Síntesis informativa - 2 de agosto 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES
As Domestic Troubles Mount, China Points Finger at U.S.
BEIJING — A popular news anchor watched by hundreds of millions of Chinese poured scorn on the United States, using an obscenity to accuse it of sowing chaos. A prominent official blamed Washington directly for the antigovernment protests upending Hong Kong.
Pointed hostility toward America, voiced by Chinese officials and state-run news organizations under the control of an all-powerful propaganda department, has escalated in recent weeks in tandem with two of China’s big problems: a slowing economy complicated by trade tensions and turbulence in Hong Kong that has no end in sight.
“It is, after all, the work of the United States,” Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this week of the unrest in Hong Kong. Like other Chinese officials, she presented no evidence of American involvement in the demonstrations, which stem from worries over Beijing’s encroaching influence in the semiautonomous territory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/world/asia/china-us-hong-kong.html
Asylum Deal With Guatemala Is Contentious, Despite U.S. Assurances
GUATEMALA CITY — One week after reaching a deal that would force Guatemala to absorb Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States, the head of the Department of Homeland Security assured Guatemalan officials that the United States would invest in the country and try to sign similar agreements with at least five other nations in the region.
The contentious deal with Guatemala, known as a “safe third agreement,” would make migrants ineligible for protection in the United States if they traveled by land through Guatemala and did not first apply for asylum there. This would deny protections to families from Honduras and El Salvador that have flocked to the United States border in record numbers this year.
Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, told government officials and business leaders in Guatemala in a series of meetings on Wednesday and Thursday that the United States was lobbying Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and Brazil to agree to deals similar to the one President Trump signed with the Guatemalan minister of interior last Friday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/world/americas/asylum-migrants-guatemala-trump.html
U.S. Ends Cold War Missile Treaty, With Aim of Countering China
WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday terminated a major treaty of the Cold War, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement, and it is already planning to start testing a new class of missiles later this summer.
But the new missiles are unlikely to be deployed to counter the treaty’s other nuclear power, Russia, which the United States has said for years was in violation of the accord. Instead, the first deployments are likely to be intended to counter China, which has amassed an imposing missile arsenal and is now seen as a much more formidable long-term strategic rival than Russia.
The moves by Washington have elicited concern that the United States may be on the precipice of a new arms race, especially because the one major remaining arms control treaty with Russia, a far larger one called New START, appears on life support, unlikely to be renewed when it expires in less than two years.
At a moment when the potential for nuclear confrontations with North Korea and Iran is rising, the American decision to abandon the 32-year-old treaty has prompted new worries in Europe and Asia, and warnings that echo an era that once seemed banished to the history books. The resurgence of nuclear geopolitics was evident in the Democratic debate on Tuesday night, when presidential hopefuls grappled with whether the United States should renounce “first use” of nuclear weapons in any future conflict.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/world/asia/inf-missile-treaty.html
North Korea Launches More Missiles, U.S. Says, Amid Stalled Diplomacy
WASHINGTON — North Korea launched its third missile test in just over a week, in what President Trump described on Thursday as a test involving short-range missiles with which he had “no problem.”
Defense Department officials said it appeared that two projectiles were launched, although it was unclear from where, or what type of missiles were fired.
The flurry of missile tests comes before a joint military exercise this month between the United States and South Korea that North Korea has sharply criticized.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/world/asia/north-korea-missile-launch.html
Four Killed at Sudan Protest, and Tensions Rise
CAIRO — At least four protesters were shot dead in Sudan on Thursday, according to members of the country’s main protest movement. The killings took place during another round of large-scale demonstrations, potentially escalating a tense, monthslong standoff between protesters and military leaders.
The shootings came just three days after paramilitary forces fired on demonstrators, killing five teenagers and an adult.
Thousands had taken to the streets in the capital, Khartoum, and in cities across Sudan on Thursday to demand justice for the killings earlier this week, in the south-central city of El-Obeid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/world/middleeast/sudan-protest-killed.html
Afghan War Casualty Report: July 25-Aug. 1
At least 112 pro-government forces and 69 civilians were killed in Afghanistan during the past week. The deadliest attacks took place in Farah Province, where a passenger bus traveling from was hit by a roadside bomb in Balaboluk District, killing at least 35 civilians, women and children among them, and wounding more than a dozen others. Elsewhere, a Taliban attack in the Belcheragh District of Faryab Province resulted in the deaths of eight commandos and 14 members of the territorial army. In Kandahar Province, two American soldiers were killed in an insider attack. The attacker was arrested and is currently in the custody of the United States forces in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the United Nations announced in a report that nearly 1,400 civilians in Afghanistan have died in the first six months of 2019, attributing 52% of those deaths to Afghan forces and their allies, whose reliance on aerial operations has had particularly lethal effects on civilians.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/magazine/afghan-war-casualty-report.html
Syria Says it Agrees to Cease-Fire in Rebel Stronghold
Syria’s government said it has agreed to a conditional cease-fire starting late Thursday in northwestern Syria, according to state media. Government troops and allied Russia warplanes have been carrying out a three-month offensive against the rebel’s last stronghold, which has displaced hundreds of thousands and has targeted health facilities and other infrastructure.
The decision came hours after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres authorized an investigation into attacks on health facilities and schools in the rebel-held enclave, following a petition from 10 members of the U.N. Security Council.
The offensive in Idlib and surrounding areas has unfolded since April 30, displacing more than 400,000 people and killing hundreds. Images of attacks on health facilities and residential homes were reminiscent of the peak of the violence in the eight-year conflict. International rights groups, western countries and the U.N. had appealed for a cease-fire. Around 3 million people are living inside the rebel-held area.
Pentagon Delays Award of $10 Billion Cloud Computing Contract
The Pentagon said on Thursday that it was delaying the award of a hotly contested $10 billion contract for a new generation of computing services for the military until the secretary of defense, Mark T. Esper, could review the matter.
The announcement came just a week after Mr. Esper’s confirmation and two weeks after President Trump said he would be looking “very seriously” at the contract process to move the military to a cloud-computing system. Mr. Trump said his concern was based on what he called “tremendous complaints” from competitors of Amazon Web Services, the division of the merchandising giant seen as the all-but-certain winner of the contract.
The development was evidence of how what began as a technological competition to remake the military’s aging, often incompatible computer systems now seems to have taken on a political and possibly personal element driven by Mr. Trump, who has frequently attacked Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who also owns The Washington Post. When angered by the paper’s coverage, Mr. Trump often refers to it on Twitter as the “Amazon Washington Post.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/us/politics/amazon-pentagon-contract.html
THE GUARDIAN
Nato and Russia trade barbs after collapse of nuclear arms treaty
A key international nuclear disarmament treaty has formally collapsed amid mutual recriminations between the west and Russia, and with Nato pledging to boost Europe’s military defences.
The alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Nato countries were facing a threat from previously banned Russian land-based cruise missiles that could “reach EU cities, with only minutes of warning time”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/02/nuclear-arms-treaty-dead-nato-russia-cruise-missiles
Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US
The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.
Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest
North Korea missile tests could be effort to divide US, Japan and South
The latest launches, at about 3am on Friday from North Korea’s east coast, involved the firing of two unidentified projectiles into the Sea of Japan. They follow two tests in the past eight days.
Global markets take fright as Trump ramps up US-China trade war
Financial markets around the world have sold off sharply after Donald Trump threatened to impose a new tariff on $300bn (£248bn) of Chinese goods in a rapid escalation of the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
The FTSE 100 plunged by more than 2% as markets across Europe tumbled on Friday, continuing a wave of selling pressure around the world in the aftermath of the president’s announcement on Thursday evening.
AL JAZEERA
INF treaty: US withdraws from arms control agreement with Russia
Critics say move could 'exacerbate the mistrust' between the two rivals and provoke a new arms race.
Martin de Bourmont.- The move means that only one, soon-to-expire, arms control treaty between the US and Russia remains, leaving critics of the Trump administration and proliferation experts worried about the potential for a new arms race.
US officials say that the treaty's collapse ultimately resulted from consistent Russian failures to adhere to its terms.
More specifically, the US and NATO wanted Russia to destroy its 9M729/SSC-8 nuclear-capable cruise missile system.
Russia, on the other hand, insists that it complied with the treaty and that the US withdrawal is part of a larger ploy to weaken norms surrounding the use of nuclear weapons.
NATO sided with the US on its withdrawal decision, saying in a statement on Friday that "Russia bears sole responsibility for the demise of the Treaty" and vowed to respond "in a measured and responsible way".
Turkey laments exclusion from US training on F-35 jets
Ankara says US reaction to arrival of Russian S-400 missile system in Turkey is unjustified.
Andrew Wilks.- Although about 40 Turkish air and ground crew are no longer involved in F-35 training - and another 20 Turkish staff have been cut from a joint office in Washington - Turkish companies continue to be involved in providing more than 950 F-35 parts.
However, Turkey has been buoyed by US President Donald Trump's sympathetic stance towards the S-400 purchase. He has blamed the Barack Obama administration's refusal to offer sufficient incentives to buy the US Patriot air defence system as the reason for Ankara seeking an alternative.
North Korea fires two short-range projectiles: South Korea
Pyongyang fires off third missile test in eight days as US president plays down recent launches as 'very standard'.
North Korea has carried out its third missile test in eight days, according to the South's military, but US President Donald Trump said he had "no problem" with the spate of launches by Pyongyang.
The two unidentified short-range projectiles were fired off separately from North Korea's eastern coast early on Friday and came down in the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told Yonhap news agency.
Trump hits China with more tariffs, global markets sink
US to impose 10 percent levy on an additional $300bn of Chinese goods, as Trump says tariff rate may increase further.
The announcement on Thursday extends Trump's trade tariffs to nearly all China's imports into the US and marks an abrupt end to a temporary truce in a trade war that has disrupted global supply chains and roiled financial markets.
Trump later said if trade negotiations fail to progress he could raise tariffs further - even beyond the 25 percent levy he has already imposed on $250bn of imports from China.
The tariffs may also force the US Federal Reserve to again cut interest rates to protect the US economy from trade-policy risks, experts said. The US central bank cut its main interest rate by a quarter of one percentage point on Wednesday, its first reduction in more than a decade.
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/trump-hits-china-tariffs-asian-markets-sink-190802022254977.html
AL MAYADEEN
Venezuela denuncia operación ilegal de empresa Crystallex para apropiarse de recursos de la nación
Durante sus declaraciones sobre esta operación, destacó que los responsables de estos actos ilícitos son miembros de Voluntad Popular para apropiarse de los recursos de la nación.
Recordó que una corte de Estados Unidos dictó una insólita decisión dando a una empresa minera llamada Crystallex derechos expropiando los activos de Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) en los Estados Unidos concretados en Citgo. "Tenemos pruebas de cómo opositores se plantearon adueñarse de los recursos de Citgo".
España rechaza formar parte de la coalición marítima de EE.UU. en el Golfo Pérsico
Según informaron fuentes de la Cancillería española, Washington envió una solicitud formal al Ejecutivo de Madrid para que las fuerzas navales de ese país europeo se unan a la misión marítima de patrullaje, que pretende encabezar EE.UU., en el estrecho de Ormuz y el Golfo.
Sin embargo, España descartó sumarse a tal coalición marítima y declaró que está estudiando y observando las reacciones de otros socios europeos hacia esta propuesta estadounidense.
La India y Japón anunciaron que no se sumarán a tal coalición en el Golfo Pérsico.
