Friday, August 17, 2018
Omarosa Manigault Newman Releases Tape of Lara Trump’s $15,000-a-Month Job Offer - New York Times
Omarosa Manigault Newman Releases Tape of Lara Trump’s $15,000-a-Month Job Offer
By releasing tapes of her private conversations, Omarosa Manigault Newman has taken a page from President Trump’s playbook.CreditShannon Stapleton/Reuters
By Maggie Haberman and Kenneth P. Vogel
Aug. 16, 2018
Omarosa Manigault Newman released a secret recording on Thursday that she said backed her claim that President Trump’s daughter-in-law had offered her a $15,000-a-month contract in exchange for her silence about her time as a White House adviser.
The audio, released during an interview on MSNBC, is the latest in the trickle of recordings that Ms. Manigault Newman has made public to bolster the credibility — and sales — of her tell-some book, “Unhinged,” about her tenure at the White House.
In the book, she claimed that the Trump 2020 campaign, which is partly overseen by Lara Trump, who is married to Mr. Trump’s son Eric, offered her a salary equal to what she had earned before being fired from the White House in December.
Ms. Trump noted on the tape, which Ms. Manigault Newman said was recorded days after she was fired, that the money would come from campaign donors.
“All the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors, small-dollar donors for the most part,” Ms. Trump said. “So I know you, you were making 179 at the White House, and I think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines.”
In a statement, Ms. Trump said that she had shared a bond with Ms. Manigault Newman during the 2016 campaign “as a friend and a campaign sister, and I am absolutely shocked and saddened by her betrayal and violation on a deeply personal level.”
“I hope it’s all worth it for you, Omarosa, because some things you just can’t put a price on,” she continued.
The tapes of Ms. Manigault Newman’s private conversations with Mr. Trump and other officials connected to him have rattled the White House in a way that few things other than the special counsel investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia have. Mr. Trump’s aides have been concerned that they will make appearances on other tapes, of which Ms. Manigault Newman is believed to have as many as 200.
Her willingness to slowly deploy the tapes for maximum effect is straight from Mr. Trump’s playbook, which includes boasts of relying on “truthful hyperbole” to engage people, of threatening to expose people with recordings and of claiming to have scurrilous information about people that he might reveal at any moment.
China Fears Trump Wants a New Cold War - Bloomberg
China Fears Trump Wants a New Cold War
By Daniel Ten Kate
August 17, 2018, 8:01 PM GMT+10
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Donald Trump is being taken very seriously in Beijing.
China’s capital is gripped by an urgent debate about what is seen as the hidden motive for Washington’s escalating trade war: a grand strategy, devised and led by the U.S. president, to thwart China’s rise as a global power. As Bloomberg News reports, there’s growing concern the two nations may be heading into a new Cold War.
While lower-level trade talks are set to resume this month, Trump has already tamped down expectations of a breakthrough. Chinese officials “just are not able to give us an agreement that is acceptable,” he says.
President Xi Jinping’s administration has moved to contain any economic fallout. China appeared to be halting the recent slide in its currency, with the offshore yuan surging today by the most since January 2017.
And despite the Cold War talk in Beijing, there is still general confidence that Xi can outlast Trump in a test of wills.
“Mr. Trump put a knife on our neck,” says Lu Xiang, an expert in bilateral ties at the government-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “We will never surrender.”
Global Headlines
Rare invitation | Angela Merkel hosts Vladimir Putin tomorrow for their first bilateral meeting in Germany since 2013. Trump’s attacks on a gas-pipeline project between Russia and Germany, as well as tensions with the U.S. over trade and the Iranian nuclear deal, are pushing Merkel and Putin together despite differences over Syria and Ukraine. The meeting helps end Putin’s isolation after his 2014 annexation of Crimea, while reaffirming Merkel’s leadership role in Europe.
Judgment day | A Turkish appeals court is set to rule by Saturday on a bid by Andrew Brunson’s lawyer to release him. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to free the American pastor or face more sanctions. After stabilizing its currency and staving off a full-blown crisis, Turkey now faces the prospect of renewed turmoil.
Cracks in Rome | This week’s collapse of a 50-year-old highway bridge in northern Italy has highlighted tensions roiling the governing populist coalition. Though it’s found compromises on a range of issues since taking power in June, the reaction to the disaster shows infrastructure may be tougher. Five Star’s environmentalist base opposes the type of major energy and transportation projects that businessmen backing the League support.
South African populism | Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has proposed an amendment to make the central bank state-owned, after his call for the expropriation of land without compensation, a policy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government now says it will pursue. It’s another example of Malema using the ruling African National Congress’s concern about losing power in next year's general elections to push it to the left.
Venezuela plot | Details of the most serious attempt in five years to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro – a drone attack during a military parade two weeks ago – are emerging. Andrew Rosati and Ethan Bronner report that more than one group of dissidents may have discussed the assassination bid, with financing from a Venezuelan in Miami linked to a 2017 attack on an army base. For now, the government seems to be pursuing opponents who may have had nothing to do with it.
By Daniel Ten Kate
August 17, 2018, 8:01 PM GMT+10
Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.
Donald Trump is being taken very seriously in Beijing.
China’s capital is gripped by an urgent debate about what is seen as the hidden motive for Washington’s escalating trade war: a grand strategy, devised and led by the U.S. president, to thwart China’s rise as a global power. As Bloomberg News reports, there’s growing concern the two nations may be heading into a new Cold War.
While lower-level trade talks are set to resume this month, Trump has already tamped down expectations of a breakthrough. Chinese officials “just are not able to give us an agreement that is acceptable,” he says.
President Xi Jinping’s administration has moved to contain any economic fallout. China appeared to be halting the recent slide in its currency, with the offshore yuan surging today by the most since January 2017.
And despite the Cold War talk in Beijing, there is still general confidence that Xi can outlast Trump in a test of wills.
“Mr. Trump put a knife on our neck,” says Lu Xiang, an expert in bilateral ties at the government-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “We will never surrender.”
Global Headlines
Rare invitation | Angela Merkel hosts Vladimir Putin tomorrow for their first bilateral meeting in Germany since 2013. Trump’s attacks on a gas-pipeline project between Russia and Germany, as well as tensions with the U.S. over trade and the Iranian nuclear deal, are pushing Merkel and Putin together despite differences over Syria and Ukraine. The meeting helps end Putin’s isolation after his 2014 annexation of Crimea, while reaffirming Merkel’s leadership role in Europe.
Judgment day | A Turkish appeals court is set to rule by Saturday on a bid by Andrew Brunson’s lawyer to release him. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to free the American pastor or face more sanctions. After stabilizing its currency and staving off a full-blown crisis, Turkey now faces the prospect of renewed turmoil.
Cracks in Rome | This week’s collapse of a 50-year-old highway bridge in northern Italy has highlighted tensions roiling the governing populist coalition. Though it’s found compromises on a range of issues since taking power in June, the reaction to the disaster shows infrastructure may be tougher. Five Star’s environmentalist base opposes the type of major energy and transportation projects that businessmen backing the League support.
South African populism | Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has proposed an amendment to make the central bank state-owned, after his call for the expropriation of land without compensation, a policy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government now says it will pursue. It’s another example of Malema using the ruling African National Congress’s concern about losing power in next year's general elections to push it to the left.
Venezuela plot | Details of the most serious attempt in five years to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro – a drone attack during a military parade two weeks ago – are emerging. Andrew Rosati and Ethan Bronner report that more than one group of dissidents may have discussed the assassination bid, with financing from a Venezuelan in Miami linked to a 2017 attack on an army base. For now, the government seems to be pursuing opponents who may have had nothing to do with it.
Anti-Semitism is so bad in Britain that some Jews are planning to leave - CNN
Anti-Semitism is so bad in Britain that some Jews are planning to leave
Laura Smith Spark-Profile-Image
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Updated 0423 GMT (1223 HKT) August 17, 2018
Jewish leaders and supporters hold a demonstration in July 19 outside Parliament in London.
London (CNN)Mark Lewis, a famed libel and privacy lawyer, is leaving Britain. Worn down by years of anti-Semitic abuse and death threats, he has decided enough is enough.
The 53-year-old plans to begin a new life in Israel with his partner, Mandy Blumenthal, by year's end. Both were born and raised in England. Both are very ready to leave.
"I just want to get out of here. It's a massive thing to do but I've actually had enough," Lewis said. "People might dislike me in Israel because of my political views, might think I'm too right-wing or left-wing or whatever, but they are not going to dislike me for being Jewish."
Two people have previously been imprisoned for threatening to murder him for being Jewish, Lewis said. Now, he said, he's reached the stage where he's "almost being desensitized to the threats" -- from both right and left -- such is their regularity.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer best known for representing victims of phone hacking, addresses the media in November 2012.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer best known for representing victims of phone hacking, addresses the media in November 2012.
The couple's decision comes as accusations of anti-Semitism dog Britain's main opposition Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. At the same time, incidents of recorded anti-Semitism are near record levels.
Lewis sees Corbyn as a catalyst for anti-Semitism rather than a threat in himself, saying the Labour leader has "moved the rock and it's the people who are crawling out from underneath it who are the problem." As a public figure and prominent pro-Israel voice, Lewis is an easy target for abuse on social media.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that fights anti-Semitism, recorded 727 anti-Semitic incidents in the first six months of 2018, the second-highest total ever marked for the first half of a year since the CST began recording anti-Semitic incidents in 1984. Only the total for the first six months of 2017 has been higher.
The current climate has shaken Britain's roughly 300,000-strong Jewish community.
Since the UK took in some 90,000 Jews from the European mainland as World War II loomed, it has been considered one of the safest places in the world for Jews to live. Unlike in neighboring France, where a 2015 terror attack targeted a kosher supermarket and a Holocaust survivor was killed in her home in March, no lethal violence has occurred. But the conversation is changing.
"We are seeing British Jews increasingly talking about leaving and also seeing signs of people actually leaving, not just to Israel, but also to the United States and Canada -- and Australia is a destination as well," said Gideon Falter, chairman of the Coalition Against Antisemitism (CAA).
"Some of our volunteers from the coalition have become aware of so many incidents through their work with us that they have decided to leave and have moved with their families."
Members of the Jewish community protest against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in March.
Members of the Jewish community protest against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in March.
It's hard to pin down exact figures on how many people have left or are actively considering uprooting their lives, since Israel is the only country globally that specifically tracks the immigration of Jews, Falter said.
Yigal Palmor, communications director for the Jewish Agency for Israel, told CNN that 213 Jews had moved from Britain to Israel between January and June, up 9% compared with the same period last year. However, the total number of people who moved from the UK to Israel in 2017 was lower than in the three previous years.
Palmor said the agency's UK office had also received more calls and that more people had opened files than last year but cautioned that this would not necessarily translate into more people moving to Israel, a process known as making "Aliyah". Nonetheless, he said, "Aliyah has become a popular conversation theme among many British Jews and many more are talking about it."
Some British Jews who have the financial means have started to consider buying property in Israel, Falter said, even if they aren't planning an imminent move. Of course, not all can afford to relocate even if they want to.
"It's a very sad state of affairs because we have all grown up here and for most us this is where our grandparents found refuge during the darkest days of humanity," said Falter.
How did Britain get here?
Corbyn walks through crowds after delivering a speech in Durham, England in July.
Corbyn walks through crowds after delivering a speech in Durham, England in July.
The current situation is complex and involves shifting political sands, social media's capacity to echo and amplify the views of a minority, and a long-running undercurrent of anti-Semitism.
On the political front, the Labour Party, which has long been considered a natural home for British Jews, has been embroiled for more than two years in a bitter dispute over the extent of anti-Semitism within its ranks.
The seeds of the crisis lie in Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader in 2015.
Corbyn, who long-served on his party's backbenches in Parliament, has a history of associating with fringe left-wing groups whose support for the Palestinian cause often bleeds into anti-Semitism, wrote political commentator John McTernan earlier this month. When Corbyn became leader, those views were brought into the mainstream.
Demonstrators stage a protest against anti-Semitism in Britain's Labour Party in April.
Demonstrators stage a protest against anti-Semitism in Britain's Labour Party in April.
The dispute within Labour came to a head last month, when the party's governing body adopted a new code of conduct that included the 38-word International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, but not all 11 examples of what could constitute anti-Semitic behavior. Jewish groups -- and some senior Labour figures -- have called for the party's leadership to adopt the IHRA definition in full, but the party leadership appears to be concerned that it would inhibit criticism of Israel and its policies.
On July 25, Britain's three leading Jewish newspapers -- the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Telegraph and Jewish News -- took the unprecedented step of publishing the same front page, with the headline "United we stand," in which they argued that any Corbyn-led government would be an "existential threat" to Jewish life in Britain.
Explaining the decision, the Jewish Chronicle cited "Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel."
View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
Marcus Dysch
✔
@MarcusDysch
This is the single most astonishing front page we’ve run at @JewishChron in my decade here. It is totally without precedent. Our paper has been published since 1841. @JewishNewsUK and @JewishTelegraph are our rivals - in name, in business, and on stories
4:12 AM - Jul 26, 2018
Days later, Corbyn had to apologize for reportedly hosting an event at which the Israeli government was likened to the Nazis.
With the issue continuing to dominate UK headlines, Corbyn wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian in which he rejected the idea that a Labour government would be any kind of threat to the Jewish community, while at the same time dismissing the Jewish newspapers' warning as "overheated rhetoric."
Two days later, Corbyn issued a video statement in which he insisted that "people who hold anti-Semitic views have no place in the Labour Party."
He acknowledged that Labour had been "too slow" to take action over anti-Semitism within its ranks but also said instances of it had been few.
Jeremy Corbyn
✔
@jeremycorbyn
There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We must drive it out of our movement for good.
9:12 PM - Aug 5, 2018
The furor was stoked this week when pictures emerged showing the Labour Party leader at a 2014 wreath-laying ceremony for terrorists who killed Israeli athletes in the 1970s, prompting condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Corbyn has not apologized but has said he was there to remember victims of a 1985 Israeli airstrike on the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia.
Keith Kahn-Harris, a London-based Jewish sociologist and writer, told CNN that Corbyn and the people around him have spent years talking to the minority who agree with them, and as a result "find it exceptionally difficult to communicate with the majority Jewish community."
"That means that even when they do try to do something about anti-Semitism they do it in a way that alienates rather than brings people together," he said. "I think what that has led to is a situation where there is no trust."
'We just want to find a safe homeland'
Meanwhile, Lewis, who was born and grew up in Manchester but now lives in north London, is in the throes of applying to move to Israel, a process that includes producing paperwork to prove he is Jewish and meets the requirements of the Israeli Law of Return.
It's a huge step, complicated by the fact that he has multiple sclerosis, doesn't speak Hebrew and won't be qualified to practice law in Israel.
But Lewis -- who plans to continue to practice in Britain through remote working where possible -- is adamant that it is necessary.
"At a point you think, enough is enough," he said. "I still get all this abuse and I think it's not worth a candle. I don't need to keep on fighting against people. It seems that my life is all about fighting to justify my own existence and I shouldn't have to do this.
"The biggest irony is, it's the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and ... all the anti-Israel people who make you want to live in Israel. They are trying to suggest that Israel caused anti-Semitism but historically it's the other way round. Anti-Semitism is what caused people to become Zionists and say, 'We just want to get out of here and find a safe homeland.' "
Members of the Jewish community protest against Corbyn and anti-Semitism outside Parliament in March.
Members of the Jewish community protest against Corbyn and anti-Semitism outside Parliament in March.
Blumenthal, also 53, can "get by" in Hebrew and says she is feeling "very positive" about the move.
She had a very British upbringing, she said, with a father who served in the military and as Lord Mayor of Birmingham and a mother who was a magistrate. The family embraced both British and Jewish culture. "Sunday roast lunch and Friday night dinner -- both parts of the tradition were very much part of our lives," she said.
But in more recent years, Blumenthal said, there's been a "snowball effect" where it appears to have become acceptable in British society to be anti-Semitic. "I've seen too much, whether it's personal things, or things that have happened to friends," she said.
Blumenthal, an outspoken pro-Israel campaigner, fears that verbal and physical abuse against Jews will escalate into more serious harm or death. "We are at that point in England. We get death threats. I've had different things saying that I should be gassed to death on social media," she said.
"I know that wherever you live there are different struggles, it's not a fairy tale. But I don't like this racial abuse for being Jewish. I've had enough of it and it's left more than a nasty taste for me."
Similarly, Jewish journalist Miriam Shaviv described in a piece for the Jewish Chronicle in April how she came to the "heartbreaking" realization that her "family's longterm future cannot be in the UK," although she's not yet ready to leave.
"Jeremy Corbyn has spent his career fighting against Zionism, and allying with people and organisations who want to destroy the Jewish state," she wrote. "Corbyn embodies the reason why Israel's existence is forever necessary, as a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution and distress."
By contrast, 20-year-old Sam Anton, who's studying history and French at Durham University in northeast England, questions the warning of an "existential threat" under a Corbyn government, saying the issue is more one of Jews being shut out of Labour politics.
Student Sam Anton is pictured at Durham University in June.
Student Sam Anton is pictured at Durham University in June.
Anton, whose parents and brother are Labour Party members, doesn't consider Corbyn to be an anti-Semite as such but believes "he doesn't want a strong Jewish voice in the Labour Party" because Jews "tend to push Labour towards the center" at a time when Corbyn wants to shift the party further left.
Anton, from southwest London, says neither he nor his immediate family plan to quit Britain.
"I'm proud to be British, I don't have an Israeli passport, I would only move to Israel if I had to," he said. At the same time, he said, some friends of his -- particularly those who live in heavily Jewish areas of north London, where a collective feeling of threat is greater -- feel quite differently.
Verbal, physical, online abuse
Community Security Trust figures show that more than 100 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded every month from January to June this year, with the highest monthly totals in April and May. The group says it is "likely" that Gaza-Israel tensions and the turmoil within Labour "partly caused" the increase.
View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
CST
✔
@CST_UK
CST has just released the Antisemitic Incidents January-June 2018 report: recording the second highest 6-monthly total on record, despite a drop from 2017’s record high #Antisemitism2018 https://buff.ly/2mGwctZ
9:10 AM - Jul 26, 2018
Fifty-nine of the reported incidents involved physical violence, at least three of which left the victims requiring hospital treatment, while around a fifth involved social media. There were also instances of anti-Semitic graffiti, desecration of Jewish sites and the abuse of Jewish schoolchildren and staff.
"I don't know how many people are actively thinking on those terms of leaving the country but certainly a lot of Jewish people are worrying about what the future might hold," Dave Rich, head of policy for the CST, told CNN.
Although it's hard to quantify, the publicity around anti-Semitism may have led both to more incidents occurring and to more being reported, he said.
"There is just general concern across the Jewish community at the moment about anti-Semitism, about the fact that it seems to be part of mainstream politics and mainstream life in a way that it never used to be."
Laura Smith Spark-Profile-Image
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Updated 0423 GMT (1223 HKT) August 17, 2018
Jewish leaders and supporters hold a demonstration in July 19 outside Parliament in London.
London (CNN)Mark Lewis, a famed libel and privacy lawyer, is leaving Britain. Worn down by years of anti-Semitic abuse and death threats, he has decided enough is enough.
The 53-year-old plans to begin a new life in Israel with his partner, Mandy Blumenthal, by year's end. Both were born and raised in England. Both are very ready to leave.
"I just want to get out of here. It's a massive thing to do but I've actually had enough," Lewis said. "People might dislike me in Israel because of my political views, might think I'm too right-wing or left-wing or whatever, but they are not going to dislike me for being Jewish."
Two people have previously been imprisoned for threatening to murder him for being Jewish, Lewis said. Now, he said, he's reached the stage where he's "almost being desensitized to the threats" -- from both right and left -- such is their regularity.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer best known for representing victims of phone hacking, addresses the media in November 2012.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer best known for representing victims of phone hacking, addresses the media in November 2012.
The couple's decision comes as accusations of anti-Semitism dog Britain's main opposition Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. At the same time, incidents of recorded anti-Semitism are near record levels.
Lewis sees Corbyn as a catalyst for anti-Semitism rather than a threat in himself, saying the Labour leader has "moved the rock and it's the people who are crawling out from underneath it who are the problem." As a public figure and prominent pro-Israel voice, Lewis is an easy target for abuse on social media.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that fights anti-Semitism, recorded 727 anti-Semitic incidents in the first six months of 2018, the second-highest total ever marked for the first half of a year since the CST began recording anti-Semitic incidents in 1984. Only the total for the first six months of 2017 has been higher.
The current climate has shaken Britain's roughly 300,000-strong Jewish community.
Since the UK took in some 90,000 Jews from the European mainland as World War II loomed, it has been considered one of the safest places in the world for Jews to live. Unlike in neighboring France, where a 2015 terror attack targeted a kosher supermarket and a Holocaust survivor was killed in her home in March, no lethal violence has occurred. But the conversation is changing.
"We are seeing British Jews increasingly talking about leaving and also seeing signs of people actually leaving, not just to Israel, but also to the United States and Canada -- and Australia is a destination as well," said Gideon Falter, chairman of the Coalition Against Antisemitism (CAA).
"Some of our volunteers from the coalition have become aware of so many incidents through their work with us that they have decided to leave and have moved with their families."
Members of the Jewish community protest against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in March.
Members of the Jewish community protest against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in March.
It's hard to pin down exact figures on how many people have left or are actively considering uprooting their lives, since Israel is the only country globally that specifically tracks the immigration of Jews, Falter said.
Yigal Palmor, communications director for the Jewish Agency for Israel, told CNN that 213 Jews had moved from Britain to Israel between January and June, up 9% compared with the same period last year. However, the total number of people who moved from the UK to Israel in 2017 was lower than in the three previous years.
Palmor said the agency's UK office had also received more calls and that more people had opened files than last year but cautioned that this would not necessarily translate into more people moving to Israel, a process known as making "Aliyah". Nonetheless, he said, "Aliyah has become a popular conversation theme among many British Jews and many more are talking about it."
Some British Jews who have the financial means have started to consider buying property in Israel, Falter said, even if they aren't planning an imminent move. Of course, not all can afford to relocate even if they want to.
"It's a very sad state of affairs because we have all grown up here and for most us this is where our grandparents found refuge during the darkest days of humanity," said Falter.
How did Britain get here?
Corbyn walks through crowds after delivering a speech in Durham, England in July.
Corbyn walks through crowds after delivering a speech in Durham, England in July.
The current situation is complex and involves shifting political sands, social media's capacity to echo and amplify the views of a minority, and a long-running undercurrent of anti-Semitism.
On the political front, the Labour Party, which has long been considered a natural home for British Jews, has been embroiled for more than two years in a bitter dispute over the extent of anti-Semitism within its ranks.
The seeds of the crisis lie in Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader in 2015.
Corbyn, who long-served on his party's backbenches in Parliament, has a history of associating with fringe left-wing groups whose support for the Palestinian cause often bleeds into anti-Semitism, wrote political commentator John McTernan earlier this month. When Corbyn became leader, those views were brought into the mainstream.
Demonstrators stage a protest against anti-Semitism in Britain's Labour Party in April.
Demonstrators stage a protest against anti-Semitism in Britain's Labour Party in April.
The dispute within Labour came to a head last month, when the party's governing body adopted a new code of conduct that included the 38-word International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, but not all 11 examples of what could constitute anti-Semitic behavior. Jewish groups -- and some senior Labour figures -- have called for the party's leadership to adopt the IHRA definition in full, but the party leadership appears to be concerned that it would inhibit criticism of Israel and its policies.
On July 25, Britain's three leading Jewish newspapers -- the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Telegraph and Jewish News -- took the unprecedented step of publishing the same front page, with the headline "United we stand," in which they argued that any Corbyn-led government would be an "existential threat" to Jewish life in Britain.
Explaining the decision, the Jewish Chronicle cited "Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel."
View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
Marcus Dysch
✔
@MarcusDysch
This is the single most astonishing front page we’ve run at @JewishChron in my decade here. It is totally without precedent. Our paper has been published since 1841. @JewishNewsUK and @JewishTelegraph are our rivals - in name, in business, and on stories
4:12 AM - Jul 26, 2018
Days later, Corbyn had to apologize for reportedly hosting an event at which the Israeli government was likened to the Nazis.
With the issue continuing to dominate UK headlines, Corbyn wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian in which he rejected the idea that a Labour government would be any kind of threat to the Jewish community, while at the same time dismissing the Jewish newspapers' warning as "overheated rhetoric."
Two days later, Corbyn issued a video statement in which he insisted that "people who hold anti-Semitic views have no place in the Labour Party."
He acknowledged that Labour had been "too slow" to take action over anti-Semitism within its ranks but also said instances of it had been few.
Jeremy Corbyn
✔
@jeremycorbyn
There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We must drive it out of our movement for good.
9:12 PM - Aug 5, 2018
The furor was stoked this week when pictures emerged showing the Labour Party leader at a 2014 wreath-laying ceremony for terrorists who killed Israeli athletes in the 1970s, prompting condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Corbyn has not apologized but has said he was there to remember victims of a 1985 Israeli airstrike on the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia.
Keith Kahn-Harris, a London-based Jewish sociologist and writer, told CNN that Corbyn and the people around him have spent years talking to the minority who agree with them, and as a result "find it exceptionally difficult to communicate with the majority Jewish community."
"That means that even when they do try to do something about anti-Semitism they do it in a way that alienates rather than brings people together," he said. "I think what that has led to is a situation where there is no trust."
'We just want to find a safe homeland'
Meanwhile, Lewis, who was born and grew up in Manchester but now lives in north London, is in the throes of applying to move to Israel, a process that includes producing paperwork to prove he is Jewish and meets the requirements of the Israeli Law of Return.
It's a huge step, complicated by the fact that he has multiple sclerosis, doesn't speak Hebrew and won't be qualified to practice law in Israel.
But Lewis -- who plans to continue to practice in Britain through remote working where possible -- is adamant that it is necessary.
"At a point you think, enough is enough," he said. "I still get all this abuse and I think it's not worth a candle. I don't need to keep on fighting against people. It seems that my life is all about fighting to justify my own existence and I shouldn't have to do this.
"The biggest irony is, it's the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and ... all the anti-Israel people who make you want to live in Israel. They are trying to suggest that Israel caused anti-Semitism but historically it's the other way round. Anti-Semitism is what caused people to become Zionists and say, 'We just want to get out of here and find a safe homeland.' "
Members of the Jewish community protest against Corbyn and anti-Semitism outside Parliament in March.
Members of the Jewish community protest against Corbyn and anti-Semitism outside Parliament in March.
Blumenthal, also 53, can "get by" in Hebrew and says she is feeling "very positive" about the move.
She had a very British upbringing, she said, with a father who served in the military and as Lord Mayor of Birmingham and a mother who was a magistrate. The family embraced both British and Jewish culture. "Sunday roast lunch and Friday night dinner -- both parts of the tradition were very much part of our lives," she said.
But in more recent years, Blumenthal said, there's been a "snowball effect" where it appears to have become acceptable in British society to be anti-Semitic. "I've seen too much, whether it's personal things, or things that have happened to friends," she said.
Blumenthal, an outspoken pro-Israel campaigner, fears that verbal and physical abuse against Jews will escalate into more serious harm or death. "We are at that point in England. We get death threats. I've had different things saying that I should be gassed to death on social media," she said.
"I know that wherever you live there are different struggles, it's not a fairy tale. But I don't like this racial abuse for being Jewish. I've had enough of it and it's left more than a nasty taste for me."
Similarly, Jewish journalist Miriam Shaviv described in a piece for the Jewish Chronicle in April how she came to the "heartbreaking" realization that her "family's longterm future cannot be in the UK," although she's not yet ready to leave.
"Jeremy Corbyn has spent his career fighting against Zionism, and allying with people and organisations who want to destroy the Jewish state," she wrote. "Corbyn embodies the reason why Israel's existence is forever necessary, as a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution and distress."
By contrast, 20-year-old Sam Anton, who's studying history and French at Durham University in northeast England, questions the warning of an "existential threat" under a Corbyn government, saying the issue is more one of Jews being shut out of Labour politics.
Student Sam Anton is pictured at Durham University in June.
Student Sam Anton is pictured at Durham University in June.
Anton, whose parents and brother are Labour Party members, doesn't consider Corbyn to be an anti-Semite as such but believes "he doesn't want a strong Jewish voice in the Labour Party" because Jews "tend to push Labour towards the center" at a time when Corbyn wants to shift the party further left.
Anton, from southwest London, says neither he nor his immediate family plan to quit Britain.
"I'm proud to be British, I don't have an Israeli passport, I would only move to Israel if I had to," he said. At the same time, he said, some friends of his -- particularly those who live in heavily Jewish areas of north London, where a collective feeling of threat is greater -- feel quite differently.
Verbal, physical, online abuse
Community Security Trust figures show that more than 100 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded every month from January to June this year, with the highest monthly totals in April and May. The group says it is "likely" that Gaza-Israel tensions and the turmoil within Labour "partly caused" the increase.
View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
CST
✔
@CST_UK
CST has just released the Antisemitic Incidents January-June 2018 report: recording the second highest 6-monthly total on record, despite a drop from 2017’s record high #Antisemitism2018 https://buff.ly/2mGwctZ
9:10 AM - Jul 26, 2018
Fifty-nine of the reported incidents involved physical violence, at least three of which left the victims requiring hospital treatment, while around a fifth involved social media. There were also instances of anti-Semitic graffiti, desecration of Jewish sites and the abuse of Jewish schoolchildren and staff.
"I don't know how many people are actively thinking on those terms of leaving the country but certainly a lot of Jewish people are worrying about what the future might hold," Dave Rich, head of policy for the CST, told CNN.
Although it's hard to quantify, the publicity around anti-Semitism may have led both to more incidents occurring and to more being reported, he said.
"There is just general concern across the Jewish community at the moment about anti-Semitism, about the fact that it seems to be part of mainstream politics and mainstream life in a way that it never used to be."
US threatens more action against Turkey unless pastor freed - BBC News
August 17, 2018.
US threatens more action against Turkey unless pastor freed
The US has threatened to impose more economic sanctions on Turkey if it does not free a detained American pastor.
Andrew Brunson has been held in Turkey for nearly two years over alleged links to outlawed political groups.
The dispute over his release has seen the two Nato allies impose tariffs on one another's goods.
This has worsened a crisis for Turkey's currency, the lira, which has lost about a third of its value against the dollar since January.
The crisis has prompted widespread selling in other emerging markets, sparking fears of a global crisis.
What is the new threat from the US?
The lira has staged a small recovery but that is threatened by a fresh tweet from US President Donald Trump.
He said early on Friday that Turkey had "taken advantage of the United States for many years" and that he was "cutting back on Turkey".
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Turkey has taken advantage of the United States for many years. They are now holding our wonderful Christian Pastor, who I must now ask to represent our Country as a great patriot hostage. We will pay nothing for the release of an innocent man, but we are cutting back on Turkey!
9:30 AM - Aug 17, 2018
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: "We have more that we are planning to do if they don't release him [Mr Brunson] quickly."
Last week, the US doubled its tariffs on metal imports from Turkey.
Turkey vowed it would not succumb to threats.
A court refused to release Mr Brunson, and the the government in Ankara increased tariffs on imports from the US of cars, alcoholic drinks and leaf tobacco - and the lira recovered slightly.
Why this tension between Nato allies?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the US of trying to "bring Turkey to its knees".
Ankara accuses Mr Brunson - who operates a tiny evangelical church in Izmir - of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party and the Gulenist movement, which Turkey blames for a failed coup two years ago.
US President Donald Trump has called pastor Andrew Brunson "an innocent man of faith"
Mr Brunson has denied charges of espionage, but faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty.
The US insists the pastor, a long-time Turkish resident, is "a victim of unfair and unjust detention".
Mr Trump described him as "our wonderful Christian Pastor, who I must now ask to represent our Country as a great patriot hostage".
The influential Protestant evangelical church in the US is a major support base for Mr Trump.
Mr Erdogan is angry that the US has not taken more action against the Gulenist movement and what he said was a failure "to unequivocally condemn" the 2016 coup attempt. The US has refused to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania.
US support for Kurdish rebel groups fighting Islamic State fighters in northern Syria is another major difficulty, given Turkey's battle against a Kurdish insurgency in its own country.
The pastor is only one of a number of issues dividing Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan
Mr Erdogan wrote in the New York Times earlier that unless the US changed course, Turkey would look for new friends and allies.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, visited Ankara on Tuesday, branding the US sanctions an illegitimate policy.
It's an awkward triangle, given that Turkey is a Nato member, Russia is Nato's number one threat and the organisation is obliged to defend any member that is attacked.
Could the lira crisis spread?
President Erdogan has urged Turks to shore up the currency by not trading in dollars and euros.
On Monday, the central bank said it would provide all the liquidity Turkish banks needed, as it seeks to keep money flowing in the financial system.
There are signs that the weakness in Turkish currency markets is already spreading.
South Africa's rand, Russia's rouble, the Indian rupee and Indonesia's rupiah have all taken a hit from the crisis in Turkey.
US threatens more action against Turkey unless pastor freed
The US has threatened to impose more economic sanctions on Turkey if it does not free a detained American pastor.
Andrew Brunson has been held in Turkey for nearly two years over alleged links to outlawed political groups.
The dispute over his release has seen the two Nato allies impose tariffs on one another's goods.
This has worsened a crisis for Turkey's currency, the lira, which has lost about a third of its value against the dollar since January.
The crisis has prompted widespread selling in other emerging markets, sparking fears of a global crisis.
What is the new threat from the US?
The lira has staged a small recovery but that is threatened by a fresh tweet from US President Donald Trump.
He said early on Friday that Turkey had "taken advantage of the United States for many years" and that he was "cutting back on Turkey".
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Turkey has taken advantage of the United States for many years. They are now holding our wonderful Christian Pastor, who I must now ask to represent our Country as a great patriot hostage. We will pay nothing for the release of an innocent man, but we are cutting back on Turkey!
9:30 AM - Aug 17, 2018
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: "We have more that we are planning to do if they don't release him [Mr Brunson] quickly."
Last week, the US doubled its tariffs on metal imports from Turkey.
Turkey vowed it would not succumb to threats.
A court refused to release Mr Brunson, and the the government in Ankara increased tariffs on imports from the US of cars, alcoholic drinks and leaf tobacco - and the lira recovered slightly.
Why this tension between Nato allies?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the US of trying to "bring Turkey to its knees".
Ankara accuses Mr Brunson - who operates a tiny evangelical church in Izmir - of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party and the Gulenist movement, which Turkey blames for a failed coup two years ago.
US President Donald Trump has called pastor Andrew Brunson "an innocent man of faith"
Mr Brunson has denied charges of espionage, but faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty.
The US insists the pastor, a long-time Turkish resident, is "a victim of unfair and unjust detention".
Mr Trump described him as "our wonderful Christian Pastor, who I must now ask to represent our Country as a great patriot hostage".
The influential Protestant evangelical church in the US is a major support base for Mr Trump.
Mr Erdogan is angry that the US has not taken more action against the Gulenist movement and what he said was a failure "to unequivocally condemn" the 2016 coup attempt. The US has refused to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania.
US support for Kurdish rebel groups fighting Islamic State fighters in northern Syria is another major difficulty, given Turkey's battle against a Kurdish insurgency in its own country.
The pastor is only one of a number of issues dividing Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan
Mr Erdogan wrote in the New York Times earlier that unless the US changed course, Turkey would look for new friends and allies.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, visited Ankara on Tuesday, branding the US sanctions an illegitimate policy.
It's an awkward triangle, given that Turkey is a Nato member, Russia is Nato's number one threat and the organisation is obliged to defend any member that is attacked.
Could the lira crisis spread?
President Erdogan has urged Turks to shore up the currency by not trading in dollars and euros.
On Monday, the central bank said it would provide all the liquidity Turkish banks needed, as it seeks to keep money flowing in the financial system.
There are signs that the weakness in Turkish currency markets is already spreading.
South Africa's rand, Russia's rouble, the Indian rupee and Indonesia's rupiah have all taken a hit from the crisis in Turkey.
Low-carb diets could shorten life, study suggests - BBC News
August 17, 2018.
Low-carb diets could shorten life, study suggests
By Alex Therrien
Health reporter, BBC News
Some low-carb diets are rich in animal fats and proteins
A low-carb diet could shorten life expectancy by up to four years, a study suggests.
Low-carb diets, such as Atkins, have become increasingly popular for weight loss and have shown promise for lowering the risk of some illnesses.
But a US study over 25 years indicates that moderate carb consumption - or switching meat for plant-based protein and fats - is healthier.
The study relied on people remembering the amount of carbohydrates they ate.
'Gaining widespread popularity'
In the study, published in The Lancet Public Health, 15,400 people from the US filled out questionnaires on the food and drink they consumed, along with portion sizes.
From this, scientists estimated the proportion of calories they got from carbohydrates, fats, and protein.
After following the group for an average of 25 years, researchers found that those who got 50-55% of their energy from carbohydrates (the moderate carb group and in line with UK dietary guidelines) had a slightly lower risk of death compared with the low and high-carb groups.
Carbohydrates include vegetables, fruit and sugar but the main source of them is starchy foods, such as potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and cereals.
The NHS Eatwell Guide provides details on how to achieve this kind of healthy, balanced diet and reduce the risk of serious illnesses in the long term.
Researchers estimated that, from the age of 50, people in the moderate carb group were on average expected to live for another 33 years.
This was:
four years more than people who got 30% or less of their energy from carbs (extra-low-carb group)
2.3 years more than the 30%-40% (low-carb) group
1.1 years more than the 65% or more (high-carb) group
The findings were similar to previous studies the authors compared their work with, which included more than 400,000 people from more than 20 countries.
Exchanging carbohydrates for plant-based fats and proteins might promote healthy ageing, experts said
The scientists then compared low-carb diets rich in animal proteins and fats with those that contained lots of plant-based protein and fat.
They found that eating more beef, lamb, pork, chicken and cheese in place of carbs was linked with a slightly increased risk of death.
But replacing carbohydrates with more plant-based proteins and fats, such as legumes and nuts, was actually found to slightly reduce the risk of mortality.
Dr Sara Seidelmann, clinical and research fellow in cardiovascular medicine from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the research, said: "Low-carb diets that replace carbohydrates with protein or fat are gaining widespread popularity as a health and weight-loss strategy.
"However, our data suggests that animal-based low carbohydrate diets, which are prevalent in North America and Europe, might be associated with shorter overall life span and should be discouraged.
"Instead, if one chooses to follow a low carbohydrate diet, then exchanging carbohydrates for more plant-based fats and proteins might actually promote healthy ageing in the long term."
'Not enough to focus on nutrients'
The authors speculate that Western-type diets that restrict carbohydrates often result in lower intake of vegetables, fruit, and grains and lead to greater consumption of animal proteins and fats, which have been linked to inflammation and ageing in the body.
Prof Nita Forouhi, from the MRC epidemiology unit at University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, said: "A really important message from this study is that it is not enough to focus on the nutrients, but whether they are derived from animal or plant sources.
"When carbohydrate intake is reduced in the diet, there are benefits when this is replaced with plant-origin fat and protein food sources, but not when replaced with animal-origin sources such as meats."
However, there are limitations to the study.
The findings show observational associations rather than cause-and-effect and what people ate was based on self-reported data, which might not be accurate.
And the authors acknowledge that since diets were measured only at the start of the trial and six years later, dietary patterns could have changed over the subsequent 19 years.
'High fibre intake'
Prof Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, also pointed out that the use of a food questionnaire in the study led to people underestimating the calories and fat they had eaten.
"One explanation for the finding in this and the other US studies is that it may reflect the higher risk of death in the overweight/obese, who may fall into two popular diet camps - those favouring a high-meat/low-carbohydrate diet and those favouring a low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet," he added.
Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: "This provides further evidence that low-carb diets could be incredibly damaging to our long-term health.
"High-fibre starchy carbohydrates should provide about half of our energy, including fruit and vegetables, while reducing intake of higher fat meat and dairy."
Low-carb diets could shorten life, study suggests
By Alex Therrien
Health reporter, BBC News
Some low-carb diets are rich in animal fats and proteins
A low-carb diet could shorten life expectancy by up to four years, a study suggests.
Low-carb diets, such as Atkins, have become increasingly popular for weight loss and have shown promise for lowering the risk of some illnesses.
But a US study over 25 years indicates that moderate carb consumption - or switching meat for plant-based protein and fats - is healthier.
The study relied on people remembering the amount of carbohydrates they ate.
'Gaining widespread popularity'
In the study, published in The Lancet Public Health, 15,400 people from the US filled out questionnaires on the food and drink they consumed, along with portion sizes.
From this, scientists estimated the proportion of calories they got from carbohydrates, fats, and protein.
After following the group for an average of 25 years, researchers found that those who got 50-55% of their energy from carbohydrates (the moderate carb group and in line with UK dietary guidelines) had a slightly lower risk of death compared with the low and high-carb groups.
Carbohydrates include vegetables, fruit and sugar but the main source of them is starchy foods, such as potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and cereals.
The NHS Eatwell Guide provides details on how to achieve this kind of healthy, balanced diet and reduce the risk of serious illnesses in the long term.
Researchers estimated that, from the age of 50, people in the moderate carb group were on average expected to live for another 33 years.
This was:
four years more than people who got 30% or less of their energy from carbs (extra-low-carb group)
2.3 years more than the 30%-40% (low-carb) group
1.1 years more than the 65% or more (high-carb) group
The findings were similar to previous studies the authors compared their work with, which included more than 400,000 people from more than 20 countries.
Exchanging carbohydrates for plant-based fats and proteins might promote healthy ageing, experts said
The scientists then compared low-carb diets rich in animal proteins and fats with those that contained lots of plant-based protein and fat.
They found that eating more beef, lamb, pork, chicken and cheese in place of carbs was linked with a slightly increased risk of death.
But replacing carbohydrates with more plant-based proteins and fats, such as legumes and nuts, was actually found to slightly reduce the risk of mortality.
Dr Sara Seidelmann, clinical and research fellow in cardiovascular medicine from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the research, said: "Low-carb diets that replace carbohydrates with protein or fat are gaining widespread popularity as a health and weight-loss strategy.
"However, our data suggests that animal-based low carbohydrate diets, which are prevalent in North America and Europe, might be associated with shorter overall life span and should be discouraged.
"Instead, if one chooses to follow a low carbohydrate diet, then exchanging carbohydrates for more plant-based fats and proteins might actually promote healthy ageing in the long term."
'Not enough to focus on nutrients'
The authors speculate that Western-type diets that restrict carbohydrates often result in lower intake of vegetables, fruit, and grains and lead to greater consumption of animal proteins and fats, which have been linked to inflammation and ageing in the body.
Prof Nita Forouhi, from the MRC epidemiology unit at University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, said: "A really important message from this study is that it is not enough to focus on the nutrients, but whether they are derived from animal or plant sources.
"When carbohydrate intake is reduced in the diet, there are benefits when this is replaced with plant-origin fat and protein food sources, but not when replaced with animal-origin sources such as meats."
However, there are limitations to the study.
The findings show observational associations rather than cause-and-effect and what people ate was based on self-reported data, which might not be accurate.
And the authors acknowledge that since diets were measured only at the start of the trial and six years later, dietary patterns could have changed over the subsequent 19 years.
'High fibre intake'
Prof Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, also pointed out that the use of a food questionnaire in the study led to people underestimating the calories and fat they had eaten.
"One explanation for the finding in this and the other US studies is that it may reflect the higher risk of death in the overweight/obese, who may fall into two popular diet camps - those favouring a high-meat/low-carbohydrate diet and those favouring a low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet," he added.
Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: "This provides further evidence that low-carb diets could be incredibly damaging to our long-term health.
"High-fibre starchy carbohydrates should provide about half of our energy, including fruit and vegetables, while reducing intake of higher fat meat and dairy."
Reality Check: Why is President Trump creating a space force? - BBC News
Reality Check: Why is President Trump creating a space force?
By Reality Check team
BBC News
17 August 2018
The United States wants to establish a military space force.
Astronauts won't be armed any time soon, but according to Vice-President Mike Pence, China and Russia have been developing airborne lasers and anti-satellite missiles that need to be countered.
"The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation," said Mr Pence, as he outlined what the new force would do.
"What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial."
It would mean creating a branch of the military focused on defending American interests in space, such as the hundreds of satellites used for communication and surveillance.
President Trump, who mentioned the plan earlier this year, has warned about the military advances made by America's rivals.
The president said: "I've seen things that you don't even want to see."
In practice, major world powers have used space for military purposes such as communication or surveillance for many years.
So, what is the US concerned about now?
The space shuttle Discovery made its final mission to the International Space Station in 2011
The superpower space race
There are both military and civilian operations in space, but they can overlap.
Satellite navigation technology using the Global Positioning System (GPS) was invented by the US military and only later permitted for civilian use.
"People possibly don't know that space already is a military environment," says Alexandra Stickings, a space security expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).
"Space has been militarised since the 60s."
President Trump relaxes US cyber-attacks rules
Space Force: Trump 2020 asks supporters to vote on logo
Trump space force: US to set up sixth military branch
During the Cold War the US and the Soviet Union were not actually fighting in space, but did use satellites to spy on each other.
The US had a nuclear anti-satellite missile stationed in the Pacific and the Soviet Union had a weapon that could ram into an orbiting satellite.
China, Russia and the United States have all tested weapons that are capable of taking out a satellite, according to research by the Secure World Foundation, which records military capabilities in space.
These are missiles that are launched from earth directly at a satellite in orbit.
There are weapons known as 'co-orbitals', which are satellites attached to a missile or rocket fired from earth. The satellite detaches from the missile and goes into the orbit of the target satellite before attacking it by grabbing or colliding with it.
Media captionA satellite device called a co-orbital is capable of colliding with another satellite
Mr Pence highlighted evidence of increased Russian and Chinese weaponry.
"Over the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen a resurgence of interest in, and development of, counter-space weapons that could be used to attack space capabilities," says Brian Weeden, director at the Secure World Foundation.
"Much of this is being done by Russia and China, but the US is working on some as well."
One of the main reasons the military needs to defend what the US has in space is because satellites are so heavily relied upon on earth. And the US, either private companies or the government, operates more satellites than any other country, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit science advocacy organisation.
China now has more than Russia and the remaining 589 come from dozens of countries.
The number of Chinese military satellites deployed in space has been increasing and Russia has rebuilt its own military satellites that were lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent financial crises.
New US priorities
The creation of a US space force may in part be a response to Chinese satellite and missile programmes that are now producing results, says Bleddyn Bowen, a space warfare expert at the University of Leicester.
"The US has ramped up in response to China," he says.
In 2007, China tested an anti-satellite missile that destroyed its own weather satellite orbiting the globe at a height of 500 miles.
Despite a lack of solid information, the US and Russia are both believed to have also developed anti-satellite laser programmes. Beams fired from the ground, or from a plane, would dazzle a satellite's sensor.
The American vice-president's comments suggest that the Trump administration considers these new threats in space a challenge that needs to be met by a fundamental re-evaluation of its military priorities.
By Reality Check team
BBC News
17 August 2018
The United States wants to establish a military space force.
Astronauts won't be armed any time soon, but according to Vice-President Mike Pence, China and Russia have been developing airborne lasers and anti-satellite missiles that need to be countered.
"The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation," said Mr Pence, as he outlined what the new force would do.
"What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial."
It would mean creating a branch of the military focused on defending American interests in space, such as the hundreds of satellites used for communication and surveillance.
President Trump, who mentioned the plan earlier this year, has warned about the military advances made by America's rivals.
The president said: "I've seen things that you don't even want to see."
In practice, major world powers have used space for military purposes such as communication or surveillance for many years.
So, what is the US concerned about now?
The space shuttle Discovery made its final mission to the International Space Station in 2011
The superpower space race
There are both military and civilian operations in space, but they can overlap.
Satellite navigation technology using the Global Positioning System (GPS) was invented by the US military and only later permitted for civilian use.
"People possibly don't know that space already is a military environment," says Alexandra Stickings, a space security expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).
"Space has been militarised since the 60s."
President Trump relaxes US cyber-attacks rules
Space Force: Trump 2020 asks supporters to vote on logo
Trump space force: US to set up sixth military branch
During the Cold War the US and the Soviet Union were not actually fighting in space, but did use satellites to spy on each other.
The US had a nuclear anti-satellite missile stationed in the Pacific and the Soviet Union had a weapon that could ram into an orbiting satellite.
China, Russia and the United States have all tested weapons that are capable of taking out a satellite, according to research by the Secure World Foundation, which records military capabilities in space.
These are missiles that are launched from earth directly at a satellite in orbit.
There are weapons known as 'co-orbitals', which are satellites attached to a missile or rocket fired from earth. The satellite detaches from the missile and goes into the orbit of the target satellite before attacking it by grabbing or colliding with it.
Media captionA satellite device called a co-orbital is capable of colliding with another satellite
Mr Pence highlighted evidence of increased Russian and Chinese weaponry.
"Over the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen a resurgence of interest in, and development of, counter-space weapons that could be used to attack space capabilities," says Brian Weeden, director at the Secure World Foundation.
"Much of this is being done by Russia and China, but the US is working on some as well."
One of the main reasons the military needs to defend what the US has in space is because satellites are so heavily relied upon on earth. And the US, either private companies or the government, operates more satellites than any other country, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit science advocacy organisation.
China now has more than Russia and the remaining 589 come from dozens of countries.
The number of Chinese military satellites deployed in space has been increasing and Russia has rebuilt its own military satellites that were lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent financial crises.
New US priorities
The creation of a US space force may in part be a response to Chinese satellite and missile programmes that are now producing results, says Bleddyn Bowen, a space warfare expert at the University of Leicester.
"The US has ramped up in response to China," he says.
In 2007, China tested an anti-satellite missile that destroyed its own weather satellite orbiting the globe at a height of 500 miles.
Despite a lack of solid information, the US and Russia are both believed to have also developed anti-satellite laser programmes. Beams fired from the ground, or from a plane, would dazzle a satellite's sensor.
The American vice-president's comments suggest that the Trump administration considers these new threats in space a challenge that needs to be met by a fundamental re-evaluation of its military priorities.
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