke, the government was locking down Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, in a frantic attempt to stop the virus spreading from its epicenter.The coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 800 people in China as of Sunday and sickened tens of thousands, comes as Xi has struggled with a host of other challenges: a slowing economy, huge protests in Hong Kong, an election in Taiwan that rebuffed Beijing and a protracted trade war with the United States.Now Xi faces an accelerating health crisis that is also a political one: a profound test of the authoritarian system he has built around himself over the past seven years. As the Chinese government struggles to contain the virus amid rising public discontent with its performance, the changes that Xi has ushered in could make it difficult for him to escape blame."It's a big shock to the legitimacy of the ruling party. I think it could be only second to the June 4 incident of 1989. It's that big," said Rong Jian, a writer about politics in Beijing, referring to the armed crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters that year."There's no doubt about his control over power," he added, "but the manner of control and its consequences have hurt his legitimacy and reputation."Xi himself has recognized what is at stake, calling the outbreak "a major test of China's system and capacity for governance."Yet as China's battle with the coronavirus intensified, Xi put the country's No. 2 leader, Li Keqiang, in charge of a leadership group handling the emergency, effectively turning him into the public face of the government's response. It was Li Keqiang who traveled to Wuhan to visit doctors.Xi, by contrast, receded from public view for several days. That was not without precedent, though it stood out in this crisis, after previous Chinese leaders had used times of disaster to try to show a more common touch. State television and newspapers almost always lead with fawning coverage of Xi's every move.That retreat from the spotlight, some analysts said, signaled an effort by Xi to insulate himself from a campaign that may falter and draw public ire. Yet Xi has consolidated power, sidelining or eliminating rivals, so there are few people left to blame when something goes wrong."Politically, I think he is discovering that having total dictatorial power has a downside, which is that when things go wrong or have a high risk of going wrong, then you also have to bear all the responsibility," said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California San Diego who studies Chinese politics.Much of the country's population has been told to stay at home, factories remain closed, and airlines have cut service. Experts warn that the coronavirus could slam the economy if not swiftly contained.The government is also having trouble controlling the narrative. Xi now faces unusually sharp public discontent that even China's rigorous censorship apparatus has been unable to stifle entirely.The death of an ophthalmologist in Wuhan, Dr. Li Wenliang, who was censured for warning his medical school classmates of the spread of a dangerous new disease in December, has unleashed a torrent of pent-up public grief and rage over the government's handling of the crisis. Chinese academics have launched at least two petitions in the wake of Li's death, each calling for freedom of speech.State media still portray Xi as ultimately in control, and there's no sign that he faces a serious challenge from within the party leadership. The crisis, though, has already tainted China's image as an emerging superpower -- efficient, stable and strong -- that could eventually rival the United States.How much the crisis might erode Xi's political standing remains to be seen, but it could weaken his position in the long run as he prepares to take a likely third term as Communist Party general secretary in 2022.In 2018, Xi won approval to remove the constitutional limits on his term as the country's president, making his plan for another five-year term seem all but certain.If Xi comes out of this crisis politically insecure, the consequences are unpredictable. He may become more open to compromise within the party elite. Or he may double down on the imperious ways that have made him China's most powerful leader in generations."Xi's grip on power is not light," said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies."While the ham-fisted response to this crisis undoubtedly adds a further blemish to Xi's tenure in office," Blanchette added, "the logistics of organizing a leadership challenge against him remain formidable."In recent days, despite a dearth of public appearances, state media have portrayed Xi as a tireless commander-in-chief. This week they began calling the government's fight against the virus the "people's war," a phrase used in the official readout of Xi's telephone call with President Donald Trump on Friday.There are increasing signs that the propaganda this time is proving less than persuasive.The Lunar New Year reception in Beijing where Xi spoke became a source of popular anger, a symbol of a government slow to respond to the suffering in Wuhan. Xi and other leaders appear to have been caught off guard by the ferocity of the epidemic.Senior officials would almost certainly have been informed of the emerging crisis by the time national health authorities told the World Health Organization on Dec. 31, but neither Xi nor other officials in Beijing informed the public.Xi's first acknowledgment of the epidemic came Jan. 20, when brief instructions were issued under his name. His first public appearance after the lockdown of Wuhan on Jan. 23 came two days later, when he presided over a meeting of the Communist Party's top body, the Politburo Standing Committee, which was shown at length on Chinese television. "We're sure to be able to win in this battle," he proclaimed.Back then, the death toll was 106. As it rose, Xi allowed other officials to take on more visible roles. Xi's only appearances have been meeting foreign visitors in the Great Hall of the People or presiding over Communist Party meetings.On Jan. 28, Xi met with the executive director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and told Tedros that he "personally directed" the government's response. Later reports in state media omitted the phrase, saying instead that Xi's government was "collectively directing" the response.Since nothing about how Xi is portrayed in state media happens by accident, the tweak suggested a deliberate effort to emphasize shared responsibility.Xi did not appear on official broadcasts again for a week -- until a highly scripted meeting Wednesday with the authoritarian leader of Cambodia, Hun Sen.There is little evidence that Xi has given up power behind the scenes. Li Keqiang, the premier in formal charge of the leadership group for the crisis, and other officials have said that they take their orders from Xi. The group is filled with officials who work closely under Xi, and its directives emphasize his authority."The way the epidemic is being handled now from the top just doesn't fit with the argument that there's been a clear shift toward more collective, consultative leadership," said Holly Snape, a British Academy Fellow at the University of Glasgow who studies Chinese politics.The scale of discontent and the potential challenges for Xi could be measured by repeated references online to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Many of them came under the guise of viewer reviews of the popular television miniseries of the same name, which is still available for streaming inside China."In any era, any country, it's the same. Cover everything up," one reviewer wrote.The Soviet Union of 1986, however, was a different country than China in 2020.The Soviet state was foundering when Chernobyl happened, said Sergey Radchenko, a professor of international relations at Cardiff University in Wales who has written extensively on Soviet and Chinese politics."The Chinese authorities, by contrast, are demonstrating an ability to cope, a willingness to take unprecedented measures -- logistical feats that may actually increase the regime's legitimacy," he added.Radchenko compared Xi's actions to those of previous leaders in moments of crisis: Mao Zedong after the Cultural Revolution or Deng Xiaoping after the Tiananmen Square crackdown."He's doing what Mao and Deng would have done in similar circumstances: stepping back into the shadows while remaining firmly in charge."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Moroccans protest Trump's Mideast plan, support Palestinians Posted: 09 Feb 2020 07:31 AM PST  Thousands of people marched in Morocco's capital Sunday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Mideast and to oppose what they see as the Moroccan government's lenient position toward it. Moroccan political leaders, from Islamists to left-wing figures, took part in the march through Rabat alongside union members, activists, and members of civil society groups. Palestinian flags and chants animated the scene as protesters criticized the Trump-led peace initiative.
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| Merkel Backs Left Party Politician to Run Thuringia, Bild Says Posted: 09 Feb 2020 07:22 AM PST ![Merkel Backs Left Party Politician to Run Thuringia, Bild Says]( "Merkel Backs Left Party Politician to Run Thuringia, Bild Says") (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel may back a political rival from the Left party to lead the regional government in Thuringia as she tries contain the crisis over her party's flirtation with the far right in eastern Germany.Merkel wants the state's former prime minister, Bodo Ramelow, to take the helm again, Bild am Sonntag reported, without citing where it got the information. His successor, Thomas Kemmerich, resigned on Saturday under pressure from Merkel's governing coalition.Kemmerich's election with the votes of Merkel's party in Thuringia and the nationalist Alternative for Germany had set off the political firestorm. The CDU in Thuringia backed the deal in defiance of Berlin.That led the leaders of the Social Democrats, Merkel's coalition partner, to threaten to bring down the national government if Kemmerich remained in office.To enable Thuringia to get a new prime minister quickly, Merkel now wants her party's colleagues in the state to abstain from voting when Ramelow stands for election, Bild am Sonntag reported. Merkel's Christian Democrats have ruled out a direct collaboration with the Left party given its historic roots in communist East Germany.Ramelow said in an interview with Bild he hopes Liberals and Merkel's Christian Democrats will enable him to be elected as prime minister in a first round of voting. He ruled out being elected with a majority relying on the far right AfD. Ramelow's term as state leader would probably be limited because governing parties in Berlin have called for an early election in Thuringia.New elections would could be launched after the summer break, Ramelow told Bild. Holding one sooner would pose a problem with electoral law that could only be bypassed by the state interior minister, he said, pointing out that Thuringia still hasn't got one. Quick elections would also pose the risk of being contested in the courts, Ramelow added.TurmoilThe turmoil in Thuringia was triggered by October elections, when Alternative for Germany more than doubled its support to 23.4% and pulled ahead of a slumping CDU. The AfD has exploited frustration over lower wages and the lack of opportunity in eastern Germany, where many people have a sense of being second-class to the more affluent western part of the country 30 years after reunification.That led to the Feb. 5 election of Kemmerich, whose FDP party barely made it into the state legislature but was eager for a share of power.The turmoil reflects the tense state of German politics as the AfD makes inroads and Merkel prepares to retire from politics at the end of her term in 2021 at the latest. The fact that the local CDU chapter defied Berlin, also heaps pressure on party Chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was already struggling to sustain her position as Merkel's heir.In a Germany-wide opinion poll for broadcaster RTL published on Saturday, voter support for the Free Democrats halved to 5%, voter preference for AfD fell by 2 percentage points to 9%. Backing for Merkel's CDU/CSU remained stable at 28%. The Social Democrats and the Left party each gained 2 percentage points to 15% and 10% respectively.(Adds comments from Ramelow in sixth and seventh paragraphs.)To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kell in Frankfurt at akell@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Schaefer at dschaefer36@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis, Sara MarleyFor 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 Needs Majority Voting, Germany’s Altmaier Tells Newspaper Posted: 09 Feb 2020 06:44 AM PST ![EU Needs Majority Voting, Germany's Altmaier Tells Newspaper]( "EU Needs Majority Voting, Germany's Altmaier Tells Newspaper") (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world threatened by trade wars. Sign up here. Germany's economy minister says the European Union is in need of closer collaboration and more effective decision making.The principle of unanimity is "much more often a crippling millstone than it is a safeguard against individual member states being outvoted," Peter Altmaier told newspaper Bild am Sonntag in an interview.After the first stage of Brexit and given global trade disputes, the EU should consider giving new weight to the principle of majority voting."I am in favor of majority decisions at European level on practically all political issues," Altmaier said. "If a state has major problems, it can submit its concerns to the European Council -- the principle of unanimity still applies there."With the U.S. moving away from being a global mediator and becoming a party to many disputes, Europe must take greater care of its own security concerns, Altmaier added. Cooperation inside the EU is "still far from being as close as it should be," he said, referring not only to foreign and security policy but also human rights.After the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi Altmaier said he would have preferred a common European position regarding weapon exports to the country.To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kell in Frankfurt at akell@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Schaefer at dschaefer36@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, Michael HunterFor 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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| Sinn Fein Celebrates With IRA Songs, but Voters Focus on Pledges Posted: 09 Feb 2020 06:36 AM PST ![Sinn Fein Celebrates With IRA Songs, but Voters Focus on Pledges]( "Sinn Fein Celebrates With IRA Songs, but Voters Focus on Pledges") (Bloomberg) -- Sinn Fein celebrated their surge in Ireland's general election by singing folk songs commemorating the Irish Republican Army's fight against British rule, yet the party's left-wing economic policies, rather than nationalism, seems to have driven their success.Sinn Fein posted 22.3% of first preference votes in an exit poll published Saturday, in a tie with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the traditional parties of Irish government. Long an outsider because of its IRA links, t is now very much at the heart of the political landscape.Economic issues including housing, health care and the pension age drove Sinn Fein's performance, according to an exit poll. No Sinn Fein voter cited Brexit, the closest proxy to the party's long-held goal of a united Ireland in this election.Among the policies Sinn Fein put forward are a1% tax on net wealth of more than 1 million eurosfreezing residential rentsbiggest state house building program in decadesreducing the retirement age back to 65On banking, Sinn Fein propose keeping the government's holding in AIB Group Plc and freez mortgage interest rates. It also wants to end Irish banks use of deferred tax assets to avoid paying corporation tax on their profits.Center Left?Though Sinn Fein is in the race to be the biggest party by vote share, it didn't run nearly enough candidates to become the dominant force in Ireland's 160-seat parliament. On Sunday, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail ruled out governing with Sinn Fein, though some in Fianna Fail say the option should be kept open.Still, Sinn Fein is firmly a center-left party rather than of the hard-left. It wants to retain Ireland's 12.5% corporation tax rate, while its Brexit stance was largely in line with the government's.While the party's spending plans are greater than those of the other main parties, they "are still conservative" in the context of the European Union's fiscal rules, Ryan McGrath, an analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald in Dublin, said in a research note before the election."Sinn Fein is not anti-establishment," he 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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| 'QAnon' conspiracy theory creeps into mainstream politics Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:55 AM PST  President Donald Trump was more than halfway through his speech at a rally in Milwaukee when one of his hand gestures caught the eye of a supporter standing in the packed arena. The 51-year-old woman believed the president had traced the shape of the letter "Q" with his fingers as a covert signal to followers of QAnon, a right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory. "He just did it?" asked Diane Jacobson, 63, of Racine, Wisconsin.
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| Gunman ambushes NYC police twice in 12 hours, spawns outrage Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:49 AM PST  A gunman was taken into custody Sunday after he ambushed police officers in the Bronx twice in 12 hours, wounding two in attacks that brought outrage from officials who blamed the violence on an atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric, authorities said. Robert Williams, 45, of the Bronx, was captured after he walked into a police station in the Bronx and started shooting shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, police said. "It is only by the grace of God and the heroic actions of those inside the building that took him into custody that we are not talking about police officers murdered inside a New York City police precinct," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a news conference.
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| Syrian army vows to keep up campaign against last rebel area Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:38 AM PST  Syria's military vowed on Sunday to keep up its campaign to regain control of the whole country, days after capturing large chunks of territory from the last rebel holdout in northwestern Syria. The fighting led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire that was negotiated with Turkey in 2018. The advance of forces supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad into rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo province has also sparked a largescale humanitarian crisis.
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| NH poses a last chance for some struggling 2020 Democrats Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:13 AM PST  Bounding onto a stage at a conference center in New Hampshire, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang beamed a smile to a cheering crowd and launched into his pitch for votes heading into Tuesday's first-in-the nation primary. Yang didn't mention his poor showing in Iowa, his back-of-the-pack polling in New Hampshire or the fact his campaign recently laid off an undisclosed number of people. "I said challenge accepted," Yang said of his decision to run for president.
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| Egypt arrests human rights activist who criticized gov't Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:05 AM PST ![Egypt arrests human rights activist who criticized gov't]( "Egypt arrests human rights activist who criticized gov't") Egyptian police arrested an activist and researcher who was a vocal critic of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government, the interior ministry and a human rights group said Sunday. Patrick George Zaki, 27, was detained at Cairo's international airport after returning from Italy on Friday, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a local NGO, where he works as a researcher. Zaki's arrest was the latest in an unprecedented crackdown on dissent waged by El-Sissi in recent years.
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| Vote prediction for Sinn Fein puts Irish politics in turmoil Posted: 09 Feb 2020 04:37 AM PST  Ireland faced political turmoil Sunday as an exit poll from the weekend's parliamentary election suggested that Sinn Fein, a left-wing party committed to reunification of the island, finished in a virtual dead heat with the two parties that have governed since the country won independence almost a century ago. While ballot counting remained underway, the poll indicated that Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's centrist Fine Gael party, centrist rival Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein all received about 22% of first preference votes. The survey, conducted by pollster Ipsos MRBI for national broadcaster RTE, the Irish Times, TG4 television and University College Dublin, has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.
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| Iran unveils new, more accurate ballistic missile technology Posted: 09 Feb 2020 04:34 AM PST ![Iran unveils new, more accurate ballistic missile technology]( "Iran unveils new, more accurate ballistic missile technology") Iran's Revolutionary Guard has unveiled a new ballistic missile, the country's state TV reported Sunday, amid heightened tensions with the U.S. Iran routinely unveils what it describes as technological advances for its armed forces ahead of the February anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. State television said the missile, called Raad-500, or thunder, had half the weight of a similar ballistic missile, Fateh-110, but had 200 kilometers (some 120 miles) more range.
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| Powell to Confront ‘New Risk’ to U.S. Economy from China Virus Posted: 09 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world threatened by trade wars. Sign up here. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has confessed that it's "very hard" to understand China's economy. The outbreak of the coronavirus has made that exponentially more difficult.Yet it's something that he can hardly afford to ignore when he addresses lawmakers this week. The sheer size of China's economy means that any hit to its growth from the epidemic will have a knock-on impact for the rest of the world and the U.S."The effects of the coronavirus in China have presented a new risk to the outlook," the U.S. central bank wrote in its semi-annual report to Congress released on Friday.Just how big of a risk it is -- and what's the likely Fed response -- probably will be front and center when Powell kicks off two days of Congressional testimony on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committtee. He speaks to the Senate Banking panel the next day.Money MarketsLawmakers will also likely press Powell for the rationale behind the big run-up in the Fed's balance sheet that's occurred since September's turmoil in the money markets.Coming on the heels of President Donald Trump's acquittal on impeachment charges last week and ahead of November elections, the hearings could well be politically contentious as lawmakers from both parties pepper Powell with questions."He is going to have his Kevlar on," said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies LLC. "All of the questions will have some political connotations."Ahead of the hearings, traders in the federal funds futures market are betting that Powell and his colleagues will respond to the virus with a cut in interest rates later this year.Little UpsideGiven all the unknowns involved, Fed watchers say Powell is unlikely to be that clear about the Fed's intentions. But he's just as unlikely to dismiss the threat and rule out any response."There's little upside to trying to sound too confident," said former Fed researcher Michael Feroli, who is now chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. "At least when I was there, there weren't any virologists on the board."What Bloomberg Economists Say"The underlying hiring trend is robust, providing a sturdy foundation for domestic growth. However, this is due to be challenged in the relatively near term by weak global growth in general and coronavirus supply-chain disruptions in particular."\-- Carl Riccadonna, Yelena Shulyatyeva and Eliza WingerTo read more click hereThe uncertainties are compounded by the difficulties outside observers confront when trying to understand China's economy through the prism of what many see as doctored government statistics."You can read all you want, you can visit it all the time, but nonetheless it's still very hard, I think, for me anyway, to really feel like you understand how the economy works," Powell told lawmakers in November.Private sector economists have started to shave their estimates of U.S. growth due to the coronavirus. Feroli cut his first-quarter forecast to 1%, though he expects activity to bounce back in the second quarter.Oxford Economics is more pessimistic. It reduced its first-quarter growth prediction to 0.6% from 1% with some spillover into the second quarter.The virus outbreak occurs against a backdrop of what is mostly a healthy U.S. economy. U.S. employers boosted payrolls by a higher-than-expected 225,000 in January as wage gains also rebounded.The global outlook also appears a bit brighter thanks in part to the U.S.-China phase one trade deal and fading of fears of a disruptive, no-deal Brexit.What's more, the turbulence in the money markets has also subsided, thanks to hundreds of billions of dollars the Fed pumped into the financial system.Senate DemocratsIn a Feb. 6 letter to Powell, Democrat Senators pressed him for an explanation of what lay behind last year's agitation in the money markets and the Fed's response.The lawmakers, including presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, raised questions about whether the banks had gamed the market in hopes of winning some regulatory relief.Powell, for his part, has depicted the money market interventions as a success.He's also sounded satisfied with the stance of monetary policy, after three interest rate cuts last year. And he's suggested that he's likely to stay that way unless there's a material change to the outlook for the U.S. economy.Whether the coronavirus will eventually force such a reassessment is unclear at this point."The set of possible outcomes is pretty broad right now," said Nathan Sheets, a former Fed official who is now chief economist for PGIM Fixed Income.\--With assistance from Christopher Condon and Craig Torres.To contact the reporters on this story: Rich Miller in Washington at rmiller28@bloomberg.net;Steve Matthews in Atlanta at smatthews@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alister Bull, Sarah McGregorFor 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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| Oil Crisis in Libya Takes Center Stage at Latest UN Talks Posted: 09 Feb 2020 03:52 AM PST ![Oil Crisis in Libya Takes Center Stage at Latest UN Talks]( "Oil Crisis in Libya Takes Center Stage at Latest UN Talks") (Bloomberg) -- Libya's battered economy took center stage at United Nations-backed talks on ending the conflict, as a blockade that slashed the OPEC nation's vital oil output entered a fourth week.The two-day meeting in Cairo is being closely monitored for any sign of a deal to restore output in the North African nation after supporters of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar forced ports to close mid-January, driving production to its lowest since 2011. Imminent large-scale resumption, although unlikely, could add over 1 million barrels per day to the international market, complicating OPEC's efforts to assess the impact of the coronavirus on demand.Distribution of oil revenue has been at the heart of the turmoil that's divided the country, and an immediate breakthrough in Cairo isn't expected. The OPEC+ alliance, which controls about half of the world's oil, last week recommended cutting 600,000 barrels of combined production -- a reduction that would be dwarfed by a significant rise of Libyan output.The talks that started Sunday are the latest in a series of global efforts to end the conflict between the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and Haftar, whose Libyan National Army controls the country's oil-rich east and south and in April turned its sights to the capital.That offensive, which has morphed into a proxy war between regional powers, has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced tens of thousands. Both sides have accused the other of breaching a provisional cease-fire agreed in January.Oil production in Libya, home to Africa's largest-proven reserves, has tumbled to about 180,000 barrels a day, the lowest level since the 2011 uprising against long-time leader Moammar Qaddafi, from a daily 1.2 million barrels just before the blockade. The state-run National Oil Corp. has declared force majeure on supplies.Libya has endured major disruptions to its oil exports in recent years as battles and blockades by rival militias have repeatedly hindered efforts to revive production. A deteriorating economy has stoked anger in historically marginalized eastern Libya, where many believe too much wealth is concentrated in the west of the country.UN Special Representative Ghassan Salame said last week he'd asked eastern Libyan tribal leaders behind the closing of the ports to specify their demands before oil revenue was discussed in Cairo. They have been disputing the "unfair distribution of oil," he said in Geneva on Thursday.Libyan daily oil production bottomed out at 45,000 barrels in August 2011 during the NATO-backed campaign that ousted Qaddafi, who'd ruled for four decades.(Adds OPEC+ recommendations from second paragraph)\--With assistance from Mohammed Abdusamee.To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Cairo at selwardany@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Amy TeibelFor 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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| Soldier kills 26 in bloodiest mass shooting in Thailand Posted: 09 Feb 2020 03:44 AM PST  A soldier with a grudge gunned down 26 people and wounded 57 in Thailand's worst mass shooting before he was fatally shot inside a mall in the country's northeast on Sunday, officials said. Authorities said Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth Thomma was behind the attack in Nakhon Ratchasima, a hub for Thailand's relatively poorer and rural northeastern region. Much of the shooting took place at Terminal 21 Korat, an airport-themed mall filled with colorful Lego sculptures, a merry-go-round and huge replicas of landmarks from around the world.
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| UN-brokered Libya talks end with no formal cease-fire deal Posted: 09 Feb 2020 02:36 AM PST  Libya's warring sides ended several days of U.N.-brokered talks without reaching a deal to consolidate a provisional cease-fire in and around the capital, the U.N. said. Another round of talks was proposed for later this month "as both sides agreed to the need to continue the negotiations," according to a statement from the U.N. support mission in Libya released Saturday. The current cease-fire was brokered by Russia and Turkey on Jan. 12.
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| Israel blocks Palestinian exports in escalating trade crisis Posted: 09 Feb 2020 02:28 AM PST  The Israeli military blocked Palestinian agricultural exports on Sunday in the latest escalation of a monthslong trade war that comes amid fears of renewed violence as well. Following Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's instruction, the military said it would not allow the Palestinians to transfer their products through their land crossing to Jordan, the West Bank's only direct export route to the outside world. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority said Israeli forces at checkpoints blocked vegetable shipments that were in their way to export abroad.
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| These Chinese Christians Were Branded A Criminal ‘Cult.’ Now They Have to Flee. Posted: 09 Feb 2020 02:07 AM PST  SEOUL—Caught in political limbo as rejected asylum-seekers, about 1,000 Chinese exist furtively in South Korea dreading torture and imprisonment if they are forced to return to China.They're all members of the Church of Almighty God, a uniquely Chinese off-shoot of Christianity denounced as an "illegal cult" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees its success winning adherents as a dangerous challenge to a regime that represses all forms of worship, whether Christian, Muslim or Buddhist.China's Crackdown on Christian Churches"Many people accept the Word of Almighty God, so the CCP panics," says a young member who goes by the name of Cecily. "The CCP believes religion is competing with communism."Such is the Party's pervasive intelligence network that no one dares phone a relative back in China, much less engage in online chitchat. "They have internet police," says Cecily. "If you say 'Almighty God,' they will arrest you. They criminalize code words."Members gather here in a Church of Almighty God center that looks like a modern office building featuring a museum. On display are pictures and text about the rise of the church from its origins in the 1980s. At first it was one of the many "house churches," where Christianity is still practiced in China, often secretly. But in 1991, according to the official history, the denomination whose Chinese name translates as "Eastern Lightning" was founded in the belief that Christ is born again and back on Earth in the guise of a mysterious leader of the faith—a woman who may now be living in the New York metropolitan area.Ever since those early days, the church "suffers really severe persecution," says Angelia Zheng (a name she has adopted in Korea), talking about what happened to her and her "brothers and sisters" that compelled them to flee. Besides those who have gone to South Korea, about 4,000 are scattered in safe havens in the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong and elsewhere, including Taiwan, the Chinese island province that endures as a separate capitalist state off China's east coast.* * *A LIGHTNING ROD FOR RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION* * *Counting at least "146 believers having been persecuted to death" and claiming "another 400,000 arrested," Angelia believes the church "suffers really severe persecution," and is "the single most persecuted religious group in China."There's no way to verify the numbers, but there's little doubt the Church of Almighty God, with anywhere from several hundred thousand to several million worshippers, ranks very high on the CCP enemies list of religious groups composed mainly of ethnic Chinese. Another would be the Buddhist group Falun Gong.These crackdowns have intensified under Xi Jinping's rule along with the ruthless suppression of the Uighurs, an ethnic minority whose 11 million people, mostly Muslim, live in the Xinjiang region in northern China. The church figures prominently in the most recent U.S. State Department "Report on International Religious Freedom," based on data compiled in 2018, much of which seems to have come from the church itself:"The Church of Almighty God reported that in April CCP police secretly arrested and tortured one of its members for 25 days," according to the State Department. "The individual was sent to the hospital with severe injuries to the skull and she died several months later. The Church of Almighty God also reported that on June 27, two church members were arrested, and on July 2, one of them was 'persecuted to death' in Chaoyang Municipal Detention Center."In the church's own newly issued annual report "on the Communist Chinese government's persecution" it says the numbers of those being persecuted are going up rapidly —1,355 of its followers sentenced in 2019, more than double the number for 2018. According to the church's report the CCP carried out investigations "door-to-door, person-by-person" aided by "big data technology and information technology tools for the purpose of arresting more Christians through special operations." "Things are as bad as they were at the end of the Cultural Revolution," says J. Gordon Melton, professor of religious history at Baylor University. From 1966 to 1976 as many as 80 million people were killed as Red Guards rampaged across the land in a revolutionary reform movement ordered by Mao Zedong. "The Church of Almighty God is suffering most," says Melton. "Any of those who return are arrested as soon as they get off the plane."* * *HOUSE CHURCHES* * *Melton, who has visited both China and South Korea many times in recent years, sees the Church of Almighty God as the principal target of a massive campaign in which Xi has ordered portraits of himself and Mao to hang side by side in state-sanctioned Catholic and Protestant churches. "Xi wants them to remove crosses," he says. "Xi doesn't want them to look like churches. He doesn't want you to know it's a church as you're walking by."About half of China's 80 to 100 million Christians attend churches that have survived legally if uneasily under arrangements in which the government appoints or approves their leaders. In 2018, Pope Francis reached a "provisional agreement" with China, the details of which remain secret. It reportedly allows Beijing to name bishops, but supposedly leaves it to the pope to sign off on them.Meanwhile, millions of Chinese worship in "house churches," conducting services for small congregations in unmarked facilities, with or without the knowledge or tacit approval of authorities.Then there are about 20 totally banned congregations, the most prominent of which is the Church of Almighty God. They are labeled as criminal cults. "They challenge the government and the new Sinicization program that President Xi has put out," says Melton. The campaign against the Church of Almighty God, he says, is similar to that against the Falun Gong, a Buddhist organization with a global following that's been virtually annihilated inside China but thrives among Chinese communities worldwide.* * *LIFE ON THE RUN* * *It was to escape brutal interrogation and torture that members of the Church of Almighty God began coming to Korea, taking advantage of a policy under which droves of Chinese vacationers inundate the scenic island of Jeju off Korea's southern coast on one-month tourist visas available on arrival. Church people, not interested in the beauties of Jeju, then fly to the Korean mainland where they request asylum as victims of oppression. In every case they are turned down but then promptly granted extensions that keep them reapplying every three months, unable to work legally but still not deported to China and certain imprisonment.Even that avenue may be closing, however, since South Korea placed stringent controls on travel from Jeju to the mainland. About 30 Church of Almighty God members are still stuck in Jeju. At the same time, the Chinese are getting tougher on issuing passports, absolutely denying them to anyone suspected of connections to the Church of Almighty God or other "criminal" sects.Members of the church meeting in Seoul tell harrowing tales of suffering, loneliness and separation from families with whom they now have no contact. One of them, called Jason, describes having been imprisoned for three years, making shoes and weaving for 10 hours a day, eating moldy bread, drinking soup from a tureen in which dirt and sand were visible at the bottom. "They ordered prisoners to sing anthems," he says. "If you break regulations, they will beat you."A middle-aged woman who goes by the name of Xiang Yi, meaning "belief in God," describes a life on the run for 12 years inside China before getting here four years ago. "They went to my home to arrest me, but I had already left the house for my sister's house. I risked my life to get my passport." She had no time to say good-bye to her son, with whom she has not been in touch since coming to Korea, and she's never seen her granddaughter born nearly two years ago.Another adherent, who calls himself Jamie Chao, made it here at about the same time after having been arrested, held for a week, severely beaten on the head and legs, and then let go. "After I was released, my wife was arrested," he says. "The police went to the house, confiscated material." Now, he says, his wife is in hiding, afraid to go anywhere for fear the police will send her back to prison.Suppression "is getting worse and worse," says Jamie, while the CCP under Xi exerts near-total control. The Communist Chinese Party "is becoming more and more tyrannical," he says. "The party has grassroots committees everywhere."Not surprisingly, the Church of Almighty God is bitterly anti-communist, although members insist they're not against Xi Jinping's regime per se, just its treatment of them and other religious groupings.* * *THE EVIL RED DRAGON* * *Early statements of the church refer to the regime as "the evil red dragon of the Bible," and a brochure published in English says flatly, "The CCP is an atheist dictatorship that hates the truth and is hostile to the work of God." The party, it says, "is terrified that Christians will widely testify to and spread God's work so that people will all accept the true way and reject the CCP, threatening its dictatorship."That's why, says the brochure, "The CCP government has branded Christianity and Catholicism as 'cults' and labeled the Bible a 'book of cults.'" As a result of this unremitting campaign, it goes on, "many house churches have been forcibly shut down, assemblies have been outlawed and countless Christians have been arrested"—some "tortured to death" while "prominent pastors and church leaders have also been killed by the CCP."The official version from the Chinese authorities, of course, is quite different. After the murder of a woman in a McDonald's in eastern China in May 2014, authorities said the killers were self-styled church "missionaries" who called her "a demon" after she refused to give her cellphone number, and then beat her to death. (The Daily Beast covered the incident and its context extensively at the time.)Is This The Scariest Doomsday Sect in China?The police have also said church fanatics brainwash recruits, according to Xinhua, the state New China News Agency. An officer was quoted as saying at first "new recruits were not forced to donate or attend gatherings, but after becoming a convert they were manipulated into leaving their family and devoting everything to the cult."Today, scholars tend to support the response of church members that another group was to blame for the McDonald's murder. The CCP, says the church, has been waging a propaganda campaign accusing the church of numerous offenses in its campaign to destroy it as it did the Falun Gong.* * *FAKE NEWS* * *"Most of what you find on the Internet about The Church of Almighty God is false," says Massimo Introvigne, director of the Center for Studies on New Religions in Turin, Italy. "Chinese propaganda shows pictures of people beaten and mutilated by the CAG but has failed to produce any more specific evidence, detail, or court record, related to the prosecution of CAG members for these alleged crimes."As for the McDonald's killing, "Scholars have unequivocally concluded that the assassins were not related to the CAG," says Introvigne, author of Inside The Church of Almighty God: The Most Persecuted Religious Movement in China, coming out in March. "The Chinese regime attributed the crime to the CAG to justify its persecution at home and abroad." Eager to denounce Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, however, The Church of God remains quite secretive about who is providing the funding, who is really supporting those who have escaped the clutches of Chinese authorities, and who is directing operations in China and abroad.The group says its real founder is God Almighty, but acknowledges an earthly priest, Zhao Weishan, in charge of "administrative affairs." Massimo Introvigne in his book says the church's God incarnate is a woman named Yang Xiangbin, born in 1973 in northwestern China, but the church confirms neither her name nor her background out of "reverence for God." Zhao and the mystery woman are believed to be in the New York City area, looking for donations and supporting activities at another church center in Flushing, of all places, but no one admits having seen them.* * *THE WORD IN THE FLESH* * *Here in Seoul, polite, neatly attired church members do not talk about any of this stuff, indicating they themselves do not know the answers, but remain committed by faith to the vision of Jesus on earth. It's all set forth in the holy book, a 2446-page tome that's been translated and published in 27 languages. "A Record of the Period of Almighty God's Utterances," is how it's described. The title: The Word Appears in the Flesh.Holly Folk, a professor at Western Washington University, is sympathetic. "Once you examine the track record," she says, "you realize none of the accusations are true." Analyzing the campaign against the CAG, "You see the exact same move by the Chinese government against the Falun Gong."As for the image of God incarnate, says Folk, "they are extraordinarily Calvinist, their theology is similar to the theology of the Puritans." A theme, she says, is predestination —the sense that God has preordained the fate of all living things.Sure, she concedes, "there are certain things they do, they use false names and are doing this covert stuff," but that's because "they are worried about immigration"—permanent residence abroad—to save them from forced repatriation to China. As for those elusive leaders in New York, they "are concerned about assassination."No way are these fervent adherents here in Seoul going to speculate on any of that. They lapse into silence when asked who are the real leaders, where they are, who's giving them directions or who's paying the bills. It all comes down to one thing, they say,"God on Earth."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran starts countdown for satellite launch 'within hours' Posted: 09 Feb 2020 12:36 AM PST  Iran started counting down Sunday to the launch of a new scientific observation satellite scheduled within hours, the country's telecommunications minister said. The United States has raised concerns in the past about Iran's satellite programme, describing the launch of a carrier rocket in January 2019 as a "provocation". "Beginning countdown to launch #Zafar_Satellite in the next few hours... In the Name of God," Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi wrote on Twitter.
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| "Where it begins": Young hungry locusts bulk up in Somalia Posted: 09 Feb 2020 12:24 AM PST  At a glance, the desert locusts in this arid patch of northern Somalia look less ominous than the billion-member swarms infesting East Africa in the worst outbreak some places have seen in 70 years. Large parts of Somalia south of this semi-autonomous Puntland region are under threat, or held by, the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group. Somalia has declared the outbreak a national emergency.
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| Hurricane-force winds pound UK and Europe, upend travel Posted: 09 Feb 2020 12:08 AM PST  Storm Ciara battered the U.K. and northern Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains Sunday, halting flights and trains and producing heaving seas that closed down ports. The storm, named by the U.K.'s Met Office weather agency, brought gales across the country and delivered gusts of 97 miles per hour to the Isle of White and 93 mph (150 kph) to the village of Aberdaron in northern Wales. Propelled by the fierce winds, a British Airways plane was thought to have made the fastest New York-to-London flight by a conventional airliner.
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| Where did they go? Millions left city before quarantine Posted: 08 Feb 2020 10:58 PM PST  For weeks after the first reports of a mysterious new virus in Wuhan, millions of people poured out of the central Chinese city, cramming onto buses, trains and planes as the first wave of China's great Lunar New Year migration broke across the nation. An Associated Press analysis of domestic travel patterns using map location data from Chinese tech giant Baidu shows that in the two weeks before Wuhan's lockdown, nearly 70% of trips out of the central Chinese city were within Hubei province.
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| Buttigieg Labels Biden a Washington Insider, Adding Fuel to Feud Posted: 08 Feb 2020 08:35 PM PST ![Buttigieg Labels Biden a Washington Insider, Adding Fuel to Feud]( "Buttigieg Labels Biden a Washington Insider, Adding Fuel to Feud") (Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg on Saturday night continued to fire back at Joe Biden, suggesting his presidential rival is a Washington insider out of touch with middle America."Some are asking: 'What business does the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, have seeking the highest office in the land?'" Buttigieg said at a Democratic Party dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire. "Americans in small rural towns in industrial communities and in pockets of our country's biggest cities are tired of being reduced to a punchline by Washington politicians and ready for somebody to take their voice to the American capital."Buttigieg was one of 10 Democratic candidates who delivered remarks at the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, one of the last opportunities for the contenders to make their pitches to New Hampshire voters before the state's primary on Tuesday.Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders emerged from the first nominating contest in Iowa on Monday atop the Democratic field. In New Hampshire, a survey for CNN by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed Sanders in the lead with 28%, followed by Buttigieg at 21%.Buttigieg and Biden had traded barbs throughout the day as Biden, 77, assailed the 38-year-old former South Bend mayor for his relative inexperience and rejected comparisons of Buttigieg to Barack Obama."Oh, come on, man. This guy's not a Barack Obama," Biden snapped at a reporter who asked about the comparison earlier Saturday. He also said that Democrats would put their party "at risk if we nominate someone who's never held a higher office than mayor of South Bend, Indiana."Biden is under pressure to revive his campaign after his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. He is running a distant third in most New Hampshire polls.The former vice president released a harsh ad early Saturday that juxtaposes his long history of public service with Buttigieg's relatively short municipal experience. The ad highlights Biden's work on the Affordable Care Act and the Iran nuclear deal in contrast to Buttigieg's mayoral accomplishments getting lights installed under a bridge and reducing regulations for pet chip scanners.In his comments at the dinner Saturday night, Biden didn't mention any of his rivals, reserving his fire for President Donald Trump. He also recalled spending Saturday morning giving food to needy families and the stalled effort to renew the Violence Against Women Act, pegging the country's struggles on its current leadership."I've lost a lot in my life," he said, mentioning the loss of his wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident and of his elder son to cancer in 2015, and also hinting at his fourth place finish in Iowa. "I'll be damned if I'm going to stand by and lose this election to this man," he said in a reference to Trump.Elizabeth Warren, who is running in fourth place in New Hampshire polls, sought to convince the Democrats gathered at the dinner that her campaign would persevere. She reminded the crowd that Friday marked the three-year anniversary of the day she fought Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor to try to block the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General."Mitch McConnell said those words that women put on t-shirts, have embroidered on pillows and have tattooed on their arms," Warren said as the crowd cheered. "Nevertheless, she persisted."Instead of pitching any of the plans that she has made the theme of her campaign, Warren sought to draw sharp distinctions with her 2020 rivals, by highlighting that her presidential bid was not shaped by consultants or funded by high-dollar donors, a veiled swipe at her moderate rivals Buttigieg and Biden.Warren also tried to address any concerns about whether she could defeat Trump, one of the main concerns of Democratic voters as they look for a 2020 nominee."There are a lot of people right now who are worried that this fight against Donald Trump might be unwinnable," Warren said. "But I've been winning unwinnable fights pretty much all my life."Warren enjoys an advantage in the state of New Hampshire as the senator from neighboring Massachusetts.Sanders, who also comes from a neighboring state, Vermont, won New Hampshire in 2016. In his remarks at the dinner, he urged the state's voters to come through for him again on Tuesday."I want to thank New Hampshire," he said. "I want to thank New Hampshire for helping to lead the political revolution that began four years ago and now is the time to complete that revelation."In his remarks, Buttigieg implicitly criticized Sanders for divisive rhetoric in calling for a revolution. Sanders' supporters erupted, chanting "Wall Street Pete," following up on the senator's attacks on Buttigieg for holding high-dollar fundraisers and being the favored candidate of many billionaires.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Emma Kinery.To contact the reporters on this story: Tyler Pager in Manchester, New Hampshire at tpager1@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Epstein in Manchester, New Hampshire at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| NYPD: Officer shot, wounded in 'assassination attempt' Posted: 08 Feb 2020 06:48 PM PST ![NYPD: Officer shot, wounded in 'assassination attempt']( "NYPD: Officer shot, wounded in 'assassination attempt'") Two New York City police officers narrowly escaped with their lives when a gunman fired into their patrol van Saturday night, wounding one of them in an attack officials called an attempted assassination. The ambush, which Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said "should outrage all New Yorkers," happened just before 8:30 pm in the South Bronx. Shea recalled other unprovoked assaults on police officers sitting in their patrol vehicles.
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| Iran unveils ballistic missile, 'new generation' engines Posted: 08 Feb 2020 04:02 PM PST  Iran's Revolutionary Guards unveiled Sunday a short-range ballistic missile that they said can be powered by a "new generation" of engines designed to put satellites into orbit. The Guards' Sepahnews website said the Raad-500 missile was equipped with new Zoheir engines made of composite materials lighter than on earlier steel models. It also unveiled Salman engines made of the same materials but with a "movable nozzle" for the delivery of satellites into space.
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