Category: Politics

Bill Shorten has quit as Labor leader as his party reels after an election loss that no one in the ALP saw coming, saying “I wish we could have done it for Bob”.

Mr Shorten called Prime Minister Scott Morrison to concede defeat on Saturday night, shortly before he took to the stage at an ALP function in Melbourne.

“I know that you are all hurting. I am, too,” Mr Shorten said in a message to Labor supporters.

But Mr Shorten said the task of rebuilding the party would be “one for the next leader of the Labor Party”.

“While I intend to continue to serve as the member for Maribyrnong, I will not be a candidate in the next Labor leadership ballot”.

As Labor MPs and members try and make sense of their defeat, Mr Shorten defended the complex and at-times controversial suite of policies he took to voters on May 18.

“The test, even before victory, which I set myself in the lead up to this election, was that at 6pm when the polls closed … I wanted to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say there was nothing more that I could have done. No more ideas that we should have expressed.”

Senior Labor figures have begun to blame a “scare campaign” by the Coalition, and One Nation and United Australia Party preferences for the party’s shock result.

Despite Mr Shorten predicting a clear Labor win on Saturday morning, his party lost a raft of its own seats, suffered swing against it in Queensland and Tasmania and failed to pick up key seats it had been seriously targeting around the country.

After more than four hours of counting on Saturday, Labor had lost Lindsay in Sydney, Braddon and Bass in Tasmania and Longman and Herbert in Queensland. Gilmore on the New South Wales south coast was a rare gain. The ALP looked set to pick up Dunkley and Corangamite in Victoria, although these had been nominally Labor after a boundary redistribution.

“It’s not the result that we had hoped for in Queensland, obviously. And when you look seat by seat, you see One Nation and Palmer Party preferences flowing to the LNP up there. I think that that’s going to take its toll,” deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said.

Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong said the government had run a “scare campaign”, alluding to its attacks on Labor’s franking credits policy. “There’s no doubt that the scare campaign has bitten in some areas,” she told ABC TV.

Labor-aligned strategist Simon Banks said there would need to be a full assessment of how polling and voter research was conducted, given it had consistently pointed to a Labor victory over the last three years.

“They’re missing something,” the Hawker Britton managing director said.

“It’s a bit of a mess, really. We weren’t expecting this,” said one 19-year-old ALP member, who had been handing out how-to-votes on Saturday.

Linda Green, who has been an ALP member for more than 40 years, said she was devastated by the Labor result.

“I really thought, ‘this is our time’. We’re devastated, really.”

The Labor leader cast his vote at Moonee Ponds West Primary in his safe Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong with his wife Chloe. He also ate a sausage sandwich, which he said tasted “like a mood for change”.

Before the votes were counted, Mr Shorten was asked if he would stay in politics if he lost.

In a sign of Mr Shorten’s confidence, he mostly visited Coalition-held seats in the final week of campaigning. On Friday, following the death of Labor legend Bob Hawke, he pared back his campaign schedule, but the Labor campaign had already been winding down.

The Labor camp was full of sadness at the loss of Mr Hawke on Thursday, but that was mixed with razor-sharp focus going into polling day to “do it for Bob”.theage.com

The New South Wales opposition leader, Michael Daley, has backed the state’s schoolchildren striking and attending rallies on climate change, saying it was a democratic right to protest and “an important way to realise their own personal power”.

Speaking at a National Press Club event in Sydney, Daley said he supported the rallies on Friday, even though he might soon be the premier and responsible for ensuring children attend school.

“Education is also bigger than the classroom. It is based on life experience. That is, in part, the importance of being confident and passionate enough to form beliefs and being prepared to stand up for them,” he said.

“And more importantly in this inert digital age, of acting on that belief. Of standing up and taking action for what you believe in – it is called leadership.”

Labor has sought to distinguish itself from the Coalition by promising more rapid action on climate change, including installing seven gigawatts of regional solar farms and establishing a rebate scheme to encourage households to install a further two gigawatts of rooftop solar.

Daley has also promised to review the state’s water-sharing laws that are being blamed in part for fish deaths at Menindee Lake, and to repeal the Coalition’s more liberal native vegetation laws that have allowed an increase in clearing.

He foreshadowed more announcements on the environment before the 23 March election.

Daley’s solo appearance at the press club was initially planned as a debate, but the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, was unable to attend as she was campaigning in northern NSW.

Daley backed the call from his shadow treasurer, Ryan Park, for higher wages growth for the state’s 400,000 public servants, amid concerns from the Reserve Bank about sluggish wages growth nationally and community concerns about the cost of living.

Park said he would like wages growth “with a three in front of it”.

In 2011 the Coalition government introduced a 2.5% cap on annual public sector wage increases, with higher increments possible only if offset by productivity savings.

Daley said he would introduce an independent umpire, so that workers such as paramedics would be able to argue they had increased their skills and deserved a higher pay rise.

But he refused to say how much a pay rise of 3% or more would cost the state budget.

Although he has been campaigning on overdevelopment in several Sydney electorates, Daley said he would not be taking a significantly different path from the government, and would keep the Greater Sydney Commission, which sets targets for levels of new housing in each area.

However, he has promised to abolish “spot rezonings” – where developers can ask for particular sites to be rezoned – and promised to return more power to councils to ensure “fairness and certainty” in the planning system.

He said there had been political interference in the housing targets set by the Greater Sydney Commission which meant Woollahra, in Liberal heartland, has a target of only 300 new dwellings, while western Sydney has borne the brunt of accommodating new housing.

The north is flooded, the south parched by drought. The Murray Darling, our greatest river system, has dried to a trickle, crippling communities and turning up millions of dead fish. The ancient alpine forests of Tasmania have burned. The summer was the hottest on record. We are living the reality of climate change.

That’s why we need your help to bring our reporting on the climate crisis to light. We’re asking readers to fund a new Guardian series – The Frontline: Australia and the climate emergency.

With your support, we will investigate the true impact of the climate crisis on our fragile environment, and on our communities and lives. We will interrogate policy solutions and adaptations. Time is running out and Australia needs to take stock, understand the problem and act. Help us cut through the rhetoric and focus the debate on the facts. That way, everyone can learn about the devastating and immediate threats to our country and how best to find a solution.With: theguardian

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) continues to hang banners claiming victory in İstanbul, which it has lost to the opposition nominee for mayor, according to the unofficial results of Sunday’s local elections. the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Tuesday.

“Thanks, İstanbul” read the posters, which were put up at several points in İstanbul after unofficial results declared the Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the new mayor of İstanbul.

The posters were first sighted yesterday and were removed after a public outcry and İmamoğlu’s reaction.

They were seen once again this morning in several districts. AKP circles had implicitly conceded defeat in İstanbul by declaring their intention to object to the results.

According to polling station officials from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), after recounting ballots in 12 districts of İstanbul the difference between ruling party candidate Binali Yıldırım and opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu has increased by 22 votes in favor of the latter, the Diken news website reported on Thursday.

On Monday Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) announced that İmamoğlu won İstanbul by a narrow margin.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) objected to the results and requested a recount in certain districts.

AKP Co-chair Ali İhsan Yavuz on Thursday reported that after the recounts Yıldırım’s vote had increased by 1,641 and that the ruling party would emerge as the winner in İstanbul; however, İmamoğlu stated that he was still ahead of Yıldırım by more than 19,000 votes after the reassessment.

Meanwhile, AKP Secretary-General Fatih Şahin told reporters on Thursday that the party was also unhappy with the Ankara recount, which was seen as confirming the opposition’s victory, and would appeal for a second, wider, check of all the results, Reuters reported.turkishminute

The German chancellor met the Irish taoiseach, with questions over the future of the Irish border central. The capital’s residents hope more support will come for the Irish position.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Dublin on Thursday to meet with Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar.

Brexit and the effects on EU-member Ireland with its UK-member Northern Ireland were high on the agenda.

“Let me say, we will simply have to be able to do this [both preserve the single market and avoid a border in Ireland],” Merkel said. “We have to be successful. We hope for a solution. But we simply have to be successful.”

Merkel expressed a personal understanding of the presence of borders and walls: “I personally come from a country that was for many years divided by a wall. I know what happens once borders, once walls fall. A heavy death toll has happened here.”

Merkel, as expected, expressed strong solidarity with Ireland. “Every step of the way we will stand together, we will walk together,” she said. “We worked together as 28 [EU member nations] for a long time and now we are 27. I wanted to demonstrate with my visit that we will continue to stand together as 27.”

However, she stopped short of saying that regardless of what happens, no hard border would be reimposed in Ireland. “We will do everything in order to prevent a no-deal Brexit, Britain crashing out of the European Union. But we have to do this together with Britain and with their position that they will present to us.”

Varadkar said he still wanted the Withdrawal Agreement ratified, but also acknowledged that a no deal scenario had to be anticipated.

“Both Ireland and Germany want to have a future relationship with the UK which is close and comprehensive and as deep as possible, and we would like to see the Withdrawal Agreement ratified so that we can begin the negotiations on a new economic and security partnership without further delay,” he said.

“There is very little time left and we have to prepare ourselves for all outcomes.”

Soccer, the bailout and beyond

Ahead of Thursday, the high point to date of Angela Merkel’s relationship with Ireland came during the 2012 European Football Championships.

Ireland was in the teeth of a brutal economic recession at the time and many in the country associated the austerity measures being imposed with the frugal German chancellor. So when a group of young Irish football fans at the tournament made a large banner that said “Angela Merkel thinks we’re at work,” it quickly became an online hit.

Seven years on, and Merkel’s Irish connection has become altogether more serious.

As well as their own talks, Merkel and Varadkar took part in a roundtable discussion with people representing communities from both sides of the Irish border earlier in the afternoon.

Those who took part said they were impressed with Merkel’s grasp of the issues around the Irish border.

“I think everyone who was there could not but be impressed by how much the Chancellor knew,” said Peter Sheridan, the CEO of Co-operation Ireland, a charity dedicated to securing peace on the island of Ireland. “I think her own background, living on one side of a wall, helped her to understood the stories, the very personal stories, that people shared with her.”

Merkel and Varadkar met at Farmleigh House, a stately building located in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Security for the short visit was quite tight, but on a bright and blustery morning in the adjoining Dublin district of Stoneybatter, residents and commuters weren’t overly exercised by the impending presence of one of the most famous and powerful politicians in the world.

“Angela who?” said one young man out walking his dog. “Is it about this Brexit? I don’t bother with any of that, it’s just myself and himself I focus on,” he told DW, pointing to his dog.

But while quite a few people weren’t aware that Merkel was coming, almost everyone was well aware of her motivations for making what is her first trip to the island in five years.

“I presume it’s to do with Brexit,” said Josie, another dog walker. “Hard borders and backstops and whatever else they are talking about. I think she would be interested or keen that there wouldn’t be a hard border.

“I think she’s OK, she’s fair. She’s serious but she’s also down to earth. I think we can rely on her and the rest of the EU and I think that’s the general feeling in Ireland. I think they are all fed up of the British,” she said.

Eleanor, a retired former civil servant living in the southern Dublin suburb of Dun Laoghaire, was slightly less optimistic about the outcome of the powwow in the park.

“Merkel wants to stress that if and when the UK is a third country, suitable arrangements will have to be made to protect the single market and the customs union.  She may, like me, have tired of Leo and Simon’s (Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney’s) mantra of ‘no hard border in Ireland.’ I think she’ll make some soothing noises about solidarity and possibly EU support after Brexit in view of Ireland’s special vulnerability.”

‘If she didn’t back Ireland on this issue, I would be flabbergasted’

Given Merkel’s undisputed status as the most influential politician in Europe, her interventions into the Brexit and border question have been closely watched in Ireland.

Reports of a phone call between her and Varadkar back in January — at the height of a particularly tense time around the whole question of the Irish border “backstop” — raised several Irish heartbeats a few notches.

There has been occasional speculation, not just from ardent Brexiteers, that Merkel’s innate pragmatism could lead to her putting pressure on the Irish government to ease their position on the backstop question and help get a deal done.

“I think Ireland is becoming an issue, they just want to get it through now,” said Ciara, as she made her way to work. “I think we’re the weaker link in this situation.”

However, Chris, the man walking to work with her, was more optimistic. “I think she might be here to support us. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Overall, the people DW spoke to ahead of Thursday’s meeting had a positive image of Merkel, with several pointing to her experience of a divided Germany —  and her reaction to the migrant crisis — as evidence that Ireland could rely on her solidarity.

“Considering she is not my cup of tea, I think she played a blinder in terms of the migrant crisis. Compared with every other leader, she has been startlingly brave,” said Mick, 61.

“She also understands what it is to have a country divided, by a partition that lasted a lot shorter than our own. She probably has demands in terms of the single market, protecting the integrity of the market. But she will have certain support for government dilemmas in this.”

For Martin Smith, a Scot who moved to Ireland 15 years ago, the idea that Merkel could be anything other than fully supportive of the Irish position with regard to Brexit and the reimposition of a border was unacceptable.

“I’d say she’d have to take Ireland’s side,” he said. “If she didn’t, then what is the point in Europe? I have always been behind Europe. As a Scotsman, I’d never call myself British! If you are part of Europe, you are part of Europe. The Irish border issues need to be defended by Europe. If she didn’t back Ireland on this issue, I would be flabbergasted.”With dw.com

Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told his supporters on Wednesday that candidates of the opposition parties that were elected in locals on Sunday vote were lame ducks, Oda TV news site reported .

Erdoğan returned from Ankara to Istanbul on Sunday night after a brief speech evaluating elections results, while the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) requested a recounting of votes in some districts in Istanbul and Ankara.

Erdoğan appeared for the first time in public on Wednesday, when he came to the new Çamlıca mosque in Istanbul for evening prayers. He was surrounded by his supporters who were protesting the election results, including one lady who said that she could not work under Imamoğlu in the Istanbul metropolitan municipality, which the Islamist parties have been running for the last 25 years.

“We have the majority,” said Erdoğan referring to local council results in Istanbul, adding that recounting of votes continued. “And even if that happens [the opposition wins] do you know what they are now, lame ducks,” he said.

The Turkish president on Wednesday evening also gathered with senior AKP officials and the party’s Istanbul mayoral candidate Binali Yıldırım to evaluate the local election results.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed at an election rally on Friday that the election slogans of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were coined by Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen and that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) determined the candidate selection of the opposition parties.

At a rally in Fethiye in the run-up to the March 31 local elections, Erdoğan argued that the CHP is cooperating with the Gülen movement, which he accuses of plotting a failed coup attempt in July 2016, as well as the PKK, both of which he considers terrorist organizations.

Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, unexpectedly announced his resignation in a televised addressed nearly 30 years since taking office after the USSR collapsed.

The 78-year-old, considered the last Soviet-era leader still in office, will hand over the presidency to a loyal ally for the rest of his term, which ends in April next year. But he will retain key security council and party leadership positions.

The former Communist Party official Nazarbayev, who was elected for a fifth five-year term in 2015 by taking 97% of the vote, addressed Kazakhstan citizens by calling them “compatriots, comrades”.

“Today I appeal to you as I always did in the important moments in the history of our state which we have built and are building together,” he said.

“But today my appeal is special. I have made a difficult decision – to retire from the responsibility of the President of Kazakhstan Republic.”

Nazarbayev announced that close party ally and speaker of the upper house of parliament, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will take over the oil-rich Central Asian nation as acting president.

Nazarbayev called his successor in Astana an “honest, responsible, committed man”.

Tokayev, 65, is a Moscow-educated career diplomat fluent in Kazakh, Russian, English and Chinese who has previously served as Kazakhstan’s foreign minister and prime minister and could be a front-runner for the ruling “Nur Otan” Democratic People’s Party in 2020.

Although this announcement came as a shock to most, many experts do not expect any major policy shifts are on the way.

“I think that the resignation was planned in advance, and wasn’t caused by any external events,” Aytolkyn Kurmanova, editor of the Central Asian Analytical Network (CAAN), told Euronews. “The president continues to enjoy popularity and respect, but the future is unclear. ”

“(Nazarbayev) will continue to some extent to oversee things, so it is not like he has cut the cord totally – he still has his fingers in the pie,” said Theodor Kirschner of Capitulum Asset Management in Berlin. “That a 78-year-old won’t be sticking around forever shouldn’t be such a surprise to anyone, and this move makes the transition smoother. This doesn’t really give us a headache.”

Freedom House says parliamentary and presidential elections in Kazakhstan are neither free nor fair, and all major parties are loyal to the Nazarbayev who has dominated political life for three decades without much competition.

“President Nazarbayev’s decision to resign is a very rare example of a voluntary transfer of power in Central Asia, and it provides Kazakhstan with the opportunity to undertake meaningful democratic reforms,” said Marc Behrendt, director for Europe and Eurasia programs at Freedom House.

However, in July 2018 Nazarbayev made himself chairman of the Security Council for life. The decree gave the Security Council significant constitutional powers, which could allow Nazarbayev to maintain power even if he vacates the presidency.

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country with an area equal to that of Western Europe but is one of the lowest population densities globally with only 18 million people.

According to the World Bank, robust oil production has spurred economic growth over the last decade and Kazakhstan’s fiscal balance will continue to improve if the Government maintains its fiscal consolidation plan.

World Bank also recognises a series of reforms and measures implemented by the government that have improved the business environment.

Kazakhstan has transitioned from lower-middle- income to upper-middle income status in less than two decades.

Geographically, Kazakhstan has benefited by linking markets of China and South Asia and those of Russia and Western Europe by road, rail, and a port on the Caspian Sea.

According to the Kremlin, on Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with the Kazakh president by telephone, however, Russia’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov did not share the two world leaders discussed..euronews

Professor Hayrettin Karaman, an Islamic scholar and columnist for the pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper, warned on Friday ahead of local elections on March 31 that Turkey will be lost to its enemies if the electorate tries to teach President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a lesson.

Telling a symbolic story in his column, Karaman, who likened Erdoğan to a property watchman, said if you decide to punish the watchman, the property could be seized by enemies who have been waiting for the right time.

Government officials and the pro-government media have been concerned about the possible impact of a deteriorating economy on the elections and asked voters not to punish it at the polls. Erdoğan and his aides often claim that Turkey’s existence is at stake in the elections of March 31.

Karaman’s column and his analogy came in this context as he warned people that the very existence of Turkey is at risk if Erdoğan is not in power.

Earlier, the same scholar issued fatwas labeling those who cast votes against Erdoğan as “opponents of Islam” and provided Islamic justification for cracking down on dissidents.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election did not find any collusion with Russia by US President Donald Trump or any of his campaign officials – according to a summary submitted to Congress.

It adds that Mueller did not draw a conclusion on whether Trump or anyone in the White House obstructed justice during the investigation.

Attorney General William Barr sent the summary of conclusions from the report to congressional leaders and the media on Sunday after Mueller handed in his report last Friday.

Trump celebrated the political win with a tweet that read: “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!”

Mueller’s two years of investigation concluded that no one in Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government,” according to the summary of findings.Mueller’s two years of investigation concluded that no one in Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government,” according to the summary of findings.

“While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Attorney General William Barr quoted Mueller as writing in his report.

Mueller did not himself reach a conclusion on whether Trump had broken the law by interfering into various 2016 election investigations but presented his evidence to Barr who drew the conclusions.

But Barr made clear that he had rejected the possibility of a criminal charge.

“The report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent … each of which … would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Barr wrote in his letter to lawmakers.

The news is likely to ignite a new political fight in Washington as Democrats will want Barr to release the report in its entirety.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has called for Barr to testify to Congress due to “very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department.”

Trump has always denied collaborating with Moscow or obstructing justice. Russia also denies interfering in the US elections. though US intelligence agencies say it did.

“It’s a shame that our country had to go through this,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from Florida. “This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully, somebody’s going to be looking at the other side.”

Mueller’s investigation brought charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former key allies of Trump, such as campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former security adviser Mike Flynn and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

None of the charges, however, directly related to whether Trump’s campaign worked with Moscow.

Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said the report findings were better than he expected and White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the findings were a “total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States.”euronews