World

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears torn between the United States and the European Union as he tries to chart Britain's course on the international stage weeks before Brexit.

From the fraught situation in Iran to controversy over Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, Johnson has been accused of trying to avoid aggravating Britain's historic ally and US President Donald Trump.

At the same time the British premier, who wants future trade deals with both Washington and Brussels, has stopped short of breaking from the European bloc's positions on key global issues.

Striking such a delicate balance has proved tricky, especially after top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed by US air strikes earlier this month.

Johnson was on holiday in the Caribbean at the time and initially remained silent. He eventually issued a statement several days later saying Britain "will not lament his death".

He then agreed with the leaders of Germany and France to work towards calming tempers in the region following the targeted strike.

He has also looked both ways over the thorny issue of the Iranian nuclear deal, a key dividing line between the US and Europe, which backs persevering with the pact.

Trump abandoned the 2015 accord with Tehran in May 2018 and this month publicly urged all other powers to follow suit.

Rhetoric vs substance 

Richard Goldberg, a Trump security adviser until last week, told the BBC Wednesday that Washington could make a future trade deal with Britain conditional on support for that stance.

“The question for prime minister Johnson is: As you are moving towards Brexit... what are you going to do post January-31 as you come to Washington to negotiate a free trade agreement with the United States?” he said.

“It’s absolutely in his interests and the people of Great Britain’s interests to join with President Trump... to realign your foreign policy away from Brussels.”

Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Johnson was unlikely to get any credit from Trump’s administration without giving them his full support.

“To them, you’re either a vassal or an enemy,” he told the New York Times earlier this month.

He suggested Johnson risked the same criticism as prime minister Tony Blair, who was accused of being president George W. Bush’s “poodle” over his support for the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Johnson raised eyebrows Tuesday when he said replacing the accord with a “Trump deal” would be “a great way forward”.

“If we are going to get rid of it... let’s replace it with the Trump deal. That’s what we need to see,” he said.

But just hours later Britain joined Paris and Berlin in insisting it remained committed to the nuclear deal and would not join “a campaign to implement maximum pressure against Iran” championed by Trump.

‘Avoid making enemies’ 

Simon Usherwood, of the University of Surrey’s politics department, noted that despite occasional rhetoric, Johnson “has actually been more in line with the European approach” on Iran.

“He plays the same kind of approach that [French President] Emmanuel Macron has played with Trump, which is to make Trump feel important,” he told AFP. 

“A lot of it is about labelling things in a way that Trump might like, even if the substance does not really change.”

Britain is also under intense pressure from Washington not to allow Huawei, which the US believes is susceptible to Beijing’s control, to develop its domestic 5G network.

The issue is another headache for Johnson, as he weighs a future US trade deal with his aspiration for a newly “global Britain” after Brexit, and reports of an imminent visit to Washington.

“If the UK is becoming a global actor, then to compromise your trade relations and political relations with the largest growing economy in the world, China, seems problematic,” said Usherwood.

Meanwhile, the stated aim of some EU members, including Britain, to impose a digital services tax on US tech giants could strain London’s transatlantic ties.

Usherwood suggested the pronouncements could be more rhetoric than substance.

But simply following the US on the global stage could “make life more difficult” for Johnson after he sold Brexit to the British public with a message to “take back control”, he said.

“He is trying to avoid making enemies in the international scene but also trying to show that the UK matters,” the politics professor added.

Pauline Froissart

PARIS — US President Donald Trump will renew his running battle with young climate campaigner Greta Thunberg when they join the A-list movers and shakers attending the 50th anniversary of the Davos conclave this week.

From climate change to tensions in the Middle East, via trade conflicts and fears of pandemics, the more than 3,000 delegates at the World Economic Forum will thrash out challenges as imposing as the surrounding Swiss Alps.

The WEF has come a long way since its inaugural edition in 1971 and if the main business of Davos remains deal-making among corporate titans, climate change has come to dominate the catalogue of long-term planetary risks identified in a pre-meeting report compiled by the forum.

After trolling each other on Twitter, Trump and the 17-year-old Thunberg will bring rival messages to the well-heeled crowd. The Swede’s impassioned speech, and famously hard stare at the US leader, at the UN General Assembly in September symbolised anger over climate inaction.

Climate denier Trump, escaping his Senate impeachment trial back home, said his keynote address on Tuesday would tout “the most incredible” economy ever seen. 

“I expect him to send a message to the American people and not to the international community,” Carlos Pascual, a former US diplomat and now a vice president at IHS Markit, told AFP.

“The purpose of that message is to reinforce with the elector in the United States that his number one concern in international policy is ‘America first’.”

‘Wake up!’ 

Thunberg, on the other hand, will tell her corporate audience that it is “madness” to continue investing in fossil fuels as disasters such as the wave of wildfires in Australia focus new attention on the baleful effects of rising temperatures. 

On Friday, she joined a climate protest in the Swiss city of Lausanne featuring placards like “Wake Up and Smell the Bushfires!”

Thunberg may have a more receptive audience after Wall Street titan BlackRock — whose CEO Larry Fink is a Davos perennial — said it was partially divesting from businesses reliant on production of electricity-generating coal.

Another issue set to darken the snowy Davos horizon is the risk of conflict between the United States and Iran, as tensions spike following the US killing of a top Iranian commander and Iran’s subsequent accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, however, cancelled his planned participation at the four-day forum, removing any chance of a showdown with Trump.

With Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng leading a top-level delegation from Beijing, the trade dispute between China and the US will also loom large, even after this week’s signing of a deal that marked a truce after two years of tensions.

The fate of Chinese telecoms company Huawei, the subject of US sanctions, remains on the dispute agenda. Its top executives will be prowling Davos to insist that their technology poses no security risk to Western governments rolling out 5G networks.

‘No firm foundation’ 

Key European figures present will be EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who may only serve to highlight the extent of differences between Europe and the United States on key issues.

“On climate change and on many global conflicts — such as the US conflict with Iran — US and European leaders disagree not just on the solution but also on the very nature of the problem,” Jeremy Shapiro, research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

He said that while EU leaders see climate change as an “existential challenge”, Trump considers it a “Chinese hoax”.

The two sides are also at loggerheads over the Iran nuclear deal from 2015 that was supposed to defuse the risk of conflict with Tehran.

“None of this is a firm foundation on which to build common solutions to vexing global problems,” Shapiro said.

In its global risk report issued ahead of Davos, the WEF singlled out popular discontent over economic instability, climate change, unequal access to the Internet and healthcare systems under stress as pivotal challenges for humanity.

Another threat was the growing distrust of vaccines as well as the increasing resistance of many germs to antibiotics and other drugs.

By Stuart Williams

PARIS — French police fired tear gas under a rain of projectiles and arrested several people on Saturday as thousands of “yellow vest” anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Paris.

Demonstrators shouted slogans denouncing the police, President Emmanuel Macron and his pension reforms that have triggered the longest French transport strike in decades.

This was the latest of the weekly demonstrations held every Saturday by the yellow vest movement since November 2018, and which have been boosted by opposition to the pension reforms.

Police said 15 people were arrested after police tried to disperse a bloc at the head of the protest in northern Paris.

“The street is ours,” some protesters chanted. “Macron, we’re going to come for you, in your home.”

Police fired tear gas as they came under a hail of projectiles, AFP reporters witnessed.

Annie Moukam, a 58-year-old teacher, said too many people in France were suffering.

“We’re suffocating with this government who wants to put us on our knees,” Moukam said.

“It’s out of the question that he [Macron] touches our pensions. We have worked all our lives to be able to leave with a dignified retirement,” she said. “It’s exactly that that he is challenging.”

The rallies came on the 45th day of a strike that has hit train and metro traffic and caused misery for millions of commuters in Paris especially.

Trains are becoming more frequent, however, and Paris’s metro drivers voted to suspend their action from Monday, their union Unsa announce on Saturday.

Macron’s reforms aim to forge a single pensions system from the country’s 42 separate regimes.

The various systems currently in place offer early retirement and other benefits to some public-sector workers as well as lawyers, physical therapists and even Paris Opera employees.

Critics say the reforms it will effectively force millions of people to work longer for a smaller pension.

The transport unions have joined forces with the yellow vests, who accuse Macron of ruling on behalf of an urban elite while ignoring people in the provinces and the countryside, many of whom struggle to make ends meet.

LONDON — Britain will issue special coins, fly the Union Jack and project a countdown clock on the walls of Downing Street — but not bong Big Ben — on Brexit night, the government said on Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will also deliver a special address to the nation, his office said, ending days of debate about how to mark the country's delayed departure from the European Union.

"January 31st is a significant moment in our history as the United Kingdom leaves the EU and regains its independence," a government statement said.

"The government intends to use this as a moment to heal divisions, reunite communities and look forward to the country that we want to build over the next decade."

Brexit supporters are crowdfunding a campaign to get Big Ben — mostly silent since 2017 as its clock tower undergoes restoration work — to strike at 23:00 GMT when Brexit finally happens.

It had raised almost half of the £500,000 ($650,000, 590,000 euros) it could cost to get the clock's ringing devices reinstalled and the floor supporting its workers set back up.

The idea has infuriated those who voted against Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum, and the government has distanced itself from the campaign after initially coming out in strong support.

Instead, plans were laid out for what it said would be "a clock counting down to 11:00pm projected onto the black bricks of Downing Street".

The Treasury will also release commemorative Brexit coins reading "peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations".

Johnson, who was one of the Brexit campaign figureheads in 2016, "is expected to be one of the first to receive the new coin on the day", the government said.

His team was reportedly forced to melt down the coins prepared for October 31, 2019 — the day Johnson originally promised to deliver Brexit after coming to power in July.

It had already been delayed twice by then, costing former leader Theresa May her job.

'All a bit scary' 

Looking past Brexit, the Cabinet will hold a special Cabinet meeting on January 31 at a still-undisclosed location in the north of England, that formed the bedrock of Brexit support.

Johnson's Conservative Party won over the north's traditionally Labour voters as it stormed to victory in a snap general election last month.

His government is now focused on locking in those votes for the coming years by spending more on regional development programmes.

Talks to thrash out a new trade deal between London and Brussels are due to begin by early March, once the formal divorce is in place.

But first, Johnson must temper the anger of Brexit supporters who rallied around his call on Tuesday to crowdfund "a Big Ben bong", which is estimated to cost £50,000 a peal.

"It's ridiculous, isn't it? The prime minister said: If the people can raise the money then it can happen," Brexit Party Chairman Richard Tice fumed in an interview with AFP.

"And now, grungy bureaucrats in the House of Parliament said: Oh no, that's all a bit scary, even if you raise the money you can't spend it on a state asset. It's ridiculous!"

MOGADISHU — Four people were killed in a car bombing in Somalia on Saturday that apparently targeted Turkish engineers working on a road near the capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

The attack was claimed by the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Al Shabaab, which has stepped up its activities in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya in recent weeks.

The bomb struck near the town of Afgoye about 30 kilometres west of the capital, killing four people and wounding several others including several Turkish nationals, said local police officer Abdirahman Adan.

"The blast was huge, it destroyed a container used by the Turkish engineers who work on the Afgoye road construction," said witness Muhidin Yusuf.

"There were police who were guarding the Turkish engineers and several other people gathering near the checkpoint where the temporary shelter is located," said another witness Ahmed Said.

"I saw the dead bodies of several [people] and Turkish workers who were wounded in the blast."

The group, which has fought for more than a decade to topple the Somali government, has carried out a series of attacks in recent weeks including a massive car bombing in Mogadishu on December 28 that killed 81 people.

On January 5, the fighting militants stormed a military base used by US forces in Kenya's coastal Lamu region, killing three Americans.

BEIJING — China's birth rate dropped last year to its lowest level since the communist country was founded in 1949, adding to concerns that an ageing society and shrinking workforce will pile pressure on a slowing economy.

To avoid a demographic crisis, the government relaxed its one-child policy in 2016 to allow people to have two children, but the change has not resulted in an increase in pregnancies.

In 2019, the birth rate stood at 10.48 per 1,000 people, down slightly from the year before, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday.

The number of births has now fallen for three consecutive years, still, there were 14.65 million babies born in 2019.

He Yafu, an independent demographer based in southern Guangdong province, said the number of births was the lowest since 1961, the last year of a famine that left tens of millions dead. He said there were around 11.8 million births that year.

US-based academic Yi Fuxian, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told AFP that although China has abolished its one-child policy, there has been a shift in the mindset of the population, with people now used to smaller families.

He added that a higher cost of living is also a factor, noting that daycare is expensive and inconvenient in China, posing another deterrence.

He believes that China's population is over-estimated, and according to his work, the real population "began to decline in 2018".

According to official figures, China's population stood at 1.4 billion by the end of 2019, increasing by 4.67 million from the year before.

While China's limit on family sizes could be removed altogether eventually, the demographer He said citizens are still being punished for having three children, even though some areas have reduced punitive measures.

'Slow, long-term problem' 

China has signalled that it might end limits on family size as a draft of the new Civil Code — due to be introduced at the annual session of the rubber-stamp parliament in March — omits all mention of "family planning".

The one-child policy was introduced by top leader Deng Xiaoping to curb population growth and promote economic development, with exceptions for rural families whose first-born was a female, and for ethnic minorities. 

The measure was mainly enforced through fines but was also notorious for forced abortions and sterilisations.

The result was dramatic: fertility rates dropped from 5.9 births per woman in 1970 to about 1.6 in the late 1990s. The replacement level for a population is 2.1.

This could pose a problem for the economy in the future, as the country's workforce continued to shrink last year.

The NBS said there were 896.4 million people aged between 16 and 59 — its population of working age — a drop from the 897.3 million in 2018.

This marks the eighth consecutive year of decline, and the workforce is expected to decline by as much as 23 per cent by 2050.

"The demographic problem is a slow, long-term one," He told AFP.

He noted that ageing Japan, which saw rapid growth in the 1980s, has seen almost zero per cent growth in recent years.

China's economy grew by 6.1 per cent in 2019, its slowest pace since 1990 as it was hit by weaker demand and a bruising trade war with the United States.

"Because China's education levels have been going up, in the short term, the population issue should not impact growth too much," he said.

"But in the long run, if the trend continues, it would pose a huge drag on economic growth."

LONDON — To bong or not to bong? The question exercising Britons as they face their last few days of EU membership is not about trade or sovereignty but whether Big Ben should ring out for Brexit.

The world famous bell in parliament's Elizabeth Tower has been largely silent since August 2017 while undergoing repairs, but some Brexit supporters want it to sound on exit day on January 31.

The House of Commons authorities rejected the idea after being told it could cost up to £500,000 (585,000 euros, $653,000), which Speaker Lindsay Hoyle noted was about "£50,000 a bong".

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson, an enthusiastic Brexiteer with an eye for a populist campaign, kept the idea alive by suggesting the public chip in through some kind of crowdfunding drive.

Downing Street was careful not to commit the government to making a contribution, but donors to Johnson's Conservative Party suggested they would help.

Several newspapers backed the idea, including the Daily Express, which declared in a front-page headline that "Big Ben Must Bong for Brexit".

Alas, Downing Street pulled the plug on Thursday by revealing that parliamentary authorities in fact were not allowed to crowdfund the money.

"There may be potential difficulties in accepting money from public donations," a spokesman told reporters.

'Embarrassed by Brexit' 

Arch eurosceptic populist Nigel Farage, a leading campaigner for Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum, accused the government of being "embarrassed by Brexit and not proud of it".

Pro-Brexit MP Mark Francois, from Johnson's Conservative party, said it was "inconceivable" that the most iconic clock in the world was not used to mark such a moment.

In the eurosceptic media, there has been speculation of a plot by anti-Brexit "Remainers" to inflate the estimated costs of Big Ben's bongs.

There have also been questions about why the bell has broken its silence for Remembrance Sunday and New Year's Eve but not for Brexit.

Some Brexit supporters despaired at the campaign, however, which drew widespread mockery online.

A parody of the Express frontpage went viral, questioning that with a climate emergency and thousands of people sleeping rough in Britain, "you want to spend half a million pounds to ring a bell?"

Most ministers have perhaps wisely kept out of it, with Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay saying he "would not dare" comment.

Downing Street says it is planning events to mark Britain's exit from the EU, which it called a "significant moment in our history".

But privately officials acknowledge the dangers of any triumphalism over an issue that continues to divide the country.

"This is not going to be a moment of celebration for many people across the UK," Scottish National Party lawmaker Patrick Grady warned in parliament.

"Perhaps we should be asking the government: if they do want to hear the bell chime, for whom will the bell toll?"

 Wrong note 

Bell ringing has a long history in Britain, with celebrations across the country marked by a peal of bells, and deaths registered with a funeral toll.

Eurosceptic group Leave EU has called for bells of local churches to ring out on February 1 "to celebrate Britain's new-found independence".

But clergy up and down the land said it struck the wrong note and the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, a representative body of campanologists, poured cold water on the idea.

"There are historical moments for which bells have been rung — end of world wars, for example," said spokeswoman Vicki Chapman.

"However the Central Council, as a principle, does not endorse bell ringing for political reasons.

"Individual towers have discretion to ring for such occasions but is on a case by case basis and typically needs permission from the incumbent."

Another idea is now taking shape.

Farage is planning a huge rally in Parliament Square on Brexit day, and one leading commentator suggested everyone brings along their own bells to ring.

MOSCOW — Russia’s ruling party backed President Vladimir Putin’s nomination of a little-known tax chief as the new prime minister on Thursday.

The lower house of Russia’s parliament is due to formally approve Mikhail Mishustin for the role, a day after the resignation of the government after Putin’s call for reforms to reshape Russia’s political system.

The series of announcements made during and after Putin’s state of the nation speech triggered speculation about his role past 2024.

Some suggested 67-year-old Putin, who is two years into his fourth presidential term and has steered the country since 1999, could be laying the groundwork to assume a new position or remain in a powerful behind-the-scenes role.

It is unclear whether Mishustin, a technocrat whose recent career revolved around the tax service, is a temporary placeholder or could be groomed as Putin’s successor.

But his approval was imminent after the United Russia Party — which holds 75 per cent of seats in the lower house — gave its backing on Thursday morning.

“We decided to unanimously support the candidature suggested by our national leader for the post of the head of government,” the head of United Russia’s parliamentary faction, Sergei Neverov, told journalists.

Lawmakers are due to discuss and vote on Mishustin’s nomination at a plenary session at 2:00 pm (11:00 GMT).

In his state of the nation speech, Putin said he wanted more authority transferred to parliament from the president, including the power to choose the prime minister and Cabinet members.

He also called for the power of the State Council, an advisory body, to be expanded and enshrined in the constitution — adding to conjecture that Putin could take it over after 2024 to preserve power.

Outlining the proposals, which would be the first significant changes to the country’s constitution since it was adopted in 1993, Putin said there was a “demand for change” among Russians.

He was to meet on Thursday with a newly created working group to develop constitutional amendments.

A list of more than 70 names joining the group published by the Kremlin includes conservative public figures as well as celebrities like actor Vladimir Mashkov and pianist Denis Matsuev.

Dmitry Medvedev, prime minister since 2012, announced the resignation of his government soon after Putin’s speech on Wednesday, explaining the move as necessary to remove all constraints from Putin’s reform drive.

He remains acting prime minister until a new head of government takes the reins.

Once 53-year-old Mishustin is appointed he will have a week to propose a new government and ministers.

He told United Russia that some changes in the Cabinet would be made but did not elaborate, lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky told Interfax.

Mishustin, the former head of an investment group who trained as an engineer, has a PhD in economics and has led Russia’s Federal Tax Service since 2010.

He shares Putin’s love for hockey and has been seen at matches with security services officials.

Medvedev — who also served as Russian president for four years from 2008 — is expected to stay close to the Russian leader in his new role as deputy head of the Security Council, which Putin chairs.

SYDNEY — A secret operation by specialist firefighters has saved the world's last stand of Wollemi Pines, a pre-historic species known as "dinosaur trees", from Australia's unprecedented bushfires, officials said.

Fewer than 200 of the trees exist in the wild, hidden in a gorge in the World Heritage Blue Mountains, northwest of Sydney, an area hit by one of the biggest bushfires that have ravaged much of Australia for months.

With flames approaching the area late last year, air tankers dropped fire retardant in a protective ring around the trees while specialist firefighters were winched into the gorge to set up an irrigation system to provide moisture for the grove, officials said.

Matt Kean, environment minister for New South Wales state where the Blue Mountains lie, described the operation as "an unprecedented environmental protection mission".

While some of the trees were charred by the flames, the grove was saved from the fires, he said in a statement late Wednesday.

"The fire did go through there, we had a few days of thick smoke so we couldn't tell if they'd been damaged. We all waited with bated breath," he told ABC radio.

"It's just been a phenomenal success story," he added.

He said this wildfire season was the first opportunity to monitor the response of the trees to fire in a natural setting, helping the park to refine how it manages the grove. 

The Wollemi Pine which grows up to 40-metres high is believed to have existed since the Jurassic period 200 million years ago, pre-dating many dinosaurs.

They were believed to be extinct, only ever seen in fossils, until their accidental discovery by a park ranger in 1994.

The grove's remote location has remained a closely-guarded secret to protect the trees from contamination by visitors. 

"Illegal visitation remains a significant threat to the Wollemi Pines survival in the wild due to the risk of trampling regenerating plants and introducing diseases which could devastate the remaining populations and their recovery," Kean said.

The trees have been propagated and distributed to botanic gardens around the world to preserve the species, but the Wollemi gorge is the only wild stand.

Australia's wildfires have since October claimed 28 lives, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and burned 10 million hectares (100,000 square kilometres) of land — an area larger than South Korea or Portugal.

About one billion animals may have died in fires which have driven many species closer to extinction, according to environmental groups.

The country was enjoying a long-awaited respite on Thursday as rainstorms blanketed much of Australia's east, although a return to warm and dry weather was forecast for later in the southern summer.

FREETOWN — Sierra Leone on Thursday said it had released a leading opponent of Liberian President George Weah after he had been briefly detained at Liberia's request.

Opposition figure Henry Costa left Sierra Leone for the United States, where he usually resides, an immigration official in Sierra Leone and Liberian media said. 

Sierra Leone authorities had stopped him from leaving the country on Tuesday, local media reported, in an affair allegedly related to problems with his travel documents. 

Costa, chairman of a youth activist group called the Council of Patriots (COP), is a fierce critic of footballer-turned-politician Weah and often attacks him on his popular radio show.

Sierra Leone Information Minister Abdurahman Swarray told local radio on Thursday that Costa had been detained and released.

"There was a call from our counterparts in Liberia to investigate him and we did the due diligence," Swarray said.

Costa had returned to his native Liberia from the United States last month ahead of an anti-Weah protest which took place on January 6. 

He was prevented from boarding a flight in Liberia last week for allegedly possessing forged travel documents, media in Liberia said earlier.

He was supposed to present himself to Liberian authorities on Wednesday but instead turned up in Freetown, capital of neighbouring Sierra Leone, where he was detained at the airport.

COP co-chair Mo Alie confirmed that Costa had been released and was on his way to the United States.

Liberia's government did not comment on Costa's detention on Wednesday, and it was not immediately available for comment on Thursday. 

The president is under growing pressure to revive the west African country's economy, which is struggling after back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis.