1UA TV

Developing economies could face disruption from the shock waves of Britain crashing out of the European Union with no deal, according to analysts.Brexit will affect not only Britain’s relations with the European Union, but also with hundreds of other countries with which Britain currently trades on EU terms, as Brussels sets trade policy for the entire EU bloc.London has negotiated new post-Brexit trade arrangements with several countries, including Central American nations, Switzerland and South Korea, among others. That leaves hundreds of states — from smaller economies to relative giants like Japan and Canada — with whom trade would revert to World Trade Organization terms after a no-deal Brexit.Striking new trade deals won’t be easy, said professor Anand Menon at a “Changing Europe” program at Kings College London.FILE – A fruit stall displays fruit at a market in London, Aug. 7, 2019. Among Kenya’s exports to Britain are fruits and vegetables.”Many countries with whom we try and do trade deals will say to us, ‘Yes, that would be great. We’d quite like to know what your relationship with the European Union is going to be before we sign anything with you, though.’ So, all roads lead to Brussels,” Menon said.Such uncertainty doesn’t help countries that sell goods to Britain. For example, Kenya exports cut flowers, fruits and vegetables, with total exports to Britain estimated at $400 million per year.Bangladesh exports nearly $4 billion worth of goods to Britain, which are currently traded under the EU’s preferential rules of origin that allocate zero or low tariffs on goods from developing countries. A no-deal Brexit will likely mean disruption, said Max Mendez-Parra, a trade expert at the Overseas Development Institute.”The problem is that that will erode the preference that some of these countries receive. So for example, the advantage that a country such as Bangladesh and Cambodia have on certain products because they have access with a lower tariff, that would be removed.”Speaking last month, Akinwumi Adesina, head of the Africa Development Bank, warned that the combination of a no-deal Brexit and the U.S.-China trade war were hitting African economies.FILE – African Development president Akinwumi Adesina gives a press conference in Ouagadougou, Sept. 13, 2019.”The industrial capacity has fallen significantly, and so the demand, even for products and raw materials from Africa, will only fall even further. So, the effect of that could have a ripple effect on African economies as the demand for their products weaken from China,” Adesina said.Britain, meanwhile, is stepping up its search for new trade deals. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is visiting New Zealand, Australia and Japan this week. Many of these nations’ companies have large investments in Britain and fear the chaotic fallout of a no-deal Brexit.For smaller economies, the impact is likely to be less severe, Mendez-Parra said.”African countries seem to be more relaxed, developing countries are more and more relaxed — except some specific countries that trade a lot with the U.K. — about the prospect of a no-deal [Brexit]. And this is because the U.K. has lost over many years the sort of importance as a destination of exports for many of these countries.”A no-deal Brexit would hit the economies of many EU states like Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. But it is in Britain where the impact will inevitably be hardest-felt.
…

The European Union’s outgoing president, Donald Tusk, on Tuesday urged the bloc’s members to back entry talks with North Macedonia and Albania, saying they had lived up to their tasks and Europe would not be stable without the Balkans in the European Union.Visiting Skopje and Tirana a month before EU members will decide whether to start talks, Tusk praised North Macedonia for resolving its old quarrel with Greece by accepting its new name, as well as for its friendship treaty with Bulgaria and ability to help Europe cope with one of the biggest migration crises.”These achievements are truly impressive, internationally recognized and should not be wasted by the EU,” he told reporters flanking Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.”Skopje is the best possible place where I would like to appeal to the leaders of the European Union: Now you do your share. Because North Macedonia has already done its share,” Tusk added, before traveling west to neighboring Albania’s capital.In Tirana, Tusk told Prime Minister Edi Rama he wanted to see the whole Western Balkans “follow the same path as my country, Poland, towards the EU”, and that goal was now closer.”Your country must be treated with equal respect and on its own merits, just like all other countries in the region that share your goal of becoming EU members one day,” Tusk said.Most EU members states back talks for Albania but some worry about its fight against corruption and organized crime, so Tusk urged Rama to maintain a solid track record in fighting crime and also fostering good neighborly relations.With six Western Balkan countries aspiring to join the EU now surrounded by EU members, Tusk said Europe would benefit from the accession of Albania and other countries.”Because there will be no stable and safe Europe without the integration of all the Balkans in the EU. What is at stake is our common future. And no one is doing anyone any favors here.” 
…

Spain’s high court has rejected a U.S. extradition request for Venezuela’s ex-spy chief.Former major general Hugo Carvajal is wanted in the United States on charges of helping Colombian rebels smuggle drugs into the U.S. He denies the charges.Spain’s top court said the extradition request was politically motivated and failed to name any “concrete and precise” crimes he may have committed to justify sending him to the U.S.Carvajal was Venezuelan intelligence chief under the late president Hugo Chavez and, briefly, under current President Nicolas Maduro.Carvajal backs the Venezuelan opposition efforts to topple Maduro. He fled to Madrid in April and says he will continue to support efforts to drive Maduro from power. 
…

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday called a snap election for Nov. 10, Spain’s fourth in as many years, after failing to secure support from rival parties to confirm him as premier and allow him to form a government.Sanchez acted after King Felipe VI said there were no viable candidates to lead a new government. The king, who is the head of state, had earlier consulted all key political leaders to verify whether a deal to put together a government was still possible in a deeply fragmented parliament.”There is no majority in (parliament) that guarantees the formation of a government, which pushes us into a repeat election on Nov. 10,” Sanchez told an evening news conference, pinning the blame squarely on the opposition.Spain, with the fourth largest economy in the European Union’s euro currency zone, has been in political limbo since Sanchez’s Socialists emerged as the biggest party in April’s election but failed to nail down a parliamentary majority.In July, parliament twice rejected his confirmation bid, and this week was his last opportunity to form a government.Opinion polls show a new election might not end the impasse, with the Socialists still unable to win enough seats in the 350-seat parliament to secure a majority on their own.Party leaders had spent more time publicly blaming each other for the impasse than negotiating, and a flurry of last-minute calls and initiatives failed to achieve a breakthrough.Although Spain’s economy has not suffered greatly, financial analysts say further delays in implementing reforms in areas such as labor and pensions could finally start to bite.
…

Two Dutch tourists who wanted to take video of Area 51 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespass and illegal parking following their arrests at the secure U.S. government site in Nevada.A judge on Monday sentenced Govert Sweep and Ties Granzier to three days in the Nye County jail and fined them $2,280 apiece.They also surrendered computer and camera equipment and an aerial drone.In a Nye County sheriff’s office video news release, Sweep and Granzier say they’ll return to the Netherlands after their expected release Thursday.They were arrested Sept. 10 in a car inside the Nevada National Security Site near Mercury.That’s more than 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) from Area 51, the focus of events this weekend inspired by a hoax Facebook post inviting people to “see them aliens.”
…

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents detailing government surveillance programs, is calling on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him asylum.Snowden, now living in Russia to avoid prosecution in the United States, stressed in an interview broadcast Monday on France’s Inter radio that “protecting whistleblowers is not a hostile act” and that he feels entitled to get protected status in France.Snowden unsuccessfully applied for asylum in France in 2013 under Macron’s predecessor, Francois Hollande. He has also sought asylum in several other countries.
 
Snowden’s memoir, telling his life story in detail for the first time, will be released Tuesday in about 20 countries, including France.The French presidency did not comment.
…

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has “expressed concern” over the possibility that a former Ukrainian police general who confessed to the murder of a journalist may have his life prison sentence commuted.Oleksiy Pukach, who once headed the surveillance department of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, was sentenced in January 2013 for the murder of Heorhiy Gongadze 13 years earlier on September 16.After his disappearance that day, Gongadze’s beheaded body was found two months later in a forest near Kyiv that sent shock waves through society and prompted immediate calls for a thorough investigation.Pukach, meanwhile, has given conflicting accounts over the years, and has been appealing his life sentence for the past six years.His next appearance before the Supreme Court is on October 9, which is when he could be freed.“Nineteen years after the brutal murder…of Gongadze, there are concerns the confessed killer may go free. Ukrainian authorities should not allow impunity for journalists’ killings to reign,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s European and Central Asia program coordinator. “There must be full justice…and the masterminds must also be held accountable.”FILE – In this Aug. 2000 photo, investigative journalist Heorhiy Gongadze is seen during an interview in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a month before his abduction and murder.In his appeals, Pukach said he took orders from above, mainly from then-Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko.In turn, Kravchenko died from two gunshot wounds to the head, the day before he was supposed to give testimony to prosecutors in March 2015. His death was ruled a suicide.In a July interview with the Kyiv Post, Pukach said he “overstepped” his powers, but that he “served the full sentence already for this crime…they had no right to give me life in prison.”He was convicted for kidnapping the journalist, taking him to a forest, killing him, decapitating him, and then trying to cover up the crime.Gongadze, who founded the Ukrainska Pravda news website, investigated alleged corruption in the administration of then-President Leonid Kuchma who has been implicated in giving the order to kill him based on audio recordings that were made public.Kuchma and his former chief of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn, have repeatedly denied involvement in the Gongadze murder.However, during his criminal trial in 2013, Pukach told the judge that he should ask Kuchma and Lytvyn for his motive to kill Gongadze.Pukach later said that Kuchma and Lytvyn also should have been put behind bars with him.Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava Gongadze, told CPJ that “Pukach’s release would be a serious hit to media freedom in Ukraine. It would show that perpetrators of crimes against journalists are not fully held accountable before the law.”Since 1992, more than 50 Ukrainian journalists have been killed for carrying out their professional duties. Most recently, Cherkasy-based reporter Vadym Komarov was attacked in May and died a month later. 
…

Pakistan and India are taking part in a multinational counterterrorism military drill in Russia notwithstanding escalating border tensions between the two South Asian nuclear-armed rival nations over their Kashmir territorial dispute.The Pakistani army announced Tuesday the week-long ‘CENTER 2019’ exercise under the umbrella of China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has started in the Russian region of Orenburg.“The exercise CENTRE aims at evolving drills of the participating armies in the fight against international terrorism ensuring security and stability in the region,” the military’s media wing said in a statement.The SCO was established in Shanghai in 2001, with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as its founding members.Last year was the first time India and Pakistan had participated in the SCO anti-terror military drills, also hosted by Russia, after becoming full members of the organization in June 2017, though the two rivals have a history of working together under United Nations peacekeeping missions.Pakistani and other troops stand in formation during joint military exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Russia’s Orenburg region, in an image from video released by Pakistan Army’s media wing ISPR.However, the current drill comes at a time of increased border tensions between India and Pakistan stemming from recent Indian actions in Kashmir, which both the countries claim in its entirety.New Delhi abolished a constitutionally provided special autonomy for its administered part of the Himalayan region on August 5, placing millions of Kashmiris under a security lockdown and communications blackout, now into its seventh week, to suppress violent reaction protests.Islamabad, which also controls a portion of Kashmir, denounced the crackdown and downgraded diplomatic as well as trade ties with New Delhi, demanding India reverse its controversial moves.The dispute has sparked two wars between India and Pakistan and several limited conflicts since the two countries were partitioned by Britain in 1947,Indian leaders defend their latest actions in Kashmir, saying they will improve security and bring economic prosperity to India’s only Muslim-majority state, where separatist armed groups have waged a violent insurgency for over three decades.U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been in contact with leaders of both the countries to press them to ease their latest tensions.Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will be traveling to New York later this month to address the U.N. General Assembly session.“I’ll see prime minister Modi and we’ll be meeting with India and Pakistan (prime ministers), and I think a lot of progress has been made there. A lot of progress,” Trump told reporters on Monday. He did not elaborate further.  
…

A court in Moscow sentenced Russian actor Pavel Ustinov to 3.5 years in prison on Monday on charges of using violence against a policeman during an unauthorized protest last month. Ustinov denies the charges and says he was not demonstrating. The sentence was the latest in a series of harsh punishments for protesters arrested during unsanctioned rallies. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the harsh punishments for protesters are raising international concern.
…

Who would want what’s possibly Europe’s largest landfill in their own backyard? That question lies at the center of a protest against construction of a massive garbage dump in northern Russia — an environmental issue that has come to symbolize growing frustration towards Moscow’s sway over Russia’s far-flung regions. The fight over Shiyes — a remote railway outpost in Russia’s Arkhangelsk province that is to play host to the landfill — first erupted a little over a year ago after local hunters came across a secret construction site in the region’s swamp-filled forests. It didn’t take long for locals to learned of the dig’s true purpose: to house a 52-square-kilometer storage area for refuse shipped in from Moscow, some 1126 kilometers away.  Government officials say Shiyes was chosen based on its remote location — with the new ‘Ecotechnopark’ a cutting edge example of innovative waste storage. They also point to cash and incentives — such as a computer lab, annual New Year’s gifts, and healthcare access to top Moscow hospitals for nearby locals —  as a smart investment for regional development. But anger over the landfill has united a diverse swath of citizens across northern Russia — with many saying they see it as a threat to natural resources that define a way of life in extreme climate.In this photo taken on Friday, April 20, 2018, garbage trucks unload the trash at the Volovichi landfill near Kolomna, Russia. Thousands of people are protesting the noxious fumes coming from overcrowded landfills surrounding Moscow.“Of course we’re against it,” says Antokha, a construction worker who travelled some 800 kilometers away to join the camp from the city of Arkhangelisk.“The area’s swamps feed rivers that extend throughout the region and feed into the White Sea. Poison Shiyes with garbage and you poison the entire north,” he added, while declining to provide his last name.  Welcome to the Resistance Antokha is just one of many Russian northerners who have joined a hundreds-strong protest movement that spent the past year locked in a standoff with authorities over construction of the landfill. In that time, ‘The Republic of Shiyes’ has emerged — a tent commune just outside the dig site with its own anthem, flag, infirmary, as well as a makeshift kitchen and bathhouse. While ‘The Republic’ even has a stage for concerts and announcements, this is no Woodstock. Among the camp’s strictest rules? No drugs or alcohol.Yet Shiyes has attracted the eclectic mix of an ‘anything goes’ event: liberals share soup casually with nationalists, peaceniks with military vets, small business owners alongside eco-activists.  All have committed to rotating shifts into the camp — through a frigid winter and mosquito-infested summer — in an effort to keep the protest going. “This really is a war,” says Anna Shakalova, a shopkeeper from nearby who’s emerged as one of the leaders of the movement.  “And if we stay together, it’s a war we win.”Growing Resentments Beyond the immediate environmental concerns, the battle over Shiyes has also exposed simmering resentments about a top-down system of governance that centralizes power and critical regional revenues in Moscow’s hands.  There’s widespread feeling that Russia’s regions give their resources to the capital while getting little — or, even worse, garbage — in return. “It’s an example of Moscow chauvinism against the rest of the country,” says Ksenia Dmitrieva, 33, who grew up swimming in the area’s rivers as a child.   “Moscow thinks just because they have the money they can put their trash where they want. They’re not better than us.”The Shiyes strike continues amid a year of growing discontent with Russia’s government — with complaints about a sagging economy affecting the regions disproportionately.    Recent elections saw whole swaths of territory — such as the Khabarovsk Province in the Far East — send stinging defeats to the United Party in local races.  The public has also condemned the government response to the spread of massive wildfires across wide swaths of Siberia.  Meanwhile, smaller cities surrounding Moscow have long complained about the overflowing dumpsites poisoning air and water quality. But more alarming for the Kremlin? President Vladimir Putin is no longer immune.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 5, 2019.After years of sky-high ratings, Putin’s support numbers have fallen in the wake of unpopular pension reforms and falling living standards.  Recent polls show trust in Putin has fallen to just over 30%. Meanwhile, a majority now think the country is on the wrong track. “They ask: ‘why wasn’t that done?’ And when they don’t find an answer of course they become opponents of Putin” says Ilya Kirianov, an engineer who traveled to Shiyes from Severodvinsk — where the public was still reeling from a mysterious explosion that released radiation into the air this past July.   “You see people who just a year ago voted for Putin are now some of his harshest critics,” he added.Count Liliya Zobova, a business owner, is among those who’ve lost patience with the Russian leader.  “I loved Putin and voted for him,” she says. That changed after seeing Putin weigh in — briefly in an answer in May 2019 — to say authorities should take public opinion into account.The result? Construction paused — but only briefly. “It means Putin supports it,” says Zobova. “I don’t know who to believe anymore.” Helicopters and BlockadesFor now, protesters have blockaded old logging roads that provide the only access for equipment to the build site. Even getting to the camp involves a hike through dense sticky swamplands.  In turn, authorities have started using helicopters to ferry in diesel and supplies for a force of masked private security contractors and regional police who guard the site.In a show of force against the Shiyes camp, several protesters have been arrested and face the prospect of criminal prosecution. Police regularly post signs warning a raid is imminent. It’s natural to be afraid,” says Irina Leontova, a 28-year-old filmmaker from Syktyvkar, a 3 hour drive away.   “Anything can happen — arrests, fines — but still people keep coming.” Surveying the camp, Vera Goncherinka, a retired accountant from the nearby town of Urdoma, marveled at how life had changed since she got involved in the Shiyes uprising a year ago. “I should be on my couch at home but look at me now,” she said —-  adding that her experiences in Shiyes had convinced her that something was stirring in Russia’s regions. “How do we know something like Shiyes isn’t happening somewhere else in Russia? Have you ever heard them talk about us on television?” With that, a passing train blew its whistle in support — and the protesters waved back. A sign that news — like the region’s water — always finds a way out of the swamp.
…

The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia met in Ankara Monday in the latest trilateral summit to resolve the Syrian civil war. Launched in 2017 in the capital of Kazakhstan and known as the Astana peace process, summit leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin focused on cooperation, despite profound differences on the future of Idlib, the last enclave of Syrian rebels.”We are in complete agreement in aiming for a lasting political solution for Syria’s political unity and territorial integrity,” Erdogan said, setting the tone for the one-day gathering.Erdogan reaffirmed his commitment to target Syria’s Kurdish militia, the YPG.”We will drain the terrorist swamp east of the Euphrates (in Syria) and carry our efforts in the fight against terrorism to another level,” he said.Ankara designates the YPG as terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. The YPG is a crucial ally in Washington’s war against Islamic State. Last month, Turkish and U.S. generals hammered out an agreement to jointly create a buffer zone in Syria to protect Turkey’s frontier from the YPG. Analysts say many details remain unresolved between the two NATO allies.Erdogan, flanked by Rouhani and Putin, reiterated his threat to unilaterally act against the U.S.-backed militia by the end of the month if a buffer zone has not been created.Rouhani attacked America’s presence in Syria.”(President Donald) Trump said last year that U.S. troops will pull out of Syria, but the outcome of this promise has been like his other promise — a lie,” Rouhani said. “It is essential that U.S. troops leave the region at once, and the Syrian government establishes sovereignty in the East, north of (the) Euphrates.” Putin backed a Turkish intervention, saying any country has the right to protect its border. But with the condition, any response has to end once the threat is removed, he said, reiterating Syria’s sovereignty.Analysts say Rouhani, Erdogan and Putin suspect that Washington secretly harbors plans to create an independent, or at least autonomous, Kurdish state. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, right, and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speak to the media at a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, Sept. 16, 2019.”The important thing is how can Turkey, Iran (and) Russia go ahead and find shared goals,” said International relations professor Mesut Casin of Istanbul’s Yeditepe University. “They are aiming to establish and protect the territorial integrity and Syrian sovereignty.”Analysts says simmering Turkish U.S. tensions over the YPG also facilitates another Putin goal.”Russia’s final aim is to weaken NATO-U.S.-Turkey relations,” Casin said.Syrian constitution, future of IdlibThe three leaders also announced that an agreement had been reached on a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution. The process had been deadlocked for months over disagreements on committee membership. Putin refused to give a date for the committee’s first meeting.Differences also remain over the future of Idlib. Erdogan is urgently lobbying for an end to the ongoing assault by Damascus forces against the rebels. Ankara fears the assault will lead to another significant exodus of refugees into Turkey. Last week, the Turkish Red Crescent said around half a million Syrians in Idlib had fled to Turkey’s border.Putin robustly defended the assault.”A zone of deescalation should not serve as a terrain for armed provocations,” he said at the beginning of the summit. “We must take supplementary measures to destroy the terrorist menace that comes from the zone of Idlib.” Last year, Erdogan and Putin struck a deal that averted a Syrian army attack on Idlib. Part of the agreement included Turkish forces establishing 12 observation posts to enforce a buffer zone between Damascus forces and rebels.Terrorist groups were excluded from the agreed upon cease-fire. Ankara and Moscow remain at loggerheads over which groups are terrorists. Rouhani also voiced the need for Damascus forces to take back control of Idlib.Control of Idlib  “The endgame is whether it’s the desire of Ankara or not,” said former Turkish diplomatic Aydin Selcen, “that these 12 (Turkish military) observation posts are surrounded and protected by Russian military police, and then (the) Syrian army take over (the entirety) of Idlib, with a 5-kilometer strip left along the Turkish border, and with Turkey already strengthening its border wall, with the plan apparently not to let the refugees into Turkey.”Some analysts suggest Erdogan could be seeking to make a deal, giving up support of the rebels in Idlib in exchange for Russian and Iranian backing to create a zone of control against the YPG militia in northeastern Syria, an area where Erdogan claimed Monday that as many as 3 million Syrians living in Turkey can be resettled.
…