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Sabtu, 30 Maret 2019

Thousands protest on anniversary of Gaza march: Latest updates - CNN

Hamas crowd control marshals in Jabalya.

Hamas crowd control marshals -- decked out in distinctive orange vests -- have gathered at the border fence, reports CNN's Michael Holmes from Jabalya in Gaza.

With an hour before the protests officially start, already hundreds of demonstrators have gathered at the border.

Hamas says it wants the protests to remain peaceful, amid ongoing Egyptian-led mediation efforts to bring about a long-term ceasefire between the militant group and Israel, and the guards in orange vests have been tasked with stopping demonstrators from moving towards the fence.

Demonstrators gather on the Israel-Gaza border Saturday.

That said, at least a dozen protesters have already approached the fence and Israelis have fired shots and tear gas. But as Holmes reported, it's not quite going to plan:

"It's a windy day and the gas is actually blowing back to the Israeli side -- which will work against effectiveness.

"Rain showers are also becoming more frequent, which could possibly keep things more muted."

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https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/gaza-protests-intl/index.html

2019-03-30 13:00:29Z
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Thousands protest on anniversary of Gaza march: Latest updates - CNN

Hamas crowd control marshals in Jabalya.

Hamas crowd control marshals -- decked out in distinctive orange vests -- have gathered at the border fence, reports CNN's Michael Holmes from Jabalya in Gaza.

With an hour before the protests officially start, already hundreds of demonstrators have gathered at the border.

Demonstrators gather on the Israel-Gaza border Saturday.

That said, at least a dozen protesters have already approached the fence and Israelis have fired shots and tear gas. But as Holmes reported, it's not quite going to plan:

"It's a windy day and the gas is actually blowing back to the Israeli side -- which will work against effectiveness.

"Rain showers are also becoming more frequent, which could possibly keep things more muted."

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https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/gaza-protests-intl/index.html

2019-03-30 12:43:57Z
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US asked North Korea to hand over all nuclear weapons: Report - Aljazeera.com

On the day their talks in Hanoi collapsed last month, US President Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States, according to a document seen by Reuters news agency.

Trump gave Kim both Korean and English-language versions of the US position at Hanoi's Metropole hotel on February 28, according to a source familiar with the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was the first time that Trump himself had explicitly defined what he meant by denuclearisation directly to Kim, the source said.

A joint lunch for the two leaders was cancelled the same day. While neither side has presented a complete account of why the summit collapsed, the document may help explain it.

The document's existence was first mentioned by NSA John Bolton in television interviews he gave after the two-day summit. Bolton did not disclose in those interviews the pivotal US expectation contained in the document that North Korea should transfer its nuclear weapons and fissile material to the US.

'Libya model'

The document appeared to represent Bolton's long-held and hardline "Libya model" of denuclearisation that North Korea has rejected repeatedly. It probably would have been seen by Kim as insulting and provocative, analysts said.

Trump had previously distanced himself in public comments from Bolton's approach and said a "Libya model" would be employed only if a deal could not be reached.

The idea of North Korea handing over its weapons was first proposed by Bolton in 2004. He revived the proposal last year when Trump named him as his national security adviser.

The document was meant to provide the North Koreans with a clear and concise definition of what the US meant by "final, fully verifiable, denuclearisation", the source familiar with discussions said.

The document Trump reportedly gave to Kim followed a 'Libya model' of denuclearisation [File: Leah Millis/Reuters]

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the State Department declined to comment on what would be a classified document.

After the summit, a North Korean official accused Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of "gangster-like" demands, saying Pyongyang was considering suspending talks with the US and may rethink its self-imposed ban on missile and nuclear tests.

The English version of the document, seen by Reuters, called for "fully dismantling North Korea's nuclear infrastructure, chemical and biological warfare program and related dual-use capabilities; and ballistic missiles, launchers, and associated facilities".

Four key points

Aside from the call for the transfer of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and bomb fuel, the document had four other key points.

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It called on North Korea to provide a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear programme and full access to the US and international inspectors; to halt all related activities and construction of any new facilities; to eliminate all nuclear infrastructure; and to transition all nuclear programme scientists and technicians to commercial activities.

The summit in Vietnam's capital was cut short after Trump and Kim failed to reach a deal on the extent of economic sanctions relief for North Korea in exchange for its steps to give up its nuclear programme.

The first summit between Trump and Kim, which took place in Singapore in June 2018, was almost called off after the North Koreans rejected Bolton's repeated demands for it to follow a denuclearisation model under which components of Libya's nuclear programme were shipped to the US in 2004.

Seven years after a denuclearisation agreement was reached between the US and Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, the US took part in a NATO-led military operation against his government and he was overthrown by rebels and killed.

Last year, North Korea officials called Bolton's plan "absurd" and noted the "miserable fate" that befell Gaddafi.

After North Korea threatened to cancel the Singapore summit, Trump said in May 2018 he was not pursuing a "Libya model" and that he was looking for an agreement that would protect Kim.

"He would be there, he would be running his country, his country would be very rich," Trump said at the time.

"The Libya model was a much different model. We decimated that country," Trump added.

In limbo

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The Hanoi document was presented in what US officials have said was an attempt by Trump to secure a "big deal" under which all sanctions would be lifted if North Korea gave up all of its weapons.

US-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since the Hanoi meeting. Pompeo said on March 4 he was hopeful he could send a team to North Korea "in the next couple of weeks" but there has been no sign of that.

Jenny Town, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center think-tank, said the content of the US document was not surprising.

"This is what Bolton wanted from the beginning and it clearly wasn't going to work," Town said. "If the US was really serious about negotiations, they would have learned already that this wasn't an approach they could take."

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Town added, "It's already been rejected more than once, and to keep bringing it up ... would be rather insulting. It's a non-starter and reflects absolutely no learning curve in the process."

North Korea has repeatedly rejected unilateral disarmament and argues that its weapons programme is needed for defence, a belief reinforced by the fate of Gaddafi and others.

In an interview with US broadcaster ABC's This Week programme after the Hanoi summit, Bolton said the North Koreans had committed to denuclearisation in a variety of forms several times "that they have happily violated".

"We define denuclearisation as meaning the elimination of their nuclear weapons programme, their uranium enrichment capability, their plutonium reprocessing capability," Bolton said.

Asked who authored the document, Bolton said it had been "written at staff level and cleared around as usual".

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/asked-north-korea-hand-nuclear-weapons-report-190330093325886.html

2019-03-30 10:37:00Z
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‘We’re in the Last Hour’: Democracy Itself Is on Trial in Brexit, Britons Say - The New York Times

LONDON — This week, as two members of Parliament interrupted a debate on Brexit to rib each other about the elite boarding schools they attended four decades ago, 23-year-old Eve Alcock looked on with deep disgust.

The whole world of Britain’s Parliament — its effete codes of conduct, its arcane and stilted language, its reunions of Oxbridge school chums — seemed impossibly remote from the real, unfolding national crisis of Brexit, the process of extricating the country from the European Union.

“We’re in the middle of a national emergency, and you have schoolboys squabbling about who went to the best school in the House of Commons,” she said. “It’s almost as if they are operating in this complete alternate reality.”

Over the past weeks, as factions within the British government have grappled for control over the country’s exit from the bloc, the mood among voters has become dark.

Those Britons who wished to remain are reminded, daily, that a risky and momentous national change is being initiated against their will and judgment. More striking is the deep cynicism among those who voted to leave, the group that Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to satisfy. They are now equally bitter and disillusioned, as the government’s paralysis has called into question whether Britain will ever leave.

Parliament’s rejection of Mrs. May’s withdrawal plan on Friday — for the third time — means the turbulence will continue.

In interviews, many Britons expressed despair over the inability of the political system to produce a compromise. No one feels that the government has represented their interests. No one is satisfied. No one is hopeful.

It has amounted to a hollowing out of confidence in democracy itself.

“I don’t think the central institutions of government have been discredited like this in the postwar period,” said William Davies, who teaches political economy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in London last weekend in support of a second referendum.CreditDan Kitwood/Getty Images

“There’s a fin-de-siècle sense that modern British politics has run out of road,” said Mr. Davies, author of “Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World.” “Maybe the best thing to come out of this is the recognition that the political elites — people just want them to get off the stage. I don’t know who they want to replace them. But there’s a sense that a reboot would be something people would be in favor of.”

It was barely seven summers ago that Britain presented itself to the world as a confident, outward-looking, post-imperial country. The opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics — featuring a flock of sheep, a snippet of the Sex Pistols’ music and a skit about a skydiving Queen Elizabeth — suggested a country unburdened by longing for its more orderly, homogeneous past.

It’s hard to conceive of that now. The referendum question has divided Britain into warring tribes, unable to settle on any shared vision of the future. An ancient, robust democracy is groaning under the weight of conflicting demands — on the executive, to carry out the will of the people; and on the members of Parliament, to follow their conscience and to act in what they believe to be the people’s interest.

In such a situation, the country might have united in its resentment of the European Union, which had vowed to make Britain’s withdrawal painful. But that has not happened. Britons are blaming their own leaders.

“I think people have totally lost confidence in democracy, in British democracy and the way it’s run,” said Tommy Turner, 32, a firefighter. He was perched on a stool at the Hare & Hounds, a working-class pub in Surrey, where nearly everyone voted to leave the European Union. Among his friends, he said, he sensed a profound sense of betrayal that Britain was not exiting on March 29, as promised.

“You’ve got egotistical people in politics, and they want to follow their own agenda,” he said. “They don’t want to follow what the people have voted for.” Asked how he felt about the approaching Brexit deadline, Mr. Turner said, “worried.”

“We’re in the last hour,” he said. “I’m wondering: What does more damage? Leaving without a deal? Or the total annihilation of faith in democracy?”

Polling has borne out his worry. Britons’ assessment of their leaders is scathing, with 81 percent saying that Britain has handled Brexit badly, and 7 percent saying it has handled it well, according to data released recently by NatCen Social Research, an independent agency. (Two years ago, the numbers were 41 percent negative and 29 percent positive.)

Particularly drastic, researchers said, is the souring of Leave voters in the past six months, as Mrs. May concluded her negotiations on the withdrawal agreement and shared the terms of departure with the country. Expectations that Brexit would have concrete effects — by lifting the economy or slowing immigration — have diminished sharply, the data show.

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CreditDan Kitwood/Getty Images

Neil Bligh, 45, who sat by Mr. Turner at the Hare & Hounds, could dimly recall the buzz of triumph he felt in 2016, when he discovered that his side had won. But that feeling has long since dissipated, replaced by a gathering sense of gloom and mistrust as the promised reward of a free-trading Britain recedes further and further.

“Now, it’s like an ache,” he said. “That’s the best way to describe Brexit, as the remnant of a hangover. It’s just always there. A lot of people, if they could go back and make it all not happen, they would.”

The bartender, Chauntelle Hartley, known by her clientele as “Squid,” said the process was so maddening that she could no longer focus on it for long periods.

“It was on the telly earlier, and I watched ‘Friends’ on my phone,” she said. “I want to listen to it; I realized that it was on. But I think I only made it 40 seconds.”

Views on Brexit were almost diametrically opposed at The Highbury Barn, a pub in North London that offers haddock from the fishmonger across the street and provides pans of water for visiting dogs. In this neighborhood, Islington North, in the constituency of the opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the number of signatories on a petition asking the government to revoke Article 50, the part of the European Union treaty that lays out the terms of Britain’s exit, reached one-quarter of the population.

But people here took an equally dismal view of the government’s performance.

Aidan Hughes, 58, who works in finance, was waiting for a cab in the back of the bar.

“What we’re seeing is that the process the government’s involved in has been effectively hijacked by an even smaller segment of the ruling government, the right-wing element of the party,” he said. He blamed the first-past-the-post voting system, which tends to increase polarization between two large parties and exaggerate geographical divides, setting up stark conflict between sections of society.

He said it was time for Britain to move toward a system of proportional representation, common to democracies that evolved later than Britain’s, which allows smaller parties to enter Parliament more easily.

“We would then have people with different views coming together to compromise, to find a way forward,” he said. “Whereas whoever wins an election now can currently push their views, irrespective of support.”

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CreditDan Kitwood/Getty Images

Geoff Peddie, 46, a high-school English teacher, was waiting for a friend as the evening wore on and the pub quieted down. He was angry that such a slim majority had triggered a national act of this magnitude and permanence.

“I don’t feel that I’ve been listened to, or that nearly half the population have been listened to,” he said. “The majority has essentially been pandering to the worst elements in our society.”

A sense of impotence and paralysis now colors Britain’s image abroad. This was given visual form recently when a Bulgarian diplomat posted a photo on Twitter of senior European officials in a cluster as they conferred in a corridor. No Briton was present.

“Britain is forced out of the room while other countries make decisions about its future,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a research institute.

As Mrs. May stalled for time, keeping her plans tightly hidden from the public, Brexit sucked so much oxygen from the government that it left no time for anything else.

“There is a parochialization as Britain loses ambition in anything bigger than itself; it’s a shrinking of horizons and a self-obsession,” he said.

He compared it to the Suez crisis, the Egyptian nationalist uprising that signaled the end of the British and French empires.

“The thing has been humiliating; there is a sense of no one being in the cockpit,” Mr. Leonard added. “Britain was a different country after Suez, and that’s where we are now. I don’t think there is any way back if we go ahead with Brexit.”

In a landscape of pervasive gloom, Mr. Hughes, the finance worker, did see one reason for hope: That Britons, young and old, were passionately engaged, as never before, in the inner workings of their own government. Even if it was because they were so angry.

“This is starting to drag people into an interest in what’s actually happening,” he said. “Clearly it’s a total mess and it’s been handled appallingly by the government. Be that as it may, at least it’s gotten people animated in talking about these topics.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/world/europe/uk-brexit-democracy-may.html

2019-03-30 07:01:54Z
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Jumat, 29 Maret 2019

Europe watches Brexit events with frustrated disbelief - Fox News

BRUSSELS – The date for the U.K.'s departure from the European Union was seemingly chiseled in stone — March 29, 2019. When it finally arrived with no Brexit, Europeans could only shake their heads in frustrated disbelief.

They saw three years of bluster on how Britain would leave the EU on its own terms dissolve Friday with the last of three votes in Parliament that failed to approve Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal, leaving an uncertain course.

"There was no game plan. Well, no strategy," Philippe Lamberts, a key member of the European Parliament's Brexit steering group, said of the British approach in an interview with The Associated Press.

Few in Britain would disagree.

For decades, the bloc was the target of ridicule in Britain for what was perceived as European hubris and an inefficient bureaucracy. But on Friday, there was very little gloating on the continent as May failed to get the deal through the U.K. Parliament, sending London deeper into the Brexit morass.

"We have resisted the temptation to position the (EU) Commission in terms of sentiments," said EU spokesman Margaritis Schinas. "We don't do that."

The EU called another emergency summit for April 10, two days ahead of a new withdrawal date. A chaotic "no-deal" departure scenario is expected to be costly to U.K. businesses and inconvenient at its border. May said there would be "grave" implications.

The EU doesn't want to inflame passions even more, because it also stands to suffer, with hundreds of billions of euros and tens of thousands of jobs at stake for a U.K. exit without transitional measures in place.

"In Brexit, everybody loses," said Ewa Osniecka-Tamecka, a vice rector of the College of Europe, speaking at a branch in Natolin, Poland. "Brexit diminishes both the EU and the U.K."

There was frustration among EU officials who felt that they and their star negotiator Michel Barnier did their part and Britain didn't.

Even Nigel Farage, a British driving force behind Brexit and staunch EU opponent, has nothing but admiration for Barnier who kept 27 nations aligned as one while Britain, as one, crumbled into chaos.

"Oh, in terms of doing his job. Goodness gracious me. Look, you know, I wish he was on my team and not their team," Farage, a member of the European Parliament, told the AP.

Almost three years after the June 23, 2016, Brexit referendum, the British government and Parliament seem to be still at a loss over what they really wants from the EU.

"Britain is at a dead end," said Nathalie Loiseau, who was France's Europe Minister until she resigned this week to run in the May 23-26 EU elections. "Europeans have other priorities than having to wait until the U.K. takes a decision."

What also is in tatters is a European admiration of Britain as a symbol of a well-run parliamentary democracy, with its sometimes brilliant discourse and vigorous debate.

Lamberts said he was stunned at how May's Conservative Party as well as those in the Labour Party seemed to act in their own interests, rather than the needs of the country.

"It's the inability to build compromise," Lamberts said. "That's it. Party above country, in the most brutal sense of the word."

Manfred Weber, a European lawmaker from Germany and center-right candidate to head the European Commission, said the repeated rejection of the deal highlighted "a failure of the political class in Great Britain — there's no other way to describe it."

Some saw Friday's events as another blow to Britain's international standing.

"The British have given the world a great deal, from modern parliamentarism to the world title in the discipline of 'muddling through,'" historian Michael Stuermer wrote in a front-page commentary in German daily Die Welt.

Now, however, "the damage to the country's reputation is unmistakable."

___

Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/europe-watches-brexit-events-with-frustrated-disbelief

2019-03-29 19:47:09Z
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US warns Russia, others against sending troops to Venezuela - Al Jazeera English

The White House on Friday warned Russia and other countries backing President Nicolas Maduro against sending troops and military equipment to Venezuela, saying the United States would view such actions as a "direct threat" to the region's security.

The warning comes after two Russian air force planes landed outside of Caracas on Saturday, believed to be carrying nearly 100 Russian special forces and cybersecurity personnel.

"We strongly caution actors external to the Western Hemisphere against deploying military assets to Venezuela, or elsewhere in the Hemisphere, with the intent of establishing or expanding military operations," White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a statement.

"We will consider such provocative actions as a direct threat to international peace and security in the region," Bolton added.

Bolton's statement also condemned Maduro's "use of foreign military personnel in his attempt to remain in power, including the introduction of Russian military personnel and equipment into Venezuela".

He added, "Maduro will only use this military support to further repress the people of Venezuela; perpetuate the economic crisis that has destroyed Venezuela's economy, and; endanger regional stability."

Pre-existing contracts

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Russia said on Thursday it had sent "specialists" to Venezuela under a military cooperation deal but insisted they posed no threat to regional stability, brushing aside a call by Trump for Moscow to remove all military personnel from the country.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian military specialists were in Venezuela to service pre-existing contracts for the supply of Russian arms.

Peskov said Russia is not interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs and that the Kremlin hopes other countries would let Venezuelans decide their own fate.

Trump has called on Russia to "get out" of Venezuela.

On Wednesday, Trump said that "all options" were open to force Russia to pull troops out of Venezuela after two Russian air force planes landed outside Caracas on Saturday carrying nearly 100 Russian troops, according to media reports.

Elliott Abrams, the US special representative for Venezuela, said that those options include sanctions.

"We have a list of options we have given" US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abrams told reporters on Friday.

"There are a lot of things we can do in economic terms, in terms of sanctions," he added. "We have options and it would be a mistake for the Russians to think they have a free hand."

The US recognised Juan Guaido, the leader of the national assembly, as Venezuela's interim president earlier this year after the opposition leader declared himself the country's leader, calling Maduro's presidency illegitimate.

Meanwhile, Russia has emerged as a key backer of Maduro's government.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/warns-russia-sending-troops-venezuela-190329135237891.html

2019-03-29 18:17:00Z
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Theresa May's Brexit deal suffers third defeat in Parliament - CNN

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shKL4dWUKzM

2019-03-29 16:34:05Z
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