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UK says significant differences remain on Brexit free trade deal

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:18:27 GMT

Korea’s Endless State of War: How Does It End?
Unless U.S. leaders relinquish their quixotic quest for a nonnuclear North Korea and settle on more achievable objectives—such as limits on the size of a DPRK nuclear arsenal and on the number and range of ballistic missiles—there is almost no hope to overcome the ongoing impasse in negotiations.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:18:00 GMT

Afghan Contractor Handed Out Russian Cash to Kill Americans, Officials Say
KABUL, Afghanistan -- He was a lowly drug smuggler, neighbors and relatives say, then ventured into contracting, seeking a slice of the billions of dollars the U.S.-led coalition was funneling into construction projects in Afghanistan.But he really began to show off his wealth in recent years, after establishing a base in Russia, though how he earned those riches remained mysterious. On his regular trips home to northern Afghanistan, he drove the latest model cars, protected by bodyguards, and his house was recently upgraded to a four-story villa.Now Rahmatullah Azizi stands as a central piece of a puzzle rocking Washington, named in U.S. intelligence reports and confirmed by Afghan officials as a key middleman who for years handed out money from a Russian military intelligence unit to reward Taliban-linked fighters for targeting U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to American and Afghan officials.As security agencies connected the dots of the bounty scheme and narrowed in on him, they carried out sweeping raids to arrest dozens of his relatives and associates about six months ago but discovered that Azizi had sneaked out of Afghanistan and was likely back in Russia. What they did find in one of his homes, in Kabul, was about half a million dollars in cash.American and Afghan officials for years have maintained that Russia was running clandestine operations to undermine the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and aid the Taliban.But U.S. officials only recently concluded that a Russian spy agency was paying bounties for killing coalition troops, including Americans, which the Kremlin and the Taliban have denied.According to officials briefed on the matter, U.S. intelligence officials believe the program is run by Unit 29155, an arm of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU that has carried out assassinations and other operations overseas.That a conduit for the payments would be someone like Azizi -- tied to the U.S. reconstruction effort, enmeshed in the regional netherworld but not prominent enough to attract outside attention -- speaks to the depth of Russia's reach into the increasingly complicated Afghan battlefield, exploiting a nexus of crime and terror to strike blows with years of deniability.The public revelation last week of that conclusion has touched off a political firestorm in Washington. White House officials said at first that President Donald Trump was never briefed on the matter, but it emerged that the intelligence assessment was included in a written briefing to the president in late February, if not earlier.As Democratic and Republican officials have expressed alarm at the news, and the administration's lack of action in response, the White House has insisted that the information was uncertain.Details of Azizi's role in the bounty scheme were confirmed through a dozen interviews that included U.S. and Afghan officials aware of the intelligence and the raids that led to it; his neighbors and friends; and business associates of the middle men arrested on suspicion of involvement. All spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation.U.S. intelligence reports named Azizi as a key middleman between the GRU and militants linked to the Taliban who carried out the attacks. He was among those who collected the cash in Russia, which intelligence files described as multiple payments of "hundreds of thousands of dollars." Those files were among the materials provided to Congress this week.Through a layered and complex Hawala system -- an informal way to transfer money -- he delivered it to Afghanistan for the missions, the files say. The transfers were often sliced into smaller amounts that routed through several regional countries before arriving in Afghanistan, associates of the arrested businessmen said.Afghan officials said prizes of as much as 0,000 per killed soldier were offered for American and coalition targets.Just how the money was dispersed to militants carrying out attacks for the Taliban, and at what level the coordination occurred, remains unclear. But officials say the network had grown increasingly ambitious and was in communication with more senior levels in Taliban military ranks to discuss potential targets.About six months ago, Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, raided the offices of several Hawala businessmen both in Kabul, the capital, and in Kunduz, in the north, who were believed to be associated with the bounty scheme, making more than a dozen arrests."The target of the operation was Rahmat, who was going back-and-forth to Russia for a long time and said he worked there, but no one knew what he did," said Safiullah Amiry, deputy head of Kunduz provincial council, referring to Azizi. But by the time the raid took place, "Rahmat had fled.""From what I heard from security officials, the money had come from Russia through Rahmat," he added.Russia was initially seen as cooperating with U.S. efforts after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, as its interests in defeating al-Qaida, an international Islamic terror group, aligned with those of the United States.But in recent years, as the two powers clashed elsewhere, the Kremlin grew wary of the prolonged U.S. presence and moved closer to the Taliban, hedging its bets on who would take power in a post-American Afghanistan.The Russians also saw an opportunity for long-awaited payback for the Soviet humiliation in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the Red Army withdrew after being unable to defeat a U.S.-backed insurgency.Russia has walked a fine balance in recent years, eager to bloody the American nose but wary of Afghanistan collapsing into a chaos that could spill over its borders. Publicly, Russia has admitted only to information-sharing with the Taliban in fighting the Islamic State in Afghanistan, a common foe.The U.S. conclusion in 2019 that the Russians were sending bounty money to the Taliban came at a delicate time in the conflict, just as the United States was deep into negotiations with the insurgents over a deal to withdraw the remaining American troops from the country.Some of the attacks believed to be part of the bounty scheme were carried out around the time the Trump administration was actively reaching out to Russia for cooperation on those peace talks. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy leading the talks, repeatedly met with Russian officials to build consensus around the U.S. endgame.The Afghan battlefield is saturated with smaller terrorist groups in addition to the Taliban, who are still responsible for the majority of the violence. Criminal networks, profiteers and terror training experts also freelance their services -- often to several groups at the same time.Azizi, who neighbors and relatives said is in his 40s, thrived in that convoluted, murky environment.A friend who has known him since his early days in Kunduz, as well as later in Russia, said he had started off with smuggling small shipments of drugs into Iran in his 20s, but that venture was not very successful. He had returned to northern Afghanistan, and somehow won contracts from the U.S.-led coalition forces to build stretches of a couple roads in Kunduz, before making his way to Russia.None of those interviewed who know Azizi were surprised when his associates were raided about six months ago and one of his brothers taken into custody with the half-million dollars in cash. As one of his friends put it, he had gone from "not even having a blanket" to having multiple houses, fancy cars, and security escorts.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:11:47 GMT

Slotkin, Former Intelligence Briefer, Presses White House on Russia Reports
WASHINGTON -- From the moment President Donald Trump publicly denied knowledge of intelligence that suggested that Russia had offered bounties for killing American troops in Afghanistan, something seemed off to Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.Slotkin, a former White House national security aide and intelligence briefer whose tasks included ensuring that previous presidents were made aware of such potentially momentous reports, began calling around to some of her former colleagues from the George W. Bush administration. Check me on this, she said. What would we have done?The answer was clear, Slotkin said in an interview. They would have alerted superiors to make sure the president learned of the assessment."If I had been at the National Security Council under either Bush or Obama, and this had come in, I would have slapped a cover note on top of it, sent it up the chain to the national security adviser and said, 'Sir, I want to flag this,'" Slotkin said. "'There's some conflicting views. But it's important -- I think we should flag it for the president ahead of his calls.'"The emergence of the disturbing reports and Trump's responses -- a combination of denial, claims of ignorance, and attacks on leakers and the news media -- have raised broader questions about how the president and his White House handle intelligence matters. And based on her personal experience, Slotkin has taken a lead role in demanding answers.Slotkin, 43, is a first-term member of the House, where she is one of a tight-knit circle of moderate female lawmakers with deep experience on national security and was part of a small group of Democrats who went to the White House this week to be briefed about the Russian bounties.More than a decade ago she was a young analyst at the CIA, where Slotkin described her role as being a "human sifter" of the most important intelligence information filtering in about Iraq.After her team's daily 6:15 a.m. briefing, she would comb through new intelligence and foreign media reports and State Department cables to see what needed further examination and what needed to reach Bush in the memo she wrote every night. At times during her intelligence career, she would personally provide briefings to Bush and other senior administration officials, alongside other senior intelligence officials.So for Slotkin, the White House's explanation for Trump's ignorance of the intelligence -- that it was too uncertain to share with the president -- made no sense."When a piece of information like this comes in that, allegedly, the Russians are paying a bounty for the deaths of American soldiers, and I hear that his senior staff doesn't take that information to him -- even though he's on the phone with Putin five times -- it just, for me, fits into a bigger narrative about this president," Slotkin said."It's deeply concerning to me," she added.Since arriving in Washington last year, Slotkin, who served in Iraq as a CIA analyst and in President Barack Obama's Defense Department before running for Congress in 2018, has drawn heavily on her national security experience. She resisted the push to impeach Trump until an intelligence whistleblower came forward to reveal that the president had tried to enlist a foreign power, Ukraine, to investigate his political rivals in a way that could affect a future election. During the inquiry that followed, Slotkin later told The New York Times, she identified personally with the national security officials who came forward to testify, drawing attacks from Trump.Now she is reliving her own government experience once again as one of a large number of lawmakers in both parties who are demanding more information from the administration about its handling of the Russian intelligence."It's been surprising how much I've toggled between my old life and my current life," Slotkin said in an interview. "It sometimes pulls me in different directions."This week, after all, was finally supposed to be infrastructure week in the House, a few months before her first attempt to win reelection in a district that Trump won by 7 points. Slotkin had spent last week preparing to celebrate the pipeline-safety and water-quality projects she fought to include in the House's sweeping, trillion-dollar infrastructure plan that passed Wednesday.But on Friday, as The Times reported that the administration had intelligence that indicated that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American and allied troops, Slotkin found herself drawn back into her former life. She has spent hours explaining to colleagues the granular procedure of filtering intelligence information, and she pressured White House officials to explain what would have been unthinkable in a different administration -- that the president could have been unaware of such an explosive assessment.Democratic leaders have capitalized on Slotkin's expertise, along with that of Reps. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a former CIA operations officer, and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a former Navy helicopter pilot, putting them out front as they raise questions about the intelligence and Trump's handling of it. The three freshmen were chosen to accompany senior Democrats to a classified briefing at the White House on Tuesday.Afterward, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, made a point of singling out their expertise, noting at a news conference that "all of them have experience or particular responsibilities in the intel and national security sphere.""We can ask questions about the way things might be written or the way information might be caveated or what's not being said," Spanberger said. "It's sort of a natural mode to go into and say, 'I hear you talking about one element of this larger discussion, but I'm going to need more information.'"For Slotkin, the visit was her first return to the White House for a briefing as a member of Congress."New carpets," Slotkin observed afterward, adding that she recognized some personnel in the Situation Room. "New ways to secure your phone."But like her colleagues, she walked away with unanswered questions about how the intelligence was conveyed to the president and frustrated at the absence of the intelligence officials she knew would have been responsible for corroborating and conveying the reports.Since the briefing, Slotkin has convened some of her colleagues to outline the typical trajectory for intelligence once it reaches the United States, as well as the significance of the escalation between the two countries.Slotkin first gravitated toward national security work after the Sept. 11 attacks, eager to help prevent another assault on American security. The CIA recruited her as a Middle East analyst, and she ultimately served three tours in Iraq.In 2007, she moved to the National Security Council, where she specialized on Iraq under both Bush and Obama. During the Obama administration, she moved to the Pentagon, where she eventually became acting assistant secretary of defense. There, she managed diplomatic and defense relationships in Europe and the Middle East, directly confronting Russian military officials after Russian jets struck Syria in 2015 and negotiating directly with top Russian generals over the airspace in Syria.In an interview, she recalled flying to Moscow and having intelligence exchanges before Russia invaded Ukraine, all while knowing they would not always be truthful."I don't believe that the president's policy reflects the very complicated relationship with the Russians," she said.Asked about the possibility that Trump had been informed of the intelligence about Russian bounties, which intelligence officials have said was included in his intelligence briefings as early as this February, Slotkin paused."I can only go by what he says and then what his senior staff says," she said. "And to be honest, I don't like thinking about the fact that he may have been aware of this.""I don't want to think about a commander in chief who doesn't have the back of U.S. forces," she added, reflecting on her husband, a retired Army colonel, and her stepdaughter, an active-duty Army officer. "But if he knew, and just didn't care, it might have been worse."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:08:40 GMT

Kremlin hails vote allowing Putin to extend his rule a triumph as critics cry foul

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:03:33 GMT

Wide shift in opinion on police, race rare in US polling
It's rare for public opinion on social issues to change sharply and swiftly. About half of American adults believe police violence against the public is a “very” or “extremely” serious problem, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only about a third said the same as recently as last September, as well as in July 2015, just a few months after Freddie Gray, a Black man, died in police custody in Baltimore.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:00:03 GMT

Why the Korean War Could End, or a Second Korean War Could Begin
The Korean War could come to an end formally, legally, with a peace treaty which would replace the seventy-year-old armistice, or it could end, for all practical purposes, with the end to hostile relations between North and South Korea (ROK) and between North Korea (DPRK) and the United States, with no party having any real concern that war would break out again. It could end one way and not the other, or it could end both de facto and de jure, but I do not think it will end in any sense within the next five years. Indeed, in practical terms, what has passed for peace for decades could be replaced by war at any time.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:51:00 GMT

Hachalu Hundessa: Unrest rages in Ethiopia as protest singer buried
Popular musician Hachalu Hundessa is buried, as armed gangs target members of rival ethnic groups.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:27:07 GMT

Khayelitsha: Cape Town police suspended for evicting naked man in South Africa
Their actions in a township were branded degrading and inhumane by South Africa's housing minister.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:19:50 GMT

Former Libya envoy accuses Security Council of 'hypocrisy'

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:10:02 GMT

Russia voted to pass a law that claims to limit presidential power, but a cynical loophole means Putin can rule until 2036
President Vladimir Putin, who is set to end his final term in 2024, would now be allowed to run again right away and could rule until he is 83.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:05:03 GMT

Kremlin hails 'triumph' in vote extending Putin's rule
The Kremlin on Thursday hailed as a "triumph" overwhelming backing in a national vote on constitutional reforms to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule. The Central Elections Commission announced that 77.92 percent of voters had backed the reforms with a turnout of 67.97 percent after all votes had been counted. The Kremlin "definitely considers this as a triumph," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, describing the vote as a "referendum on trust" in the Russian president.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:03:35 GMT

Kremlin hails 'triumph' as Russians clear way for Putin to rule until 2036
Russian President Vladimir Putin secured his political future on Wednesday after a wide majority of voters supported a controversial national referendum that paved the way for the former KGB agent to stay in power until 2036. The referendum proposed more than 200 constitutional amendments, one of which will see presidential term limits reset, allowing Putin to run for the job again in 2024 and in 2030 if he chooses. Official results published by the Kremlin on Thursday, after 100 percent of ballots had been counted, showed that nearly 78 percent of voters had approved constitutional changes allowing Putin to run for two more six-year terms after his current one ends in 2024.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 10:51:24 GMT

Kremlin hails 'triumph' as Russians clear way for Putin to rule until 2036
A referendum's result gives Putin the opportunity to be Russia’s longest-serving ruler since Peter the Great.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 10:51:24 GMT

UK businesses warn Britain could be heading for Brexit 'disaster' as fears grow of border check chaos from day one
UK business groups fear that Britain is heading for Brexit disaster with doubts growing that new border checks will be ready in time.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 10:06:35 GMT

Vladimir Putin wins 'by landslide' to stay in power at least until 2036
The Kremlin has overwhelmingly won Wednesday’s vote on constitutional changes that would let Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, stay in power for 16 more years. Russia’s Central Election Commission on Thursday morning unveiled a full preliminary count of the vote, showing a staggering 78 per cent backing the constitutional amendments. The turnout was reported at 65 percent. The overwhelming support for essentially allowing Mr Putin, 67, to rule for life stands in sharp contrast with recent opinion polls. Approval ratings for Mr Putin, who has ruled Russia for 20 years, have been declining for years before hitting an all-time low in May. Polling indicated the Russian people would be less enthusiastic about handing him a mandate to rule until he is 83 than the crushing victory suggests. The vote - which included over 200 amendments included vague pledges to improve health care, protect Russian children and heterosexual marriage - does not fall under Russian election laws. Independent observers claim the Kremlin has been given a free hand in vote-rigging as a result.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:46:06 GMT

What is Boris Johnson’s ‘New Deal’ – and how does it compare with Franklin D Roosevelt’s?
This was first published in The Telegraph's Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanation behind the week’s biggest political stories, sign up to the Refresher here – straight to your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free. What's the story? Britain can no longer continue to be “prisoners” of the coronavirus, the Prime Minister insisted, announcing his “positively Rooseveltian” economic recovery package. Boris Johnson vowed to spend £5 billion on a programme of accelerated capital spending on hospitals, roads, rail, prisons, courts, schools and high streets to help the country bounce back from the ravages of coronavirus. He said: “It sounds like a New Deal. All I can say is that if so, then that is how it is meant to sound and to be, because that is what the times demand. “A Government that is powerful and determined and that puts its arms around people at a time of crisis. It’s time not just for a New Deal but for a fair deal of the British people.” The Prime Minister pledged £1.5 billion for hospital maintenance, £100 million ring-fenced for 29 projects to improve the road network, and over £1 billion to fund the rebuilding of schools. But how does the package stack up against that of the 32nd President of the United States? As a share of the economy, Mr Johnson's spending plan is 200 times less ambitious than the original New Deal. President Roosevelt’s stimulus package, which supported America through the Great Depression, is estimated by economists to have represented 40 per cent of pre-crash economic output. Mr Johnson’s plan amounts to just 0.2 per cent of our GDP. The figure is also dwarfed by the stimulus packages pledged by other world leaders. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel recently announced a €130 billion stimulus package, which accounts for nearly four per cent of the country’s GDP. Still, Mr Johnson thought his £5 billion spending package substantial enough to warrant the clarification that he is “not a communist”. He admitted his plan may sound like “a prodigious amount of Government intervention” but insisted he wanted to “create the conditions” for free market enterprise. The Prime Minister perhaps struck a cautious tone because he walks a tightrope on the issue of spending, with many of his backbenchers naturally more supportive of tax cuts to stimulate the economy. But he is also aware of the promise he made to “red wall” voters he won over in last year’s general election. Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University, summed up the dilemma. “A ‘Rooseveltian New Deal’ strategy would go down fairly well with a large proportion of the electorate, and even with the Conservative electorate,” he said. “The problem he has is that this is not what most of his MPs joined the Conservative Party to do.” Looking back In the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, President Roosevelt launched one of the largest, most expensive US government programmes ever. During his election campaign the Democratic nominee had promised: “A New Deal for the American people." It focused on what historians refer to as the "3 Rs": relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent another depression. First, President Roosevelt sought to tackle the huge levels of unemployment, which reached 24.9 per cent in 1933. He established the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps to dispense emergency and short-term governmental aid, and to provide temporary jobs and youth work in the national forests. The Prime Minister announced something markedly similar in his own ‘fair deal’ – a Conservative Rangers scheme to help support those left unemployed by the virus recession. Among the most best known of President Roosevelt’s measures was the Public Works Administration, designed to reduce unemployment and increase purchasing power through the construction of highways and public buildings. The later stages of the New Deal established the basis for the US social security system and improved workers' rights. In the 80 years since the Great Depression was formally declared over in June of 1938, historians and economists have continued to debate the true merits of the New Deal. Some have argued that it was ultimately the Second World War which finally lowered unemployment and increased GDP as a result of America's weapons production. However the reforms certainly encouraged the beginning of the labour movement in the United States, which fostered wage growth and sustained the purchasing power of millions of Americans. Perhaps most importantly, it also restored faith in democracy at a time when many believed the only options left were between communism and fascism. Anything else I need to know? Leicester is back in lockdown, virus cases are still far from flatlining and huge swathes of the economy still have no date for which they can reopen. So why now? The Government’s fight against coronavirus is far from over, however it undoubtedly suits Mr Johnson to change the narrative. While his deep admiration for Winston Churchill is clear, his libertarian instincts mean he is not a natural wartime Prime Minister. Mr Johnson is at his best when he is able to strike a positive note. Indeed, yesterday he proclaimed he was a “glass half-full” politician. By grasping the reins and setting the course to recovery, he finds himself on far more comfortable footing. Recent polling, showing Sir Keir Starmer’s steadily creeping up, is likely to have had an impact in the decision making. An Opinium poll last week showed that the Labour leader had overtaken Mr Johnson as the British public’s preferred choice for Prime Minister, with 37 per cent to 35 per cent preferring Sir Keir for the top job. The Government understands that keeping the Labour voters they won over in 2019 is of vital importance. It’s perhaps why some ministers have begun describing the Government’s approach as “Blue Labour”, taking a “Blair-lite” approach with a Conservative brand. The Refresher take While Mr Johnson’s package in no way matches the scope or scale of Mr Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, it is a far cry from traditional Conservative economic policies. But it’s Mr Johnson’s key voters that look set to be hit hardest by coronavirus. Research from the Centre for Progressive Policy found that the recession triggered by the crisis will see an average fall of 12 per cent in economic output across the “red wall”. And the Conservative Party is currently more popular among the nation’s lowest earners than it is with the highest. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) think tank noted that 45 per cent of the poorest Britons voted for Boris Johnson in 2019, while just 30.6 per cent on low salaries backed Labour. When Mr Johnson won the general election in December he told such supporters he understood they may have "lent us your vote". He knows that if he does not repay them then the Government’s 80-seat majority could erode very quickly.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:37:15 GMT

Chinese Communist Party celebrates 99th anniversary by praising coronavirus success
The Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 99th anniversary on Wednesday by saying its success in containing Covid-19 proved its superiority and that of the country's socialist system.People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, said in an editorial: "This great struggle has fully demonstrated the clear political excellence of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and our socialist system."Under the resolute leadership of the party central with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, China has fought a sound people's war ... the Chinese people united together to fight the pandemic, made heavy sacrifices, and achieved great strategic results."The disease, which first emerged in Wuhan in December, has now infected over 10 million people and killed more than 500,000 worldwide.Separately, Xi, the general secretary of the Communist Party, wrote to volunteers at Shanghai Fudan University urging them to help fulfil the party's mission.He was referring to the "two centenary goals" " turning China into a "comprehensively well-off society" by the end of this year and a "powerful socialist country" by 2050.Xi also presided over a study session with Politburo members on Tuesday emphasising the importance of the party's organisational work and learning from history.Founded on July 1, 1921, the Chinese Communist Party now has 91.9 million members " making it one of the biggest political parties in the world.Xi Jinping urged members to stay true to the party's mission. Photo: Xinhua alt=Xi Jinping urged members to stay true to the party's mission. Photo: Xinhua"The CCP is probably the only political party in the world now that still combines Marxist doctrine and Leninist-style organisation," said Zheng Yongnian, professor of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. "That's the key to explaining its power to get things done."Zheng also said that Xi's emphasis on delivering the centenary goals was because "the legitimacy of the CCP rule lies in these missions".He continued "It is what the party has promised the Chinese people, and it is the party's responsibility to deliver. That is very different from the West where parties can take turns to rule."Xi's call on party members to stay true to the party's principles came at a time when China and the US have clashed over a wide range of issues from security to trade and Hong Kong.Tian Feilong, an associate professor at Beihang University's Law School in Beijing, said Communist Party leaders were convinced that the continued spread of Covid-19 in the US and Washington's strained relationship with its allies meant that now was "perhaps the weakest moment of US global influence"."This gives Beijing the confidence to live with the pain [caused by threatened US sanctions on officials], focus on its own priorities and it will prevail in the end," Tian said.A Beijing-based political analyst who requested anonymity agreed that pressure from the US would only stiffen Chinese leaders' resolve."Some people who have liberal views may complain about the loss of [personal] freedom, but the success in containing Covid-19 has boosted the Communist Party's confidence and garnered greater people's support for the party," he said."Beijing has made great efforts to study the collapse of the Soviet Union and the key lesson is that besides foreign interference, the union fell apart because the Soviet Communist Party had abandoned its own beliefs."So Xi's call on Chinese Communist Party members to stand firm on their beliefs, strengthen the party's organisation and learn from history should be understood in that light."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.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:30:00 GMT

Border tensions remain even as Chinese and Indian commanders continue negotiations
China says that its border troops' communication with India is making progress to ease their tensions, and that they will continue to talk out a solution to end the current stand-off.Major General Liu Lin, commander of China's South Xinjiang military region, and Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of India's Leh-based 14 Corps, met in Chushul, Ladakh, on Tuesday for the third time in a month, and made some "positive progress" on taking effective measures to disengage and reduce tension on the border, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said."We hope the Indian side will implement the agreed consensus with practical actions, continue keeping close communications through military and diplomatic channels, and jointly promote a de-escalation of the situation on the border," said Zhao.Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid published by the Communist Party's People's Daily, reported that China and India agreed that border troops would disengage in "different batches".Activists shout slogans against Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Jammu, India on Wednesday, a response to a border clash with China where 20 Indian soldiers died last month. Photo: AP alt=Activists shout slogans against Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Jammu, India on Wednesday, a response to a border clash with China where 20 Indian soldiers died last month. Photo: APCiting an unnamed source on the Chinese border force, the report said that frank and in-depth discussions on Tuesday had led both sides to agree to take strong measures to alleviate tension.But Indian media reported that during the 12-hour marathon negotiations, the two sides had difficulties on how to "define the details of disengagement".At their last meeting on June 22, they agreed to disengage from friction points along the disputed border. That meeting was held a week after the deadliest skirmish in decades between the two nations in Galwan Valley on June 15; in all, 20 Indian soldiers were killed.Troops from the two neighbours first engaged in clashes in early May over the patrols along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between Indian-administered Ladahk and Chinese-administered Aksai Chin. Tensions rose in the next two months, and extended into brawls at multiple locations along the 3,400km (2,100-mile) border.The two generals had their first meeting on June 6 and reached an agreement to disengage, but the implementation was disrupted by the Galwan Valley incident.For all their discussion, experts said, the negotiation between the frontline commanders does not seem to be producing any concrete result soon.The confrontation this time may well break the record of the Doklam stand-off in 2017, in which Chinese and Indian soldiers confronted each other for 73 days, from June to August, on the Doklam Plateau bordering Bhutan.The stalemate this time could well last until the Himalayan climate no longer allows it to continue, according to Lin Minwang, deputy director of Fudan University's Centre for South Asian Studies."There is no way to de-escalate right away, also no way to step back," he said. "The only thing possible for both sides to do is keep a posture for negotiation."A lack of trust and the gap in each other's understanding of the issue means the talks will be prolonged and the confrontation will drag on, said Sun Shihai, a researcher on China's relations with South Asia at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.India has brought in troop reinforcements and air force sorties to back up its front line, and has urgently bought weapons from Russia. China has also strengthened positions near the LAC as shown on satellite images and increased deployments and exercises on the Tibetan Plateau."In an optimistic scenario, they will continue the current deadlock for some time; in a more pessimistic scenario, there are still possibilities of another fight," said Sun.At least on the political and diplomatic levels, he said, the two sides seem to have agreed that the incident must be solved through peaceful means. But it remains for the military commanders on the ground to settle the issue."Maybe they will have to meet repeatedly for many more times, but it's better they wrestle with words than fight with stones," he said.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.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:30:00 GMT

Report: Detainees at high virus risk in crowded Yemen jail

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:19:01 GMT

After vote extending his rule, Putin risks era of 'stagnation'
President Vladimir Putin urged Russians to envisage the country they wanted to leave behind for their children and grandchildren during a historic vote this week to extend his rule. It was just such an era of stagnation -- the infamous "period zastoya" between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s mainly under Leonid Brezhnev -- that precipitated the end of the Soviet Union and threw Russia into chaos for years. The president's cohort "strongly mistrusts" free and fair elections as a way to decide who may one day rule after Putin, he says.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:16:59 GMT

Photo of toddler sitting on slain grandpa angers Kashmiris
A photo of a toddler sitting on the chest of of his dead grandfather has outraged residents of Indian-controlled Kashmir after the victim’s family accused government forces of shooting the 65-year-old man during a clash with rebels in the disputed region. Suhail Ahmed, the victim's son, said on Thursday that his father, Bashir Ahmed Khan, was “dragged out of his car and shot in cold blood” in front of his 3-year-old grandson during a gunbattle Wednesday between Indian troops and rebels in northwestern Sopore town. Hundreds of angry people staged anti-India protests, accusing the government forces of using the child’s images as PR stunt.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:16:27 GMT

Does wearing a mask pose any health risks?
Babies and toddlers should not wear masks because they could suffocate. The same goes for anyone who has trouble removing a mask without help. Others can wear masks without risking their health, according to experts, despite false rumors to the contrary.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:31:35 GMT

Russian officials: 78% of voters back extending Putin's rule
Almost 78% of voters in Russia have approved amendments to the country's constitution that will allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036, Russian election officials said Thursday after all the votes were counted. Kremlin critics said the vote was rigged. In the week-long balloting that concluded on Wednesday, 77.9% voted for the changes, and 21.3% voted against, with 100% of the precincts counted by Thursday morning, Russia's Central Election Commission said.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:30:57 GMT

Netanyahu Will Miss Trump, But Can Live With Biden
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Predictions are notoriously slippery, especially where U.S. elections are concerned. But there’s at least a strong possibility that after four years of a beautiful partnership Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could soon be facing life without Donald Trump.While many of the U.S.’s other allies might find that a cause for relief, for Bibi the reaction is likely to be more complicated. Trump has lavished priceless gifts on Bibi -- the Golan Heights, a U.S. embassy relocation to Jerusalem and a permission to wage covert war against Iran. Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal at Netanyahu’s urging and adopted Netanyahu’s design for a Palestinian mini-state in the West Bank. He even named the plan after himself.In the last three Israeli electoral campaigns, Trump worked hard to keep Bibi in office. Now it is Trump who is running for re-election. The president fully expects Bibi to reciprocate.But loyalty and gratitude are not among Bibi’s virtues. Recent polls show Trump losing by a large margin. The often more reliable Vegas odds make him a three-to-two underdog. Israeli diplomats in Washington report talking with increasingly demoralized Republicans and excited Democrats.Yes, the odds were against Trump in 2016, too. But this time they are based less on his personality than on his failed performance in office. Trump has botched the corona crisis. His economic boom has melted down into the highest unemployment rates since the Great Depression and a dramatic drop in GDP. He has responded to mass protests with bellicose law-and-order threats that have alienated even normally apolitical senior military officers. There is a hysterical tone his recent political ads; he no longer looks like a winner.A Biden victory would end the Bibi-Trump honeymoon, but it would not necessarily be a disaster for Netanyahu. Biden is a lifetime Zionist with a long senatorial record of support for Israel. During the nasty spat between Bibi and Obama over the Iran nuclear pact, the vice president managed to avoid a breach with Netanyahu, whom he has called a “great, great friend.” In that tense period, Bibi placed an emotional condolence call to Biden after the death of his son, Beau. Together they recalled their many moments during a “20-year friendship.”Biden is not only a friend, he is a centrist in a party whose progressive wing is not supportive of Israel. As president, he would not threaten military aid, as Democrat Bernie Sanders recently has. It is unlikely that he would reverse Trump’s recognition of Israel’s Golan annexation or return the U.S. embassy to Tel Aviv. There would be disagreement over how to deal with Iran and with the Palestinian issue, but it probably wouldn’t be disagreeable.No matter how weak Trump looks going into November, Bibi will not publicly break up with him before the election. Trump would see it as a betrayal and certainly seek to take revenge. Even in defeat, he would still have large number of supporters and Twitter follows. Most of them like Bibi. The last thing he wants is to be labelled a traitor or an ingrate by his offended ex-partner. If there is to be a separation, Netanyahu wants to keep it amicable.This will require some finesse. In the past, Trump has made televised campaign ads for Netanyahu, hosted him at high-profile Oval office meetings on the eve of elections and timed announcements of U.S. support to coincide with Bibi’s political needs.Bibi will not happily reciprocate. He will likely invoke the principle of strict neutrality in foreign elections, a principle every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir has violated. He will use the Covid-19 crisis as an excuse for not paying a visit to the White House, and for discouraging a presidential trip to Jerusalem. In his communications with Republican evangelical Zionist leaders and American Jews, Bibi will decline to echo Trump’s charge, when it comes to Israel, Biden is the second coming of Obama.If Biden wins, Bibi will have three main goals: 1) to win substantial new economic support from Washington during what looks to be a serious Israeli recession; 2) the adoption by the new administration of his view that Iran is the implacable enemy of both Israel and the US; and 3) preservation of the Trump Peace Plan.He could get the first; there is still a lot of bipartisan support for Israel in Congress. He likely won’t get the second; appeasing Iran is a pillar of even moderate Democratic foreign policy. As for the third, it will require some rebranding. Trump’s Deal of the Century would likely be renamed a “realistic two-state solution” or something close. This is not far-fetched. Even the Palestinian leadership, which on Monday announced its willingness to reopen talks with Israel after six years, seems to be coming to that conclusion. Add a few new wrinkles and a new administration could call it “The Biden Plan.” It might even work.Netanyahu still wants Trump to win. That is like having himself in the White House. Breaking up is hard to do. But, in the words of a song Trump has often played at his rallies, “You can’t always get what you want.” But, if you play your cards right, you can get what you need.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.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.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:30:22 GMT

Fire damages building at Iran nuclear enrichment site
A fire broke out early Thursday at a building above Iran's underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, though officials said it did not affect its centrifuge operation or cause any release of radiation. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to downplay the fire, calling it an “incident” that only affected an under-construction “industrial shed,” spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. Kamalvandi did not identify what damaged the building, though Natanz governor Ramazanali Ferdowsi said a “fire” struck the site, according to a report by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:08:43 GMT

Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills at least 123 people
At least 123 people were killed Thursday in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, the worst in a series of deadly accidents at such sites in recent years. A statement from the Ministry of Information said 123 bodies had been recovered from the site of the landslide in Hpakant, while the Myanmar Fire Service Department, which coordinates rescues and other emergency services, put the total at 126. “The jade miners were smothered by a wave of mud,” a statement from the fire service said.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:02:59 GMT

Trump’s bond with veterans starts to fracture over Russian bounty plot
A series of military figures are lining up to condemn the president over his reported inaction after being briefed on the plotMilitary veterans helped sweep Donald Trump to power in 2016, turning out in swing states like Ohio and Florida as Trump vowed to spend vast sums on defense. They have largely stuck with him ever since, even as Trump has repeatedly attacked venerated military leaders.But as Trump grapples with the scandal over his reported inaction after being briefed on a Russian plot to pay bounties for the killing of US troops, cracks in the relationship are starting to show, with a series of military figures lining up to condemn the president.Even before news of Russian bounties broke, Trump’s bond with the military appeared to have become fractured. Some veterans and members of the military were horrified by Trump’s pledge to deploy active-duty military forces to anti-racism protests and demonstrations.“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try,” said marine general and Trump’s former defense secretary James Mattis in an extraordinary critique of the president in early June.“Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”Since then, things have only gotten worse for Trump.The New York Times reported on Friday that the Trump administration had ignored intelligence about a Russian plot to offer bounties to Afghan militants to kill US troops. Trump has both called the report, aspects of which have been confirmed by other outlets, a hoax, and at the same time insisted he was not briefed on the Russian plan.Both the Times and CNN have since reported that the information was included in a daily intelligence briefing in February, although Trump is known to rarely read those briefings. The report of the plot, and Trump’s response, could prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to the armed forces. Even Republicans were shocked by the allegations.“I’m not really sure he absorbs a lot of this stuff,” Representative Paul Cook, a Marine veteran, who represents several military installations, told Associated Press.“He’s probably thinking about the polls.”Cook, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his current term, added: “I’m not going to be an apologist for Trump. Trump is Trump.”As Trump’s response has oscillated between the threat not being credible and him not being made aware of it, some veterans have expressed alarm at the latter explanation – at a president who is not being given, or who is not reading, important briefing documents.“I think it’s even worse if he didn’t know,” Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, told NJ.com.“That speaks to a much broader crisis. What is he doing to fulfill his role as commander in chief? How is it that we were briefing allies on this and our own president didn’t know? I don’t have any theories on how that might happen. I can’t fathom it.”Sherrill added: “If you’re going to put your life on the line for country, you want to have leadership in place that’s going to value your life, and do what they can to protect you,” she says. “That’s the deal. So yeah, it’s very personal to me.”The sentiment was echoed by Erik Hendriks, whose son was killed in an attack in Afghanistan in April 2019. The attack has been linked to the Russian bounty effort, and Hendricks questioned what Trump and the military knew about the plot in advance.“When they sign up and they go – any soldier, a Marine, Navy, Air Force, Army – I’m sure they want to believe that the government is 100% in their corner,” Hendriks told Associated Press.“And if any of this is true, how could a soldier actually believe that anymore? How could this government let one soldier go on patrol out there knowing this is true?”Hendriks’ mother, Felicia Arculeo, and Shawn Gregoire, the mother of Michael Isaiah Nance, who was killed in the same attack, have demanded an investigation into the Russian bounty plot and the Trump administration, as pressure grows on the president to explain what happened.“I really want someone to get to the bottom of this,” Gregoire told CNBC. “Even if he was not briefed, what’s happening now?”Referring to Trump, Gregoire asked: “What are you doing now, now that you know?”Trump’s immediate response has been to post a series of distressed messages to Twitter, where – despite initially claiming he did not receive intelligence on the Russian plot – he has since attempted to dismiss the concept as a hoax.The administration is yet to announce action against Russia, which Trump has treated favorably since his election, yet the issue is unlikely to go away. On Wednesday Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin and other officials for offering bounties to kill US troops.Historically military members and veterans tend to favor Republican candidates, and Trump’s relationship with the military has so far endured his attacks on military families, and the venom Trump has directed at John McCain, even after the senator died.That support held in 2018, even as voters flocked to Democrats, when Trump’s Republican party still won 58% of the military vote, but with just four months to go, Trump has found himself immediately targeted over the Russian scandal.The Lincoln Project, a group of influential anti-Trump Republicans who plan to spend big money advertising against the president during the election campaign, quickly capitalized on Trump’s handling of the alleged bounty plot on Saturday.“Putin pays the Taliban cash to slaughter our men and women in uniform, and Trump is silent, weak, controlled,” the ad says.“When Trump tells you he stands by the troops, he’s right – just not our troops.”

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:00:45 GMT

Virus ban gives tobacco illegal drug status in South Africa
The message was dropped into a WhatsApp group used by suburban moms in South Africa. The “desperate mama,” as she described herself, is one of 9 million smokers in South Africa affected by the government's decision in late March to ban the sale of all tobacco products, ostensibly to help protect citizens' health during the coronavirus pandemic. The ban remains even after South Africa eased most of its strict lockdown restrictions, including another contentious outlawing of alcohol sales.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 06:56:52 GMT

Sudan's bid to ban genital mutilation sparks hope, caution
“It’s the one incident that has affected my life the most,” said Ali. Sudan’s transitional authorities are expected to outlaw the procedure and set punishments of up to three years in prison and fines for those who carry out FGM, according to a draft bill obtained by The Associated Press.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 06:24:47 GMT

Long-shut factory helps COVID-struck Afghans breathe free
Seven years ago, Najibullah Seddiqi closed his oxygen factory, frustrated with power cuts and with rampant corruption that kept him from getting contracts with hospitals. Now relatives of Afghans ailing with COVID-19 line up at his factory in the capital city of Kabul for free refills that can keep their loved ones alive. Afghanistan has struggled with shortages of medical oxygen under the pandemic.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 06:18:09 GMT

Vladimir Putin Is Ready For His Next Act

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 06:11:23 GMT

Lives Lost: Brazilian toddler was saying her first words
Vitoria Gabrielle crawled all the time and was starting to walk this year with a little help, hanging on to her 4-year-old brother's arm while exploring her mother's small apartment on a cobblestone street in Rio de Janeiro's working-class Piety neighborhood. The girl with a constant smile celebrated her first birthday in February, slept and ate well and was enthusiastically saying her first words: “mamãe" and “vovó” (mama and grandma), said her mother, Andréa de Sousa. It was during an April hospital stay that de Sousa suspects her daughter was infected with the coronavirus that was just starting to circulate in Rio and Brazil.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 05:03:58 GMT

China is Not the Middle East’s High Roller

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 05:00:22 GMT

Weibo deletes Indian Prime Minister's social media account
Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, said it had deleted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's account at the request of the Indian embassy, as tensions between the two countries continue to simmer over a border skirmish. Since posting on Sina Weibo the first time in 2015 during a visit to China, Mr Modi has been an infrequent user of the Chinese social media platform. He had more than 200,000 followers and 100 posts before the account was shut. Sina Weibo announced the closure of the account late on Wednesday and the removal comes a few days after India banned dozens of Chinese apps, including Sina Weibo and ByteDance's TikTok, following the border clash between the two nations. The Indian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment. Mr Modi was among a handful of foreign leaders with a Weibo account. Others include Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. Notably, Mr Modi revealed the birth dates of both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang by wishing them "Happy Birthday" on Weibo. The discussion of senior leaders' private lives is extremely rare in China and the exact birth dates of most of them are not revealed publicly. In contrast, Chinese leaders are rarely active on social media. Foreign social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China. READ MORE: China annexes 60sqkm of India in Ladakh as simmering tensions erupt between two superpowers

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:33:58 GMT

GOP candidate is latest linked to QAnon conspiracy theory
When Lauren Boebert was asked in May about QAnon, she didn't shy away from the far-right conspiracy theory, which advances unproven allegations about a so-called deep state plot against President Donald Trump that involves satanism and child sex trafficking. The GOP-leaning rural western Colorado district will likely support the party's nominee in the November general election. Boebert is part of a small but growing list of Republican candidates who have in some way expressed support for QAnon.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:11:26 GMT

Lawmakers to get classified briefing on Russia bounty intel
U.S. officials will provide a classified briefing for congressional leaders Thursday about intelligence assessment that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The meeting comes as President Donald Trump, who says he wasn't briefed on the information because it wasn't verified, is under increasing pressure to provide answers about the U.S. response to Russia or the lack of one. Democrats briefed at the White House this week suggested Trump was bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the risk of U.S. soldiers’ lives.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:09:29 GMT

Analysis: Trump fights to keep a job Dems say he isn't doing
President Donald Trump is asking Americans to let him keep his job. The questions have gotten louder in recent days following revelations Trump didn’t read at least two written intelligence briefings about Russia paying bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans in Afghanistan. “He is not doing his job,” said Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:08:02 GMT

Video: Florida police laugh about shooting rubber bullets

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 03:15:17 GMT

24 shot to death in attack on drug rehab center in Mexico
Gunmen burst into an unregistered drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico and opened fire Wednesday, killing 24 people and wounding seven, authorities said. Police in the north-central state of Guanajuato said the attack occurred in the city of Irapuato. Apparently the attackers shot everyone at the rehab center.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 01:44:32 GMT

LAPD funding slashed by 0M, reducing number of officers
City leaders voted Wednesday to slash the Los Angeles Police Department budget by 0 million, reducing the number of officers to a level not seen for more than a decade amid nationwide demands to shift money away from law enforcement agencies during America's reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice. About two-thirds of the funding was earmarked for police overtime and will be used to provide services and programs for communities of color, including a youth summer jobs program. The City Council’s 12-2 vote will drop the number of officers from 9,988 as of last month to 9,757 by next summer, abandoning a goal of 10,000 officers touted by political leaders and only reached in 2013.

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:34:57 GMT

Dreams’ PSVR addition is being used to show carbon footprint
The United Nations Environment Programme is behind the project

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:09:12 GMT

Hachalu Hundessa: 'Eighty-one killed' in protests over Ethiopian singer's death
Popular Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa was shot dead on Monday night, sparking widespread unrest.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 23:31:49 GMT

GOP candidate is latest linked to QAnon conspiracy theory
When Lauren Boebert was asked in May about QAnon, she didn't shy away from the far-right conspiracy theory, which advances unproven allegations about a so-called deep state plot against President Donald Trump that involves satanism and child sex trafficking. The GOP-leaning rural western Colorado district will likely support the party's nominee in the November general election. Boebert is part of a small but growing list of Republican candidates who have in some way expressed support for QAnon.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 23:20:21 GMT

State-backed COVID-19 disinfo spreads faster and farther than local news outlets in 4 languages
Questionable stories on COVID-19 from state-backed outlets in Russia, China, Turkey and Iran are being shared more widely than reporting by major news organizations around the world, according to Oxford analysts. French, German, Spanish and English news sites see far less social engagement than these foreign-originated ones in their languages. The study is part of ongoing monitoring of COVID-19 disinformation campaigns by the Computational Propaganda Project.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 23:01:22 GMT

CIA official chose not to tell Trump of Russia bounty report, top adviser claims
* Robert O’Brien condemned for deflecting blame on to briefer * Trump under pressure to explain why he did not act on reportThe US national security adviser said a CIA official tasked with briefing the president decided not to tell him about reports that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers because it was “unverified intelligence”.The claim from Robert O’Brien came as top members of the administration gave differing accounts on the status of intelligence reports on Russian bounty payments, and why Trump had not taken action in response, but had repeatedly pressed to re-admit Russia to the G7 club of nations.Trump himself continued to suggest that the allegations of Russia paying Taliban fighters to kill Americans were a “hoax”.It has been reported that the intelligence was included in the written presidential daily brief (PDB) given by the CIA. O’Brien appeared to suggest it had not been included in verbal briefings given to Trump.“The president’s career CIA briefer decided not to brief him because it was unverified intelligence,” O’Brien told Fox News, adding: “She made that call and, you know what, I think she made the right call, so I’m not going to criticize her. And knowing the facts that I know now, I stand behind that call.”O’Brien was severely criticised for putting the blame for a major policy issue on a relatively junior CIA official.“This is the same scapegoating play that the White House ran in the coronavirus context – blaming Trump’s intelligence briefer for something that is chiefly and fundamentally a failing of the White House staff,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and national security spokesman.He added: “We now know that the information was included in Trump’s written PDB, which is how the intelligence community regularly flags items that the President needs to know. Nothing in the PDB is discretionary; everything in that short document is in there because – in the estimation of the intelligence community – the president needs to know it to fulfill his charge.”Intelligence experts have also pointed out that intelligence routinely briefed to the president is rarely “verified”, but presented with varying degrees of confidence.Trump continued to insist he had not been told, and questioned the veracity of the reports.“From what I hear, and I hear pretty good, the intelligence people – many of them – didn’t believe it happened at all,” the president told Fox News. “I think it’s a hoax. I think it’s a hoax by the newspapers and the Democrats.”Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, insisted that the Russian threat in Afghanistan was real and had been properly addressed, implying the president had been kept informed.“We took this seriously; we handle it appropriately,” Pompeo, a former CIA director, told reporters. “The president has been consistently aware of the challenges that Russia presents to us and he is aware of the risk in Afghanistan.“It’s why we have spent so much time over this past year at the president’s direction to reduce risk to our forces in Afghanistan in a way no previous administration has done.”Pompeo said it was up to the president whether to invite Russia to meetings of the G7 group of major industrialised democracies, but added: “I think it is wholly important and appropriate for the United States to continue to have dialogue with the Russians to convince them to change some of the activities that are inconsistent with what it is the United States needs to do to preserve security and freedom for its own people.”A former senior US official confirmed to the Guardian that reports of Russian bounties were circulating inside the White House before the summer of 2019, and raised concern, but at that point had not been fully corroborated.The official said that more detailed information had surfaced since then, but added it was likely that president had ignored the news as it conflicted with his desire to cultivate good relations with Vladimir Putin.“He doesn’t like hearing bad news about all kinds of things, unless he’s forced to,” the former senior official said.CNN cited former officials on Wednesday as saying Trump’s resistance to intelligence warnings about Russia led his national security team, including those who delivered the PDB to brief him verbally less often on Russia-related threats to the US.A former Taliban spokesman, Mullah Manan Niazi, told the Daily Beast: “The Taliban have been paid by Russian intelligence for attacks on US forces - and on Isis forces - in Afghanistan from 2014 up to the present.”

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 22:48:07 GMT

Florida felons seeking voting rights back face court setback
A federal appellate court has stayed a lower court ruling that gave impoverished Florida felons the right to vote. The order issued Wednesday disappointed voting rights activists and could have national implications in November's presidential election. In May, a federal judge in Tallahassee ruled that Florida law can’t stop an estimated 774,000 disenfranchised felons from voting because they can’t pay back any legal fees and restitution they owe.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 22:07:12 GMT

Russian voters back reforms allowing Putin to stay until 2036
Russians overwhelmingly approved a package of constitutional changes in a nationwide vote, partial results showed Wednesday, allowing President Vladimir Putin to potentially extend his two-decade rule until 2036. With just over 85 percent of ballots counted after the end of seven days of voting, 77.8 percent of voters had supported the reforms, according to election commission figures cited by Russian state agencies. There had been little doubt of voters backing the changes, which Putin announced earlier this year and critics denounced as a manoeuvre to allow him to stay in the Kremlin for life.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 21:46:48 GMT

Hundreds of elephants found dead in Botswana
Some 350 elephant carcasses have been spotted in Botswana's Okavango Delta since May.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 21:25:31 GMT

House approves .5T plan to fix crumbling infrastructure
The Democratic-controlled House approved a .5 trillion plan Wednesday to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into projects to fix roads and bridges, upgrade transit systems, expand interstate railways and dredge harbors, ports and channels. The bill also authorizes more than 0 billion to expand internet access for rural and low-income communities and billion to modernize the U.S. Postal Service’s infrastructure and operations, including a fleet of electric vehicles. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not attempted to schedule a floor debate and none appears forthcoming.

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 21:25:12 GMT

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