Saudi Arabia executed record number of people in 2019, human rights group says
SAUDI ARABIA BIGGEST FUNDER AND SUPPORTER OF TERRORISM
SUNNI JIHADISTS DAESH, INCLUDING 9/11, OSAMA BIN LADEN INC. AND

THE RECENT MILITARY STUDENT KILLING IN USA
Conrad Duncan,The Independent•January 14, 2020
A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace on January 12, 2020: AFP via Getty Images

Saudi Arabia executed 184 people in 2019, the highest number of killings since records began six years ago, according to human rights campaigners.

Research by Reprieve, an organisation which tracks human rights abuses, showed a record number of executions compiled from reports by the official Saudi Press Agency, including one example where 37 people were executed in a single day.

Press reports showed 90 of those killed were foreign nationals, while 88 were Saudi nationals and 6 were of unknown nationality.

The figures also showed that executions have more than doubled in Saudi Arabia since 2014, when 88 people were killed, with 2019 being comfortably the worst year for killings.

In comparison, 149 people were executed in 2018 and 146 people were killed in 2017, according to Reprieve.

The research come after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said his government was trying to “minimise” the use of capital punishment in the country in 2018.

“These latest execution figures expose the gap between the reformist rhetoric and bloody reality of Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia,” Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve, told The Independent.

“As the Crown Prince travels the world meeting heads of state, his regime has been executing young men arrested as children for the 'crime' of standing up for democracy.”

Ms Foa also criticised the upcoming G20 summit in the capital of Riyadh which is set to take place in November this year.

“2020 must be the year that the Kingdom's partners stop falling for the Saudi charm offensive and insist on an end to these egregious human rights abuses and violations of international law,” she added.

The event has already drawn criticism from the human rights group Amnesty International, who have refused to attend C20 meetings in preparation for the annual summit.

“We cannot participate in a process which is being abused by a state which censors all free speech, criminalises activism for women’s and minority rights, as well as homosexuality, and tortures and executes critics,” the group said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia has sought to improve its international reputation in recent years with “expensive PR campaigns” and high-profile sporting events, Amnesty added.

In a 2018 interview for Time magazine, the Saudi crown prince claimed his government was looking into reducing the number of executions and said he believe it would take about one year to introduce reforms.

However, the following year saw no reductions in the number of executions.

In April, the country carried out one of the largest mass executions in its history, in which 37 people were sentenced to death.

CNN reported that many of the men who were condemned to death had been sentenced on the basis of confessions which were obtained by coercion and torture.

Justin Trudeau says Iran plane crash victims would still be alive if not for heightened tensions

Catherine Garcia, The Week•January 13, 2020


Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that the victims on a Ukraine International Airlines plane that was shot down over Tehran last week would still be alive if not for heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Early last Wednesday, Iran fired ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. This was in response to President Trump authorizing an airstrike in Baghdad that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Just a few hours after the Iranian retaliatory strikes, Iran's military accidently shot down the Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 passengers and crew. Of the victims, 57 were Canadians. After initial denials, the Iranian government acknowledged this weekend that it had made a "disastrous mistake."

"I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families," Trudeau told Global News TV. The U.S. did not tell Canada in advance it was planning on targeting Soleimani, and Trudeau said "obviously" he would have liked advance notice.

"The U.S. makes its determinations," he added. "We attempt to work as an international community on big issues. But sometimes countries take actions without informing their allies."

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Bernie Sanders says his potential running mate 'will not be an old white guy'

I AM THE ONLY OLD WHITE GUY ALLOWED ON THE TICKET 

January 13, 2020

Scott Olson/Getty Images


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) doesn't know who he'd pick to be his running mate if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination, but he definitely knows who it won't be.

In an interview with The New York Times editorial board published Monday, Sanders was reluctant to declare who he'd pick as vice president. Considering, the Iowa caucus hasn't even happened yet, Sanders called choosing someone to round out his hypothetical ticket "a little bit premature," but he did say the person "will not be an old white guy."

The 78-year-old Sanders said he believes in diversity and promised his cabinet "will look like what America looks like," adding that "the country is long overdue for the kind of diversity that we're going to bring to the White House."

That's all he was willing to reveal for now, acknowledging his campaign hasn't considered any specific names at this point.

He did rule out one person though — former Vice President Joe Biden. The senator said Biden's eight years as President Obama's right-hand man was "probably enough." Read the full interview at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

The Trump administration is warning allies to stay away from Huawei — but not everyone's listening

insider@insider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton),Business Insider•January 13, 2020
 

Trump Ren Zhengfei
AP/Evan Vucci/Vincent Yu/Business Insider composite


The US and Chinese phone giant Huawei are at each other's throats.


America claims Huawei is used as a backdoor for the Chinese government to spy. Huawei denies this.


The US has been lobbying allies to reject Huawei's 5G technology, but not everyone's listening.




For over a year the US has been in a political dogfight with Chinese tech giant Huawei over claims the company acts as a proxy for the Chinese government to spy.

Although US officials have long cautioned against the company, tensions heightened in December 2018 when Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada, and subsequently indicted by the US for alleged bank and wire fraud. Meng and Huawei deny any wrongdoing, and the CFO is currently fighting extradition to the US.

Read more: What you need to know about Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese tech founder's daughter whose arrest could set fire to US-China relations

Initially, Huawei struck a conciliatory tone, with CEO Ren Zhengfei (who is also Meng Wanzhou's father) breaking a long press silence to call Donald Trump a "great president." Since then, however, a fight has erupted between the company and the Trump administration, with Huawei denying any claims of spying and accusing the US of orchestrating Meng Wanzhou's arrest for political reasons.

The US has been furiously lobbying its allies to freeze out Huawei's 5G network equipment, citing national security concerns. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned allied countries in mid-February 2019 that it would be "more difficult" for the US to partner with countries that didn't distance themselves from Huawei.

President Trump ramped up the pressure yet further in May last year by signing an executive order declaring a national emergency over "threats against information and communications technology and services," a move expected to precede a ban on US businesses buying equipment from Huawei. Since then the company has received three 90-day licenses, so the blacklisting has yet to fully kick in.

Still America continues to lobby against the company, but its efforts have been met with mixed success. Here is a run-down of how allies have reacted.

Britain
 

Boris Johnson
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Multiple reports surfaced on April 24 that Prime Minister Theresa May had given the order allowing Huawei to build "non-core" parts of the UK's 5G infrastructure.

The Financial Times reported in February that the British government decided it could "mitigate the risks" associated with using Huawei's 5G technology, and in the same month head of GCHQ Jeremy Fleming said the UK had to be wary of the security threats posed by Chinese tech companies.

In March, Britain's government-led board in charge of vetting Huawei criticised the company's mobile network equipment for "major [security] defects," but added that it did not believe the defects were the result of state interference, but rather poor engineering.

The UK delayed making a decision on whether to exclude Huawei from its 5G network on July 23, a move which Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang said gave the company "confidence." Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said the government was "not yet in a position" because of a lack of clarity from the US.

In January 2020 the US ratcheted up the pressure on the UK. Mike Pompeo met with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in Washington to discuss Huawei, and a delegation of US officials were sent to Britain to push for a total ban.

In the midst of the fresh onslaught of US lobbying head of MI5 Andrew Parker told the Financial Times he wasn't worried about the US cutting Britain off from intelligence-sharing.

In an interview with the BBC, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei hinted that the UK could benefit from the vacuum left by the US.

"We will invest even more in the UK. Because if the US doesn't trust us, then we will shift our investment from the US to the UK on an even bigger scale," he said.

Canada

justin trudeau
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Canada's relationship with the US has been a major factor in its battle with Huawei. In December 2018, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver. The Canadian government approved Meng's extradition in March, prompting rage from China. Meng is suing Canada over her arrest, claiming her rights were violated.

On the issue of 5G however, Canada's stance remains uncertain. Sources told Bloomberg in January that the Canadian government was conducting a security review, and was months away from reaching a decision about whether to restrict or ban Huawei.

China's ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye issued a warning in January, saying he believed there would be "repercussions" if the country froze Huawei out. Just before Trump signed the executive order declaring a national emergency, Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters:

"We obviously pay careful attention to what our allies are saying and doing. Some have expressed views, others have not... We'll take all that into account, but we want to make the very best decision for Canada with respect to the technology and also on national security. Our national security will not be compromised."

Huawei has also been on a PR charm offensive. the New York Times reported in February 2019 that Huawei was trying to woo Canada, becoming a prominent sponsor of the sports show "Hockey Night."

Germany
 

Angela Merkel
Dario Pignatelli/Reuters

Several unnamed German officials told The Wall Street Journal in February 2019 that Germany was leaning towards allowing Huawei to take part in building 5G networks in the country.

Officials told the Journal that the agreement was preliminary, and still had to be approved by the full cabinet and Parliament, which won't happen for several weeks.

The Wall Street Journal then reported in March that the US ambassador had upped the pressure on Germany. In a letter to the country's economics minister, the ambassador warned that if the country allowed Huawei or other Chinese partners to take part in its 5G plans, the US would have to reduce the amount of information it shares with German security forces.

Just days later, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would set its own security standards for 5G.



Japan
 

Shinzo Abe
Shizuo Kambayashi/AP

Japan effectively banned Huawei, along with fellow Chinese tech company ZTE, from winning any government contracts back December 2018, shortly after CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada. The Washington Post reported at the time that Japan's three biggest telecom operators planned to follow suit.

India
 

Narendra Modi
REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

A Wall Street Journal report from February 2019 suggested that the US is not having much luck in convincing India to freeze Huawei out.

Read more: The US is having a tough time persuading the world's biggest democracy to ditch Huawei

"Huawei is today at the frontier on 5G and so can't be ignored," an unnamed Indian official told the Journal. The same official added that India would select 5G vendors on its own terms, "not under pressure" from the US.

India is a rapidly expanding online market, and will be a major win for Huawei if it can start selling its 5G kit in the country, and conversely a huge blow to the US.

United Arab Emirates

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Mike Pompeo.JPG
Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS

The United Arab Emirates, a major ally of the US in the Middle East, announced in February 2019 that it will deploy a 5G network built by Huawei this year, signifying a major setback in America's lobbying efforts.

An unnamed American official told the Wall Street Journal that the US will watch the UAE-Huawei partnership closely.

Poland
 

Mike Pence and Polish President Andrzej Duda
REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

After Polish security services arrested a Chinese Huawei employee on allegations of spying in January 2019, both Huawei and the US seem to have stepped up their game in courting the country.

A month later US Vice President Mike Pence praised the country for its commitment to "protecting the telecoms sector from China."

Poland is considering excluding Huawei, and the company has been furiously trying to win back favor, even offering to build a "cybersecurity center" there.

Australia
 

Scott Morrisson
AP Photos/Rod McGuirk

Australia banned Huawei and ZTE from supplying tech for the country's networks in August 2018. In response, China said Australia was using "various excuses to artificially erect barriers," and called on it to "abandon ideological prejudices and provide a fair competitive environment for Chinese companies."

New Zealand
 

Jacinda Ardern
REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

In November 2018, New Zealand blocked Huawei's 5G technology. Its intelligence agency shot down a proposal from one of the country's biggest telecom carriers Spark to use Huawei equipment in its 5G network, citing "significant security risks."

The following February Huawei reacted by taking out full-page ads in New Zealand newspapers saying "5G without Huawei is like rugby without New Zealand," trying to draw a parallel between its own 5G tech and New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team.

By November 2019 Huawei had managed to wangle its way back in. Spark announced Huawei as one of its preferred 5G vendors alongside Samsung and Nokia, per Nikkei Asian Review.

The European Union
  

Julian King EU Commission
Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock

The European Commission released its recommendations to member states on March 26, 2019 regarding the security of 5G networks — and its advice did not include banning Huawei. It recommended that member states conduct their own risk assessments by the end of June 2019.

Commissioner Julian King told reporters that Europe needs to reach its own conclusions about 5G security, "not because anybody else has suggested that we need to do this or because we are reacting to steps taken anywhere else," CNN reported.

Huawei praised the Commission's advice, saying it was "objective and proportionate."

However the Commission did not rule Huawei out as a threat entirely. Vice President Andrus Ansip told reporters:

"We have some kind of specific concerns connected with some producers, so everybody knows I'm talking about China and Huawei... Do we have to worry about this, or not? I think we have to be worried about this."

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Guatemala's new president takes office under U.S. pressure on asylum

By Jeff Abbott,
Reuters•January 13, 2020

Mexico weighs bringing Mexican asylum seekers sent to Guatemala back home: Interior minister

Under U.S. rules made public this
month, Mexicans requesting protection at
the U.S.-Mexican border can be flown to
Guatemala to seek refuge there instead.


By Jeff Abbott

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's new president takes office on Tuesday under pressure from the Trump administration on immigration and security and must decide his government's stance quickly on a U.S. asylum agreement he previously opposed.

A conservative former surgeon and ex-prison chief, Alejandro Giammattei, 63, ran for top office three times before his victory in an August runoff on a tough-on-crime platform that included returning the death penalty.

"We will bring back the peace this country so dearly needs," he told reporters on Monday, promising to overhaul the Central American nation's security forces and restructure ministries.
- ADVERTISEMENT -


But at the top of his to-do list will be a decision on whether to roll back or expand an agreement with the United States forged by outgoing President Jimmy Morales that makes Guatemala a buffer zone to reduce U.S. asylum claims.

Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, part of the U.S. delegation headed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for the inauguration, is expected to push Giammattei to expand the agreement to include Mexicans.

Giammattei, who in the past has suggested he would seek to change the Asylum Cooperation Agreement (ACA), appeared to soften his stance on Monday, saying he had not yet seen the deal's details.

Guatemala is central to U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating efforts to end illegal immigration and asylum claims from people making their way to the southwestern U.S. border.

Guatemala is one of Latin America's poorest and unequal nations, with poverty increasing since 2000 despite strong economic growth rates, according to the World Bank. U.S. officials have threatened it with economic consequences if it fails to accept the ACA.

Under the deal, implemented in November, the United States sends Hondurans and El Salvadorans seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to Guatemala to ask for refuge there instead.

As of Friday, 128 Salvadoran and Honduran asylum seekers had been sent as part of the agreement, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute. Only a handful have applied for asylum in a country that is itself a major source of U.S. bound migrants. Others have returned home.

CRIME AND CORRUPTION

Giammattei inherits a nation suffering from the corrosive effects of drug trafficking on politics and the distrust sowed by last year's forced departure of a United Nations-backed anti-corruption body.

Another looming decision will be whether to act on the recommendation of a congressional panel last week that judges and investigators who worked with the anti-corruption body, known as CICIG, be arrested.

CICIG helped topple sitting President Otto Perez Molina on corruption charges in 2015 and put dozens of politicians and businessmen behind bars, before a backlash led Morales to drive the body from Guatemala in September.

Morales, himself investigated by the agency on election financing charges he denies, is due to be sworn into the Central American parliament a few hours after he leaves office, in a position offering him immunity.

On the bright side, Guatemala’s homicide rate is down - to 22 murders per 100,000 in 2018 residents from 45 per 100,000 in 2009.

But the freedom with which drug traffickers influence politics is a challenge. Ahead of last year's election, presidential candidate and occasional Morales ally Mario Estrada was arrested in Miami on charges of seeking funding from drug cartels and conspiring to assassinate rivals.

"We realized that narco-trafficking here is among the most intense in the region," Luis Hernandez Azmitia, an outgoing congressional representative of the Movimiento Reformador party told Reuters.

Last year, 49 drug-smuggling aircraft used by cartels were found in Guatemala, according to local media reports. Authorities invoked emergency powers to regain control of one area of the country, where coca plantations and cocaine laboratories were discovered hidden in the hills.


(Reporting by Jeff Abbott, additional reporting by Sofia Menchu; Editing by Tom Brown)

Indian police officer arrested for helping Kashmir militants

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

#FREEKASHMIR

AFP•January 12, 2020


The officer was apprehended along with three militants at a police checkpoint in Kashmir (AFP Photo/Tauseef MUSTAFA)More

A decorated Indian officer has been arrested for helping to transport rebel militants in Kashmir, the police chief of the restive and highly-militarised Himalayan province said Sunday.

Deputy superintendent Davinder Singh had worked for the police for decades and was a member of an elite counter-insurgency force in the disputed territory, which both India and Pakistan claim in full.

He was apprehended late on Saturday when his vehicle was pulled over at a police checkpoint south of Srinigar, the region's main city.

"The fast moving car was stopped and searched. Two wanted militants and our officer... and a third person were arrested in the operation," Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar told reporters.

Kumar said police and intelligence agencies were questioning Singh, accusing the officer of a "heinous crime".

Security forces recovered guns and ammunition from several locations in the follow up to the arrests, including from Singh's residence in Srinagar.

Hours after the four men were detained, police killed three alleged rebels during a gunfight in southern Kashmir's Tral district, where the arrested militants were based.

One of those arrested was Naveed Baba, the deputy commander of the local rebel outfit Hizbul Mujahideen.

Baba had stolen four assault rifles and deserted the police force to join the militant group in 2017, according to police.

Singh had risen steadily through the ranks of the Kashmir security apparatus during his career and was last year awarded a medal by the Indian president for his service.

But years earlier he was accused of forcing a man to help armed militants travel to New Delhi in a deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

Twelve people including five attackers were killed in the attack, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups -- prompting a months-long military stand-off that brought the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of war.

India had accused Pakistan based militant groups of launching the attack and resulted in a months-long military stand-off at the border with Pakistan before both the armies retreated under international pressure.

Singh acknowledged in 2006 he had tortured his accuser, Mohammad Afzal Guru, while he was in custody, but the claims were not taken seriously by investigators. Guru was later convicted for his part in the attack and hanged.

Kumar told Sunday's press conference that the allegations would now be revisited.

"We will ask him about the attack in the interrogation," the police chief said.

- Decades of rebellion -

Scores of militant groups in Kashmir have fought India's administration of the territory since an armed rebellion broke out more than three decades ago.

Police and Indian troops are routinely accused of human rights abuses against the local population.

Security across the territory has been tightened since August 5, when India revoked Kashmir's semi-autonomous status, arrested the region's top political leaders and imposed a security and communications blockade.

Some restrictions have since been slowly eased but internet services for the public remain blocked.

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China could flex military muscles to pressure Taiwan post-election

By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee, Reuters•January 13, 2020

Taiwan president wins by landslide in stinging rebuke to China

A landslide victory of almost 8.2 million votes for Taiwanese

By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) - His policies rejected by Taiwan voters in a landslide re-election for President Tsai Ing-wen, Chinese President Xi Jinping will most likely continue to tighten the screws on the island, with state media already floating shows of force.

China took center stage in the campaign after Xi sought in a major speech a year ago to get Taiwan to sign on to the same sort of "one country, two systems" model as Hong Kong.

Tsai immediately rejected the idea. Six months later, Hong Kong erupted in anti-government protests, giving a huge boost to Tsai in her efforts to portray China as an existential threat to Taiwan's democracy and freedoms.

But rather than recognize that its pressure on Taiwan had failed, Beijing's immediate reaction to the election was to double down on "one country, two systems" and say it would not change policy.

"This administration of Xi Jinping, but I would say more broadly the DNA of the Communist Party, does not do well to reflect and recalibrate in a way that signals reconciliation, compromise or what they would frame as weakness," said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"I thoroughly expect that the conversation right now in Beijing is about turning the screws even more," Blanchette added.

China says Taiwan is its territory. Taiwan says it is an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.

Options for increasing pressure post-election include many of the actions China was taking before: stepped up military drills around the island or picking off more of Taiwan's 15 remaining diplomatic allies. It could also withdraw from a key trade agreement reached a decade ago.

Widely read Chinese state-backed tabloid the Global Times said in a Monday editorial that military flexing may be the next step.

"We need to plan to crack down on Tsai's new provocative actions, including imposing military pressure," it wrote.

China already sailed its newest aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait twice in the run-up to the election, and during Tsai's first administration regularly flew bomber jets around the island.

Zheng Zhenqing，a Taiwan expert at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, said China using even more military coercion against Taiwan was "a realistic thing to do".

"For the mainland, 'one country, two systems' is a basic policy of the state. How can it be changed just because of one election on Taiwan?" he said.

CREATING 'POISON'

Since Xi took power in late 2012, he has overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent at home, locking up political rivals in the name of fighting corruption and tightening Communist Party control at every level of society.

Internationally, China has faced opprobrium for locking up Muslims in its far western region of Xinjiang as part of what it calls an anti-radicalisation program.

And in Hong Kong, Beijing has shown no sign of giving into demands for greater democracy there, and continues to face censure from Western countries for how it has dealt with the protests.

This month Beijing replaced its top man in the former British colony with an official known for enforcing party discipline in coal-rich Shanxi, where corruption was once likened to cancer.

Alongside strident calls to use force to take Taiwan, there has been some rare criticism on China's Twitter-like Weibo site of China's Taiwan Affairs Office's failure to win over the island.

"You officials there please step down as soon as possible. From dawn to dusk you slam Taiwan, but the more you do this the more poison you create," wrote one user.

The Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment on whether its head, former Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Liu Jieyi, would be replaced in light of Tsai's huge win.

One diplomatic source, familiar with policy making in China and Taiwan, said it was possible Xi was not being given the true picture of what was happening in Taiwan because officials under him were scared to report bad news.

"In the current atmosphere in Beijing, who wants to be the one to tell the boss that he's on the wrong track?" the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


(Reporting by Ben Blanchard. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

European leaders issue defiant support for Iran nuclear deal after Trump tells them to drop 'foolish' agreement

tcolson@businessinsider.com (Thomas Colson),Business Insider•January 13, 2020

Donald Trump  Getty

European leaders have issued a statement of support for the Iran nuclear deal despite US President Donald Trump calling for them to walk away from the "foolish" arrangement.

The leaders of the UK, France, and Germany want to salvage the 2015 accord, which is designed to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Trump had asked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to abandon the agreement.


The leaders repeated their "regret and concern" for Trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement and impose sanctions on Iran.


The statement came as the UK signaled plans to downgrade its defense alliance with the US.


France, Germany, and the UK have issued a statement of continued support for maintaining the Iran nuclear deal after President Donald Trump called for US allies to walk away from the agreement.

"We, the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, share fundamental common security interests, along with our European partners," the joint statement said.

"One of them is upholding the nuclear non-proliferation regime, and ensuring that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) plays a key role in this respect."

All three European signatories to the deal want to salvage the 2015 accord, which was designed to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions but has been on the brink of collapse since Trump pulled out the US and imposed sanctions on Iran.

Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in May 2018, citing Iran's support for violent proxies across the Middle East and its ballistic-missile program.

Iran has subsequently breached the terms of the agreement.

In their statement, European leaders call on Iran to "return to full compliance with its commitments under the agreement."

They also expressed "deep concern at the actions taken by Iran in violation of its commitments since July 2019," adding that "these actions must be reversed."

Tensions between Iran and the US escalated dramatically this month when Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Tehran's most influential military commander.

In response, Tehran announced plans to breach new aspects of the accord and on Sunday announced it no longer felt compelled to stick to any limit on the number of centrifuges used in the making of enriched uranium, which could be used for a nuclear weapon.

The US president subsequently said the "time has come" for other signatories to tear up the agreement, calling it "foolish" in a phone call to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week.
UK to reduce dependence on US defense alliance

Boris Johnson Trump Getty

The new statement highlights the strained relationship between Washington and its Western allies, who have been united in their support for the nuclear deal and have been reluctant to endorse Trump's actions in the Middle East.

In remarkably outspoken comments published Sunday, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace criticized Trump's isolationist foreign policy, saying he would worry "if the United States withdraws from its leadership around the world."

He added that the UK was looking at reducing its dependence on the US for defense and was turning to other international allies instead.

"The assumptions of 2010 that we were always going to be part of a US coalition is really just not where we are going to be," he said.

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Trump Debuts a New Claim That Is the Actual Diametric Opposite of Reality

Jack Holmes,Esquire•January 13, 2020

Photo credit: Brittany Greeson - Getty Images

From Esquire

It's not every day that the President of the United States blasts out a truly intergalactic fabrication. Well, it kind of is. Even so, it's worth remarking on whenever El Jefe says something that is not merely spin—not just a massaging of the truth or a distortion of reality—but something approaching the diametric opposite of what actually exists in the world. In this case, it may well be the full antithesis. Because Donald Trump, American president got himself on the Tweet Machine this fine Monday morning in January and rolled out a new brain-collapsing claim about his position on healthcare coverage.


Mini Mike Bloomberg is spending a lot of money on False Advertising. I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare, you have it now, while at the same time winning the fight to rid you of the expensive, unfair and very unpopular Individual Mandate.........and, if Republicans win in court and take back the House of Represenatives [sic], your healthcare, that I have now brought to the best place in many years, will become the best ever, by far. I will always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!

This is just unbelievably brazen lying, even by current Presidential Standards. The Trump administration is right now, this second, backing a lawsuit that would completely dismantle the Affordable Care Act. It would strip the guaranteed protection for preexisting conditions that is one of the law's primary achievements and leave nothing in its place. This is real life: people will lose their coverage and go bankrupt if the decision goes that way. Funny enough, the people who want the law struck down have made it clear to the court that this can wait until after the 2020 election—when they might face some repercussions for their actions. 68 percent of respondents in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll last year said they wanted to maintain the protections.

Photo credit: Tasos Katopodis - Getty Images

This is just the latest tactic employed by the Republican Party to destroy the law after previous legislative attempts failed. At least those attempts went through the motions of replacing the law. But bills like Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy's Repeal and Go Fuck Yourself would have offered states the opportunity to apply for waivers to get certain illnesses and medical conditions exempted from pre-existing condition classification. Considering how many (red) states opted out of the free money for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, it's safe to say some would carve out exemptions for the benefit of private insurers. (After all, the reason this is an issue is that private insurance companies consider it bad for business to actually cover stuff, which goes in the cost column on the balance sheet.) All this is to say that not everyone would have kept their preexisting conditions coverage. Trump endorsed that and every other repeal effort.

+

Maybe this is a what-did-you-expect moment, considering that soon after this morning's message the president proceeded to retweet a bunch of randos suggesting Democratic Party leadership supports the Iranian Mullahs. This included a meme (?) of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that seemed to use traditional Islamic dress as a slur, and a separate photo depicting horrific violent injury to...someone. Who knows who they are? Could be anyone. After all, no one knows who's behind the account that tweeted it, either, but the President of the United States shared it with his 70 million followers all the same.

Still, the lies matter, and not just because this is yet another volley in the president's unceasing war on the concept of objective reality. The truth, after all, is whatever you can get enough people to believe. But there's also concrete evidence that lying works on this specific issue. As Brian Beutler pointed out on Twitter today, Josh Hawley flagrantly misrepresented his position on the issue during his 2018 Senate race against Democrat Claire McCaskill. Hawley ran ads where he suggested he "support[ed] forcing insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions" at the same time that, as Missouri's attorney general, he'd signed the state onto a lawsuit that would shred the Affordable Care Act—including the protections. That's the same one still winding its way through the courts, and which the Trump administration supports. Hawley won.

Why You'll Never Understand Mezcal Like You Understand Scotch

ONE IS A PSYCHOTROPIC HALLUCINOGEN THE OTHER IS JUST ALCOHOL

There's more to the agave spirit than smoke and worm salt.

JEFF GORDINIERMAY 17, 2018


LAURA MURRAY



In the folklore of my family, there is one night that remains legendary. We had traveled to Cancún, the gabachos-in-big-sombreros Mexican resort city that was built on the concept of a never-ending spring break, to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the proper measure of ridiculousness. I don’t remember much about it, but my siblings do. They remember gazing out at a dance floor in a nightclub after midnight and seeing me, then in my early 20s, writhing around in a manner that was perhaps meant to summon the spirit of Quetzalcoatl, the Mesoamerican deity usually depicted as a feathered serpent. My brother and sister could find me in the crowd because I had managed to climb on top of a giant amplifier, which meant that my euphoric contortions were on full display for everyone in the club.



Beverage director Yana Volfson of New York’s Atla and Cosme.
Laura Murray



This Walpurgisnacht of wild abandon was later attributed to a lone culprit: mezcal. I had downed a lot of cheap mezcal that night, although I had no idea what it was. In those days, American tourists still liked to cling to the myth that the “worm” floating around in the bottle would make them hallucinate. (You can’t blame the locals for perpetuating this prank.) By now, of course, U.S. drinkers have graduated from such callow delusions, and this infinitely complex agave spirit, whether stirred into cocktails or sipped on its own, has been treated with the reverence it deserves for more than a decade. In fact, there are so many compelling bottles on store shelves that it’s hard to keep track, and it’s a telling indicator of popular thirst that George Clooney and his billionaire Casamigos comrades have announced their own plans to move into the mezcal marketplace.

If I’m being honest, though, I still can’t pretend to have a grasp on what mezcal is all about. It’s the sort of spirit that has a habit of eluding anyone who tries to pin it down. Which is why I met up with Yana Volfson, the beverage director at Mexican chef Enrique Olvera’s two outposts in New York, Atla and Cosme, for an afternoon agave tutorial. Joining Volfson at Atla was Jorsand Díaz, the head bartender and self-described “mezcal nerd” at both restaurants. And the first thing the two of them stressed to me was that mezcal mastery is even more slippery than an amateur may realize.



It’s a telling indicator of popular thirst that George Clooney and his billionaire Casamigos comrades have announced their own plans to move into the mezcal marketplace.

“We strive so hard for that idea of consistency,” Volfson said. “There’s really no such thing.” Surrender to flux—from bottle to bottle, day to day, she advised. “Mezcal can taste one way one day and taste different the next day. Just like no two chiles are ever going to taste the same.”

“The more passion that I have, the more questions I have,” Díaz added.

But where to begin, if mezcal qualifies as such a moving target? It helps to start off by forgoing stereotypes. Perhaps you’re prone to bluffing your way through a bar order by asking for something “smoky,” which is like saying “funky” in a natural-wine bar or “hoppy” in a craft brewery. Stop. Smoke is not always the most pronounced element in mezcal, nor must it be viewed as the chief virtue.


Pairings with El Jolgorio and Rey Campero mezcals.
Laura Murray

Instead of pairing mezcal with the clichéd worm salt and wedge of citrus, Volfson and Díaz will, at Atla, entice customers with curveball accompaniments that come across as a revelation. I sampled three bottles. Each bloomed on my palate when hitched to an unexpected nibble. The first was an espadín (from the most commonly used agave plant) that mezcalero Joel Barriga had made for Vago; it was “milky” and “buttery,” Volfson said, and she paired it with chocolate-covered espresso beans. Then she described Rómulo Sánchez Parada’s 2015 madre-cuishe, for Rey Campero, as “stemmy,” green-grassy, eucalyptus-tinged; she had me drink that one with slices of smoked salmon. The third portal, Reynaldo Altamirano’s wild-agave tepeztate, for El Jolgorio, brought out the poetry in Volfson. She paired it with blue cheese, declaring that it would take me “far up into the sky and deep, deep into the ocean, in terms of its flavor.”

Wait. Maybe mezcal can make you hallucinate after all. I suppose the trick is to open your mind first. “Walk through one door,” Volfson told me, “and then I’ll open up another door for you.”

This article appears in the May ’18 issue of Esquire.
Alexi Lubomirski