國際時事政治選舉集中理性討論區（四）

Scott Pruitt, Trump's embattled EPA chief, resigns after ethics scandals

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/scott-pruitt-resigns-epa-trump-latest-news-resignation

Scott Pruitt, the hugely controversial administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has resigned.

Donald Trump announced Pruitt’s departure on Twitter and said Pruitt had done an “outstanding job”. He further posted that Pruitt’s deputy Andrew Wheeler would take over as acting administrator from Monday.

Trump had repeatedly defended Pruitt following a multitude of ethics scandals.

In his resignation letter, Pruitt struck an unapologetic tone.

“It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role,” Pruitt wrote. “However, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us.”

Pruitt, a former attorney general of Oklahoma, had come under increasing pressure over issues including the use of public funds for travel and office improvements; for using an obscure provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act to give pay raises to two aides; and for having paid $50 a night to rent a room in a Capitol Hill townhouse from the wife of an energy industry lobbyist.

In recent weeks, the barrage of headlines over Pruitt’s alleged impropriety at the EPA escalated – prompting several staff members to resign.

A whistleblower revealed earlier this week that Pruitt kept a secret calendar to hide meetings with industry representatives. Staffers reportedly met in Pruitt’s office to alter or remove records of the meetings. It also emerged that Pruitt asked staffers to use their personal credit cards for his hotel bookings.

As of last month, Pruitt’s activities were the subject of at least 14 separate federal investigations.

Aum Shinrikyo: Japan executes cult leader Shoko Asahara

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43395483

The leader of Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult which carried out a deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995 has been executed, Japanese media report.

The sarin attack, Japan's worst terror incident, killed 13 people and injured thousands more.

Another 12 Aum Shinrikyo members are awaiting execution.

The executions had been postponed until all those convicted had completed their final appeals.

That happened in January.

The world is near its neigh. Prepare for a time of turbulence. War, war never changes.

As an environmental scientist I fucking hate Pruitt to the guts, he is a gutless cunt and I hope his career life together with his personal life goes to shithole!

German government agrees on migration compromise

https://www.dw.com/en/german-government-agrees-on-migration-compromise/a-44546969

The leaders of Germany's three-way governing coalition agreed on a deal concerning migration and asylum policy after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a deal with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to introduce tougher controls at Germany's border with Austria.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), Seehofer's Christian Social Union (CSU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) compromised on a deal to counter illegal immigration into Germany as well as introducing tougher asylum policies. The compromise comes on the heels of a migration policy spat between Merkel and Seehofer that threatened to topple the government.

SPD leader Andrea Nahles said there would be no unilateral action concerning migration, but that there would be quicker processes for handling asylum applications according to the Dublin agreement, which regulates asylum policy across the European Union. The leaders agreed on ditching so-called transit centers to process incoming asylum-seekers, rather there will now be "transit processes in police centers," CSU leader Seehofer told reporters.

Germans unhappy with Merkel government amid migration spat

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-unhappy-with-merkel-government-amid-migration-spat/a-44547346

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government is falling in public estimation amid a damaging row over asylum policy, according to a poll released Thursday.

In the latest "Deutschlandtrend" survey almost 80 percent of respondents said they were somewhat, or completely, dissatisfied with the ruling coalition. That's a jump of 15 percentage points since June. Only 21 percent said they were happy with the country's leadership.

The poll, commissioned by German public broadcaster ARD, comes after weeks of bickering within the coalition over asylum policy.

A second poll of 1,505 respondents said that if another election were held now, the CDU/CSU would win 30 percent of the vote, down one point, while the SPD would remain steady on 18 percent. Such an outcome suggests that the three parties would no longer be able to form a majority government.

U.S.-China trade war heats up as tariffs take effect

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/china-state-media-slams-trumps-gang-of-hoodlums-as-tariffs-loom-idUSKBN1JW07L

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports took effect as a deadline passed on Friday, and with Beijing having vowed to respond immediately in kind, the two biggest economies were set on a risky path toward a full-blown trade war.

Earlier on Friday, before the 0401 GMT deadline for tariffs was set to take effect, China’s state media lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing the White House of behaving like a “gang of hoodlums” as the world’s two biggest economies headed toward outright trade war on Friday.

On Thursday, Trump warned that the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the total amount that the United States imported from China last year.

Beijing has vowed to respond immediately with an equal amount of tariffs of its own against U.S. autos, agricultural and other products.

最近睇完一本講沙特阿拉伯的書，書名係：中東心臟：沙烏地阿拉伯的人民、宗教，歷史與未來

本書英文版係2012年出版，今年出中文版，雖然時間上有少少距離，不過出版社都有用譯註去講解翻。

本書最主要係講沙特王室如何維持其統治的正當性，最主要係以用石油收入收買民心，分而治之，同埋扭曲宗教以服務王室。

然而，三種方式都係不同原因下開始失效，例如宗教領袖不停轉向，而且青年有唔同方式去了解非官方的可蘭經詮釋，不論係更激進抑或世俗派都對官方宗教領袖的權威下跌。而另一方面，官方宗教領袖亦係想改革的王室成員絆腳石。例如當王室有意讓女性工作時，宗教領袖必定反對，又或者要求只可以係只有女性的情況下工作。

書入面，亦有講沙特阿拉伯的社會結構如何影響沙特阿拉伯人，即係係家族體系下，佢地會形成集體主義同注重表面。引致到大部分人都唔會提出問題，又或者做出改變，因為周圍會有四面八方的壓力。

而長期依賴石油收益去資助公共設施及福利，對人民同經濟都有影響。有部分沙特阿拉伯人都唔出去做野，同時又輸入大量勞工，都令到國家經濟裹足不前，而低下階層又要福利緩助，令到國家生產力低下又無競爭力。

書中亦提到社會女性的地位，教育質素問題，不過，不論階層及年齡，佢地要求的都唔係西方式的民主自由。

本書唔錯，不過係有d位成日重覆，都可以一讀。

依家頂緊佢位嗰個一樣衰, 本身係石油公司說客黎
你問唔係話"drain the swamp"咩?
點解石油公司說客會做到Environmental Protection Agency Chief, 即係環境保護局主席?
咁要問只會"hire the best people", 但turnover rate破晒紀錄嘅Trump

How Scott Pruitt blew it

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/05/why-scott-pruitt-resigned-epa-trump-672035

A scandal for all seasons: Scott Pruitt's ethics violations in full

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/10/scott-pruitt-epa-administrator-scandal-list

The problems with Pruitt: A complete guide

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/scott-pruitt-epa-ethics-spending/

Theresa May battles to see off revolt ahead of Friday's Brexit summit

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/05/theresa-may-battles-to-see-off-revolt-ahead-of-key-brexit-summit

Theresa May is battling to see off a revolt as her cabinet gathers for a critical Chequers summit, after Boris Johnson convened a meeting of pro-Brexit ministers to discuss their options amid an atmosphere of tension and recrimination.

The government was forced to deny “selective leaks” that appeared to suggest that the UK could struggle to strike a trade deal with the US in the future.

No 10 insisted that paperwork released to ministers ahead of Friday’s Brexit meeting at Chequers said just the opposite, as a caucus of seven cabinet members – Johnson, Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt, David Davis, Esther McVey, Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom – met at the Foreign Office to discuss their concerns.

An early leak suggested that the UK should “maintain a common rulebook” with the European Union on food and farming standards and that could make striking a trade deal with the more free market-oriented US more difficult as a result.

That prompted a series of complaints from backbench Tory MPs and led to the Thursday evening meeting at the Foreign Office hosted by Johnson, the foreign secretary.

Sources at No 10 said there had been selective leaks from the paperwork and the controversial passage appeared on page 15 out of 50 from one of several documents sent to all members of the cabinet.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the backbench European Research Group, said: “If this is correct this is not Brexit. This common rulebook means that we are essentially a vassal state.” He suggested that May should simply “tear up” the paper.

Scott Pruitt's new EPA deputy could surpass boss in scrapping protections

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/08/andrew-wheeler-epa-scott-pruitt

If the extraordinary barrage of ethical scandals buffeting Scott Pruitt finally dislodges him as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, a reassuringly familiar figure to Republicans will take over and probably continue much of Pruitt’s controversial work to scale back environmental protections.

Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, was confirmed as the EPA’s second-in-command by the Senate in April, in the face of complaints from Democrats that he will simply act as the same sort of industry mouthpiece as his boss, Pruitt.

Wheeler is well known in Washington DC, having spent four years at the EPA at the start of his career before shifting to Congress to work for Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who has spent recent years disagreeing with the scientific world over whether climate change exists. Inhofe once brandished a snowball on the floor of the Senate and claimed it was evidence the world was not warming.

How to Cool a Red-Hot Property Market Singapore-Style

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-06/how-to-cool-a-red-hot-property-market-singapore-style-quicktake

Shortly before the new policies were announced on July 5, Singapore’s central bank chief warned about “euphoria” in the housing market. The aim of the latest measures, according to one minister, is to avoid a “severe correction later” as the supply of residential homes increases and interest rates rise. Home prices jumped by 3.9 percent and 3.4 percent in the first two quarters this year, the biggest leaps since 2010. Home sales reached the highest level in nine months in May.

Higher stamp duty rates and tougher loan-to-value limits for buyers. To address the surge in en-bloc sales -- which will unleash a wave of new supply on the market as new developments are completed -- the government raised its additional buyer’s stamp duty, or ABSD, to 30 percent for developers, or 25 percent for other entities, from 15 percent.

另外，有巴打講過德國國防政策係想點，睇緊一篇Think tank的文，都可以參考吓

Germany’s defence commitments: nothing but paper tigers?

https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_germanys_defence_commitments_nothing_but_paper_tigers

我等緊公共圖書館入呢本書
雖然經驗話我知, 一般要等差不多成年

講到依賴石油嘅問題, 我最近讀左本書, 叫《國家的命運好好玩》(英文書本名叫"False Economy", 我都唔知個中文譯名係點飛出黎 )

入面有一章講自然資源, 指出有大量自然資源, 往往會陀衰家

精簡黎講, 作者用唔同國家為例, 指出一國致富係靠製造/供應商品/服務(香港榜上有名 ), 而非靠坐擁天然資源. 而且, 單靠巨大天然資源(石油, 鑽石)而發圍嘅國家, 會令資源過度集中係採掘業, 排擠其他產業, 反而削減發展機會. 加上單靠資源採掘, 資源開採公司通常唔會有咩大競爭(大概係因為通常係國企), 少競爭令公司失去為求生存, 戮力改進技術, 提升營運效率嘅誘因, 因此都會進一步拖慢經濟發展. 再加上不勞之獲嘅財富, 會令國民不思取進, 喪失謀生動能(我理解成靠富裕嘅政府打救). 因形成資源詛咒陀衰家.

當然, 如果管理得好, 就唔會寅吃卯糧, 反而如虎添翼, 例如挪威同智利


呢本書分唔同主題, 檢視何以有啲國家發到豬頭, 有啲國家窮到燶, 結合史例同經濟學, 寫得幾生動. 公共圖書館有得借, 而且得300頁度, 唔太厚, 不妨一讀

Trudeau: I apologised to reporter behind groping claim

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/06/trudeau-i-apologised-at-once-to-reporter-behind-groping-claim-canada-2000-music-festival

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has for the first time publicly acknowledged that he apologised in 2000 to a reporter who alleged he groped her, but said he was very confident he did not act inappropriately.

The accusation first appeared in a local newspaper a few days after a music festival in British Columbia that Trudeau, then a 28-year-old teacher, was attending.

The unsigned editorial in the Creston Valley Advance accused Trudeau of “groping” and “inappropriately handling” an unnamed reporter who was covering the event.

While the editorial offered no specifics on what had happened, it claimed the reporter felt “blatantly disrespected” and Trudeau had apologised for his behaviour. “I’m sorry,” the editorial alleged Trudeau to have said. “If I had known you were reporting for a national paper, I never would have been so forward.”

The allegation has dominated political discussion in Canada in recent days after it was highlighted by a political commentator last month.

After calls for an independent investigation into the claim and opposition criticism of his initial response, Trudeau addressed the issue at length on Thursday.

“I’ve been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago,” he told reporters. “I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in any way. But I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently.” Pressed further, he acknowledged he had atoned for his actions at the time. “I apologised in the moment,” he said, without giving details.

Brexit: Cabinet agrees 'collective' stance on future EU deal

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-44747444

The cabinet has reached a "collective" agreement on the basis of the UK's future relationship with the EU after Brexit, Theresa May has said.

Ministers have signed up to a plan to create a free trade area for industrial and agricultural goods with the bloc, based on a "common rule book".

They also supported what could amount to a "combined customs territory".

The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said the plan, agreed after a 12-hour meeting, would "anger many Tory Brexiteers".

Our political editor said the prime minister had "picked a side" by opting for a closer relationship with the EU than many colleagues desired - and she now had to sell it to her party and the other European leaders.

No 10, she added, hoped the new commitments would unlock the next phase of talks with the rest of the EU but it was not yet clear how many, or what kind, of objections were raised.

What the cabinet has agreed at Chequers Brexit meeting


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/06/what-the-cabinet-has-agreed-at-chequers-brexit-meeting

Both sides seek to 'clarify' as Pompeo holds more North Korea talks

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa/both-sides-seek-to-clarify-as-pompeo-holds-more-north-korea-talks-idUSKBN1JX03B

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a second day of talks in North Korea on Saturday attempting to agree details on how to dismantle the country’s nuclear program, and both sides said they had things to “clarify” from the previous day.

After spending his first night in the North Korean capital in three visits so far this year, Pompeo left the government guest house where he spent the night to make a secure phone call and update U.S. President Donald Trump on the talks.

Pompeo then sat down again with Kim Yong Chol, the top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief with whom he played a key role in arranging the summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

Reporter who accused Trudeau of groping says she won't pursue incident

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/06/canada-justin-trudeau-groping-case-reporter

The woman who accused Justin Trudeau in 2000 of groping her at a music festival in British Columbia has spoken out, saying that the incident took place as described and that she is not interested in pursuing the matter further.

On Friday – a day after the Canadian prime minister acknowledged he had apologised to her – the woman, identified as Rose Knight, issued a statement saying that she was “reluctantly” addressing the issue in the face of mounting media pressure.

Knight offered no additional details on what had happened. “The incident referred to in the editorial did occur, as reported,” she said. “Mr Trudeau did apologise the next day.”

After initially telling reporters that he did not remember any “negative interactions” on the day of the event, Trudeau conceded on Thursday that he had apologised to the woman at the time. “I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in any way,” he told reporters. “But I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently.”

In her statement, Knight said she had not had any subsequent contact with Trudeau, either before or after he became prime minister. “I did not pursue the incident at the time and will not be pursuing the incident further.”

The former reporter said that she had initially avoided speaking out in order to protect her and her family’s privacy and noted that she did not intend to issue any further statements or grant interviews. “The debate, if it continues, will continue without my involvement,” she said.

Theresa May’s EU deal under fire from hardline Brexiters

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/07/theresa-mays-eu-deal-under-fire-from-hardline-brexiters

Theresa May’s desperate attempts to unite her party and country behind a new Brexit blueprint were under severe strain on Saturday night, as more than 100 entrepreneurs and founders of UK businesses dismissed it as unworkable – and hardline anti-EU Tory MPs warned it could mean an outcome worse than “no deal” at all.

There were also signs that Brussels was less than impressed after an initial examination of the plans, which were thrashed out and agreed by the entire cabinet at an all-day summit at Chequers on Friday.

The proposals would involve a new “facilitated customs arrangement” intended to remove the need for a hard border in Ireland, and the creation of a UK-EU free trade area, in which the UK would abide by a “common rule book” of EU regulations. As the prime minister and her officials renewed appeals for ministerial loyalty and an end to infighting from the likes of the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, it was her own hardline pro-Brexit backbenchers who broke cover to resume hostilities, while business leaders said the plans would mean extra bureaucracy and cost, as they demanded full membership of the customs union.

From the other side of the Brexit argument, the Tory MP and leader of the European Research Group (ERG) of hardline Brexiters, Jacob Rees-Mogg, questioned whether signing up to elements of the EU rulebook would amount to Brexit at all.

He warned that abiding by a common rule book could make “trade deals almost impossible”, adding that “it is possible that this deal is worse” than a “no-deal” Brexit.

The Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said the danger was that British business would “continue to be a rule-taker from the EU”. Jenkyns indicated she would back a leadership challenge against May if she concluded that the plans agreed by the prime minister amounted to a watering down of Brexit.

North Korea accuses US of 'gangster-like' behavior after Pompeo talks

https://theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/07/north-korea-calls-us-denuclearisation-talks-regrettable

North Korea has said that high-level talks with a US delegation led by Mike Pompeo were regrettable and accused Washington of trying to unilaterally pressurise the country into abandoning its nuclear weapons.

Before leaving Pyongyang, Pompeo told reporters that his conversations with senior North Korean official Kim Yong-chol had been productive, conducted in good faith and that a great deal of progress had been made in some areas. He stressed there was still more work to be done in other areas, much of which would be done by working groups that the two sides had set up to deal with specific issues.

The North provided a much harsher assessment of the talks. In a statement released by an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman, Pyongyang accused the US of betraying the spirit of last month’s summit between Donald Trump and Kim by making “one-sided and gangster-like” demands on “CVID” – the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea.

“We had expected that the US side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders’ summit … we were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures,” said the statement, carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting [between the countries] was no doubt regrettable,” the spokesman said. “Our expectations and hopes were so naive it could be called foolish.”

英國脫歐事務大臣David Davis 辭職
https://lih.kg/734648
- 分享自 LIHKG 討論區

David Davis resigns as Brexit secretary after cabinet tensions

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/08/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary-reports-say?/url]

David Davis has resigned as secretary of state for exiting the European Union.

The resignation follows tensions in the cabinet over Theresa May’s vision for the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union, which has been heavily criticised by the pro-Brexit wing of her party.

At a Chequers summit on Friday, the cabinet backed May’s “third way” vision for a soft Brexit ahead of the publication of the government’s long-awaited white paper on the relationship.