Brexit should be cancelled, Austrian prime minister Christian Kern says - Independent

14/12/2017

Brexit should be cancelled, Austrian prime minister Christian Kern says

The Federal Chancellor says Brexit is throwing up problems that are 'not easy to solve'

Jon Stone Brussels @joncstone

Chrisitan Kern, Austria's chancellor, was speaking in Brussels at a summit EbS

Austria’s prime minister has said he hopes that Brexit can be reversed, hours after British MPs voted to give themselves a veto on Theresa May’s final deal.

Arriving at European Council summit in Brussels Christian Kern said Brexit would likely throw up problems that are “not easy to solve”.

“I hope that it could be reversed because there will be a lot of big issues, challenges, [that are] not easy to solve, and there will be a lot of tensions in domestic political area in Great Britain, so who knows,” the federal chancellor told reporters on the doorstep of the summit.

EU 'won't re-open negotiations with UK if MPs reject deal'

But asked how likely he believed Brexit’s reversal he replied: “Good question, I don’t know.”

Mr Kern, who is soon expected to leave office when on-going coalition talks conclude, appeared un-phased by the UK Parliament giving itself a vote on the final Brexit deal.

“Such a very big international contract and agreement, in our case in Austria would be agreed by the Austrian parliament, so that’s just exactly the situation we’re going to have in the United Kingdom. I don’t see any additional obstacles,” he said.

Mr Kern’s reaction to the news that MPs will be given a vote contrasted with that of other EU leaders national leaders arriving at the summit. Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg, told reporters in Brussels that Parliament’s decision last night to give it a vote would make negotiations more complicated.

Brexit: UK must accept EU laws during transition, MPs warn

What is Amendment 7 and how does it change Brexit?

Theresa May's EU summit marred by embarrassing defeat in Commons

Last night's defeat reveals the Commons majority for a soft Brexit

Tory MP Stephen Hammond sacked as vice-chairman after Brexit rebellion

“This is not good for Theresa May ... as soon as she negotiates something she will have to go back to London to get approval from her Parliament and this is not making her life easier,” he said.

“This doesn’t change anything on the agenda, it’s just going to make it more complicated for the United Kingdom government.”

Mr Bettel replied “no” when asked by reporters whether the EU would re-open negotiations were MPs to reject the deal.

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, however said he expected the PM to be able to pass any deal.

“Yes, I do think so. I believe that in UK society and also in political circles there’s widespread support for a reasonable negotiated exit of Britain from the European Union,” he said.

“I still think she has a formidable stature here and last week Friday showed all of us that we should not underestimate Theresa May. She’s a formidable politician,” he said.

He added that the question of whether Parliament should get a vote was “up to Parliament and the Government in the UK, how to exactly calibrate that relationship”.

National leaders are arriving in Brussels today for the two-day meeting, where they will start by discussing the EU’s response to the migration crisis and a new bloc-wide defence pact.

Rebel Tory MPs last night teamed up with Labour and other parties to give Parliament a 'meaningful vote' on the final Brexit deal

On Friday, after Ms May has returned to the UK, leaders of the EU27 will discuss the progress made in Brexit negotiations and are expected to formally agree to move to the next phase of talks – following the recommendation of the European Commission and European Parliament.

On Friday leaders will also discuss plans for tighter integration of the European Union economies, with attention likely to be focused on a plan to create a fully fledged European Monetary Fund to replace the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The ESM gives Eurozone members instant access to financial assistance when they have budget problems.

Though the Brexit element of the summit was initially expected to be straightforward, Ms May’s defeat last night has added an extra element to proceedings – raising concerns in European capitals that the PM might not be able to enforce whatever deal she negotiates.

The Prime Minister is expected to speak to leaders at a working dinner on Thursday evening before flying back to the UK.

Following Ms May’s triggering of Article 50 in March this year the UK has until March 2019 before it automatically leaves the bloc. This period can only be extended by a unanimous vote of the European Council – a meeting of all the EU’s national leaders.

There is no legal consensus on whether Article 50 is unilaterally revocable, though Council president Donald Tusk has previously suggested in passing that negotiations could end in “no Brexit”.

Putin: Trump opponents harm US with 'invented' Russia scandal - BBC News

14/12/2017

Putin: Trump opponents harm US with 'invented' Russia scandal

Mr Putin has been giving his marathon annual news conference in Moscow

Russia's president has accused opponents of his US counterpart Donald Trump of harming the US by "inventing stories" about contacts with Russia.

At his annual news conference, Vladimir Putin said contacts between the Trump team and Russian officials before last year's election were normal.

He said the US opposition was not treating those who elected Mr Trump with respect.

The Trump campaign is being investigated for collusion with Russia.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow tried to sway the presidential election in favour of Mr Trump, but Mr Putin denies the allegations.

"It's all invented by those in opposition to Trump to make his work seem illegitimate," Mr Putin said, when asked about the investigation.

He added that Mr Trump was responsible for some "quite serious achievements" but had not been in a position to improve relations with Russia.

He expressed hope that this would happen, adding that globally "there are many things we can do more effectively".

Call for calm

The Russian president cited North Korea as one possible area of co-operation.

But he said some past actions by the US had provoked North Korea into violating agreements, and all sides needed to calm down.

North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons technology has led to heavy US-led sanctions against the regime.

Russia's action man president

Reality Check: Who's buying the Putin calendar?

Happy bot-day, Mr President

Earlier Mr Putin addressed the presidential elections, due to be held next year. He has said he will stand for a fourth term.

Alexei Navalny - October 2017Image copyrightREUTERS

Image caption

Mr Navalny says Mr Putin is trying hard not to notice him

Asked why he had not faced any effective opponent for the presidency, he said the opposition had to come up with specific proposals to improve people's lives and had so far not done so.

"It's not up to me to nurture competitors," he said. "But... I've been thinking that our political environment must be competitive just like the economic environment.

"I hope this will happen, and the sooner the better."

Mr Putin did not mention opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is banned from standing in the elections because of a criminal conviction.

In response, Mr Navalny tweeted (in Russian) a link to his recently published election programme, with the words: "You're really trying very hard not to notice this."

Mr Putin is known for his marathon performances at his news conferences, where he frequently uses hard-hitting, colourful language.

The record for a Putin news conference was set in 2008, at four hours 40 minutes.

This year's, which is still going on, has also set a record, with 1,640 journalists said to be accredited for the event.

Vladimir Putin: From spy to president

Born 7 October 1952 in Leningrad (now St Petersburg)

Studies law and joins KGB after university

Serves as a spy in communist East Germany - some ex-KGB comrades later get top state posts in Putin era

1990s - top aide to St Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, who had previously taught him law

Enters Boris Yeltsin's Kremlin in 1997, made chief of Federal Security Service (the FSB - main successor of the KGB), then prime minister

New Year's Eve, 1999 - Yeltsin quits and names him acting president

Easily wins presidential election in March 2000

Wins a second term in 2004

Is barred from running for a third successive term by the Russian constitution, but instead becomes prime minister

Wins a third presidential term in 2012

Putin still in fashion 15 years on

Vladimir Putin's formative German years

MSF estimates more than 6,700 Rohingya killed in Myanmar - BBC News

14/12/2017

MSF estimates more than 6,700 Rohingya killed in Myanmar

TopicsAsia migrant crisis

Among the refugees are many young children

At least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the month after violence broke out in Myanmar in August, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says.

Based on surveys of refugees in Bangladesh, the number is much higher than Myanmar's official figure of 400.

MSF said it was "the clearest indication yet of the widespread violence" by Myanmar authorities.

The Myanmar military blames the violence on "terrorists" and has denied any wrongdoing.

More than 647,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since August, MSF says.

Is the refugee crisis 'textbook ethnic cleansing'?

Seeing through the official story in Myanmar

The injured sheltering in Bangladesh

What sparked the Rakhine violence?

The aid group's survey found that at least 9,000 Rohingya died in Myanmar, also known as Burma, between 25 August and 24 September.

"In the most conservative estimations" at least 6,700 of those deaths have been caused by violence, including at least 730 children under the age of five, according to MSF.

Previously, the armed forces stated that around 400 people had been killed, most of them described as Muslim terrorists.

A case for the International Criminal Court?

Jonathan Head, South East Asia correspondent

Media captionRohingya Muslims displaced from Tula Toli village in Rakhine State gave disturbing accounts

There have been plenty of detailed reports by journalists and researchers, based on interviews conducted with refugees, which make it hard to dispute that terrible human rights abuses took place at the hands of the security forces.

But many of these reports focussed on the worst cases; there are several media reports about a massacre at one village called Tula Toli. Some Rohingya I interviewed told me they had fled in fear of violence, but had not actually experienced it.

This well-researched figure by MSF suggests the operation conducted by the military was brutal enough to raise the possibility of taking a case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

The problem would be that Myanmar has not ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC and is not bound to co-operate with it. Bringing a case would require the approval of all five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and China has until now given its full support to the Myanmar government's handling of the crisis.

'A Muslim village was burning'

The truth about Rohingya militants

The military crackdown began on 25 August after Rohingya Arsa militants attacked more than 30 police posts.

After an internal investigation, the Myanmar army in November exonerated itself of any blame regarding the crisis.

It denied killing any civilians, burning their villages, raping women and girls, and stealing possessions.

The mostly Muslim minority are denied citizenship by Myanmar, where they are seen as immigrants from Bangladesh. The government does not use the term Rohingya but calls them Bengali Muslims.

The government's assertions contradicted evidence seen by BBC correspondents. The United Nations human rights chief has said it seems like "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

An injured Rohingya boy lifts his T-shirt to reveal a large bandage across his stomach

Image caption

MSF says the experiences recounted by refugees were "horrific"

"What we uncovered was staggering, both in terms of the numbers of people who reported a family member died as a result of violence, and the horrific ways in which they said they were killed or severely injured," MSF Medical Director Sidney Wong said.

According to MSF:

69% of the violence-related deaths were caused by gunshots

9% were due to being burnt to death in their houses

5% were beaten to death.

Among the dead children below the age of five, MSF says more than 59% were reportedly shot, 15% burnt to death, 7% beaten to death and 2% killed by landmine blasts.

Momtaz BegumImage copyrightREUTERS

Image caption

Many refugees have been subject to brutal violence

"The numbers of deaths are likely to be an underestimation as we have not surveyed all refugee settlements in Bangladesh and because the surveys don't account for the families who never made it out of Myanmar," Mr Wong said.

In November, Bangladesh signed a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of the refugees.

MSF said the agreement was "premature" pointing out that "currently people are still fleeing" and reports of violence have come even in recent weeks.

The group also warned there was still very limited access for aid groups into Rakhine state.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who have long experienced persecution in Myanmar.

The African American voters at the heart of Doug Jones' Alabama victory - Guardian

13/12/2017

The African American voters at the heart of Doug Jones' Alabama victory

After black voters supported Jones over Roy Moore by a margin of 96% to 4%, Democrats see history in the making: ‘How can you not feel validated?’

Ben Jacobs in Montgomery, Alabama

@Bencjacobs

Thursday 14 December 2017 07.02 AEDT Last modified on

Doug Jones’s shock victory in Alabama relied heavily on a key component of the Democratic coalition: African American voters.

Black voters have long been the linchpin of the Democratic base. But African American turnout has sagged recently in non-presidential elections. Jones was able to reverse that trend on Tuesday. In a state where African Americans make up 26% of the population, they made up 29% of the electorate, according to exit polls, and backed Jones by a margin of 96% to 4%.

On Wednesday, African American voters saw the result as a small step forward in interviews with the Guardian outside a Montgomery supermarket. They viewed the result not in light of Alabama’s troubled racial history but simply as a win for a candidate they supported in Jones.

Doug Jones’s victory over Roy Moore could mean a dramatic shift in Congress

Alisha Coleman of Montgomery praised the victorious Democrat as “an honest man” who will “make a change”. Betty Carter put the race in a broader perspective because of the possibility opened up by the Alabama result of Democrats taking a majority in the Senate next year. She added: “It made the national news, affected the stock market and I think it will be maybe somewhat of a turnaround for Alabama, for as far as politics and as far as racism.”

Who is Doug Jones?

Michael Blake, the vice-chair of the DNC and a New York state assemblyman, saw the results as part of an important historical moment for African American voters. “We’ve had, in the past five weeks, two black lieutenant governors [in New Jersey and Virginia], a black female mayor in Charlotte, a black female mayor in Atlanta, and a win for Doug Jones, who prosecuted Klansmen. How can you not feel validated?”

Blake also saw broader ramifications from the increase in turnout and the DNC’s efforts organizing on the ground. “You had black turnout essentially reach and exceed where it was in 2008,” he noted. “It shows that we can and will win everywhere.” He also noted that increase in turnout was achieved despite Alabama’s restrictive voting laws.

Attempts to reach out to black voters were crucial to Jones’s campaign. In the final days he brought in prominent African American surrogates including Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and the former governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and held events in cities with significant African American populations such as Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. Black areas were filled with signs proclaiming “vote or die” and the Jones campaign emphasized his role successfully prosecuting two members of Ku Klux Klan involved in the 16th Street church bombing in Birmingham, which killed four African American girls in 1963.

The result was that turnout surged in predominantly African American counties in the black belt and in urban areas with large African American populations. In Greene County, Alabama, which is 80% percent black, turnout reached 78% of 2016 levels. In contrast, in white rural areas, turnout was just over half of that reached in 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost the state in a landslide. In other counties, Jones received more votes than Clinton did in 2016, including in Moore’s home county of Etowah.

Jones also benefited from the fact that Moore, who had a history of controversial comments on civil rights, including the statement that the US was last great during the era of slavery, repelled African American voters.

At a polling place in Montgomery on Tuesday, African American voters couldn’t even summon words to describe their contempt for Moore. “No comment,” said Sequoia Smith of Montgomery before breaking into knowing laughter and walking away when asked about Moore.

The question remains what effect Jones’s election will have on a state that ranks near the bottom in almost every economic indicator and has been beset by political scandal in recent years.

Sarah Smith of Montgomery said simply on Wednesday: “I hope it makes things better.”

DON’T SNORT CHOCOLATE POWDER, FDA WARNS - Independent

14/12/2017

INDYPULSE

DON’T SNORT CHOCOLATE POWDER, FDA WARNS

'Snortable' chocolate powder has sparked safety concerns

SABRINA BARR

@fabsab5

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against snorting chocolate powder.

The FDA is cracking down on Orlando-based company Legal Lean who created a “snortable” chocolate powder called Coco Loko.

Nick Anderson, the 29-year-old founder of Legal Lean, decided to invest $10,000 (£7,400) into creating his own raw cacao snuff after trying a sample from Europe.

He described the effects of snorting the powder as: “Almost like an energy-drink feeling, like you’re euphoric but also motivated to get things done.”

@ArsTechnicaUK

Snortable chocolate raises lawmaker eyebrows: Cocaine on training wheels? https://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2017/07/cocaine-on-training-wheels-snortable-chocolate-raises-eyebrows-angers-schumer/ … by @BethMarieMole #CocoLoko

3:09 AM - Jul 12, 2017

Coco Loko is made from ingredients including cacao powder, ginkgo biloba, taurine and guarana.

Taurine and guarana are both often found in energy drinks.

Guarana has been found to cause insomnia, nausea, an increased heart rate and anxiety.

What is Salbutamol, the drug that could see Froome banned?

Earlier this week, the FDA posted a warning letter to marketers and distributors of two Legal Lean products - a drink called Legal Lean Syrup and Coco Loko.

The letter outlines the worrying fact that Coco Loko was promoted as a street drug substitute, thus encouraging young people to seek alternatives to illegal highs.

Scott Gottlieb, M.D., FDA Commissioner, commented on the risks associated with the distribution and consumption of snortable chocolate powder.

@SGottliebFDA

I’m deeply troubled by the unlawful marketing of Coco Loko and Legal Lean, especially since they’re so easily accessible by minors. There are health consequences to snorting any powder, not to mention the societal dangers of promoting drug abuse. https://go.usa.gov/xnRUz

4:14 AM - Dec 13, 2017

“As a physician and a parent, I’m deeply troubled by the unlawful marketing of these potentially dangerous products, especially since they are so easily accessible to minors,” he said.

“Encouraging the use of snortable chocolate as an alternative to illegal street drugs is not acceptable - there are very real consequences to snorting any powder, not to mention the societal dangers of promoting drug abuse.”

The Independent has reached out to Legal Lean for comment.