An ammunition dump belonging to Iraqi Shi’ite militia forces — known popularly as al Hushd al-Shaabi — exploded Tuesday evening, following Arab media reports of a drone strike on the area near Balad Air Base, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Baghdad.

If confirmed, it would be the latest attack against a Shi’ite militia weapons depot in recent weeks. One attack took place Aug. 12, with another targeting a Shi’ite militia checkpoint near the Syrian-Iraqi border at Albukamel several days earlier.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the alleged drone attacks, but some analysts are pointing a finger at Israel.

Amateur video of the weapons depot explosion Tuesday evening showed a massive fireball erupting high into the sky, followed by heavy black smoke and a subsequent series of smaller blasts. Rockets and missiles reportedly continued to detonate long after the initial explosion.

Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari told journalists after visiting the site of the blast that there were no civilian casualties.

Shammari also said all of the fires from the explosions have been extinguished by Iraqi civil defense forces, in coordination with the national police and Hushd militia forces. The area around the base is now on high alert.

Israel suspected

Pro-Iranian al Mayadeen TV quoted Iraqi member of parliament Karim al Alewi, who belongs to the parliamentary Security and Defense Committee, as saying that Israeli planes were “responsible for two previous ammunition dump explosions at Amerli and Saqf” during the past month.

Alewi also alleged that “the U.S. controls Iraqi air space” and that “no planes, including Iraqi jets or helicopters, can overfly the area without U.S. knowledge or permission.”

A number of Arab news channels also reported that Israel was behind Tuesday’s explosion near Balad Air Base, amid allegations that Iranian Fateh short-range missiles had been smuggled into Iraq.

Israel did not comment on the allegations, although Israel’s Channel 13 television outlet reportedly quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that “Iran will not be immune from attack, anywhere in the region.”

An article in the U.S. magazine Salon said the White House is allowing Israel to take out Iranian missiles and other weapons that the Revolutionary Guard forces (IRGC) have brought into both Iraq and Syria. Israel’s Y-net news website reported that “50 missiles exploded in the bombed storage facility” on Tuesday.

‘Targeted destruction’

Gulf and Middle East analyst Theodore Karasik told VOA that “attacks by Israel are highly significant because of the necessity to destroy equipment being shipped into the Levant from the Islamic Republic.” Levant refers to the area between the Mediterranean and Iran.

Karasik notes that some reports suggest the attacks were carried out by drone strikes, “which allow for high levels of targeted destruction.”

“Key state actors,” he said, “are relying on airstrikes and drone attacks in an increasingly important way that changes the scope of the fight.”

Yemen’s pro-Iranian Houthi militia claimed to have struck Saudi natural gas facilities in the east of the country using drones last week. However, several U.S. sources maintained the attacks may have been carried out by drones based in Iraq, not Yemen. 

Riyadh reported there was only minor damage from the attacks.

Another alleged Houthi drone strike on the Saudi Yanbu oil pipeline took place in May.

…

Liberian President George Weah has proposed reducing term lengths for members of the executive and legislative branches of government.

Under his plan, the president and representatives would serve five years instead of six, while senators would sit for seven years rather than nine.

The idea, says Presidential Press Secretary Smith Toby, is to push officials to begin serving the people from the day they assume office, rather than putting off work until the close of their terms.

As he put it, “if you start [work] immediately on election day “[knowing] that you’ve got five years, you will not play around. They will start work immediately upon their election.”

Some legislators welcomed the idea at a meeting Weah called last weekend to introduce laws he’d like to see passed. He unveiled 25 proposed bills, one of which would allow Liberians to hold dual citizenship.

Representative Richard Nagbe Kunn said, “We embrace the idea [of this retreat which] was the first of its kind since the President took over.’’ He said it is meant to foster reconciliation between the branches of government rather than having “one group of the government strangulating the other.”

Representative Francis Doepoh from Rivergee County thinks the best way to solve some of Liberia’s major issues is to rewrite the constitution.

But his colleague Vincent Willie of Grand Bassa County said reforming the document will take time and resources.

“Rewriting the constitution,” he said, “is very much important but given the time interval, you cannot rewrite the constitution in just six months, you’re talking about a whole year. It’s a process not an event.”

This is not the first time the idea of shortening terms has come up.

A Constitutional Review Committee under former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made similar recommendations several years ago. But after a nationwide consultation, the recommendations went nowhere.

Among the ideas floated then was limiting the president to two four-year terms instead of the two six-year terms currently allowed.

…

President Donald Trump said Tuesday his government is talking to “various representatives” of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who also confirmed that discussions had been taking place. 
 
In a nationally broadcast appearance hours after Trump spoke, Maduro said that “secret” talks had long been under way between high officials in his government and the U.S. administration.

“I confirm that for months we’ve had contact with senior officials of the U.S. government,” Maduro said, adding that all talks had been carried out under his “direct authorization.”

The Associated Press reported over the weekend that the U.S. has made secret contact with socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello as close allies of Maduro’s inner circle seek guarantees they won’t face prosecution for alleged abuses and crimes if they cede to growing demands to remove him.

Maduro did not name any officials in his government participating in U.S. meetings. The socialist leader said that he’s ready to meet with Trump himself to normalize relations, an offer he’s made before. 

 
Venezuela was one of many topics addressed by Trump when he took questions from reporters earlier Tuesday during his meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

Trump, however, refused to say whether such dialogue is being conducted with Cabello, considered the nation’s second most powerful politician after Maduro. 
 
“We’re talking to various representatives of Venezuela,” Trump responded when a reporter asked him whether the White House is talking to Cabello. “I don’t want to say who, but we are talking at a very high level.”

The U.S. considers opposition leader Juan Guaido to be the legitimate president of the country.

An administration official told AP the goal is not to prop up Cabello or pave the way for him to substitute Maduro, but to ratchet up pressure on the regime by contributing to the knife fight the U.S. believes is taking place behind the scenes among competing circles of power within the ruling party.

Norway talks

At a press conference Monday in Caracas, Cabello shied away from discussing any details of the meeting and at one point likened it to “a lie, a manipulation.” But he also said he has long stood welcome to talk to anyone, so long as any discussions take place with Maduro’s approval.

Talks sponsored by Norway between the opposition and government have been slow moving and were suspended this month by Maduro.

Trump repeated Tuesday that his government is helping Venezuela “as much as we can” so that the country resolves its political and financial crises, which he attributed to socialism.

“Fifteen years ago it was one of the wealthiest countries. Now it’s one of the poorest countries,” he said.

The U.N. estimates that at least four million Venezuelans have left their country because of hyperinflation and severe shortages of food and medicine.

…

Argentina’s promises to defend its beleaguered peso gained credibility on Tuesday after the central bank poured $112 million of its reserves into dollar auctions, helping to boost the currency about 0.5% a day after steep losses.

In three interventions in the foreign exchange market, the bank acted in concert with statements from officials saying the government’s top priority was to stabilize the peso after it lost 18% of its value against the U.S. dollar last week.

“The interventions pushed the peso through the 55-per-dollar barrier,” to 54.50 pesos to the greenback, Gustavo Quintana, foreign exchange trader with Buenos Aires brokerage PR Corredores de Cambio, told Reuters.

The recession- and inflation-racked country was hit by a wave of uncertainty following an Aug. 11 primary election in which business-friendly President Mauricio Macri got thumped by center-left Peronist challenger Alberto Fernandez, who emerged the clear front-runner ahead of the Oct. 27 general election.

Minutes after being sworn in by Macri on Tuesday, Treasury Minister Hernan Lacunza said the government will stand by the peso and stick to its goal of erasing its primary fiscal deficit, despite a series of tax cuts and spending measures announced last week aimed at spurring growth.

“We want to leave a solid economic platform for whichever candidate wins” the presidential election, said Lacunza, former economy chief for Buenos Aires province. He told a press conference that Argentina had a primary fiscal surplus in July and he expected a surplus in August as well. 

Traders said the peso rallied to close at 54.74 per dollar after falling 1.2 percent in early trade. Local over-the-counter bonds and the Merval stock index remained in negative territory, still stung by the downgrade late on Friday of Argentina’s sovereign debt by ratings agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.

Monday was a holiday in Argentina, forcing investors to wait until Tuesday to react.

Nicolas Dujovne, the former treasury minister, quit on Saturday, saying he believed the country needed “significant renewal” of its economic team.

Macri, struggling to revive his campaign for a second term, is betting the new treasury chief can help stabilize the economy. 

Last week Macri, smarting from his primary election loss, announced a cut in taxes on food and personal income along with increased welfare spending. The measures raised concern his administration will miss fiscal targets agreed with the International Monetary Fund as part of a $57 billion loan deal.

Fernandez told local radio he was concerned about the state of government finances that he might inherit if he wins the presidency and takes office in December.Macri’s emergency relief measures were creating “a fiscal hole,” Fernandez said.

Those measures will have a slight negative fiscal effect, but not enough to further hurt the country’s credit rating, James McCormack, Fitch’s head of sovereign ratings, said on Tuesday.

IMF watching 

“We are closely following recent developments in Argentina and are in ongoing dialogue with the authorities as they work on their policy plans to address the difficult situation that the country is facing,” the IMF said in a statement.

“An IMF staff team will travel to Buenos Aires soon,” said the statement, which was signed by IMF spokesman Gerry Rice.

The IMF’s next review of Argentina’s economy on Sept. 15 should provide a sign of whether the lender of last resort still thinks the country can pay its debt obligations. Government bonds denominated in dollars are harder to pay when the peso weakens.

A crunch point will come in the second quarter of 2020, when Argentina is scheduled to make $20 billion in debt repayments, up sharply from $5.6 billion in the first quarter of next year.

Central bank chief Guido Sandleris told reporters on Tuesday the bank would continue to sell reserves in an effort to halt the peso’s slide.

Including last week’s interventions, the bank had auctioned off $615 million in dollar reserves as of Tuesday afternoon, traders said.

…

Iranian women should be allowed to attend men’s World Cup qualifiers in the Islamic Republic later this year, a top Asian soccer official said Tuesday, ramping up pressure on Tehran to end a long-running ban.

Iranian women have long been barred from watching men’s teams play, but Tehran relaxed the rule last year to allow hundreds of women to watch the Asian Champions League final organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The AFC, the Asian football governing body which has 47 members that include Iran, said it was working to help world soccer governing body FIFA find an “amicable solution” that would allow them to attend future games.

“Everybody needs to be catered, it’s an inclusive game. Women play the game in Iran, men play the game, so everybody should be able to watch,” AFC general secretary Windsor John told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

“For us at the end of the day, we respect the local law, but we also want to promote the game,” he said at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Female football fans have long campaigned that the ban, imposed under Iran’s Islamic law after the 1979 revolution, be lifted.

Increased pressure

Last year, some risked arrest by donning fake beards and wigs to attend a major game in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, while others traveled to Russia for the World Cup, plastering social media with photos of themselves cheering on their team.

FIFA wrote to the Iranian Football Federation in June asking it to provide a timeline toward women being able to buy tickets for the qualifiers, which begin Sept. 5.

John lauded the access for Iranian women at the Asian Champions League final last year, but said the current situation involved “different scenarios.”

“[The concern is] if it starts with football, will there be other ripple effects, will other forces or entities now ask for the same privilege,” said the No. 2 at the AFC.

“A lot of things are on the table at the moment, we really don’t know which direction it is going.”

There were hopes that the breakthrough last November would lead to a loosening of the ban, but female fans have been denied access to matches since.

In June, some were detained by security forces when they went to the Azadi Stadium for a friendly against Syria.

FIFA pledge

John said there was “huge potential” for women’s football to develop in Asia, with attitudes changing even in conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia, which lifted a ban on women attending matches last year.

FIFA has pledged to expand women’s role in the sport, appointing Fatma Samoura in 2016 as its first female secretary general, and this year’s women’s World Cup drew record crowds and television audiences.

John said a Saudi woman would be appointed to the AFC committee overseeing the development of women’s football, though he declined to identify the new member by name.

“It’s a huge, huge positive development for football development in Asia,” he said. 

…

International donors have been significantly less generous in their support of Venezuelan migrants than other global refugee crises, Colombia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, as he repeated a request for more aid money.

Colombia has borne the burnt of mass migration from its neighbor, which is mired in a deep political and economic crisis that has caused long-running shortages of food and medicines.

More than 1.4 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia in recent years, pressuring healthcare services, school places and other basics like food and shelter.

The United Nations had called for global donations of $315 million in 2019 to help Colombia – itself a developing country – cope with the influx. But as of last week, it had received just 30 percent of that, said Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo in a statement.

“The international community has been much more generous in other cases,” said Trujillo, who met with U.N. representatives on Tuesday. “We are grateful for the cooperation that we have received but as the number of migrants keeps growing, so will the demand for services and resources.”

The funds received equate to around $68 per migrant, he said, comparing that to the between $500 and $900 donated per person for those fleeing crises in Syria, South Sudan and Myanmar.

Speaking to Reuters at the weekend, the head of the U.N. refugee agency Filippo Grandi said Venezuela was “one of the
most under-funded humanitarian appeals in the world for one of the biggest crises.”

Colombia said this month it would give citizenship to more than 24,000 children born to Venezuelan migrant parents to prevent the children from being stateless and less able to access education and healthcare.

The country of some 49 million has not put in place stringent immigration requirements, although restrictions are mounting in other parts of the region.

…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged greater international cooperation to stop Iran’s objectionable behavior in the region and beyond while speaking at the United Nations Tuesday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies continue to foment terror and unrest in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, with devastating humanitarian consequences,” Pompeo told a Security Council meeting on Middle East security challenges. 

He underscored Iran’s recent resumption of uranium enrichment to levels exceeding internationally agreed to caps; its seizure of several tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz; and the test-firing of a ballistic missile. 

“Failing to confront [the] Iranian regime’s malign activities will only grow the regime’s multicontinental body count spanning the last 40 years,” Pompeo told reporters after the session. 

He also renewed his call for the Security Council to prevent an international arms embargo and a travel ban from expiring next year under a provision of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council  the United Kingdom, China, France, Russia and the United States  as well as Germany. 

U.S.-Iranian tensions have steadily risen since the Trump administration pulled out of the Obama-era agreement last year. 

“The international community will have plenty of time to see how long it has until Iran is unshackled to create new turmoil and figure out what it must do to prevent that from happening,” Pompeo said. 

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, blamed the U.S. military presence in the region, its withdrawal from the nuclear deal and its “Iranophobic statements” for stoking regional tensions. 

“While we are not seeking confrontation, we cannot and will not remain indifferent to the violation of our sovereignty,” Ravanchi told the council. “Therefore, in order to secure our borders and interests, we will vigorously exercise our inherent right to self-defense.”

The U.S. has blamed Iran for several mine attacks in recent months on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the seizure of some tankers. Washington has launched an effort to protect international shipping in the strait, an important oil tanker transit point. 

“The interference of foreign forces in this strategic waterway, under whatever pretext, is destabilizing and thus unacceptable,” the Iranian envoy said. “Any attempt at artificial coalition building for securing navigation in this area will fail.”

…

The United States is warning entities in the Mediterranean against working with an Iranian-flagged oil tanker now moving through the region after being freed from detention by Gibraltar.

The U.S. State Department repeated allegations that the Adrian Darya 1 was “transporting illicit oil to fuel the Iranian regime’s and Syrian regime’s campaigns of terror and oppression,” and it said those who assist it could be considered providing support to U.S.-designated terror organizations.

“We have conveyed our strong position to the Greek government on the matter, as well as ports in the Mediterranean that should be forewarned about facilitating this vessel,” it said in a statement Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the decision by Gibraltar authorities to free the tanker after holding it on suspicions the vessel was taking oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions was “unfortunate.”  He told the U.S. cable network Fox News the eventual sale of the oil on board would benefit Iran’s Quds Force.

“If they are successful they will have more money, more wealth, more resources to continue their terror campaign, to continue their assassination campaign.  This is what we’re trying to stop,” Pompeo said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was being non-committal about the eventual destination of the oil because he said the United States “illegally tries to bully others from purchasing our oil.”

He also said that while Iran believes the United States is seeking “more escalation” with Iran, the Islamic Republic is “happy this ordeal (over the oil tanker) has ended and I hope this will lead to less escalation.”

Marine tracking data on Tuesday showed the tanker continuing on course for a port in Greece with an expected arrival early next week.

Greek authorities said they have not received any official information about the tanker coming to Kalamata.

Gibraltar denied several U.S. requests to prevent the vessel from leaving the waters of the British territory, and said Iran had given written assurances the oil on board would not be shipped to Syria.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told reporters Monday that Iran had warned the United States through official channels against making any new attempt to seize the tanker, saying the result would be “heavy consequences.”

Mousavi also denied there was a connection between the early July detention of the Adrian Darya 1 and Iran’s move to seize the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

British officials have said they saw Iran’s action as a reciprocal move.

…

An investment fund designed for animal rights advocates and environmentalists, the first of its kind according to financial experts, is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) next month.

VEGN, as it will show on the NYSE’s floor, enters the fray of hundreds of funds that consider environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors in their investment decisions but will be unique in going animal cruelty-free, experts said.

U.S. assets under management that follow ESG principles have been surging, representing one in four dollars last year, up from one in five in 2016, according to The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, a Washington-based non-profit.

Holding such investments is a way to pressure companies to change their behavior in order not to miss investors, said Tensie Whelan, who heads the New York University’s Center for Sustainable Business.

“It’s an interesting offering because it’s the only one of its kind,” she said in a telephone interview.

VEGN, the ticker symbol for the exchange-traded fund (ETF), whose full name is US Vegan Climate Exchange Traded ETF, will exclude stocks among the 500 largest U.S. companies that “rely on animal exploitation”, said its creator Beyond Investing.

It will be listed on the NYSE starting on Sept. 10.

Selecting companies whose businesses do not test products on animals, or use animal-derived products, fossil fuels, plastic or agrochemicals, has meant tossing out 43% of the top 500 companies, said Claire Smith, the Switzerland-based chief executive of Beyond Investing.

The fund’s portfolio guidelines mean it doesn’t include many pharmaceuticals, materials and consumer-sector stocks, said Smith.

“Things like clothing, shoe manufacture … (involve) so much animal products,” she said.

Still, a market index of stocks that a parent company of Beyond Investing launched in June last year and that VEGN will track – meaning it will be used to guide what stocks go into the fund – has outperformed the market this year, said Smith, after “a little bit of underperformance last year.”

Beyond Investing identifies companies that follow VEGN’s criteria by researching their business models, regulations and internal policies, said Smith.

In a report published earlier this month the United Nations called for diets less reliant on meat in order to combat climate change and ensure enough food for all.

Animal Rebellion, a group inspired by Extinction Rebellion’s non-violent civil disobedience climate activism, also is pushing for diets without meat.

Aniket Shah, a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment in New York, said a challenge environmental, social and governance-focused funds have typically faced was small scale.

One of the largest ESG funds, run by Blackrock, has more than $1 billion in investment, a relatively small amount compared to mainstream funds, Shah said.

…

Russia’s Norilsk smelter complex and a town in South Africa’s eastern coal mining province have the highest sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions in the world, according to satellite data from U.S. space agency NASA.

The NASA-compiled data published on Monday was commissioned by environmental group Greenpeace India and used the space authority’s satellites to track anthropogenic sulphur dioxide emission hot spots around the world.

Scientists say that excessive exposure to SO2 particles causes long-term respiratory difficulties and stunted growth in infants among other problems.

Norilsk, 300km (186 miles) inside the Arctic Circle, has the largest individual SO2 emissions, followed by the South African town of Kriel, about 150km east of Johannesburg, Monday’s report found.
The industrial city of Norilsk is home to Norilsk Nickel, the world’s leading nickel and palladium producer.

The company is implementing  a massive program to improve the ecology of the city and its surroundings.

The first stage of the program is complete. After the closure of an old nickel plant and reconstruction of nearby plants, emissions in the city’s residential area fell by 30%, Nornickel told Reuters on Monday.

The second phase will involve a $2.5 billion sulphur project to help to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions in and around Norilsk by 75% from 2015 levels by 2023.

Under snow for up to nine months of the year and in darkness for more than a month in winter, Norilsk has acquired a reputation as one of the most polluted settlements in the world because of its metals plants. Prisoners from Joseph Stalin’s labor camps built the first smelters there 80 years ago.

Power Pollution

The South African town of Kriel, meanwhile, is home to state power utility Eskom’s 2,850 megawatt Kriel Power Station, a short distance from two other coal-fired plants – Matla and Kendel – as well as Sasol’s coal-to-liquid plants.

The town is part of a 31,000-sq-km area that covers three provinces and houses 12 coal power stations. It was declared a high-priority zone by the government in 2007 because of dangerously high pollution.

South Africa is Africa’s worst polluter and one of the world’s top 10 coal producers, with an estimated 3.5% of the world’s coal resources, according to the International Energy Agency.

Environmental and community groups sued the government in June for failing to tackle high pollution in the Highveld Priority Area. The groups want the court to force the government to implement an air quality management plan that was published by the environmental affairs minister in 2012.

Environmental ministry spokesman Albi Modise said the NASA report was worrying and that national air quality plans needed to be reviewed urgently but that economic growth also had to be protected.

“You can’t wake up and say you’re closing all the coal power stations; imagine what will happen to electricity supply and the communities around them? We have to balance growth with protecting the environment.”

Eskom, which provides 90% of the country’s power, relies on a fleet of aging coal-fired plants to power Africa’s industrialized economy and is struggling to meet its emissions target.

The utility implemented nationwide rolling power cuts this year because of capacity shortages.

($1 = 15.3404 rand)

…

The first American spacecraft expected to land on the moon in nearly 50 years will be a robotic moon lander built by closely held Astrobotic Technology and launched in two years by United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, the companies told Reuters on Monday.

Astrobotic was one of nine companies chosen in November to compete for $2.6 billion to develop small space vehicles and other technology for 20 missions to explore the lunar surface over the next decade.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic picked Vulcan, being developed by a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to launch its Peregrine lander from Florida’s Cape Canaveral in summer 2021. 

Barring schedule slips, Astrobotic said Peregrine would be the first American spacecraft to touch down on the moon since Apollo astronauts touched down in 1972.

The mission will ferry technology and experiments to the moon under a NASA program that will lay the groundwork for astronaut trips by 2024 under the optimistic schedule laid out by the Trump administration.

“Our first flight on Vulcan is also the first big step in going back to the moon,” United Launch Alliance Chief Executive Tory Bruno told Reuters ahead of the announcement.

Astrobotic said in May that NASA awarded it $79.5 million for the first mission, which will carry up to 28 payloads from eight different countries, including the United States and Mexico.

While the dollar value of the launch contract was not disclosed, it marks a high-profile victory for ULA’s flagship heavy-lift rocket, which Astrobotic said it chose over a rival bid by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

NASA is pushing to outsource the design, development and operations for some space activities to private companies under a strategy championed by Trump-appointed administrator Jim Bridenstine. He wants NASA to be one customer of many in the low-Earth and lunar marketplaces to pave the way for deeper space exploration.

For ULA, the launch serves as the first of two certification flights for the U.S. Air Force, a key test for a rocket that will replace ULA’s legacy Delta and Atlas rocket families, synonymous with space missions for the U.S. military for decades.

The Vulcan will be the backbone of ULA’s defense against rival boosters by SpaceX, which has slashed the cost of launches with its reusable rocket technology. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, whose BE-4 engines power the Vulcan, is also working on a heavy-lift booster.

ULA and Astrobotic acknowledge production problems or other factors could delay the launch schedule.

Many Moonshots

Other countries are also focused on the moon. A Chinese space probe successfully touched down on the far side of the moon in January, though Israel’s unmanned robotic lander Beresheet crashed on its final descent in April. India’s Chandrayaan-2 rover, launched in July, was on its way to the moon’s south pole, unexplored by any other nation.

“Everything that humans will do on the moon’s surface will be enhanced by robotic surface assets,” Astrobotic Chief Executive John Thornton told Reuters ahead of the announcement planned for Monday.

The Astrobotic contract marked the second time in a week that ULA beat SpaceX on a high-profile contract. On Wednesday, Sierra Nevada Corp picked Vulcan to launch its Dream Chaser space plane on cargo missions to the International Space Station.

…

Walt Disney Co. said on Monday it will launch its Disney+ video streaming service in Canada and the Netherlands on Nov. 12, the same date as its previously announced United States launch.

Disney+ will also launch in Australia and New Zealand a week later, the company said in a statement, adding that the service will be priced between $6 to $8 per month in these countries.

Disney’s new service will exclusively stream its latest movies including “Avengers: Endgame,” “Aladdin” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the company said. The service will also draw upon Disney’s library of its existing films.

The owner of ESPN and theme parks had announced earlier this month that it would offer a bundle of its three streaming services, Disney+, sports service ESPN+, and Hulu, at a discounted price of $13 per month. That price is the same as Netflix Inc’s most popular plan, which allows streaming on two devices simultaneously.

Video streaming competition is set to intensify, with Apple, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and Comcast’s NBCUniversal planning to roll out new services. U.S. customers are increasingly cutting the cord on cable TV, but now must decide how much they want to pay for digital offerings.

Disney+ will be available on most major mobile and connected TV devices platforms, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Roku and Sony, the company said.

Following the launch, the company expects to take the ad-free streaming service to major global markets within two years.

…

The leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada will come together to discuss major global challenges in France on Saturday at the annual meeting  of the G7 group of industrialized nations.As host, French President Emmanuel Macron, has made fighting inequality the theme of the summit, and has invited several other world leaders to attend. But Henry Ridgwell reports, any grand ambitions for the summit will likely be stymied by more pressing concerns.

…

The leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada will come together to discuss major global challenges in France on Saturday at the annual meeting  of the G-7 group of industrialized nations.As host, French President Emmanuel Macron, has made fighting inequality the theme of the summit, and has invited several other world leaders to attend. But Henry Ridgwell reports, any grand ambitions for the summit will likely be stymied by more pressing concerns.

…

The leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada will come together to discuss major global challenges in France on Saturday at the annual meeting  of the G-7 group of industrialized nations.As host, French President Emmanuel Macron, has made fighting inequality the theme of the summit, and has invited several other world leaders to attend. But Henry Ridgwell reports, any grand ambitions for the summit will likely be stymied by more pressing concerns.

…

The leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada will come together to discuss major global challenges in France on Saturday at the annual meeting  of the G-7 group of industrialized nations.As host, French President Emmanuel Macron, has made fighting inequality the theme of the summit, and has invited several other world leaders to attend. But Henry Ridgwell reports, any grand ambitions for the summit will likely be stymied by more pressing concerns.

…

Few people have turned up for an opposition protest in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, on Monday as armed police maintained heavy presence on the streets and at a courthouse where the opposition is pressing to be allowed to hold the demonstration.

Business in Bulawayo’s usually bustling downtown was subdued with the most traffic from police trucks, water cannons and dozens of police officers patrolling on foot.

The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had called the protest as part of a planned series of demonstrations to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa to agree to a transitional government amid a rapidly deteriorating economy and rising political tensions.

But the police banned the protest in the southern city, citing security concerns. A Bulawayo magistrate is hearing the opposition party’s challenge to the ban.

The protest was planned as a follow up to demonstrations held in the capital, Harare, on Friday when several hundred demonstrators marched in defiance of a police ban that was upheld by the High Court. Police used tear gas and beatings with batons to quell the Harare protest.

…

President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser is playing down fears of a looming recession after last week’s sharp drop in the financial markets and predicting the economy will perform well in the second half of 2019.

Larry Kudlow said in Sunday television interviews that consumers are seeing higher wages and are able to spend and save more.

“No, I don’t see a recession,” Kudlow said. “We’re doing pretty darn well in my judgment. Let’s not be afraid of optimism.”

A strong economy is key to Trump’s reelection prospects. Consumer confidence has dropped 6.4% since July. The president has spent most of the week at his golf club in New Jersey with much of his tweeting focused on talking up the economy.

Recession Fears Prompt Many to Rethink Global Economic Integration 

Downturn now could lead to major realignment of global trade 

Kudlow acknowledged a slowing energy sector, but said low interest rates will help housing, construction and auto sales.

Kudlow also defended the president’s use of tariffs on goods coming from China. Before he joined the administration, Kudlow was known for opposing tariffs and promoting free trade during his career as an economic analyst. Kudlow said Trump has taught him and others that the “China story has to be changed and reformed.”

“We cannot let China pursue these unfair and unreciprocal trading practices,” Kudlow said.

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said the U.S. needed to work with allies to hold China accountable on trade. He said he fears Trump is driving the global economy into a recession.

“This current trade war that the president has entered our country into is not working,” O’Rourke said. “It is hammering the hell out of farmers across this country.”

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Last month, the Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark rate — which affects many loans for households and businesses — by a quarter-point to a range of 2% to 2.25%. It’s the first rate cut since December 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that the Fed was worried about the consequences of Trump’s trade war and sluggish economies overseas.

“Weak global growth and trade tensions are having an effect on the U.S. economy,” he said.

Breaking with historical norms, Trump has been highly critical of Powell as he places blame for any economic weakness on the nation’s central bank for raising interest rates too much over the past two years.

Peter Navarro, who advises Trump on trade policy, shared that sentiment.

“The Federal Reserve chairman should look in the mirror and say, ‘I raised rates too far, too fast, and I cost this economy a full percentage point of growth,’” Navarro said.

Navarro also said that U.S. consumers are not affected by the administration’s trade war with China, though tariffs are taxes paid by U.S. importers, not by China, and are often passed along to U.S. businesses and consumers through higher prices.

Kudlow himself told Fox in May that U.S. consumers and businesses ultimately end up paying the tariffs that the administration imposes on billions of dollars of Chinese goods.

Trump acknowledge at least a potential impact when he paused a planned 10 percent tariff hike for many items coming from China, such as cellphones, laptops, video game consoles, some toys, computer monitors, shoes and clothing.

“We’re doing (it) just for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs could have an impact,” the president told reporters in New Jersey.

Navarro would not go even that far, saying Sunday “there’s no evidence whatsoever that Americans consumers are bearing any of this.”

Kudlow was interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and “Fox News Sunday.” O’Rourke spoke on NBC, and Navarro appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Trump’s trade war with China has been a target of criticism by Democrats vying to challenge him in 2020.

“There is clearly no strategy for dealing with the trade war in a way that will actually lead to results for American farmers or American consumers,” said Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, a Democratic presidential candidate. He said on CNN that it was “a fool’s errand” to think tariff increases will compel China to change its economic approach.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she would meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday evening to discuss Britain’s planned departure from the European Union, adding that Berlin was also prepared for a disorderly Brexit.

Johnson is seeking to persuade European Union leaders to
reopen Brexit talks or face the prospect of its second-largest
member leaving abruptly on Oct. 31 with no deal in place to
mitigate the economic shock — a move that businesses expect
would cause major disruption.

“We are glad of every visit, and you have to talk, and you
have to find good solutions,” Merkel said during a panel
discussion at the Chancellery.

“We are prepared for any outcome, we can say that, even if
we do not get an agreement. But at all events I will make an
effort to find solutions — up until the last day of
negotiations,” she added.

“I think it’s always better to leave with an agreement than
without one. But if that’s not possible, we’ll be prepared for
the alternative as well.”

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that Johnson would
tell Merkel that the British parliament could not stop Brexit.

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Protesters rallied in Hong Kong again on Sunday, as anti-government demonstrations, now in their 11th week, continue.  Mike O’Sullivan reports that the protests were first sparked by an extradition bill, but are now broadly aimed at maintaining Hong’s Kong’s special status within China.

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Last update: 1:45 p. m.

Iran said its seized oil tanker was expected to leave Gibraltar on Sunday after authorities there rejected a U.S. bid to detain it, but it was unclear where the ship might be headed next.

“The vessel is expected to leave tonight,” envoy Hamid Baeidinejad said on Twitter, adding that two engineering teams had been flown to Gibraltar to assist in its departure.

Tehran said it was ready to dispatch its naval fleet to escort the ship, loaded with 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil worth $130 million, but Iran gave no indication where it would set sail for.

The ship, called the Grace 1 but now renamed by Iran as Adrian Darya 1, was seized July 4 by Gibraltar, an overseas British territory, because authorities there believed the crude oil was headed to Syria, an Iran ally, in violation of European Union sanctions. Originally, the ship was flying under a Panamanian flag but after it was renamed, a red, white and green Iranian flag was hoisted over the ship.

The ship’s seizure was one of several related incidents in recent weeks triggering increased tensions between Tehran and Western nations. Later in July, Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Persian Gulf and is still impounding it.

The United States and Iran have shot down each other’s unmanned drones, and Western countries have accused Tehran of carrying out other attacks on ships in the Gulf, where a fifth of the world’s oil production passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The incidents stem at least in part from U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal last year from the 2015 international nuclear agreement aimed at restraining Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Trump then reimposed debilitating sanctions, which have hobbled the Iranian economy.

Gibraltar authorities on Thursday decided to release the Iranian tanker, saying they had received written assurances from Tehran that the crude oil would not be shipped to Syria.

On Friday, the U.S. government won a court order in Washington authorizing the seizure of the ship, the oil it carries and nearly $1 million. The U.S. contended that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, listed as a terrorist group by Washington, was making the illegal shipment to Syria in violation of the U.S. sanctions against Iran.

But Gibraltar said Sunday it “is unable to seek an order of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar to provide the restraining assistance required” by the United States.

The Gibraltar government said the European Union sanction “against Iran — which is applicable in Gibraltar — is much narrower than that applicable in the U.S.”

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Restrictions continued in much of Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday, despite India’s government saying it was gradually restoring phone lines and easing a security lockdown that’s been in place for nearly two weeks.

Soldiers manned nearly deserted streets and limited the movement of the few pedestrians who came out of their homes in Srinagar, the region’s main city.

The security crackdown and a news blackout were installed following an Aug. 5 decision by India’s Hindu nationalist government to downgrade the Muslim-majority region’s autonomy. Authorities started easing restrictions on Saturday.

But the Press Trust of India news agency said authorities re-imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar after violence was reported on Saturday.

About 300 Kashmiris returned to Srinagar on Sunday from a Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Many of them became emotional while reuniting with their family members who met them at the city’s airport. Due to the security and communications lockdown, many travelers were unable to contact anybody in the Kashmir region.

“Neither us nor our relatives here knew if we were dead or alive,” Muhammad Ali said after returning from the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

Public transport buses started operating in some rural areas in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday. Cellphone and internet services resumed in some districts, but news reports said that happened only in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, which was not threatened by anti-India protests.

The New Delhi government’s decision on Kashmir’s status has touched off anger in the region and raised tensions with Pakistan. Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India, but both claim the region in its entirety. The nuclear-armed archrivals have fought two wars over the territory.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan demanded that United Nations observers be deployed to the troubled region.

“This threatens 9 million Kashmiris under siege” in Kashmir, “which should have sent alarm bells ringing across the world with UN Observers being sent there,” Khan said Sunday on Twitter.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh dismissed the idea, and said that if talks are held between New Delhi and Islamabad they would only be on Pakistani-administered Kashmir, not on India’s part of the region.

An exchange of gun and mortar fire between Indian and Pakistani forces was reported on Saturday across the militarized Line of Control that divides Kashmir between the countries. India said one of its soldiers was killed in the exchange.

Meanwhile, ordinary people in the region continue to feel the impact of the restrictions.

Nazir Ahmad, a retired engineer who lives in Srinagar, said Saturday that residents were still facing difficulties in buying items such as vegetables, milk and medicine. He said his father is sick and needs a constant supply of medicine, which the family is finding difficult to procure.

“There is no internet, no telephone, no communication, no transportation,” said Ahmad, describing the situation as living through a “siege.”

“We are living like animals,” he said. “So I request everybody, please come and solve this situation. Nobody is coming out” of their homes.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended the Kashmir changes as freeing the territory from separatism, and his supporters have welcomed the move. One of the constitutional revisions allows anyone to buy land in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which some Kashmiris fear could change the region’s culture and demographics. Critics have likened it to Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

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