| U.S. seeks to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts tied to North Korean hacks Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:49 PM PDT  The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint after having in March charged two Chinese nationals with laundering more than $100 million in cryptocurrency on behalf of North Korea. "Today's action publicly exposes the ongoing connections between North Korea's cyber-hacking program and a Chinese cryptocurrency money laundering network," Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Rabbitt of the Justice Department's criminal division said in a statement.
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| U.S. seeks to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts tied to North Korean hacks Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:43 PM PDT |
| Africa's week in pictures: 21-27 August 2020 Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:05 PM PDT  A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.
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| Russian authorities say they found no signs of crime in alleged poisoning of Putin critic Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:26 PM PDT  Russian prosecutors said Thursday that a preliminary probe had not unearthed signs of criminality in the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was hospitalized in Berlin. German doctors said tests indicated Navalny was poisoned, although the Kremlin has questioned the diagnosis and bristled at suspicions that the Russian government is to blame for the opposition leader's condition. Navalny fell ill on a flight a week ago and entered a coma.
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| Black National Convention puts spotlight on police brutality Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Black Lives Matter activists are holding their first Black National Convention Friday, a virtual event that will adopt a political agenda calling for slavery reparations, universal basic income, environmental justice and legislation that entirely re-imagines criminal justice reform. The gathering follows Democratic and Republican party conventions that laid out starkly different visions for America. It also comes on the heels of yet another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man — 29-year-old Jacob Blake — in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that sparked days of protests, unrest and violence.
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| It's US against most of UN council on Iran sanctions Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:59 PM PDT  The United States and most of the rest of the U.N. Security Council dug in their heels Thursday on diametrically opposed positions over the restoration of international sanctions on Iran. In increasingly intense rhetorical terms, U.S. officials insisted they had acted legitimately in triggering a so-called "snapback" mechanism that would re-impose all U.N. sanctions Iran next month. "Last week, the U.S. triggered the 30-day process to restore virtually all UN sanctions on Iran after the Security Council failed to uphold its mission to maintain international peace and security," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet.
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| Justice Dept: North Korean hackers stole virtual currency Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:19 PM PDT |
| Lebanese media: Sectarian clashes near Beirut leave 2 dead Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:10 PM PDT |
| What virus? At GOP's convention, pandemic is largely ignored Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:02 PM PDT  It was a scene from a bygone era: Vice President Mike Pence shaking hands with and fist-bumping audience members who had rushed forward, standing shoulder to shoulder, to greet him and the president after Pence's speech at the Republican National Convention. No one appeared concerned about social distancing. A more striking scene could unfold Thursday night, when more than 1,000 people were expected to assemble on the South Lawn of the White House for President Donald Trump's renomination acceptance speech.
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| Putin vows military support for Belarus' Lukashenko Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:38 PM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed military support for embattled Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday, while urging a peaceful resolution to unrest and demonstrations that erupted after a disputed election.
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| UN official: COVID cases likely far higher than Syria says Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:29 PM PDT  Reports of Syrian health care facilities filling up and increasing death notices and burials appear to indicate that actual coronavirus cases in the war-torn country "far exceed official figures" confirmed by the government, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said Thursday. Syria has so far reported more than 2,500 cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, including 100 deaths.
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| Police largely silent as outrage builds over Blake shooting Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:28 PM PDT  It took three days, an outpouring of anger in the streets and a NBA boycott before authorities investigating the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, started answering some of the most basic questions about what happened. Blake survived but is paralyzed, and it would "take a miracle" for him to walk again, family attorney Ben Crump said Tuesday.
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| Putin says Russian "reserve" force ready to back Lukashenko in Belarus Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:59 AM PDT  In the standoff between anti-government protesters and "Europe's last dictator," Putin has offered the dictator his help, if things get "out of control."
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| Trump Once Freaked Out After Missing A Call With Putin, Former U.K. Adviser Says Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:55 AM PDT  "If Putin wants a call with me, you just put him through," the president reportedly yelled during a formal dinner.
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| West Pacific on alert for another developing tropical system Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:35 AM PDT  As what's left of Bavi, once a formidable typhoon, unravels over eastern China and Russia, AccuWeather forecasters will shift their attention to the Philippine Sea for additional tropical development into this weekend.An area of low pressure that is currently meandering over the Philippine Sea is expected to gain tropical characteristics by the beginning of next week as it sits in an area of warm water and low wind shear.Wind shear is the change of speed and direction of wind at different levels in the atmosphere, and it plays an important role in the development and longevity of tropical systems. AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls expects this low to develop into a tropical depression by Friday or Saturday, local time.He added that additional strengthening is expected through the end of the weekend as the storm begins to drift to the north-northwest. Conditions point to this tropical feature reaching typhoon intensity early next week as it reaches the Ryukyu Islands, he added.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPConditions look favorable for this feature to reach typhoon intensity early next week as it should be nearing the Ryukyu Islands.Minimal impacts are expected across the Philippines as the low is hundreds of miles away from the islands and is expected to remain largely stationary into the weekend.As the low strengthens, rough seas are expected to develop across the region, and any shipping interests in the area should monitor this low's development into Monday.While the system is expected to track to the north or northwest into the beginning of the week, there is still some uncertainty on the exact track of the system through early next week."Interests from eastern China to the Korean Peninsula and Japan should monitor for possible impacts around the middle of next week," warned Nicholls. A bicyclist stops to view fallen trees from a typhoon on a main road in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. A typhoon damaged homes and other buildings, flooded roads and toppled utility poles on the Korean Peninsula before weakening to a tropical storm. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho) Many of these areas were hit hard by heavy rain and damaging winds from Bavi this week. The most recent tropical system in the West Pacific basin strengthened into a typhoon on Monday and peaked in strength on Wednesday with winds equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins.Reports of downed trees and power lines, damage to buildings, flooded roadways, travel delays and power outages were common across the Korean Peninsula as the storm moved through on Thursday.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Yemeni official says clashes in port city killed 5 fighters Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:21 AM PDT |
| Germany agrees tougher rules to fight rising infections Posted: 27 Aug 2020 10:27 AM PDT  Germany will get tougher on masks, extend a ban on large events and introduce new quarantine rules for travellers to combat a worrying rise in coronavirus cases, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.
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| Most of Germany imposes $59 fine for mask-wearing breaches Posted: 27 Aug 2020 10:13 AM PDT  Most of Germany will impose a minimum fine of 50 euros ($59) for breaching mask-wearing rules as coronavirus infections rise again, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday after a virtual meeting with the country's state governors. In decentralized Germany, imposing and loosening virus-related restrictions is a matter for the 16 state governments, so a patchwork of rules has emerged in recent months. Merkel consulted Thursday with state governors on how to proceed.
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| The Latest: Virus test purchases may feature in Trump speech Posted: 27 Aug 2020 09:11 AM PDT  White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says the Trump administration has purchased 150 million new COVID-19 test kits to be distributed across the country. The White House announced the purchase on Thursday ahead of President Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, where he was expected to highlight administration steps to combat the virus. The 15-minute test from Abbott Laboratories will sell for $5, giving it a competitive edge over similar tests that need to be popped into a small machine.
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| Watchdog groups say convention appearances broke Hatch Act Posted: 27 Aug 2020 08:51 AM PDT  Two White House officials violated the Hatch Act by participating in choreographed events that were aired during this week's Republican National Convention, according to two separate ethics complaints filed by government watchdog groups. Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, violated the law when he appeared during a taped naturalization ceremony on White House grounds with President Donald Trump, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, wrote in a complaint filed Thursday. On Wednesday, two law school professors filed a separate complaint against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, arguing he committed an "egregious violation" by delivering a video-taped speech from Israel.
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| Vladimir Putin says he has police on standby to enter Belarus Posted: 27 Aug 2020 08:50 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin has said Russian police are on standby to be sent to Belarus if the situation in the country deteriorates, following mass protests against dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusian police launched a brutal crackdown on demonstrations this month after Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the Eastern European country with an iron fist for 26 years, claimed 80 percent of the vote in a presidential election widely seen as rigged. The Russian President said Mr Lukashenko had asked him "to form a reserve of law enforcement employees, and I have done so". "But we also agreed they would not be used unless the situation gets out of control," Mr Putin said in an interview with state television on Thursday. Russia would intervene if "extremist elements, using political slogans as cover, overstep a certain boundary...in general, however, the situation is levelling out".
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| Buying masks, delivering food: Teens step up in pandemic Posted: 27 Aug 2020 07:15 AM PDT  In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, communities across the country have discovered a powerful resource that has stepped forward to make a difference: America's teenagers. "People have a good heart and are willing to help, and are willing to contribute to our society," Xu said. Xu began raising funds in March.
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| Tensions grow as Bosnian authorities crack down on migrants Posted: 27 Aug 2020 06:42 AM PDT  SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Tensions are growing in the northwestern Bosnia after local authorities launched a widespread crackdown on thousands of migrants stranded in the area and set up police roadblocks to prevent more Europe-bound newcomers from arriving. Authorities in Bosnia's Krajina region, which borders European Union-member Croatia, had to dispatch special police forces Wednesday night to a U.N.-run migrant camp near the town of Bihac to calm a protest by 1,000 migrants who live there, sparked by the alleged police beating of an unhoused migrant. The staff of the International Organization for Migration, which is running all seven migrant camps in Bosnia, withdrew from the tent camp of Lipa before special police arrived.
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| Neighbors with hoses target fires as crews urge them to stop Posted: 27 Aug 2020 06:23 AM PDT  With California firefighters strapped for resources, residents have organized to put out flames themselves in a large swath of land burning south of San Francisco, defending their homes despite orders to evacuate and pleas by officials to get out of danger. The former head of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the effort near a cluster of wildfires around the city of Santa Cruz is larger and more organized than he recalls in previous blazes. The group of wildfires near Santa Cruz has burned 125 square miles (324 square kilometers) and destroyed more than 500 buildings.
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| Religious tourism has been hit hard in the pandemic as sites close and pilgrimages are put on hold Posted: 27 Aug 2020 05:26 AM PDT  Religious tourism is among the oldest forms of planned travel and to this day remains a huge industry.About 300 to 330 million tourists visit the world's key religious sites every year, according to a 2017 estimate. Some 600 million national and international religious trips are made around the world, generating around US$18 billion in global revenues. It makes up a sizeable chunk of an overall tourism sector that has been significantly affected by the spread of the coroanvirus, with 63.8% of travelers reducing their travel plans as a result. A concern of all faithsAs COVID-19 evolved to become a global pandemic, governments across the globe closed sacred sites and temporarily banned religious travel.It has affected popular destinations of all faiths. Jerusalem, Vatican City and Mecca – which attract millions of Jewish, Christian and Muslim visitors annually – are among the worst affected. Likewise, Buddhist sites such as Nepal's Lumbini Temple and India's Mahabodhi Temple, as well as the Hindu temple of Kashi Vishwanath, have seen a slump in visitors.This has had huge financial implications for the host countries.For example, last year approximately 2.5 million Muslims from around the world performed the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, with nearly 2 million coming from outside of Saudi Arabia.However, this year only around 10,000 people were expected to do the pilgrimage while observing social distancing measures.The Saudi Kingdom usually earns $12 billion per year from the hajj and the Umrah – a minor pilgrimage that can be done anytime during the year. The pilgrimages are seen as a way to diversify the economy from being reliant on the oil sector. Year-round religious visits contributes to 20% of the kingdom's nonoil GDP and around 7% of the total GDP. The Saudi Kingdom's economy is already reeling from the impact of low oil prices, which have led to a budget deficit. It is expected to shrink by 6.8% in 2020.[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.] Religion and revenuesSaudi Arabia is far from alone. Jordan, which hosts 35 Islamic sites and shrines and 34 Christian holy sites, has closed its borders because of COVID-19. Tourism accounts for about 15% of the country's GDP and sustains an estimated 55,000 jobs. Last year more than 1 million travelers visited Wadi Musa, the Jordanian Valley of Moses – an important site where Moses is said to have produced water from a rock. Up to 80% of people's income in the area relies on tourism.Tourism revenues in Jordan dropped by 10.7% to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2020 as the pandemic spread.It is a similar story across the Middle East. In Iran, only 20,000 domestic tourists and 66 foreign tourists visited Yazd – a UNESCO world heritage site that dates back to A.D. 224 – between March and June 2020. The site is a holy place for followers of Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The number of tourists this year represents just 1% of the figure for the previous year.In June, just 5,800 people visited Israel, a religiously important destination for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike, compared to 365,000 for the same month in 2019. It is expected that the pandemic will result in a $1.16 billion damage to the country's tourism industry, according to the Israel Hotel Association.For some prominent individual sites of pilgrimage, the loss of revenue has been devastating – and it is an experience shared across the globe.Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in France usually welcomes up to 5 million visitors every year. But in order to curtail the spread in France, the shrine closed, offering only virtual pilgrimages. It has reportedly resulted in a deficit of $9.06 million for the sanctuary. Many places of pilgrimage support a whole industry in travel, transport and accommodation, and all that has taken a hit.For the entire travel industry, this unprecedented crisis has resulted in a $2.7 trillion drop in revenue and job losses in excess of 100 million in 2020. The United Nations World Tourism Organization estimates that for the year, international arrivals will be down by between 850 million to 1.1 billion, depending on when borders fully reopen. Spiritual well-beingAnd it isn't just about the financial hit. Uncertainty and anxiety related to COVID-19 also affects people's psychological and mental health. Many people indulge in religious tourism for reasons of spiritual comfort or to pray for forgiveness or salvation.For others it is a way to demonstrate their devotion to a faith. In some religions, there is a belief that all individuals who are healthy and financially able to should undertake a journey to their respective holy sites at least once in their lifetime. This is true, for example, for Muslims and participation in the hajj.As such, people may have put away savings their entire life and planned for years for such a trip. Having to abandon these plans due to travel restrictions or the closure of religious sites can be particularly distressing.Government subsidies and relief packages, along with the implementation of comprehensive safety and recovery measures, can help revive customer trust and lead to increased travel.But as scholars of the travel industry, we do believe that due to the ongoing travel restrictions and a slump in confidence in travel amid the pandemic, countries with a heavy reliance on tourism will likely continue to face challenges. And the uncertainty and possibility of newer waves of virus may further dent the tourism industry, including religious travel.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * British TV drama may look world class, but coronavirus has exposed a darker reality * COVID-19 cases are highest in young adults. We need to partner with them for the health of the whole communityThe authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Trump's foreign policy is still 'America First' – what does that mean, exactly? Posted: 27 Aug 2020 05:21 AM PDT  At the Republican National Convention, supporters of President Trump's reelection bid have celebrated his attempts to build a Mexico border wall, his promise to "bring our troops home" and his pledge to end U.S. "reliance on China."All are components of the "America First" agenda Trump ran on in 2016. Back then, he promised to "shake the rust off America's foreign policy." Four years later, it's clearer what this looks like in practice. As a foreign policy analyst, I find Trump's "America First" vision has had three primary strands: disengaging the U.S. from global politics, disdaining allies and befriending autocratic leaders. 1\. Exiting the global stageEarly in Trump's administration, the U.S. exited the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade alliance of mostly Asian countries, and the 2015 Paris climate accord. In May 2020, with the United States leading the world in COVID-19 infections, Trump cut funding for the World Health Organization, which is spearheading the global pandemic response. Trump prefers bilateral deals, in which the U.S. usually is the stronger partner, to multilateral agreements in which its power is offset by many other nations. His administration's new U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement has moderate improvements over the original North American Free Trade Agreement, including stricter labor standards in Mexico. But other pledges to replace scrapped deals with better ones remain unfulfilled. Trump has not yet come up with a "tougher" agreement to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, nor followed up on his pledge to "negotiate a far better" international climate deal.As a result, the U.S. has sat on the sidelines of major world crises and international collaborations for the past three years. New U.S. immigration policies like the Muslim immigration ban and refusal to grant admission to most asylum seekers, both very popular with his base and abhorred by Democrats, further isolate the country from the world.In June, the administration even stopped issuing to immigrants most work visas and new green cards, claiming they were hurting American citizens on the job market during the pandemic. That angered major American companies like Microsoft and Apple, which depend on those international skilled workers. 2\. Broken partnerships"America First" has led to tense relations with the European Union, which Trump referred to as a trading "foe" during the 2016 election campaign. He further alienated America's European allies when he repeatedly came out in support of Brexit – the disruptive British exit from the EU – and encouraged other EU countries to follow Britain's lead.In 2018 he told advisers on several occasions that he was considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization founded in 1949 to militarily protect European and U.S. interests. These are huge divergences from the past. All Republican and Democratic presidents since World War II have expressed strong – and crucial – support for a united Europe and for NATO.In Asia, relations with longstanding allies are likewise frayed. Trump asked South Korea and Japan to double or even quadruple their financial contributions to keep U.S. military bases on their soil, apparently failing to realize that these bases give the U.S. a strategic presence in a region dominated by China and North Korea. America's military presence in Asia helps the U.S. gather intelligence and respond quickly to, for instance, a North Korean nuclear attack. [You're smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation's authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend.] 3\. Embracing dictators and autocratsTrump believes his three meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019 – a landmark initiative of his administration – fixed the North Korea threat. But most analysts find North Korea was actually emboldened by American diplomatic engagement. It is now speeding up its nuclear program.Conciliatory behavior toward Kim is part of a trend: Trump has embraced some of the world's most notorious dictators and autocrats. In Europe, Trump is on good terms only with the proudly undemocratic leaders of Hungary and Poland. He called Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el Sisi "my favorite dictator" and refused to punish Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was implicated in the brutal murder of the Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. Instead, the White House permitted two U.S. companies to share sensitive nuclear power information with the Saudis. The administration's relations with Russia, which surreptitiously aided Trump's 2016 campaign, are unusual.On the whole, his government has pursued a tough policy toward Russia, including imposing harsher sanctions and deploying new NATO forces to the Polish border to protect Eastern Europe.But Trump has denied Russian interfered in the U.S. election, and he talks to Putin more frequently than he does to allies like German Chancellor Angela Merkel or British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In June he pressed those leaders to invite Putin to a G-7 meeting in Washington. They rejected the idea; Russia was expelled from the club of elite nations after Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea, part of Ukraine. Soon after, news broke that Moscow promised to pay Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. Trump dismissed U.S. intelligence on the matter as "fake news." Several former national security officials say that Trump wishes to avoid antagonizing Putin. Election 2020Trump has no such qualms with China, a clear bogeyman of his reelection campaign. Trump has been consistently critical of China, even retaliating against what he calls unfair trade practices with his own trade war. Though tough on the U.S. economy, this stance has some bipartisan approval in Washington and among U.S. allies. China's refusal to stop subsidizing many state-owned enterprises, grant greater market access to foreign firms and protect intellectual property rights are issues of great global concern, as is its increasingly assertive foreign policy. Still, many U.S. China experts believe Trump's crude rhetorical attacks are unhelpful for finding a constructive way forward. Even the administration's most initially promising diplomatic initiatives – engaging North Korea, ending the war in Afghanistan and seeking to normalize Israel's relationships with some of its Arab neighbors – have not resolved these chronic international crises.Back in 2016, "America First" seemed to promise a clear defense of U.S. primacy in a changing world order. That appealed to many voters. Today, the U.S. has all but abdicated its position as the world's most globally engaged power. China and Russia are busily working to fill the vacuum.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Jerry Falwell Jr. will leave behind a very different legacy from his influential father * The China-US rivalry is not a new Cold War. It is way more complex and could last much longerKlaus W. Larres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Ill. teen charged in Kenosha shooting that killed 2, hurt 1 Posted: 27 Aug 2020 05:15 AM PDT  Prosecutors on Thursday charged a 17-year-old from Illinois in the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a night of unrest following the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake. The attack late Tuesday — largely caught on cellphone video and posted online — and the shooting by police Sunday of Blake, a 29-year-old Black father of six who was left paralyzed from the waist down, made Kenosha the latest focal point in the fight against racial injustice that has gripped the country since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
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| Putin says Russian police force ready to help Belarus leader, but not needed yet Posted: 27 Aug 2020 05:01 AM PDT |
| New Data from the Interim Analysis of REGENERATE Show that OCA Helped Patients with Liver Fibrosis Due to NASH Achieve Sustained Improvement in Noninvasive Markers of Fibrosis Over Two Years of Treatment Posted: 27 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| Putin Says His Men Are Standing by Ready to Go into Belarus If Protests ‘Get Out of Hand’ Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:42 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin says he has formed a reserve of law-enforcement officers to send to Belarus to help President Alexander Lukashenko if necessary, Russian media reported Thursday. Putin said he will not deploy these forces unless "extremist elements in Belarus cross a line and start plundering." Speaking to the state-run Rossia 1 broadcaster, he said the agents would be on standby in case pro-democracy protests strengthened. "We've agreed that [the reserve] will not be used until the situation starts getting out of control," Putin said, according to The Moscow Times.Earlier in the week, Russian media reported Putin had offered to help, but it was yet unclear in what way. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Russian journalists replaced striking Belarus journalists at the country's state television station in mid-August, and have been spreading Russian propaganda ever since. The Belarus journalists who walked off the job have not been allowed to return, creating a vacuum that likely helped fuel Lukashenko's highly contested presidential win, which sparked country-wide protests calling for his ouster.The Belarus population has long been anti-Russia, with a recent poll showing that 93 percent of the population against Moscow taking over the country, but Lukashenko has been demonstrably pro-Putin.Protests raged after Lukashenko's suspicious re-election against the popular opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has become the figurehead of the protests and a target of Russian misinformation. 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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| 1st group of Burundian refugees returning home from Rwanda Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:24 AM PDT |
| Putin says alleged mercenaries were lured to Belarus by foreign spy operation Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:17 AM PDT |
| Russia blames US for military vehicles' collision in Syria Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:59 AM PDT  The Russian military on Thursday blamed U.S. troops for a collision of Russian and U.S. military vehicles in Syria's northeast. U.S. officials said Wednesday that a Russian vehicle sideswiped a light-armored U.S. military vehicle, injuring four Americans, while two Russian helicopters flew overhead, one as close as 20 meters (70 feet) from the U.S. vehicle. U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement that a Russian vehicle struck the American vehicle near Dayrick, in northeast Syria.
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| Britain's Lib Dems elect former minister Davey as new leader Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:57 AM PDT |
| Plasma Fractionation Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 – 2025) Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:41 AM PDT |
| Vladimir Putin dismisses accusations that Alexei Navalny was poisoned as Russia launches probe Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:13 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin has dismissed accusations that Alexei Navalny was poisoned as "hasty and unfounded" in his first comments since the Russian opposition leader was taken suddenly ill a week ago. The Russian President said he would back a "thorough and objective investigation", despite the Kremlin saying earlier it saw no need for a criminal probe. Mr Putin's comments came as he discussed the situation in a phone call with the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, according to a Kremlin statement. Doctors at the German hospital where Mr Navalny remains unconscious said multiple tests showed he had been poisoned with a "cholinesterase inhibitor". These are a group of chemical compounds that includes Novichok, the nerve agent used against ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
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| Pompeo ends Mideast trip with visit to Oman's new sultan Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:10 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday visited Oman's new sultan, the last stop on a Mideast trip that sought to build on an American-brokered deal to have Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalize relations. Pompeo's plane landed in the Omani capital, Muscat, and he traveled to meet Sultan Haitham bin Tariq. Later, Pompeo tweeted that the two leaders spoke about "the importance of building regional peace, stability and prosperity through a united Gulf Cooperation Council."
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| West Mathewson: South African conservationist killed by white lions Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:06 AM PDT  Police say two lions attacked the lodge owner as he was taking them for a walk, in front of his wife.
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| Is the Republican Party a cult of personality? Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:45 AM PDT  Has the Republican Party degenerated into a cult of personality?It has become something of a journalistic cliché to say so — to argue that veneration of the Dear Leader and ritual denunciation of his enemies has eclipsed any ideas or actual plans for governance that the party may once have had. For those inclined to such a view, the first nights of the Republican National Convention offered some confirmation: in the obsequious praise of the president, the apocalypticism with which the opposition was regarded, and, perhaps most alarmingly, the alternative-reality quality of the discussion of the state of the country and the record of the administration, especially with respect to the coronavirus pandemic. When, in lieu of articulating a platform responsive to radically changed national conditions, a political party simply says that it will support the agenda of its leader, it's hard to dispute that its only remaining tenet is the Führerprinzip.But it's worth pondering a little more deeply what the characterization implies about the future, not only of the GOP but of the country as a whole. The Democrats — very much including former President Obama in his convention speech last week — have engaged in an apocalypticism of their own (which they surely feel is justified), describing this election as the last chance to save American democracy. If the GOP really has become a cult of personality, though, then it will take far more than an election victory — or even multiple such victories — to save it.To explain why requires thinking about what a cult of personality essentially is, and how it is to be distinguished from more normal charismatic leadership as well as from other kinds of extremist movements or quasi-religious forces in politics.The Tea Party, for example, could be characterized as both extreme and paranoid in its view of politics. It certainly threw up some memorably odd characters, and it caused no end of headaches for more mainstream GOP leaders because of its unwillingness to engage in normal political give-and-take. Black Lives Matter can, in some ways, be characterized similarly. The massive protests and sometimes riots that continue to rock the country, flaring up anew with every viral record of apparent police abuse and misconduct (most recently in Kenosha, Wisconsin) are in the service of a profound rethinking of American identity. If it's not always obvious how that rethinking might be instantiated in mundane policy terms, the movement's language sometimes points to radical demands for change that may yet prove difficult to assuage or appease.But these movements were and are largely leaderless. They were expressions of authentic emotion and interest that were capitalized upon with varying degrees of success by existing and new organizations and by individual political entrepreneurs. They weren't — and aren't — properly described as cults.As for charismatic leadership, most successful leaders in a democracy partake of it to some degree, because political power ultimately stems from the ability to mobilize popular support (which is one reason why thinkers like Plato abhorred democracy as a system that would inevitably decay in to demagoguery and tyranny). Leaders like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan built enduring coalitions in part on the strength of their personae, and won long-lasting allegiance from their supporters that long outlasted their presidencies. But their political persuasions were never defined by their individual personalities, but by the ideologies, interests and identities that they championed.To call the contemporary GOP a cult of personality, then, is to assert that the Trump phenomenon is quite different from these antecedents. In a cult of personality, the intense emotion powering the movement is centered on the figure of the leader, who does not move people by persuasion but by proclamation, because the experience of surrendering their wills is what adherents come to seek. In totalitarian regimes like North Korea, the cult is produced in a coordinated fashion by the regime, which has a monopoly on mass-media and the ability to compel popular participation in collective rituals of public adoration. But religious cults arise in conditions of freedom, and there's no reason a political cult couldn't form similarly. Those who use the term to describe Trump's party are implicitly claiming that in America it has.What are the implications if the diagnosis is correct? A cult of personality goes beyond a traditional autocracy where decision-making ultimately rests in the hands of one man, because the people are not merely obedient but generate positive feedback. Lacking the negative-feedback mechanisms common to most political organisms, the behavior of the system becomes as mercurial as the cult leader, with potentially catastrophic consequences.And cults of personality don't necessarily end when the cult leader faces a setback, even a devastating one like the loss of an election. If what binds the GOP's voters to the party is worship of Donald Trump, then if he loses, even decisively, the question will not be what Trump did wrong but whose betrayal is to blame — and Trump will be in a position to fan those particular flames. Even death is frequently insufficient. Years after Stalin died, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced the cult of personality as a violation of Marxist-Leninist principles, part of a larger process of de-Stalinization. That process caused enormous turmoil among the Soviet populace, necessitating (among other things) military intervention in Soviet Georgia, and helped trigger the fatal split with Mao's China. No wonder North Korea's regime has opted for dynastic succession instead.That could be the outcome in the GOP as well. The first night of the convention prominently featured Donald Trump Jr.'s vigorous attacks on the opposition as enemies of the republic, and he did a bang-up job if that's the sort of thing you like, certainly more compelling than Nikki Haley's "kindler, gentler" rendition of Trumpism. Don Jr. is one of very few plausible successors on the convention roster; former Trump rivals like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz will not be speaking, nor will Trump allies among the many GOP governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis or Texas's Greg Abbott. If Trump wins, they'll have to spend the next four years performing obsequies, which will only diminish them further; If he loses, who will be better positioned to prosecute revenge than his son? And if any would-be successor tries the Khrushchev strategy, who is better positioned to shout that effort down than the man already being hailed at rallies as "46!"Either way, the potential implications for American democracy are quite dire. It's bad enough if America has decayed into hostile tribes motivated primarily by the desire to see the opposing tribe humiliated. It's far worse if one of those tribes has decided to hand over not only custody of its interests but its very powers of reason to a single will in which they long to be dissolved. I doubt it's possible to operate a democracy where any significant fraction of the populace partakes of such a longing, which a demagogue will always stand ready to satisfy. The only consolation is that a cult of personality built on a personality as widely disliked as Trump seems extremely unlikely to ever garner majority support. A Trump cult could well be powerful enough to make America ungovernable, but it is unlikely to be powerful enough to actually govern. Even in our frequently counter-majoritarian system, that's not the formula for an American Putin, Erdogan or Orban.But that is not the only possibility. It's possible that what looks like cult-like adoration is really just the kind of fawning that narcissistic celebrities frequently crave, and which Trump craves especially much. It's possible that the enthusiasm for Trump is just tribalism, something that will last only so long as Trump faithfully exchanges loyalty for loyalty. Inasmuch as there's a cult-like element to the Trump phenomenon, it may be far smaller than the party as a whole.That's a hopeful possibility for democracy in one sense. But it's a risk for the Democrats in another. In 2016, the Democrats tried to make the election entirely about Trump, reinforcing his centrality to our politics. But what gave Trump his victory were voters who disliked both candidates, who were never tempted to join the cult, but still wanted a change. This year again, Trump is not only trying to dominate our minds; he's making an argument, however demagogic and mendacious, with the potential to persuade: That the Democrats are scared of offending vandals and looters, scared of living shadowed by a deadly virus, scared to face down a rising and hostile China — and that Trump isn't selling bogus fear, but bogus strength.That possibility should worry Democrats as well as democrats. Cults prey on weak minds that are afraid of responsibility. That kind of character cannot sustain a democracy, so lovers of democracy have every reason for alarm that a major party's most loyal voters could be accurately characterized that way. But the Democrats probably can't win simply by saying that, declaring that their tribe must win because the other tribe has become a cult — particularly if they themselves come to be seen as the fearful ones. Persuadable voters might still prefer a leader who looks strong, even if they are turned off by the cultish trappings around him. If they do, that means not only four more years of Trump, but a powerful vindication for precisely those cult-like qualities, even if they aren't what actually delivered victory.More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention Fox News' Chris Wallace calls out co-hosts for defending armed vigilantes A controversial 25-year-old North Carolina House candidate is being described as 'the most impressive speaker' of the RNC
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| Germany, Israel agree continued Iran arms embargo important Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:38 AM PDT  Foreign Minister Heiko Maas agreed with his Israeli counterpart Thursday that an effort must be made to extend a weapon embargo on Iran, while stressing Germany still sees the landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers as the best way to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. With a current U.N. arms embargo on Iran due to expire on Oct. 18, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told reporters in Berlin an extension was needed to prevent Iran from getting "more advanced weapons systems and spreading them around the Middle East."
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| Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng to speak at Republican National Convention to endorse Trump for re-election Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:30 AM PDT |
| Trump had public meltdown over missed phone call from Putin, former No 10 aide says Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:23 AM PDT  Donald Trump exploded with anger at one of his most senior aides about missing a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a former No 10 official.The US president's rant about the missed call happened "right in front" of former prime minister Theresa May in Washington, her ex-chief of staff Nick Timothy has revealed.
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| France warns Lebanon risks collapse after explosion, crisis Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:13 AM PDT  Lebanon is in such a deep political and economic crisis the country risks collapsing altogether, France's foreign minister said Thursday, ahead of the French president's visit to the country next week. Lebanon's government resigned amid accusations of entrenched corruption and negligence after the Aug. 4 explosion that killed nearly 200 people, wounded nearly 6,000 and devastated entire districts of Beirut. The catastrophic blast comes on top of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, a currency crash and hyperinflation — the culmination of decades of endemic corruption and mismanagement by a ruling class that has refused to reform or step down.
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| Is Iraq Getting Screwed in a Looted Treasures Deal With Hobby Lobby? Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:53 AM PDT  In 2011, a shipment of between 200 and 300 small clay tablets destined for the Hobby Lobby compound in Oklahoma City, was seized by U.S. customs agents in Memphis. The tablets were part of a large purchase of 10,000 tablets, all thousands of years old, that were written in cuneiform, the script of ancient Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia. These ancient Iraqi tablets were brought into the country illicitly and it was unclear if they had been legally acquired in the first place. The 2011 seizure set in motion a chain of federal investigations, civil forfeiture and repatriation agreements, and lawsuits that shone a harsh spotlight on the substandard collecting practices of Hobby Lobby and their owners, the Green family. Now, over nine years later, it appears that Hobby Lobby and Museum of the Bible, the museum founded and funded by the Green family, are close to reaching an agreement with the Iraqi government about the fate of the numerous items in their collections that are the rightful property of the people of Iraq. Among the illicit items in the collection were stolen papyri that belong to the Egyptian Exploration Fund, an ancient Egyptian papyrus purchased via eBay, thousands of cuneiform tablets from Iraq, and, most famously, the Gilgamesh Dream tablet. Last March, Steve Green, the CEO of Hobby Lobby and president of Museum of the Bible, told the Wall Street Journal that he plans to return 11,500 illicit Iraqi and Egyptian artifacts currently owned by the company or museum to their countries of origin. (He neglected to mention that the Gilgamesh Dream tablet had been seized on Sept. 24, 2019 by the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations or that he is required to do this by law). In a statement released in March 2020, Steve Green announced that, "We also hope to finalize agreements with organizations in Egypt and Iraq that will allow for us to provide technical assistance, and support the ongoing study and preservation of their important cultural property." The problem? The proposed agreement with Museum of the Bible (MOTB) and Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc (HL) is a terrible deal for the people of Iraq. Nor is it necessary: Green has already promised to return their artifacts, and MOTB/HL are obligated to do with or without this agreement. The Daily Beast has received a copy of a draft of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq and HL/MOTB. (Despite MOTB's repeated insistence that it is a separate organization and is not implicated in HL's actions, they are both identified as "the second party" in the memo. Green appears as the signatory for both organizations). The memo draft is the product of ongoing negotiations between the two parties and thus no individual element of it can be firmly credited to either side. That said, it's a shoddy deal for Iraq. So bad that the Iraqi people themselves have felt compelled to respond. An article published in an Arabic newspaper on Aug. 15 expressed grave concerns about the terms of this proposed memo calling it "exploitative and degrading." The Daily Beast reached out to both MOTB and lawyer Thomas Kline, of Cultural Heritage Partners, who represents and advises them. Neither were able to verify the document we received but a MOTB spokesperson confirmed that "discussions are ongoing and appear to be proceeding in good faith." Multiple other sources confirmed authenticity of the document. The memo itself outlines the plan for the return of Iraqi cultural heritage, the process of identifying that heritage, and the money ($15 million) that MOTB/HL will use to fund "a program to help strengthen the institutional, technical, and human resource capacities of Iraq's antiquities sector." MOTB/HL also agrees to pick up the considerable tab on the costs of returning the artifacts to Iraq. In exchange, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities agrees to loan some items to MOTB for up to five years; allows MOTB to research and publish the antiquities in question; and agrees not to sue MOTB/HL or the Museum's donors about anything at all that has happened up until this point. To be very clear, if Iraq was to sign this memo as originally written they would be giving up their legal rights to damages.The Daily Beast has consulted with experts in Iraqi archaeology, international law, and art crime about this document. Here are some of the problems they identified with it. Many parts of the agreement are just basic things that MOTB/HL has to do to comply with the law and yet in exchange it is mandating that Iraq loan valuable parts of its cultural heritage to the museum. Dr. Zainab Bahrani, the Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and an Iraqi by birth, told me: "Hobby Lobby has to return these looted objects to Iraq anyway. Iraq is not obliged to send them loans for their museum as part of the deal, or to let them conserve objects, and to renounce any future challenge of things in their collection. Why would anyone in Iraq ever agree to this? I do not see how this MoU is at all beneficial for Iraq, for the Iraq Museum, or for the [State Board of Antiquities and Heritage]."Professor Patty Gerstenblith, a world-leading expert on cultural heritage and director of DePaul's Center in Art, Museum and Cultural Law, who advised Green about Hobby Lobby's practices in 2010, echoed those concerns and said, "I think Iraq is giving up more than it will gain through this proposed MoU, as it was originally proposed, and I do not think its interests are being well served."The $15 million promised to the Iraqi government is insufficient. The money, Bahrani pointed out, is for MOTB to provide training courses for Iraq Museum staff but are they the right people for the job? "It is a matter of public record," Bahrani said "that this company and its museum have been involved in the illicit trade in antiquities, and that scholars associated with it have participated in destructive practices with ancient artifacts that would be condemned by the international community of scholars and scientific conservators who are experts in this field." As Joel Baden and I wrote in our book Bible Nation, the prioritization of biblical artifacts over non-Christian cultural heritage led to unnecessary irrevocable damage to Egyptian artifacts. Is MOTB really in a position to train anybody about conservation when not so long ago their representatives were dissolving Egyptian funerary masks on the stove while watching football games? Beyond the irony of positioning themselves as conservation experts and teachers, the agreement is very vague about the specifics of the administration of these funds. Erin L. Thompson, professor of art crime at John Jay College (CUNY) and author of a book on the history of private collecting of antiquities, said, "If this agreement is signed, MOTB/HL gets to put out a press release saying they're donating $15 million to protect Iraqi antiquities" but "There's no time frame specified… The agreement does not specify who gets the money, [and] under this wording, they could pay American consultants to train Iraqi museum staff, for example, with none of the money actually going to Iraqis." All of money could be spent financing visas and paying for the travel expenses and meals of American consultants.Thompson added that while $15,000,000 sounds like a lot of money, it's actually not. "We will never know the extent of the damage caused by the looting of Iraqi archeological sites undertaken to produce the thousands of artifacts purchased by Hobby Lobby, but I am confident that this damage, to Iraq and to the world, was far, far greater than $15 million."In the past some academics have defended and even championed efforts to keep Iraqi artifacts in the U.S. so that they can study them. In 2018, David Owen, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Cornell University who has published descriptions of hundreds of (looted) tablets from the lost city of Irisagrig, called for Hobby Lobby's tablets to remain in the United States. "Once they enter the bowels of the Iraq Museum," he told LiveScience, "it is unlikely scholars will ever have access to them, nor are there any Iraqi scholars capable of publishing them given the many thousands of unpublished texts already in storage in the museum for generations and mostly inaccessible to scholars."Beyond the dismissive comments about the skills and capabilities of Iraqi academics (for the record, Eckart Frahm, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at Yale University, publicly disagreed with Owen on this point) this statement is no more true for Iraq than it is the U.S. or U.K. In the 19th century, British academics used arguments about how "no one is as good as [the British]" in order to justify the export of the priceless Oxyrhynchus collection to the U.K. For the past century these papyrus fragments have been housed at the University of Oxford. Not only were the fragments vulnerable to theft, a very small proportion (between 1 percent and 5 percent) of them have been published so far and only select scholars are allowed to access and work on this collection. MOTB has similar problems; access to their collection is restricted to members of their Scholar's Initiative (formerly the Green Scholar's Initiative), the composition of which was governed by shared religious commitments. This is not to say that these scholars are unqualified, on the contrary there are many brilliant individuals working for Museum of the Bible, but the museum's collection is not and has never been open to all. None of these situations are ideal, but if anyone has the right to tightly control access to and publication of the cultural heritage of Iraq, surely it is those who own this heritage—the Iraqi people?Many parts of the agreement appear to be PR spin or toothless unenforceable promises. As one Iraqi researcher told The Daily Beast, the discussion of intellectual property rights to the objects is strange when ancient tablets do not have property rights attached to them. Photographs, copies, and publications of the antiquities, on the other hand, do have intellectual property rights but those rights aren't under full discussion in this document. Nor does the memo guarantee that the process of collaboration will include Iraqi academics as co-authors on any future publications. Similarly, a clause about cooperating with the Iraqi government to identify other antiquities that belong to the people of Iraq in the MOTB/HL collections is, Thompson said, "a meaningless promise that serves no other purpose than looking good when quoted in a press release." It is illegal to import into the United States any archaeological material illegally removed from Iraq. "This clause is nothing but self-congratulation for following laws that the Museum of the Bible and Hobby Lobby are already obligated to follow—and which they have repeatedly broken. You don't get to issue press releases patting yourself on the back for cooperating with a murder investigation—you're simply obliged to do so!"One of the strangest elements of the memo is the discussion about the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet. It is the only named object in the putative agreement, but it doesn't belong to nor is it in the custody of HL/MOTB. It was seized by the U.S. government last September and is currently owned by it. HL/MOTB and Iraq are negotiating about a renewable five-year loan of an object of which neither has custody. The U.S. government has a history of returning artifacts to their rightful owners, even when diplomatic relations are fraught. The 2013 return of a silver ceremonial drinking vessel to Iran, for example, actually helped thaw diplomatic relations between the two countries. If Iraq signs an agreement to loan the tablet to MOTB, it may in fact slow the return of the tablet. In fact, given that the loan is renewable, the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet might never make it home. Arguably the most disturbing part of the memo is that it releases MOTB/HL and donors to MOTB from any and all past liabilities relating to "Iraq." The donors that the MOU probably has in mind for this blanket release of responsibility are the Green family, the owners of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc, who oversaw the importing of illicit antiquities in the first place and are MOTB's biggest donors. But that's not what the MOU says. It just reads that donors will be released from "any and all demands, causes of action, liabilities, obligations, damages or claims of any kind whatsoever… which Iraq may have" against them. As Thompson told The Daily Beast "if Iraq signs this agreement and finds out that someone once donated $10 to the Museum of the Bible and then killed an Iraqi citizen, or embezzled from the Iraqi government, it has agreed not to prosecute them." Thompson told me that she believes that the agreement as written is much too broad, but says, "Even if you interpret the immunity as applying just to antiquities, I interpret this as asking [Ministry of Culture] to release MOTB/HL from any liability for other looted antiquities that may still be discovered in their collections. This is asking for a get out of jail free card, valid no matter what wrong-doing is discovered."In the past there have been examples of governments working together with museums who have had to return looted antiquities to the benefit of both parties. For example, the Getty Museum worked with the Greek and Italian governments in ways that were mutually beneficial. This, however, is something altogether different. Thompson, who is the nation's foremost academic expert on art crime, told me: "The proposed agreement is an attempt to bully Iraq into surrendering their legal rights in return for a payment that, even if it goes to Iraq, is in no way commensurate with Iraq's losses. I am also concerned that it would set a horrible precedent. Unscrupulous collectors will believe that if they are caught, they can escape all punishment by dangling promises of a payout to countries under the pretense of helping them preserve the antiquities that the collectors haven't already managed to loot." In a statement on Monday, a Museum of the Bible representative told The Daily Beast, "Museum of the Bible Chairman Steve Green and museum staff have been in discussions with Iraqi embassy staff regarding the cultural heritage of Iraq since fall of 2019, after earlier meetings in 2017. Recently, there was a meeting with Dr. Nazim to continue those discussions. The museum has elected to legally return the artifacts that do not meet its acquisition standards, has recently done so, and seeks to support research, exhibitions, and technical assistance projects with Iraq. The details of these plans have yet to be finalized, though we anticipate that to occur soon. The museum is not aware of any previous or pending legal action on the part of Iraq."A statement issued by the Ministry of Culture last week stated that the memo has not yet been signed or agreed upon. It is, thus, still subject to change. The statement added that the Iraqi government would not give up its rights to recover its property. Negotiations are ongoing, let's hope this remains the case and that the Iraqi government does not reach an agreement that gives away the proverbial farm. 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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| Laura thrashes Louisiana, but damage is less than predicted Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:15 AM PDT  One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S., Laura barreled across Louisiana on Thursday, shearing off roofs, killing at least six people and maintaining ferocious strength while carving a destructive path hundreds of miles inland. "It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
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| The World Can Live Without Davos Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:14 AM PDT |
| The Most Expensive Round of Golf in the EU’s History Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:08 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Playing a round of golf in the middle of a pandemic is hardly a good look for a politician. But playing two games and attending a formal dinner with around 80 guests, as swathes of the Irish political establishment did earlier this month, is bound to provoke outrage — not least in a country where official Covid-19 guidelines limit most indoor events to six people. With public trust in authority already fraying, several high-profile political heads have rolled amid "golfgate."The crisis spilled over onto the international stage with Wednesday's resignation of Phil Hogan, the Irishman who held the job of trade commissioner for the 27-country European Union. Commissioners don't often quit their five-year posting in the Brussels bubble, and, when they do, it's usually over bigger things (like accusations of fraud). Still, the drip-feed of revelations on Hogan's other movements in Ireland, as well as his defensive tone and dithering over whether to apologize, evidently became too much for Hogan and his boss, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.The worry now is that the Commission will be left weaker by turmoil stemming from losing the EU's top official on trade at a critical time — from the tit-for-tat tariff spats with Donald Trump to the need for a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain. Hogan leaves big shoes to fill as someone with experience negotiating complex trade agreements and the Brussels machine, even if Covid-19 and an election year in the U.S. haven't been conducive to trade breakthroughs. (Hogan's short-lived pitch for the World Trade Organization's top job was also an unhelpful distraction.) Replacing him is a headache both Dublin and Brussels could have done without: If mishandled, it might lead to a wider Commission reshuffle that would rob Ireland of an influential role and potentially hinder EU policymaking at a critical moment for managing the coronavirus and Brexit.There are also some bigger questions about accountability that need to be settled.Hogan's resignation busts the myth that top EU officials — frequently painted by euroskeptics as unelected bureaucrats — are immune to censure once they leave national capitals and reach Brussels. But it was pressure from Ireland that set the tone here. Without the ire in Dublin and extraordinary attacks on Hogan from the Irish government, the story probably wouldn't have ended the same way. (In the U.K., for example, advisor Dominic Cummings kept his job despite breaking the rules.) This could set a messy precedent if it opens the Commission to too much national pressure in handling perceived breaches of its code of conduct requiring integrity, responsibility and ethical probity.So while Hogan's actions look hard to defend, the Commission would do well to arm itself with more independent tools for evaluating potential ethical breaches, such as an ethics oversight body, as advocated by Alberto Alemanno, a professor of law at HEC. That will enable it to come out of this scandal stronger, even if some disruption will always be hard to avoid.This has surely been the costliest round of golf in the EU's history. With luck, Hogan might be replaced without too much drama. But it's in everyone's interest to make sure the long-term effects of "golfgate" aren't worse than its immediate fallout.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the European Union and France. He worked previously at Reuters and Forbes.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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| Lukashenko must respect fundamental rights, says NATO chief Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:38 AM PDT |
| Family of convicted Hezbollah member denounces 'injustice' Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:30 AM PDT  The family of a Hezbollah member convicted in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri described Thursday the guilty verdict handed down by a U.N.-backed tribunal as a "grave injustice." The comment was the first by relatives of Salim Ayyash, who was found guilty as a co-conspirator in five charges linked to his involvement in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others in a huge blast 15 years ago. It was released in a statement distributed by Hezbollah.
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| Back to class: Despite virus surge, Europe reopens schools Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:05 AM PDT  A mother and her three children scanned the school supplies in a Paris supermarket, plucking out multicolored fountain pens, crisp notebooks – and plenty of masks. Despite resurgent coronavirus infections, similar scenes are unfolding across Europe as a new school year dawns. Virus or no virus, European authorities are determined to put children back into classrooms, to narrow the learning gaps between haves and have-nots that deepened during lockdowns — and to get their parents back to work.
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