Latest News Clips 2017.01.23

                       

1.      In Inaugural Address, Trump Continues to Shun Establishment

The New York Times           JAN. 20, 2017

 

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s Inaugural Address on Friday was a scalding repudiation of the Washington establishment. The question left hanging after this angry jeremiad: How will the new commander in chief be able to work with these people to govern the country?

Uncompromising in tone and entirely in keeping with his insurgent campaign, Mr. Trump dispensed with appeals to unity or attempts to build bridges to his opponents. He tarred the nation’s political class, arrayed behind him on the West Front of the Capitol, as faithless and corrupt.

“Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs,” he said. “And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.”

“That all changes,” a grim-faced Mr. Trump declared, “starting right here, and right now.”

From Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, presidents have come to Washington as agents of change and enemies of the status quo. Most have discovered, to their benefit or misery, that they must work the levers of government to push through their agenda. But none in recent memory have appeared so ready to lead by going to war against the existing order.

That could include members of his own party. Mr. Trump is as close to an independent as has ever served in modern times. He ran against the Republican establishment as much as he ran against Hillary Clinton.

In his address, he ignored the Republican leadership in Congress, and said nothing about working with Speaker Paul Ryan or Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to advance a legislative agenda. His views on trade, foreign policy and the role of government are at odds with Republican orthodoxy, setting the stage for a clash between the party and its standard-bearer.

As for the Democrats, there were signs, under the leaden skies on the National Mall, that they were already girding for battle. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, issued a blunt warning to Mr. Trump, moments before he was sworn in, that the American people would stand up for the rule of law, a free press — the things, he said, “that make America America.”

Mr. Schumer quoted from a farewell letter that a Union soldier, Maj. Sullivan Ballou, sent his wife during the Civil War, days before he was killed in the First Battle of Bull Run. The doomed soldier’s words — which recalled the sacrifices made by the nation’s founders — could provide solace in the days to come, he said.

Democratic lawmakers wore buttons on their lapels that said “Protect Our Care,” a reference to the landmark health care law that Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress have promised to overturn. About 60 Democrats boycotted the inauguration altogether — a movement that picked up steam once Mr. Trump clashed with Representative John Lewis of Georgia, after Mr. Lewis said that he did not view him as a legitimate president.

“There was very little in this speech that would offer comfort to a Trump opponent or skeptic,” said Michael Beschloss, the presidential scholar. “It had the texture more of a convention or campaign speech than what we usually hear in an Inaugural Address.”

And yet, Mr. Trump has presented himself as a dealmaker, not an ideologue, and it remains an open question whether he will continue to be the relentless populist who was on display on Friday.

For all the public tension between Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer, the president has reached out to his fellow New Yorker, whom he has known for decades. He has named cabinet members who disagree with him on issues like banning Muslims or torturing terrorism suspects. He has suggested that his own views are themselves a work in progress.

Mr. Trump has shown a quicksilver ability to shift his positions on major issues, like his campaign promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to build a wall on the Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it. He mentioned neither in his speech.

Mr. Trump’s aides like to say he is a direct descendant of Andrew Jackson, the nation’s first populist president. Populists in the Jackson tradition, political theorists say, are protean in character.

 “They’re kind of like the moon,” said Walter Russell Mead, a professor at Bard College and a scholar at the Hudson Institute who has written extensively about Jackson’s influence. “They’re the brightest object in the night sky when the moon is full, but they wax and wane.”

2.      China's Xi defends free trade in speech at Davos

Bumpy run-up to Trump inauguration gives Chinese leader convenient opportunity to claim assertive role on world stage.

Aljazeera   17 Jan 2017

 

President Xi Jinping of China has offered a vigorous defence of globalisation and free trade in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Comparing protectionism with "locking oneself in a dark room" to avoid danger, but at the same time depriving the room of "light and air", he cautioned other countries against pursuing their own interests at the expense of others on Tuesday.

Xi did not mention the US president-elect, Donald Trump, in his speech of nearly an hour but many of the messages he sent seemed directed at Trump, who campaigned for the White House on pledges to protect US industries from foreign competition and levy new tariffs on goods from China and Mexico.

"No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war," Xi told the forum in the Swiss Alps.

He said economic globalisation has become a "Pandora's Box" for many, but that it was not the cause of many global problems.

Xi said the international financial crises were caused by the excessive pursuit of profits, not globalisation.

"China has no intention to boost its trade competitiveness by devaluing the renminbi, still less will it launch a currency war," he said.

His appearance, a first for a Chinese leader at the annual meeting of political leaders, chief executives and bankers in Davos, came as doubts emerge about whether the US will remain a force for multilateral cooperation on issues like trade and climate change.

Complaints about China

Xi's vocal support for free trade and criticism of protectionism could appear rich to other Western countries, who have grumbled about commercial restrictions in China that clash with the public assertions from officials.

Foreign companies complain that China is reducing access to its markets for electric cars, computer security technology and other promising fields or pressing them to give know-how to potential Chinese competitors.

Some say they are blocked from acquiring assets in China, just as Chinese companies have been on a foreign buying spree.

"The political leadership of China never ceases to assure us that further opening towards foreign investment ... is a priority," Michael Clauss, Germany's ambassador to China, said this week.

"However, many companies keep telling us that their difficulties in these areas have increased."

"It often appears that somewhere down the line, political assurances of equal treatment give way to protectionist tendencies."

China also faces US and European complaints it is exporting steel, aluminium, solar panels and other goods at improperly low prices, threatening thousands of jobs abroad.

Sign of shift

Klaus Schwab, WEF founder, said Xi's presence was a sign of the shift from a unipolar world dominated by the US to a more multi-polar system in which rising powers, such as China, will have to step up and play a bigger role.

"In a world marked by great uncertainty and volatility, the world is looking to China," he said before Xi spoke.

Europe is preoccupied with its own troubles, from Brexit and attacks to the string of elections this year in which anti-globalisation populists could score gains.

The bumpy run-up to the Trump administration has given China's Xi a convenient opportunity to advance his goal of giving his country a more assertive leadership role on the world stage.

China previously sought to capture the mantle as a supporter of world trade after Trump said he would pull the US out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal championed by President Barack Obama.

'Biggest challenge'

In his speech, Xi described the world economy as adrift, saying it lacked a "driving force" with inadequate global governance and unequal benefits that have widened the gulf between rich and poor.

"This is the biggest challenge in the world today," he said.

He called for a "new growth model" that takes into account climate change, ageing populations and increased automation, and said countries that face difficulties should not "lose confidence or run away from our responsibility; instead, we should join hands".

Xi hit hard on the metaphor of the world economy as an "ocean," saying countries "must have courage to swim in the global market".

"We should not develop a habit of retreating to the harbour whenever encountering the storm, for this will never get us to the other shore of the ocean," he said.

3.      Brexit: May’s threat to Europe: 'no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal'

Prime minister gives tough speech outlining government’s 12 priorities for Brexit negotiations as EU leaders warn that country is heading for ‘hard Brexit’

The Guardian    18 January 2017 

 

Theresa May warned European leaders that the UK is prepared to crash out of the EU if she cannot negotiate a reasonable exit deal in a speech where her tough talking rhetoric prompted key figures in Brussels to say that the country was on track for a “hard Brexit”.

     

The prime minister told EU counterparts that any attempt to inflict a punitive outcome on the UK would be an “act of calamitous self-harm” because it would then slash taxes to attract companies from across the world, in a one-hour address intended to spell out the country’s negotiating strategy.

Although May said that the UK could be the EU’s “best friend” if the article 50 divorce talks went well, she also said she was prepared to walk away. “And while I am confident that this scenario need never arise – while I am sure a positive agreement can be reached – I am equally clear that no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,” she said.

Eurosceptic ministers and backbenchers were quick to praise May, but her remarks also triggered a backlash from lead European parliament negotiator on Brexit, Guy Verhofstadt. “Britain has chosen a hard Brexit. May’s clarity is welcome – but the days of UK cherry-picking and Europe a la cart [sic] are over,” he said.

Verhofstadt also delivered a tough response to May’s point about business. “Threatening to turn the UK into a deregulated tax heaven will not only hurt British people – it is a counterproductive negotiating tactic,” he tweeted, urging May to consider the concerns of 48% who voted remain.

Speaking at Lancaster House, London, the prime minister also committed to give both houses of parliament a vote on the final Brexit deal – prompting the pound to soar – although Downing Street was clear that the alternative to a negotiated exit would be defaulting onto the higher tariffs of World Trade Organisation rules.