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The storm is traveling at 12 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
August 30, 2019Read More
Australia downgraded the Great Barrier Reef’s long-term outlook to “very poor” for the first time on Friday, as the world heritage site struggles with “escalating” climate change. In its latest five-yearly report on the health of the world’s largest coral reef system, the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority singled out rising sea temperatures as the biggest threat to the giant organism. “The significant and large-scale impacts from record-breaking sea surface temperatures have resulted in coral reef habitat transitioning from poor to very poor condition,” the government agency said. “Climate change is escalating and is the most significant threat to the Region’s long-term outlook. “Significant global action to address climate change is critical to slowing deterioration of the Reef’s ecosystem and heritage values and supporting recovery,” it said. But the agency added that the threats to the 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) reef were “multiple, cumulative and increasing” and, in addition to warming seas, included agricultural run-off and coral-eating crown of thorns starfish. The biggest reefs in the world The agency said the outlook downgrade from “poor” in 2014 to “very poor” now reflected the greater expanse of coral deterioration across the massive reef, notably following back-to-back coral bleaching events caused by sea temperature spikes in 2016 and 2017. “The window of opportunity to improve the reef’s long-term future is now,” it said. The conservative Australian government has faced criticism from environmentalists for favouring an expansion of its massive coal mining and export industry over action to curb climate change. The United Nations had asked to receive the latest update on the reef’s health by December so that it can determine whether the site can retain its world heritage status when UNESCO next considers the issue in 2020. The reef is estimated to be worth at least $4 billion (£3.3 bn) a year to the Australian economy – serving as a magnet for tourists and emblem of the country.
August 30, 2019Read More
Chinese authorities have declined to renew the press credentials of a Beijing-based Wall Street Journal reporter, effectively expelling a journalist who extensively covered President Xi Jinping and Communist Party politics. The de facto expulsion Frid…
August 30, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — Political parties of the far right make unreliable, even disastrous, coalition partners. The history of governments that involve them, the latest of which has just collapsed in Italy, should be a warning to their mainstream rivals.The center-right Christian Democrats in the German state of Saxony would do well to pay particular attention. It’s possible they may form a minority government backed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) after an election on Sept. 1.In the last 20 years, far right parties have occasionally entered into governments or supported center-right minority administrations. Arguably, these deals have worked well in only two cases: Italy, where the Northern League held three or four portfolios in a string of governments led by Silvio Berlusconi, and Denmark, where the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party supported minority cabinets led by Anders Fogh Rasmussen.But in both these cases, the far right was kept at a certain distance from the center of power, merely getting a chance to push through some of their favorite policies.More ambitious experiments have failed miserably. In the Netherlands, a 2002 coalition that included the anti-immigrant Pim Fortuyn List only lasted 87 days, and a second attempt at cooperation, in which Geert Wilders agreed to support liberal Mark Rutte’s cabinet in 2010, fell apart spectacularly at Wilders’ initiative. Rutte never attempted a similar alliance again.In Austria in the 2000s, Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel presided over a scandal-ridden government with the far right Freedom Party (FPOe) that didn’t last a full legislative term; then, during a second iteration of the coalition, the FPOe broke apart. In 2017, Sebastian Kurz made another attempt to work with the FPOe, but it ended in a spectacular scandal earlier this year.In Finland, the nationalist Finns party got into government in 2015, only to leave the coalition in 2017 after splitting in two.Matteo Salvini deserves a place of honor on this list. The leader of Italy’s League party stabbed his coalition partners from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement in the back earlier this month. Then, when it became apparent Five Star could form an alternative government with the center-left Democratic Party, he begged them to come back, even offering their leader Luigi di Maio the prime minister’s post. I doubt, however, that they will ever want to play ball again: More likely, they will write off Salvini as Rutte wrote off Wilders.Back in 2003, Austrian political scientist Reinhard Heinisch discussed the roots of the far right’s sorry performance in public office in a paper aptly titled “Success in opposition – failure in government.”“Their nature as relatively de-institutionalized parties oriented toward charismatic personalities and as organizations seeking to maintain ‘movement character’ while engaging in spectacular forms of self-presentation is a poor match for the specific constraints of public office,” he wrote. “Populist parties frequently lack both the proper mechanisms of resolving intra-party disputes and experienced policy makers capable of translating the programmatic agenda into policy. The situation is usually exacerbated if such movements are forced into a coalition.”In one way or another, the far right parties’ failures are all ones of execution. They find it hard to implement what they preach, their charismatic leaders lack the checks and balances to prevent miscalculations, while their internal conflicts are too public and too emotional. A lack of ideological moderation translates into instability and errors of strategy. What helps these parties to win elections – the emotional connection they make with voters, the simplicity of their slogans – tends to undermine them in government.Heinisch recently remembered his old paper in connection with the Austrian and Italian far right parties’ fiascos:All this should be a warning for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in Saxony. The east German state is home to some of the most vocal AfD supporters, and the CDU faces a powerful challenge from the anti-immigrant, nationalist party.The latest polls show the CDU more or less comfortably ahead. Even if it wins, however, there is no comfortable path for it to form a majority coalition. While a straight alliance with the AfD is impossible because the CDU’s central leadership would never allow it, the two parties have close ties on the local level. Deep down, many of the CDU’s more conservative supporters sympathize with much of the AfD’s agenda. That could lead the CDU to form a minority administration that would be “tolerated” by the AfD, along the lines of Rasmussen’s Danish governments or Rutte’s 2010 experiment in the Netherlands.Usually, I’m in favor of trying to draw the far right into the political mainstream. Doing so helps to overcome radical voters’ sense of being excluded from democratic politics while educating them about the impossibility of some of the promises their favorite politicians make. But any center-right politician trying their hand at this game should be aware it has an abnormally high probability of failure: The very nature of the far right resists, if not completely precludes, success in coalition government. The CDU certainly doesn’t need a failed experiment on its hands before the 2021 general election.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at [email protected] column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
August 30, 2019Read More
The leader of the main Arab faction in parliament has shaken up Israel’s election campaign by offering to sit in a moderate coalition government — a development that would end decades of Arab political marginalization and could potentially bring down P…
August 30, 2019Read More
When Ebola spread to the eastern city of Goma in July, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak an international crisis. We look at what is being done to keep Ebola from spreading.
August 30, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — Strong and sustained global growth has enabled living standards throughout most of the world to converge on an upward course. Even throughout Africa, the world’s poorest continent, there have been drastic improvements in health, …
August 30, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — China’s ruling Communist Party will hold its most important meeting of the year in October — its first such gathering in 20 months — as the country grapples with a slowdown at home and a trade war with the U.S.The party’s Central Commi…
August 30, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Riot police cleared crowds around Hong Kong’s international airport after protesters disrupted transport, blocked roads and tried to force their way into the terminal building.The demonstration followed a night of violence in the city after tens of thousands joined an unauthorized march, which led to running battles with police who fired warning gunshots, tear gas and water cannons. The demonstrations began in June over a bill allowing extraditions to mainland China before morphing into a wider push against Beijing’s grip on the city.Embattled leader Carrie Lam last week called for talks with the opposition while refusing to rule out invoking a sweeping colonial-era law that allows for easier arrests, deportations, censorship and property seizures. The unrest in the Asian financial hub threatens to distract from China’s celebrations of the Oct. 1 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule.Key Developments:MTR Corp. said it suspended airport express train service in both directions.Riot police start clearing protesters at the airport who tried to paralyze transport to the facility.Service was suspended at various key metro stations after clashes between protesters and police spread to the public transport system.The Chinese central government earlier this summer dismissed a proposal by Chief Executive Lam to withdraw the controversial extradition bill, and ordered her not to yield to protesters’ demands, Reuters reported.Here’s the latest (all times local):Airport train service suspended (4.45 p.m.)MTR, operator of Hong Kong’s rail service, suspended its airport express train service in both directions, saying someone was trespassing on a track near the Airport Station.Riot police move in (3 p.m.)Riot police moved to disperse crowds of protesters around the airport building and in the public transport areas. Demonstrators built barricades of rubbish skips in roads into and out of the facility, and prevented buses from leaving the terminus.Crowds of people walked along the highway toward the airport after buses and train service to the facility was canceled.Airport protests (1 p.m.)Protesters vandalized turnstiles at train stations to the airport and spray-painted graffiti as crowds gathered to try to disrupt transport to the facility, where people had massed outside. MTR suspended service of express trains to the airport.Two Gunshots (Sunday 3 a.m.)antiELAB protesters outside Hong Kong’s Legislative Council officesHongKongProtests 香港 More @business: https://t.co/MmE4GkqhtD pic.twitter.com/9ZnKPDCTUA— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) August 31, 2019 Two shots were fired minutes apart shortly after 9 p.m. Hong Kong time after police found themselves surrounded by demonstrators, Yolanda Yu, a police senior superintendent, said at a briefing early Sunday morning. The officers were in serious danger, she said, adding that the shots followed repeated warnings to the demonstrators.Clashes in metro (10:45 p.m.)Riot police rushed into multiple subway stations, making a number of arrests and ordering reporters to clear out. Clashes in the transport system were reported at several stations and the metro service was suspended at key stops disrupting two of the system’s main lines. MTR, the system operator, said on its website that it was forced to suspend some service due to “disturbances” and “damage to facilities.”Clashes continue into the night (8.30 p.m.)Police baton-charged protesters and drove them off the streets with water canons as clashes continued into the night. The retreating protesters seemed to disperse only to reappear in a nearby suburb. In some clashes police were outnumbered and were forced back, with protesters hurling firebombs and other objects. Police did manage to arrest some people and loaded them into vans.Barricade bonfire (7.20 p.m.)Protesters used police barricades, and stands and fencing from a nearby park to build a huge blaze in the middle of a road in Wan Chai in the city center. Plumes of smoke filled the air as fire engines battled for access to the blaze.Police said protesters also attacked government buildings with petrol bombs.“Violent protesters continue to throw corrosives and petrol bombs on Central Government Complex, Legislative Council Complex and Police Headquarters,” police said in a statement. “Such acts pose a serious threat to everyone at the scene and breach public peace.”Blue dye fired (6 p.m.)Police sprayed what appeared to be dye at protesters outside the Legislative Council offices, leaving the streets washed in blue. A water cannon was deployed earlier to drive away the demonstrators.Tear gas fired, helicopter hovers (4 p.m.)Police fired tear gas at demonstrators outside the Legislative Council offices in Admiralty after people lobbed eggs and surrounded the building, which was barricaded. Earlier, protesters urged one another to cover their heads with umbrellas to avoid being identified as a Government Flying Service helicopter hovered over the marchers.Rex Lau, a 31-year-old lecturer, said he and others were risking everything by marching to maintain their rights as Hong Kong citizens.“Some of the people are scared of the emergency law and the arrests, and people think they might get fired for speaking out,” he said, wearing a mask and holding a black umbrella as he walked down a closed-off road in a chanting crowd of thousands.“But today, I thought if I stayed at home and didn’t come out that we would lose our rights,” he said. “If we keep silent, the government may think everything’s OK and that we have no comment about the extradition bill, about ‘one country, two systems,’ and about our elections.”Marchers defy ban (2.30 p.m.)Tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully through the streets of business and shopping districts on Hong Kong island despite a police ban. The procession wound its way through the Central neighborhood and headed to the western part of the island where the China Liaison Office is located.Yeung Sum, former chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, who joined the march, said the latest arrests would not stifle protesters’ voices.“I think the high-profile arrests are a kind of intimidating tactic adopted by the government, so that people would get fearful and not express their views. But I don’t think Hong Kong people will be intimidated,” he said.“If the government wants to stabilize society, they should give some positive response to demands made by the protesters — like Ms. Carrie Lam should resign and set up independent commission to look into the issues. And I think that would be very helpful,” Yeung said.More Arrests (11:22 p.m.)Police have arrested opposition lawmaker Au Nok-hin for allegedly obstructing an officer, the Apple Daily reported, citing Au’s office. Alvin Yeung, a pro-democracy lawmaker who heads the city’s Civic Party, said on his Facebook page that colleague Jeremy Tam had also been detained. In other developments:Now TV said Lam had canceled a September trip to the U.S. given tensions at home.Police banned a rally called for Kowloon’s Tsim Sha Tsui district on Monday and Tuesday, citing public safety concerns, an organizer said.Wong Vows to Fight (6:01 p.m.)After being released on bail, Wong and Agnes Chow, another democracy activist who was arrested, vowed to continue the fight for democracy. He also warned Chinese President Xi Jinping about using force to quash the protests.“I urge the international community to send a message to President Xi, sending troops or using emergency ordinance is not the way out,” he said.Wong, Chow Granted Bail: Ming Pao (5:05 p.m.)Wong and Agnes Chow, another democracy activist, were granted bail, Ming Pao newspaper reported, citing the presiding judge. Their hearing has been adjourned until Nov. 8.China Rejected Lam’s Concession: Reuters (2:23 p.m.)The Chinese central government earlier this summer dismissed a proposal by Chief Executive Lam to withdraw the controversial extradition bill, Reuters reported on Friday. Beijing ordered Lam not to yield to any of the protesters’ other demands at that time, the report said, citing three unidentified people with direct knowledge of the matter.\–With assistance from Natalie Lung, Annie Lee, Justin Chin and Fion Li.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at [email protected] contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at [email protected], ;Shamim Adam at [email protected], Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
August 30, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — What is the point of a primary campaign against President Donald Trump?Denying him the Republican presidential nomination in 2020 is not realistic. While some Republicans still oppose Trump, they’re a small fraction of the party….
August 30, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — As the likelihood of Britain crashing out of the European Union without a trading agreement rises, Citigroup Inc. estimates that such an event could cut domestic banks’ earnings by as much as 25%.A “no-deal exit” would curtail the revenu…
August 30, 2019Read More
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