Former soldier Mark Esper was sworn in as US secretary of defense Tuesday after earning Senate confirmation, filling America's longest-ever Pentagon leadership vacuum as Washington faces mounting tensions with Iran and struggles to end the long-running Afghanistan war. President Donald Trump's second Defense Department chief takes over nearly seven months after the shock departure of Jim Mattis, the deeply respected career US Marine who broke with Trump over policy on the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 18:33:19 -0400

The U.S. derided the viability of reaching "international consensus" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Tuesday, further distancing itself from the two-state solution preferred by most of the world and drawing rebukes from its European allies. President Donald Trump's Mideast negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, delivered the harsh assessment during a U.N. Security Council debate as the White House says it is preparing to unveil the political portion of its Mideast peace plan. Greenblatt dismissed the prospect of reaching global consensus on sensitive issues, including the fate of Palestinian refugees and the final status of contested Jerusalem.

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 18:18:32 -0400

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson spent the hours after he was elected as Britain’s next prime minister telling Conservative members of Parliament what most of them wanted to hear: the U.K. will leave the European Union on Oct. 31, and there won’t be an early general election.It was a concerted effort to rally the troops before Johnson formally takes office after Theresa May resigns Wednesday afternoon. Many Tory MPs fear their new leader will be forced to hold an election to try to break the parliamentary deadlock that destroyed May. Johnson, addressing them in a private meeting, assured them that isn’t his intention.He will seek to bring the party together when he starts to name his cabinet Wednesday, according to a person familiar with his plans. He will announce appointments to key roles, including chancellor of the exchequer, foreign secretary and home secretary and promote politicians from across the party to ministerial jobs, the person said.There will be cabinet level jobs for former International Development Secretary Priti Patel and Employment Minister Alok Sharma as Johnson promotes ethnic minorities and women, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.At the meeting with MPs, Johnson was cheered when he reiterated the key message from his leadership campaign: That he will deliver Brexit by the end of October, come what may. It remains hard to see how he can do that, and his supporters disagree about what constitutes a proper Brexit. But on Tuesday, few were arguing.His speech was “vintage Boris,” Nicky Morgan, who heads Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee, told reporters outside the meeting. Johnson made the party feel better about itself, she said.’Love-Bombing’That’s not true for everyone, though. So Johnson began the process of trying to win over those who have doubts. “The love-bombing starts now,” he told MPs, according to two people who were in the room.Three cabinet members, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, have said they don’t want to serve under him, citing his pledge to deliver Brexit with or without a deal. Other more junior ministers have also quit.Earlier, he acknowledged the concerns in his victory speech.“I know that there will be people around the place who will question the wisdom of your decision,” Johnson said. His answer was to appeal to their instinctive Conservative values -- owning a home, looking after family -- and to move away from the divisions over Brexit to bring the party together.The appointment of Mark Spencer as chief whip -- a key role in Johnson’s administration given his wafer-thin ruling majority in Parliament -- was welcomed by Tory lawmakers from both sides of the Brexit divide.Nicholas Soames, a pro-European and fierce critic of Johnson, called the appointment “a really excellent sane and wise choice” on Twitter, while Steve Baker, a prominent member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, described him as a “very skillful and authoritative man.”Trump’s PraiseBut Johnson’s efforts to pitch himself as a centrist, unifying figure were somewhat undermined by the strong endorsement he received from Donald Trump. “He’s tough and he’s smart,” the U.S. president said in a speech in Washington. “They call him Britain Trump. They like me over there.”The main opposition Labour Party accused Johnson of being a friend of the rich, an attack that likely indicates the approach they will take against him. His appointment of Sky Ltd.’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew Griffith as senior business adviser showed Johnson’s intent, the party said. In recent weeks, Johnson has been using Griffith’s London townhouse as a base.Johnson’s choices for his cabinet will show the sort of government he intends to lead. It will also be the moment when at least some of those who backed him -- hoping for promotion -- will be disappointed.Patel, a hardline Brexiteer who was forced to resign from May’s cabinet in 2017 over unofficial meetings with Israeli politicians and business leaders, will be one of those rewarded for her support.‘Good Colleague’Johnson said when Patel lost her job that she had been a “a very good colleague and friend for a long time and a first class secretary of state.’’ The then foreign secretary said he enjoyed working with her and “I’m sure she has a great future ahead of her.’’Sharma, who served in May’s government as a housing minister and then in the department for work and pensions, is also due for promotion. It was unclear what roles he and Patel will be given.On Tuesday, many Conservative MPs were content to have a leader who cheered them up.“It was such a relief to have some energy and enthusiasm in the room,” said the pro-Brexit Theresa Villiers. She contrasted it with the “rather painful exchanges” between May and Tory backbenchers in recent years.The question is whether Johnson’s charm offensive will be enough over the coming weeks and months. Keith Simpson, who rebelled against the party whip for the first time in his career last week to try to stop a no-deal Brexit, left Johnson’s speech early and unimpressed.“I couldn’t stand any more,” he told reporters waiting outside. The speech was “very funny. There was a supermarket trolley, into which he chucked every policy. The circus has come to town.”(Updates with cabinet plans. An earlier version of this story corrected corporate title in 12th paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net;Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Emma Ross-ThomasFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:30:00 -0400

The U.S. military says that when it destroyed an Iranian drone last week over the Strait of Hormuz, it also took aim at a second drone. Iran denies it lost any drones. U.S. Central Command says that one Iranian drone crashed into the sea after the USS Boxer took what Central Command called "defensive action" against it last Thursday.

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:06:07 -0400

As a working class, Tory-voting, pro-Brexit comedian, Geoff Norcott is rarer than a hen’s tooth in the liberal, left-leaning, middle-class world of stand-up comedy. So much so, that as soon as the refined folk at the top of the BBC got a sniff of his existence, they threw out a net to catch him and promptly appointed him to a "diversity panel" of people whose existence must be acknowledged in the eternal quest for balance. Norcott immediately set about biting the hand that feeds with How the Middle Classes Ruined Britain (BBC Two), identifying the BBC and we who watch it – “you lot” – and especially anyone who regularly eats avocado, as the enemy. “The thing about the middle classes is they talk out both sides of their mouth,” he said at the outset. “They’re hypocrites because they claim to be virtuous and caring, yet simultaneously they’re doing things that serve their self-interest.”   Whether you agree with Norcott or not, he hit the nail on the head sometimes: “You know the type, usually called Oliver or Jemima – they like a protest march so long as it’s followed by a spot of light brunch.” To begin with, his targets to illustrate middle-class hypocrisy seemed well chosen. Like those who “game the system” to get their little darlings onto the best state schools. He travelled to Manchester to rail at luxury developments with no affordable housing quotas, and to Deptford to join protesters against council flats being redeveloped by a housing charity. Too often though, Norcott’s his views on class seemed to run contrary to his own free-thinking, small state, right-wing views. Especially when he started banging on about the middle classes trying to “keep people like [him] at arms’ length”, using heinous methods like a dating app that only paired up people who’d been to public school. His attempts to game this circle, by consulting a posh dating counsellor and crashing a toffs-only dating event backfired – leaving him looking cowed, obsessed with his own sense of difference, and patronised by everyone he met. Similarly, his decision to try out his schtick on university students’ union officers was a car crash waiting to happen. When his feeble jokes about disability fell on deaf ears and stony faces, the students’ response – that they were unmoved not out of humourlessness but because they had “heard it all before” – left Norcott with nowhere to go and looking weak. In the end, despite successfully skewering some examples of middle-class hypocrisy, his approach was just too scattergun and politically inconsistent. I have seen Norcott shine on The Mash Report and his Right Leaning But Well Meaning stand-up show for Radio 4 was very, very funny. His is a voice that deserves to be heard. But he needs to be sharper if he’s to adopt the role of social commentator and take on something as nebulous as the class system. Otherwise this most relevant-seeming of comedians will quickly end up looking out of touch.

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:01:00 -0400