Catalans vow to escape after ‘worst attack’ since Franco - The Times

Catalans vow to escape after ‘worst attack’ since Franco

Graham Keeley, Barcelona

October 23 2017,

The Times

Catalonia could declare independence from Spain on Friday in retaliation for Madrid’s decision to dismiss the separatist authority and call elections.

Carles Puigdemont, the regional president, accused the Spanish government of “the worst attack on institutions and Catalan people” since the days of Franco, who banned the Catalan language and culture, after the decision to impose direct rule on the region.

There are fears that civil unrest will erupt as separatist groups try to resist any attempt by Madrid to enforce direct rule.

Alfonso Dastis, the Spanish foreign minister, urged Catalans to disregard any instruction from the pro-independence leadership. “All the government is trying to do, and reluctantly, is to reinstate the legal order, to restore the constitution but also the Catalan rules,” he told the BBC.

Mr Dastis defended police attempts to stop the referendum and said images of violence at polling stations were fake. “If there was any use of force, it was a limited one and prompted by the fact that the law and order agencies were prevented from discharging the orders of the courts,” he said.

Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, said on Saturday that his conservative government was “regretfully” stripping Mr Puigdemont and his ministers of their jobs to restore legality. The Spanish government also plans to take control of the local police force and broadcasting outlets. These measures are subject to a vote in the senate, which the government is expected to win.

Hundreds of thousands of people flooded Barcelona’s streets to show their anger after Mr Rajoy’s statement. The Catalan parliament will meet at the end of the week to discuss its reaction to the Spanish government’s plans — the day the Senate is set to approve measures to take control of Catalonia.

Mr Rajoy told Mr Puigdemont last week that he would not press ahead with suspending the regional government if the Catalan leader stopped trying to enforce the results of an illegal referendum in which 90 per cent voted for secession on a 43 per cent turnout. “Regional elections are not on the table,” Jordi Turull, the Catalan government spokesman, said on Saturday, setting up the possibility that Mr Puigdemont would declare independence when the regional assembly meets.

A poll for El Periodico, a Barcelona newspaper, published at the weekend found that 69 per cent of Catalans supported holding elections and only 36 per cent backed independence.

Home to 7.5 million people, relatively wealthy Catalonia fiercely defends its language and culture and enjoys a high degree of autonomy, controlling its own police force, education and health services and limited tax-raising powers.

The central government can wrest back control under Article 155 of the 1978 Spanish constitution, which has never been used. The country returned to democracy the previous year.

In a television address on Saturday, Mr Puigdemont was careful not to mention the word “independence”. However, two weeks earlier he delivered a confusing address in which he appeared to declare secession then immediately suspended it and appealed to Madrid and Europe to open talks.

Apart from sacking the Catalan government, Madrid could take over the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan regional police, the local television channel TV3 and its tax ministry.

The measures will not be opposed by the Senate because the ruling Popular Party holds a majority and Mr Rajoy has the support of the opposition Socialists. Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist party leader, said “separatism is the Brexit of Catalonia” and accused the pro-independence parties of wanting to “break up 40 years of unparalleled self-government in Catalonia”.

Mr Rajoy said the government was using Article 155 as a last resort after Mr Puigdemont refused to drop his threat to declare independence. “The government of a democratic country cannot accept that the law is ignored,” he said.

West’s rift with Russia ‘will last until Vladimir Putin goes’ - Guardian

West’s rift with Russia ‘will last until Vladimir Putin goes’

Outgoing EU envoy to Moscow says Brussels should help Ukraine by offering it a path to membership

Emma Graham-Harrison

Sunday 1 October 2017

Relations between Russia and the EU are stuck in a “deep and acute” crisis and are unlikely to improve until President Vladimir Putin leaves office and the conflict in Ukraine is resolved – events that could be many years away, the outgoing EU ambassador to Moscow has said.

Vygaudas Ušackas, who has been in the post since 2013, said the EU must offer Ukraine a path to membership of the bloc if it wants to resist Russian attempts to bring the former Soviet state more firmly back under Moscow’s control.

“As I leave my post, I am pessimistic that we will be able to return to a normal partnership in the near future,” Ušackas wrote in a letter published in the Observer on Sunday. “The differences between us are vast and hinge on principles of European security.”

He detailed growing attacks on “core European values” of democracy, free speech and the rule of law and said the apparatus of the Kremlin apparatus is focused on returning Putin to power in 2018 elections that it can present as “smooth and credible”.

Did Russia fake black activism on Facebook to sow division in the US?

Read more

“Over the course of a six-year presidential term that will follow, it seems probable that the current clash of world views between Moscow and the west will continue,” he said, adding that Russia will attempt to exploit divisions inside Europe to undermine it.

Efforts to influence elections and politics through propaganda are well-documented, but Moscow is also using business deals to try to splinter the bloc by rewarding countries that challenge sanctions and the broader EU position on Russia, he said.

“In unity lies our strength. It is precisely our internal problems that Moscow is exploiting to undermine the credibility of the EU model,” he said.

Member states are not doing enough to protect themselves, he said, noting the new North Stream II gas pipeline, a project which, he said, hands Moscow more control over Europe’s energy, in direct opposition to Europe’s goals of diversifying suppliers.

Europe must focus on managing Brexit and the refugee crisis, both of which have been exploited by Russia, improve transparency to build the trust of citizens around Europe, and focus on remaining united.

European leaders must also stand up for rights which are under attack in Russia. “As Soviet dissident and leading human rights champion Lyudmila Alexeyeva reminded me recently: ‘Please tell Brussels not to give up on the Russian people,’” he said.

Ušackas expects Moscow to push for greater control over Ukraine and Georgia. “Russia respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours only as long as their geopolitical choices align with Moscow’s interests,” he said.

Democrats rebuke Twitter for 'frankly inadequate' response to Russian meddling

The EU needs to step up efforts to negotiate peace in Ukraine, he said, calling on Brussels to name a special envoy to the country, a position the US has already created, and questioned why the EU was not part of current multilateral efforts to broker an agreement.

“We need a greater focus on ending the Ukrainian conflict, because it will be difficult to normalise relations while it continues,” he said.

That should include offering Ukraine a path to EU membership. The prospect of EU membership would send Russia a clear message about commitment to Ukrainian and Georgian democracy, and give the governments motivation to make important reforms.

“It must be made very clear: the road to Europe goes via Kiev, with respect of Ukraine’s European choice, and adherence to the European security order. It cannot go through ‘managed’ democracy in Russia itself.”

Trump Is Still Treating the Federal Government Like He Owns It - Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )

Trump Is Still Treating the Federal Government Like He Owns It

By

Jonathan Chait

One of the most alarming and historically distinctive traits Donald Trump has displayed since he assumed the presidency is his belief that the U.S. government should be run more or less the same way as the Trump Organization. He has used his office to enrich himself, talked about “my generals,” and fired officials who failed to affirm personal loyalty to him at the expense of their official roles in office. Whatever superficial aspects of “normalizing” his performance John Kelly may have undertaken, Trump has not ceased to abuse his power this way.

In an interview yesterday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo asserted, “The intelligence community’s assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election.” That is unambiguously false. The intelligence community pointedly declined to wade into whether Russian interference was decisive. A January report by the CIA and the National Security Agency stated, “We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion.”

It is completely obvious that the intelligence community could not decide this one way or another. Russia aimed to help Trump by spreading anti-Clinton memes on social media, by hacking Democratic emails and using their contents to spread unflattering stories about Hillary Clinton, and to inflame supporters of Bernie Sanders against her. It’s impossible to say whether the news stories generated by this campaign moved enough votes to decide the election, because it’s impossible to prove a counterfactual.

Trump considers it especially important to deny that Russian involvement played any role in his victory, which is why he lies about the subject so frequently. It is also no doubt the reason why Pompeo lied on his behalf. Pompeo conjuring up an imaginary conclusion by U.S. intelligence is hardly the first, or even the worst, political abuse of the agency. But it is not a normal act for a CIA official.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to personally interview candidates for U.S. Attorney positions. This is not illegal. But it also veers far from a tradition in which such posts were held by people operating independently from the administration. The president could nominate them, and would obviously scrutinize their biography. But a personal interview plays a different function. It can — and is, indeed, clearly designed to — identify not only whether a candidate is qualified in the abstract, but how that person feels about Trump in particular.

Trump has been treating putatively independent figures this way from the outset. He courted, and then fired, Preet Bharara (the New York Southern District U.S. Attorney whose investigations have peeved, among others, the Russian government) and then James Comey. The account given by Comey of his meetings with Trump clearly reveals that the president’s main interest was to satisfy his belief that Comey would give him personal loyalty.

Republicans have blithely dismissed Trump’s decision to continue such behavior with U.S. attorneys. “He’s the president of the United States who picks these people, so he’s going to get blamed (by Democrats) no matter what he does. So I think it’s a good thing that he’s willing to interview these people,” Senator Orrin Hatch tells CNN. “It’s kind of an extension of The Apprentice, I guess,” adds a chipper Senator Lindsey Graham.

Well, yes, it is like an extension of The Apprentice. But The Apprentice depicted Trump as the all-knowing and all-powerful head of an organization designed to serve his own needs. It did not depict the give-and-take of a republican form of government premised on the consent of the people. Maybe Republicans ought to consider the possibility that a president who acts this way is bad, and they should stop him.

Xi Jinping 'most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong' - BBC News

Xi Jinping 'most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong'

Mr Xi took part in the vote on Tuesday

China's ruling Communist Party has voted to enshrine Xi Jinping's name and ideology in its constitution, elevating him to the level of founder Mao Zedong.

The unanimous vote to incorporate "Xi Jinping Thought" happened at the end of the Communist Party congress, China's most important political meeting.

Mr Xi has steadily increased his grip on power since becoming leader in 2012.

This move means that any challenge to Mr Xi will now be seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.

More than 2,000 delegates gathered in Beijing's Great Hall of the People for the final approval process to enshrine "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era" into the Communist Party constitution of China.

At the end of the process, delegates were asked if they had any objections, to which they responded with loud cries of "none", reported journalists at the scene.

lippe ✔@nvanderklippe

Xi Jinping: Please raise your hands if you disagree (to work report). The shouts of “meiyou!” ring out. “None.” A new era begins.

2:48 PM - Oct 24, 2017

End of Twitter post by @nvanderklippe

Previous Chinese Communist Party leaders have had their ideologies incorporated into the party's constitution or thinking, but none, besides founder Mao Zedong, have had their philosophy described as "thought", which is at the top of the ideological hierarchy.

Only Mao and Deng Xiaoping have had their names attached to their ideologies - and Deng's name was only added to the constitution after his death.

The change to the constitution puts Xi Jinping (left) on par with party founder Mao Zedong (right)

China's new slogan hardly trips off the tongue.

But schoolchildren, college students and staff at state factories will now have to join 90 million Communist Party members in studying "Xi Jinping Thought" on the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The expression "new era" is the party's way of saying this is the third chapter of modern China.

If the first was Chairman Mao uniting a country devastated by civil war, and the second was getting rich under Deng Xiaoping, this new era is about even more unity and wealth at the same time as making China disciplined at home and strong abroad.

Enshrining all of this under Xi Jinping's name in the party constitution means rivals cannot now challenge China's strongman without threatening Communist Party rule.

Presentational grey line

What is 'Xi Jinping Thought'?

At first glance, "Xi Jinping Thought" may seem like vague rhetoric, but it describes the communist ideals Mr Xi has continuously espoused throughout his rule.

Graphic showing five highlights of Mr Xi's five years in office

Its 14 main principles emphasise the Communist Party's role in governing every aspect of the country, and also include:

A call for "complete and deep reform" and "new developing ideas"

A promise of "harmonious living between man and nature" - this is a call for improved environmental conservation, and could refer to the stated aim to have the bulk of China's energy needs supplied by renewables

An emphasis on "absolute authority of the party over the people's army" - which comes amid what analysts call the largest turnover of senior military officials in modern Chinese history

An emphasis on the importance of "'one country two systems" and reunification with the motherland - a clear reference to Hong Kong and Taiwan

What else has been happening?

More than 2,000 delegates have spent the week-long congress confirming picks for provincial party chiefs, governors and heads of some state-owned enterprises.

On Tuesday, they finalised the make-up of top bodies such as the Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

How China's Communist Party picks leaders

What do ordinary Chinese think of the CPC?

How Chinese authorities censor your thoughts

Media captionHow a student counsellor sees the Communist Party Congress

What happens next?

On Wednesday, the new Central Committee will decide who gets to be in the higher-level Politburo.

Though delegates get some say, in reality the elections are guided by the party's top leadership where at each stage voters pick from pre-selected candidates.

Also on Wednesday, the party will reveal the new members of its pinnacle body, the Politburo Standing Committee. Mr Xi is widely expected to remain as party leader, while prominent Xi ally and anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan has stepped down and will not be in the next formation of the committee.

Those in the Standing Committee will be especially scrutinised. Analysts say its make-up may give signs of how long Mr Xi plans to stay on at the top of the party - he is expected to remain at the helm until at least 2022 - or any possible successors.

The rising stars of China's Communist Party

Are women welcome in Chinese politics?

The Chinese family in five charts

Mr Xi's term ruling China has been marked by significant development, a push for modernisation and increasing assertiveness on the world stage.

However, it has also seen growing authoritarianism, censorship and a crackdown on human rights.