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Angela Merkel’s chosen successor faced down her rivals with a defiant performance at her party conference on Friday. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer appeared to head off a growing rebellion against her leadership of the Christian Democrat party (CDU) by challenging her critics to back her or sack her. “If you think that the Germany I want is not the Germany you imagine, if you think that the path I want to walk with you is not the right one, then let’s have it out today. Let’s end it today. Here and now,” the woman known as “mini-Merkel” told the party conference in Leipzig. The response from delegates was a seven-minute standing ovation that appeared to silence any challenge to her authority — at least for now. Friedrich Merz, the rival who had openly advertised his plans to question the party’s direction, ended up making a low-key speech pledging his loyalty. “The applause shows: today is not an end, Annegret. Today it really gets going,” said Michael Kretschmer, a senior delegate. It was a rare triumph for Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, or AKK as she likes to be known, who has had a torrid time since taking over as CDU leader a year ago. Mrs Merkel stepped down from the party leadership last year so a new leader could reinvigorate its fortunes following a series of poor election results. But the results have only got worse under AKK’s leadership. The CDU was beaten into third place by the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in regional elections last month, and there have been growing calls for some one else to take over as the party’s chancellor candidate in the next general election. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, who had hoped the party leadership would open the way for her to succeed Mrs Merkel in government, has been left fighting for her survival. Friedrich Merz was expected to challenge the party direction but made a low-key speech Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg She took on her critics in a marathon 90-minute speech on Friday, defending the CDU’s record in government. “These have been 14 good years for Germany, and we all have a lot to be proud of,” she told delegates on the 14th anniversary of the day Mrs Merkel first became chancellor. “As the party that shaped this government, to stand up and say it was all bad is not a successful campaign strategy. We should not get used to it…We have to be careful that such discussions do not lead us to ruin.” Her remarks were a clear criticism of Mr Merz, her chief rival, who has been absent from politics for most of that time. After losing the party leadership to Mrs Merkel in 2002, Mr Merz quit politics in 2009. He attempted a comeback last year and was narrowly defeated by AKK in the race to succeed Mrs Merkel. But amid the speculation over Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer’s future, Mr Merz has been back on manoeuvres. He let it be known that he planned to make an intervention in a speech at this year’s conference, but Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer appeared to have headed him off. In the event, he delivered a low-key address to muted applause from delegates. “I’m grateful for your brave, combative, forward-looking speech,” he told Mr Kramp-Karrenbauer. The CDU was unlike rival parties, he said, because “We are loyal to our leader”. Setting out her vision for the future, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer called for a new digital ministry and pledged her support for the German carmakers. She was pleased Tesla had decided to build its first European factory in Germany, she said, but added it was more important to her that cars continue to be built in Stuttgart, Munich and Wolfsburg — the homes of Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen. It was a performance that saw off her rivals for now. But Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer needs to improve the CDU’s standing in the polls — or Mr Merz and others will be waiting for another chance.
November 22, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Brazil’s national security body is conducting a broad risk review before the country chooses a partner to build its ultra-fast fifth generation mobile network.The head of the country’s Institutional Security Cabinet, General Augusto Hele…
November 22, 2019Read More
The Trump administration is withholding more than $100 million in U.S. military assistance to Lebanon that has been approved by Congress and is favored by his national security team, an assertion of executive control of foreign aid that is similar to t…
November 22, 2019Read More
Some of the prime minister’s supporters are sticking by him, while others are wavering. All are nervous and unsure about what comes next.
November 22, 2019Read More
Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed state awards to the widows of nuclear engineers who died in an explosion at the navy’s testing range, saying they sacrificed their lives to develop a cutting-edge weapon that will protect the country “for decades ahead.” Speaking in remarks televised Friday, Putin hailed the five men who died in the August 8 incident in Nyonoksa on the White Sea as heroes and patriots. “Each of them has brought an invaluable contribution to the strengthening of the Russian state,” he said in a sombre speech at the ceremony. “They were involved in the most difficult and critically important work on the most advanced technology that has no analogues in the world.” The Russian leader pledged that Russia will work to complete the development of the weapon involved in the incident, saying it will “ensure sovereignty and security for Russia and peace for our children for decades ahead.” “The very fact of possession of such unique technologies is the strongest and the most reliable guarantee of peace on the planet,” Putin said. “We will undoubtedly develop it to perfection.” Putin didn’t name the weapon and his spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to give any details of the official probe into the incident, saying the results won’t be made public because it involves a new weapons system. Russian officials have offered scant and contradictory information about the incident that led to a brief spike in radioactivity and fueled radiation fears in a nearby city. Along with the five nuclear engineers, the explosion also killed two servicemen and injured six people. Rosatom nuclear state corporation said the explosion occurred on an offshore platform during tests of a “nuclear isotope power source” of a rocket engine _ a cryptic description that made many observers conclude that the test involved one of Russia’s most secretive weapons _ the prospective Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) nuclear-powered cruise missile, code-named “Skyfall” by NATO. Putin first revealed the existence of the missile in his 2018 state-of-the-nation address, claiming that it will have an unlimited range, allowing it to circle the globe undetected by missile defense systems. He claimed then that the missile had successfully undergone the first tests, but many observers have remained skeptical, arguing that such a weapon could be very difficult to handle and pose a threat to the environment. Speaking at a separate meeting of the presidential Security Council on Friday, Putin said that Russia should focus on developing new drones, laser and hypersonic weapons. He charged that Russia now has weapons that place it “a step ahead” of other leading military powers. “Naturally we must try to maintain that in the future,” he said.
November 22, 2019Read More
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s communications minister on Friday for his role in “widescale internet censorship,” a reference to a five-day-long nationwide shutdown meant to help stifle protests against fuel price hikes in Iran. The san…
November 22, 2019Read More
South Korea on Friday made a last-minute decision to stick with its critical intelligence-sharing deal with Japan, a dramatic reversal after months of frigid relations complicated by painful, wartime history. The decision, announced by South Korea’s presidential Blue House, is likely to be hailed by Washington. The United States has pressured its two Asian allies to set aside their feud and maintain the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), seen as linchpin of trilateral security cooperation. The diplomatic thaw also has implications for trade. As the rift worsened this year, Japan put export curbs on materials used to make semiconductors, threatening the global supply chain of chips, a pillar of the South Korean economy. Seoul decided to suspend a previous notice to Japan that it would stop sharing intelligence once the current pact ran out at midnight on Friday, Kim You-geun, deputy director of South Korea’s national security office said, adding it had done so on the condition the agreement could be terminated at any time. “Japan has expressed its understanding,” Kim told a briefing just hours before the deal was due to end. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said South Korea had made a “strategic decision” in sticking with the pact and that bilateral relations were vital. News of the decision quickly overshadowed the Group of 20 (G20) foreign minister meetings being held in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. In almost unheard of move, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi briefly stepped out of a bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart to address reporters. “My understanding is that the South Korean government took this strategic decision, given the current security environment,” Motegi said, adding he would meet the South Korean foreign minister during the G20. South Korea’s foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, had been notable for her absence at the G20. Her attendance had not been formally confirmed and she only arrived in Nagoya late on Friday, after the decision had been announced. As the news broke, Japanese reporters stepped away from their laptops in the G20 media centre to huddle around a television. The dispute has its roots in a decades-old disagreement over compensation for South Korean labourers forced to work at Japanese firms during World War Two. It has deepened this year, and upended trade between the two countries. South Korea was the third-largest market for Japanese exports last year, accounting for $53 billion, according to IMF data. Japan remains a major player in specialised chip components, even though it was overtaken as a chipmaker years ago by South Korea. Japan’s trade ministry said it hoped to hold talks with South Korea on export controls but it would not immediately put Seoul back on the trade “white list” that fast-tracks exports to its neighbour. Japan’s trade ministry had been the setting for a particularly frosty meeting between officials from both sides earlier this year, where neither side greeted the other and, in front of television cameras, faced off in stony silence in a narrow room. South Korean media widely reported that their officials had been given a “cold reception” by Tokyo and that the meeting took place in a room that looked like a “garage”. A South Korean official said on Friday there was no deadline set yet to resolve the differences, and Seoul would terminate the pact if agreement was not reached. Seoul’s decision has also come amid increasingly public displays of tension with the United States, rare in the nearly seven decades of their alliance. The United States broke off defence cost talks this week after demanding that South Korea raise its annual contribution for maintaining the US contingent to $5 billion, more than five times what it pays now. Japan’s Motegi denied that the United States had put pressure on Tokyo over GSOMIA but acknowledged that close communication with Washington on the matter. US President Donald Trump has railed against what he says are inadequate contributions from allies towards defence costs. The United States is due to begin separate negotiations for new defence cost-sharing deals with Japan, Germany and NATO next year. While the two US allies are both concerned by China’s increasing assertiveness in the region and the potential threat from North Korea, their relations remain troubled by grievances stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula. GSOMIA was sealed in 2016 after a years-long US push for a better joint response to North Korea’s growing military threat.
November 22, 2019Read More
US President Donald Trump said Friday he had saved Hong Kong from being destroyed by persuading Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold off on sending in troops to crush its pro-democracy movement. “If it weren’t for me, Hong Kong would have been obliter…
November 22, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — In the 131 years since slavery ended in Brazil, Brazilians of African descent haven’t had much to celebrate. Emancipation itself came late — making Brazil the last New World nation to outlaw slavery — and was hardly a gift for th…
November 22, 2019Read More
The UK has been condemned for ignoring a United Nations deadline to hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius. A six-month deadline to return control of the overseas territory came and looked set to pass on Friday, with the UK refusing to recognise Mauritius’s claim of sovereignty over the islands. The UN overwhelmingly voted in May to set the six-month deadline for UK withdrawal from the Indian Ocean archipelago in a major diplomatic blow. The islands have been at the centre of a decades-long dispute over Britain’s decision to separate them from Mauritius in 1965 and set up a joint military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the isles. Olivier Bancoult, from The Chagos Refugee Group, led a peaceful protest of few dozen islanders outside the British High Commission on Mauritius on Friday, where many of the displaced Chagossians live after being barred from their homelands. “This peaceful demonstration is intended to show the discontent of the Chagossians and Mauritians at Britain’s refusal to respect the United Nations resolution… giving her six months to end the illegal occupation of Chagos,” Bancoult said. Protestors waved flags and held up placards. The UK evicted Chagossians from the archipelago between 1967 and 1973 so the US could erect a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the group. That move, and the islands’ incorporation into the British Indian Ocean Territory, was ruled “unlawful” by judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. While not legally binding, the UN vote heaped diplomatic pressure on Britain to return the territory with the General Assembly backing the resolution 116 votes to six. The UK purchased the archipelago from Mauritius for £3 million in 1965, when it was still a British colony. In 2016, Britain renewed a lease agreement with the United States for the use of Diego Garcia until 2036. Diego Garcia played a strategic role during the Cold War, and then as an airbase, including during the war in Afghanistan. Mauritius, which gained independence from Britain in 1968, maintains the islands are its own. Asked for a comment, the Foreign Office pointed to a recent ministerial statement saying: “The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. “Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the BIOT and the UK does not recognise its claim.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed to “end colonial rule” if he wins the December 12 election and accused the Conservatives of “shamefully” considering themselves above international law. “It’s clear that in refusing to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and defying the UN General Assembly and International Court of Justice, this Conservative government shamefully considers itself to be above international law,” the Labour leader said. “A Labour government will end colonial rule. “We immediately will enact our manifesto promise to allow the people of the Chagos Islands and their descendants the right to return to the lands from which they should never have been removed.”
November 22, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he stands with Hong Kong, but the unrest there is “a complicating factor” in clinching a trade deal with China.“If it weren’t for me, Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes,” Trump told Fox N…
November 22, 2019Read More
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