Nobel Prizes Still Struggle With Wide Gender Disparity

Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet but the aura of this year’s announcements has been dulled by questions over why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences.

The march of Nobel announcements begins Monday with the physiology/medicine prize.

Since the first prizes were awarded in 1901, 892 individuals have received one, but just 48 of them have been women. Thirty of those women won either the literature or peace prize, highlighting the wide gender gap in the laureates for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine. In addition, only one woman has won for the economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel but is associated with the prizes.

Some of the disparity likely can be attributed to underlying structural reasons, such as the low representation of women in high-level science. The American Institute of Physics, for example, says in 2014, only 10 percent of full physics professorships were held by women.

But critics suggest that gender bias pervades the process of nominations, which come largely from tenured professors.

“The problem is the whole nomination process, you have these tenured professors who feel like they are untouchable. They can get away with everything from sexual harassment to micro-aggressions like assuming the woman in the room will take the notes, or be leaving soon to have babies,” said Anne-Marie Imafidon, the head of Stemettes, a British group that encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“It’s little wonder that these people aren’t putting women forward for nominations. We need to be better at telling the stories of the women in science who are doing good things and actually getting recognition,” she said.

Powerful men taking credit for the ideas and elbow grease of their female colleagues was turned on its head in 1903 when Pierre Curie made it clear he would not accept the physics prize unless his wife and fellow researcher Marie Curie was jointly honored. She was the first female winner of any Nobel prize, but only one other woman has won the physics prize since then.

More than 70 years later, Jocelyn Bell, a post-graduate student at Cambridge, was overlooked for the physics prize despite her crucial contribution to the discovery of pulsars. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, took all of the Nobel credit.

Brian Keating, a physics professor at the University of California San Diego and author of the book “Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor,” says the Nobel Foundation should lift its restrictions on re-awarding for a breakthrough if an individual has been overlooked. He also says posthumous awards also should be considered and there should be no restriction on the number of individuals who can share a prize. Today the limit is three people for one prize.

“These measures would go a long way to addressing the injustice that so few of the brilliant women who have contributed so much to science through the years have been overlooked,” he said.

Keating fears that simply accepting the disparity as structural will seriously harm the prestige of all the Nobel prizes.

“I think with the Hollywood #MeToo movement, it has already happened in the film prizes. It has happened with the literature prize. There is no fundamental law of nature that the Nobel science prizes will continue to be seen as the highest accolade,” he said.

This year’s absence of a Nobel Literature prize , which has been won by 14 women, puts an even sharper focus on the gender gap in science prizes.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, said it would not pick a winner this year after sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals rocked the secretive panel, sharply dividing its 18 members, who are appointed for life. Seven members quit or distanced themselves from academy. Its permanent secretary, Anders Olsson, said the academy wanted “to commit time to recovering public confidence.”

The academy plans to award both the 2018 prize and the 2019 prize next year — but even that is not guaranteed. The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, has warned that if the Swedish Academy does not resolve its tarnished image another group could be chosen to select the literature prize each year.

Stung by criticism about the diversity gap between former prize winners, the Nobel Foundation has asked that the science awarding panels for 2019 ask nominators to consider their own biases in the thousands of letters they send to solicit Nobel nominations.

“I am eager to see more nominations for women so they can be considered,” said Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the Nobel Foundation. “We have written to nominators asking them to make sure they do not miss women or people of other ethnicities or nationalities in their nominations. We hope this will make a difference for 2019.”

It’s not the first time that Nobel officials have sought diversity. In his 1895 will, prize founder Alfred Nobel wrote: “It is my express wish that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration shall be given to national affiliations of any kind, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.”

Even so, the prizes remained overwhelmingly white and male for most of their existence.

For the first 70 years, the peace prize skewed heavily toward Western white men, with just two of the 59 prizes awarded to individuals or institutions based outside Europe or North America. Only three of the winners in that period were female.

The 1973 peace prize shared by North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho and American Henry Kissinger widened the horizons — since then more than half the Nobel Peace prizes have gone to African or Asian individuals or institutions.

Since 2000, six women have won the peace prize.

After the medicine prize on Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the Nobel in physics on Tuesday and in chemistry on Wednesday, while the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. On Oct. 8, Sweden’s Central Bank announces the winner of the economics prize, given in honor of Alfred Nobel.

 

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Nobel Prizes Still Struggle With Wide Gender Disparity

Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet but the aura of this year’s announcements has been dulled by questions over why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences.

The march of Nobel announcements begins Monday with the physiology/medicine prize.

Since the first prizes were awarded in 1901, 892 individuals have received one, but just 48 of them have been women. Thirty of those women won either the literature or peace prize, highlighting the wide gender gap in the laureates for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine. In addition, only one woman has won for the economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel but is associated with the prizes.

Some of the disparity likely can be attributed to underlying structural reasons, such as the low representation of women in high-level science. The American Institute of Physics, for example, says in 2014, only 10 percent of full physics professorships were held by women.

But critics suggest that gender bias pervades the process of nominations, which come largely from tenured professors.

“The problem is the whole nomination process, you have these tenured professors who feel like they are untouchable. They can get away with everything from sexual harassment to micro-aggressions like assuming the woman in the room will take the notes, or be leaving soon to have babies,” said Anne-Marie Imafidon, the head of Stemettes, a British group that encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“It’s little wonder that these people aren’t putting women forward for nominations. We need to be better at telling the stories of the women in science who are doing good things and actually getting recognition,” she said.

Powerful men taking credit for the ideas and elbow grease of their female colleagues was turned on its head in 1903 when Pierre Curie made it clear he would not accept the physics prize unless his wife and fellow researcher Marie Curie was jointly honored. She was the first female winner of any Nobel prize, but only one other woman has won the physics prize since then.

More than 70 years later, Jocelyn Bell, a post-graduate student at Cambridge, was overlooked for the physics prize despite her crucial contribution to the discovery of pulsars. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, took all of the Nobel credit.

Brian Keating, a physics professor at the University of California San Diego and author of the book “Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor,” says the Nobel Foundation should lift its restrictions on re-awarding for a breakthrough if an individual has been overlooked. He also says posthumous awards also should be considered and there should be no restriction on the number of individuals who can share a prize. Today the limit is three people for one prize.

“These measures would go a long way to addressing the injustice that so few of the brilliant women who have contributed so much to science through the years have been overlooked,” he said.

Keating fears that simply accepting the disparity as structural will seriously harm the prestige of all the Nobel prizes.

“I think with the Hollywood #MeToo movement, it has already happened in the film prizes. It has happened with the literature prize. There is no fundamental law of nature that the Nobel science prizes will continue to be seen as the highest accolade,” he said.

This year’s absence of a Nobel Literature prize , which has been won by 14 women, puts an even sharper focus on the gender gap in science prizes.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, said it would not pick a winner this year after sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals rocked the secretive panel, sharply dividing its 18 members, who are appointed for life. Seven members quit or distanced themselves from academy. Its permanent secretary, Anders Olsson, said the academy wanted “to commit time to recovering public confidence.”

The academy plans to award both the 2018 prize and the 2019 prize next year — but even that is not guaranteed. The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, has warned that if the Swedish Academy does not resolve its tarnished image another group could be chosen to select the literature prize each year.

Stung by criticism about the diversity gap between former prize winners, the Nobel Foundation has asked that the science awarding panels for 2019 ask nominators to consider their own biases in the thousands of letters they send to solicit Nobel nominations.

“I am eager to see more nominations for women so they can be considered,” said Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the Nobel Foundation. “We have written to nominators asking them to make sure they do not miss women or people of other ethnicities or nationalities in their nominations. We hope this will make a difference for 2019.”

It’s not the first time that Nobel officials have sought diversity. In his 1895 will, prize founder Alfred Nobel wrote: “It is my express wish that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration shall be given to national affiliations of any kind, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.”

Even so, the prizes remained overwhelmingly white and male for most of their existence.

For the first 70 years, the peace prize skewed heavily toward Western white men, with just two of the 59 prizes awarded to individuals or institutions based outside Europe or North America. Only three of the winners in that period were female.

The 1973 peace prize shared by North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho and American Henry Kissinger widened the horizons — since then more than half the Nobel Peace prizes have gone to African or Asian individuals or institutions.

Since 2000, six women have won the peace prize.

After the medicine prize on Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the Nobel in physics on Tuesday and in chemistry on Wednesday, while the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. On Oct. 8, Sweden’s Central Bank announces the winner of the economics prize, given in honor of Alfred Nobel.

 

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Nobel Prizes Still Struggle with Wide Gender Disparity

Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet but the aura of this year’s announcements has been dulled by questions over why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences.

The march of Nobel announcements begins Monday with the physiology/medicine prize.

Since the first prizes were awarded in 1901, 892 individuals have received one, but just 48 of them have been women. Thirty of those women won either the literature or peace prize, highlighting the wide gender gap in the laureates for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine. In addition, only one woman has won for the economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel but is associated with the prizes.

Some of the disparity likely can be attributed to underlying structural reasons, such as the low representation of women in high-level science. The American Institute of Physics, for example, says in 2014, only 10 percent of full physics professorships were held by women.

But critics suggest that gender bias pervades the process of nominations, which come largely from tenured professors.

“The problem is the whole nomination process, you have these tenured professors who feel like they are untouchable. They can get away with everything from sexual harassment to micro-aggressions like assuming the woman in the room will take the notes, or be leaving soon to have babies,” said Anne-Marie Imafidon, the head of Stemettes, a British group that encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“It’s little wonder that these people aren’t putting women forward for nominations. We need to be better at telling the stories of the women in science who are doing good things and actually getting recognition,” she said.

Powerful men taking credit for the ideas and elbow grease of their female colleagues was turned on its head in 1903 when Pierre Curie made it clear he would not accept the physics prize unless his wife and fellow researcher Marie Curie was jointly honored. She was the first female winner of any Nobel prize, but only one other woman has won the physics prize since then.

More than 70 years later, Jocelyn Bell, a post-graduate student at Cambridge, was overlooked for the physics prize despite her crucial contribution to the discovery of pulsars. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, took all of the Nobel credit.

Brian Keating, a physics professor at the University of California San Diego and author of the book “Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor,” says the Nobel Foundation should lift its restrictions on re-awarding for a breakthrough if an individual has been overlooked. He also says posthumous awards also should be considered and there should be no restriction on the number of individuals who can share a prize. Today the limit is three people for one prize.

“These measures would go a long way to addressing the injustice that so few of the brilliant women who have contributed so much to science through the years have been overlooked,” he said.

Keating fears that simply accepting the disparity as structural will seriously harm the prestige of all the Nobel prizes.

“I think with the Hollywood (hash)MeToo movement, it has already happened in the film prizes. It has happened with the literature prize. There is no fundamental law of nature that the Nobel science prizes will continue to be seen as the highest accolade,” he said.

This year’s absence of a Nobel Literature prize, which has been won by 14 women, puts an even sharper focus on the gender gap in science prizes.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, said it would not pick a winner this year after sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals rocked the secretive panel, sharply dividing its 18 members, who are appointed for life. Seven members quit or distanced themselves from academy. Its permanent secretary, Anders Olsson, said the academy wanted “to commit time to recovering public confidence.”

The academy plans to award both the 2018 prize and the 2019 prize next year _ but even that is not guaranteed. The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, was quoted Friday as warning that if the Swedish Academy does not resolve its tarnished image another group could be chosen to select the literature prize every year.

Stung by criticism about the diversity gap between former prize winners, the Nobel Foundation has asked that the science awarding panels for 2019 ask nominators to consider their own biases in the thousands of letters they send to solicit Nobel nominations.

“I am eager to see more nominations for women so they can be considered,” said Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the Nobel Foundation. “We have written to nominators asking them to make sure they do not miss women or people of other ethnicities or nationalities in their nominations. We hope this will make a difference for 2019.”

It’s not the first time that Nobel officials have sought diversity. In his 1895 will, prize founder Alfred Nobel wrote: “It is my express wish that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration shall be given to national affiliations of any kind, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.”

Even so, the prizes remained overwhelmingly white and male for most of their existence.

For the first 70 years, the peace prize skewed heavily toward Western white men, with just two of the 59 prizes awarded to individuals or institutions based outside Europe or North America. Only three of the winners in that period were female.

The 1973 peace prize shared by North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho and American Henry Kissinger widened the horizons _ since then more than half the Nobel Peace prizes have gone to African or Asian individuals or institutions.

Since 2000, six women have won the peace prize.

After the medicine prize on Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the Nobel in physics on Tuesday and in chemistry on Wednesday, while the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. On Oct. 8, Sweden’s Central Bank announces the winner of the economics prize, given in honor of Alfred Nobel.

your ad here

Nobel Prizes Still Struggle with Wide Gender Disparity

Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet but the aura of this year’s announcements has been dulled by questions over why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences.

The march of Nobel announcements begins Monday with the physiology/medicine prize.

Since the first prizes were awarded in 1901, 892 individuals have received one, but just 48 of them have been women. Thirty of those women won either the literature or peace prize, highlighting the wide gender gap in the laureates for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine. In addition, only one woman has won for the economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel but is associated with the prizes.

Some of the disparity likely can be attributed to underlying structural reasons, such as the low representation of women in high-level science. The American Institute of Physics, for example, says in 2014, only 10 percent of full physics professorships were held by women.

But critics suggest that gender bias pervades the process of nominations, which come largely from tenured professors.

“The problem is the whole nomination process, you have these tenured professors who feel like they are untouchable. They can get away with everything from sexual harassment to micro-aggressions like assuming the woman in the room will take the notes, or be leaving soon to have babies,” said Anne-Marie Imafidon, the head of Stemettes, a British group that encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“It’s little wonder that these people aren’t putting women forward for nominations. We need to be better at telling the stories of the women in science who are doing good things and actually getting recognition,” she said.

Powerful men taking credit for the ideas and elbow grease of their female colleagues was turned on its head in 1903 when Pierre Curie made it clear he would not accept the physics prize unless his wife and fellow researcher Marie Curie was jointly honored. She was the first female winner of any Nobel prize, but only one other woman has won the physics prize since then.

More than 70 years later, Jocelyn Bell, a post-graduate student at Cambridge, was overlooked for the physics prize despite her crucial contribution to the discovery of pulsars. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, took all of the Nobel credit.

Brian Keating, a physics professor at the University of California San Diego and author of the book “Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor,” says the Nobel Foundation should lift its restrictions on re-awarding for a breakthrough if an individual has been overlooked. He also says posthumous awards also should be considered and there should be no restriction on the number of individuals who can share a prize. Today the limit is three people for one prize.

“These measures would go a long way to addressing the injustice that so few of the brilliant women who have contributed so much to science through the years have been overlooked,” he said.

Keating fears that simply accepting the disparity as structural will seriously harm the prestige of all the Nobel prizes.

“I think with the Hollywood (hash)MeToo movement, it has already happened in the film prizes. It has happened with the literature prize. There is no fundamental law of nature that the Nobel science prizes will continue to be seen as the highest accolade,” he said.

This year’s absence of a Nobel Literature prize, which has been won by 14 women, puts an even sharper focus on the gender gap in science prizes.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, said it would not pick a winner this year after sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals rocked the secretive panel, sharply dividing its 18 members, who are appointed for life. Seven members quit or distanced themselves from academy. Its permanent secretary, Anders Olsson, said the academy wanted “to commit time to recovering public confidence.”

The academy plans to award both the 2018 prize and the 2019 prize next year _ but even that is not guaranteed. The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, was quoted Friday as warning that if the Swedish Academy does not resolve its tarnished image another group could be chosen to select the literature prize every year.

Stung by criticism about the diversity gap between former prize winners, the Nobel Foundation has asked that the science awarding panels for 2019 ask nominators to consider their own biases in the thousands of letters they send to solicit Nobel nominations.

“I am eager to see more nominations for women so they can be considered,” said Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the Nobel Foundation. “We have written to nominators asking them to make sure they do not miss women or people of other ethnicities or nationalities in their nominations. We hope this will make a difference for 2019.”

It’s not the first time that Nobel officials have sought diversity. In his 1895 will, prize founder Alfred Nobel wrote: “It is my express wish that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration shall be given to national affiliations of any kind, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.”

Even so, the prizes remained overwhelmingly white and male for most of their existence.

For the first 70 years, the peace prize skewed heavily toward Western white men, with just two of the 59 prizes awarded to individuals or institutions based outside Europe or North America. Only three of the winners in that period were female.

The 1973 peace prize shared by North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho and American Henry Kissinger widened the horizons _ since then more than half the Nobel Peace prizes have gone to African or Asian individuals or institutions.

Since 2000, six women have won the peace prize.

After the medicine prize on Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the Nobel in physics on Tuesday and in chemistry on Wednesday, while the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. On Oct. 8, Sweden’s Central Bank announces the winner of the economics prize, given in honor of Alfred Nobel.

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Trump, Saudi King Discuss Oil Prices in Telephone Call

President Donald Trump has discussed global crude oil prices with Saudi King Salman in a telephone call amid the American leader’s call for OPEC to bring down energy prices.

 

The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported the call late Saturday night, saying “the efforts to maintain supplies to ensure the stability of the oil market and ensure the growth of the global economy” were discussed by the two leaders.

American officials acknowledged the call, but offered no details.

Trump, facing political pressure at home, has been calling on OPEC and American allies like Saudi Arabia to boost their production to lower global crude oil prices.

Benchmark Brent crude now trades above $80 a barrel. Analysts say prices likely will go higher as American sanctions on Iran resume in November.

 

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Trump, Saudi King Discuss Oil Prices in Telephone Call

President Donald Trump has discussed global crude oil prices with Saudi King Salman in a telephone call amid the American leader’s call for OPEC to bring down energy prices.

 

The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported the call late Saturday night, saying “the efforts to maintain supplies to ensure the stability of the oil market and ensure the growth of the global economy” were discussed by the two leaders.

American officials acknowledged the call, but offered no details.

Trump, facing political pressure at home, has been calling on OPEC and American allies like Saudi Arabia to boost their production to lower global crude oil prices.

Benchmark Brent crude now trades above $80 a barrel. Analysts say prices likely will go higher as American sanctions on Iran resume in November.

 

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Iraq’s Kurds Hold Elections for Regional Parliament

Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region was holding long-delayed parliamentary elections on Sunday, a year after a vote for independence sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, leaving Kurdish leaders deeply divided.

More than 700 candidates are vying for 111 seats in the elections, in which nearly 3.5 million Kurds are eligible to vote. Eleven seats are reserved for religious and ethnic minorities: five for Christians, five for Turkmen candidates and one for the Armenian community. Polls close at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), and it is not clear when the results will be announced.

 

The last parliamentary elections were in 2013, but the assembly stopped meeting in 2015 amid internal political tensions and the war against the Islamic State group. The political deadlock also delayed new elections, which were originally planned for last November.

 

Kurdish politics have long been dominated by Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is riven by infighting. Those two factions are expected to win the lion’s share of the vote.

 

By noon, turnout was low, with many blaming the regional election commission’s new requirement that voters show two forms of ID. Bashdar Ali, an observer from the Shams Network for Election Observation in Iraq, said the commission issued the guidelines late Saturday night.

 

Iraq’s Kurds established a regional government in 1992 after the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone across the north following the Gulf War. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, the Kurds secured constitutional recognition of their autonomy and gained more power.

 

Since then, they have been at loggerheads with Baghdad over rights to develop and to export oil and gas as well as the so-called disputed territories — lands stretching from the Syrian border to Iran that the Kurds claim as part of their autonomous region, including the northern city of Kirkuk, a major oil hub.

 

The Kurds took control of Kirkuk and other disputed territories in the summer of 2014 as the Islamic State group rampaged across northern and central Iraq. But after last September’s referendum, in which more than 90 percent voted for independence, federal forces retook Kirkuk and other areas with only scattered fighting. The loss of the disputed territories was a major blow for Barzani, who had championed the referendum.

 

The Iraqi government rejected the referendum, as did Iraq’s neighbors and the international community, including the United States. The Baghdad government, as well as neighboring Turkey and Iran, shut down the Kurdish region’s airports and border crossings in response to the referendum. They were reopened after a federal court dismissed the referendum.

 

The fallout from the referendum has left Kurdish leaders bitterly divided, and has exacerbated a long-running financial crisis in the region, fueling widespread anger at the main Kurdish political parties.

 

“What I am hoping for is to have a better life,” Ismail Mohammed said after voting. “I am a retired man but I am asking that they fix the salaries for everybody, not only me — for all the government employees and the poor people.”

Ali Arab Sultan, a teacher, said voting is a “national and religious duty, so that we may have a better future.”

 

“Let’s hope that God will change the current situation into a better one,” he said.

 

 

 

 

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Iraq’s Kurds Hold Elections for Regional Parliament

Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region was holding long-delayed parliamentary elections on Sunday, a year after a vote for independence sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, leaving Kurdish leaders deeply divided.

More than 700 candidates are vying for 111 seats in the elections, in which nearly 3.5 million Kurds are eligible to vote. Eleven seats are reserved for religious and ethnic minorities: five for Christians, five for Turkmen candidates and one for the Armenian community. Polls close at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), and it is not clear when the results will be announced.

 

The last parliamentary elections were in 2013, but the assembly stopped meeting in 2015 amid internal political tensions and the war against the Islamic State group. The political deadlock also delayed new elections, which were originally planned for last November.

 

Kurdish politics have long been dominated by Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is riven by infighting. Those two factions are expected to win the lion’s share of the vote.

 

By noon, turnout was low, with many blaming the regional election commission’s new requirement that voters show two forms of ID. Bashdar Ali, an observer from the Shams Network for Election Observation in Iraq, said the commission issued the guidelines late Saturday night.

 

Iraq’s Kurds established a regional government in 1992 after the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone across the north following the Gulf War. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, the Kurds secured constitutional recognition of their autonomy and gained more power.

 

Since then, they have been at loggerheads with Baghdad over rights to develop and to export oil and gas as well as the so-called disputed territories — lands stretching from the Syrian border to Iran that the Kurds claim as part of their autonomous region, including the northern city of Kirkuk, a major oil hub.

 

The Kurds took control of Kirkuk and other disputed territories in the summer of 2014 as the Islamic State group rampaged across northern and central Iraq. But after last September’s referendum, in which more than 90 percent voted for independence, federal forces retook Kirkuk and other areas with only scattered fighting. The loss of the disputed territories was a major blow for Barzani, who had championed the referendum.

 

The Iraqi government rejected the referendum, as did Iraq’s neighbors and the international community, including the United States. The Baghdad government, as well as neighboring Turkey and Iran, shut down the Kurdish region’s airports and border crossings in response to the referendum. They were reopened after a federal court dismissed the referendum.

 

The fallout from the referendum has left Kurdish leaders bitterly divided, and has exacerbated a long-running financial crisis in the region, fueling widespread anger at the main Kurdish political parties.

 

“What I am hoping for is to have a better life,” Ismail Mohammed said after voting. “I am a retired man but I am asking that they fix the salaries for everybody, not only me — for all the government employees and the poor people.”

Ali Arab Sultan, a teacher, said voting is a “national and religious duty, so that we may have a better future.”

 

“Let’s hope that God will change the current situation into a better one,” he said.

 

 

 

 

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Low Turnout in Macedonia Name-Change Referendum

Few Macedonians turned out to vote in a referendum on whether to change the name of their country — a move that could pave the way for it to join NATO and the European Union.

According to election officials, only about a third of eligible voters cast ballots Sunday. But more than 90 percent of those voting cast a ballot in favor of changing the country’s name to North Macedonia.

Macedonia’s electoral commission said two days ago the referendum results would be declared invalid if less than 50 percent of the eligible voting population went to the polls

Nationalists, including Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, had urged a boycott of the vote.

Macedonians are being asked to change the name of their country to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Greece and pave the way for the country’s admission into NATO and the European Union.

Athens has argued that the name “Macedonia” belongs exclusively to its northern province of Macedonia and using the name implies Skopje’s intentions to claim the Greek province.

Greece has for years pressured Skopje into renouncing the country’s name, forcing it to use the more formal moniker Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the United Nations. Greece has consistently blocked its smaller neighbor from gaining membership in NATO and the EU as long it retains its name.

President Ivanov said giving in to Athens’ demand would be a “flagrant violation of sovereignty.”

He steadfastly refused to back the deal reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras, that put the name change to a vote.

“This referendum could lead us to become a subordinate state, dependent on another country,” Ivanov said. “We will become a state in name only, not in substance.”

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Low Turnout in Macedonia Name-Change Referendum

Few Macedonians turned out to vote in a referendum on whether to change the name of their country — a move that could pave the way for it to join NATO and the European Union.

According to election officials, only about a third of eligible voters cast ballots Sunday. But more than 90 percent of those voting cast a ballot in favor of changing the country’s name to North Macedonia.

Macedonia’s electoral commission said two days ago the referendum results would be declared invalid if less than 50 percent of the eligible voting population went to the polls

Nationalists, including Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, had urged a boycott of the vote.

Macedonians are being asked to change the name of their country to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Greece and pave the way for the country’s admission into NATO and the European Union.

Athens has argued that the name “Macedonia” belongs exclusively to its northern province of Macedonia and using the name implies Skopje’s intentions to claim the Greek province.

Greece has for years pressured Skopje into renouncing the country’s name, forcing it to use the more formal moniker Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the United Nations. Greece has consistently blocked its smaller neighbor from gaining membership in NATO and the EU as long it retains its name.

President Ivanov said giving in to Athens’ demand would be a “flagrant violation of sovereignty.”

He steadfastly refused to back the deal reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras, that put the name change to a vote.

“This referendum could lead us to become a subordinate state, dependent on another country,” Ivanov said. “We will become a state in name only, not in substance.”

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Monitors: First Rebel Group Leaving Syria DMZ

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that rebel group Failaq al-Sham has started withdrawing its forces and heavy arms from a demilitarized zone in northwest Syria.

The group is the first to comply with a requirement to leave a demilitarized buffer zone set up by Turkey and Russia to avert a Russian-backed Syrian army offensive, Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based war monitor told Reuters.

Rebel sources could not immediately be reached for comment.

“The group is withdrawing its forces and heavy arms in small batches from southern Aleppo countryside, adjacent to Idlib province, which is part of the DMZ towards the west,” Abdulrahman said.

The demilitarized zone will be 15 to 20 km (10 to 12 miles) deep, run along the contact line between rebel and government fighters, and will be patrolled by Turkish and Russian forces.

Turkey and Russia had agreed in mid-September to enforce a new demilitarized zone in Idlib province from which rebels will be required to withdraw by the middle of next month.

Failaq al-Sham is the third largest group among the rebel groups in northwest Syria, according to the monitor.

The biggest jihadist group, Tahrir al-Sham, has yet to announce its position regarding the agreement.

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Monitors: First Rebel Group Leaving Syria DMZ

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that rebel group Failaq al-Sham has started withdrawing its forces and heavy arms from a demilitarized zone in northwest Syria.

The group is the first to comply with a requirement to leave a demilitarized buffer zone set up by Turkey and Russia to avert a Russian-backed Syrian army offensive, Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based war monitor told Reuters.

Rebel sources could not immediately be reached for comment.

“The group is withdrawing its forces and heavy arms in small batches from southern Aleppo countryside, adjacent to Idlib province, which is part of the DMZ towards the west,” Abdulrahman said.

The demilitarized zone will be 15 to 20 km (10 to 12 miles) deep, run along the contact line between rebel and government fighters, and will be patrolled by Turkish and Russian forces.

Turkey and Russia had agreed in mid-September to enforce a new demilitarized zone in Idlib province from which rebels will be required to withdraw by the middle of next month.

Failaq al-Sham is the third largest group among the rebel groups in northwest Syria, according to the monitor.

The biggest jihadist group, Tahrir al-Sham, has yet to announce its position regarding the agreement.

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Croatian Vintner Ages Wines in Amphoras on Adriatic Sea Floor

Traditional two-handled ceramic jars known as amphoras were used extensively in ancient Greece to store and transport a variety of products, especially wine. These days they are more likely to be found in shipwrecks than in stores. But wine-filled amphoras are once again being found on the sea floor, not from sunken ships, but deliberately placed there by a special Eastern European winery. Faith Lapidus explains.

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Croatian Vintner Ages Wines in Amphoras on Adriatic Sea Floor

Traditional two-handled ceramic jars known as amphoras were used extensively in ancient Greece to store and transport a variety of products, especially wine. These days they are more likely to be found in shipwrecks than in stores. But wine-filled amphoras are once again being found on the sea floor, not from sunken ships, but deliberately placed there by a special Eastern European winery. Faith Lapidus explains.

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British PM to Unveil New Tax on Foreign Homebuyers

Prime Minister Theresa May will unveil plans Sunday to levy an extra fee on foreign buyers of homes in Britain, saying she wanted to stop it being as easy for those who do not live in the country to buy homes “as hard working British residents.”

May, struggling to unite her governing Conservatives behind her Brexit strategy, hopes to use her party’s annual conference in the English city of Birmingham this week to reset her agenda to tackle growing inequality in Britain.

Aware that the opposition Labour Party staged a successful conference last week and set out new policies targeting many of those who voted to leave the European Union, May will try to take the upper hand by launching a new social agenda.

“At Conservative conference last year, I said I would dedicate my premiership to restoring the British Dream, that life should be better for each new generation, and that means fixing our broken housing market,” she will say. “It cannot be right that it is as easy for individuals who don’t live in the UK, as well as foreign based companies, to buy homes as hard working British residents.”

She will say that a new surcharge will be levied on top of all other stamp duty, a tax paid on property purchases, including higher levels of stamp duty introduced in April 2016, on second home and buy-to-let purchases.

The government did not say when the new rates would be introduced but said it would consult on the stamp duty increase, which would be levied on individuals and companies not paying tax in Britain.

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British PM to Unveil New Tax on Foreign Homebuyers

Prime Minister Theresa May will unveil plans Sunday to levy an extra fee on foreign buyers of homes in Britain, saying she wanted to stop it being as easy for those who do not live in the country to buy homes “as hard working British residents.”

May, struggling to unite her governing Conservatives behind her Brexit strategy, hopes to use her party’s annual conference in the English city of Birmingham this week to reset her agenda to tackle growing inequality in Britain.

Aware that the opposition Labour Party staged a successful conference last week and set out new policies targeting many of those who voted to leave the European Union, May will try to take the upper hand by launching a new social agenda.

“At Conservative conference last year, I said I would dedicate my premiership to restoring the British Dream, that life should be better for each new generation, and that means fixing our broken housing market,” she will say. “It cannot be right that it is as easy for individuals who don’t live in the UK, as well as foreign based companies, to buy homes as hard working British residents.”

She will say that a new surcharge will be levied on top of all other stamp duty, a tax paid on property purchases, including higher levels of stamp duty introduced in April 2016, on second home and buy-to-let purchases.

The government did not say when the new rates would be introduced but said it would consult on the stamp duty increase, which would be levied on individuals and companies not paying tax in Britain.

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Macedonians Vote on NATO, EU, Changing Country’s Name

Macedonians go to polls Sunday to vote on whether to change their country’s name to Republic of North Macedonia, urged by a pro-Western government to pave the way for NATO and EU membership by resolving a decades-old name dispute with Greece.

The referendum is one of the last hurdles for a deal reached between Macedonia and Greece in June to settle their quarrel, which has prevented Macedonia from joining major Western institutions since it broke away from then-Yugoslavia in 1991.

Greece, which has its own northern province called Macedonia, has always maintained that Macedonia’s name represented a claim on its territory. It vetoed Macedonia’s entrance into NATO and the EU, and forced it to enter the United Nations under a provisional name as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev argues that accepting a new name is a price worth paying for admission into the EU and NATO. But nationalist opponents say it would undermine the ethnic identity of the country’s Slavic majority population.

President Gjorge Ivanov has said he will boycott the referendum.

Polls for some 1.8 million voters will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. The question on the referendum ballot is: “Are you for NATO and EU membership with acceptance of the agreement with Greece.”

The referendum is advisory and not legally binding, but enough members of parliament have said they will abide by its outcome to make it decisive. The name change requires a two-thirds majority in parliament.

For the referendum to be valid, at least 50 percent of voters must turn out to vote and a majority of them must back the change.

Polls have indicated that a large majority of those who vote are likely to back the change, but achieving the required turnout may be difficult. While more than 80 percent of Macedonians support NATO and EU membership, many may boycott the referendum because of disagreement with the name change.

“The Macedonian people have never been so embarrassed than now with this agreement (with Greece),” said Violeta Petkoska, a 39-year-old nurse. “On the day of the referendum they want us to dig our own grave, so that from the next day the Macedonian people do not exist.”

Zaev says NATO membership will bring much needed investment in the country with unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.

“Macedonia should move forward to become a European state. We have no alternative,” said Asim Shainovski, 35, a public administration worker.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has accused Russia of attempting to influence the outcome of the referendum, which the Kremlin has denied.

Macedonia avoided the violence that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, but was later rocked by an ethnic Albanian insurgency that almost tore the country apart in 2001.

Western governments see NATO and European Union membership as the best way of preserving the peace and stability in the Balkans after a decade of wars with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

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Macedonians Vote on NATO, EU, Changing Country’s Name

Macedonians go to polls Sunday to vote on whether to change their country’s name to Republic of North Macedonia, urged by a pro-Western government to pave the way for NATO and EU membership by resolving a decades-old name dispute with Greece.

The referendum is one of the last hurdles for a deal reached between Macedonia and Greece in June to settle their quarrel, which has prevented Macedonia from joining major Western institutions since it broke away from then-Yugoslavia in 1991.

Greece, which has its own northern province called Macedonia, has always maintained that Macedonia’s name represented a claim on its territory. It vetoed Macedonia’s entrance into NATO and the EU, and forced it to enter the United Nations under a provisional name as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev argues that accepting a new name is a price worth paying for admission into the EU and NATO. But nationalist opponents say it would undermine the ethnic identity of the country’s Slavic majority population.

President Gjorge Ivanov has said he will boycott the referendum.

Polls for some 1.8 million voters will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. The question on the referendum ballot is: “Are you for NATO and EU membership with acceptance of the agreement with Greece.”

The referendum is advisory and not legally binding, but enough members of parliament have said they will abide by its outcome to make it decisive. The name change requires a two-thirds majority in parliament.

For the referendum to be valid, at least 50 percent of voters must turn out to vote and a majority of them must back the change.

Polls have indicated that a large majority of those who vote are likely to back the change, but achieving the required turnout may be difficult. While more than 80 percent of Macedonians support NATO and EU membership, many may boycott the referendum because of disagreement with the name change.

“The Macedonian people have never been so embarrassed than now with this agreement (with Greece),” said Violeta Petkoska, a 39-year-old nurse. “On the day of the referendum they want us to dig our own grave, so that from the next day the Macedonian people do not exist.”

Zaev says NATO membership will bring much needed investment in the country with unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.

“Macedonia should move forward to become a European state. We have no alternative,” said Asim Shainovski, 35, a public administration worker.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has accused Russia of attempting to influence the outcome of the referendum, which the Kremlin has denied.

Macedonia avoided the violence that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, but was later rocked by an ethnic Albanian insurgency that almost tore the country apart in 2001.

Western governments see NATO and European Union membership as the best way of preserving the peace and stability in the Balkans after a decade of wars with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

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British PM to Party: Don’t Play Politics With My Brexit Plan

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party began gathering for its annual conference on Saturday with bitter divisions over her Brexit plans rising to the fore, raising doubts about her own future.

Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, but the terms of the departure remain unclear. May, under fire from critics in Brussels, opponents at home and some lawmakers in her own party, has said talks on a divorce deal are at an impasse.

In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper ahead of her party’s conference, May took aim at those who have scorned her “Chequers” Brexit proposals, accusing them of “playing politics” with Britain’s future and undermining the national interest.

However, in a demonstration of the challenge she faces, the newspaper ran an interview with former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson alongside on its front page, in which he openly questioned May’s commitment to Brexit and called her plans “deranged.”

“Unlike the prime minister I campaigned for Brexit,” said Johnson, the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed May. (On Friday, he declined to answer directly whether he would rule out a leadership challenge.)

“Unlike the prime minister, I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it’s the right thing for our country, and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016,” he said.

May says her “Chequers” proposals are the only viable option, but EU leaders have said parts of them are unacceptable and many Conservative lawmakers have threatened to vote down a deal based on May’s blueprint.

The uncertainty has led to business concerns that there will be no deal, potentially leading to tariffs and border delays.

Japanese carmaker Toyota on Saturday warned that leaving without an agreement would hit its production and that jobs would ultimately be at risk.

“Of course we want a deal,” Business Secretary Greg Clark, one of those who supports May’s plans that seek free trade of goods with the EU, told BBC radio.

“We need to have a deal. The evidence from not just Toyota and other manufacturers is we need absolutely to be able to continue what has been a highly successful set of supply chains.”

A summit of EU leaders last week ended in a blunt dismissal of May’s proposals, which they said would fail to resolve arguments over the land border of Northern Ireland, in the U.K., with the Irish Republic, in the EU, one of the main sticking points to a deal.

Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the Irish issue was being used by some in the EU Commission “for political purposes,” but said he was open to suggestions from the bloc.

“We aren’t pretending there aren’t alternative proposals that we would look at,” he told the Sun newspaper. “But we need credible responses for the proposals we have set out or credible alternatives, and we haven’t seen them yet.”

Fears over no deal

As Conservative lawmakers and party members began arriving in Birmingham, central England, for what is expected to be a fractious party conference that starts Sunday, many have said the Chequers plans are dead and should be torn up.

While May and government ministers continue to express confidence that a final Brexit deal can be agreed, they have also insisted that no deal would be better than a bad deal.

However, Toyota became the latest high-profile business to warn that leaving the world’s biggest trading bloc without any trading agreement could add costs and cripple output at plants that rely on the just-in-time delivery of tens of thousands of components.

“If we crash out of the EU at the end of March, the supply chain will be impacted and we will see production stops in our factory,” said Marvin Cooke, managing director of Toyota’s Burnaston plant, which produced 144,000 vehicles last year.

Earlier this week, other carmakers in Britain, including BMW, McLaren and Honda, said they had triggered some contingency plans, such as certifying models in the EU, redrawing production schedules and stockpiling parts.

“The additional burden of import and export cost would add permanent costs to our business,” Toyota’s Cooke said. “It would reduce our competitiveness. Sadly, I think that would reduce the number of cars made in the U.K., and that would cost jobs.”

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British PM to Party: Don’t Play Politics With My Brexit Plan

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party began gathering for its annual conference on Saturday with bitter divisions over her Brexit plans rising to the fore, raising doubts about her own future.

Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, but the terms of the departure remain unclear. May, under fire from critics in Brussels, opponents at home and some lawmakers in her own party, has said talks on a divorce deal are at an impasse.

In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper ahead of her party’s conference, May took aim at those who have scorned her “Chequers” Brexit proposals, accusing them of “playing politics” with Britain’s future and undermining the national interest.

However, in a demonstration of the challenge she faces, the newspaper ran an interview with former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson alongside on its front page, in which he openly questioned May’s commitment to Brexit and called her plans “deranged.”

“Unlike the prime minister I campaigned for Brexit,” said Johnson, the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed May. (On Friday, he declined to answer directly whether he would rule out a leadership challenge.)

“Unlike the prime minister, I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it’s the right thing for our country, and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016,” he said.

May says her “Chequers” proposals are the only viable option, but EU leaders have said parts of them are unacceptable and many Conservative lawmakers have threatened to vote down a deal based on May’s blueprint.

The uncertainty has led to business concerns that there will be no deal, potentially leading to tariffs and border delays.

Japanese carmaker Toyota on Saturday warned that leaving without an agreement would hit its production and that jobs would ultimately be at risk.

“Of course we want a deal,” Business Secretary Greg Clark, one of those who supports May’s plans that seek free trade of goods with the EU, told BBC radio.

“We need to have a deal. The evidence from not just Toyota and other manufacturers is we need absolutely to be able to continue what has been a highly successful set of supply chains.”

A summit of EU leaders last week ended in a blunt dismissal of May’s proposals, which they said would fail to resolve arguments over the land border of Northern Ireland, in the U.K., with the Irish Republic, in the EU, one of the main sticking points to a deal.

Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the Irish issue was being used by some in the EU Commission “for political purposes,” but said he was open to suggestions from the bloc.

“We aren’t pretending there aren’t alternative proposals that we would look at,” he told the Sun newspaper. “But we need credible responses for the proposals we have set out or credible alternatives, and we haven’t seen them yet.”

Fears over no deal

As Conservative lawmakers and party members began arriving in Birmingham, central England, for what is expected to be a fractious party conference that starts Sunday, many have said the Chequers plans are dead and should be torn up.

While May and government ministers continue to express confidence that a final Brexit deal can be agreed, they have also insisted that no deal would be better than a bad deal.

However, Toyota became the latest high-profile business to warn that leaving the world’s biggest trading bloc without any trading agreement could add costs and cripple output at plants that rely on the just-in-time delivery of tens of thousands of components.

“If we crash out of the EU at the end of March, the supply chain will be impacted and we will see production stops in our factory,” said Marvin Cooke, managing director of Toyota’s Burnaston plant, which produced 144,000 vehicles last year.

Earlier this week, other carmakers in Britain, including BMW, McLaren and Honda, said they had triggered some contingency plans, such as certifying models in the EU, redrawing production schedules and stockpiling parts.

“The additional burden of import and export cost would add permanent costs to our business,” Toyota’s Cooke said. “It would reduce our competitiveness. Sadly, I think that would reduce the number of cars made in the U.K., and that would cost jobs.”

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Video Purports to Show US-Iranian Naval Encounter in March

Iran’s state TV has broadcast footage purporting to show a close encounter between the Revolutionary Guard’s navy and the USS Theodore Roosevelt early this year.

Press TV’s website says the encounter occurred March 21 in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea. The TV agency says the video was aired Saturday as part of a documentary.

The footage is likely meant as a show of strength amid new U.S. sanctions on Iran and the Trump administration plans to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero.

In the video, Revolutionary Guard speedboats are seen closing in on the U.S. carrier.

Iranian sailors then warn the Americans over radio communication to “keep well clear” of the Guard patrol boats and say they advise the Americans to “refrain from the threat or use of force in any manner.”

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Video Purports to Show US-Iranian Naval Encounter in March

Iran’s state TV has broadcast footage purporting to show a close encounter between the Revolutionary Guard’s navy and the USS Theodore Roosevelt early this year.

Press TV’s website says the encounter occurred March 21 in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea. The TV agency says the video was aired Saturday as part of a documentary.

The footage is likely meant as a show of strength amid new U.S. sanctions on Iran and the Trump administration plans to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero.

In the video, Revolutionary Guard speedboats are seen closing in on the U.S. carrier.

Iranian sailors then warn the Americans over radio communication to “keep well clear” of the Guard patrol boats and say they advise the Americans to “refrain from the threat or use of force in any manner.”

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Canada FM Postpones UN Speech as Trade Talks Intensify

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland postponed her U.N. speech Saturday as free-trade talks between the U.S. and Canada intensified.

Freeland had been scheduled to deliver Canada’s address to the General Assembly in New York, but Canada exchanged the slot with another country. Freeland may or may not give the speech on Monday.

A senior Canadian government official said they were making progress in the talks but that it wasn’t certain that they would reach a deal soon. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Canada would sign only a good deal.

Canada, the United States’ No. 2 trading partner, was left out when the U.S. and Mexico reached an agreement last month to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. and Canada are under pressure to reach a deal by the end of the day Sunday, when the U.S. must make public the full text of the agreement with Mexico.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to go ahead with a revamped NAFTA, with or without Canada. It is unclear, however, whether Trump has authority from Congress to pursue a revamped NAFTA with only Mexico, and some lawmakers say they won’t go along with a deal that leaves out Canada. 

Dairy tariffs

Among other things, the negotiators are battling over Canada’s high dairy tariffs. Canada also wants to keep a NAFTA dispute-resolution process that the U.S. wants to jettison.

U.S.-Canada talks bogged down earlier this month, and most trade analysts expected the Sept. 30 deadline to come and go without Canada’s reinstatement. They suspected that Canada, which had said it wasn’t bound by U.S. deadlines, was delaying the talks until after provincial elections Monday in Quebec, where support for Canadian dairy tariffs runs high.

But trade attorney Daniel Ujczo of the Dickinson Wright law firm, who follows the NAFTA talks closely, said the United States put pressure on Canada, contending there would “consequences” if it didn’t reach an agreement by the end of the day Sunday. Trump has repeatedly threatened to start taxing Canadian auto imports. Ujczo put the odds of a deal this weekend at 75 percent. 

Relations between the two neighbors have been strained since Trump assailed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Group of Seven meeting in June, calling him “weak” and “dishonest.” Canadian leaders have objected to Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel, citing national security.

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Canada FM Postpones UN Speech as Trade Talks Intensify

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland postponed her U.N. speech Saturday as free-trade talks between the U.S. and Canada intensified.

Freeland had been scheduled to deliver Canada’s address to the General Assembly in New York, but Canada exchanged the slot with another country. Freeland may or may not give the speech on Monday.

A senior Canadian government official said they were making progress in the talks but that it wasn’t certain that they would reach a deal soon. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Canada would sign only a good deal.

Canada, the United States’ No. 2 trading partner, was left out when the U.S. and Mexico reached an agreement last month to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. and Canada are under pressure to reach a deal by the end of the day Sunday, when the U.S. must make public the full text of the agreement with Mexico.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to go ahead with a revamped NAFTA, with or without Canada. It is unclear, however, whether Trump has authority from Congress to pursue a revamped NAFTA with only Mexico, and some lawmakers say they won’t go along with a deal that leaves out Canada. 

Dairy tariffs

Among other things, the negotiators are battling over Canada’s high dairy tariffs. Canada also wants to keep a NAFTA dispute-resolution process that the U.S. wants to jettison.

U.S.-Canada talks bogged down earlier this month, and most trade analysts expected the Sept. 30 deadline to come and go without Canada’s reinstatement. They suspected that Canada, which had said it wasn’t bound by U.S. deadlines, was delaying the talks until after provincial elections Monday in Quebec, where support for Canadian dairy tariffs runs high.

But trade attorney Daniel Ujczo of the Dickinson Wright law firm, who follows the NAFTA talks closely, said the United States put pressure on Canada, contending there would “consequences” if it didn’t reach an agreement by the end of the day Sunday. Trump has repeatedly threatened to start taxing Canadian auto imports. Ujczo put the odds of a deal this weekend at 75 percent. 

Relations between the two neighbors have been strained since Trump assailed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Group of Seven meeting in June, calling him “weak” and “dishonest.” Canadian leaders have objected to Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel, citing national security.

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