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Minggu, 08 Desember 2019

Election 2019: Will there be checks between Great Britain and NI? - BBC News

The claim: Boris Johnson said goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain would only be checked if they are expected to be moved onwards into the Republic of Ireland. He told Sky News "the only checks that there would be, would be if something was coming from GB via Northern Ireland and was going on to the Republic, then there might be checks at the border into Northern Ireland".

Reality Check verdict: Some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain will have to be checked even if they are staying in Northern Ireland.

The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement signed in October means that Northern Ireland will remain part of a "single regulatory zone" with the Republic of Ireland, a zone that will apply EU rules.

A Treasury document leaked a few days ago suggested this would mean new checks on goods being traded between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

For example, the EU has particularly strict rules on importing "products of animal origin" - that is to say meat, fish and dairy products.

Those products must enter the EU through a border inspection post where all shipments are subject to document checks and a high proportion are physically checked.

Products of animal origin from Great Britain entering Northern Ireland would be subject to these checks whether they are destined to remain there or be moved to the Republic of Ireland.

The island of Ireland is already a single regulatory zone for animal health.

This means that all livestock entering Northern Ireland from GB is currently checked at the point of entry.

Johnson insists no NI-GB goods checks post-Brexit

A few countries, such as New Zealand, have a deal with the EU where only 1% of consignments of meat and dairy product are checked.

It is possible that the UK could negotiate a similar deal but it would not be able to get rid of checks entirely unless the whole of the UK was going to stay in the single market.

The current political declaration, which sets out the broad shape of the future EU-UK relationship, suggests that is unlikely.

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Trump chucks Clinton's impeachment playbook - NBC News

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump and his allies have predicted the president will see a similar impeachment outcome as former President Bill Clinton did: an acquittal in the Senate, a subsequent spike in popularity, and a backlash against the opposing party in the following elections.

Yet, two months into the process, it’s become clear that an expectation of Clinton's results hasn't translated into an embrace of his tactics. Trump isn’t following the Clinton playbook, the strategies that helped his predecessor weather the impeachment process — a reality that's frustrated and sparked concern among even his biggest defenders.

For much of Clinton’s impeachment hearings, his approval ratings were in the 60 percent range. They hit the highest point of his presidency at 73 percent approval following his impeachment trial in the Senate, according to Gallup.

Trump, on the other hand, has seen his approval rating stuck in the low-40s, with no sizable shift in public support in his favor since the impeachment process began. Despite Trump’s near-daily attacks on the inquiry, the public has remained split over whether he should be impeached and removed from office, with stronger voter support for that prospect than Clinton ever faced.

The divergent strategies are one factor that could explain the differing results, at least so far. Here are a few of the ways that the Clinton and Trump responses contrast:

Nov. 21, 201911:13

Into vs. above the fray

While Trump rarely goes more than a few hours without weighing in on the impeachment inquiry, Clinton’s strategy was to appear above the impeachment fray, a figure too busy working on behalf of the American people to spend his days focused on the investigation by Ken Starr or the impeachment proceedings that followed.

To do that, he left it to his lawyers and television defenders, such as James Carville and Lanny Davis, to combat Republicans and only addressed the controversy in key moments.

It’s the same advice Clinton has said he would give Trump today.

“My message would be, look, you got hired to do a job, you don’t get the days back you blow off. Every day is an opportunity to make something good happen,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Nov. 14. “I would say, ‘I’ve got lawyers and staff people handling this impeachment inquiry, and they should just have at it. Meanwhile, I’m going to work for the American people.’ That’s what I would do.”

Even Trump’s allies have pleaded with him to follow the Clinton model here, leveraging the Oval Office backdrop to foster the image of a president hard at work, not like one spending his days fuming on Twitter and watching cable news.

“President Clinton defended himself but he never stopped being presidential,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters earlier this fall of the Clinton White House. “... The public may not have liked what the president had done, but believed that he was still able to do his job, and as he governed during impeachment, I think that was the single best thing he did.”

There have been moments when it seemed Trump was listening to the advice of supporters like Graham.

He spent much of the first day of public impeachment hearings meeting at the White House with Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan, with press secretary Stephanie Grisham saying he was “too busy” to watch the testimony.

During the second week of the hearings, as his ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, implicated him in a quid pro quo — alleging he had looked to pressure the Ukrainians to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter — Trump toured an Apple manufacturing plant, talking about jobs.

But the presidential moments have been short-lived — and throughout, it has been clear Trump has been watching the proceedings.

Trump tweeted a real-time attack on the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, in the middle of her testimony, causing Democrats to accuse him of witness intimidation. During a break in testimony last week, he reenacted to reporters testimony by Sondland that he argued had exonerated him, using notes he’d scrawled in black marker from the televised hearing. A day later, he gave an interview to Fox News where he denied all wrongdoing, insulted witnesses, and doubled down on conspiracy theories around Ukraine.

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“I have sinned” vs. a “perfect call”

Clinton, while denying he committed perjury and obstruction of justice, eventually issued a public apology for his affair: he had “sinned,” he said, asking for forgiveness and apologizing for the hurt he’d caused his family and the American people. The apology came after Clinton admitted to the relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky in videotaped grand jury testimony.

It was a point his lawyers even emphasized in their opening statement before the Senate when arguing he doesn’t deserve to be impeached.

“The president wants everyone to know — the committee, the Congress, and the country — that he is genuinely sorry for the pain and the damage that he has caused and for the wrongs that he has committed” White House special counsel Gregory Craig said on the first day of Clinton’s impeachment trial.

Nov. 13, 201903:36

Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied there was anything wrong with asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, saying around 200 times so far that his call at the center of the impeachment inquiry was “perfect.”

The lack of apology and remorse makes it difficult for his defenders, said Lanny Davis, who acted as the primary public spokesman for Clinton

“We had one situation where I, on television, was able to say President Clinton has acknowledged his mistake, apologized to the American people and went before the grand jury,” Davis said. “I could not have made that statement for President Trump."

Trump has instead swatted down any suggestion he may have acted inappropriately in any way — and encouraged his defenders to do the same, even as some Republicans in Congress have suggested it was inappropriate, though not impeachable, to ask the Ukrainian president for such a favor.

“The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong,” Trump said in a tweet Nov. 10. “Republicans, don't be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!”

War room vs. “I’m the team”

Clinton assembled a team of aides and outside advisers singularly focused on impeachment to help free up White House staff to carry on with their daily duties and try to minimize the distraction the process created internally.

The Clinton team tasked a handful of people to serve as his public defenders to help keep the messaging focused, said Davis, a former White House counsel who was one of those surrogates.

Davis said he went on television almost daily during some periods, and would consult regularly with the White House lawyers and the political advisers on his message. He kept the talking points focused on the idea that what Clinton did was a personal matter, not an abuse of the office, and between him and his family.

“We had a very simple message based on facts," said Davis, while Trump's defenders "are in an impossible situation. They have my sympathy. ... They don’t have a message based on facts, so they are all over the place.”

Trump has dismissed the idea of a need for a so-called war room or dedicated staff to battle impeachment.

“I don’t have teams. Everyone’s talking about 'teams.' I’m the team. I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Oct. 25.

But the White House and its surrogates have struggled to settle on a clear, consistent defense. Their messaging has instead been notable for headline-grabbing stumbles, such as acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's need to walk back his statement, made during a press briefing, that security funding to Ukraine was linked to the country committing to investigate 2016 election interference.

As the impeachment process moved into the public sphere this month, the White House brought in former Treasury spokesman Tony Sayegh and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to help direct the messaging efforts. But the White House still lacks an individual solely focused on impeachment who reports directly to the president.

Instead, there has been internal infighting, with a rift between Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipillone over who should be taking the lead on guiding the strategy, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Dec. 7, 201901:37

Discredit, dismiss

On the other hand, there has been at least one area in which the Trump and the Clinton strategies have overlapped: their attempts to discredit and dismiss the investigation itself, the officials directing it and the individuals conducting it.

Clinton’s team made a villain out of independent counsel Ken Starr, looking to paint him as a “prissy, partisan, pompous prosecutor," James Carville said during a speech last month. Starr fought back, at times grabbing the impeachment probe spotlight himself and distracting attention from Clinton.

"Of course, he played right into it and I had more fun slapping Ken Starr around than almost anything I've ever done in my life,” Carville said.

Trump has sought to do the same with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif. He’s chucked one insult after another at them, calling them “human scum,” making fun of Schiff’s neck size, referring to Pelosi as “crazy Nancy,” and calling her congressional district a “disgusting slum.”

And the Clinton team, like Trump’s surrogates, sought to downplay the charges made against them.

“We trivialized the charge — 'You're looking to do this over that? Come on, guys?’” Carville said.

Trump’s allies have sought to make a similar argument. Even those Republicans who say it was improper for Trump to ask a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political rival have argued it wasn’t an impeachable offense. Others have proposed that the fact that Ukraine ultimately received the delayed aid, amid a congressional outcry, means that there is no longer an offense to investigate.

"Concern is different than rising to the level of impeachment," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told NBC's "Meet the Press" last month. "I look at it this way: The aid is there and the investigations didn't happen. So, if there was a quid pro quo, it certainly wasn't a very effective one."

Then again, that's another Clinton-era argument — that the president's actions may have been flawed in some fashion, but not fatally — that Trump himself has remained unwilling to embrace.

“I always say," Trump asked at a campaign rally last month, "how do you impeach a president who didn't do anything wrong?”

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2019-12-08 12:01:00Z
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North Korea says it has conducted 'significant' test at missile site - CNN

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2019-12-08 11:42:45Z
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General election 2019: Parties in final campaign push as poll nears - BBC News

The main political party leaders are continuing to push their election pledges to voters, as the campaign enters its final few days.

Conservative leader Boris Johnson says in an open letter that Thursday's poll is "historic" and a choice to "move forwards" after Brexit.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was a "chance to vote for hope" and he had "the most ambitious plan to transform our country in decades".

The UK goes to the polls on Thursday.

Ahead of this, the candidates are travelling around the country in a bid to spread their election messages.

Among the manifesto pledges being highlighted by the main UK parties on Sunday are:

A Conservative promise to introduce an Australian-style points-based immigration system to control unskilled migration
A Labour plan to "head off the social care crisis" by offering free personal care for older people in England and an additional £10bn of funds by 2023-24
A "regional rebalancing" programme from the Lib Dems, which would see £50bn invested in infrastructure outside of London

Meanwhile, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is warning that "the very future of Scotland" is at stake in the election.

She is appealing to voters to back her party "to escape Brexit, protect the NHS, and to put Scotland's future in Scotland's hands".

And Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson told Sky News her party was looking to make "real progress" by increasing its number of MPs on Thursday.

She added: "We will be absolutely working to stop Brexit, doing so in a co-operative way with others who share our values and share that goal."

In his letter to voters published in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Johnson says the election will be one that "shapes future decades", urging voters to create a "working Conservative majority government that will get Brexit done, end the uncertainty and allow Britain to move on".

'High stakes'

The Conservatives have released some details about how their points-based immigration system would work.

Writing in the Sunday Express, Home Secretary Priti Patel, said it would start in January 2021 and aimed to "attract the best talent that our country and economy needs, while reducing overall numbers".

There would be fast-track entry to the UK for entrepreneurs and some people working for the NHS, and sector-specific schemes for low or unskilled workers to meet labour market shortages.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Johnson declined to say if he would resign if he failed to win a majority in the House of Commons.

He said: "What I'm going to do is concentrate on the five days before us, because that is what I think the people of this country would expect."

Labour is restating its plan to help alleviate pressure in social care through the introduction of free personal care for older people.

The party says its new funding will help working-age adults and pensioners with care costs, which will also be capped under the proposals.

According to the King's Fund, providing free personal care would require an additional £6bn on top of planned spending by 2020-21, taking the social care budget to roughly £26bn.

Labour is also talking about its own research on the issue, which it says shows 9,290 people have approached their local authority since April 2017 for help with care costs after draining their savings.

The Lib Dems say their plans will "address the historic investment disparities between our nations and regions".

Its plans would boost railway electrification, increase the availability of charging points for electric vehicles and improve broadband access.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Ed Davey said: "Neither Labour or the Tories can square their spending promises today with the cost of Brexit. They are writing promises on cheques that will bounce.

"Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to stop Brexit so we can invest billions across the UK, helping to tackle ingrained inequality."

'Real change'

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that Labour would "transform our economy" if it won a parliamentary majority at the election.

He added: "I want to make sure our economy works for everybody... It means transforming capitalism into a new form."

Mr Johnson says he wants to focus on people's priorities, including urgent investment in the NHS and action on the cost of living.

Speaking ahead of the last stretch on the campaign trail, Mr Corbyn says Mr Johnson "cannot be trusted to deliver Brexit, or anything else".

He says Labour will "rescue" the NHS and "get Brexit sorted".

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2019-12-08 10:36:43Z
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Hong Kong protesters keep up pressure with mass march - CNN

Tens of thousands of protesters of all ages began assembling at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay at 3 p.m. (2 a.m. ET) under bright blue skies. Many in the crowd could be seen carrying large banners, bearing slogans such as "Free Hong Kong."

By late afternoon, parts of the city had come to a complete standstill, as crowds attempted to move through the main island to Chater Road close to the main financial hub.

The event, which appeared on course to be the biggest of its kind in recent months, marks the first time since mid-August that a march organized by the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) has been granted police approval. The group was responsible for two back-to-back, largely peaceful weekend marches in early June, which it estimates drew a combined total of more than 3 million people.

Protesters gather for what organizers hope will be one of the largest demonstrations since the movement began in June.

Protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city were initially sparked by a now-shelved extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent across the border to face trial in mainland China, but have since expanded to include calls for greater democracy and government accountability.

Sunday's march had been widely viewed as test of the movement's enduring support after six months of occasionally violent unrest -- and many of those in attendance voiced frustration with the government and its perceived unwillingness to make concessions.

"We want our demands to be heard, we want universal suffrage," said one 23-year-old protester, who did not want to be identified. "We want freedom for Hong Kong and for Hong Kong to be managed in a sustainable way," she added.

The organizers had pegged the rally to international Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10 and marks the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Hong Kong's human rights violations and humanitarian crisis are reaching the tipping point now," CHRF said in a statement, calling on the city's government to "uphold its commitment to Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all UN human rights treaties applicable to Hong Kong."

Organizers have vowed to keep the protest peaceful, and had reportedly deployed 200 marshals to handle any potential conflicts between marchers and the police.

The police have permitted the CHRF to hold rallies in recent months, but not march, and several unauthorized demonstrations have broken out into violent conflicts between protesters and police.

"This is the last chance given by the people to (Chief Executive) Carrie Lam," CHRF convenor Jimmy Sham said Friday, according to AFP.

The group has called on Lam, the city's leader, to meet the protest movement's demands, including an independent investigation into allegations of police brutality and the restarting of political reform to allow full universal suffrage for how the city's leader and legislature are chosen.

Protesters crowd roads in the Causeway Bay of Hong Kong, on December 8, 2019.

There has been something of a lull in protests since pro-democracy candidates scored a landslide victory in local council elections last month, but frustration is growing at Lam's failure to respond to those results in any meaningful way.

Protesters celebrated the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in the United States, cheering what some described as US President Donald Trump's "thanksgiving present" to them, but any gift from their own government, or the authorities in Beijing, does not seem forthcoming.

The high turnout for Sunday's march is likely to reiterate the message of support for the protest movement delivered by the election results, and add pressure on Lam to come up with some kind of compromise solution.

In a statement, the city's government said it "hopes that members of the public, when expressing their views and opinions as well as striving for their own rights and freedom, can embody the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to respect others' rights and freedom. All violent and illegal acts are contrary to the spirit of the Declaration."

"From June this year until now, there have been over 900 public demonstrations, processions and public meetings," the statement added. "Unfortunately, many ended in violent and illegal confrontations, including reckless blocking of roadways, throwing petrol bombs and bricks, arson, vandalism, setting ablaze individual stores and facilities of the Mass Transit Railway and Light Rail, and beating people holding different views."

The statement said that the government was willing to "engage in dialogues, premised on the legal basis and under a peaceful atmosphere with mutual trust," and added that in the wake of the extradition bill crisis which kicked off the protests, it has "learned its lesson and will humbly listen to and accept criticism."

On Sunday, police said they had seized a "large amount of weapons, including one firearm and over a hundred bullets" during raids that morning. Eight men and three women were arrested in connection with the operation, they said in a statement.

CNN's Eric Cheung and Rebecca Wright contributed to this report.

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2019-12-08 10:15:00Z
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Hong Kong protesters keep up pressure with mass march - CNN International

By late afternoon, parts of the city had come to a complete standstill, as crowds attempted to move through the main island to Chater Road close to the main financial hub.

The event marks the first time since mid-August that a march organized by the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) has been granted police approval. The group was responsible for two back-to-back, largely peaceful weekend marches in early June, which it estimates drew a combined total of more than 3 million people.

Sunday's march, which appeared on course to be the biggest of its kind in months, had been widely viewed as test of the movement's enduring support after six months of occasionally violent unrest.

Many of the those in attendance voiced frustration with the government and its perceived unwillingness to make concessions. "We want our demands to be heard, we want universal suffrage," said one 23-year-old protester, who did not want to be identified. "We want freedom for Hong Kong and for Hong Kong to be managed in a sustainable way," she added.

Organizers have vowed to keep the protest peaceful, and had reportedly deployed 200 marshals to handle any potential conflicts between marchers and the police.

The police have permitted the CHRF to hold rallies in recent months, but not march, and several unauthorized demonstrations have broken out into violent conflicts between protesters and police.

"This is the last chance given by the people to (Chief Executive) Carrie Lam," CHRF convenor Jimmy Sham said Friday, according to AFP.

CNN's Eric Cheung and Rebecca Wright contributed to this report.

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Hong Kong protesters keep up pressure with mass march - CNN

The march is expected to move through the main island to Chater Road in Central, according to the CHRF, who are pegging the rally to international Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10 and marks the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Hong Kong's human rights violations and humanitarian crisis are reaching the tipping point now," CHRF said in a statement, calling on the city's government to "uphold its commitment to Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all UN human rights treaties applicable to Hong Kong."

Organizers have vowed to keep the protest peaceful, and are reportedly deploying 200 marshals to handle any potential conflicts between marchers and the police.

The police have permitted the CHRF to hold rallies in recent months, but not march, and several unauthorized demonstrations have broken out into violent conflicts between protesters and police.

"This is the last chance given by the people to (Chief Executive) Carrie Lam," CHRF convenor Jimmy Sham said Friday, according to AFP.

Marches organized by the CHRF earlier this summer attracted hundreds of thousands of participants from across Hong Kong, including families and seniors. While turnout predictions are lower for Sunday, a strong showing could reiterate the message of support for the protest movement delivered by the election results, and add pressure on Lam to come up with some kind of compromise solution.

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