Iran religious leader threatens UK over capture of oil tanker - Al Jazeera English

The United Kingdom should be "scared" of Tehran's possible reciprocal measures for the capture of an Iranian supertanker by the British navy in Gibraltar, the semi-official Fars news agency reported an Iranian religious leader as saying.

"I am openly saying that Britain should be scared of Iran's retaliatory measures over the illegal seizure of the Iranian oil tanker," Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri, a member of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful religious body said on Saturday.

"We have shown that we will never remain silent against bullying ... As we gave a staunch response to the American drone, the appropriate response to this illegal capture [of the tanker] will be given by Iran as well," he said over the seizure of the supertanker in the British overseas territory.

British Royal Marines seized the supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday for trying to transport oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions in a move which drew Tehran's fury and could escalate its confrontation with the West.

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On Friday, the tanker's crew were being interviewed as witnesses in an effort to establish the nature of the cargo and its ultimate destination, a spokesperson for the British territory said.

The spokesperson said the 28-member crew, who have remained on board the supertanker, were mainly Indians with some Pakistanis and Ukrainians.

Later on Friday, Gibraltar said it had obtained an order extending the detention of the tanker by 14 days because there were grounds to believe it was breaking sanctions by taking oil to Syria.

Saudi seizure of tanker

Iranian officials also say that Saudi Arabia has been holding an Iranian oil tanker in the port of Jeddah since late April after the ship experienced engine failure. 

"There was an Iranian oil tanker that was on its way through the Suez Canal, carrying 1.2 billions of crude oil on April 30 off the port city of Jeddah," Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said.

"It experienced an engine failure and sent a distress call before being saved by Saudi Arabia with 26 crew members on board," she also said.

She added: "It has been since fixed in the port city, but Saudis are charging Iranians $200,000 a day. Iran wants this vessel back but the cost is very high, around $20m. Saudi Arabia says they will not release the vessel until Iran pays the bill."

Iran downed a United States military drone on June 20 that it said was flying over one of its southern provinces on the Gulf. Washington said the drone was shot down over international waters.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened on Friday to seize a British ship in retaliation for the capture of an Iranian supertanker by Royal Marines.

The ship's seizure comes at a sensitive time as the EU mulls over how to respond to Iran announcing it will go beyond the maximum uranium enrichment level it agreed to in a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Tensions have mounted in the wake of Washington's unilateral decision last year to abandon the nuclear deal and hit Iran's crucial oil exports and financial transactions with biting sanctions.

Iran has accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of waging "economic war" against it with a campaign to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/iran-religious-leader-threatens-uk-capture-oil-tanker-190706091738043.html

2019-07-06 10:50:00Z
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Boris takes on Hunt at Nottingham hustings | LIVE - The Sun

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0qintyCeQA

2019-07-06 09:24:42Z
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The UK's next Prime Minister will be chosen by 0.2% of the nation - CNN International

A self-selecting group of 160,000 people -- just 0.2% of the electorate -- will choose the next leader for a country of nearly 67 million people.

That's because in the UK, when a prime minister quits -- as Theresa May did over Brexit -- there isn't necessarily a general election. In the country's parliamentary system, the PM is typically the head of the largest party in parliament. If there's a personnel change at the top of the ruling party, the new party leader pretty much automatically gets the keys to 10 Downing Street.

In this case, the people charged with picking between flamboyant frontunner Boris Johnson, or safe-pair-of-hands challenger Jeremy Hunt, are the aforementioned 160,000 members of the Conservative Party -- and they start receiving their ballot papers this weekend.

So, who exactly are they?

Conservatives have a reputation for being out of touch and monied. "The classic perception of posh old men in red trousers hankering for the good old days misses the point. You have very different make-ups of membership across England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland," Lauren McEvatt, a Conservative party member and former Conservative special advisor, explains. While those people do exist, there are also "a lot of low-middle income earners who have an aspirational approach to life and are not attracted to the big-state ideas of the left."

However, while they might be a diverse group in terms of their backgrounds and approach, they are far from representative of the UK in 2019. "They are predominately white, middle-class and comfortably off," says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London and co-author of the upcoming book "Footsoldiers: Political Party Membership in the 21st Century."

"They are also 97% white British, whereas about 15% of people in the country are from an ethnic minority background. They are also mostly men," Bale says.

Their political views are also at odds with the nation at large -- and even with the Conservative lawmakers sitting in the House of Commons. "The are pretty traditionalist," Bale explains. "If you look at their attitudes on immigration, justice and education, they are socially very right-wing." Contrast this with Conservative members of parliament, who largely voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage and campaigned against Brexit, and you begin to see the tightrope that Johnson and Hunt must walk in order to win over their party but not alienate 98.8% of the country.

Of course, the most important issue in the UK right now is Brexit. And it's been a matter dividing the Conservatives for decades, with the party split between ideological europhiles and euroskeptics. The fact that a Conservative government has failed to deliver Brexit is seen by party members as at best a betrayal, at worst a public humiliation.

Since 2016, the membership's view on Brexit has shifted significantly. "The party has gone from two-thirds of members holding off deciding how they would vote in the Brexit referendum, to two thirds saying they'd be happy with no deal," according to research by Tim Bale.

Lauren McEvatt believes that the shift began with David Cameron misunderstanding why so many of his own wanted to leave the EU. "It wasn't just about immigration; it was also about a perception that unelected gray men in Brussels were interfering in everyday life in the UK, with ludicrous regulations on things like light bulbs and vacuum cleaners. So, when he came back with an offer from Brussels that didn't appear to address those things, Conservative members felt like he had failed."

This has affected the contest to replace May next month. Stuart Graham, a long-standing party member, says May's resignation has "given the majority of members of the party a new lease of life and a new sense of purpose." This, combined with its new hardening on Brexit, has forced both leadership candidates to publicly say they would be comfortable leaving the EU without a deal.

Winning over the members might be useful for now, but any new prime minister will likely have to pivot when they actually take office.

While both Hunt and Johnson claim that they plan to reopen Theresa May's tortuously negotiated Brexit deal, the EU has said that's simply not an option. And while both say they will happily pursue a no-deal departure, they have the small matter of the UK parliament to overcome. Parliament cannot formally prevent a no-deal Brexit, but it can very strongly tell the government that to do so would be catastrophic. And should a PM press ahead in spite of the declared will of parliament, then lawmakers have the power to vote down the government, a scenario that might well trigger a general election.

This is where things get spicy. The wider public (remember them?) will have taken note of everything said by both candidates during the Conservative leadership race. And public opinion is currently quite a bit more diverse than it is within the Conservative party. A succession of opinion polls show the Conservatives taking large hits from parties on both extremes of the Brexit spectrum, including parties that want to abandon the project altogether.

And before you say, "yes, but polls have had a habit of being wrong of late," look at last month's EU elections, where the Conservatives and opposition Labour party both finished behind the pro-no deal Brexit party and the pro-scrapping Brexit altogether Liberal Democrats.

So, while 0.2% of the population might well install their Brexit hero Boris Johnson next month (or Jeremy Hunt, who has an equally complicated Brexit stance), the ultimate victor might be drinking from a poisoned chalice. And, if they get this wrong, they could end up being the shortest serving prime minister in history.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/05/uk/conservative-party-leadership-next-prime-minister-intl-gbr/index.html

2019-07-06 01:03:24Z
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What Denise Ho, Jackie Chan and Other Celebrities Think About the Hong Kong Protests - The New York Times

HONG KONG — As Hong Kong’s protests evolve into a struggle against the grip of authoritarian China, one of the city’s biggest pop stars has emerged as an icon of defiance. She has spoken at rallies, handed out voter registration forms at marches and stood on the front lines with demonstrators, urging the riot police not to charge.

Denise Ho, a Cantopop singer, is just one of many high-profile figures in the decentralized protest movement, but among Hong Kong’s celebrities, she is a rare breed. Ms. Ho threw her stardom behind the city’s pro-democracy movement five years ago and has since been paying the price — being barred in the lucrative mainland Chinese market.

Ms. Ho defended the recent protests after Monday’s destructive turn when a core group of younger protesters stormed the city’s legislative offices. That day, Ms. Ho left a peaceful march to join a crowd outside the complex that was cheering on the students, and was still there after midnight when hundreds of riot police officers moved in to disperse them, with some firing tear gas.

Was tear gassed again. Retreated from the premises together with the protesters at around midnight, moments after the police came to disperse the crowds.

The kids kept going back, making sure that everyone has left safely, with the motto : “No one left behind!”#Hongkong

— Denise Ho (HOCC) (@hoccgoomusic) July 1, 2019

In 2014, Ms. Ho’s career had been taking off in China, and she had played more than 100 concerts there. Then she took part in a protest movement in Hong Kong that called for freer elections in the semiautonomous territory.

The Chinese government barred her from performing and scrubbed her music from the playlists of streaming websites. The blacklisting cut around $120,000 from her annual income, her manager said.

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The Cantopop singer Anthony Wong Yiu-ming is one of the few established artists who spoke out against the extradition bill.CreditKin Cheung/Associated Press

The ban only emboldened Ms. Ho, reminding her of the need to protect the freedom of speech and other civil liberties that set Hong Kong apart from the rest of China.

“For me, it is always about the people, for the people to be empowered and for them to believe that we can control our destiny,” she said in a recent interview.

But for other celebrities, whose careers have come to depend on the mainland Chinese market, Ms. Ho’s punishment served as the latest warning from the governing Communist Party that it has a low tolerance for political dissent. Most stars stay out of politics. Others have chosen to support Beijing, and have been rewarded.

“Most of these people have stayed silent,” said Ms. Ho, who has livestreamed her appearances at demonstrations, including one in which she appeared to be shoved by a police officer. “It gets really frustrating and of course lonely for the people, especially for the younger people.”

[Here’s what to know about Hong Kong’s evolving protest movement.]

From her privileged perch, Ms. Ho has given voice to Hong Kongers’ grievances across the world, speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum, writing op-ed pieces and giving interviews. She is scheduled to speak to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

Yet few among Hong Kong’s performers have made public appearances at the huge protests of recent weeks against a bill that would allow extraditions to China.

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The actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April.CreditVincent Yu/Associated Press

It is a stark contrast to 1989, when Hong Kong was still a British colony in the midst of a golden era of entertainment and there was little in the way of a mainland Chinese market. That year, a star-studded list of Hong Kong entertainers turned out for a concert to support the pro-democracy student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Jackie Chan performed, and the actors Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat called in to express their support.

In recent years, as nationalist sentiment in the mainland has grown and the economy has rapidly expanded, the authorities, companies and fans have frequently shunned performers who take stances that are seen to be critical of Beijing.

Aside from Ms. Ho, others blacklisted after the 2014 protests, known as the Umbrella Movement, reportedly also included Mr. Chow and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. Some stars found themselves shut out by fans and companies in the mainland. Job opportunities suddenly evaporated.

During the recent protests, several industry organizations, including the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild, issued statements demanding the total withdrawal of the extradition bill.

However, other than Ms. Ho, only a handful of individual entertainers, including the actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang and the Cantopop singer Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, have spoken out.

Some entertainers who only hinted at their support for the demonstrations have come under pressure to clarify their positions.

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Charmaine Sheh, a Hong Kong actress popular in mainland China, met with online attacks for “liking” an Instagram post showing the protests.CreditVisual China Group, via Getty Images

Miriam Yeung Chin-wah, a Hong Kong actress and singer, posted an image of the term “R.I.P.” on her Instagram, which many fans saw as a tribute to a protester who fell to his death last month. Ms. Yeung later deleted the post without explanation, prompting a wave of criticism from fans who accused her of bowing to mainland pressure.

Charmaine Sheh, a Hong Kong actress popular in mainland China, was subject to a barrage of online attacks after she “liked” a post showing the anti-extradition protests on Instagram, which is blocked in China.

Ms. Sheh apologized soon after. “I was shocked when I later realized what was in the post,” she wrote on a Chinese social media site. “I, Sheh Sze-man, love the country and love Hong Kong!”

A few stars such as the actor Tony Leung Ka-fai and the singer Kenny Chung have publicly supported the police, whom protesters condemned for using excessive force when dispersing crowds.

“It’s a bit dangerous for us to come out today as public figures,” Mr. Chung said at a pro-police rally on Sunday. “But we are not speaking about politics — we are talking about justice.”

Others have pleaded ignorance.

Jackie Chan, the superstar Hong Kong-born actor of “Rush Hour” fame, was in Taiwan to promote a new album last month when reporters asked about his views on the protests in Hong Kong. Mr. Chan said he had only just learned about them.

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Jackie Chan, who was in Taiwan to promote a new album last month, said of the Hong Kong protests, “I don’t know anything about it.”CreditChiang Ying-Ying/Associated Press

“I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, 57, the Cantopop singer, is one of the few established artists who spoke out against the extradition bill along with Ms. Ho. He came out as gay in 2012 and said the experience encouraged him to break the industrywide silence about politics.

“I am a civilian first,” Mr. Wong said in a telephone interview, “then a musician and also a social activist.”

But speaking in support of the Umbrella Movement, which Beijing criticized as a national security threat, came at a high cost. Mr. Wong said he had lost more than half of his annual income that came from China, as well as partnerships with international brands.

“I’ve been singing for 30 years and I can afford to pay this price,” he said. “A lot of people would then become too scared to speak up or express themselves. This is the most chilling part of it.”

Ms. Ho said that choosing to speak out had been liberating. “I am feeling quite free,” she said.

On Friday night, the singer spoke to a rally of several thousand protesters and urged them to persevere despite the arrest of several demonstrators.

“We have to learn how to turn a short-term protest into a long-term resistance,” she said. “And we have to learn how to integrate our resistance into our daily lives.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/world/asia/denise-ho-hong-kong-protests.html

2019-07-05 18:31:52Z
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Official warns Tehran could seize UK oil tanker if Iranian ship not released - CNN

The vessel was stormed by British Royal Marines and Gibraltar port and law enforcement agencies in the early hours of Thursday morning as it was believed to have been carrying oil to Syria, in possible violation of European Union sanctions.

Mohsen Rezaee, who is currently Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council -- an advisory body to Iran's Supreme Leader -- tweeted that "if the UK does not release the Iranian oil tanker, our officials are duty-bound to reciprocate and seize a British oil tanker."

Rezaee previously served as commander of the IRGC and it is unclear if he's currently involved in military decision making.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office told CNN it had no comment, at the moment, in response to the tweet.

Gibraltar's government said in a statement Friday that it is extending the detention of the supertanker by 14 days after obtaining an order from the British territory's Supreme Court.

"The Supreme Court has issued today's order on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to consider that the detention of the Grace 1 is required for the purposes of compliance with the EU Regulation 36/2012 on sanctions on Syria," the statement said.

On Thursday Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo said territory authorities had reason to believe the Grace 1 "was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Baniyas Refinery in Syria."

He added that the refinery "is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria."

The EU imposed a number of financial, trade and transport sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2011 in response to "the continuing brutal campaign" against its own people.

The Syrian government has yet to respond to the incident.

A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official and Spain's acting foreign minister Josep Borrell both said the United States had asked the UK to intercept the ship.

However, Gibraltar's government said in a statement that there was "no political request at any time from any government" that the vessel should be detained.

"The decisions of Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar were taken totally independently, based on breaches of existing law and not at all based on extraneous political considerations," the statement read, adding that they "were certainly not decisions taken at the political behest or instruction of any other state or of any third party."

While several online shipping trackers say the vessel was sailing under the flag of Panama, the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) said in a statement that Grace 1's registry was canceled on May 29 after it was notified the ship may be participating or linked to financing terrorism.

"The PMA ... was notified of the international alert regarding the vessel GRACE 1, which indicated that this vessel might be participating or being linked to the Financing of Terrorism, or in support of the destabilizing activities of certain regions led by terrorist groups," the PMA said.

Seizure of vessel 'illegal,' Iran says

On Thursday the British ambassador to Tehran was summoned in Iran over the "illegal" seizure of the oil tanker, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry Abbas Mousavi tweeted.

The operation was condemned by a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official, who called it "piracy," according to a report from the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Friday.

The official said the UK does not have the right to implement its or the EU's unilateral sanctions against other nations "in an extraterritorial manner" and called for the vessel to be released immediately after it had been seized "at the behest of the US."

Mousavi said that that Grace 1's detainment could increase tensions in the Persian Gulf, the state-run Press TV reported.

The ship is currently anchored off the coast of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on the edge of southern Spain.

It comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US and Iran. Earlier this week, Iran announced it would stop complying with several parts of the 2015 nuclear deal that the Trump administration withdrew from last year.

On Thursday the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) welcomed what it called "firm action by the Gibraltarian authorities, acting to enforce the EU Syria sanctions regime."

While John Bolton, national security adviser to US President Donald Trump, also chimed in with the tweet: "America & our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran & Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade," he wrote.

Tanker 'loaded Iranian oil months ago'

In mid-April, the Grace 1 loaded up with Iranian oil and turned off its tracking signals to avoid detection before sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar, according to an article published in maritime publication Lloyds List earlier this week.

"Any tanker with Iranian crude follows a similar pattern of behavior: they do that by turning off their AIS transponder, turning it on and off in order to circumvent being tracked," Michelle Wiese Bockmann, the author of the article, told CNN on Thursday.

"They have deliberately taken measures to circumvent identifying the ship's destination, location and cargo origin."

Samir Madani, co-founder of Tanker Trackers -- which monitors vessels through satellite and maritime data -- told CNN that the Grace 1's journey around Africa took two-and-a-half months, a month longer than usual. He added that he did not believe the vessel was carrying crude oil but instead fuel oil from Iran's Abadan Refinery.

"We can also see that she is heavily laden in the water. Her hull is 22.5 meters deep, meaning that she is carrying 2 million barrels of a very heavy liquid. Heavier than crude oil," he said. "Not only that, but her previous assignments were transfers of fuel oil in Umm Qasr (Iraq) and Khor Fakkan (UAE)."

Madani also added that he believes the ship's destination was not Syria's Baniyas Refinery as the waters would be too shallow for the vessel to enter.

"Instead, we believe that the fuel oil was intended for ship-to-ship transfers to other vessels within Syria's maritime borders," Madani said.

CNN's Damien Ward, Samantha Beech, Ruchi Patel, Sarah Dean, Laura Perez Maestro, Hamdi Alkhshali, Barbara Wojazer and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed reporting.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/middleeast/oil-tanker-gibraltar-iran-intl-gbr/index.html

2019-07-05 17:29:00Z
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Official warns Tehran could seize UK oil tanker if Iranian ship not released - CNN

The vessel was stormed by British Royal Marines and Gibraltar port and law enforcement agencies in the early hours of Thursday morning as it was believed to have been carrying oil to Syria, in possible violation of European Union sanctions.

Mohsen Rezaee, who is currently Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council -- an advisory body to Iran's Supreme Leader -- tweeted that "if the UK does not release the Iranian oil tanker, our officials are duty-bound to reciprocate and seize a British oil tanker."

Rezaee previously served as commander of the IRGC and it is unclear if he's currently involved in military decision making.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office told CNN it had no comment, at the moment, in response to the tweet.

On Thursday Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo said territory authorities had reason to believe the Grace 1 "was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Baniyas Refinery in Syria."

He added that the refinery "is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria."

The EU imposed a number of financial, trade and transport sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2011 in response to "the continuing brutal campaign" against its own people.

The Syrian government has yet to respond to the incident.

A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official and Spain's acting foreign minister Josep Borrell both said the United States had asked the UK to intercept the ship.

However, Gibraltar's government said in a statement that there was "no political request at any time from any government" that the vessel should be detained.

"The decisions of Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar were taken totally independently, based on breaches of existing law and not at all based on extraneous political considerations," the statement read, adding that they "were certainly not decisions taken at the political behest or instruction of any other state or of any third party."

While several online shipping trackers say the vessel was sailing under the flag of Panama, the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) said in a statement that Grace 1's registry was canceled on May 29 after it was notified the ship may be participating or linked to financing terrorism.

"The PMA ... was notified of the international alert regarding the vessel GRACE 1, which indicated that this vessel might be participating or being linked to the Financing of Terrorism, or in support of the destabilizing activities of certain regions led by terrorist groups," the PMA said.

Seizure of vessel 'illegal,' Iran says

On Thursday the British ambassador to Tehran was summoned in Iran over the "illegal" seizure of the oil tanker, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry Abbas Mousavi tweeted.

The operation was condemned by a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official, who called it "piracy," according to a report from the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Friday.

The official said the UK does not have the right to implement its or the EU's unilateral sanctions against other nations "in an extraterritorial manner" and called for the vessel to be released immediately after it had been seized "at the behest of the US."

Mousavi said that that Grace 1's detainment could increase tensions in the Persian Gulf, the state-run Press TV reported.

The ship is currently anchored off the coast of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on the edge of southern Spain.

It comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US and Iran. Earlier this week, Iran announced it would stop complying with several parts of the 2015 nuclear deal that the Trump administration withdrew from last year.

On Thursday the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) welcomed what it called "firm action by the Gibraltarian authorities, acting to enforce the EU Syria sanctions regime."

While John Bolton, national security adviser to US President Donald Trump, also chimed in with the tweet: "America & our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran & Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade," he wrote.

Tanker 'loaded Iranian oil months ago'

In mid-April, the Grace 1 loaded up with Iranian oil and turned off its tracking signals to avoid detection before sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar, according to an article published in maritime publication Lloyds List earlier this week.

"Any tanker with Iranian crude follows a similar pattern of behavior: they do that by turning off their AIS transponder, turning it on and off in order to circumvent being tracked," Michelle Wiese Bockmann, the author of the article, told CNN on Thursday.

"They have deliberately taken measures to circumvent identifying the ship's destination, location and cargo origin."

Samir Madani, co-founder of Tanker Trackers -- which monitors vessels through satellite and maritime data -- told CNN that the Grace 1's journey around Africa took two-and-a-half months, a month longer than usual. He added that he did not believe the vessel was carrying crude oil but instead fuel oil from Iran's Abadan Refinery.

"We can also see that she is heavily laden in the water. Her hull is 22.5 meters deep, meaning that she is carrying 2 million barrels of a very heavy liquid. Heavier than crude oil," he said. "Not only that, but her previous assignments were transfers of fuel oil in Umm Qasr (Iraq) and Khor Fakkan (UAE)."

Madani also added that he believes the ship's destination was not Syria's Baniyas Refinery as the waters would be too shallow for the vessel to enter.

"Instead, we believe that the fuel oil was intended for ship-to-ship transfers to other vessels within Syria's maritime borders," Madani said.

CNN's Damien Ward, Samantha Beech, Ruchi Patel, Sarah Dean, Laura Perez Maestro and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed reporting.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/middleeast/oil-tanker-gibraltar-iran-intl-gbr/index.html

2019-07-05 15:31:00Z
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India budget 2019: The key announcements and what they mean - BBC News

India's first full-time female finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has presented her maiden annual budget. The BBC's Aakriti Thapar explains what the major announcements were and what they mean for India.

This is the first budget since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landslide victory in the general election this year. There were big expectations because it came against the backdrop of an economic slowdown and record-high unemployment levels.

Ms Sitharaman said that India could grow to a $5 trillion (£4 trillion) economy in the next five years (from $2.7 trillion) and outlined her priorities for spending. But she did not announce exactly how all funds would be allocated.

Roads, rail and rural development

The finance minister said boosting the country's infrastructure was the government's top priority. This is in line with Mr Modi and his BJP party's main election promise. In his manifesto, he had pledged to spend $1.44 trillion on infrastructure by 2024.

While she emphasised investments ($72bn) to improve railway infrastructure, Ms Sitharaman said the government would also build 125,000km (77,671 miles) of roads over the next five years at a cost of $11.6bn.

Many of the development schemes announced focused on bridging the rural-urban divide.

• India minister ditches 'colonial' budget briefcase
• Is India exaggerating its economic growth?

Targeting 2022, India's 75th year of independence, Ms Sitharaman announced that all houses would have electricity and cooking gas. She also said that all rural households would have clean water supply by 2024.

Tax increases for the wealthy

Corporate tax will be reduced to 25% from 30% for companies that have an annual turnover of up to $58m. This, the finance minister said, would include 99.3% of firms in India. She added that this would boost profits for a large number of companies, but she and experts also say it is an important step to stimulate investments.

While there was no change in the income tax structure for most brackets, Ms Sitharaman announced a 3% increase in taxation for some of the highest earners in Indian society - those with an income between $292,000 - $730,000 - and a 7% increase for those with an income above $730,000.

Foreign investment liberalisation

India recently lost its status as the world's fastest-growing major economy and the government knows it needs to attract investment to spur growth.

Ms Sitharaman said she would examine options to open up foreign direct investment in the aviation, media and animation, and insurance sectors.

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She also said rules would be relaxed for single-brand retail companies. At the moment, such companies - like Ikea and Apple - are required to source 30% of their materials or components locally. Those components aren't always available in India or they are of poorer quality.

Multi-brand retailers like Walmart will have to continue to operate within the same constraints that they currently face. They're only able to sell their products via e-commerce platforms or in conjunction with Indian groups.

In the 2018-2019 Economic Survey presented a day before the budget, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said that an increase in foreign investments would lead to job creation, greater productivity and would also foster exports to create demand.

What's in it for the common man?

While there hasn't been an increase in income tax for most citizens, some products are likely to become more expensive as the government seeks to boost its revenues.

Local taxes on petrol and diesel will increase by two rupees while an import tax of one rupee per tonne has been levied on crude oil. Gold and other precious metals will also become more expensive after import duties were increased.

Some relief may come to the common man via a new tenancy and affordable housing framework but details are yet to be released.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48880908

2019-07-05 15:20:48Z
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