The pound plummets after Boris Johnson's 'drastic' move that raises risk of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal - Business Insider

• The pound sank on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to change the law on Brexit, making it illegal for Britain to continue negotiations with the EU after 2020.
• The pound fell 1% against the dollar and 1.1% against the euro at 8:30 a.m, chipping away at the currency’s post-election surge last week.
• „This sets up another cliff-edge and could create yet more months of uncertainty for investors just when we thought all was squared away,“ one analyst said.
• View Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The pound sank on Monday morning after Boris Johnson put forward a law that would raise the risk of Britain crashing out of the EU by the end of 2020 without a deal.

The pound fell 1% against the dollar and 1.1% against the euro at 8:30 a.m in London, chipping away at last week’s 1.5% rally when traders cheered Johnson’s decisive Conservative party election victory.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday moved to change the law on Brexit, making it illegal for Britain to continue negotiations with the EU after 2020.

This comes despite warnings from the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier that making a „comprehensive“ free-trade deal would be near impossible by the end of 2020.

Johnson’s move „means no possible way to extend the transition period,“ said Neil Wilson, chief markets analyst at Markets.com. „I must confess to believing he wouldn’t need to be so drastic, that a large majority offered the flexibility yet strength a government craves in deal-making.“

„This sets up another cliff-edge and could create yet more months of uncertainty for investors just when we thought all was squared away,“ he added.

For more on Johnson’s plan, which is due to be put forward to the UK Parliament on Friday, click here.

Foto: sourceMarkets Insider

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2019-12-17 09:55:39Z
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The pound plummets after Boris Johnson's 'drastic' move that raises risk of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal - Business Insider

• The pound sank on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to change the law on Brexit, making it illegal for Britain to continue negotiations with the EU after 2020.
• The pound fell 1% against the dollar and 1.1% against the euro at 8:30 a.m, chipping away at the currency’s post-election surge last week.
• „This sets up another cliff-edge and could create yet more months of uncertainty for investors just when we thought all was squared away,“ one analyst said.
• View Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The pound sank on Monday morning after Boris Johnson put forward a law that would raise the risk of Britain crashing out of the EU by the end of 2020 without a deal.

The pound fell 1% against the dollar and 1.1% against the euro at 8:30 a.m in London, chipping away at last week’s 1.5% rally when traders cheered Johnson’s decisive Conservative party election victory.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday moved to change the law on Brexit, making it illegal for Britain to continue negotiations with the EU after 2020.

This comes despite warnings from the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier that making a „comprehensive“ free-trade deal would be near impossible by the end of 2020.

Johnson’s move „means no possible way to extend the transition period,“ said Neil Wilson, chief markets analyst at Markets.com. „I must confess to believing he wouldn’t need to be so drastic, that a large majority offered the flexibility yet strength a government craves in deal-making.“

„This sets up another cliff-edge and could create yet more months of uncertainty for investors just when we thought all was squared away,“ he added.

For more on Johnson’s plan, which is due to be put forward to the UK Parliament on Friday, click here.

Foto: sourceMarkets Insider

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2019-12-17 09:55:31Z
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Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sentenced to death for high treason - CNN

A three-member special court in Islamabad on Tuesday convicted Musharraf of violating the constitution by unlawfully declaring emergency rule while he was in power, in a case that had been pending since 2013.

The 76-year-old former leader, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for more than three years, has the option to appeal the verdict.

Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan as President until 2008.

He was indicted in 2014 on a total of five charges, including three counts of subverting, suspending and changing the country's constitution, firing Pakistan's chief justice, and imposing emergency rule.

It's the first time in Pakistan's history that an army chief has been tried and found guilty of treason. Under Pakistan's constitution, high treason is a crime that carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The special court ruled on the death sentence by a two to one majority, with one of the three judges not backing the death sentence but agreeing on a conviction.

Musharraf has been living in Dubai since 2016 after Pakistan's Supreme Court lifted a travel ban allowing him to leave the country to seek medical treatment. From his hospital bed in Dubai earlier this month, the former leader said in a video statement that he was innocent and the treason case was "baseless."

Web of court cases

Musharraf earlier went into exile in 2008, returning to Pakistan in 2013 with the aim of running in the country's national elections. But his plans unraveled as he became entangled in a web of court cases relating to his time in power.

In 2007, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, suspended Pakistan's constitution, replaced the chief judge and blacked out independent TV outlets.

Musharraf said he did so to stabilize the country and to fight rising Islamist extremism. The action drew sharp criticism from the United States and democracy advocates. Pakistanis openly called for his removal.

Under pressure from the West, Musharraf later lifted the state of emergency and called elections in which his party fared badly.

Musharraf stepped down in August 2008 after the governing coalition began taking steps to impeach him. Prosecutors say Musharraf violated Pakistan's constitution by imposing the state of emergency.

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2019-12-17 09:46:00Z
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Why Are People Protesting in India? - The New York Times

A wave of protests against a new citizenship law has broken out in cities across India, as demonstrators fear it could endanger the nation’s Muslim minority and chip away at the government’s secular identity.

The unrest has spread to more than a dozen cities, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded by deploying troops, enacting a curfew and shutting down the internet. Violent police confrontations have followed; the police fatally shot several young men in Assam State, beat unarmed students with wooden poles in New Delhi, and used tear gas and batons to disperse protests elsewhere.

The citizenship law, which passed both houses of Parliament last week, was seen by critics as part of Mr. Modi’s broader push to transform India into a place where being Indian is synonymous with being Hindu. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, is about 80 percent Hindu and about 14 percent Muslim.

The law, paired with a citizenship test that has left nearly two million people in danger of being declared stateless, has Indian Muslims fearing they are being targeted at a time when there has been a surge of anti-Muslim sentiment.

Here is the background to understand what is happening.

What is in the citizenship law that ignited the protests?

The law, called the Citizenship Amendment Act, applies a religious test to whether illegal migrants from neighboring countries can be fast-tracked for Indian citizenship. It would apply to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees and Jains — but not Muslims.

Government officials have said the law is intended to protect persecuted religious minorities in some neighboring countries. But it would not protect persecuted Muslims, including the Rohingya in neighboring Myanmar.

What is the citizenship test?

All 33 million residents of Assam, a state bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, had to provide documentary evidence, such as a property deed or a birth certificate, showing that they or their ancestors lived in India before 1971. Those who could not would be declared foreign migrants, at risk of being sent to huge new detention camps.

More than two million people, many of them Muslims, failed to pass the test and could end up stateless. The governing party of Mr. Modi has vowed to extend the test to other parts of India.

The government has said the test was intended to root out undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh. India’s home minister, Amit Shah, has repeatedly referred to these migrants as “termites.”

What do the Indian Muslims fear?

Many of India’s roughly 200 million Muslims see the new citizenship law as blatantly anti-Muslim. Constitutional scholars say that it is the first time India has passed a law that treats people differently based on their religion, and that it flies in the face of the country’s commitment to equality.

Some worry that the citizenship test and the new citizenship law could be used in tandem to strip them of rights they’ve held for decades and send them off to detention camps. They could be declared foreign migrants by failing the citizenship test, then denied protection from the new citizenship law because it doesn’t include Muslims.

Why are some non-Muslims opposed?

There’s growing concern among progressives and Indians of other faiths that Mr. Modi is trying to dismantle India’s secular traditions and turn the country into a religious state as a homeland for Hindus. Many of Mr. Modi’s supporters among the Hindu right support the nationalist push, and Mr. Modi himself comes from an ideological background that emphasizes Hindu supremacy. But there are many Hindus who want to keep India secular, as India’s founders, such as Mohandas K. Gandhi, had wanted.

In Assam, protests were led by Hindus who feared that the citizenship law could allow migrants to settle there and take their land. In this state, it’s not so much a rivalry between Hindus and Muslims. It’s more a case of locals versus foreigners. Many of the indigenous Assamese don’t want any new migrants, no matter what religion they subscribe to.

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2019-12-17 09:01:00Z
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The Citizenship law causing nationwide protests in India - BBC News - BBC News

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2019-12-17 07:42:48Z
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Russia, China propose easing N Korea sanctions, US says premature - Al Jazeera English

Russia and China on Monday proposed easing some sanctions against nuclear-armed North Korea, on condition the government commits to Security Council resolutions on denuclearisation, in a move the United States described as premature.

The proposal, in a draft resolution which surprised several diplomatic missions, suggested the Security Council lift a ban on North Korea exporting statues, seafood and textiles and was aimed at encouraging dialogue between the North and the US, Russia said.

More:

A State Department official dismissed the proposal, telling Reuters the UN Security Council should not be considering "premature sanctions relief" for North Korea as it is "threatening to conduct an escalated provocation, refusing to meet to discuss denuclearisation".

The draft also called for a ban to be lifted on North Koreans working abroad and the termination of a 2017 requirement that all such workers had to be repatriated by next week.

It would also exempt inter-Korean rail and road cooperation projects from UN sanctions.

'Not rushing'

It was not immediately clear when, or if, the draft resolution could be put to a vote in the 15-member Security Council. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.

"We're not rushing things," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told Reuters, adding that negotiations with council members would begin on Tuesday. He said the sanctions they had proposed lifting were "not directly related to the North Korea nuclear programme, this is a humanitarian issue."

Nuclear negotiations have been largely stalled since the collapse of a February summit in Hanoi between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and the North has been issuing increasingly strident declarations as it pushes the US to make concessions by the end of the year as a condition of resuming talks.

It has also carried out some 13 ballistic missile launches since May.

Trump on Monday said he would be disappointed if something was "in the works" in North Korea and the US was watching activities in the country closely.

The sanctions on industries that Russia and China have proposed lifting earned North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars and were put in place in 2016 and 2017 to try and cut off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea has carried out a number of missile tests since May, releasing undated and unlocated pictures through its official Korean Central News Agency [KCNA via AFP]

The US, Britain and France have insisted that no UN sanctions should be lifted until North Korea gives up its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Pyongyang has been subject to UN sanctions because of those programmes since 2006.

"On North Korea, as in the past, it's very important that the council maintains unity," German UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said on Monday.

Dialogue

China and Russia, which had cautiously backed pressure against North Korea after its past nuclear tests, had indicated last week they would reject further sanctions.

At a council meeting on North Korea last week - called by the US - China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said sanctions should be adjusted to "head off a dramatic reversal" of the situation.

Nebenzia said the draft resolution was aimed at encouraging talks between the US and North Korea.

"That's the whole idea, we don't do this resolution in spite, we really want to facilitate," he added.

The draft welcomes "the continuation of the dialogue between the United States and the DPRK at all levels, aimed at establishing new US-DPRK relations, building mutual confidence and joining efforts to build a lasting and stable peace on the Korean Peninsula in a staged and synchronized manner." DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The draft text also calls for the "prompt resumption of the six-party talks" which involved China, the two Koreas, the US, Russia and Japan. Those talks lasted from 2003-2009.

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2019-12-17 06:06:00Z
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China may be doling out incentives for Macao in what could be a 'signal' to Hong Kong - CNBC

Tourists walk with shopping bags in front of Grand Lisboa Casino in Macau on December 15, 2019.

Eduardo Leal | AFP | Getty Images

China is reportedly set to announce new financial policies in Macao in a potential snub to protest-stricken Hong Kong, said Richard McGregor, senior fellow at Sydney-based think tank, the Lowy Institute.

President Xi Jinping will be visiting Macao this week to commemorate the city's 20th anniversary return to China. His visit and the reported economic incentives are meant to send a "signal to Hong Kong," said McGregor.

According to Reuters, Beijing is set to unveil a slew of policies including the establishment of a yuan-denominated stock exchange in the Chinese special administration region. The new incentives also include the acceleration of a yuan settlement center that is already in the works, and the allocation of more land in mainland China for Macao to develop, Reuters reported.

Hong Kong and Macao are both semi-autonomous regions of China that have their own legal, administrative and judicial systems from the mainland. But since early June, Hong Kong has been crippled by widespread pro-democracy protests as some of its citizens lobby for greater independence from the mainland.

McGregor said the possible financial incentives are an attempt to put pressure on Hong Kong, and in the longer term, to build up Macao.

"I think it's trolling Hong Kong if you like, it's attempting to say 'look, you think you've got some special services that you offer China, well we can put them in Macao," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday.

No substitute for Hong Kong

McGregor pointed out that it is unlikely for Macao or any other Chinese city to replace Hong Kong's significance in the near future.

"If China could have replicated Hong Kong, frankly in Shanghai or Shenzhen, and all the things Hong Kong can do, particularly in financial services, China would have done it already," he said.

Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Under the "one country, two systems" structure, its citizens are granted some degree of financial and legal independence from the mainland.

The same system applies to neighboring Macao, a former Portuguese colony that returned to Chinese rule in 2000. And from Beijing's perspective, Macao is the token success story of the policy working out, said McGregor.

Macao's economic vibrancy is fully dependent on the casino industry and "at the mercy of Beijing," McGregor explained, noting that gambling is not legal in the mainland.

Therefore Beijing has the power to "turn that tap on and off and stop high rollers coming there, so Macao is fulfilling its function, and China is pretty happy with it," he said.

'One country, two systems'

Beijing has been trying to sell the "one country, two systems" framework to Taiwan for years, but the recent social unrest in Hong Kong has undermined the credibility of that principle, said McGregor.

In October, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen — who is seeking a second term in the January elections — has outrightly rejected the "one country, two systems" formula. China views Taiwan as a renegade province, and has previously suggested the island should come under Chinese rule in a similar arrangement.

"Clearly it's not working in Hong Kong, and clearly it is not attractive in Taiwan," McGregor said about the policy.

As Taiwan gears up for the upcoming polls, it appears likely that Tsai will win again, said McGregor. "That's a big problem for Beijing," he said, pointing out that she was "anti-Beijing."

Xi is currently under a lot of pressure on many fronts, McGregor said.

Even as ongoing protests in Hong Kong continue to threaten Xi's grip on power, Taiwan's elections might also boost anti-China sentiments. On the U.S. front, there's the trade war, and domestically, there is an economic slowdown in China.

But McGregor said he is confident that Xi will not be "shunned" domestically, but he might be left with no choice but "to share power more than he has been willing to do thus far."

WATCH: What is Hong Kong's relationship with China?

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2019-12-17 06:56:00Z
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