| Hachalu Hundessa: 'My friend the hero who was gunned down' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:20 PM PDT  The BBC's Amensisa Ifa was close to Ethiopian protest singer Hachalu Hundessa, who was shot dead on Monday.
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| Will Putin Really Return To The Kremlin in 2024? Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:19 PM PDT  President Vladimir Putin now has the legal right to remain in power until 2036, after a large majority of Russians voted in favor of Kremlin-backed constitutional reforms.
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| The UK buys a 45 percent stake in broke satellite startup OneWeb Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:00 PM PDT  It's part of the government's post-Brexit plan to replace the EU's sat-nav system.
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| Alabama health officials can't verify 'COVID party' reports Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:41 PM PDT |
| Iran agrees to compensate families of plane crash victims, Sweden says Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:04 PM PDT  Iran has reportedly agreed to compensate the families of the foreign victims who were killed when a passenger jet was blown out of the sky outside Tehran in January, a horrific crash mistakenly caused by the country's own military forces. "We have signed an agreement of mutual understanding that we will now negotiate together with Iran about amends, compensation to the victims' next of kin," she told Swedish news agency TT. The January crash came on the heels of Iran's retaliatory missile strikes against American military facilities following a President Trump-sanctioned drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
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| Epstein cohort's arrest becomes new test for plea deal Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:56 PM PDT  Could that same deal now help Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein confidante arrested Thursday, evade charges she helped lure at least three girls into sexual liaisons with him? The British socialite was arrested Thursday in New Hampshire on charges that she acted as a recruiter of underage girls for Epstein, usually under the guise of hiring them to perform massages, and sometimes participated in his sexual abuse of the teens. The allegations against the couple date back many years, but Epstein, for a while, appeared to have resolved them under a deal with federal and state prosecutors in South Florida in which he pleaded guilty to lesser state charges and served 13 months in jail and a work-release program.
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| Former world leaders warn against Israel annexation plan Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:36 PM PDT  A group of former world leaders urged European leaders on Friday to keep pressuring Israel against annexation of parts of the West Bank, warning against complacency after Israel made no move to take over the territory on July 1. The Elders, founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, said in letters to the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and the European Union that they should insist to Israel that annexation would have negative political and economic consequences for bilateral and regional relations.
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| Cop who stopped Elijah McClain fired over response to photos Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:56 PM PDT  One of the white officers who stopped Elijah McClain was fired over photos showing colleagues reenacting the chokehold used on the Black man before he died last year, authorities said Friday. Police stopped McClain as he walked down the street in a ski mask last August for "being suspicious." Aurora Officer Jason Rosenblatt tried to use a chokehold on the 23-year-old but couldn't because of his position, so another officer did, a report from prosecutors said.
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| Bounties Uproar Casts a Shadow Over a Rare Trump Foreign Policy Achievement Posted: 03 Jul 2020 11:57 AM PDT  For a president with few tangible foreign policy accomplishments under his belt, Afghanistan had come to look something like a bright spot.His nuclear talks with North Korea have proved fruitless; his "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran has produced no concessions from Tehran; Palestinians declared his Middle East peace plan dead on arrival; and a trade deal with China looks more unlikely every day.But while President Donald Trump has not achieved his goal of a full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, he has drawn down thousands of U.S. troops and struck a deal with the Taliban intended to pave the way for a complete exit and an end to the 19-year conflict.Now the uproar over U.S. intelligence showing that Russia paid bounties for the killings of U.S. troops in Afghanistan is renewing focus on a conflict that had drifted to the political back burner and turning what had been a qualified success story for the president into at least a short-term political disaster.What remains to be seen is whether, and how, the episode might affect Trump's future plans. The military recently finished drawing down troops in Afghanistan from about 14,000 last fall to roughly 8,600. That is the minimum level that military commanders say allows them to prevent the Taliban and other radical fighters from overrunning the shaky, U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul.But with the November election coming, military officials say they are braced for Trump to announce at any time his intention to pull thousands more troops from the country before then.One person familiar with the president's thinking said he had repeatedly spoken of having all U.S. soldiers out of the country by the end of the year. That prospect may become even more likely now that the United States' continuing presence in Afghanistan has badly stung a president who lost patience with the U.S. mission there long ago but for years has found himself pressured to stay by congressional and military leaders invoking the specter of another attack in the mold of Sept. 11.The debate over what Trump officials knew about the intelligence on Russian bounties and when is "ignoring the bigger picture here," said Dan Caldwell, senior adviser of Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative group that opposes U.S. troop deployments overseas. "The bigger problem," he added, "is that by leaving our troops not only in places like Afghanistan but also in Iraq and Syria, we make it easier for our adversaries like Russia, Iran and nonstate actors like al-Qaida to bleed us on the cheap."Trump has called stories about the bounties "a made up Fake News Media Hoax" and studiously avoided commenting on the substance of the intelligence, including how it could change his policies toward either Russia or Afghanistan. But however willing he may be to overlook or downplay Russian aggression worldwide as he seeks to thaw relations with Moscow, it seems likely that the political grief he has suffered will only fuel his desire to withdraw troops from the country.Trump's patience with the conflict has been steadily waning in recent months, and he was particularly angry after two U.S. soldiers were killed when a member of Afghanistan's security forces opened fire on U.S. troops during a joint patrol in early February. Days later, Trump, who has often remarked on the burden of writing military condolence letters, traveled to Dover Air Force Base to witness the return of the soldiers' remains, a somber nighttime ceremony chillingly punctured by a widow's desperate screams.The recently published book by Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton confirms what has become increasingly obvious. Bolton recounts numerous instances when Trump, making liberal use of expletives, asked his exasperated advisers when he could be finished with the country. "We've got to get out of there," Bolton recalls Trump saying in March 2019.Trump took a key step in that direction Feb. 29, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a Taliban leader signed an agreement in Qatar under which the U.S. would begin a phased troop withdrawal in exchange for a halt in Taliban attacks on U.S. forces and the beginning of political talks between the insurgent group and the Afghan government.The signing came just days after officials say intelligence about the Russian bounties appeared in Trump's daily intelligence briefing. Some Trump officials were concerned that the intelligence could jeopardize the Taliban deal. Whether for that reason or others, officials say Trump was not verbally briefed about it at the time.That agreement has been plagued with setbacks, including an unwelcome increase in Taliban attacks on Afghan targets, an exchange of prisoners between the Taliban and the Afghan government that has taken months longer than expected, and an Afghan election with disputed results that paralyzed the country's government.In one sign that Trump is determined to press ahead, Pompeo spoke by video conference Monday with the Taliban's deputy and chief negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, "to discuss implementation of the U.S.-Taliban agreement," according to a State Department spokeswoman."The secretary made clear the expectation for the Taliban to live up to their commitments, which include not attacking Americans," added the spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus. (There is no indication that U.S. intelligence has tied Russian bounties to any attacks on Americans since the agreement was signed or that the Taliban's senior leadership was aware of them.)All the while, however, U.S. troops have been on their way out. And while Afghanistan continues to suffer horrific attacks like a May assault on a maternity ward in Kabul, there is little evidence that American voters, whose support for the war has long been waning, feel any less safe."Certainly there's a political resonance for the notion that, after all these years, President Trump will end the war that other presidents were unwilling to end," said Richard Fontaine, chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based policy group.Fontaine cautions against a withdrawal of troops, reminiscent of the U.S. exit from Iraq in 2011, that could allow militants to rampage and terrorists to find safe haven as al-Qaida did in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks.For now, that view has significant support in Congress. On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee voted 45-11 to approve a bipartisan amendment to an annual defense authorization bill that would restrict funds for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan below the level of 8,000.One of the amendment's co-sponsors, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, warned in a statement that "the U.S.-Taliban deal allows for premature troop withdrawal that is not conditions-based."A Senate effort from the opposite perspective met a swift rebuke the same day. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. and one of Congress' leading noninterventionist voices, co-sponsored an amendment with Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan within a year. The Senate voted 60-33 to table the amendment.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Italy slams Egypt's stance on killing as 'punch in the face' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 11:47 AM PDT  The president of the lower house of Italy's Parliament has slammed Egypt's stance in a probe to bring to justice the torturers and killers of an Italian doctoral student who disappeared in Cairo while researching labor movements in Egyt. Chamber of Deputies President Roberto Fico told Italian state TV on Friday that lack of satisfactory cooperation from Egyptian prosecutors in solving the 2016 killing of Giulio Regeni amounted to a ''punch in the face″ of Italy. Fico, a leading member of the main party in Italy's coalition government, the populist 5-Star Movement, was expressing frustration that the discussions Italian prosecutors had with their Egyptian counterparts this week failed to elicit progress.
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| Iran says identifies cause of nuclear 'accident' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:38 AM PDT  Iran's top security body said Friday it had determined the cause of an "accident" at a nuclear site but declined to release details, citing security reasons. "Investigations by relevant bodies have accurately determined the cause of the accident at... Natanz nuclear complex," said a spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, referring to one of the country's main uranium enrichment plants. "Due to certain security concerns the cause and details of this accident will be announced at the proper time," state news agency IRNA quoted Keyvan Khosravi as saying.
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| Can Trump's anti-mail-voting crusade hurt him in key states? Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:44 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's campaign and allies have blocked efforts to expand mail-in voting, forcing an awkward confrontation with top GOP election officials who are promoting the opposite in their states. The rare dissonance between Trump and other Republican elected officials also reflects another reality the president will not concede: Many in his party believe expanding mail-in voting could ultimately help him. Trump's campaign has intervened directly in Ohio, while allies have fired warning shots in Iowa and Georgia, aimed at blunting Republican secretaries of state in places that could be competitive in November.
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| Russian Orthodox Church defrocks coronavirus-denying monk Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:38 AM PDT  The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday defrocked a coronavirus-denying monk who has defied Kremlin lockdown orders and taken control of a monastery. A church panel in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg ruled to defrock 65-year-old Father Sergiy, who has attracted nationwide attention by urging believers to disobey church leadership and ignore church closures during the pandemic. In Friday's video, Father Sergiy denounced President Vladimir Putin as a "traitor to the Motherland" serving a Satanic "world government" and dismissed Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill and other top clerics as "heretics" and "enemies of God and Holy Mother of God" who must be "thrown out."
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| United Nations workers suspended after viral sex act video Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:34 AM PDT |
| Ethiopia's Nobel Winner Can't Rest on His Laurels Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:34 AM PDT |
| Iraq sets up border posts to try to prevent Turkish advance Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:02 AM PDT  Iraqi troops were enforcing positions along the border with Turkey, officials said Friday, to prevent Turkish forces from advancing deeper into Iraqi territory after two weeks of airstrikes as Ankara continues to target Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Security officials said Ankara has established at least a dozen posts inside Iraqi territory as part of a military campaign to rout members of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, who Turkey says have safe havens in northern Iraq.
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| UK in talks to join EU's coronavirus vaccine scheme - FT, citing UK officials Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:57 AM PDT |
| Putin orders amendments extending his rule into constitution Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:50 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered amendments that would allow him to remain in power until 2036 to be put into the Russian Constitution after voters approved the changes during a week-long plebiscite. According to a copy of the decree released by the Russian government on Friday, the amendments will come into force on Saturday. The changes allow Putin to run for two more six-year terms after his current one expires in 2024, but also outlaw same-sex marriages, mention the "belief in God as a core value" and emphasize the primacy of Russian law over international norms.
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| Civil rights leader Andrew Young says racism is based on fear Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:22 AM PDT  The former colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and later U.N. Ambassador, tells CBS News, "We're going to have to come together."
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| Violence mars Portland protests, frustrates Black community Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:15 AM PDT  Protesters in this liberal, predominantly white city have taken to the streets peacefully every day for more than five weeks to decry police brutality, but violence by smaller groups is dividing the movement and drawing complaints that some white demonstrators are co-opting the moment. As the Portland protests enter a second month, they have shifted on several nights from the city's downtown core to a historically Black neighborhood in North Portland that's already buckling under the effects of white gentrification and has the most to gain — or lose — from the outrage in the streets. Late last week, some protesters barricaded the doors to a police precinct a half-block from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and set fire to the building, which also houses Black-owned businesses, including an Ethiopian restaurant and a barber's school.
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| Russia's constitutional changes to come into force on July 4 -Kremlin Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:48 AM PDT |
| The UK government to acquire satellite company OneWeb in deal funded in part by India's Bharti Global Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:29 AM PDT  Distressed satellite constellation operator OneWeb, which had entered bankruptcy protection proceedings at the end of March, has completed a sale process, with a consortium led by the UK Government as the winner. The group, which includes funding from India's Bharti Global – part of business magnate Sunil Mittal's Bharti Enterprises – plan to pursue OneWeb's plans of building out a broadband internets satellite network, while the UK would also like to potentially use the constellation for Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services in order to replace the EU's sat-nav resource, which the UK lost access to in January as a result of Brexit.
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| Uganda boda boda rider sets himself on fire 'over bribe' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:59 AM PDT  The motorcycle taxi rider's bike had been seized for carrying passengers against coronavirus restrictions.
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| UN agency: North Europe radiation likely linked to reactor Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:27 AM PDT |
| Iran declines to disclose cause of mysterious nuke site fire Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:21 AM PDT  An online video and messages purportedly claiming responsibility for a fire that analysts say damaged a centrifuge assembly plant at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear site deepened the mystery Friday around the incident — even as Tehran insisted it knew the cause but would not make it public due to "security reasons." The multiple, different claims by a self-described group called the "Cheetahs of the Homeland" included language used by several exiled Iranian opposition organizations. The disparate messages, as well as the fact that Iran experts have never heard of the group before, raised questions about whether Natanz again had faced sabotage by a foreign nation as it had during the Stuxnet computer virus outbreak believed to have been engineered by the U.S. and Israel.
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| UN staff in Israel suspended over sex act video Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:15 AM PDT  The United Nations has suspended two male workers without pay after a video emerged of them cavorting with a woman in a red dress inside a UN-marked vehicle as it cruised through Tel Aviv. In the 18-second video clip, a woman is seen straddling a man in the back seat of the car, while another man dozes in the passenger seat as the vehicle drives past a beach in the Israeli city. The UN reacted with horror to the video and launched an investigation, which is focused on two workers from the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), which monitors military activity in Israel. Neither the woman nor the two men have been named since the video - which UNTSO has described as "abhorrent" - went viral earlier in June. "Two male international staff members who were in the UN vehicle in Tel Aviv have been identified as having engaged in misconduct, including conduct of a sexual nature," Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement on Thursday.
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| North Korea and US likely to resume talks whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden win 2020 election, China expert on Pyongyang says Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  A Chinese Communist Party expert on North Korea says it could pose a security threat to China and expects talks between Pyongyang and Washington to resume whether or not US President Donald Trump wins a second term in November.Zhang Liangui, professor of international strategic research at the Central Party School, said that the demolition of the inter-Korea liaison office in the border city of Kaesong last month highlighted the geopolitical risk China faced should ties between North and South Korea become unstable."If one day North Korea takes military actions against the South, geopolitics dictates that China, as a neighbouring country, will inevitably be dragged into it, whether we like it or not," he said.The Central Party School is both a think tank and a training school for Chinese leaders. Zhang, who has studied Korean issues for decades, is considered one of China's top experts on North Korea.He said that the destruction of the liaison office by North Korea last month was meant to show Pyongyang's displeasure with Seoul over issues such as South Korea's ties to the United States, and its failures to provide economic assistance and help to lift sanctions on North Korea.Taking advantage of the thaw between the two Koreas following the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, North Korea launched the "special envoy diplomacy" with South Korea in February 2018.However, the warming of ties didn't last and North Korea began to step up its criticism of the South last year. "The underlying reason is that [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un felt he has been let down by South Korea," Zhang said.The new book by former US national security adviser John Bolton, Zhang said, suggests that the US could either continue to apply maximum economic pressure on North Korea or resort to military actions.Zhang believes that US policymakers have concluded it would be to Washington's advantage to let North Korea hold onto part of its nuclear arsenal and negotiate with Kim only on give up his long-range missiles."The US has come to realise that it would be good for them to leave a nuclear-armed country right on China's doorstep," he said."If Trump is re-elected, he will begin dealing with North Korea again, and he'll have two options. One is to press on to force North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons completely, verifiably and irreversibly. If this cannot be achieved, then military force will be considered."Trump and Kim at the demilitarised zone in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters alt=Trump and Kim at the demilitarised zone in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters"Which option that he will choose may depend on how China-US relations go," he continued. "[It is entirely possible] that the US and North Korea may establish ties one day [regardless of where China stands]."Zhang said that the outcome would be the same if Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, defeats Trump in November " since both Republicans and Democrats have similar positions on China.Zhang said China should be worried about North Korea's nuclear stockpiles because the country has a fragile economy."If a regime is struggling for survival, it may drag someone down with it," he said. "To use the same rhetoric by the Americans, North Korea is a failed state. Its economy is in a bad shape, and it is isolated diplomatically.""Very few people in China realise how big a threat North Korea can be.""A small nation which has nuclear arms can be a serious security threat for the world," Zhang said."We should bear in mind what our ancestors have taught us " make friends from afar and attack enemies who are near."This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| It Would Cost Trillions: The Day North Korea Collapses Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  The prospect of a peaceful Korean Unification, however remote it seems, would be a historical event worth planning for. While preparing for the worst, we should hope for the best. Hoping for the best means there is a scenario where North Korea's collapse and regime change occur miraculously, opening doors to South Korea and the West to take over North Korea in what one hopes would be a peaceful absorption. As unlikely as this sounds, it is important to remember that it is not without historical precedent.
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| U.N. says it is "alarmed" at arrests in Hong Kong, concerned at "vague" law Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:12 AM PDT |
| Steroid drug purchased for COVID patients in poor countries - U.N. Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:03 AM PDT |
| Modi visits military base close to China amid standoff Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:20 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unannounced visit Friday to a military base in a remote region bordering China where troops from the two countries have been facing off for nearly two months. Modi's visit comes after a massive Indian army buildup in Ladakh following hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Chinese soldiers on June 15 that left 20 Indians dead and dozens injured in the Galwan Valley, the worst confrontation in over four decades between the Asian giants.
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| South Africa's hospitals bracing for surge of virus patients Posted: 02 Jul 2020 11:05 PM PDT  The nurse started crying when describing her work at a Johannesburg hospital: The ward for coronavirus patients is full, so new arrivals are sent to the general ward, where they wait days for test results. Its hospitals are now bracing for an onslaught of patients, setting up temporary wards and hoping advances in treatment will help the country's health facilities from becoming overwhelmed. In Johannesburg, the largest city, health officials said they are considering reimposing some restrictions to try to slow the quickening spread of the virus.
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| Nord Stream 2 Could Sever Transatlantic Ties Posted: 02 Jul 2020 10:30 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- U.S. President Donald Trump is furious at Germany for many reasons, not all of them fathomable. In phone conversations with Angela Merkel, he's allegedly called the German chancellor "stupid" and denigrated her in "near-sadistic" tones. Though this be madness, as the Bard might say, there is — on rare occasions — method in it. One such case is Nord Stream 2.It is an almost-finished gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany, running right next to the original Nord Stream, which has been in operation since 2011. "We're supposed to protect Germany from Russia, but Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for energy coming from a pipeline," Trump roared at a recent campaign rally. "Excuse me, how does that work?"As is his wont, the president thereby conflated many things. One of his grievances is that Germany has long been scrimping on its military spending, in effect free-riding on U.S. protection, for which he wants to punish his "delinquent" ally. Another is that the European Union, which he considers Germany's marionette, allegedly takes advantage of the U.S. in business. Trump also wants to sell Europe more American liquefied natural gas (LNG).But Trump isn't the only American trying to stop Nord Stream 2. In December, Congress aimed sanctions at a Swiss company that supplied the ships to lower the pipes into the water. This delayed the pipeline's launch. Then Russia sent another vessel to finish the job. So this week a bipartisan group of Senators moved to widen the sanctions in order to kill Nord Stream 2 altogether.The problem is that if this new round becomes law, it will amount to an all-out economic assault on Europe. It could hit individuals and companies from many countries that are only tangential to the project — by underwriting insurance for the pipeline, say, or providing port services to the ships involved.Considering this an instance of illegal American extraterritoriality, the German government now plans to make the EU retaliate against the U.S. Trump, in the heat of America's "silly season" leading up to November, could then strike back with new tariffs on German cars or a full-blown trade war. The transatlantic alliance, which was already frayed, is close to tearing.To me, this situation increasingly resembles "chicken," a classic in game theory. The question is whether both sides are merely feigning recklessness (as the game assumes) or are already too far gone. And that applies just as much to the Germans. They like to play the reasonable side in transatlantic fights but deserve just as much blame as Trump and Congress for causing this mess.If Russia were a normal country, the German rationale for this pipeline might make sense. Europe will need more gas, especially to replace much dirtier coal and to supplement renewable sources of energy on the way to becoming carbon-neutral. And to get that gas, it makes sense to diversify — between Norwegian imports, American LNG or any other sort, including the Russian stuff. And piping it into Europe along the shortest route — through the Baltic — is efficient.But Russia is far from a normal country. It has for years been waging hybrid warfare in Europe, ranging from disinformation campaigns to aggression in Ukraine. At Germany's urging, Russia recently extended a contract with Kiev to keep piping gas through Ukraine for several more years. But in the longer term, the new pipeline gives Russia dangerous geopolitical and strategic options.With two pipelines through the Baltic and another big one through the Black Sea, Russia could in the future cut all central and eastern European countries out of billions in transit fees. The country already controls almost 40% of the EU's gas market even without Nord Stream 2. Once that goes online, the rest of Europe may become too dependent and therefore vulnerable to blackmail. When Trump calls Germany "a captive to Russia," he has half a point.This is why Poland and the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia also oppose Nord Stream 2. As NATO's eastern front line and former victims of invasion and aggression, they fear Russia more viscerally than Germans do nowadays. Psychologically, the Poles distrust any deal between Germany and Russia over their heads, because it reminds them of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which carved up their region between Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence.My question to the Germans, then, is why they have for years been deaf to these strategic concerns by their partners in NATO and the European Union, while coddling their own pro-Russian business lobbies and, of course, the Kremlin.German intransigence looks even more unsavory when considering who within Germany is most passionately in favor of the pipeline. Support for it skews sharply to the left, with its long tradition of anti-American and pro-Russian leanings. The most egregious example is Gerhard Schroeder, a Social Democrat who was Angela Merkel's predecessor as chancellor. He's always been buddies with Russian President Vladimir Putin. These days he also chairs the supervisory board of Nord Stream AG, which is owned by Gazprom PJSC and thus controlled by the Kremlin, as well as the board of Rosneft Oil Co PJSC, a Russian oil giant.This week, Schroeder testified to the Bundestag that Germany and Europe should prepare tough countermeasures against U.S. sanctions. He won support from The Left, a party that descends from the former regime in East Germany.Nord Stream 2 was and is a terrible idea. It's a geopolitical project disguised as a private business deal. It has shown Germany to be an insensitive and naïve ally, and the U.S. to be a truculent one. It is now rending what little remains of their former relationship. If there is any way to leave these pipes buried and forgotten under the sea, all involved should discreetly and diplomatically search for it. Otherwise, this game of chicken will end the way it's not supposed to.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. He's the author of "Hannibal and Me." 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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| Activist leaves Hong Kong after new law to advocate abroad Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:59 PM PDT  Prominent Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law has left the city for an undisclosed location after testifying in a U.S. congressional hearing about a tough new security law imposed by mainland China on the semi-autonomous territory. Law, who declined to disclose his whereabouts for safety, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that he left because Hong Kong needs an advocate for democracy who can work internationally. Under the new security law, activists and politicians in Hong Kong who speak to foreign media or testify in foreign hearings can be arrested for secessionism or colluding with foreign forces, Law said.
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| White Mich. couple charged after gun pulled on Black family Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:30 PM PDT  A white couple face criminal charges after one of them was captured on video pulling a handgun on a Black woman and her daughters in a restaurant parking lot in Michigan. Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, were arrested after Wednesday night's confrontation and charged Thursday with felonious assault, Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said in a release. As a condition of the bond they must turn over all firearms, not engage in "assaultive behavior" and not leave Michigan, Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement.
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| Trump to give fiery speech at Rushmore amid virus, protests Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:19 PM PDT  President Donald Trump planned a fiery Mount Rushmore speech Friday night including denunciations of protesters he says are trying to "tear down" the nation's history. Hours before the event, protesters blocked a road leading to the monument. Authorities worked to move the demonstrators, mostly Native Americans protesting that South Dakota's Black Hills were taken from the Lakota people against treaty agreements.
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| Only verified intelligence? A look at presidents' briefings Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:15 PM PDT  The White House says President Donald Trump was never briefed on intelligence that Russia had put a bounty on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan because there wasn't corroborating evidence. Intelligence that may be on shaky ground today may foreshadow tomorrow's calamity. HOW DO PRESIDENTS RECEIVE NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION?
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| Virus concerns grow — as do crowds flocking to Jersey Shore Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:10 PM PDT  As coronavirus-related restrictions are eased and temperatures climb, people are flocking back to the Jersey Shore. "I am really concerned," said Paul Kanitra, mayor of Point Pleasant Beach, a popular shore town that was unexpectedly overrun by thousands of tourists who swarmed the beach and boardwalk a few weeks ago at a "pop-up party," paying little heed to social distancing or masks. "We're seeing spikes across the country in states that opened up weeks ago, and while we're doing a good job in New Jersey, there are a lot of people that are way too cavalier about social distancing," he said.
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| North Korea's response to coronavirus has been a 'shining success', says Kim Jong-un Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:03 PM PDT  Kim Jong-un has said that North Korea has stopped the coronavirus making inroads in his country and his response to the pandemic has been a "shining success". According to state news agency KCNA, Mr Kim told a meeting of the politburo of the ruling Workers Party that North Korea had "thoroughly prevented the inroad of the malignant virus and maintained a stable anti-epidemic situation despite the worldwide health crisis, which is a shining success achieved." He warned against complacency or relaxation in the anti-epidemic effort and urged North Koreans to maintain "maximum alert", KCNA said in a statement. The politburo meeting on Thursday comes as many hard-hit countries are easing lockdowns, even as the world moves quickly past the grim milestones of 10 million confirmed infections and 500,000 deaths. North Korea has reopened schools but kept a ban on public gatherings and made it mandatory for people to wear masks in public places as part of its response to the coronavirus threat, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Wednesday.
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| Paraguay controls coronavirus, while its neighbors struggle Posted: 02 Jul 2020 09:01 PM PDT  As nearby nations grapple with uncontrolled spread of the novel coronavirus, the poor, landlocked nation of Paraguay appears to be controlling the disease, with just a few thousand confirmed cases and a few dozen deaths. Along with Paraguay's relative isolation, experts credit the country with creating a network of quarantine centers in military academies, motels, and religious institutions where citizens arriving home must isolate for at least 14 days and pass two consecutive coronavirus tests before being able to move about the country freely. With only 7 million people, a stagnant economy, high poverty and a weak public health system, Paraguay moved to slow coronavirus in March by closing borders and imposing the quarantine restrictions, along with closing schools and public events and declaring a nighttime curfew.
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| U.S. envoy to visit S.Korea to discuss stalled N.Korea nuclear talks Posted: 02 Jul 2020 08:21 PM PDT |
| Supreme Court blocks curbside voting in Alabama Posted: 02 Jul 2020 06:35 PM PDT  The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Thursday blocked a lower court ruling allowing curbside voting in Alabama and waiving some absentee ballot requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conservative justices granted Alabama's request to stay a federal judge's order that would allow local officials to offer curbside voting in the July runoff and loosen absentee ballot requirements in three of the state's large counties. The order will remain stayed while the court decides whether to hear Alabama's appeal.
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