Briefsfromshittu

Thursday, October 20, 2016

'Billionaire spiv' Sir Philip Green beat BHS 'black and blue', say MPs

Disgraced tycoon Sir Philip Green was denounced as a "billionaire spiv", a "Napoleon" and a "Robert Maxwell" by MPs as they approved an amendment to have him stripped of his knighthood.

They said the businessman did not deserve the honour after he "robbed" BHS employees of their pensions and "beat it black and blue".

Speaking in the House of Commons, Labour MP Frank Field said Sir Philip was not the "King of the High Street" but a "very successful traditional asset stripper".

:: Sir Philip Green yet to make pensions proposal

BHS collapsed in April after Sir Philip sold it to the twice bankrupt Dominic Chappell.

Eleven thousand workers lost their jobs and 22,000 pensioners were hit by a £571m black hole in the pension fund.

Despite assuring MPs four months ago that he would act to help the pensioners, Sir Philip has provided no concrete proposals.

Conservative MP Richard Fuller moved the amendment for the Honours Forfeiture Committee to recommend Sir Philip be stripped of his knighthood.

:: Sir Philip wants probe dropped if he plugs pensions gap

He said the tycoon, who was knighted in 2006 for services to retail, had the summer to "find his moral compass" but failed to do so.

Labour MP David Winnick said Sir Philip was a "billionaire spiv who had shamed British capitalism".

He said it was astonishing the businessman had been ennobled in the first place given his "well-known tax arrangements" that saw him pay "minimal tax" in the UK.

In the main, Sir Philip's business is in his wife's name and she is resident in the tax haven of Monaco.

MPs said BHS has been run as a Green family fiefdom and £1.3bn had "found its way" up to Lady Green.

:: Go away! Sir Philip's reaction to BHS questions

Chairman of the work and pensions select committee, Mr Field, said Sir Philip Green had not "rescued" BHS, which would have marked its 90th anniversary in 2018, when he bought it.

He said he had purchased a "prosperous" firm with a healthy pension fund.

His ownership had allowed him to acquire the Arcadia group, whose "crown jewels" was Topshop.

Labour MP Iain Wright said Sir Philip "took the rings from BHS's fingers. He beat it black and blue.

"He starved it of food and water and put it on life support. And then he wanted credit for keeping it alive."

Veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner likened Sir Philip to the late media mogul Robert Maxwell saying that he had "robbed" employees.

In August, Sir Philip reacted angrily when Sky News tried to quiz him on his failure to act as he holidayed on his £100m yacht, Lionheart, in the Greek islands.

Business minister Margot James said the Prime Minister was willing to pass further legislation if necessary as a result of the outcome of investigations into BHS.

She said BHS directors were being investigated and action would be taken if they were found to have failed to act appropriately.

Shadow business secretary Clive Lewis said that legally Mr Green had done nothing wrong but that the "bent" system had allowed him to act as he had.

He said the law must be changed to "make sure this never happens again".

In her Conservative Party Conference speech, Theresa May put businessmen who "treat tax laws as optional extras" on notice and hit out at the bosses who "earn a fortune but doesn't look after your staff".

Mars lander lost on its descent, ESA confirms

A space probe that was supposed to look for signs of life on Mars has been lost, the European Space Agency has confirmed.

Mission controllers said they were in the dark about the fate of the Schiaparelli probe, which is believed to have touched down on Wednesday after a seven-year journey.

"We are not in a position yet to determine the dynamic condition at which the lander touched the ground," said Andrea Accomazzo, ESA's head of solar and planetary missions.

Scientists said they had received data showing the lander's heat shield and parachutes had deployed successfully.

But it was unclear what happened in the final seconds before the probe landed on the Red Planet, and no data had yet been received from the surface, they said.

Scientists do not know whether Schiaparelli, a disc-shaped 577kg (1,272lb) probe, was still in one piece.

Further data analysis is required to "know whether it survived structurally or not," said Mr Accomazzo, during a briefing at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

The craft was sent to Mars from Earth in a journey that spanned hundreds of millions of miles. It was the second European attempt to land a craft on the Red Planet.

The ExoMars mission's main objective is to look for signs of life on Mars.

But just overcoming the notoriously tricky Martian atmosphere - too thin to rely on a parachute alone and too thick to reliably use thrusters - would be seen as a major achievement.

For the space agency the landing is a "technology demonstrator" - a test of the descent system it hopes to use in 2020 to put a robotic rover on the surface.

The head of ESA, Jan Woerner, said the mission should still be considered a success because the probe sent a vast amount of data back before going silent.

"Following yesterday's events we have an impressive orbiter around Mars ready for science and for relay support for the ExoMars rover mission in 2020," he said.

"Schiaparelli's primary role was to test European landing technologies. Recording the data during the descent was part of that, and it is important we can learn what happened, in order to prepare for the future."

North Korea carries out second failed missile launch - South

North Korea has conducted an unsuccessful launch of an intermediate-range missile, according to the South Korean military.

This is the second failed test in less than a week after the North's recent launch of a Musudan missile, which has an estimated range of 4,000km (2,500 miles).

It is said to be capable of hitting US bases as far away as Guam.

The missile has been tested eight times this year, with only one success.

However, experts fear it could become operational as early as next year.

The US condemned the launch, calling it a "further provocation".

Pyongyang's last test was denounced by the UN, which has banned it from any use of ballistic or nuclear technology.

Turkey: Army kills up to 200 YPG fighters in Aleppo

The Turkish military said its fighter jets hit Syrian Kurdish targets in northern Syria, and killed up to 200 fighters, according to state media.

The jets hit 18 targets in Maarrat Umm Hawsh, a region north of the city of Aleppo, the official news agency Anadolu said.

Quoting the army, the report claimed between 160 and 200 fighters from the YPG (People's Protection Units) group were killed in the raids on Wednesday night.

A Syrian-Kurdish forces leader, however, said that while Turkish jets and artillery were attacking, no more than 10 fighters had been killed so far.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least nine YPG fighters were confirmed killed and 26 people were injured in some 20 raids.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the death toll.

The Anadolu report said the YPG had attacked Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. However, the Observatory said it had no information on such an incident.

The US considers the YPG to be a key force in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in Syria.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Trump v Clinton: Who won the presidential debate?

This may have been the debate Donald Trump wanted, but it wasn't the one he needed.

With one last chance to make a pitch to the American public that he should be trusted with the presidency, the Republican nominee had to make efforts to expand his base of support.

He had to find a way to distance himself from the allegation that he has a history of sexual harassment.

He had to position himself as the change candidate - just days after a Fox poll showed that Hillary Clinton, whose party has held the presidency for eight years, was beating him on the question of who would "change the country for the better".

Instead, after a roughly half an hour of something resembling an actual policy debate about the Supreme Court, gun rights, abortion and even immigration, the old Donald Trump - the one who constantly interrupted his opponent, sparred with the moderator and lashed out at enemies real and perceived - emerged.

He called Mrs Clinton a liar and a "nasty woman".

He said the women accusing him of sexual harassment bordering on assault were either attention-seekers or Clinton campaign stooges.

He said the media were "poisoning the minds" of the public. And, most notably, he refused to say whether he would accept the results of the election if he loses.

Mrs Clinton had her own moments where she was put in the defensive - on her emails, on the Clinton Foundation and on embarrassing details revealed in the Wikileaks hack.

The difference, however, is that Mrs Clinton largely kept her poise and successfully changed the topic back to subjects where she was more comfortable. It was, in fact, a master class in parry-and-strike debate strategy.

The key takeaway from this debate, however - the headline that Americans will wake up to read in the morning - will certainly be Mr Trump's refusal to back way from his "rigged" election claims.

That was what Mr Trump wanted to say, but it isn't something the American people - or American democracy - needed to hear.

For more analysis, follow Anthony on Twitter and Facebook

The Russian gambit

Mrs Clinton's skill at deflecting attacks and baiting Mr Trump into unhelpful answers first was on display when moderator Chris Wallace brought up a line from one of her Wall Street speeches - revealed in the Wikileaks hack - that she endorsed a hemispheric free-trade and open-immigration zone.

After saying she was only talking about an open energy market - an assertion that seems somewhat questionable - she tried to turn the question into a discussion of whether Mr Trump would renounce the Russian government, which US officials have said is behind the cyber-attack.

Mr Trump actually called Mrs Clinton out on her attempted "great pivot" - but then he went on to get bogged down on the Russian issue.

He said he'd never met Mr Putin (although he boasted during a primary debate that he had talked with him in a television green room), and said that Mrs Clinton was a liar and the real Russian "puppet".

Oh, and this all came up when the debate topic was supposed to be immigration.

Stephen Hawking warns AI could be 'worst thing to happen to humanity'

Artificial Intelligence could be the "worst thing to happen to humanity" if it is not properly managed, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

The world famous physicist and cosmologist said that as AI becomes more advanced it could bring dangers such as "powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many".

He was speaking at the launch of The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) in Cambridge, which will explore the implications - good and bad - of the rapid development of AI.

It will look into applications ranging from increasingly "smart" smartphones to robot surgeons and Terminator-style military droids.

It is not the first time Professor Hawking has warned about the potential dangers, having previously said that AI could end mankind if it is misused.

That is why the new centre is "crucial to the future of our civilisation and of our species", he said.

"I believe there is no deep difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be achieved by a computer.

"It therefore follows that computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence - and exceed it."

Professor Hawking said the potential benefits were great and that AI could "finally eradicate disease and poverty".

"In short, success in creating AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation," he said. "But it could also be the last unless we learn how to avoid the risks."

Alongside the benefits, AI in the future "could develop a will of its own - a will that is in conflict with ours", he added.

"In short, the rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity.

"We do not know which."

Fears of robots freeing themselves from creators have inspired a host of films and literature, including 2001: A Space Odyssey.

And as AI becomes more advanced, with robots increasingly being able to take on human tasks, it will directly threaten millions of jobs.

CFI director Stephen Cave said it is about ensuring intelligent artificial systems "have goals aligned with human values" and ensure computers do not evolve spontaneously in "new, unwelcome directions".

The new centre is a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and the University of California, Berkeley, funded by a £10m grant from the Leverhulme Trust.

Profile: Jean-Pierre Bemba, DR Congo's ex-rebel and vice-president

Jean-Pierre Bemba had an extremely privileged childhood in one of the world's poorest countries but this has not saved him from being convicted of war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Mr Bemba spent his youth between the Belgian and Congolese capitals - Brussels and Kinshasa - and the small remote town of Gbadolite in northern Democratic Republic of Congo known as "Versailles in the Jungle".

This was the home and last refuge of the late Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko.

Mr Bemba's father, the successful businessman Bemba Saolona, was very close to the former dictator.

But for him business was all that really mattered.

When Laurent Kabila's rebel force overthrew Mobutu and marched into Kinshasa in May 1997, Saolona was briefly appointed a finance minister in the new regime.

Difficult relationship

Father and son, however, have not always seen eye to eye.

Mr Bemba, who at a very young age lost his mother and has had difficult relations with his father and stepmothers, explicitly criticised his father's acquaintance with Mr Kabila in his book The Choice of Freedom.

A great admirer of controversial French businessman Bernard Tapie and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the young Bemba sought other father figures.

Perhaps his greatest influence was Mobutu himself, who employed him at the age of 30 as his personal assistant in the early 1990s.

Son of famous businessman
Former assistant to Mobutu Sese Seko
1998: Helped by Uganda to form MLC rebel group
2003: Becomes vice-president under peace deal
2006: Loses run-off election to President Joseph Kabila but gets most votes in western DR Congo, including Kinshasa
2007: Flees to Belgium after clashes in Kinshasa
2008: Arrested in Brussels and handed over to ICC
2010: Trial begins
2016: Found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity
2016: Convicted of bribing ICC prosecution witness

Another person central to his roundabout journey to becoming DR Congo's vice-president was Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

As the government battled Rwanda-backed rebel groups in eastern DR Congo, Mr Museveni helped Mr Bemba open up a new front.

He supplied troops, equipment and training when Mr Bemba launched his rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), in 1998.

In only a few months, the MLC managed to capture northern DR Congo.

The military pressure he put on Mr Kabila's government eventually led to a peace deal that became the basis of a power-sharing government.

As a rebel leader, Mr Bemba became one of four vice-presidents.

After he laid down his arms in 2003, Mr Bemba was sworn in back home as a vice-president in charge of finance in the interim administration.

He became increasingly influential, gaining the support of a number of historic political figures in DR Congo, and stood for the country's presidency in 2006 - against Laurent Kabila's son, Joseph.

But he was ultimately deserted by many allies who blamed his "oversized ego" for withdrawing their support.

He managed to take the incumbent to a second round, polling especially well in western DR Congo, including the capital, Kinshasa, where many see the Swahili-speaking Kabilas as foreigners.

He claimed the run-off was rigged and was accused of refusing to disarm his militia and of unleashing violence in Kinshasa.

Mr Bemba has always denied the charges.

Reign of terror

He was then accused of treason after his bodyguards and the army clashed in Kinshasa in March 2007.

He fled to his childhood retreat of Belgium but this time it was no safe haven.

He was arrested in May 2008 in Brussels and handed over to the ICC two months later.

A characteristic Mr Bemba shares with his father the knack of making money.

He holds an MBA from a prestigious business school in Brussels and kept his economic activities running throughout the war: Looking after family-owned coffee plantations and wood factories.

Former allies claim most of Mr Bemba's fortune comes from gifts from African leaders such as Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.