Jangan Permisi

Sabtu, 21 September 2019

Labour conference: Move to abolish deputy post ditched - BBC News

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has quashed a motion at his party conference to oust his deputy, Tom Watson, by abolishing the position.

Mr Corbyn suggested the role should be reviewed instead, and was backed by the ruling National Executive Committee, a Labour source said.

A group of Labour MPs had urged the NEC to avoid an "internal civil war" when it should be preparing for an election.

Mr Watson called the move to oust him a "sectarian attack" on a "broad church".

Speaking ahead of the party conference in Brighton, he told the BBC he found out late on Friday in a text message that a motion had been tabled by Jon Lansman, founder of Labour grassroots group Momentum.

He said he felt Mr Lansman "and his faction" were so angry with him over his calls for Labour to "unequivocally back remain" and have another public vote on Brexit, that they would "rather abolish me than have a debate about it".

After his intervention, Mr Corbyn told reporters outside the conference centre that he "enjoyed" working with Mr Watson.

He later said: "The NEC agreed this [Saturday] morning that we are going to consult on the future of diversifying the deputy leadership position to reflect the diversity of our society.

"And the conference will move on to defeating austerity, to the green industrial revolution, green new deal that we are putting forward and giving the people a final say on Brexit."

Mr Lansman said he fully supported Mr Corbyn's proposal to review the deputy leader post.

"We need to make sure the role is properly accountable to the membership while also unifying the party at conference. In my view, this review is absolutely the best way of doing that," he said.

Analysis: Labour message 'damaged'

By BBC political correspondent Susana Mendonca

Let's face it - no-one likes finding out by text that they're getting ditched.

But this wasn't the morning after a bad date, this was the morning after the latest instalment in the saga that is Labour's fractious relationship with itself.

And the deputy leader wasn't happy at being told by text last night that a plot was afoot to ditch him by abolishing his post.

A "sectarian attack", "pluralism not tolerated", a "drive-by shooting" even, Tom Watson told the Today programme.

If this conference was supposed to be a moment for Labour to come together, place the focus on its policies and show the country it's a unified force ready to lead after a general election, well, it didn't start well.

The Parliamentary Labour Party's letter to its governing body described the move as a "gross act of suppressing dissent".

"These kinds of things happen in Venezuela," said Mr Watson. Music to the ears no doubt of the Conservatives who've long been making those comparisons in relation to Labour's leadership.

Jeremy Corbyn appears to be trying out a bit of damage limitation with talk now of a "review" of the role rather than immediate abolition.

But the damage to Labour's message ahead of its conference appears to have been done.

The row over Mr Watson's position threatened to overshadow Labour's party conference.

On Saturday morning, in an interview on BBC's Today programme, Mr Watson said the move by Momentum was "moving us into a different kind of institution where pluralism isn't tolerated".

He went on to appeal to Momentum activists to focus on showing people they were serious about changing the political economy of Britain rather than having "a sort of sleight-of-hand constitutional change to do a drive-by shooting of someone you disagree with".

Shortly after, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), which represents Labour backbenchers, wrote a letter to members of the National Executive Committee - including Mr Corbyn - saying the move was counterproductive and sent the country a message "we are more interested in internal battles" than constituents' lives.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led Labour from 1994 to 2007, said abolishing the deputy leader post would be "undemocratic and politically dangerous".

Dawn Butler, shadow women and equalities secretary, said Momentum's move had "come out of the blue" but she could understand the frustration with the deputy leader who had not been seen at shadow cabinet meetings "for a while".

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.bbc.com/news/49781152

2019-09-21 10:25:14Z
52780388669421

Clashes Erupt in Hong Kong After Dueling Demonstrations - The New York Times

HONG KONG — Antigovernment protesters clashed with the police and threw gasoline bombs in Hong Kong on Saturday, a fresh sign that political tensions are running high in the Chinese territory ahead of a sensitive political anniversary.

The clashes occurred after a pro-democracy march a few miles from Hong Kong’s border with the Chinese mainland, and on a day when government supporters had swept the streets in a symbolic repudiation of the three-month-old protest movement.

This was the 16th successive weekend of unrest in the semiautonomous territory, with less than two weeks remaining before Oct. 1, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China under the Communist Party. Beijing does not want anything to mar the holiday, but the Hong Kong protesters seem determined to do just that.

The pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, center left, arguing with pro-democracy lawmakers during a demonstration of water cannon vehicles in August. — CreditThomas Peter/Reuters

The first event on Saturday was a citywide “cleanup” led by Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing lawmaker who is among the government’s most vocal defenders. He visited several districts of Hong Kong holding a broom and a dust pan, and theatrically tidied the sidewalks as television cameras rolled.

“National Day is almost here, plus it’s the 70th anniversary this year, so we want to give Hong Kong a clean face,” said Innes Tang, 55, a volunteer who joined one of the cleanup events.

Mr. Ho has been regarded with particular scorn by protesters since late July, when a group of men wearing white T-shirts attacked protesters with sticks and metal bars in a subway station. Mr. Ho was seen shaking hands with men in similar T-shirts in the area on the same night. He later denied any connection.

As Mr. Ho’s cleanups ended on Saturday, thousands of antigovernment protesters were beginning a police-approved march from a park in the Tuen Mun district of northwestern Hong Kong. The march was designed in part to demand more regulation of buskers in the park known as “singing aunties,” middle-aged women from the Chinese mainland who sing pop songs through loudspeakers in Mandarin, the primary form of Chinese spoken in the mainland.

Image

CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times

The antipathy toward those women reflects a widespread fear of the growing influence of mainland Chinese in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was handed back to Beijing’s control in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” arrangement that guaranteed it a high degree of autonomy for a half century.

A protester in the park, Phoenix Leung, 30, said the Tuen Mun march was part of a broader struggle for freedoms in the territory.

“The government wouldn’t do anything about this, and it’s up to us to defend the rights we’re supposed to have,” said Ms. Leung, who works in a hospital. “The parks are for our leisure, not for their private activities or to dance and collect money; it’s become like a pornographic venue.”

The Hong Kong protests began in June in opposition to contentious legislation that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the Communist Party. The Hong Kong government has since promised to withdraw the bill, but the protests have continued anyway, driven by demands for universal suffrage, greater police accountability and other significant political reforms.

Image

CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times

By late Saturday afternoon in Tuen Mun, a few protesters had set a Chinese flag on fire. Previous flag-burnings this summer have angered government supporters in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland.

Other protesters stormed onto the tracks of a nearby train station, breaking security cameras and glass signs with metal poles. The station had been shut beforehand by the city’s subway operator in anticipation of demonstrations.

Police officers in riot gear initially watched the mayhem from a distance. But by 5 p.m. — in scenes that have become common this summer in a normally peaceful city — they were firing tear gas at protesters and pinning some to the ground.

The protesters, meanwhile, were throwing bricks and gasoline bombs into the road to impede police charges, and setting fires in the streets. And that was all before sundown.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/world/asia/hong-kong-protests.html

2019-09-21 10:51:00Z
52780389602767

Peter Schweizer says Hunter Biden worked in Ukraine despite lacking credentials: 'What is he being paid for?' - Fox News

Peter Schweizer on Hunter Biden's Ukraine connections

New questions surround Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son and his ties to the Ukraine; insight from investigative reporter Peter Schweizer, author of 'Secret Empires,' and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, author of 'Witch Hunt: The Story of the Greatest Mass Delusion in American Political History.'

Author Peter Schweizer on Friday night addressed the questions surrounding Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, oversaw America’s Ukraine policy.

"The underlying story here involves Hunter Biden going around the world really collecting large payments from foreign governments and foreign oligarchs in the case of Ukraine," Schweizer, the author of "Secret Empires," said on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."

CONTROVERSY OVER TRUMP PHONE CALL CENTERS ON UKRAINE, AS PRESIDENT DECRIES 'PARTISAN' COMPLAINT

Joe Biden, now the Democratic presidential frontrunner for 2020, faced scrutiny for months over accusations that he pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, who at that time was leading a corruption investigation into a natural gas company that had ties to Biden's son.

Rudy Giuliani, a personal attorney for President Trump, has suggested that Biden worked to protect the company from investigation while in office. Biden said Friday that the claim has no credibility.

The issue involving the Bidens resurfaced Friday after The Wall Street Journal reported that, in a July phone call, Trump repeatedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Giuliani on a probe into Hunter Biden's business activities in Ukraine.

Schweizer implied Hunter Biden's credentials didn't match with the position he held, and that the situation looked suspicious.

"He is supposed to be advising them on natural gas regulatory issues. He has no background in Ukraine. He has no background in energy or natural gas. So the question is, What is he being paid for? He's not being paid for his expertise, he has none," Schweizer said. "His father at this time is the point person on U.S. policy to Ukraine."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The author said Trump was "right" to ask for an investigation and accused Hunter of lying.

"Donald Trump is right to ask the question and to ask that there be an investigation to see what Hunter Biden was being paid for. Joe Biden has offered no answers," Schweizer said. "Hunter Biden, when he's been asked about this, has lied repeatedly and they've been proven lies by ABC News and other outlets."

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.foxnews.com/media/peter-schweizer-president-trump-right-to-ask-for-investigation-into-hunter-biden

2019-09-21 06:25:34Z
52780389416275

Jumat, 20 September 2019

A historic first? Israel's Arabs could lead parliamentary opposition - Reuters

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel’s Arab parties are set to be the largest non-ruling bloc in parliament - and could even lead the opposition - if a national unity government emerges from Tuesday’s election.

FILE PHOTO: Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, gestures as he hands out pamphlets during an an election campaign event in Tira, northern Israel September 5, 2019. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

A surge in turnout gave the Arab-dominated Joint List 13 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, making it the third-largest grouping behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party, with 31 seats, and Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White, with 33.

That would make the Joint List the largest opposition grouping in parliament if a unity government takes shape, a realistic possibility even though Gantz rebuffed Netanyahu’s initial invitation.

No party drawn from the 21 percent Arab minority has ever been part of an Israeli government. But if Joint List head Ayman Odeh, 44, becomes opposition leader, he would receive monthly briefings from the Mossad intelligence agency and meet visiting heads of state.

This would provide a platform to voice Arab complaints of discrimination against them and give a bigger platform to Arab parties that differ with parties drawn from the country’s Jewish majority.

“It is an interesting position, never before held by someone from the Arab population. It has a lot of influence,” Odeh told reporters outside his home in Haifa, a mixed Arab and Jewish city in northern Israel.

But although the Joint List will be the single biggest group, other opposition parties combined would have enough seats to block his appointment through an absolute majority vote, analysts said.

GRAPHIC: Seat projections in Israel's election - here

“There’s no way the other parties will agree to have Ayman Odeh as head of the opposition, and grant our community recognition and legitimacy,” said Aida Touma-Sliman, an Arab lawmaker from Odeh’s Hadash faction.

Arab lawmakers often call for an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the dismantling of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank.

“SYMBOLIC WIN”

The Arab community in Israel is mainly descendants of the Palestinians who remained in Israel after its creation in 1948, and some in the younger generation openly identify as Palestinian.

They make up 1.9 million of Israel’s 9 million population, and often complains of discrimination in health, education and housing, living in cities such as Nazareth and Acre in the north and Bedouin towns in the southern Negev desert.

The Mossawa Center rights group says Israel’s state budget often favors Jews, allocating more funds to Jewish localities and schools than to Arab ones. Some 47% of Arab citizens live in poverty, far above a national average of 18%, it says.

However, Netanyahu’s Likud party counters that its 15 billion shekel ($4.19 billion) investment plan for the Arab sector during the last parliament “is the largest such commitment in Israel’s history”, according to Eli Hazan, Likud’s foreign affairs director.

In Tuesday’s election, Odeh and his group of four Arab parties ran a united front and Arab turnout increased sharply. That helped them regain seats lost in April when they were divided and turnout plummeted.

The Joint List held up its stronger showing on Tuesday’s rerun as a victory over what is described as an “unprecedented campaign of incitement against the Arab public” by Netanyahu and right-wing parties.

Netanyahu made allegations of voter fraud in Arab communities an issue in his election campaign, and sought to deploy cameras to the country’s polling centers in what Arab leaders described an attempt to scare off voters. Israel’s top court refused to allow cameras.

Eid Jbaili, a 55-year-old gym teacher from Haifa, said he boycotted the April election but voted on Tuesday “because my community’s leaders showed they could exude unity in the face of adversity”.

But Jbaili was unsure an Arab opposition leader would be able to provide anything beyond a “small symbolic win” for his community.

“We still won’t be decision-makers in this country,” he said.

Editing by Stephen Farrell and Timothy Heritage

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-election-arabs/a-historic-first-israels-arabs-could-lead-parliamentary-opposition-idUSKBN1W51SJ

2019-09-20 15:00:00Z
52780387922066

China Detains FedEx Pilot Amid Rising U.S.-China Tensions - The New York Times

SHANGHAI — Authorities in southern China have detained an American pilot who works for FedEx, the latest in a series of difficulties for American travelers and companies in China.

The authorities seized the pilot on Sept. 12 in the city of Guangzhou after they found 681 air-gun pellets in his luggage, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday. The pilot was trying to take a commercial flight to nearby Hong Kong, a day after flying an air freighter into FedEx’s huge hub in Guangzhou.

The pilot has been released on bail but remains in China under investigation for weapons smuggling, said Geng Shuang, the ministry’s spokesman, at a regular daily news briefing. Under Chinese regulations, a person released on bail typically has little ability to move around and must remain at a local hotel or residence until officials have completed an investigation.

In a statement, FedEx said authorities had found an object in its pilot’s luggage, though it did not specify what the object was.

“We are working with the appropriate authorities to gain a better understanding of the facts,” the company said in a statement, declining to comment further.

The Wall Street Journal, which reported the detention on Thursday, said the pilot was a United States Air Force veteran named Todd A. Hohn who lives in Hong Kong but was being kept at a Guangzhou-area hotel.

The Air Line Pilots Association International, the union representing most American pilots, declined to discuss the case, as did Mr. Hohn’s lawyer. The municipal foreign affairs office in Guangzhou declined to comment and referred questions to the police, who did not answer telephone calls.

FedEx is one of a number of companies that have been caught between Washington and Beijing as their trade war has intensified. But it is not clear whether the pilot’s detention was related to the company’s problems in China.

Mr. Geng said that the Chinese authorities had become aware that the pilot worked for FedEx only after finding the pellets in his luggage.

As trade frictions and other disputes fester between the United States and China, and as China itself becomes more authoritarian, more Americans have found themselves stuck in China and unable to leave. A Koch Industries executive was held in southern China and interrogated for days in June before being allowed to exit the country.

The State Department issued a travel advisory for China in January, warning Americans, particularly those with dual Chinese-American citizenship, that they may not be allowed to leave China if they go there.

A growing number of foreign companies, particularly American companies but also Canadian and European businesses, have responded by scrutinizing but not prohibiting travel to China by executives and employees.

But the quick release of the pilot, though without allowing him to leave the country, may indicate that China is not eager to turn him into a bilateral issue, said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of Perkins Coie, a global law firm.

“The fact that he was released is a critically important message and a positive sign — Beijing probably ordered his release to minimize the significance of the issue, and this is an indication that Beijing doesn’t want this case to be a huge distraction.” Mr. Zimmerman said.

The detention comes as the United States and China are trying to reach at least a partial truce in their 15-month trade war. Chinese officials have been eager to head off further tariffs that President Trump has planned to impose on Oct. 15 and Dec. 15, but are also loath to agree to the broad Chinese policy changes sought by the Trump administration.

The detention came as Chinese airports have visibly increased security measures in recent months. The authorities have paid particular attention to travelers going to or from Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory where large and increasingly violent protests have taken place every weekend this summer.

China has strict laws not just against the possession of weapons, but also against the possession of any kind of ammunition.

FedEx has had a series of difficulties in China in recent months. China has accused FedEx of delaying shipments last May by Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant accused by American officials of working with Chinese intelligence — accusations that Huawei denies.

FedEx has also been working with Chinese authorities to investigate how one of its American clients was allowed to send a gun to a sporting goods store in southeastern China. The gun was also detected and stopped by Chinese authorities.

Chinese nationalists have called in recent weeks for FedEx to be included on a list of “unreliable entities” that the country’s Commerce Ministry has been drafting. The drafting has begun in response to the United States Commerce Department’s decision to begin putting Huawei on an “entities list” of foreign companies to which goods can only be exported from the United States with special licenses.

Cathay Pacific, a large airline based in Hong Kong, has separately come under heavy scrutiny by the Chinese government after some of its employees expressed support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. China threatened to revoke the airline’s access to its airspace unless Cathay reined in its employees.

Cathay Pacific and FedEx are two of the largest airlines hauling Chinese exports to the United States. Much of China’s electronics exports, particularly higher-value items like iPhones, travel by air.

In addition to scrutinizing travelers to and from Hong Kong very closely, the Chinese government has also increased its medical checks on foreigners visiting or living in the country for any possession or recent use of drugs, using tests that can detecting drug use that may have taken place weeks or months before the foreigners came to China. The medical checks have also produced a series of detentions.

Travel experts now strongly advise anyone going to China to carry prescription medicines in their original containers, and not to carry any prescription medicines that may be illegal in China, like prescription cannabis.

FedEx is a well-known company in China as well as in the United States. By coincidence, HBO showed in China on Thursday night the Tom Hanks movie “Cast Away,” the fictional story of a FedEx manager marooned on a Pacific island for years.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/fedex-china-pilot-detained.html

2019-09-20 12:08:00Z
52780388142743

Attack on Saudi Arabia oil field would likely not have been stopped by any country: expert - Fox News

Saudi Arabia defended itself as well as possible from the recent massive attack on its oil facilities -- an attack that the U.S. has blamed on Iran, a military expert said.

"I don't think there is any country that could have defended any better than Saudi Arabia did, and that includes the United States," Peter Roberts, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, told The New York Times.

"I don't think there is any country that could have defended any better than Saudi Arabia did, and that includes the United States."
— Peter Roberts, director of military sciences, Royal United Services Institute

Eighteen drones and seven cruise missiles bombarded the facilities in an asault described as a “Pearl Harbor-type" attack. Defending against swarms of sophisticated unmanned drones has been an ongoing concern for militaries.

EXPERT ON WHY SAUDI ARABIA WON'T EXPLICITLY BLAME IRAN FOR ATTACKS: 'THEY WOULD BE TOAST'

But even though Riyadh has a capable military with air defense systems, its forces could do little to stop the onslaught, Roberts told the Times.

JACK KEANE SAYS US 'MUST CONDUCT A RETALIATORY STRIKE' IN WAKE OF SAUDI ARABIA OIL SITE ATTACKS

The Guardian, in an article titled, “Middle East Drones Signal End to Era of Fast Jet Air Supremacy,” called Sunday’s attack “the first full-blown drone attack on a strategic site of global significance.”

Countries are investing in laser technology to defend against drones. Companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin are more than 10 years away from the technology, according to MarketWatch.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia both placed blame on Iran for carrying out the attack. Iran denied responsibility. Yemen’s Houthi fighters claimed they were behind the attack. Military drone use in the region is not uncommon. Israel has employed them in Syria and Iran has a fleet.

GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"The bottom line is that we are likely to see many more of these sorts of attacks, and in particular, coordinated attacks on multiple targets are likely, possibly in tandem with a cyber attack component," Milena Rodban, an independent risk consultant in Washington, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.foxnews.com/world/attack-on-saudi-arabia-oil-field-would-likely-not-have-been-stopped-by-any-country-expert

2019-09-20 09:25:34Z
52780382632806

China Detains FedEx Pilot Amid Rising U.S.-China Tensions - The New York Times

SHANGHAI — Authorities in southern China have detained an American pilot who works for FedEx, the latest in a series of difficulties for American travelers and companies in China.

In a statement, FedEx said authorities had found an object in its pilot’s luggage, though it did not specify what the object was.

“We are working with the appropriate authorities to gain a better understanding of the facts,” the company said in a statement, declining to comment further.

Mr. Geng said that the Chinese authorities had become aware that the pilot worked for FedEx only after finding the pellets in his luggage.

China has strict laws not just against the possession of weapons, but also against the possession of any kind of ammunition.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/fedex-china-pilot-detained.html

2019-09-20 09:58:00Z
52780388142743