國際時事政治選舉集中理性討論區（四）

North Korea: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives for talks

http://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-russian-foreign-minister-sergey-lavrov-arrives-for-talks/a-44016043

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in North Korea on Thursday for talks with senior officials.

The visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts by Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington to restore a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, originally scheduled for June 12 in Singapore but later canceled by Trump.

Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho and others at the Supreme People's Assembly building in the North Korean capital. The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier Lavrov and Ri were expected to discuss "vital issues of bilateral relations and key international and regional issues."

Russia, which shares a border with North Korea, has so far remained largely on the sidelines amid the flurry of diplomacy involving its neighbor. Last year, Moscow offered to mediate between Washington and Pyongyang when tensions between the two were high following a series of missile tests by North Korea.

Italy: cancelled League rallies signal political impasse may soon end

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/31/italy-cancelled-league-rallies-signal-political-impasse-may-soon-end

The leader of the Italian far-right party the League, Matteo Salvini, cancelled political rallies to return to Rome early on Thursday, in what was seen as a sign that that has left the country without a fully-functioning government for months might soon be coming to an end.

Salvini was heading back to the capital to meet with his coalition partner, Luigi Di Maio, the 31-year-old head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, after the to form a government.

Italian press reports indicated that any agreement to form a new populist government involving the League, formerly known as the Lega Nord, and M5S would include the nomination – again – of Giuseppe Conte, a formerly obscure law professor, to serve as prime minister.

But the two populists, Di Maio and Salvini, were expected to back down on their earlier insistence that the 81-year-old Eurosceptic Paolo Savona, who had called Italy’s adoption of the euro a “historic mistake”, serve as finance minister.

Italy's Cottarelli opens door to possible eurosceptic government

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-cottarelli-opens-door-to-possible-eurosceptic-government-idUSKCN1IV0T1

ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s two main anti-establishment parties could yet form a government, after the man nominated as interim prime minister said politicians, rather than technocrats like himself, might be able to steer the country out of deadlock.

Wednesday’s development came as financial markets calmed after a rout a day earlier, when investor concerns about Italy’s finances prompted the biggest one-day rise since 1992 in Italian two-year bond yields and dented the euro’s exchange rate.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister-designate Carlo Cottarelli said possibilities had emerged “for the birth of a political government,” and that financial market turmoil and other circumstances, “have caused me to wait for further developments”.

契弟俾人鍊住春袋，契哥要親自出手？

俄佬，中國，日本，基本上係今次美朝會談中冇曬角色，梗係想搵位入啦

US slaps steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU

http://p.dw.com/p/2ygBS

Officials from both sides of the Atlantic were unable to reach a deal to avert tariffs two days before the exemption expires, the Wall Street Journal reported. The EU has threatened to punish US exports in return.

U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on Thursday that  25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would indeed go into effect at midnight after those countries were unable to make a deal with the US ahead of a Friday deadline. 

According to the WSJ, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross echoed Malmstrom's pessimism, though he said the administration was still open to keep negotiating a deal that could deliver better market opportunities in the EU for US exports, even after tariffs are imposed.

加拿大同墨西哥唔係同美國已簽訂自由貿易協定，乜可以自行增加關稅？

同埋EU點都係美國傳統盟友，如果話中國同俄羅斯搞獨裁、國家資本主義要制裁，我相信無乜人反對，但打EU會唔會影響將來美國國家利益？

真係唔明點解要開EU貿易戰線，係咪想加速美元回流？

應該係用咗國家安全做藉口咗去加關稅，同時想係同加拿大及墨西哥的自由貿易協定的再談判中攞著數，不過加拿大出到聲話No deal better than a bad deal 咁

依家美國係西太平洋同中國打貿易戰、係中東退出核協議同伊朗反面，依家打加拿大、墨西哥同EU，Trump真係當自己係葉問可以一個打十個

剛剛又有消息話Trump想出手搞德國車，美國同EU開拖普京是不是最開心

Auto Tariff 唔只德國車，日本都已經屌咗出聲

下下祭出國家安全去做關稅真係好痴線

Basque party to vote against Spain's Rajoy in no-confidence motion, forcing him out: media

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-politics/basque-party-to-vote-against-spains-rajoy-in-no-confidence-motion-forcing-him-out-media-idUSKCN1IW0TM

MADRID (Reuters) - The Basque Nationalist Party will vote against Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence motion, Cadena Ser radio and La Sexta television said on Thursday, in a move that would almost certainly force him from office.

Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez needs an absolute majority of 176 votes to become Spain’s new Prime Minister, and information from various parties suggested he had now secured 180.

Rajoy’s departure would trigger a second political crisis in southern Europe, further unnerving financial markets already wrongfooted by failed attempts to form a government in Italy three months after a national election.

It was not clear if Rajoy could resign before the vote takes place on Friday to avoid the humiliation of becoming the first Spanish Prime Minister to lose a no-confidence vote. Rajoy did not attend the afternoon session of the debate on Thursday.

If he did, the motion would automatically become groundless and the government of the People’s Party would go into caretaker mode until a new prime minister is sworn in, something which could take several weeks or months.

If the vote did go ahead and Rajoy lost it, then Sanchez would immediately become Prime Minister.

如果佢搞德國車, 只係再次證明佢真係on9黎
美國啲德國車,好似BMW咁同Daimler, 係o係美國開廠, 請美國人整, 再賣返畀美國市場
一ban左德國車, 咁間廠就無本身存在意義, 最少會停工/轉生產方向, 只會cut人
根本個brand係外國, 但係made in USA

收加拿大同墨西哥鋁鐵稅又係on9
加拿大係美國最大嘅鐵材進出口市場,上年有17%鐵(5.8MMT)由加拿大輸入, 美國有49%鐵(4.8MMT)係向加拿大出口
個數據係美國商務部旗下嘅國際貿易委員會(ITA)出
https://www.trade.gov/steel/countries/pdfs/imports-us.pdf
https://www.trade.gov/steel/countries/pdfs/exports-us.pdf
佢呢啲係雙敗俱傷拳, 損人不利己
2002年Bush收鐵稅已經衰過一次, 發現對其他行業嘅衝擊, 會完全抵消製鐵業嘅得益有找

16年後又玩多鑊, 今次仲要搞埋加拿大

Italy government: Giuseppe Conte to head populist coalition

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44322429

A coalition government has been agreed in Italy, ending months of uncertainty in the EU's fourth-biggest economy.

Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte presented his list of ministers to President Sergio Mattarella for the second time in a week and the new government will be sworn in on Friday.

Ministers are drawn from both the anti-establishment Five Star (M5S) and the right-wing League.

Mr Mattarella rejected Mr Conte's original choice for economy minister but a different candidate was agreed on Thursday.

In the end, the populist parties decided to back down and accept the president's veto of their original choice of a eurosceptic economy minister. Their newly chosen minister, Giovanni Tria, is in favour of Italy's continued membership of the single currency.

而家睇唔明美國個戰略佈局。究竟係想拉一派打一派，定係想光榮孤立？

🇪🇸PedCAT(8票) 宣布支持不信任動議

歐洲動態
https://www.facebook.com/europechinese/photos/a.566872090026410.1073741827.558794540834165/1732002203513387/?type=3&theater

karma is a bitch

Live: Pedro Sánchez, new Spanish prime minister, as no-confidence motion triumphs

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/05/31/inenglish/1527781254_686740.html

Congress has passed the no-confidence motion against Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy with 180 votes in favor, 169 against and one abstention.

The result means that Rajoy will be forced to step down and will be replaced by PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez as the prime minister of Spain.

Trump Appeasement Fails, So Trudeau Takes the Gloves Off

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-appeasement-fails-so-trudeau-takes-the-gloves-off

Canada had pushed for an exemption from Trump’s tariffs -- thinking, now naively, there’d be a perk to being a neighbor, ally and largest buyer of U.S. goods. Trudeau had bitten his tongue through skirmishes over airplanes, lumber and North American Free Trade Agreement talks.

That all changed Thursday when Canada, along with Mexico and the European Union, lost exemptions to the U.S. metal tariffs.

Trudeau tore into the Trump administration, if only by the standards of stereotypical Canadian politeness. He fired back with tariffs on U.S. exports of everything from whisky to motorboats to orange juice. He said the legal basis of tariffs -- U.S. national security -- was an affront to Canadian soldiers who died fighting alongside Americans in numerous global battles.

“Let me be clear: These tariffs are totally unacceptable,” a visibly frustrated Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa, calling the measures inconceivable and deplorable. “This is not about the American people. We have to believe that at some point, their common sense will prevail but we see no sign of that in this action today."

It’s a tone change for the “sunny ways” Trudeau. Canada is a close U.S. military ally and the top U.S. export market, more than the U.K., Japan and Germany combined. It sells the U.S. more steel and aluminum than anyone else, in part because of deeply integrated auto and defense sectors. Trudeau cracked down on Chinese steel imports for Trump, and U.S. data show that it has a trade surplus with Canada. None of it mattered.

“There was the broad lines of a decent win-win-win deal on the table that I thought required that final deal-making moment,” he said. Then Vice President Mike Pence called and said Trudeau could only see Trump if he agreed to a U.S. demand for a Nafta sunset clause. Trudeau refused and the meeting never happened.

Buoying Trudeau’s tone change is near-unanimity in Canada about the tariffs. Opposition parties have largely supported Trudeau’s approach with Trump and on Nafta. The nation’s largest private-sector union, Unifor, applauded the retaliatory tariffs. “Make no mistake — this is a full-on trade war,” President Jerry Dias said.

Political novice Giuseppe Conte sworn in as Italy's new PM

http://p.dw.com/p/2yoLM

Giuseppe Conte was sworn in as Italy's 58th prime minister on Friday, ending weeks of political turmoil that rocked financial markets and prompted concerns from the country's European Union partners.

President Sergio Mattarella initially refused to approve Conte's government last weekend. He rejected the inclusion of the ardently anti-euro currency Paolo Savona as economy minister. With Savona replaced by Giovanni Tria, an economics professor who has never adocated leaving the eurozone, Mattarella finally gave his approval on Thursday.

Lega leader Matteo Salvini will become the deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, while M5S chief Luigi DiMaio will jointly be deputy prime minister and take over the economic development portfolio.

Donald Trump says North Korea summit on 12 June is back on

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/01/kim-jong-uns-top-aide-delivers-letter-to-donald-trump

Donald Trump has announced that a 12 June summit with Kim Jong-un will go ahead as planned in Singapore, saying it would mark the beginning of a negotiating process with North Korea that could involve several such meetings.

Trump was speaking to reporters after meeting Kim’s top aide, Kim Yong-chol, in the Oval Office. It had been billed as a brief courtesy visit but it continued for more than an hour and 20 minutes. In a lavish show of hospitality, Trump escorted his visitor, a former spy chief and general who is under US sanctions, outside the White House for more informal talks and to pose for photographs with the North Korean delegation.

Trump also appeared to accept the North Korean position that its denuclearisation would be a drawn-out process, and not an all-in-one surrender of the regime’s nuclear arsenal, Trump officials had previously demanded.

France's National Front renamed 'National Rally'

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-nationalfront/frances-national-front-renamed-national-rally-idUSKCN1IX5LU

LYON, France (Reuters) - Members of France’s far-right National Front party voted to change its name to the “National Rally” on Friday, in a bid to shed a brand associated by many voters with racism and anti-Semitism and facilitate alliances with other parties.

Speaking at a party meeting in Lyon, leader Marine Le Pen sought to reassert her authority following her defeat by President Emmanuel Macron last May.

Le Pen said the decision would give the party new momentum and that priority should be to gain power, which could only be achieved through a coalition with allies.

The new name - “Rassemblement National” in French, meaning rally or union - is meant to show the party’s new willingness to rally other parties behind it, and drop antagonistic connotations of the old Front, she said.

[b]Cuba set to launch constitutional rewrite to reflect reforms
[/b]
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-assembly/cuba-set-to-launch-constitutional-rewrite-to-reflect-reforms-idUSKCN1IY0D5

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba’s national assembly is set on Saturday to begin the long-awaited reform of its constitution to give legal backing to the Communist-run island’s economic and social opening while upholding the “irrevocable nature of socialism”.

The most salient point on the agenda of its extraordinary session is the approval of the commission that will draft what is expected to be the broadest update of the constitution since it was first adopted in 1976 during the Cold War.

Some clauses in the current constitution, such as one forbidding Cubans from “obtaining income that comes from exploiting the work of others”, are at odds with those changes.

UK considering giving Northern Ireland joint UK and EU status

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0601/967497-brexit-border/

Northern Ireland could be given joint EU and UK status and a "buffer zone" on its border with the Republic, under new plans being drawn up by UK Brexit Secretary David Davis.

The scheme is said to be under consideration as a potential way of breaking the deadlock over future customs arrangements ahead of a crunch summit of European Union leaders later this month.

But the DUP has blasted the ideas as "contradictory and "half-cooked".

British Prime Minister Theresa May has divided ministers into two working groups to try to find a means of fulfilling her twin pledges to take the UK out of the European customs union while keeping the Irish border open.

The two options currently on the table - a customs partnership which would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU and a "maximum facilitation" scheme using technology to avoid border checks - have split the British cabinet down the middle.

Brussels' rejection of both schemes has been underlined by chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who said neither was "operational or acceptable".

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/wynne-liberals-ontario-election-minority-government-1.4689222

Kathleen Wynne is expected on Saturday to acknowledge that she will no longer be premier after the June 7 election and encourage voters to elect Liberal candidates to prevent the NDP or PCs from securing a majority, CBC News has learned.