United States
Democrats’ plans to tax wealth would reshape U.S. economy: The New York Times, 2 October 2019
Washington — Progressive Democrats are advocating the most drastic shift in tax policy in over a century as they look to redistribute wealth and chip away at the economic power of the superrich with new taxes that could fundamentally reshape the United States economy. As they compete for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont have proposed wealth taxes that would shrink the fortunes of the richest Americans. Their plans envision an enormous transfer of money from the wealthy to ordinary people, with revenue from the wealth tax used to finance new social programs like tuition-free college, universal child care and ‘Medicare for all’.
But the idea of redistributing wealth by targeting billionaires is stirring fierce debates at the highest ranks of academia and business, with opponents arguing it would cripple economic growth, sap the motivation of entrepreneurs who aspire to be multimillionaires and set off a search for loopholes. Click here to read...
US and North Korea to resume talks: CNN, 1 October 2019
The United States and North Korea plan to resume working-level talks next week, according to the US State Department. "I can confirm that US and (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) officials plan to meet within the next week. I do not have further details to share on the meeting," US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement Tuesday. The US special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will lead the US side of the working-level talks with North Korea, according to a State Department official.
Negotiations on denuclearization have stalled since February, when President Donald Trump cut short his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. Trump left the meeting with no joint agreement after Kim insisted all US sanctions be lifted on his country. The last time the two leaders met was in June in the Korean Demilitarized Zone where they agreed to revive staff-level talks. At the United Nations General Assembly meeting last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US has not been able to have any working-level meetings with North Korea, but added that he's "hopeful" there will be by the end of September. Click here to read...
Trump impeachment inquiry: The Washington Post, 2 October 2019
On Sept. 24, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the beginning of an official impeachment inquiry against President Trump, only the fourth time Congress has taken up this type of inquiry into a president. Calls for an inquiry had grown after Trump acknowledged asking the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, a key political rival.
Information about the call is contained in a now-public whistleblower report that laid out the actions of Trump, his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and other officials in the United States and Ukraine. The report includes the allegation that White House officials used a classified computer system to hide documents that could be politically damaging, including a transcript of a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. House Democratic leaders are eyeing a rapid investigation, to wrap before the holiday season. That will keep it focused on the accusations about Trump’s request to the Ukrainian president. Click here to read...
Justice Department tells White House to preserve notes of Trump's calls with foreign leaders: CNN, 2 October 2019
The Justice Department told White House personnel on Wednesday that they must preserve all notes regarding President Donald Trump's meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders. "Defendants today instructed relevant personnel to preserve the information," Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge in a court filing. The question of whether the White House was preserving the information arose in federal court Tuesday, following government transparency and historical archivist groups' emergency request to maintain the notes from the Trump-Volodymyr Zelensky July 25 call and other Trump discussions with world leaders.
The groups had sued Trump and his executive office in May for failing to document at least five meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and one with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Click here to read...
Russia
Kiev agrees to ink Steinmeier Formula: TASS, 1 October 2019
Kiev says it has agreed to ink the so-called Steinmeier Formula, outlining special terms for introducing a special status for Donbass, diplomatic sources close to the talks told Izvestia. Fulfilling this promise is a key to arranging the summit of the Normandy Four (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine), which could be held in Paris this October, they stressed. Experts interviewed by the newspaper believe that if Ukraine really put this plan on paper, this would be a significant step towards peaceful settlement.
There can be no Normandy Four talks until Kiev signs the Steinmeier Formula. This was and remains a key condition, "one of the sources” told the paper. Meanwhile, Ukraine has verbally confirmed its commitments on this. Moreover, they are ready to fully observe the Minsk Agreements, including the clause on a special status for Donbass. All of these assurances give hopes for some cautious optimism that this long-running issue could be resolved soon. Click here to read...
20,000 gather for post-election anti-govt protest in Moscow: Russia Today, 29 September 2019
Thousands of protesters gathered on Sunday in central Moscow to demonstrate against political and justice systems that they see as unfair, and to demand the release of fellow opposition activists. The rally was organized by the same figures that were behind the string of protests in the Russian capital in July and August, some of which defied the law, ending with mass arrests. The latest event, however, was properly sanctioned by the city and was peaceful. In a rare case of agreement on estimates, both the Moscow police and the organizers said that some 20,000 participants braved the cold rainy weather to take part.
Meanwhile, opposition figures delivered anti-government speeches and several guest musicians performed. Candidates for the Moscow city council, who were rejected by the election commission over signature collection fraud, were among keynote speakers. Click here to read...
US trying to draw Bosnia and Herzegovina into NATO, says Lavrov: TASS, 2 October 2019
Washington and some of its European supporters have taken the course towards drawing Bosnia and Herzegovina into NATO, violating the corresponding resolution of the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, addressing the 16th annual session of the Valdai Discussion Club. "The US and some leading western European states demand that accountable Bosnian and some Croatian parties took the course for the creation of a unitary state in Bosnia," he noted. "The goal is simple — to draw Bosnia into NATO. And for this purpose they resort to various maneuvers, including revision of the UN Security Council’s resolution."
According to the constitution suggested in the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Agreement) signed on December 14, 1995 in Paris, Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities: The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51% of the country’s territory), and Republika Srpska (49% of the country’s territory) as well as Brcko District. Click here to read...
Eight foreign banks connect to Russia's SWIFT alternative as system goes global: Sputnik News, 2 October 2019
Russia created its own payment network, called the ‘System for the Transfer of Financial Messages’ (Russian acronym SPFS) after Western countries tried to cut Moscow off from the SWIFT payment system in 2014 in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. Eight foreign banks have connected to Russia’s SPFS financial transfer system, with three connections fully operational, and five more making the necessary technical preparations, Alla Bakina, director of the Russian Central Bank’s national payment system, has announced. “We have provided the opportunity for foreign banks and legal entities to connect to SPFS. Today, the system has around 400 users, including eight foreign entities,” Bakina said, speaking at a banking and retail forum in Moscow on Wednesday.
Created in 2014, the Eurasian Economic Union includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Ukraine had also expressed interest in joining, but lost interest after the February 2014 coup d’état in Kiev, which sparked a political, economic and military crisis in the country. Click here to read...
Europe
Merkel's Cabinet agrees 'climate packet,' environmentalists say it's paltry: DW, 20 September 2019
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat vice chancellor, Olaf Scholz, delivered a slew of supposed climate-rescue measures Friday, aimed at halving Germany's carbon emissions by 2030 to avoid defaulting on its 2015 Paris treaty promises. The outcome of marathon talks within Merkel's "climate cabinet," comprising conservative and center-left minsters and coinciding with worldwide "Fridays for Future" protests, was decried by environmentalists as haphazard and too little.
Scholz, in his role as finance minister, described the policies as "socially balanced climate protection," costing the government a total of €54 billion ($61 billion) by 2023, and a "chance" to modernize German industry and create innovative new jobs. Click here to read...
Drought forces water restrictions until November across much of France: The Local, 2 October 2019
Residents of drought-hit departments in central and eastern France will have to face prolonged restrictions on their water usage until October 31st or even the end of November. France’s ongoing battle with drought means that 79 out of metropolitan France’s 95 departments will continue to have some form of water restriction in place during the month of October.
Government agency Propluvia, which works closely with France’s Agriculture and Environment Ministry, published the findings as part of their latest drought map on Wednesday. The departments in red - large swathes of central, southern and eastern France that were badly hit by suffocating temperatures and a lack of rain this summer - are all still undergoing a ‘water crisis’. Click here to read...
Brexit: Boris Johnson to set out deal to MPs: BBC, 3 October 2019
Boris Johnson is expected to set out his proposals for a Brexit deal in Parliament later, while European Union (EU) leaders also consider their response. He outlined plans on Wednesday that would see Northern Ireland stay in the European single market for goods but leave the customs union - resulting in new customs checks.
The European Commission welcomed the ‘advances’ but said problems remained. The PM says the UK will leave the EU on 31 October, with or without a deal. He insists he will not ask for a further extension if no deal is reached despite legislation designed to force him to do so unless MPs pass a deal or approve a no-deal Brexit before 19 October. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, whose stance is expected to guide how the EU responds, said the UK's approach "did not fully meet the agreed objectives of the backstop". The backstop is a mechanism designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit. Click here to read...
U.S. widens trade war with tariffs on European planes, cheese, whisky to punish subsidies: Reuters, 3 October 2019
The United States on Wednesday said it would slap 10% tariffs on European-made Airbus planes and 25% duties on French wine, Scotch and Irish whiskies, and cheese from across the continent as punishment for illegal EU aircraft subsidies. The announcement came after the World Trade Organization gave Washington a green light to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU goods annually in the long-running case, a move that threatens to ignite a tit-for-tat transatlantic trade war.
The measures would follow tariffs levied by the United States and China on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods in their more than year-old trade war. The U.S. trade representative’s target list for EU tariffs, set to take effect on Oct. 18, includes large Airbus planes made in France, Britain, Germany and Spain - the four Airbus consortium countries. But no tariffs will be imposed on EU-made aircraft parts used in Airbus’ Alabama assembly operations or those used by rival U.S. plane maker Boeing Co safeguarding U.S. manufacturing jobs. Click here to read...
Africa
Ethiopia rejects Egypt's plan for operating giant dam on the Nile: Reuters, 19 September 2019
Ethiopia on Wednesday rejected a proposal by Egypt to operate a $4 billion hydropower dam the Horn of Africa country is constructing on the Nile, further deepening a dispute between the two nations over the project.
In a press conference in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, Sileshi Bekele, minister for water, irrigation and energy described Egypt’s plan including the volume of water it wants the dam to release annually as “inappropriate.” “The proposal from Egypt was unilaterally decided...(it) didn’t consider our previous agreements,” he said. Click here to read...
South Sudan Oil Consortium funded militias accused of atrocities, Report Says: The New York Times, 19 September 2019
A South Sudanese oil consortium directly financed militias accused of committing atrocities in the country’s civil war, according to an investigative report released on Thursday amid growing calls for accountability for the conflict’s human rights abuses.
The report by a watchdog group linked the consortium, Dar Petroleum Operating Company, in which Chinese and Malaysian state-owned oil companies have large stakes, to episodes of violence, corruption and environmental degradation. It also outlined ties between forces loyal to the government of President Salva Kiir and the company, a relationship apparently forged in an effort to protect the oil fields and keep revenues flowing. Click here to read...
Japan to give Kenya about $860 million in loans, grants for bridge, economic zone: Reuters, 20 September 2019
Japan will give Kenya nearly $860 million in concessional loans and grants for the construction of a bridge in the port city of Mombasa and other infrastructure projects to support an economic zone there, Kenyan and Japanese officials said on Friday.
Katsutoshi Komori, Japan’s ambassador to Kenya, told a news conference that a loan of about $450 million will go toward building a 1.3 km bridge linking Mombasa’s mainland to an island in the city. “It is expected that the Mombasa Gate Bridge will reduce the economic losses caused by traffic congestion and allow Mombasa to achieve its full economic potential,” he said. Click here to read...
DR Congo to introduce second Ebola vaccine: BBC, 21 September 2019
In July, former Health Minister Oly Ilunga opposed its use saying it had not been proved effective. But DR Congo health officials say the vaccine, developed by Johnson & Johnson, is safe. This outbreak, in the east of DR Congo, is the second largest on record.
The largest was the epidemic that ravaged parts of West Africa from 2014 to 2016, killing more than 11,000 people. Click here to read...
Ebola virus: Tanzania failing to provide details, WHO says, 22 September 2019
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had learned of one suspected fatal case in Dar es Salaam and two others but, despite repeated requests, was given no information.
Tanzania has said it has no suspected or confirmed cases. The latest outbreak has killed more than 2,000 in eastern DR Congo, with Uganda battling to stop any spread. Click here to read...
Ethiopia says detains suspected Islamist militants planning attacks: Reuters, 22 September 2019
Ethiopia said on Saturday it had arrested an unspecified number of Islamist militant members of the Somali group al Shabaab and Islamic State who were planning to carry out attacks in the country on various targets including hotels.
Some of those arrested were carrying out intelligence work including photographing potential targets, the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) said in a statement read out on state-affiliated broadcaster Fana. "The group was ... preparing to attack hotels, religious festivities gathering places and public areas in Addis Ababa," NISS said. Click here to read...
Ghana halts 'elaborate plot to destabilise country': BBC, 24 September 2019
In a statement posted on Twitter, Ghana's government said the plot had "the ultimate aim of destabilising the country". Military personnel were involved in obtaining weapons, the statement said. According to the government, the group were aiming to recruit and radicalise a base of young people.
A stash of weapons and ammunition was found following 15 months of surveillance. This included six pistols, three smoke grenades, 22 IEDs, two AK47 magazines and one long knife. Computer equipment, a voice recorder and a Ghanaian passport were also among the list of items seized. Security analysts have downplayed the claims of a coup plot, saying the group lacked the weapons and mass movement required.
The government statement said the three men arrested, named as Frederick Yao Mac-Palm, Ezor Kafui and Bright Allan Debrah Ofosu, had set up a group targeting young people. Click here to read...
Nigeria must address housing crisis and end forced evictions: U.N. rapporteur, Reuters, 24 September 2019
Nigeria is gripped by a crisis that has left Africa’s most populous country ill-equipped to properly house its inhabitants, said a United Nations rapporteur who also called for an end to the forced evictions of entire communities. The United Nations estimates that Nigeria’s population is set to double by 2050 to around 400 million people, which would make it the world’s third-largest nation, behind India and China.
Against this backdrop, there was a lack of adequate housing in a country where most inhabitants live on less than $2 a day despite the nation having Africa’s largest economy, said Leilani Farha, special rapporteur on adequate housing. Click here to read...
Turning the tables: global poverty conference to be held in a slum: The Guardian, 25 September 2019
A global conference on poverty is to take place in Africa’s largest slum in an effort to make sure the poorest get a voice. The inaugural World Poverty Forum will be announced on Wednesday in New York at the Decade of Action event taking place during UN general assembly week. It is already being dubbed as “Davos with the poor”.
Social entrepreneur Kennedy Odede, who was raised in the slum of Kibera, in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has founded the event to bring world leaders and policymakers together to “change the dynamic” of the way the big global issues are discussed. He said it was about making “worlds collide”. Click here to read...
Zimbabwe facing worst food insecurity in memory: VOA, 25 September 2019
Zimbabwe is facing its worst food insecurity in recent memory, with more than five million people in need of assistance until the next harvest begins in April, the World Food Program says. Eddie Rowe, head of the WFP in Zimbabwe, says the need for food assistance was once confined to rural areas, but now some 2 million people in urban areas also need help. "We are talking of urban poverty where you have not just food insecurity but high rates of unemployment," he said. "So, when you look at it now, what we are trying to do is for us to come together for us to be able to intervene in an integrated manner. So it's not just addressing food insecurity, but addressing urban poverty."
The Rome-based U.N. agency said food assistance in Zimbabwe was started early this year because of the ailing economy, recurring droughts and the impact of Cyclone Idai in March. Click here to read...
DR Congo - Vaccine campaign for world's largest measles outbreak : BBC, 26 September 2019
The WHO and the Congolese government aim to carry out the emergency programme across the country in slightly more than a week. The WHO says the epidemic is the world's largest and fastest moving. It has killed more Congolese people this year than Ebola.
Despite previous rounds of immunisations, the disease has spread to every part of the country. Lack of routine access to vaccinations and healthcare has contributed to the problem. Click here to read...
El-Sisi plays down protest call as Egypt tightens security: Aljazeera, 27 September 2019
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has played down a call for protests against his rule, saying there were "no reasons for concern" even as the army and the police tightened security in the capital, Cairo, and other major cities.
The dismissal on Friday came as rights groups said nearly 2,000 people have so far been arrested in a broad crackdown following last week's small but rare demonstrations against el-Sisi, who took power in a 2013 coup. "There are no reasons for concern. Egypt is a strong country thanks to Egyptians," the President told reporters with a smile, shortly after his return from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Click here to read...
Ongoing crises in Somalia impede progress toward stability: VOA, 29 September 2019
A U.N. Human Rights Expert warns a host of natural and man-made disasters is impeding Somalia's efforts to stabilize the country and improve conditions for its population. The U.N. human rights council examined the expert's report this past week. This is the independent expert's last report to the Council before his mandate expires.
Bahame Nyanduga said a number of changes have taken place in Somalia over the past six years, many for the better. He said there has been considerable progress in the security, political, socio-economic and human rights situation in the country. Click here to read...
Historic payment to Gabon seeks to preserve ‘Earth’s Lungs’: VOA, 30 September 2019
Gabon is one of the greenest countries in the world, where forests cover 88% of the land. Backers of a historic agreement between Gabon and Norway are seeking to ensure it stays that way. Through the U.N.-backed Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), Norway will pay Gabon up to $150 million over 10 years in exchange for Gabon reducing its carbon emissions, highlighting the forests’ role in absorbing carbon dioxide.
In an interview with Voice of America, Lee White, Gabon’s minister of forests, said the agreement is groundbreaking because it makes preserving forests nearly as valuable as chopping them down. Click here to read...
South Africa, Nigeria Leaders Meet After Anti-Immigrant Violence: Bloomberg, 1 October 2019
Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will host Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for talks, weeks after xenophobic violence strained economic ties between the two nations.
Nigeria recalled its high commissioner and evacuated some of its citizens last month after a spate of attacks in South Africa left at least 12 people dead, two of them foreigners. Protests in Nigeria over the violence targeted South African companies including mobile-phone giant MTN Group Ltd. and grocer Shoprite Holdings. Click here to read...
