Why the Trump administration can’t solve its biggest problems

Jared Kushner, center, and President Trump, right.(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)


By Paul Waldman May 29 at 9:09 AM

The Trump White House is in crisis — and the people there have no idea what to do about it.

Or to be more precise, they have plenty of ideas, but they’re all wrong. They seem to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of what their problem is. As they rack their brains to figure out how they can handle the deepening Russia scandal and improve the president’s political standing, they’re coming up with solutions that are destined to fail.

Let’s take a quick tour around some of the most recent reports from inside the White House. Here’s the Associated Press:

President Donald Trump is assailing internal leaks as he considers an overhaul of his White House staff and grapples with a burgeoning crisis involving alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. 

Frustrated with what he views as his team’s inability to push back against the drumbeat of new revelations, Trump is seeking expanded teams of lawyers and experienced public relations hands.

Here’s Politico:

President Donald Trump has been aggressively working the phones since returning this weekend from his foreign trip, talking to friends and outside lawyers as he obsesses over the deepening investigations into his aides and Russia. 

Two White House officials said Trump and some aides including Steve Bannon are becoming increasingly convinced that they are victims of a conspiracy against Trump’s presidency, as evidenced by the number of leaks flowing out of government — that the crusade by the so-called “deep state” is a legitimate threat, not just fodder for right wing defenders.

And here’s a report in The Post from over the weekend:

President Trump and his advisers, seeking to contain the escalating Russia crisis that threatens to consume his presidency, are considering a retooling of his senior staff and the creation of a “war room” within the White House, according to several aides and outside Trump allies. 

Following Trump’s return to Washington on Saturday night from a nine-day foreign trip that provided a respite from the controversy back home, the White House plans to far more aggressively combat the cascading revelations about contacts between Trump associates — including Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser — and Russia.

Taken together, these reports paint a picture of a White House that is convinced that what it has is in large part a media problem. So creating a “war room” to craft and push out better spin seems to be the first item on the agenda. After that, they’re considering some kind of staff shakeup that would involve replacing some personnel with different people who would presumably do a better job.

But that’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what is ailing this administration. It certainly has a media problem, but it isn’t because the administration hasn’t had the opportunity to get its side of the story out. Its side of the story is out — it’s just that it keeps being contradicted by the facts. If the White House is upset that journalists greet its latest spin with skepticism, that’s only because its lies have been so copious that no reporter can take what administration officials say at face value, and in every new controversy, there’s a strong chance they’re pushing out new lies, which will then inevitably be exposed.

A staff “shakeup” isn’t going to solve their problem either. There is no team of top-notch Republican staffers just waiting to take over for the current White House staff — the smart ones don’t want to sully their reputations by working for this White House, and the problem is more often the jobs staffers are being asked to do than the people doing the job. For instance, you could replace Sean Spicer with some other spokesperson, but then that person would be told to go in front of the cameras and repeat things everyone knows is untrue, and then contradict themselves 24 hours later. Their reputation would quickly follow Spicer’s down the toilet.

The real staff problem the White House has is those closest to the president, none more than Jared Kushner. Kushner is not only at the center of the Russia scandal; he’s also the most powerful staffer in the White House — and as is becoming clearer all the time, there may never have been a person less capable in that position. Kushner came to the job with zero political or government experience; you might recall that he was under the impression that the Obama White House staff would be staying on to serve President Trump. Yet with an apparently bottomless faith in his son-in-law’s abilities, Trump has assigned Kushner to reinvent government, solve the opioid crisis, and achieve Middle East peace, among other things. Kushner’s impeccable political instincts led him to encourage the president to fire FBI Director James B. Comey and assure him “that it would be a political ‘win’ that would neutralize protesting Democrats because they had called for Mr. Comey’s ouster over his handling of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, according to six West Wing aides.”

Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in December that Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, asked him about setting up a communications channel between the transition team and the Kremlin using Russian facilities in the United States. (Video: Alice Li,McKenna Ewen/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

And now we learn that this ignorant neophyte — who seems, like many rich white guys, to have a confidence utterly unwarranted by his actual abilities — thought he was a character in a Tom Clancy novel, when he’s actually a character right out of “Veep.” His suggestion to the Russians that they set up a secret communications channel in a Russian facility was so ludicrous that even the Russians were shocked.

And alone among White House staffers, Kushner can’t be fired. But even he is not the real problem, and the problem the White House has no way to solve. That problem is, of course, the president himself.

As much as Trump complains internally about his communications staff, they can’t have any credibility when they’re told to defend Trump’s spectacular bumbling and endless waterfall of lies. The people who work on policy are hampered by the ever-shifting messages emanating from the Oval Office on what Trump wants. Just last night he tweeted, “I suggest that we add more dollars to Healthcare and make it the best anywhere,” at a moment when Republicans are proposing to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from health-care spending.

All the crises, all the chaos, all the scandals begin with Donald Trump. He’s the one who fired Comey, then admitted on camera that he did it because of the Russia investigation. He’s the one who blurts out secrets to other governments, out of either a deep need to impress people or sheer stupidity (“You can’t say what not to say,” one person close to the White House told CNN, “because that will then be one of the first things he’ll say”). He’s the one who rages internally against leaks, then sends out 

a series of tweets alleging that leaks are not leaks at all, but are in fact fabricated by news organizations, which keeps his core supporters in a state of denial and antagonizes honest journalists.

So the White House can shake itself up all it wants. How much damage the Russia scandal does will be determined not by whether the Trump administration has a good “war room,” but by how deep it goes and whether crimes were committed — in other words, by the facts. Passing some meaningful legislation might help, but not if it’s as stunningly unpopular as what has been proposed so far. And as long as Donald Trump keeps being Donald Trump, its problems will never be over.

The Great White Father Comes to Saudi Arabia

by Eric S. Margolis-May 27, 2017

( May 27, 2017, New York City, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Great White Father came to Saudi Arabia last week to harangue some 50 Arab and African despots on the glories of Trumpism, democracy and the need to fight what the Americans call terrorism.

Having covered the Mideast for many decades, I cannot think of a more bizarre or comical spectacle. Here was Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most repressive regimes, hosting the glad-handing US president who hates Islam and the Mideast with irrational passion.

I was amazed to learn that Trump’s speech to the Arab and African attendees had been written by pro-Israel ideologue Stephen Miller, a young senior White House staffer from California who is an extreme Zionist. How very bizarre.

Not only that, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, who are also strongly pro-Israel, were with him. So too was the powerful commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, another ardent pro-Israel cabinet member with whom I spent a weekend last year. Billionaire Ross performed the traditional Saudi sword dance with skill and verve.

Listening to Trump and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, blast Iran as the font of terrorism provided another big joke. Trump’s tirade against Tehran was delivered in Saudi Arabia, a feudal monarchy that holds no elections, cuts off the heads of some 80-90 people annually, and treats women like cattle. While claiming to be the leader of the Muslim world, the Saudi royal family funds mayhem and extreme Muslim obscurantism through the region. The current wave of primitive violence by some self-professed Muslims – ISIS being the leader – was originally funded and guided by the Saudis in a covert struggle to combat revolutionary Iran. I saw this happen in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Let’s recall 15 of the 18 men who attacked the US on 9/11 were Saudis.

Iran has the freest political system in the Mideast except for Israel). Iranian women have rights and political freedoms that are utterly unknown in Saudi Arabia. Iran just held a fair and open national election in which moderates won. Compare this to Saudi Arabia’s medieval Bedouin society. I was once arrested by the religious police in Jeddah just for walking down a street with an Egyptian lady.

Today, US and British equipped Saudi forces are laying waste to wretched Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation. As a result of a Saudi air, land and sea blockade, the UN now reports that famine has gripped large parts of Yemen. US and British technicians are keeping the Saudi air force flying; the US and Britain supply the bombs.

President Trump arrived with a bag of $110 billion worth of arms (some already approved by the Obama administration), and a promise of $350 billion worth in ten years. There was nothing new about this arms bazaar: for over a decade the Saudis have bought warehouses of US arms in exchange for keeping oil prices low and fronting for US interests in the Muslim world. Most of these arms remain in storage as the Saudis don’t know how to use them.

Many of America’s most important arms makers are located in politically important US states. The Saudis were so deeply in bed with the Republicans that their former ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar, was known to one and all as ‘Bandar Bush.’ Saudi money and influence has flowed far and wide across the US political landscape. That’s how the Saudis get away with mass killing in Yemen, funding ISIS and ravaging Syria with hardly any peeps of protest from Congress.

By now, it’s perfectly clear that the long secret relationship between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates has finally come into the open. Israel and its rich Arab friends all hate Iran, they oppose Palestinian rights, and fear revolution in the Arab world.

The two most reactionary Arab states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are now close allies, though they compete over who will lead the Arab world. Neither despotic regime has any right to do so. Trump lauded the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sissi who overthrew Egypt’s first ever democratically elected government (with Saudi help), gunned down hundreds of protestors, jailed and tortured thousands. Suspects in Egypt are routinely subjected to savage beatings and anal rape.

As I tried to explain in my second book, ‘American Raj,’ the brutal, corrupt regimes we westerners have imposed on the Arab world and Africa are the main cause of what we call ‘terrorism.’ So too the wars we have waged in the region to impose our will and economic exploitation. It’s blowback, pure and simple. So-called terrorism is not at all about Islam as our politicians, led by Trump of Arabia, falsely claim.

But no shoes were thrown at Trump by his audience. They were too scared of their heads being cut off by our democratically.

In the South China Sea, the U.S. is Struggling to Halt Beijing’s Advance

Despite a belated U.S. naval patrol, Beijing’s bid to extend its military power over the South China Sea is moving ahead unchecked.

BY DAN DE LUCE, KEITH JOHNSON-MAY 25, 2017

For the first time since President Donald Trump took office, a U.S. warship has sailed near a Chinese-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, signaling an attempt to project a more assertive American stance against Beijing just before a major regional defense summit.

The mission, a passage by the guided missile destroyer USS Dewey­ on Wednesday within twelve nautical miles of Mischief Reef, in the Spratly island chain, was long anticipated and delayed. The last such operation took place in October, and U.S. commanders who had already chafed under Barack Obama’s tight leash had hoped to get a freer hand and to carry out more patrols under Trump.

Instead, the new administration has declined several requests from the military to carry out naval patrols in the disputed waterway. Eager to secure China’s help in pressuring North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, the White House has moved cautiously and chosen not to confront Beijing over the South China Sea, officials and congressional aides told Foreign Policy.

But with defense ministers and senior military officers from across Asia due to meet in Singapore next month, including U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, the administration needed to show it was willing to back up its words with some action and demonstrate that it would uphold the principle of freedom of navigation, experts said.

“This was a good, albeit overdue, move by the Trump Administration,” said Ely Ratner, formerly deputy national security adviser to Joe Biden and now at the Council on Foreign Relations.
It was the first time a U.S. warship had sailed within the twelve-mile limit of any Chinese-held feature — a way to show that Washington doesn’t buy Beijing’s claims that rocks generate a territorial sea, and so push back against China’s expansionist claims. “This was the big one folks were waiting for,” he said.

And while those so-called freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPS, by themselves don’t amount to a U.S. strategy to deal with the South China Sea, he said, the first step is to make sure that China can’t unilaterally fence off bits of international waters. “FONOPs are an essential part of that,” Ratner said.

During the campaign and early days of the administration, Trump and his deputies staked out a tough line on China. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested in his confirmation hearings that U.S. forces would actually try to expel China from disputed waters and islets it now claims.

But North Korea and its rapidly-expanding missile and nuclear weapons program have grabbed the attention of the Trump administration, pushing the disputes over the Chinese land grab in the South China Sea — and Beijing’s open militarization of many islets and atolls — to the back burner. Trump has toned down his rhetoric on trade disputes and other spats with China specifically to secure Beijing’s cooperation in defusing the North Korea crisis.

“The president and his advisers have calculated that if we are to get China’s help on North Korea, better to take the foot off the gas on more contentious issues,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Even though as a candidate Trump portrayed former president Barack Obama as a weak president in his dealings with China and other adversaries, his administration’s cautious diplomacy bears some resemblance to Obama’s policies, as the previous White House concluded that more could be gained from Beijing by avoiding a full-blown confrontation over the South China Sea or other disputes.

Much to the consternation of U.S. allies in Asia, the Trump White House has yet to fill senior positions at the State Department and the Pentagon handling Asia policy, and has said little about the South China Sea issue publicly. The uncertainty over the administration’s policy on China has alarmed America’s partners and weakened the resolve of some governments in Southeast Asia, who fear Washington will no longer back them up if they try to take on Beijing in the South China Sea.

At a meeting last month in Manila of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, government ministers from the region backed off of references to “land reclamation and militarization” after lobbying from China.

The Pentagon sought to downplay the significance of the operation, which it described as routine. Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, described the passage at an event in Washington Thursday as “not confrontational,” and said that the so-called freedom of navigation operations by U.S. ships receive exaggerated scrutiny for the supposed diplomatic messages they convey.

“They sure get a lot of attention when they happen,” he said, but the operations are routinely conducted all over the world without the fanfare associated with the South China Sea missions.

The operations sure get a lot of attention in China.

The Dewey’s patrol “undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests and is highly likely to cause untoward incidents in the waters and airspace,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

Citing China’s “indisputable sovereignty” over those islets and surrounding waters, he added: “We strongly urge the U.S. side to correct its wrongdoing and stop any provocative actions detrimental to China’s sovereignty and security interests so as to avoid any further damage to China-US cooperation and regional peace and stability.”

And such operations are also closely watched in Washington, rightly or wrongly, as a barometer of the administration’s willingness to push back against China. Amid growing concern in Congress that the Trump administration is making strategic concessions to China in hopes of persuading Beijing to shift its stance on North Korea, several senators from both sides of the aisle wrote a letter earlier this month urging the administration to show resolve in the South China Sea and conduct more frequent naval patrols in the waterway.

The first real test of the effect of Wednesday’s naval mission will come in early June at the Shangri-La dialogue, a large annual gathering in Singapore that serves as a venue for high-level talks on crucial matters of Asian security.

Many maritime experts view the focus on freedom of navigation operations, and how they are publicly presented, as misplaced.

“In my view, the publicity around the FONOPs is problematic. Many observers now view it as an indicator of U.S. resolve, which it is not,” said M. Taylor Fravel, an expert on Chinese maritime issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Such missions are merely meant to uphold traditional rights to navigation in international waters for all countries, he said. What’s more, they can give Beijing an excuse to ramp up its own provocative behavior, feeling as if its claims of sovereignty are being challenged.

“They were never intended to do more, such as deterring China’s broader ambitions in places like the South China Sea.”

Ultimately, and despite the belated U.S. mission near Mischief Reef, Washington has few tools at its disposal to convince China to retreat from its years-long acquisition and garrisoning of a spate of tiny reefs and atolls in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways. Some experts and lawmakers have urged imposing economic sanctions on Chinese companies taking part in the vast island-building project, but the Trump administration has shown no sign it is ready to consider such a move.

Since it began dredging sand from the seafloor to vastly expand the size of those pinpricks of coral in 2014, China has built airfields, deep harbors and air defense systems on many features and deployed advanced fighter jets, despite promises to stop militarizing the area.

The bid to extend its reach in the waterway is part of China’s much broader effort — backed up with an arsenal of missiles — to push out its defensive perimeter from the Chinese coast and keep potential rivals at arm’s length in the event of a conflict.

“The United States does not have great options in the South China Sea,” Fravel said. “China will not vacate the features it occupies and the United States will not forcibly remove them. “

China’s project has moved at a brisk pace, with reports of new military installations appearing every few weeks. Earlier this month, a state-run Chinese paper said that Beijing had installed 155 mm rocket launchers on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys, purportedly to deter combat divers from Vietnam, which has been at loggerheads with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

“They basically succeeded in their construction projects, and are now well on their way to having floating bases out in the Spratly Islands, and there’s been really very little pushback and they’ve had to pay very little cost for doing so,” said Rapp-Hooper.

She added: “It is, unfortunately, now game over.”

Photo credit: JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images

Manchester attack: Hate crime 'doubles' after incident

Ian Hopkins said hate-filled views had no place in Greater Manchester--School children, parents and friends were among the victims of Monday's bombing

Balloons and floral tributes to the victims have been left in Manchester's St Ann's Square

27 May 2017

A bomb threat, racist taunts and graffiti are among a significant rise in hate crimes reported to Greater Manchester Police following Monday's attack, the BBC can reveal.

The force said the number of such reports had doubled to 56 on Wednesday, from the 28 reported on Monday.

Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said the force was "monitoring" the situation.

Former Chief Crown Prosecutor Nazir Afzal said the attacker was a criminal not represented by any community.

Mr Afzal, who is also head of the Police and Crime Commissioners Association, said: "It is disappointing but it happens every time.

"After Brussels, after Paris, after the murder in Westminster....There is a spike...That is sad that people are targeting a whole community just because of the action of criminals, and they are criminals. They don't represent the community.

"Jo Cox's murderer doesn't represent the white community of this country, the KKK don't represent Christianity. But that said what we have to do is encourage people to come forward and report."

Muslim leaders claim more crimes are not reported because people are "scared to talk".

'Remain undivided'

Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said he could not make a "direct link" to the Manchester Arena bombing on Monday night in which 22 people died, seven of them children.

Mr Hopkins said: "Sadly we've seen an increase in hate incidents since the bomb from 28 on Monday, which is our normal average a day, through to 56 on Wednesday."

A copy of a two-hourly GMP log of reported hate crimes on Wednesday, seen by the BBC, included the following incidents relating to race or religion:

• A school received a bomb threat after some students were asked if they were Muslim
• A pupil was followed and racially abused by a man carrying a metal bar
• A bank teller was called a "terrorist" and blamed for the Manchester Arena attack by a person trying to open an account
• A person was approached in a supermarket and told "shame on you for....what you did last night"
• A woman at a supermarket was told she should not be wearing her niqab - a face veil - in public
• Racist graffiti daubed outside a property in north Manchester

South Yorkshire Police also tweeted that officers there had "seen hate crimes increase since the Manchester attack" and Essex Police said they had also seen more such incidents since Monday, but added there was no evidence of a direct link to the attack.

Other forces have issued hate crime awareness advice and urged people to report any such incidents.

In Devon, police have started an investigation after three men hurled stones and shouted abuse at a congregation at the Torbay Islamic Centre early on Saturday.

Salman Abedi, a British-born Muslim from a Libyan family, blew himself up, killing 22 men, women and children, as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.

A total of 66 people remain in hospital, with 23 in critical care.

'Not tolerated'

It was feared the attack might spark reprisals against Muslim people, but Mr Hopkins said the city had largely pulled together in the aftermath.

"We've seen that compassion but it is important that we continue to stand together here in Greater Manchester, particularly standing together against some of the hate-filled views that we have seen from a very small minority of the community that have no place here."

He added: "I have sent a personal message out to all the faith leaders and places of worship today and have thanked them for the support they have shown and stressed that hate crime will not be tolerated."

"It is important that people report any incidents so that they can be investigated and we can support victims and their families."

• The victims of the Manchester attack

Mohammed Ullah, Muslim chaplain at Manchester Metropolitan University, said he was not surprised at the figures quoted by the chief constable.

"These are just the reported figures, other people are very scared to talk," he said.

Mr Afzal added: "I'm absolutely in awe of the people of this city. I've been at various vigils over the last few days and the coming together, the solidarity, tolerance, the acceptance is awesome.

"I would encourage people to remain undivided."

Zuma sidesteps no-confidence vote at turbulent ANC meeting

South Africa’s president faces growing criticism within African National Congress with key allies calling for him to step down

 Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s national executive committee meeting on Saturday. Photograph: Phill Magakoe/AFP/Getty Images

Monday 29 May 2017

The South African president, Jacob Zuma, has faced further opposition at a meeting of his party’s top leadership but managed to sidestep a vote of no confidence after a turbulent three-day gathering.

The meeting in Pretoria on Sunday came as Zuma faces growing criticism within the ruling African National Congress, which sharpened after a March cabinet reshuffle when he sacked his respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan.

Plans to debate a no-confidence motion in Zuma were blocked by the chairman of the meeting of the ANC’s executive committee (NEC), state-owned broadcaster SABC said. Local media reports said several NEC members had tried to force a debate on his future.

Speaking on Saturday, the ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, said the leadership was aware of reports that there was “going to be blood on the floor”. “We’ve not seen that blood on the floor – yet,” he said, while stressing that the removal of Zuma was “not an agenda item”.

The Sunday Times wrote in its leading article that Zuma had survived a string of scandals “precisely because most of the NEC is in his pocket”.

“Although his opponents went to this weekend’s NEC meeting saying they had never felt stronger, few would be surprised if he survived the guillotine again,” it said.

It published a graphic of supposed support and opposition to Zuma within the 107-member NEC, with 45 against and 41 in favour and the rest unknown.

City Press said Zuma’s supporters spent Thursday lobbying committee members to back him in the event of a no-confidence motion.

Aside from his woes within the party, including key ANC allies calling for him to stand down, Zuma has faced growing public anger over a series of government corruption scandals, record unemployment and a sluggish economy.

The crisis has led to two ratings agencies downgrading South Africaand has brought thousands of people on to the streets calling for Zuma to step down.

This weekend’s meeting of the NEC was the first since the controversial cabinet reshuffle, which triggered unprecedented criticism within the ANC.

A number of ANC allies have also urged Zuma to go, among them the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the South African Council of Churches (SACC).

The opposition has tabled a new no-confidence motion in parliament, which will be debated in the coming weeks. However, the president retains widespread support from ANC members in some rural areas and has been able to rely on lawmakers to survive previous votes of no confidence.

“The party will still want the ANC to remain in control over the broad issue of leadership. The ANC will not wish to look as though either the press or opposition parties ... have sufficient influence to precipitate” his removal, independent political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.

“This will ramble on until the end of the year when the normal electoral process (to pick a successor) will take place.”

The ANC is due to elect Zuma’s successor in December before general elections in 2019.

Bangladesh raises highest danger warning as cyclone takes aim

By Ruma Paul and Dinuka Liyanawatte | DHAKA/AGALAWATTE, SRI LANKA/-Tue May 30, 2017

Bangladesh raised its storm danger signal to the highest level of 10 on Monday as a severe and intensifying cyclone churned towards its low-lying coast and was expected to make landfall in the early hours of Tuesday.

Impoverished Bangladesh, hit by cyclones every year, warned that some coastal areas were "likely to be inundated by a storm surge of four to five feet (1.2 to 1.5 metres)" above normal because of approaching Cyclone Mora.

The Disaster Ministry ordered authorities to evacuate people from the coast, the ministry's additional secretary, Golam Mostafa, told reporters in Dhaka. About 10 million of Bangladesh's population of 160 million live in coastal areas.

A Sri Lankan Navy rescue team member searches for flood victims on a flooded road in Nagoda village in Kalutara, Sri Lanka May 29, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte--A group of men walk through a flooded road during a rescue mission in Nagoda village in Kalutara, Sri Lanka May 29, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

A woman reacts next to the debris of houses at a landslide site during a rescue mission in Athwelthota village, in Kalutara, Sri Lanka May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte--A TV set floats on a flooded road in Dodangoda village in Kalutara, Sri Lanka May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

River ferries had suspended operations and fishing boats called in to safety.

"Maritime ports of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar have been advised to lower danger signal number seven but instead hoist great danger signal number ten (repeat) ten," a government weather bulletin said.

"The coastal districts of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Feni, Chandpur and their offshore islands ... will come under danger signal number ten (repeat) ten."

Bangladesh is hit by storms, many of them devastating, every year. Half a million people had their lives disrupted in coastal areas such as Barisal and Chittagong in May last year.

It is still recovering from flash floods that hit the northeast, affecting millions of people, in April. Rice prices have reached record highs and state reserves are at 10-year lows in the wake of flooding that wiped out around 700,000 tonnes of rice.

The cyclone formed after monsoon rains triggered floods and landslides in neighbouring Sri Lanka, off India's southern tip, which have killed at least 177 people in recent days, authorities said, with 24 killed in storms in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, either by lightning strikes or under collapsed village huts.

India warned of heavy rain in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as Mora moved further up the Bay of Bengal.

RUBBER AND TEA PLANTATIONS HIT

Floods reached roof level and cut off access to many rural Sri Lankan villages, disrupting life for 557,500 people, many of them workers on rubber plantations, officials said. Nearly 75,000 people had been forced out of their homes.

Villagers in Agalawatte, in a key rubber-growing area 74 km (46 miles) southeast of the capital, Colombo, said they were losing hope of water levels falling soon after the heaviest rain since 2003. Fifty-three villagers died and 58 were missing.

"All access to our village is cut off. A landslide took place inside the village and several houses are buried," Mohomed Abdulla, 46, told Reuters.

Some areas in the southern coastal district of Galle, popular with foreign tourists, have not received relief due to lack of access.

"My entire village is cut off and nobody can come to this village," C.M. Chandrapla, 54, told Reuters by phone from the tourist village of Neluwa.

"There have been no supplies for the past two days. Water has gone above three-storey buildings and people survive by running to higher ground."

The Sri Lankan military has sent in helicopters and boats in rescue efforts in the most widespread disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. About 100 people were missing in total.

The meteorology department forecast torrential rains over the next 36 hours.

Residents in seven densely populated districts in the south and centre of Sri Lanka were asked to move away from unstable slopes in case of further landslides.

The wettest time of the year in Sri Lanka's south is usually during the southern monsoon, from May to September. The island also receives heavy rains in the North West monsoonal season from November to February.

Reuters witnessed some people stranded on the upper floors of their homes. Civilians and relief officials in boats distributed food, water and other relief items.

One of the worst-hit areas was the southern coastal district of Matara which is home to black tea plantations. Rohan Pethiyagod, head of the Tea Board in the world's largest exporter of top quality teas, said supplies would be disrupted for the next auction due to a lack of transportation.

Sri Lanka has already appealed for international assistance from the United Nations and neighbouring countries.

(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal in Colombo; Writing by Shihar Aneez and Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Living on fumes: China’s war on pollution means little to a chemical park’s neighbours


A villager and a boy ride on an electric tricylce past the Guantao Chemical Industry Park outside the village of East Luzhuang, Hebei province, February 23, 2017. Source: Reuters/Thomas Peter--Steam and smoke rise from a factory in the Guantao Chemical Industry Park in the early morning near the villages of East Luzhuang and Nansitou, Hebei province, February 22, 2017. Source: Reuters/Thomas Peter

Morning mist rises from the canal that runs through the Guantao Chemical Industry Park near the village of East Luzhuang, Hebei province, February 22, 2017. The sign reads: “Speed up production upgrading. Create an environmentaly friendly industrial park.” Source: Reuters/Thomas Peter--Villager Ding walks with his daughter near their house in the village of Nansitou, Hebei province, February 22, 2017. Source: Reuters/Thomas Peter

29th May 2017

HEBEI province, home to many of China’s most polluted cities, has promised to close down companies that are poisoning the environment, but after years of protests villagers living in the shadows of the Guantao chemical park remain sceptical.

Though festooned with banners calling for the construction of “beautiful villages” and the “upgrade” of Hebei’s highly-polluting heavy industries, the sprawling complex of chemical plants shadowing the villages of Nansitou and East Luzhuang often operates unchallenged by environmental regulators, residents say.

They say local authorities turn a blind eye to factories that pollute air, water and land. In particular, they claim that the plants do a lot of their dirtiest work at night when inspectors are rarely seen.

“They just don’t come,” said a resident who would only identify himself by his surname Zhang.

Near his home was a patch of burnt undergrowth, the result of a vehicle carrying hazardous chemicals catching fire earlier this year, sending plumes of pungent smoke through the streets.

“I gave them a call but none of them came. We can’t stand the smell and there’s suddenly smoke everywhere.”

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Provincial and municipal environmental authorities did not respond to requests for comment, but an inspector surnamed Liu, who is responsible for monitoring Guantao Park, told Reuters by telephone that the facilities were under 24-hour surveillance.

In a bid to tackle the environmental impact of four decades of untrammelled growth, China is in the fourth year of a “war on pollution” and has promised to take action against persistent offenders and the local governments that protect them.

Hebei’s proximity to Beijing – it virtually surrounds the capital and produces about a third of the particulate matter that often chokes the city – has put it on the front line. The villages are on the outskirts of the steel city of Handan, which official figures show had the most polluted air in the first four months of this year.

In an archive of nearly 11,000 complaints submitted to the Hebei government in the past nine years and made available online, around 700 cases from across the province involved incidents of nocturnal pollution, with many complainants saying that local environmental bureaus did not have the clout to tackle the problem.

Gao Hongzhi, Handan’s party secretary, told Reuters on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary session in March that pollution at night remained a problem, and officials were working to rectify it.”Some enterprises are reckless and they use the cover of night to emit pollutants,” he said, noting the city was now tracking late-night power consumption to catch culprits in the act.

“In 2014, we discovered more than 100 enterprises had this kind of problem, but last year it was down to around 40. This issue is very important and we are paying attention to it.”

Residents said there had been a spike in cancer cases in the villages, especially in the last four years, though they couldn’t provide proof in the form of data.

Government departments, disease control centres and hospitals in Hebei, Handan and in the local county governments did not respond to requests to provide figures for local cancer rates or causes of death.

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Blockaged highway

Since 2008, swathes of farmland have been steadily taken over by the Guantao park, now consisting of around a dozen plants manufacturing pesticides and other toxic products like benzene.

Some residents said they had already given up planting cotton and sweet potatoes, which no longer grow because of the pollution, and replaced them with hardier crops.

During a dawn visit to the area by Reuters journalists, plants at the Guantao park appeared to be more active than they were on visits during the day. Plumes of smoke issued from buildings that were inactive earlier, and a chemical stink hung in the air.

An official complaint about pollution at the chemical park was submitted to the provincial government as early as April 2014.

“I have no idea whether this will be of any use, but I need to try on behalf of ordinary people!” wrote the complainant, who wasn’t identified.

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Despite promises from the Hebei Environmental Protection Bureau to put the park under greater scrutiny, violations have continued, according to local residents.

In March last year, for example, the Hebei Rongte Chemical Corp pledged to local residents to strengthen “internal management” after a cracked benzene heating gasket leaked toxic steam into the air, according to documents supplied by residents and reviewed by Reuters. Benzene is a known carcinogen.

An official with Hebei Rongte hung up the phone when asked by Reuters about the incident.

A source with direct knowledge of operations at another plant said untreated waste water was regularly dumped directly into the ground.

“There’s so much polluted water they couldn’t handle it,” the source said when asked why the firm didn’t use an on-site treatment facility. The source did not want to be identified, fearing repercussions.

Reuters was unable to reach administrators at the chemical park on two separate listed numbers.

Late in 2014, frustrated villagers blockaded the chemical park and the local highway.

Reuters was unable to reach officials to confirm claims the chemical plants offered financial compensation of 3 yuan a day (43 U.S. cents) to end the stand-off, and then didn’t pay it.

“But it doesn’t matter if we get it or not, the main thing is to shut these plants down,” said Ding, a 46-year old Nansitou resident. – Reuters

There's a Catastrophic Antibiotic Threat Coming From Our Industrialized Food System

Factory farming is bad for animals, the environment and our health.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Tan Zhai Gen -May 26, 2017

The greatly excessive use of antibiotics in food production in recent decades has made many bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that antibiotic use in animal husbandry, poultry farming and aquaculture in the US is over four times USDA recommended levels. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has estimated that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the USA are used on animals.

Cheap antibiotics prone to abuse

Antibiotics are used to ensure better health and survival of animals bred for food, but they are also believed by many farmers to promote growth. As prices of antibiotics remain attractively low, they offer the prospect of higher earnings from greater output at low cost. Hence, there is little or no market incentive to reduce excessive, if not indiscriminate use, and hence abuse of antibiotics. Thus, such efforts to increase farmer incomes and profitability exacerbate the likelihood and risk of antibiotic resistance.

The widespread use of antibiotics through food chains is thus becoming catastrophic. A review by the FAO explains how antibiotic-resistant bacteria in animals are infecting humans, through direct contact with animals or indirect transmission through the food we eat. Earlier, the spread of bacteria was popularly associated with international travel, but the threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our food is now proving to be far more formidable.

‘Recycling’ antibiotics

Ecologically minded activists have long been promoting agricultural recycling, often citing traditional agricultural practices. But adding antibiotics to animal feed has made this a threat to public health. The feed typically contains many drugs, including some only used by humans as antibiotics of last resort.

Much of the antibiotics given to livestock and poultry passes un-degraded through their urine and faeces, directly affecting food from aquaculture. Thus, waste from pigpens flowing into fishponds exposes fish and shrimps to the high doses of antibiotics that livestock get, on top of the antibiotics added to the pond water to prevent or address aquatic diseases. Antibiotic resistant bacteria from this environment then passes to humans who consume such food.

While restrictions have already been widely placed on the use of hormones and steroids to promote growth, the excessive use of antibiotics by farmers has only gained attention in recent years, while a huge reservoir of resistant bacteria was emerging and spreading.

In November 2015, scientists discovered a gene in China that can enable many types of bacteria to become more antibiotic resistant. The gene has since been found in patients, food and animals from more than twenty countries. More worryingly, these bacteria can resist the last line of effective antibiotics available.

Catastrophic threat 

A British government report estimates that about 700,000 people worldwide currently die annually due to antibiotic-resistant infections. If current trends continue, this mortality rate will rise to ten million yearly by mid-century, i.e., in just over three decades.

In the near future, antibiotics will become less effective in treating infections as bacteria mutate to become more resistant. Many more people will die of currently antibiotics-curable diseases. New antibiotics may delay this trend, but no new class of antibiotics has been discovered since the 1980s.

In line with the WHO’s global action plan, member nations have pledged to draw up national action plans against antibiotics resistance, as part of a broader effort to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The lack of effective national surveillance and supervision of antibiotics use in animal products masks the severity of the threat.

Sadly, in most developing countries, the rising threat posed by the exponential growth of dangers due to excessive antibiotic use is mainly of concern to the authorities when it threatens export prospects. As with improper and excessive pesticide use, the abuse of antibiotics is mainly of concern when it affects national reputations abroad and related export earnings, with scant attention given to the threats posed to domestic consumers.

 

Jomo Kwame Sundaram is a former economics professor who served as a senior UN official during 2005-2015. 

Tan Zhai Gen is an University of Oxford biochemistry graduate currently involved in research.