Trump Says ‘Hong Kong Is Not Helping’ in Trade War With China - The New York Times

HONG KONG — In his most extensive comments on the months of unrest in Hong Kong, President Trump said on Wednesday that China should “humanely” settle the situation before a trade deal is reached.

His comments, delivered on Twitter, for the first time tied the fate of pro-democracy protesters to a trade deal with China, a top administration priority.

Mr. Trump praised President Xi Jinping of China as “a great leader” and suggested a “personal meeting” could help solve the crisis in Hong Kong. He also said “China is not our problem, though Hong Kong is not helping.”

“Of course China wants to make a deal,” he said. “Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!”

I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a “tough business.” I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2019

[Here’s a guide to why people are protesting in Hong Kong and how the movement has evolved.]

Though the protests have been going on for more than two months, as demonstrators have filled streets and jammed airport terminals in actions that have frequently ended with violent police crackdowns, Mr. Trump had all but ignored the situation, offering just tepid, short statements. His comments on Wednesday stopped short of praising or supporting the protesters, as both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have done, and he did not explain what he meant by “humanely” working with Hong Kong.

One day earlier, Mr. Trump took no stance when asked by reporters.

“The Hong Kong thing is a very tough situation,” he said on Tuesday. “Very tough. We’ll see what happens. But I’m sure it’ll work out.”

He added: “I hope it works out for everybody, including China. I hope it works out peacefully. I hope nobody gets hurt. I hope nobody gets killed.”

He had previously called the protests “riots,” repeating language used by the Chinese government that is strongly disputed by protesters, and said, “That’s between Hong Kong and that’s between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China.”

The White House’s restraint on the issue has stood out in Washington, where the protests have been the source of a rare sight: broad bipartisan agreement.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader; Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader; and Marco Rubio are among the Republicans who have put out full-throated statements in support of the protests. Across the aisle, Nancy Pelosi, the House majority leader; Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader; and most of the Democratic nominees for president have done the same.

The protesters, initially stirred in opposition to a proposed law that would allow extraditions to mainland China, have expanded their demands to include universal suffrage, an independent investigation of the police’s handling of the demonstrations, and amnesty for hundreds of arrested protesters. The protests have been mostly peaceful but have occasionally turned violent, including a chaotic scene at the airport Tuesday when demonstrators attacked two men from mainland China, including a journalist.

The police have routinely used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to disperse protesters. Hong Kong officials have resisted an investigation into the police’s tactics, which have been condemned by international groups including the United Nations Human Rights office, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Nor have officials indicated any willingness to submit to the protesters’ demands, increasing fears that the impasse could lead to a bloody, Tiananmen-style crackdown by Beijing. Mr. Trump tweeted on Tuesday that the Chinese government had moved troops to the border with Hong Kong, and encouraged everyone to be “calm and safe.”

A garrison of soldiers with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is stationed in Hong Kong, but most observers consider it unlikely that Beijing would use it to squelch protests unless as a last resort, as it would all but destroy the territory’s autonomy and could have a devastating economic impact.

In online forums popular with protesters in Hong Kong, people largely welcomed Mr. Trump’s most recent comments on Wednesday but expressed concern that the United States would not take any more significant actions. China has accused foreign countries, primarily the United States, of secretly being behind the protest movement — an accusation strongly denied by American officials and laughed at by protesters, who say they can organize protests without help.

A few protesters have waved American flags at demonstrations, typically seen as signaling support for democracy more than an allegiance to the country.

“Like many protesters, we want Trump to liberate Hong Kong and to pass laws that will help the democratization of our city,” Brian Chan, who held a large American flag, said during a march on July 21. “We need international help, and America is the only country with the means and possibly the incentive to sanction China. They are already at trade war, and I believe that China is at the losing side.”

Katherine Li contributed reporting.

Soul Searching Among Hong Kong Protesters After Chaos at Airport

Aug 14, 2019

China Is Waging a Disinformation War Against Hong Kong Protesters

Aug 13, 2019

Hong Kong Airport, a City’s Symbol of Pride, Is Now Its Hub of Unrest

Aug 13, 2019

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/world/asia/trump-hong-kong-protests-china-trade.html

2019-08-15 06:39:26Z
52780353261988

Russian jet crash-lands in field outside Moscow after striking flock of gulls - CNN

The Ural Airlines Airbus A321 was carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven from Moscow's Zhukovsky airport to Simferopol -- a city on the Crimean Peninsula -- when it ran into trouble.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane "struck a flock of gulls," according to an official from the Federal Air Transport Agency, TASS reported.

"Some of the birds were sucked into its engines," he added.

The official told TASS that the emergency landing took place in a field less than a kilometer (0.62 miles) away from the airport's runway.

Twenty-three people, including five children, have been hospitalized, TASS reported.

In May, at least 41 people on board a Russian Aeroflot SU1492 jet were killed after the aircraft crash-landed at a Moscow airport on Sunday, bursting into flames on impact.

And in June, two passengers were killed on a Angara Airlines flight in Siberia after it overshot the runway and burst into flames.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/15/europe/russia-plane-crash-intl/index.html

2019-08-15 08:19:00Z
52780353784064

Boris Johnson: Brexit opponents 'collaborating' with EU - BBC News

Boris Johnson has accused MPs "who think they can block Brexit" of a "terrible collaboration" with the European Union.

The prime minister said the EU had become less willing to compromise on a new deal with the UK because of the opposition to leaving in Parliament.

He said this increased the likelihood of the UK being "forced to leave with a no-deal" in October.

The EU has said the agreement struck by Theresa May is the only deal possible.

Speaking during a Facebook event hosted at Downing Street, Mr Johnson said he wanted to leave with a deal but "we need our European friends to compromise".

"There's a terrible kind of collaboration as it were, going on between people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament and our European friends," he added.

"The more they think there's a chance that Brexit can be blocked in Parliament, the more adamant they are in sticking to their position."

His comments come after former Chancellor Philip Hammond said the PM's negotiating stance increased the chance of a no-deal before the latest Brexit deadline of 31 October.

Mr Hammond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme a no-deal exit would be "just as much a betrayal of the referendum result as not leaving at all".

No 10 accused Mr Hammond of undermining the UK's negotiating stance, and said he "did everything he could" to block preparations for leaving whilst he was in office.

The former chancellor rejected this suggestion in a tweet, saying he wanted to deliver Brexit "and voted to do so three times".

Opposition to backstop

Mr Johnson has said he wants to leave the EU with a deal, but the UK must leave "do or die" by the end of October.

He wants the EU to ditch the Irish border backstop plan from the deal negotiated by Mrs May, which was rejected three times by Parliament.

But the EU has continued to insist the policy - intended to guarantee there will not be a hard Irish border after Brexit - must remain and cannot be changed.

Many of those who voted against the deal had concerns over the backstop, which if implemented, would see Northern Ireland staying aligned to some rules of the EU single market.

It would also see the UK stay in a single customs territory with the EU, and align with current and future EU rules on competition and state aid.

These arrangements would apply unless and until both the EU and UK agreed they were no longer necessary.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Mr Hammond said the prime minister's demand for the backstop to be entirely removed from the deal meant a no-deal was inevitable on the current deadline.

He said that agreeing to changes now would "fragment" the EU, adding: "they are not going to take that risk".

"Pivoting to say the backstop has to go in its entirety - a huge chunk of the withdrawal agreement just scrapped - is effectively a wrecking tactic," he told Today.

On Thursday Downing Street said it expects a group of MPs to try to block a no-deal Brexit by attempting to pass legislation when Parliament returns next month.

A No 10 source said they expected the challenge to come in the second week of September, when MPs are are due to debate a report on Northern Ireland.

The source assumes the EU will wait until after that date before engaging in further negotiations.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49348072

2019-08-14 13:28:12Z
52780352760186

As Global Order Crumbles, Risks of Recession Grow - The Wall Street Journal

Italy’s Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-EU, anti-immigrant League party, is seeking to bring down his own coalition. Photo: antonio parrinello/Reuters

By

Greg Ip

Greg Ip
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @greg_ip

Aug. 14, 2019 8:00 am ET

When assumptions about how the world works are shattered, a global downturn is often the result. The world learned in the early 1970s that the era of cheap oil was over, in the early 1980s that countries could default, and a decade ago that American mortgages and global banks aren’t safe.

Today, a similar rethink of globalization is under way. From Washington to Buenos Aires, nations’ mutually reinforcing commitment to open markets is disintegrating. In response, investors are rearranging portfolios, businesses are rethinking investments and policy makers are struggling to respond—all of which are pushing the global economy closer to recession.

Investors believe central banks—the last bastion of the technocratic, globalized elite—can use their limited ammunition to stave off recession. Yet central banks may yet be dragged into the competitive fray.

Nationalism and populism hit the headlines in 2016 when Britons voted to leave the European Union and Donald Trump was elected U.S. president. This was, initially, seen as a backlash against technocratic elites’ indifference to cultural and economic anxiety brought on by globalization, free trade and uncontrolled immigration.

Share Your Thoughts

Should the U.S. trade with others only on its own terms, or under global rules that apply to everyone even if it means not all transactions go its way? Join the conversation below.

In the past month it has become clear that nationalists aren’t simply correcting globalists’ excesses; they aim to supplant them altogether. After two years of fruitless efforts to negotiate an exit from the EU with most commercial relations intact, Britain now has a prime minister, Boris Johnson, prepared to make a clean break by Oct. 31 no matter the economic cost.

Mr. Trump’s early protectionist strikes at traditional allies were contained by countervailing forces at home and abroad. But the collapse of trade talks with China foreshadows a more fundamental unraveling of rules of economic engagement between the world’s economies. Having abandoned for now efforts to write a new rulebook, the U.S. and China have resorted to ad hoc, brute-force tariffs, devaluation and retaliation, which Tuesday’s surprise tariff reprieve simply underscored.

Elsewhere, Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-EU, anti-immigrant League party, is seeking to bring down his own coalition in hopes new elections will put him in control of the government. A trade war is brewing between American allies South Korea and Japan over ancient, unhealed wounds. Argentina’s peso and stock market crashed this week when Peronists, whose history of populism and protectionism saddled the country with its current woes, became the favorite to form its next government.

For the past two years, the U.S. and world economies shrugged off nationalism and populism. Protectionism was contained and more than offset by positives such as Mr. Trump’s tax cut and deregulatory drive. It can no longer be ignored: Businesses and investors, unsure of what if any rules will govern international commerce, are retreating from risky investments.

In Britain, Brexit uncertainty has brought business investment to a halt, contributing to—likely temporary—second-quarter economic contraction. Germany, perhaps the most trade-sensitive of the major economies, may be in recession, according to a sentiment survey released Tuesday. Both the U.S. and China have seen exports drop and growth slow. American manufacturing has been hit by the slump in exports and investment.

The stock market’s wobbles have been amplified by companies most exposed to the world economy, according to Parag Thatte of Deutsche Bank . The 100 most globally exposed blue-chip companies’ profits are down 3% in the past year, while profits of the most U.S.-focused are up 5.5%, he estimates.

This hasn’t become a crisis or recession because the leverage and financial interconnections that propagate panic across borders are largely absent while healthy labor markets have buoyed consumers.

Globalization has suffered temporary setbacks in past decades. This time feels different. The U.S., which led in creating global institutions such as the World Trade Organization, now leads in crippling them. In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, trade economists Chad Bown and Douglas Irwin note that Mr. Trump’s use of national security to justify tariffs and quotas on steel, aluminum and auto imports broke with 75 years of U.S. practice: “The Trump administration recently stood alongside Russia to argue that merely invoking national security is enough to defeat any WTO challenge to a trade barrier.”

The U.S. has in the past used its economic, military and moral weight to promote economic integration among and tamp down tension between allies. “We would have put our arms around the shoulders of the conflicting parties and said, now come on guys, let’s talk this through,” says Dan Price, who served as an economic diplomat in the Reagan administration and both Bush administrations.

Mr. Trump by contrast has cheered Britain’s split from the EU and done little to contain the flare-up between Japan and South Korea. Says Mr. Price, “Once people think there is no one looking after the collective interest, that there is no moderating force in the room, once you have the U.S. by its example legitimizing unilateralism, it removes the inhibitions from others.”

Unilateralism could eventually extend to currencies and monetary policy.

China let the yuan drop after Mr. Trump ratcheted up tariffs. Though justifiable based on economics, investors saw it as a sign that China wasn’t seeking a truce in the trade war, says Barry Eichengreen, an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Trump doesn’t like it when the currencies of countries like China, Korea and Vietnam decline against the dollar. So he is likely to threaten additional tariffs.” And to the extent that trade policy is the primary burden on global confidence now, central banks “can do little more than begin to stanch the bleeding.”

Write to Greg Ip at greg.ip@wsj.com

Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-global-order-crumbles-risks-of-recession-grow-11565784000

2019-08-14 12:00:00Z
52780352303358

Russia says radiation levels spiked in area around weapons test explosion - New York Post

Radiation levels near the site of a deadly explosion of an apparent nuclear-powered missile being tested in Russia spiked by up to 16 times above normal, according to the country’s weather service.

The Thursday blast on the coast of the White Sea in Nyonska killed five scientists with Russia’s nuclear agency, which later confirmed they were testing new weapons. More victims were hospitalized.

Rosgidromet, the weather monitoring service, said its sensors in Severodvinsk, a town about 20 miles from the test site, registered gamma radiation exceeding background levels by “four to 16 times,” according to the BBC.

One of the sensors registered a level of 1.78 microsieverts per hour, well above the local average of 0.11 microsieverts, but well below dangerous levels.

The levels — which were higher at six out of eight of its stations in Severodvinsk — returned to normal after two and a half hours, the service said.

The Defense Ministry initially said background radiation had remained normal after the accident. Local officials in Severodvinsk initially reported there had been a brief spike in radiation levels, but later insisted they were not above the norm.

Greenpeace has said the levels rose by 20 times.

Russia’s Rosatom nuclear company has said its workers had been providing support for the “isotope power source” of a missile and were thrown into the sea by the force of the explosion.

US experts have linked the incident to the 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, known by NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, which President Vladimir Putin touted earlier this year.

On Monday, President Trump said the US “is learning much” from the explosion and claimed that Washington has “similar, though more advanced, technology.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday did not confirm that the accident was linked to the Burevestnik project, but said Russian research and development in the sphere of nuclear-powered missiles “significantly surpass the level reached by other countries and are rather unique,” according to AFP.

Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports about whether residents were evacuated from Nyonska on Tuesday.

Some residents told local media they were asked to leave their homes Wednesday ahead of planned military exercises. Officials in Severodvinsk appeared to confirm an evacuation order cited by the Interfax news agency.

But other Russian officials dismissed reports of an evacuation, with regional governor Igor Orlov calling them “complete nonsense” — and Interfax quoted the government of Severodvinsk as saying the military had canceled plans to conduct tests in Nyonska.

With Post wires

Share this:

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://nypost.com/2019/08/14/russia-says-radiation-levels-spiked-in-area-around-weapons-test-explosion/

2019-08-14 12:08:00Z
52780351009445

China State Media Present Their Own Version Of Hong Kong Protests - NPR

Enlarge this image

A protester shows a placard to travelers as demonstrations continue at Hong Kong International Airport on Wednesday. Flight operations resumed at the airport Wednesday morning after two days of disruptions. Vincent Thian/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Vincent Thian/AP

As anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong enter their third month, China's leaders face a new challenge: managing perceptions of the protests at home.

China is anxious the protests might inspire similar dissent on the mainland, where huge swathes of territory — including the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet — have also seen numerous instances of opposition to Beijing's governance.

To inoculate itself, Beijing has turned to a raft of disinformation tactics to stir up nationalist support at home, creating a very different narrative of what is happening in Hong Kong by levying its control over the flow of information.

"The [protest] movement is so complicated, unpredictable and unprecedented, with a very diverse group of participants," says Fang Kecheng, a communications professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

"But what we see within the Great Firewall of China is actually simplified and distorted," he says. "That is because nationalistic content is politically safe and highly popular among the Chinese public and internet users."

Official state media pin the blame for protests on the "black hand" of foreign interference, namely from the United States, and what they have called criminal Hong Kong thugs. A popular conspiracy theory posits the CIA incited and funded the Hong Kong protesters, who are demanding an end to an extradition bill with China and the ability to elect their own leader.

Fueling this theory, China Daily, a state newspaper geared towards a younger, more cosmopolitan audience, this week linked to a video purportedly showing Hong Kong protesters using American-made grenade launchers to combat police.

Other widely-shared videos on Weibo, a popular Chinese blogging platform, claim to show a female protester who lost an eye last weekend from a rubber bullet accepting payment from other protesters, insinuating the incident was staged. Except the woman accepting cash in the video is not the protester who lost her eye.

But Beijing's biggest messaging victory so far was provided by Hong Kong protesters themselves on Tuesday night, when they descended on two men suspected of being mainland Chinese agents. Beijing made sure to widely disseminate videotape of the incident.

By the next morning, a third of top trending topics on the popular blogging platform Weibo were expressions of support for one of the men, a reporter for the hardline Chinese newspaper Global Times. Viral slogans like "What a Shame Hong Kong" and "I support Hong Kong police, beat me all you want" have been shared millions of time on Instagram and Weibo, with some Internet users threatening to travel to Hong Kong themselves to avenge the Global Times employee.

"If you opened the Shenzhen port to Hong Kong now and waived the needed permit, I dare say that [these protesters] would have been beaten to a pulp," wrote one user.

Some Hong Kong protesters, distraught by the violent turn of events last night, created digital apologies and even condolences on mainstream Chinese social media sites, including Weibo and WeChat, a ubiquitous chat app. But the posters were almost immediately censored.

"Sadly, it seems that only patriotic content is now allowed," says CUHK's Fang.

Beijing's message is even succeeding with Chinese living abroad.

"I think the situation in Hong Kong has evolved into a color revolution, which is supported by the Western countries," Bao Haining, a rising junior at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and originally from the northern city of Changchun.

"I define the protesters in Hong Kong not as a demonstration any more. I can define them as a terrorist organization," he says, "because they attack civilians and occupy public buildings like airports."

Controlling the message is critical if Beijing wants to escalate its intervention but stop short of a military crackdown, Minxin Pei, a comparative politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, told NPR.

Pei argues the costs of a military intervention would be too high for Beijing to justify. Bloody street clashes would result in high casualties and global condemnation, and enforcement of law and order after an invasion would require a costly military occupation.

"It's not about whether [Chinese] troops can maintain order. It's really about the day after the war, because the Hong Kong government will not be able to function," says Pei.

Instead, Pei believes Beijing, if necessary, will use nationalism to mobilize tens of thousands of disaffected young men as patriotic volunteers to storm Hong Kong and squash protests. Last week, China's top office on Hong Kong affairs unleased its strongest rhetoric yet against the protests and called on pro-Beijing supporters to "firmly protect the homeland" in Hong Kong.

A seemingly grassroots movement would give Beijing plausible deniability behind any kind of forceful intervention, says Pei: "If you have sort of civilian types getting involved then it's really hard to conclude that one country two system is bad because we're talking about ordinary Chinese people – patriots – getting themselves in while protecting Hong Kong."

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/14/751039100/china-state-media-present-distorted-version-of-hong-kong-protests

2019-08-14 11:43:00Z
CAIiEJ1uMElCSLFVzegal7b5ITIqFggEKg4IACoGCAow9vBNMK3UCDCvpUk

Top 5 Things to Know in the Market on Wednesday - Investing.com

© Reuters.

Investing.com - Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, August 14:

1. Signs of economic downturn weigh on sentiment

Worrying data from China and Germany added to fears of a potential global recession.

China’s growth in July in another sign that the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington is denting the world’s second-largest economy.

Trade tensions also dragged on China’s consumer and business confidence with retail sales cooling more than expected while slower-than-forecast growth in revealed a marked loss of momentum.

Germany provided no relief to the gloomy outlook as a slump in exports drove its in the second quarter. The 0.1% quarter-on-quarter decline in led some analysts to speculate that the euro zone’s number one economy could enter recession in the third quarter as tariff conflicts and uncertainty over the U.K.’s departure from the European Union hit the country’s manufacturing sector.

2. Stocks pass from trade relief to economic worries

were mixed in Wednesday’s trade in the wake of Washington’s announcement a day earlier that it would delay the implementation of some tariffs on Chinese imports from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15.

The ensuing relief rally led to sharp gains on Wall Street at Tuesday’s close that quickly spread to Asian markets. Hong Kong’s was the exception, depressed by fears that Beijing will use force to crack down on local protesters.

But buying enthusiasm faded overnight with and U.S. futures pointing to a lower open as markets processed the fact that the U.S. delay in tariffs brought the two sides no closer to resolution.

3. U.S. 2- and 10-year notes on watch amid yield tailspin

A worldwide bond rally was back in swing sending yields on a sharp decline after a brief pause a day earlier.

Markets are keeping a close eye on the yields for the U.S. 2- and 10-year Treasury notes as the spread hovers around just one basis point. If the passes below that of the, it would result in an inverted yield curve that economists warn could be a sign of pending recession.

The flight to safety and central bank policy easing worldwide has sent bond yields into a tailspin. The on the German Bund, the euro zone’s safe-haven benchmark, hit a new record low of -0.64% after the GDP failed to elicit any signs of urgency from the government in providing some sort of fiscal support package to the economy.

4. Cisco steps up to earnings plate

Cisco (NASDAQ:) will be in the earnings spotlight after the close as the second-quarter reporting season winds down, with less than 50 S&P firms left on the calendar.

The company will report amid concerns that weaker enterprise spending on networking equipment may dent growth.

A slowdown in network spending was put in the spotlight last week when NetApp (NASDAQ:) warned its quarterly revenue would miss estimates, due to uncertainty over the global outlook.

5. Oil drops on unexpected inventory build

slid amid further signs of global economic weakness and a surprise build in U.S. crude stockpiles.

The American Petroleum Institute’s weekly report released late Tuesday showed that unexpectedly rose 3.7 million barrels.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release at 10:30 AM ET ( 14:30 GMT) amid expectations for a draw of 2.78 million barrels.

Read more: - Barani Krishnan

-- Reuters contributed to this report.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.investing.com/news/economy/top-5-things-to-know-in-the-market-on-wednesday-1954601

2019-08-14 10:09:00Z
52780352801207