Iran claims it arrested 17 citizens accused of spying for US - Washington Examiner

Iran claimed Monday it had arrested 17 Iranian citizens, alleging they had spied on behalf of the U.S., and some of them have already been executed.

An official who said he was the director of counterespionage in the Intelligence Ministry said at a news conference in Tehran that the arrested Iranians had been trained by the CIA, but provided few details to defend the allegations.

The official would not give his name or say how many of those arrested had been executed.

Iran made similar announcements in April and June.

The claims come during a standoff between Tehran and Washington following President Trump’s decision to pull out of the nuclear deal and impose sanctions on Iran. Iran responded to the U.S. actions by threatening to prevent tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It also shot down a U.S. naval surveillance drone.

Tensions further escalated last week when the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

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2019-07-22 11:50:00Z
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Iran claims it has arrested 17 members of a CIA spy ring - CBS This Morning

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2019-07-22 11:27:48Z
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India Launches Mission To The Moon In Bid To Land At The Lunar South Pole - Forbes

The GSLV rocket took to the skies beautifully earlier today.

ISRO/YouTube

India has successfully launched its second-ever mission to the Moon, and hopes with it to join a handful of countries that have landed on the lunar surface.

At 5.13am Eastern Time today, July 22 (2.43 P.M. local time), India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission launch on top of the country’s most powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

"My dear friends, today is a historical day for space and science and technology in India," Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan, chair of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), said following the launch. "I'm extremely happy to announce that GSLV mark 3 successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 into the defined orbit."

Chandrayaan-2 is not scheduled to arrive at the Moon until late August, reaching its destination by increasingly raising its orbit as it continually loops around Earth. The Apollo missions, by comparison, flew straight to the Moon in three days, using the more powerful Saturn V rocket.

India’s mission is uncrewed, but it will attempt a landing on the lunar surface at the Moon’s south pole. The mission consists of an orbiter, a lander called Vikram, and a rover called Pragyan (which means ‘wisdom’ in Sanskrit). If successful, India will become only the fourth nation to land on the Moon after the Soviet Union, US, and China. More recently, an Israeli mission called Beresheet crashed on the lunar surface in an attempted landing in April 2019.

The launch of Chandrayaan-2 had originally been scheduled for July 15, but was delayed by a week due to a leak on the rocket. The mission is the successor to the Chandrayaan-1 mission, which launched in 2008 and, while it did not land on the surface, performed a detailed hunt for lunar water.

The wait for this mission to launch has been a long time coming. Having originally been planned as a joint mission with Russia in 2011, India will now be hoping their solo mission – costing in the realm of $140 million – will perform some fascinating since on the surface of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter, lander, and rover weigh a combined 2,780 kilograms, although the rover at 27 kilograms makes up only a small part of that. The orbiter is designed to operate for a year, while the rover and lander are designed to last 14 days (one lunar day) on the surface of the Moon. They will be equipped with cameras to send images back to Earth, along with various instruments.

The mission is scheduled to enter orbit 30 days after launching, with the lander’s four-day descent to the surface (carrying the rover with it) beginning in early September. It will then use its landing legs to touch down at the Moon’s south pole on September 6 or 7 – the closest visit by a mission to this region.

Visiting the south pole is important because it’s thought there could be permanently shadowed craters here with vast deposits of water-ice. Such resources could be useful for future human missions to the Moon.

The Vikram lander will use solar panels to keep itself running. It has three experiments, which will measure the tentative atmosphere of the Moon, as well as perform seismic experiments on the Moon.

The Pragyan rover, meanwhile, will roll down a ramp from the lander onto the surface and will travel up to half a kilometer throughout its mission, moving at about one centimeter per second. It will use an instrument to try and measure the composition of the surface, as well as returning images back to the lander to be transmitted back to Earth.

Aside from proving it can land on the lunar surface, India’s key goals for the mission are to study the composition of the Moon and look for signs of water-ice. Use radar the mission will attempt to create a 3D map of the surface at the south pole, and provide hints of where water-ice may be hiding under the surface.

With NASA seeking to return to the Moon with its Artemis project, and other nations also eyeing up a return to the lunar surface, the success of India’s mission could be part of a bigger picture that is seeing the Moon become a focus of exploration once again. Now for the team, it will be weeks of hard work to ensure that they successfully reach the surface of the Moon, slightly more than 50 years since humans landed there for the first time.

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2019-07-22 11:22:06Z
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Chandrayaan-2: Success in India's second attempt at launching Moon mission - CNN

The country's latest lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, which means "moon vehicle" in Sanskrit, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh state at 2:43 p.m., Monday local time (5:13 am ET).

The launch was originally scheduled for July 15, but was abruptly called off just 56 minutes before lift-off due to a "technical snag." India is now on the way to becoming the fourth country -- in addition to United States, China and the former Soviet Union -- to make a soft-landing on the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-2, which weighs 3.8 tons and carries 13 payloads, has three elements -- lunar orbiter, lander and rover, all developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

It will travel for two months, before positioning itself in a circular orbit 62 miles (100km) above the moon's surface. From there, the lander -- named Vikram after the pioneer of the Indian space program Vikram Sarabhai -- will separate from the main vessel and gently land on the moon's surface near its South Pole.

A robotic rover named Pragyan (meaning "wisdom") will then deploy and spend one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, collecting mineral and chemical samples from the moon's surface for remote scientific analysis.

Over the next year, the orbiter will map the lunar surface and study the outer atmosphere of the moon.

Kailasavadivoo Sivan, ISRO chairman, said in June that the last 15 minutes of the landing "are going to be the most terrifying moments for us."

As well as coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, the launch comes as other space agencies revisit the idea of sending humans to the moon and beyond -- NASA has touted a bold plan to return American astronauts to the moon by 2024.

India's space ambitions

This mission is significant for India -- the country wants to become a major space player and put Indian astronauts in space by 2022.

"India wants to show, especially since Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi came into office, that India is a major power, and that India has to be treated as a major Indo-Pacific power," said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, head of the nuclear and space policy initiative at the Observer Research Foundation.

Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden lunar mission, discovered water molecules on the surface of the moon. As part of that mission, an impact probe crashed into the moon's south polar region in a controlled landing.

India's attempted soft-landing is a far greater technical challenge than the controlled crash of Chandrayaan-1.

The two Chandrayaan missions are a precursor to Chandrayaan-3, which is scheduled to make a return mission to the moon in 2023-2024.

In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to reach the Red Planet, when it put the Mangalyaan probe into orbit around Mars. The Mars Orbiter Mission famously cost $74 million -- less than the $100 million than Hollywood spent making space thriller "Gravity."

In 2017, India launched a record 104 satellites in one mission while operating a low-cost budget. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Modi announced that India had shot down one of its own satellites, in what it claimed was an anti-satellite test, making it one of four countries to have achieved that feat.

Modi said that operation, called Mission Shakti -- which stands for "power" in Hindi -- would defend the country's interests in space. The Foreign Ministry said that India had "no intention of entering into an arms race in outer space."

The nation is also positioning itself as the launch pad for the world's commercial satellites -- it has launched 297 foreign satellites for 33 countries, according to the government's space agency.

ISRO chairman Sivan also announced in June that India was planning to set up an independent space station by 2030. Currently, the only space station available for expedition crews is the International Space Station (ISS) a joint project, which several countries participate in.

India's space agency has also proposed sending an orbiter to Venus by 2023.

Some say India's ambitious goals are unrealistic.

"ISRO also has a capacity deficit, limited human and financial resources, so how will those be allocated between the space station and the astronauts program?" asked Rajagopalan. "Some of these things are driven towards nationalistic sentiments, pride and prestige but some are not going to be achievable."

Asia space race

There is competing competition for space-related power and prestige in Asia -- with China, India and Japan all outlining bold space exploration plans.

China, India's great regional rival for superpower status, is the most rapidly accelerating space power and, under President Xi Jinping's leadership, has invested billions in building up its space program.

In January, China made history by becoming the first nation to land a rover on the far side of the moon and a planned mission next year is due to land on the moon, collect samples and return to Earth.

Preliminary plans are also underway for a manned lunar mission in the 2030s. If successful, China would become only the second country, after the US, to put a citizen on the moon.

Beijing is also spending big on the Tiangong program, a precursor to a permanent space station it plans to finish construction on by around 2022.

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2019-07-22 09:52:00Z
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Iran CIA arrests: Iran claims it's nabbed 17 spies working for CIA and sentenced some to death today -- live updates - CBS News

Tehran, Iran -- Iran said Monday it has arrested 17 Iranian nationals allegedly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on the country's nuclear and military sites, and that some have already been sentenced to death. The arrests took place over the past few months and those taken into custody worked on "sensitive sites" in the country's military and nuclear facilities, an Iranian intelligence official told a news conference in Tehran.

He didn't say how many of them got the death sentence or when the sentences were handed down. Iranian state television published images Monday it said showed the CIA officers who were in contact with the alleged spies, the Reuters news agency reports.

The CIA, State Department and White House didn't offer any immediate comment in response to CBS News inquiries.

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The Iranian announcement came as Iran's nuclear deal with world powers is unraveling and tensions have spiked in the Persian Gulf region. The crisis stems from President Trump's decision to pull the United States out of Tehran's deal last year and intensify sanctions on Iran.

The Iranian official didn't give his name but was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Such a procedure is highly unusual in Iran; officials usually identify themselves at news conferences. It is also rare for intelligence officials to appear before the media.

The official claimed none of the 17, who allegedly had "sophisticated training," had succeeded in their sabotage missions. Their spying missions included collecting information at the facilities they worked at, carrying out technical and intelligence activities and transferring and installing monitoring devices, he said.

The official further claimed the CIA had promised those arrested U.S. visas or jobs in America and that some of the agents had turned and were now working with his department "against the U.S."

He also handed out a CD with a video recording of an alleged foreign female spy working for the CIA. The disc also included names of several U.S. Embassy staff in Turkey, India, Zimbabwe and Austria who Iran claims were in touch with the recruited Iranian spies.

There was no immediate comment from Washington.

Occasionally, Iran announces detentions of spies it says are working for foreign countries, including the U.S. and Israel. In June, Iran said it executed a former staff member of the Defense Ministry who was convicted of spying for the CIA.

In April, Iran said it uncovered 290 CIA spies both inside and outside the country over the past years.

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2019-07-22 10:24:00Z
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India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission on Second Try - The New York Times

SATISH DHAWAN SPACE CENTER, India — India is on its way to the moon.

One week after a first attempt was canceled at the last minute, the Chandrayaan-2 mission blasted off at 2:43 p.m. on Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s southeast coast, carrying an uncrewed lunar lander and this country’s space dreams.

The 142-feet-tall rocket rose on a funnel of fire, ripping through the air perfectly straight and surprisingly fast, before vanishing into a thick bank of clouds, heading for the south pole of the moon.

“The mission has been successfully accomplished!” blared a message from loudspeakers at mission control.

Last week, Indian rocket scientists abruptly called off the launch less than an hour before liftoff. They had found a “technical snag,” they said. Scientists later disclosed that one of the helium tanks in the upper stage of the rocket had been slightly losing pressure.

But on Monday, all systems were go for the first-ever mission to the moon’s south pole. India plans to land a remote-controlled lander softly on the moon’s surface near the pole, which it will then explore with a small, six-wheeled rover.

“The low-pressure issue got corrected,” said Vivek Singh, a spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organization, India’s version of NASA. “The mood is perfect.”

“You know in space missions, you can’t go with 99 percent confidence,” he added. “You should have 100 percent confidence.”

If successful, India will become the fourth nation — after the United States, Russia and China — to land on the moon, more than 200,000 miles away. It would be a huge leap forward for the country’s ambitious space program, and scientists and defense experts everywhere are watching to see whether the Indians can pull it off.

Within India, the mission has stoked enormous pride, especially among schoolchildren who dream of being astronauts.

Shortly before the launch, a huge crowd of space enthusiasts gathered at the gates. The weather was hot and muggy, around 90 degrees, with thick cloud cover and occasional drizzles. Cameras dangled from their necks and some, like Kaushal Vijay, 8, wore pins saying “I Love India.”

“It’s going to be like a missile going to the moon!” he said. “A lot of fire and noise.”

His mother, Kswetha Vijay, said she had not hesitated to pull her children out of school for the day.

“I feel proud for my kids to see this,” she said.

Huge video screens in the space center’s media room alternated between live images of the rocket standing on the launchpad to shots of scientists and engineers sitting in rows in front of banks of computers at mission control.

The timing for this moon mission could not be more opportune. This weekend was the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on our little neighbor. All the anniversary coverage has uncapped a wave of moon fever around the world.

Indian space officials said the Apollo connection was just a coincidence.

India had planned to do this mission several years ago as something of a joint venture in space with Russia. But after the Russians backed out because of problems in their own space program, India needed to make all the systems itself, which caused a long delay.

The mission includes four components: a giant Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle — Mark III rocket (though it is much shorter and lighter than the Saturn V rocket that lifted the Apollo missions); an orbiter; a lander; and the small rover.

The mission costs less than $150 million, but will take much longer than the relatively straight shot made by the Apollo missions, which cost billions (the presence of humans along for the ride added to the price tag).

The Indian orbiter will conserve fuel by making ever-widening orbits around the Earth before being captured by the moon’s gravity and pulled into lunar orbit. The whole journey will take more than five weeks.

The lander will then drop down from the orbiter. After it touches down on the moon, Chandrayaan’s little solar-powered rover will chug out. This is scheduled for early September.

The mission has been timed for the beginning of a moon day, so the rover can get maximum sunlight.

Making a soft landing will be the hardest part — an Israeli lander trying to do the same thing crashed on the moon in April.

Indian scientists had built a small cushion into their timing of orbiting the Earth and say the one-week delay will not affect the intended landing date.

But, Mr. Singh admitted, “Some of our flexibility will be reduced.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/world/asia/chandrayaan-india-moon-launch.html

2019-07-22 09:45:00Z
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UK set for a new prime minister as Brexit chaos rolls on - CNBC

Boris Johnson (L) and Jeremy Hunt take part in the Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson debate Head To Head on ITV on July 9, 2019 in Salford, England.

Handout | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The U.K. will find out who its next prime minister will be this week as voting within the U.K.'s ruling Conservative Party comes to a close.

Monday is the last day that members of the party can submit their preferred candidate to lead the party, and the country, with former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson facing the current holder of that post Jeremy Hunt.

Johnson, who is known for his outspoken and often controversial views, is seen as the frontrunner with the result expected Tuesday. The vote comes after Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would resign following repeated parliamentary rejections of the Brexit deal she struck with the EU.

As such, the party leadership race has focused on how each contender would deal with Brexit ahead of a new departure deadline of October 31.

Pro-Brexit candidate Johnson has already caused a stir by saying that the U.K. must leave the EU by the deadline "do or die, come what may" even if that meant leaving without a deal in place. His opponent Hunt, a "Remainer" in the initial 2016 referendum who has since said he would now vote to leave, has also been vociferous about fulfilling Brexit but said no deal was a last resort.

A "no-deal" Brexit is seen by many inside and outside of parliament as a "cliff-edge" scenario to be avoided at all costs.

Leaving without a deal in place would mean an abrupt departure from the EU with no transition period which would have allowed businesses to adjust to life outside the trading bloc. It would also mean that the U.K. has to revert to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and automatic import tariffs that could damage trade and consumption.

Many ardent Brexiteers are fed up with the delay, however, and believe that the U.K. should adhere to an already-extended deadline to leave the bloc. The EU has insisted many times that it is not open to renegotiating the deal it struck with May last year, raising the prospect of a no-deal exit.

Finance Minister Philip Hammond has already said he will resign on Wednesday and has strongly opposed a no-deal Brexit, telling CNBC last week that "if the new government tries to drive the U.K. over a cliff-edge called no-deal Brexit I will do all I can to stop that." 

UK 'almost uninvestable'

Uncertainty over Brexit has had a knock-on effect on the economy with many businesses holding back on investment until they know more about the future relationship the U.K. will have with the EU — its largest trading partner as a bloc.

Robust GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 0.5% in the first quarter was seen as down to an uptick in production and stockpiling of goods and components before an original Brexit date of March 29. But second-quarter GDP is set to reflect a wider malaise and hesitation over investment, largely caused by Brexit.

For one, Capital Economics' U.K. Economist Thomas Pugh issued a note earlier in July noting that "the economy probably just about contracted in Q2 (the second quarter) as a whole. Some of that is just payback from activity being brought forward from Q2 into Q1 ahead of the original Brexit deadline of 29th March. But there's a growing risk that the underlying trend is slowing too."

Sterling has also weakened almost 4% against the dollar in the last three months, trading at $1.2481 on Monday morning. Some investors are very nervous about the U.K.'s near and long-term economic future while others are more confident the U.K. will be able to recover, eventually.

"We think the U.K. is almost uninvestable until we have much better clarity about what's going to happen going forward," Paul Gambles, co-founder of the MBMG Group, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Monday.

"It's (the pound) not at bargain basement levels yet, we'd need to see the pound dipping to $1.20 or below that," he said. "We're not seeing any end to the weak pound scenario unless something changes dramatically."

Tapan Datta, the head of global asset allocation at Aon, was more sanguine on U.K. investment, saying "I think the opportunities are there providing you can take a view through this Brexit imbroglio."

"If you're working on the idea that somehow a deal can be arrived at over the next 6 to 12 months — though it doesn't look like it's going to happen by October, frankly — there are certain parts of the U.K. equity market that look really deep value at present," he noted, saying more domestically-sensitive cyclical stocks (whose performance typically follows economic trends) that "had been beaten up" during Brexit negotiations were an example of potential value.

"You can arguably take a view on sterling too because at $1.24/$1.25 is low, and arguably significantly under-valued. So if you're prepared to take that view, you might lose a bit of money near-term, but if you're prepared to sit it out for a couple of years you could be sitting on a 10% plus gain," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Monday.

"So, I would disagree that the U.K. is uninvestable, it's just that the near-term uncertainties are very considerable."

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/22/uk-set-for-a-new-prime-minister-as-brexit-chaos-rolls-on.html

2019-07-22 08:59:40Z
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