Surrendeing ISIS men tell me, they were just cooks, cleaners and bottlewashers. I said "with so many cooks you must have had great food." Got No laughs. pic.twitter.com/kecsaZ3L9Y
World map showing percentage of seats held by women in parliament by country in 2018, and selected countries 1990 and 2018 @AFPgraphicspic.twitter.com/Tb8oiUDvQE
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) March 7, 2019
Friday marks five years since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared, and there's still no sign of the plane or the 239 people aboard. - @TODAYshowhttps://t.co/sMuttEg6C3
Warships sink. Bases burn. F-35s die on the runway. Can $24 billion a year -- 3.3 % of the Pentagon budget -- fix the problem?
WASHINGTON: The US keeps losing, hard, in simulated wars with Russia and China. Bases burn. Warships sink. But we could fix the problem for about $24 billion a year, one well-connected expert said, less than four percent of the Pentagon budget.
"In our games, when we fight Russia and China," RAND analyst David Ochmanek said this afternoon, "blue gets its ass handed to it." In other words, in RAND's wargames, which are often sponsored by the Pentagon, the US forces — colored blue on wargame maps — suffer heavy losses in one scenario after another and still can't stop Russia or China — red — from achieving their objectives, like overrunning US allies.
No, it's not a Red Dawn nightmare scenario where the Commies conquer Colorado. But losing the Baltics or Taiwan would shatter American alliances, shock the global economy, and topple the world order the US has led since World War II.
As the Islamic State's physical caliphate shrinks to nothing after an almost five-year campaign led by U.S. special operations forces, military insiders say one small unit has killed more of the extremists than any other: the company of Gray Eagle drones in the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
Although the military has thrown a cloak of secrecy over its operations, the unit — officially called E (or "Echo") Company of the regiment's Second Battalion and established less than a decade ago — is increasingly being lauded in special operations and Army aviation circles.
"They are doing the most killing of anyone in the national mission force," said a former 160th officer, referring to Joint Special Operations Command, which runs counterterrorism task forces in Afghanistan, and does battle against the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and the Horn of Africa. "They're out there doing the nation's bidding in a ferocious way."
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) prepares for flight operations in the Arabian Gulf. Carl Vinson is deployed in the U.S. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Alex King)
The U.S. military is turning to allies in the Middle East to fill gaps when Navy aircraft carriers can't make it out to the region, a top general said Thursday.
Army Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, told lawmakers that his command can't always get an aircraft carrier into the region when they'd like to. His response comes as Pentagon leaders are reportedly considering retiring one of its 11 aircraft carriers -- the Harry S. Truman -- early.
"We had to work solutions that included other platforms and other coalition partners to help meet those requirements," Votel said Thursday during a House Armed Services committee hearing.
From Wikipedia: The Thousand Plane Raid (aka The One Thousand Plane Raid[2]) is a 1969 film directed by Boris Sagal. It stars Christopher George and Laraine Stephens.[3] Although claimed to be derived from Ralph Barker's The Thousand Plane Raid, the storyline inaccurately portrays the first raid as an 8th Air Force mission while the actual attack was undertaken by 1,047 Royal Air Force bombers against the city of Cologne, Germany in May 1942.
Lying about facts to de-escalate tension in Kashmir is a playbook they've both used before.
In May 1999, New Delhi discovered that Pakistani intruders had seized Himalayan posts in Kargil, part of Indian-controlled Kashmir. Initially, the Indian government believed that these infiltrators were scruffy mujahideen when in fact they were paramilitary soldiers, officered by Pakistan's army. Curiously, India publicly maintained the fiction that they were militants well after their identity was discovered. Counterintuitively, the falsehood facilitated a de-escalation of a conflict that had already become a limited war.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's power supply remained patchy on Friday after the worst blackout in decades paralyzed most of the country, exacerbating hardship for millions of people already suffering from hyperinflation and widespread shortages of basic goods.
Power went out across the recession-stricken country on Thursday afternoon due to a problem at Venezuela's main hydroelectric plant, the government said, calling the event an act of "sabotage" by ideological adversaries.
Power returned to some parts of the capital of Caracas during the afternoon but quickly cut out again, according to witnesses and local media, threatening to extend what is already the longest blackout under 20 years of socialist leadership.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a working dinner meeting at the NATO headquarters during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. Matt Dunham/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
* 'Cost Plus 50' plan could worsen tensions with key allies * Frustration over spending by NATO countries behind proposal
For years, President Donald Trump has complained that countries hosting American troops aren't paying enough. Now he wants to get even, and then some.
Under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil -- plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them, according to a dozen administration officials and people briefed on the matter.
In some cases, nations hosting American forces could be asked to pay five to six times as much as they do now under the "Cost Plus 50" formula.
Trump has championed the idea for months. His insistence on it almost derailed recent talks with South Korea over the status of 28,000 U.S. troops in the country when he overruled his negotiators with a note to National Security Adviser John Bolton saying, "We want cost plus 50."
Authorities make arrests and seize assets linked to militants in response to Kashmir attack.
Pakistan has launched a crackdown on jihadist groups that it claims is more resolute than those of previous governments, who felt "no urgency" to fight organisations that were targeting India, a senior minister has said.
More than 120 people have been taken into administrative detention and at least 200 schools, seminaries and hospitals have been seized by the government this week as part of a campaign against banned Islamist organisations.
The arrests and asset seizures, the most sweeping in years, targeted Islamic schools and charities considered fronts for United Nations-blacklisted militant groups that have operated with near impunity in the country.
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gestures as he addresses his supporters via a screen during last day of Ashura, in Beirut, Lebanon September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will not follow Britain's lead in declaring Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization, a senior official was quoted as saying on Friday, a decision that may fuel tensions with Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Minister of State Niels Annen told weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that the Shi'ite Muslim Islamist movement remained a relevant factor in Lebanese society and the European Union had already added its military wing to a list of proscribed groups in 2013.
Britain last month said it would ban all wings of Hezbollah for destabilizing the Middle East.
Long the most powerful group in Lebanon, Hezbollah's influence has expanded at home and in the region. It controls three of 30 ministries in the government led by Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, the largest number ever.
Tens of thousands of people are marching in the Algerian capital, Algiers, in the latest protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The demonstrations - now in their third week - were triggered by the ailing president's decision to seek re-election for a fifth term in April.
Mr Bouteflika has ruled Algeria for 20 years but has rarely been seen in public since he had a stroke in 2013.
He has warned that the protests could plunge the country into "chaos".
In a letter published by Algeria's official APS news agency on Thursday, the 82-year-old leader urged "vigilance" against "domestic and foreign" forces that might infiltrate the demonstrations.
But he also praised the demonstrators for "peacefully expressing their opinions".
EL PASO - They came in pairs, by the dozens, hundreds. In one group, as many as 400 migrants crossed the border here in a single, massive group.
Many are families. And some would soon sleep for the first time on U.S. soil -- but out in the open, under the stars because federal agents are having a difficult time processing them and getting them to shelter.
"What's we're seeing is something I haven't seen in at least 10 years," said Joe Romero, a veteran U.S. Border Patrol agent. And yet, when asked whether he was witnessing an emergency on the border, Romero paused and kept his eyes on the road. He and his partner drove slowly Wednesday in the shadow of a fence, long stretches of it lined with migrants waiting to be transported to begin the process of seeking asylum. The migrants stood restless, exhausted, most with children, stuck between the Rio Grande where the U.S. begins and a fence that runs along the river yards away from it, designed to keep them out.
China's export effort appears to have finally cracked under sustained pressure from US tariffs and a slowdown in global trade.
Exports in US dollar terms fell 20.7 per cent in February, far worse than a 5 per cent drop the market had forecast.
Imports fell by 5.2 per cent, which was also far weaker than expected.
The collapse in both domestic and external demand is bad news for Australian exporters relying on China, and the region, as their most lucrative source of income.
China's overall trade surplus for the month came to $US4.1 billion — wafer thin by its usual standards, and far narrower than the almost $US30 billion forecast.
LONDON (Reuters) - Campaigners for gender equality marked International Women's Day on Friday with protests, discussion panels and walkouts as well as celebrations.
In one of the first protests of the day, several hundred women gathered in central Madrid around midnight to bang pots and pans and demand more rights for women in a society they say is still dominated by men.
Gender inequality has become a deeply divisive issue in Spain ahead of its April 28 parliamentary election. A new far-right party, Vox, which opinion polls show winning seats, has called for the scrapping of a landmark law on gender violence.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is running out of time to avert a showdown with the United States over its plans to buy advanced Russian air defenses and spurn a counter-offer from its NATO partner, raising the chance of U.S. sanctions against Ankara.
The last diplomatic crisis between the two countries contributed to driving the lira to a record low in August. Disputes over strategy in Syria, Iran sanctions and the detention of U.S. consular staff remain unresolved, and the issue of missile defense threatens to widen the rift again.
This week, despite the Central Bank maintaining interest rates well above inflation, Turkey's currency has fallen 1.5 percent - largely due to renewed concerns over relations with Washington, traders say.
At a post-summit news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin last July in Helsinki, President Trump did not once mention Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Nor did he point to its military support of pro-Russian secessionists in eastern Ukraine.
If Trump's aim was to avoid confrontation with a superpower whose nuclear arsenal rivals that of the U.S., or more personally, not to to antagonize an iron-fisted ruler who may or may not have damning information to spill on Trump, his top military commander in Europe does not seem to have gotten the memo.
Appearing this week before the Senate Armed Services Committee, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti sounded an alarm about Russia's aims in the lands west of its border with Europe.
"Russia is a long-term, strategic competitor that wants to advance its own objectives at the expense of U.S. prosperity and security," Scaparrotti, who also leads the U.S. European Command, told the panel.
WNU Editor: U.S. NATO Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti has always been a hawk when it comes to Russia, and he did not disappoint in his testimony this week.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela shut schools and suspended working hours on Friday after the capital Caracas and other major cities awoke without electricity for a second day due to a problem that struck the South American country's main hydroelectric plant.
Much of Venezuela had no electricity since Thursday afternoon due to problems at the Guri dam plant, in a long blackout that affected the telephone network and the metro service in Caracas.
President Nicolas Maduro "has suspended classes and the working day today in order to facilitate the efforts for the recovery of electric service in the country," wrote Vice President Delcy Rodríguez on her Twitter account.
WNU Editor: Internet and phone services have also been disrupted. And food-stocks being spoiled .... a frightful possibility. It is also an ominous sign that they have not restored power by now. A major transmission line can be quickly replaced and power restored. But if the problem is at this massive power plant .... I can only imagine what the worse case scenario must look like. Bottom line. If this continues for a few more days, the push against the Maduro government will intensify to a level not seen since the start of the protest movement against his regime. Even Maduro's supporters need electricity to survive.
More News On Venezuela's Massive Power Blackout Entering Its Second Day
Chinese law requires internet cafes to record the identities and 'relevant' online activity of users, and provide them to the public security bureau on request
* Database discovered by Dutch security researcher contains about 364m records * Shows info linked to online accounts, including GPS location, file transfers, chats * Chinese law requires internet cafes to record identities 'relevant' online activity
A leak of around 364 million online records in a Chinese database, including private messages and ID numbers, has again highlighted the size and scope of Beijing's mass surveillance system.
The files show a wealth of information linked to online accounts, including GPS locations, file transfers, and chat logs, according to the database discovered by Victor Gevers, a security researcher at Dutch non-profit GDI Foundation.
The data collection appears indiscriminate -- some conversations are simply banter between teenagers, like one commenting on someone's weight and clothing size.
* YouTuber atomcentral uploaded the video featuring restored HD footage from the Federal Civil Defense Administration's 1953 Nevada bomb tests on Tuesday * The series of clips show the effects of nuclear blasts on random objects * The heat from the explosions strips the paint off two old sedans and a school bus before the shock wave from the blasts blows all the automobiles away * Another clip shows a tent bursting into flames before being obliterated
Incredible footage shows the astonishing impact of a nuclear bomb blast up close and in high definition.
Newly-restored video clips from nuclear tests conducted in Nevada more than 60 years ago shows how the terrifying power of a 15-kiloton Grable bomb blast can strip the paint off cars.
YouTuber atomcentral shared footage from the Federal Civil Defense Administration's Upshot-Knothole nuclear test series.
The experimental atomic explosions were carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada test site in southeastern Nye County from March 17 to June 4 in 1953.
WNU Editor: I have only met three people who witnessed what an above ground nuclear test looks like, and all three of them said the same thing to me. The flash, the huge fireball that formed, and even though they were miles away from the detonation, feeling the heat on their face and exposed skin.
Putin is no longer immune from responsibility for the economic malaise besetting the country he leads.
The Russian public's trust in the institution of the presidency went down significantly between 2017 and 2019, as did, to a somewhat lesser extent, trust in the Federal Security Service (FSB, successor to the KGB).
Trust in the military remains strong. Still, these three agencies, in the order of the presidency, the army, and the security agency, remain Russians' most trusted institutions, new survey data published by the independent polling organization Levada revealed on Monday.
But as Vladimir Putin enters the second year of his fourth and possibly last term as president, how the Russian state will respond to the loss of public support becomes a matter of high salience.
WNU Editor: There are a few points where I disagree with the above analysis. Officially the stats show the Russian economy is stagnant, and that personal incomes are falling. Unofficially .... the story is different. There is full employment, and the boom of small private businesses that are not fully taken into account in official government statistics continues. On my last visit to Russia a few months ago I was astounded on how big this underground economy has become, and how the middle class was embracing it to earn extra income. The downside are the hours. People are working more, but as long as the government stays away from taxing and regulating this new wealth, people will be content. As for those who have not embraced this new economy .... opposition to Russian President Putin and his government is growing. As to the above commentator's remarks that public trust in the Kremlin is declining .... I totally agree. Public trust is low, but people are giving Putin some leeway. He announced that he was going to retire, and as long as he sticks to his word and the constitution he is been given a pass. On a side note. I do support the Kremlin's economic and financial policies. The budget is in a surplus, Russia's foreign exchange reserves are one of the highest in the world, its gold stockpile is also huge, and the oil and gas business is booming, even with competition from U.S. oil and gas frackers.
(CARACAS, Venezuela) — Hospitals struggled to get back-up generators running, businesses shuttered and families anxiously tried to contact loved ones amid Venezuela’s worst-ever power outage Friday, raising tensions in a country already on edge from ongoing political turmoil.
Much of the nation of 31 million people was still without electricity as the blackout stretched into a second day and patience began to wear thin.
“This has never happened before,” a frustrated Orlando Roa, 54, said, decrying President Nicolas Maduro’s administration for failing to maintain the electrical system and letting qualified engineers leave the country. “This is the fault of the government.”
The blackout was reported to have hit 22 of 23 states, striking during the peak of evening rush hour Thursday, sending thousands of people on long nighttime treks home through some of the world’s most violent streets. Maduro ordered schools and all government entities closed and told businesses not to open to facilitate work crews trying to restore power.
By early Friday afternoon, residents and pro-government state broadcaster VTV reported that power was starting to return to parts of Caracas. The stoplights in several neighborhoods were back on while in one office building the electricity flickered to life and then turned off.
Venezuela’s socialist government blamed the power failure on right-wing extremists taking orders from the United States, including Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, and said they were intent on causing pandemonium for several days but offered no proof.
“The electricity war declared and directed by the imperialist United States against our people will be overcome!” President Nicolas Maduro wrote on Twitter in his few public remarks on the outage. “No one can defeat the people of Bolivar and Chavez. Maximum unity patriots!”
La guerra eléctrica anunciada y dirigida por el imperialismo estadounidense en contra de nuestro pueblo será derrotada. Nada ni nadie podrá vencer al pueblo de Bolívar y Chávez. ¡Máxima unidad de los patriotas!
Mi total respaldo a todo el personal del Sistema Eléctrico Nacional que mantienen un intenso trabajo para recuperar el servicio. Admiro al pueblo venezolano que resiste con gallardía este nuevo ataque de los enemigos de la Patria. ¡Venceremos!
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shot back saying only Maduro was to blame.
“Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness,” Pompeo wrote on social media. “No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.”
The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. It’s not because of Colombia. It’s not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime’s incompetence.
The outage comes as Venezuela is in the throes of a political struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of congress who declared himself the nation’s rightful president in January and is recognized by the United States and about 50 other nations.
Without power to charge cell phones, normally hyper-active social media was eerily quiet. Those who managed to get a signal used the hashtag #SinLuz — meaning without light in English — to share images of cities throughout the country that on Friday resembled ghost towns.
One user posted a video of a nurse manually pumping air into the lungs of an infant. Others posted photos of long lines of cars queuing up at gas stations in hopes of getting fuel. A man anguished that he’d gone 17 hours without hearing from his mother.
“What impotence!” he lamented.
Netblocks, a non-government group based in Europe that monitors internet censorship, said online connectivity data indicates the outage is the largest in recent record in Latin America. The observatory warned Friday that some of the remaining networks were starting to fall offline as generators and backups began depleting and cell towers shut down.
The director of CODEVIDA, a coalition of Venezuelan health advocacy groups, reported that thousands of dialysis patients were going without treatment as a result of the blackout. While some hospitals were able to rely on back-up power sources, others were dark.
At the maternity ward at the Avila Clinic in wealthy eastern Caracas Thursday night, several mothers wept as nurses held candles to monitor the vital signs of premature babies in incubators.
Zaida Rodriguez, 40, a cardiovascular technician, walked several miles to the private clinic where she works only to be told by bosses that she should leave because the facility would treat only urgent cases and operate with a skeleton staff in order to save on power.
“How is it possible for an oil country like ours to be without an emergency backup in place for these types of situations?” she asked. “This is pathetic.”
Venezuela’s electrical system was once the envy of Latin America but it has fallen into disrepair after years of poor maintenance and mismanagement. High-ranking officials have been accused in U.S. court proceedings of looting government money earmarked for the electrical system.
While intermittent outages have become regular occurrences in Venezuela of late, rarely have so many states simultaneously been without power for such an extended period. Until now, Caracas had largely been spared the worst of a collapse in the nation’s grid.
The government keeps home power bills exceptionally low — just a couple dollars a month — relying heavily on subsidies from the Maduro administration, which is under increasing financial duress.
The nation is experiencing hyperinflation projected to reach a mind-boggling 10 million percent this year, is grappling with food and medical shortages, and has lost about 10 percent of its population to migration in the past few years — including many with valuable energy expertise. Venezuela’s economic woes are likely to increase as U.S. sanctions against its oil industry kick in.
State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on an act of “sabotage” at the Guri Dam, one of the world’s largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela’s electrical grid. Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez described it as a “cyber” attack intended to derail the whole system. He said electricity in Venezuela’s eastern region had been restored within hours.
Hoy declaran que el apagón, de más de 15 horas, es producto de un saboteo externo.
Saboteo es la corrupción, saboteo es que no permitieron elecciones, saboteo es que bloquearon la entrada de comida y medicinas.
“What’s the intention?” he said. “To submit the Venezuelan people to various days without electricity to attack, to mistreat, so that vital areas would be without power.”
Pro-government officials often blame outages on Venezuela’s opposition, accusing them of attacking power substations with Molotov cocktails, though they rarely provide any evidence.
Guaido did a survey of Caracas Friday to evaluate the impact of the blackout, blaming Maduro for the sorry state of affairs and looking to capitalize on what some decried as a sign of Venezuela’s newfound status as a “failed state” even though it sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves.
“It’s clear who is responsible for this disaster,” he said, renewing his call for Venezuelans to take to the streets Saturday in protest. “They keep making excuses, they keep looking for scapegoats, when corruption, calamity are what have caused this situation.”
Rubio, who has been driving the Trump administration’s confrontational stance toward Maduro, seemed to relish Rodriguez’s accusations that he was somehow to blame for the power crisis.
“My apologies to people of Venezuela,” the Florida Republican said in a message on Twitter. “I must have pressed the wrong thing on the ‘electronic attack’ app I downloaded from Apple. My bad.”
Tonight the “Baghdad Bob” of #Caracas@jorgerpsuv revealed I caused the nationwide & ongoing electric power outage in #Venezuela.
My apologies to people of Venezuela. I must have pressed the wrong thing on the “electronic attack” app I downloaded from Apple. My bad. https://t.co/5oZURMSnrB
The blackout snarled traffic amid confusion generated by blackened stoplights; the subway in Caracas broke down; and there were reports that a flight Thursday from neighboring Colombia was turned back because the Caracas airport’s backup generators failed, leaving customs officials without the ability to screen those arriving.
A video posted online of the Caracas airport showed angry passengers waiting in front of check-in counters in the dark Thursday demanding to be let on planes.
“Flight! Flight! Flight!” they cried out.
As the blackout wore on, Venezuelans already struggling to put food on the table worried the little they have would get spoiled in fridges without power. Business owners griped over losses that were certain to compound their already bleak economic outlook.
“The only thing left for me to do is wait for the light to return,” said Jose Rodriguez, 51, the owner of a small restaurant in Caracas. “Today will be a lost day for me.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied any impropriety in relation to a political scandal that has divided his government and threatened his political future, blaming an “erosion of trust” for the controversy.
Appearing on Canadian television on Thursday to defend his actions to the nation, Trudeau said he had “taken and will continue to take many lessons from these recent days and weeks” but didn’t apologize.
The scandal embroiling Trudeau, who was elected on a platform of transparency, erupted a month ago when Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail published an explosive story that said the Office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was being accused of interfering in a corruption case against a prominent engineering company. Trudeau argued that he and his aides had not acted inappropriately but had instead moved to preserve Canadian jobs.
In the past weeks, two cabinet members – Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former minister of justice and attorney general, and Jane Philpot, the treasury board president – spoke out against the office’s conduct and announced their resignations.
Canada is facing an election next fall, and it remains uncertain whether Trudeau will keep his seat – and whether his party will maintain parliamentary control. Trudeau has denied interfering in the legal case, and has maintained that he spoke to the cabinet member Wilson-Raybould about it because he was worried that the country could lose thousands of jobs.
To better understand the scandal, TIME spoke to two experts on Canadian politics: Daniel Béland, the director of McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, David Moscrop, a political theorist from the University of Ottawa.
Here’s what you need to know about the scandal the could change the course of the next Canadian federal election.
What’s the scandal?
Justin Trudeau and his aides have been accused of putting pressure on a cabinet member to stop pursuing a legal case against a Quebec engineering company, SNC-Lavalin.
Jody Wilson-Raybould, who held the joint cabinet position of minister of justice and attorney general, has said that in fall 2018, she was pressured to let go of a case against SNC-Lavalin. The company is facing corruption charges for giving Libyan officials US$38 million to secure contracts, according to the BBC.
“The story is really about potential interference with the rule of law, the role of the attorney general,” says Béland.
Wilson-Raybould was later moved to a new position as the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, the CBC reported on Jan. 14. She resigned less than a month later.
About two weeks after she resigned, Wilson-Raybould testified before the House of Commons justice committee, accusing Trudeau and his aids of trying to interfere in the judicial system.
“I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere,” she said during her Feb. 27 testimony, adding that she felt that she had faced “veiled threats.”
A second cabinet minister, Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, resigned in protest of the treatment of Wilson-Raybould. In a letter, she cited having “serious concerns” about interference in the judicial system, according to the BBC.
One of Trudeau’s aides, former principal secretary Gerald Butts, also resigned during the scandal. In an address to the House of Commons justice committee on Wednesday, he denied that Trudeau had ever pressured Wilson-Raybould, but had instead requested that she take the potential job losses that could result from the case into consideration.
“We felt that outside advice was appropriate because of the extraordinary circumstances,” Butts said, according to Bloomberg. “We also made clear that if the attorney general accepted our proposal and took external advice, she was equally free to reject that advice.”
How has Trudeau responded?
Trudeau has denied inappropriately pressuring Wilson-Raybould. He has argued that the government felt concerned that the country could lose 9,000 jobs if the company, SNC-Lavalin wasn’t offered a remediation agreement, according to Canadian news magazine Maclean’s.
Trudeau canceled public events this week in the wake of the scandal and returned to Ottawa for private meetings, The Globe and Mail reported.
Trudeau’s support of the Quebec-based company has been applauded in the province.
“I and my staff always acted appropriately and professionally,” he said in Montreal on Wednesday. “Our government will always focus on jobs and our economy.”
In a nationally televised news conference on Thursday, he said that there had been an “erosion of trust” between his office, Wilson-Raybould and Philpott, according to a translation by Maclean’s.
“It is our job as parliamentarians to defend the interests of the communities we were elected to represent,” Trudeau said during the conference. “To be the voice of those communities in Ottawa. I stressed the importance of protecting Canadian jobs and re-iterated that this issue was one of significant national importance.”
Why is this a big deal?
In Béland’s view, the scandal stands out because Canada has relatively few corruption scandals. It is perceived by experts as the 9th most transparent country in the world, according to Transparency International.
“The threshold of tolerance is lower because we have higher standards for our country,” says Béland. “We demand a lot from officials, and we need to make sure that the justice is independent.”
Since his campaign, Trudeau has built a reputation as a reformer in Canadian politics, who supports political openness, indigenous rights and feminism. The scandal may have irrevocably damaged that image, says Moscrop.
In Canada, it’s very unusual both for lawmakers to speak out against a prime minister who belongs to their own political party, and for two cabinet members to resign in protest, says Moscrop.
At the same time, Moscrop says it doesn’t appear that Trudeau broke the law. While the Conservative party has pressed the RCMP- the Canadian police – to investigate the case, Wilson-Raybould herself has said that she doesn’t believe Trudeau acted illegally.
While the scandal is “notable,” says Moscrop, “It doesn’t involve personal enrichment. It doesn’t involve extraordinary violations of norms. It’s not Watergate, it’s not the Mueller report. It represents, I think, a series of miscommunications and ethical lapses, but it appears that no law was broken. That’s pretty critically important to this whole thing.”
The scandal is also striking because it tarnishes the squeaky-clean image that Trudeau has promoted, says Béland.
“He framed himself as someone who would change politics,” says Béland.“’I will do politics differently, it will be egalitarian, it will be open, it will be transparent.’ And now many people are saying, well, he’s a politician like any other.”
Béland says that the story also looks bad because Trudeau has positioned himself as a feminist and pro-indigenous rights – and Wilson-Raybould is both an indigenous person and a woman.
“If he had not focused so much on these issues, this might not have looked as damaging for him,” Béland says.
What’s next for Trudeau?
Both Moscrop and Béland agree that while things look challenging for Trudeau – who is facing an election in seven months – he may still have time to recover.
According to polling carried out by Canadian news service Global News from March 1 to 3, public opinion is concerning for both Trudeau and the Liberal Party. Trudeau would win 31% of the decided popular vote if the election was tomorrow, down three points from a few weeks ago, while the party leader of the Conservative party would win 40% A total of 67% of Canadians now say they believe Wilson-Raybould’s version of what happened.
“A lot of people express sympathy for Jody Wilson-Raybould, or certainly, a lot of people thought her testimony was credible, so I think it’s a challenge for the prime minister,” Béland says.
However, Moscrop and Béland argue that Trudeau might be able to change the national conversation.
Béland says that the strength of the economy may bolster Trudeau’s case.
“There’s still time for them to bounce back in the polls if they find a way to frame this,” says Béland. “People in Canada… are interested in the rule of law and justice issues, but they’re also interested in jobs, in the economy and typically voters are driven by these issues.”
Moscrop says that Trudeau may need to reevaluate the way he presents himself to voters, now that the image that he had constructed – as a reformer who stood up for women’s and indigenous rights – has been tarnished.
“It’s going to make it hard to run under that banner again, because of the implications of this but also because of the symbolism of this,” says Moscrop.
For years, President Donald Trump has complained that countries hosting American troops aren’t paying enough. Now he wants to get even, and then some.
Under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil — plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them, according to a dozen administration officials and people briefed on the matter.
In some cases, nations hosting American forces could be asked to pay five to six times as much as they do now under the “Cost Plus 50” formula.
Trump has championed the idea for months. His insistence on it almost derailed recent talks with South Korea over the status of 28,000 U.S. troops in the country when he overruled his negotiators with a note to National Security Advisor John Bolton saying, “We want cost plus 50.”
The president’s team sees the move as one way to prod NATO partners into accelerating increases in defense spending — an issue Trump has hammered allies about since taking office. While Trump claims his pressure has led to billions of dollars more in allied defense spending, he’s chafed at what he sees as the slow pace of increases.
“Wealthy, wealthy countries that we’re protecting are all under notice,” Trump said in a speech at the Pentagon on Jan. 17. “We cannot be the fools for others.”
Officials caution that the idea is one of many under consideration as the U.S. presses allies to pay more, and it may be toned down. Yet even at this early stage, it has sent shock waves through the departments of Defense and State, where officials fear it will be an especially large affront to stalwart U.S. allies in Asia and Europe already questioning the depth of Trump’s commitment to them.
Victor Cha, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the administration was sending a deliberate message by demanding “Cost Plus 50” from South Korea first, even though that effort fell short.
“We have a more integrated military with South Korea than with any other ally,” Cha said. “To send this message to a front-line Cold War ally is trying to say very clearly that they want a paradigm shift with the way they do host-nation support.”
Another concern is that the U.S. will fan ongoing debates in some countries about whether they even want U.S. troops. While some countries including Poland have openly advocated for U.S. troops, others like Germany and Japan have populations that have long resisted the American presence. Those forces would probably be energized if the U.S. gives what they see as an ultimatum.
‘What Crawls Out’
“You start tipping over rocks and see what crawls out and you’ve got to be ready for it,” said MacKenzie Eaglen, a defense policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “You’re going to see domestic political debates wrapped around these military bases once you reopen the discussion.”
Trump has been musing about the idea that countries should pay the full cost, plus a premium, since taking office. His ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, said it’s all about making sure other countries have “skin in the game.”
“If you have countries which clearly can afford to do it and are not doing it because they think we’ll just step in and do it for them, the president has a problem with that,” he said in an interview.
Sondland declined to say which countries would be targeted and wouldn’t elaborate when asked specifically about the “Cost Plus 50” approach.
Good Behavior Discount
Current and former administration officials briefed on the idea, who asked not to be identified discussing the program, describe it as far more advanced than is publicly known. As well as seeking more money, the administration wants to use it as a way to exert leverage on countries to do what the U.S. demands overseas.
As evidence, they say officials at the Pentagon have been asked to calculate two formulas: One would determine how much money countries such as Germany ought to be asked to pay. The second would determine the discount those countries would get if their policies align closely with the U.S.
Germany now pays about 28 percent of the costs of U.S. forces based there, or $1 billion a year, according to David Ochmanek, a researcher at the Rand Corp. Under “Cost Plus 50,” its payments would skyrocket, as would those of Japan and South Korea.
Officials at the State Department and Defense Department declined to comment. Officials with Japan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates said they hadn’t been approached. A German embassy spokesman said there was no discussion underway.
‘Best Deal’
At the National Security Council — where officials say the idea originated — officials declined to confirm or deny the proposal.
“Getting allies to increase their investment in our collective defense and ensure fairer burden-sharing has been a long-standing U.S. goal,” NSC spokesman Garrett Marquis said. “The administration is committed to getting the best deal for the American people elsewhere too but will not comment on any ongoing deliberations regarding specific ideas.”
Disputes over burden-sharing for U.S. troops deployed overseas date back decades. Washington and Tokyo have long clashed over the presence of U.S. forces on Okinawa, for example. But the current discussion about “Cost Plus 50” goes further. It echoes a theme often championed by former White House adviser Stephen Bannon that the U.S. wants “allies, not protectorates.”
Critics argue that the demand also misreads the benefits that overseas troop deployments bring to the U.S.
“Even raising this question feeds a misinformed narrative that these facilities are there for the benefits of those countries,” said Douglas Lute, a former U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “The truth is they’re there and we maintain them because they’re in our interest.”
In Germany, for instance, the U.S. relies on several crucial installations: the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the Ramstein Air Base. Landstuhl is a world-class medical facility that has provided emergency care to U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and other trouble spots.
Germany is also home to the headquarters of the U.S. Africa Command. Estimating how much Germany ought to pay for those bases, which serve so many other interests, would be complicated.
In South Korea’s case, the two countries had a deal to renew their five-year Special Measures Agreement, only to see it scuttled by Trump’s insistence on “Cost Plus 50” in October. The final increase agreed on was much more modest and its duration was shortened to one year, with the expectation of another fight to come.
“There are a lot of countries that would say you’ve got it absolutely wrong — you think we’re going to pay for this?” said Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense who was a career Pentagon and NATO civil servant. “I hope cooler heads prevail.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May warned Friday that the U.K. may “never leave the E.U. at all” if lawmakers refuse to back her Brexit deal in a crucial vote next week.
With just three weeks to go until March 29, when Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc, the country still has no agreement with the E.U., and is set on a default course of a “no deal” Brexit, which economists have warned would be disastrous.
The last time lawmakers voted on May’s deal, in January, her government suffered the biggest defeat in modern parliamentary history, by 432 votes to 202, with scores of May’s own lawmakers defying her.
In the ensuing two months, May has attempted to secure modifications to her deal in order to appease those critical lawmakers. But the E.U. has stood firm and refused to change the most contentious aspect of the agreement, the so-called Irish backstop. Most analysts believe, therefore, that lawmakers will again reject May’s deal when it comes to a vote on Tuesday.
May’s Friday warning, made in a speech in the northern seaside town of Grimsby (where 71% voted to leave the E.U. at the referendum in 2016), was intended to increase pressure on lawmakers in spite of the lack of movement, by raising the possibility of Brexit being delayed, or worse, cancelled.
“Next week, Members of Parliament in Westminster face a crucial choice,” May said. “Whether to back the Brexit deal – or to reject it. Back it and the U.K. will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen. We may not leave the E.U. for many months. We may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all.”
May also raised the possibility of a second Brexit referendum, which the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party recently adopted as its official policy. Taking that route would “take the U.K. right back to square one,” May said. Then, repeating her threat, she added: “If we go down that road, we might never leave the E.U. at all.”
If lawmakers do reject May’s deal again on Tuesday, she will be forced into another vote, where lawmakers decide whether to give their “explicit consent” to continue with a no-deal Brexit.
If lawmakers reject a no-deal Brexit, a third vote will be triggered, this time on whether to delay Brexit beyond March 29, by up to three months.
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has been named Vice President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust (QCT), the Kensington Palace announced on Friday.
The Duchess will work alongside the Queen, the trust’s Patron, and husband Harry, the trust’s President, to help support, fund and connect young leaders around the world who are working to improve their communities.
Nicola Brentnall, QCT Chief Executive said “We are particularly delighted that the first opportunity of formally working together with Her Royal Highness comes on International Women’s Day. This squares perfectly with our focus on amplifying the work and contribution of those furthest away from power.” Kensington writes “In this new role, the Duchess will highlight the Trust’s partnerships with young people across the Commonwealth, and in particular its work supporting women and girls.”
As a way of celebrating both International Women’s Day and the prestigious appointment, the Duchess will join a panel of female thought leaders and activists to discuss issues currently affecting women. Among the leaders are Annie Lennox OBE, founder of The Circle, and Adwoa Aboah, a model and founder of Gurls Talk. A video of the discussion will be shared by 12:00pm EST on the QCT website.
The Duchess and former actress has been advocating for women’s rights around the world for several years. Before joining the Royal Family in 2018, she worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
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