Síntesis informativa - 9 de agosto 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Modi Defends Revoking Kashmir’s Statehood as Protests Flare
NEW DELHI — India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, addressed the nation Thursday night for the first time about his government’s unilateral decision to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy, speaking against a backdrop of rising protests, mass arrests and escalating tensions with Pakistan.
Mr. Modi defended the action, arguing that it would make the restive territory more secure. “A new era has begun,” he said.
But in Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, protests were exploding as Indian security forces, which had already cut off internet service, mobile phone calls and even land lines, clamped down harder.
More than 500 people were detained in nighttime raids across Kashmir and taken to makeshift detention centers, rights activists said. In several areas, Kashmiris pelted security officers with stones and the officers fired back, with reports that some demonstrators had been killed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/asia/kashmir-india-modi.html
Hong Kong Protesters Descend on Airport, With Plans to Stay for Days
HONG KONG — Thousands of black-clad antigovernment protesters demonstrated at Hong Kong’s international airport on Friday, taking aim at both a global transit hub and the city’s closely guarded reputation for order and efficiency.
The protest in the airport’s arrivals hall, which is planned to last through Sunday, came as Hong Kong reeled from its worst political crisis since Britain handed the former colony back to China in 1997, and less than a week after protests and a general strike caused chaos in the city and led to 148 arrests.
The airport protest began in the early afternoon, as demonstrators in black T-shirts and face masks nearly filled the cavernous arrivals hall, chanting “Hong Kongers, keep going,” a rallying cry for the two-month-old protest movement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/world/asia/hong-kong-airport-protest.html
In Afghanistan, the Endgame Demands a Difficult Balancing Act in a Region on Edge
DOHA, Qatar — Six days into negotiations that many expect will deliver a preliminary deal to end nearly two decades of United States military presence in Afghanistan, the last stretch is proving to be a difficult balancing act.
Most of the American and Taliban negotiators were stuck in talks late into the night Thursday in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar — but others, including the delegation leaders, were on the road in a region in turmoil, visiting other nations that could have some sway in the outcome.
For both sides, the challenge is to craft a face-saving resolution for all the vested interests that also sets a path for stability in Afghanistan.
At the table in Doha, Qatar’s capital, negotiators were working to address the needs of a Taliban trying to transition to peace and an American administration seeking a withdrawal that could aid a bid for a second term in office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/asia/afghanistan-peace-talks-taliban.html
U.S. Sanctions Turn Iran’s Oil Industry Into Spy vs. Spy
They change offices every few months and store documents only in hard copy. They scan their businesses for covert listening devices and divert all office calls to their cellphones. They know they are under surveillance, and assume their electronics are hacked.
They are not spies or jewel thieves but Iran’s oil traders, and they are suddenly in the cross hairs of international intrigue and espionage.
Since President Trump imposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales last year, information on those sales has become a prized geopolitical weapon — coveted by Western intelligence agencies and top secret for Iran. And the business of selling Iranian oil, once a safe and lucrative enterprise for the well connected, has been transformed into a high-stakes global game of espionage and counterespionage.
Last month, Iran said it had dismantled a spy ring and arrested 17 Iranians it said were working for the C.I.A. The Iranian government was vague on the target of the espionage, for which some of the suspects were sentenced to death, but it now appears that it involved clandestine efforts to gather intelligence on oil sales.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/middleeast/iran-oil-sanctions-spying.html
Are We Headed for Another Expensive Nuclear Arms Race? Could Be.
BRUSSELS — After the recent death of the treaty covering intermediate-range missiles, a new arms race appears to be taking shape, drawing in more players, more money and more weapons at a time of increased global instability and anxiety about nuclear proliferation.
The arms control architecture of the Cold War, involving tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, was laboriously designed over years of hard-fought negotiations between two superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union. The elaborate treaties helped keep the world from nuclear annihilation.
Today, those treaties are being abandoned by the United States and Russia just as new strategic competitors not covered by the Cold War accords — like China, North Korea and Iran — are asserting themselves as regional powers and challenging American hegemony.
The dismantling of “arms control,” a Cold War mantra, is now heightening the risks of a new era when nuclear powers like India and Pakistan are clashing over Kashmir, and when nuclear Israel feels threatened by Iran, North Korea is testing new missiles, and other countries like Saudi Arabia are thought to have access to nuclear weapons or to be capable of building them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/europe/arms-race-russia-china.html
Afghan War Casualty Report: August 2-8
At least 96 pro-government forces and 35 civilians were killed over the last week of fighting in Afghanistan. The deadliest attack took place on Wednesday in Kabul, the Afghan capital, where a car bomb targeted two government buildings, killing 14 people. Elsewhere, in Jowzjan Province, 11 security forces were killed when the Taliban attacked and captured a military base in the Khanaqa District. Ten pro-government militia members and one police officer were killed, and insurgents escaped the area after seizing all the weapons and equipment inside of the base.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/magazine/afghan-war-casualty-report.html
Trump Names an Acting Spy Chief as No. 2 Intelligence Official Steps Down
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday abruptly decided to install Joseph Maguire, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as the acting director of national intelligence after Dan Coats steps down from the post next week.
Mr. Trump announced his decision to elevate Mr. Maguire, a retired vice admiral who once led the Navy’s Special Warfare Command, on Twitter shortly after confirming that Sue Gordon, the nation’s No. 2 intelligence official — who by law had been in line to temporarily take over as director — would instead depart with Mr. Coats on Aug. 15.
Ms. Gordon, who served more than 30 years in intelligence posts at the C.I.A. and other agencies, informed Mr. Trump of her decision to retire in a letter on Thursday after it became clear that he would not permit her to rise to the position of acting director.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/us/politics/joseph-maguire-sue-gordon.html
THE GUARDIAN
US state department’s top official for Latin America resigns
he state department did not comment on the departure of Kimberly Breier, a former CIA analyst and an expert on Mexico, but it was confirmed by Ivanka Trump on Twitter. Breier then replied thanking the president’s daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, for their “friendship and support”.
Several reports said Breier’s resignation from the post of assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere followed a heated internal dispute over an agreement with Guatemala at the end of July, requiring Central American immigrants to seek asylum in that country before coming to the US.
Breier, aged 46, served as a Latin America adviser in the George W Bush administration after her time as a CIA analyst, and is widely seen as a moderate Republican and pragmatist. She drew broad support at her Senate confirmation hearings last year.
Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices
Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours. Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon’s supplierFoxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the smart-speaker devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws.
Mexico cartel hangs bodies from city bridge in grisly show of force
Falko Ernst, an International Crisis Group researcher who studies Mexico’s cartels, said this week’s slaughter was clearly intended to intimidate rival criminal groups, the families of their members, as well as Mexican authorities.
Ernst said the bloodbath was partly about the struggle for control of Uruapan’s local drug trade. But a more important motivation was the fight for the region’s billion-dollar avocado industry. “The big magnet here is avocados,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/08/mexico-bodies-police-uruapan-drug-cartels
