U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired the Navy’s top civilian on Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL who was convicted of battlefield misconduct in Iraq and later won the support of President Donald Trump.

Esper also determined that the sailor in question, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, should be allowed to retain his Trident pin designating him as a SEAL – effectively ending the Navy’s efforts to carry out a peer review that could have ousted him from the elite force.

Trump, who publicly opposed taking away Gallagher’s Trident pin and had intervened in the case to restore his rank, cheered the moves.

“Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honours that he has earned, including his Trident Pin,” Trump said on Twitter.

The fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer last week suggested a possible split with Trump by telling Reuters that Gallagher should still face a peer review board.ADVERTISING

The SEAL was acquitted by a military jury in July of murdering a captured and wounded Islamic State fighter in Iraq by stabbing him in the neck, but it convicted him of illegally posing with the detainee’s corpse. That had led to his rank being reduced.

The White House said in November that Trump had restored Gallagher’s rank and had pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. Critics had said such actions would undermine military justice and send a message that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated.

In a letter published in media reports, Spencer took parting shots at Trump and defended the need to preserve “good order and discipline throughout the ranks” — something Navy officials had believed the peer review board would help ensure.

“The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries,” Spencer wrote, according to the reports.

“Unfortunately it has become apparent that in this respect, I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me.”

The Pentagon declined to immediately provide a copy of Spencer’s letter.

However, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman offered a different version of events leading up to Spencer’s dismissal, saying Spencer also had a private line of communications with the White House.

“Secretary Spencer had previously and privately proposed to the White House – contrary to Spencer’s public position – to restore Gallagher’s rank and allow him to retire with his Trident pin,” Hoffman said.

Spencer never informed Esper of his private proposal, Hoffman said.

Esper decided to ask for Spencer’s resignation after “losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House,” Hoffman said.

Esper had favored letting the review process “play itself out objectively and deliberately, in fairness to all parties,” Hoffman said. But that now appeared impossible.

“At this point, given the events of the last few days, Secretary Esper has directed that Gallagher retain his Trident pin,” Hoffman said.

Trump said he would nominate the U.S. envoy to Norway, Ken Braithwaite, to replace Spencer as Navy Secretary.

In an appearance on Fox News Channel on Sunday, Gallagher indicated that he hoped to retire next Saturday, “without the board” convening to decide whether he could continue to be a SEAL, considered among the most elite of U.S. fighting forces. 

(REUTERS)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would not resign despite being charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a corruption scandal that he denounced as an “attempted coup”.

The charges announced by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit were the first of their kind against a serving Israeli prime minister and represented the gravest crisis in the political career of Israel’s longest-serving leader.

Netanyahu, in power continuously since 2009 and before that in the 1990s, has dominated Israeli politics for a generation, decisively turning the country to the right. He has denied wrongdoing in the three graft cases, saying he is the victim of a political witch hunt.

He is under no legal obligation to resign. But the indictment could further embolden challengers trying to dislodge him after two inconclusive elections since April, with a third election expected to be announced within weeks.

Conviction on the charges could bring a lengthy jail term. But any trial could be delayed for months by the political crisis, and Netanyahu could try to secure parliamentary immunity from prosecution.ADVERTISING

His rejection of the charges echoed the pugnacious language of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump.

“It is an attempted coup based on fabrications and a tainted and biased investigative process,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech. “I will continue to lead the country, according to the letter of the law, with responsibility, devotion and concern for all of our futures,” he said, standing at a podium against the backdrop of four Israeli flags in his official residence.

His main centre-left challenger in the two elections this year, Benny Gantz, tweeted in response: “There is no coup in Israel, just a bid (by Netanyahu) to hang onto power.”

The attorney general, who was appointed by Netanyahu, spelled out the indictment in his own televised statement.

“This is a difficult and sad day,” said Mandelblit. It was his duty, Mandelblit said, to ensure that no one in Israel was above the law.

Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000

Police recommended in February that Mandelblit file criminal charges against Netanyahu in the long-running investigations dubbed Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000.

Netanyahu is suspected of wrongfully accepting $264,000 worth of gifts, including champagne and cigars, from wealthy businessmen in one case. In another, he is accused of dispensing favours in return for favourable stories about him in Israel’s biggest selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

In the most serious case, he is accused of granting regulatory favours worth about 1.8 billion shekels (about $500 million) to Israel’s leading telecoms company, Bezeq Telecom Israel, in return for positive coverage on a website owned by its former chairman.

Mandelblit indicted Netanyahu on charges of breach of trust and fraud in all three corruption cases, as well as bribery in the Bezeq Telecom case.

“They weren’t after the truth, they were after me,” Netanyahu said in his address, a note of emotion in what was otherwise a speech mixing anger with accusations.

“What I’m going through is not easy. I’m a human being, too. What my family is going through is unbearable. Every day, every evening, my blood and the blood of my wife and son are being spilled.”

Netanyahu failed to form a government after the election in April, and he and Gantz each fell short of securing a ruling majority in parliament after the second vote in September.

Earlier on Thursday, during one of the most unusual days in Israeli political history, the country’s president told lawmakers to name a third candidate to form a new government, a development that probably sets the stage for a third election within a year.

“These are harsh dark days in the annals of the State of Israel,” President Reuven Rivlin said as he announced that Gantz had not mustered enough support for a stable coalition.

The prolonged political stalemate comes at a tricky time for Israel and its most prominent statesman on the domestic and international fronts.

A conflict with arch-foe Iran has deepened – Israeli warplanes hit Iranian targets in Syria on Wednesday after rockets were fired toward Israel – while fighting with Palestinian militants in Gaza flared last week.

The introduction of criminal charges could further complicate the eventual rollout of a long-delayed Middle East peace plan from Trump, by imperilling the political future of one of the key players whose support is needed.

And if a new Israeli election is in the cards, Netanyahu would be running as an indicted suspect, displaying further vulnerability to an electorate that has already seen him falter at the polls.

Palestinians greeted the news with grim pleasure. Palestine Liberation Organization official Wasel Abu Youssef said that for years Netanyahu had sought to avoid this outcome by “launching wars against the Palestinian people” to boost his domestic popularity.

(REUTERS)

France and Germany outlined separate proposals for reforming NATO on Wednesday after President Emmanuel Macron slammed the alliance as experiencing “brain death”, causing uproar just weeks before a crucial summit.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian used the one-day meeting with his 28 NATO counterparts to explain Macron’s damning verdict and offer ideas for improvement.

Macron argued in an Economist interview that Turkey’s military incursion into Syria and US unpredictability under President Donald Trump indicated a failure of strategic thinking at NATO.

Le Drian suggested a “small group of eminent persons” be formed to reflect on “the vision the alliance has of its values and aims” and report back to leaders at their summit in 2021.

The experts should focus on NATO’s relationship with Russia and the future security challenges — in particular terrorism, the rise of China and the impact of new military technology, Le Drian told the ministers.

In a sign of the ongoing tensions with France, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who will next week confront Macron in person about his comments, refused three times to comment on the French proposal at a press conference after the meeting.

But he welcomed a separate plan from German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to create a group of experts to debate how to strengthen NATO’s political thinking.

“The proposal from minister Heiko Maas received support from many allies and I think it has value,” he said, adding that it would be examined further ahead of the December 4 summit in London.

Maas said the discussion among the 29 allies made him think Germany had “hit the right note” with its plan for a committee chaired by Stoltenberg himself.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was “eminently reasonable” for NATO to evaluate itself to ensure it was fulfilling its goals, but questioned whether “this is precisely the right moment or if this is the right format”.

– Unhappy birthday –

NATO has not had a happy 70th birthday year. Macron’s comments came alongside Trump’s insistent complaints about weak European defence spending and growing concerns about Turkey, which has bought missiles from Russia and launched a military operation in Syria with scant regard for allies.

French officials insist Macron made a bold and necessary step by starkly spelling out truths that other allies preferred to gloss over.

But Macron’s arguments that Europe should try to ensure its own security without relying on the US provoked anger from eastern European allies who feel directly threatened by Russia.

Diplomats from other countries point out that it is for now wholly unrealistic for Europe to think it can defend itself without US help — expert estimates suggest filling the gap would cost hundreds of billions of euros.

“There is currently no credible alternative to NATO. We need American capabilities,” one diplomat said.

– Summit tensions –

Away from the political wrangling, foreign ministers prepared the agenda for next month’s summit, lining up a series of announcements to put a positive gloss on the gathering.

“The damage has been done, now we have to limit the fallout to put on a united front in London,” one senior diplomat said.

They also hope that some eye-catching actions will appease the mercurial US president, who will arrive at the summit under the cloud of impeachment hearings back home.

The ministers formally designated space as a domain of conflict — alongside land, sea, air and cyber — though Stoltenberg insisted NATO would not “weaponise” space.

They also signed off a report on China featuring some 24 different areas for allies to work on, though the paper will not be made public.

While China lies well outside NATO’s traditional European-Atlantic sphere, Stoltenberg said Beijing’s growing role as a major military power and heavy investment in new defence technology had implications for alliance security.

He declined to comment directly on the ongoing political protests in Hong Kong but said it was clear China does not “share our values when it comes to elections, freedom of speech”.

Trump’s bugbear — European defence spending — will also feature heavily in London.

NATO will be hoping Germany’s announcement last week of a boost for its military spending will go some way to head off a repeat of the 2018 Brussels summit, when Trump publicly berated Chancellor Angela Merkel for not doing enough on defence.

Source: AFP

At least seven people were shot Thursday morning at a US high school near Los Angeles, California, prompting a massive response from police and paramedics, authorities said.

Police and firefighters responded to Saugus High School, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Los Angeles.

Details about the victims’ conditions were not immediately available.The search continues for the shooter.

Saugus High School was on lockdown due to the incident, as were nearby Rosedell and Highland elementary schools.

Aerial video showed student with hands raised being escorted by officers from the school of about 2,300 students. At least two ambulances have left the campus with victims. 

Source: Presstv

Australian officials ordered people in several communities, including a major tourist destination, to evacuate immediately on Wednesday as firefighters struggled to contain more than 150 bush fires raging across the east coast.

While cooler weather overnight brought some relief for firefighters in New South Wales (NSW) state, attention shifted to its northern neighbor, Queensland, where hot, dry and windy conditions brought severe fire danger.

Authorities issued a “leave immediately” warning, the highest level, for several areas including Noosa, a beachside holiday destination 150 km north of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland.

“Conditions are now very dangerous and firefighters may soon be unable to prevent the fire advancing,” Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) said. “The fire may pose a threat to all lives directly in its path.”

Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington told Reuters many of the residents in the affected north, accessible only by ferry or via the beach, had got out this week.

But he added that winds were picking up, making things particularly tricky. “There are plenty of crews battling the fire, including two helicopters,” he said.

The blaze in Noosa is one of more than 80 fires across Queensland, leaving firefighters stretched.

QFES said one of its water-bombing helicopters crashed while battling a fire in Pechey, west of Brisbane, though the pilot escaped with minor injuries.

Bushfires are common in Australia’s hot, dry summers, but the ferocity and early arrival of the fires in the southern spring this year has caught many by surprise.

The blazes have claimed three lives and destroyed about 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of farmland and bush, fueled by extremely dry conditions after three years of drought, which experts say has been exacerbated by climate change.

‘Out of water’

The hot and windy conditions are set to spike again next week.

“We will not have all these fires contained before then,” NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney. “We will not have all these fires contained and locked up for many, many weeks.”

“Unfortunately, what we need is rain … and there is certainly nothing in the forecast for the foreseeable future that’s going to make any discernible difference to the conditions.”

Some 300 homes have been destroyed in NSW in recent days, Fitzsimmons said, as flames stretched from the state’s north coast to within meters of homes in Greater Sydney.

No deaths were reported on Tuesday as warning systems and evacuation plans appeared to save lives in the face of what officials said was the greatest threat in at least a decade.

“It was just chewing up everything,” Karen Weston told Australian Broadcasting Corp from an evacuation center of a fire near Taree on the mid-north coast. “I’ve survived two other bushfires before this but never anything like this.”

Academy award winning actor Russell Crowe tweeted photos and video footage on Wednesday of firefighters using helicopters to waterbomb his property near Nana Glen, an rural community some 580 km (360 miles) north of Sydney.

Crowe said the property had “lost a couple of buildings”, some fires were still burning and “we are out of water”.

The fires have sparked increasingly acrimonious debate over climate and fire-prevention policies, with the ruling conservative Liberal Party and the minor opposition Australian Greens exchanging barbs.

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was among those who have suggested that climate activists were at least partly responsible for the fires by lobbying to reduce so-called back burns, fires deliberately lit to clear dry undergrowth.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, meanwhile, said linking the fires to the government’s support of the coal industry was “the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has declined to comment on climate change during the crisis, has called for moderation in the debate.

(Source: Reuters)

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was admitted to an Atlanta hospital on Monday for a procedure to relieve brain pressure from bleeding caused by recent falls, the Carter Center said in a statement.

Carter, 95, the country’s oldest living president, was admitted to Emory University Hospital three weeks after suffering a minor pelvic fracture in a fall at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was released from the hospital a few days after that accident.

A previous fall earlier in October required stitches to Carter’s face, but he resumed work soon after on a homebuilding project for the nonprofit group Habitat for Humanity.

In May, the former Democratic president broke his hip, also at home, requiring him to undergo surgery.. He was hospitalised briefly in 2017 for dehydration and was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2015.

No information was immediately provided about the circumstances leading to his latest hospitalisation.

The procedure to relieve pressure on his brain was scheduled for Tuesday morning, the Carter Center said, adding that he was “resting comfortably,” and that his wife, Rosalynn, 92, was with him.

Carter, a former peanut farmer and Georgia governor, defeated Republican President Gerald Ford in 1976 to become the nation’s 39th president, serving a single four-year term in the White House.

His presidency was overshadowed by an economic recession, an energy crisis and the taking of U.S. hostages by Iran, but he also played a leading role in brokering the Camp David Accords leading to an Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

He lost his 1980 re-election bid to Republican Ronald Reagan.

After leaving office in 1981, Carter went on to become an international fixture and a noted humanitarian. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts toward finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights, and promoting economic and social development.

He and his wife founded the Carter Center in 1982 to carry on their international and humanitarian work.

Carter has lived longer after leaving the White House than any former president in U.S. history. 

(REUTERS)

Brazil’s leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left prison on Friday after a judge ordered his release, startling financial markets and reigniting both ends of the political spectrum with calls for demonstrations in coming days.

As he walked out of jail, Lula raised a defiant fist of victory in the air to the cheers of a crowd of supporters and members of his Workers Party who waved red flags and held “Free Lula” banners.

His release is expected to further polarize a country that elected far-right President Jair Bolsonaro last year to stop the Workers Party from returning to power after a 14-year run.

Investors were jolted by the prospect of Lula returning to the political stage and uniting opposition to the market-friendly government, although he is barred from running in upcoming elections.

Brazil’s currency and benchmark Bovespa stock index both fell 1.8% on Friday, weighed down first by a Supreme Court ruling paving the way for Lula’s release and deepening losses after the formal court order letting him go.

In his first speech to supporters waiting for him to walk free, Lula vowed to fight to establish his innocence and excoriated what he called the “rotten side of the judicial system” for “working to criminalize the left.”

The federal judge’s order freeing Lula followed a Supreme Court ruling late on Thursday ending the mandatory imprisonment of convicted criminals after they lose their first appeal.

The politically charged ruling is expected to free scores of high-profile convicts in the so-called “Car Wash” investigation of public corruption, including Lula, as the former president is known, who had been behind bars for a bribery conviction.

Lula was imprisoned in 2018 for eight years and 10 months after being found guilty of taking bribes from engineering firms in return for public contracts. He has maintained his innocence and said the case against him was politically motivated.

While Lula had fought to overturn the sentence, many urged the Supreme Court to overturn a prior ruling that convicts, including the former president, must do prison time before exhausting their appeals. On Thursday, the top court voted 6-5 that the precedent was in fact unconstitutional.

Following the Supreme Court decision, Lula’s lawyer, Cristiano Zanin, was quick to request his release from a cell in federal police headquarters in the southern city of Curitiba.

Lula and his supporters have also criticized the fact that Sergio Moro, a former federal judge who oversaw the Car Wash probe and convicted Lula, accepted an invitation to become the justice minister of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime foe of Lula and key rival in last year’s election.

Moro said in a statement earlier on Friday that the top court’s decision must be respected, and lawmakers can now change the constitution to make prison time mandatory after a first failed appeal.

(Source: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to congress in which he expressed his administration’s decision to terminate the designation of La Republique du Cameroun as a beneficiary nation under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Below is the full text:

In accordance with section 506A(a)(3)(B) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2466a(a)(3)(B)), I am providing notice of my intent to terminate the designation of the Republic of Cameroon (Cameroon) as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

I am taking this step because I have determined that the Government of Cameroon currently engages in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, contravening the eligibility requirements of section 104 of the AGOA.

Despite intensive engagement between the United States and the Government of Cameroon, Cameroon has failed to address concerns regarding persistent human rights violations being committed by Cameroonian security forces.  These violations include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and unlawful detention, and torture.

Accordingly, I intend to terminate the designation of Cameroon as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country under the AGOA as of January 1, 2020.  I will continue to assess whether the Government of Cameroon engages in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, in accordance with the AGOA eligibility requirements.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 31, 2019.

US President Donald Trump was greeted with boos and a smattering of chants of ‘Lock him up!’ when he appeared on screen at the World Series in Washington on Sunday (October 27), even as he celebrated one of the biggest wins of his administration.

Trump appeared on a display screen at the Washington Nationals Park stadium between innings of the Game 5 match-up between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros.

The president, along with First Lady Melania Trump and several lawmakers, appeared live on the screen as part of a video package thanking US troops for their service.

The hometown crowd cheered fans and soldiers displayed earlier on the screen, but there were boos and isolated ‘Lock him up’ chants when Trump appeared.

(Source:Reuters)

Syrian troops reached a key area near Turkey’s border Saturday after sending further reinforcements to the region, in what a war monitor said was its largest deployment there in years.

Syrian regime forces entered the provincial borders of the town of Ras al-Ain, state news agency SANA said.

The regime forces entered the area, which was taken by Turkish forces following a weeks-long offensive against Syria’s Kurds.

Troops also deployed along a road stretching some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the frontier, SANA added.

Turkey and its Syrian proxies on October 9 launched a cross-border attack against Kurdish-held areas, grabbing a 120-kilometre-long (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier.

The incursion left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee their homes, in the latest humanitarian crisis in Syria’s brutal eight-year war.

This week, Turkey and Russia struck a deal in Sochi for more Kurdish forces to withdraw from the frontier on both sides of that Turkish-held area under the supervision of Russian and Syrian forces.

On Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 2,000 Syrian troops and hundreds of military vehicles were deploying around what Turkey calls its “safe zone”.

In the army’s “largest deployment” in the area in years, regime forces were being accompanied by Russia military police, the Observatory said.

Moscow has said 300 Russian military police had arrived in Syria to help ensure Kurdish forces withdraw to a line 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border in keeping with Tuesday’s agreement.

Despite Saturday’s deployment, the Observatory said that Kurdish fighters and Ankara’s Syrian proxies traded artillery fire in the region.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Under the Sochi deal, Kurdish forces have until late Tuesday to withdraw from border areas at either end of the Turkish-held area, before joint Turkish-Russian start patrols in a 10-kilometre (six-mile) strip there.

Ankara eventually wants to set up a buffer zone on Syrian soil along the entire length of its 440-kilometre-long border, including to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has objected to some provisions of the Sochi agreement and it has so far maintained several border posts.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Saturday that Ankara would “clear terrorists” on its border if the Kurdish forces, which his country view as an offshoot of its own banned insurgency, did not withdraw by the deadline.

Source: AFP