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6 WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017 DT News Trump intel sharing to Russia risks damaging US alliances • Agencies US President Donald Trump, right, speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting at the White House on May 10, 2017 AFP For months, US allies have anxiously wondered if President Donald Trump could be trusted with some of the world’s most sensitive national security secrets. Now, just a few days before Trump’s debut on the international stage, he’s giving allies new reasons to worry. A US official said Trump revealed highly classified information about an Islamic State plot to senior Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting last week. The information had been obtained by a US partner and shared with Washington, according to the official. “If it proves to be true that the US president passed on internal intelligence matters, that would be highly worrying,” Burkhard Lischka, a senior German lawmaker, said in a statement to The Associated Press. The revelations, which Trump appeared to verify in a pair of tweets Tuesday morning, are sure to shadow the president as he embarks Friday on his first overseas trip as president. After high-stakes visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican, he’ll meet some of Washington’s strongest European partners at a Nato summit in Brussels and the Group of 7 meeting in Sicily. Some of the leaders he’ll meet come from countries the US has intelligence-sharing agreements with. Trump has a contentious relationship with US spy agencies. He’s questioned the competence of intelligence officials, challenged their assessment that Russia meddled in last year’s election to help him win, and accused them of leaking information about him and his associates. The leaks have only continued to flow. According to the US official, Trump shared details with top Russian officials about an IS terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft. The Washington Post first reported the disclosure. White House officials disputed the report, saying Trump did not disclose intelligence sources or methods with the Russians, though they did not deny that classified information was disclosed in the May 10 meeting. And by Tuesday morning, Trump was justifying his actions, writing on Twitter that he had an “absolute right” to share the information about “terrorism and airline flight safety” with Russia.” The US and Western officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive information. Some of the European partners Trump will meet later in his trip have been more sceptical about his policies, including a controversial travel and immigration ban that’s been blocked by US courts. Western allies, including Britain and Germany, have also been wary of Trump’s warmness toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was kicked out of the summit of leading economic powers after Moscow’s annexation of territory from Ukraine. The White House’s botched handling of Trump’s firing last week of FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the bureau’s Russia probe, and the president’s own volatile statements about his actions are also likely to raise questions among allies about the US leader’s standing. • Trump travel ban back in court • AFP, Seattle A US government attorney insisted Monday that President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban did not unfairly target Muslims, in the latest twist in a monthslong legal battle that has dogged the new US administration. A crowd rallied in protest outside an appeals court in the western city of Seattle, where a panel of federal judges was weighing the legality of the contested immigration order – which has twice been blocked. The Trump administration says the temporary ban on refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen – is motivated by national security concerns, an area where US presidents have wide powers. But a Hawaii-based judge in March issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order on grounds it was unconstitutional and motivated by anti-Muslim bias. Now, three judges from the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals are considering Trump’s challenge of that injunction. Monday’s hearing came a week after a federal court in Maryland heard arguments on whether to uphold a separate judge’s decision blocking the ban. • What’s at stake in Iran’s presidential election? ‘Destroy Labour’, British Tories given election orders • Reuters, London No talk of opinion polls and definitely no boasting, Britain’s governing Conservative Party is under strict orders before a June election which it hopes will “destroy” the opposition. The Conservatives, once criticised by Prime Minister Theresa May for being called the “nasty party”, won seats from left-wing parties and from the right in local elections this month by capitalising on the opposition Labour Party’s divisions to appeal to their working-class voters and Brexit supporters. The goal is nothing less than “to destroy Labour”, one Conservative lawmaker said, by targeting the seats of up-and-coming opposition politicians to stunt its growth. This, the Conservatives say, would hand May the kind of commanding victory she needs to strengthen her hand in divorce talks with the EU. • • AFP, Tehran Iran’s presidential election Friday is effectively a choice between moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani and hardline jurist Ebrahim Raisi, with major implications for everything from civil rights to relations with Washington. Rouhani is still seen as the frontrunner, but he faces a tougher than expected challenge from Raisi, who has rallied religious traditionalists and working-class voters disillusioned with the stagnant economy. The economy This is the issue driving the campaign on all sides as the Islamic republic struggles with a 12.5-percent unemployment rate and minimal growth outside the oil sector. Rouhani won praise for taming inflation and easing sanctions through a nuclear deal with world powers, but his promises of massive foreign investment have not materialised, and Raisi has criticised his lack of support for the poor. Raisi has pushed his charitable credentials as head of the powerful Imam Reza foundation and vowed to create jobs, though with a notable Supporters of Iranian President and presidential candidate Hassan Rouhani gather at a campaign rally in the capital Tehran on May 13, 2017 AFP lack of detail on how. Regime legitimacy For Clement Therme of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the turnout will be the biggest issue in the election. “The regime needs participation. What matters most is the turnout, not the result,” he said. With many disillusioned by the lack of improvements after past elections, this is a particular fear for the Islamic regime this year, and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for a massive turnout. Nuclear deal Because it had the tacit approval of the supreme leader, Raisi supports the 2015 deal with world powers which saw curbs to Iran’s nuclear programme in return for an easing of sanctions. “The nuclear issue is not decided by the president and the future of the deal will depend on the Trump administration which is trying to change Iran’s behaviour with the threat of force,” said Thermes. But Raisi has attacked the Rouhani government for his “weak” stance during negotiations and for having failed to cash in on the deal. • British Labour Party unveils election manifesto • AFP, Bradford Britain’s opposition Labour Party pledged to raise taxes on the welloff, renationalise key industries and end austerity in its manifesto on Tuesday, presenting voters with their starkest choice in decades in next month’s election. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the programme “radical and responsible”, saying the country had been run “for the rich, the elite and the vested interests” in seven years of Conservative government. The manifesto is expected to include a tax increase from 40% to 45% for salaries of between £80,000 and £150,0000 a year. The current 40% tax rate applies to people earning between £31,500 and £150,000. But ruling Conservatives immediately slammed the plan as “nonsensical” and not properly costed. •
News 7 WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017 Syria peace talks restart in Geneva DT • AFP, Geneva A new round of Syria peace talks opened on Tuesday in Geneva, the latest United Nations push to resolve a six-year conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people. Five previous rounds of UN-backed negotiations have failed to yield concrete results and hopes for a major breakthrough remain dim. The Syrian leader has however given more credit to a separate diplomatic track in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, which is being led by his allies Russia and Iran along with opposition supporter Turkey. The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has dismissed suggestions that the Astana negotiations were overshadowing the Geneva track. “We’re working in tandem” he told reporters on Monday. • Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they meet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 16, 2017 REUTERS China offers help for Myanmar peace process • Reuters, Beijing Chinese President Xi Jinping told Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday that China would continue to help the country achieve peace, and called for both sides to maintain stability on their shared border, state media said. Fighting in March in Myanmar pushed thousands of people into China to seek refuge, prompting Beijing to call for a ceasefire between ethnic militias and the security forces there and carry out military drills along the border. Xi met Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who serves as Myanmar’s foreign minister while also being de facto head of its civilian government, following China’s Belt and Road Forum on Sunday and Monday. “China is willing to continue to provide necessary assistance for Myanmar’s internal peace process,” China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying. “The two sides must jointly work to safeguard China-Myanmar border security and stability,” Xi said. China has repeatedly expressed concern about fighting along the border that has occasionally spilled into its territory, for instance in 2015, when five people died in China. Xi also said China would work to enhance cooperation with Myanmar on his Belt and Road development plan, which aims to bolster China’s global leadership by expanding infrastructure between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond. The president promised $124bn on Sunday to expand the reach of the initiative during the two day summit of world leaders in Beijing. Suu Kyi told Xi that Myanmar was grateful for Chinese help and that it would work with China to safeguard stability in the border. • Inflation rates rising in rural areas, falling in cities • Bilkis Irani Though the country’s overall inflation rate in the third quarter of the current fiscal year has gone down to 5.28% from 5.78%, the inflation rate in rural areas has risen to 5.08% from 4.95% in the same period. The inflation rate in urban areas has, however, decreased to 5.65% from7.34%. The inflation rate of nonfood items went up due to an increase in house rents, treatment costs, transportation costs, educational expenses, and prices of apparel products Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal disclosed these when talking to reporters following a meeting of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council at his office in Dhaka yesterday. He, however, refrained from elaborating the reasons for the increased inflation rate in the rural areas. Showing a quarterly Consumer Price Index, Kamal said food items saw a jump as prices of rice, fish, red meat, green chilli, soybean oil, tea leaves, and milk had shot up in the last quarter. The inflation rate of non-food items went up due to an increase in house rents, treatment costs, transportation costs, educational expenses, and prices of apparel products, fuel as well as household furniture, the minister added. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics prepares such indices on a monthly basis, but it has prepared the quarterly CPI for the first time ever. Khandokar Golam Moyajjem, research director of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told the Dhaka Tribune: “ Because the index was prepared on a quarterly basis, it seems that the inflation rate increased in rural areas and decreased in urban areas. The scenario would have been different had it been prepared on a monthly basis.” Prices of commodities were not so high from January to February as they were in March. Though the prices have further gone up in recent times, the index demonstrates a decreasing trend in the inflation rates as the report is quarterly, he explained. Moyajjem also found floods and other natural adversaries to be among the factors contributing to inflation in the rural areas. •
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Page 21 and 22: Cavani named best Ligue 1 player
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