Talks between the U.K. and European Union toward a draft Brexit agreement dragged on Wednesday, with British doubts about whether Parliament would approve a deal proving to be a significant obstacle.
Officials from both sides said British negotiators were concerned that concessions needed to satisfy the EU wouldn’t receive the necessary backing from U.K. lawmakers—particularly Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s political allies in the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland.
LONDON — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will refuse to meet with Vice President Mike Pence, who is due to travel to Turkey to argue for a ceasefire in the ongoing Syria conflict.
"I'm not going to talk to them. They will be talking to their counterparts. When Trump comes here, I'll be talking," he said in comments made to Sky News, referring to the U.S. delegation.
The vice president’s office announced Tuesday that Pence would lead a U.S. delegation including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security advisor Robert O’Brien and the special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, to Turkey on Wednesday. The aim of the trip was to persuade Erdogan to stop his offensive into the region.
On Tuesday, Erdogan vowed that he would not declare a ceasefire in northeast Syria.
“They say ‘declare a ceasefire’. We will never declare a ceasefire,” Erdogan told reporters after a visit to Azerbaijan.
“They are pressuring us to stop the operation. They are announcing sanctions. Our goal is clear. We are not worried about any sanctions,” he added.
The vice president's office said Pence's travel plans remain unchanged and that he was still expected to leave for Turkey on Wednesday.
Oct. 15, 201901:45
Pence was due to meet with Erdogan on Thursday to urge the Turkish leader to reach an immediate ceasefire as well as reiterate President Donald Trump’s commitment to maintain economic sanctions on Turkey until a resolution is reached, the vice president's office said in a statement.
Erdogan told reporters in parliament Wednesday that he will evaluate whether to visit the U.S. next month after the meetings with the American delegation in Ankara this week, according to a translation by Reuters.
He said no power would be able to stop Turkey’s offensive in Syria which would come to an end when Turkey completes the formation of its “safe zone” that will run from Manbij in the west to the border with Iraq, a distance of approximately 260 miles, he added.
"For the quickest solution to the problem in Syria, we propose all terrorists to leave their weapons and equipment, destroy the traps they prepared and leave the safe zone tonight," he told reporters.
Reaching a resolution could be an uphill battle. Trump reiterated Tuesday that the U.S. was calling for a ceasefire and appeared to threaten even more sanctions if one could not be reached.
“Massive tariffs on steel. They ship a lot of steel to the United States. They make a long of money shipping steel. They won't be making so much money,” he told reporters Tuesday in the White House’s Rose Garden.
“We want to bring our soldiers back home after so many years, and they're the greatest warriors in the world. They're policing. They're not a police force,” he added.
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On Monday, Trump ordered new sanctions on Turkish government figures “and any persons contributing to Turkey’s destabilizing actions in northeast Syria.”
Trump said he plans to hike tariffs on steel up to 50 percent and “immediately” halt trade negotiations with the country, specifically a $100 billion trade deal.
In an Op-Ed written in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Erdogan said Operation Peace Spring, which launched on Oct. 9, aimed to “end the humanitarian crisis and address the violence and instability that are the root causes of irregular migration in our region.”
Erdogan said the international community had not done enough to help Turkey with the millions of Syrian refugees the country took in.
“Turkey reached its limit,” he said.
The Kremlin said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had invited Erdogan to visit Russia “in the coming days” and that the Turkish president had accepted the invitation. Kurdish troops, who Turkish-led forces are battling, have called on Damascus and Moscow to help repel the invading Turkish troops.
These diplomatic overtures came as Syrian regime forces continued to push north toward the Turkish border and Syrian Democratic forces (SDF) and Turkish-led forces clashed in Ras al-Ayn and Tel Helef among other places, according to the SDF.
Col. Myles Caggins, a spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition of nations that are fighting ISIS in the region, said all coalition troops had left the city of Manbij Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Russian military police were patrolling the north-western borders of Manbij district along the line of contact of Syrian regime troops and Turkish forces.
Saphora Smith
Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital.
Aziz Akyavas , Emmanuelle Saliba and Hallie Jackson contributed.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has climbed the country's highest mountain on horseback, according to state media.
A series of photos released by KCNA show Mr Kim astride a white horse on a snow-covered Mount Paektu.
This is not the first time he has scaled the 2,750-metre peak and analysts say such gestures have been known to precede major announcements.
The mountain holds a special place in the country's identity and is feted as the birthplace of Kim Jong-un's father.
"His march on horseback in Mt Paektu is a great event of weighty importance in the history of the Korean revolution," said a KCNA report released on Wednesday.
"Sitting on the horseback atop Mt Paektu, [he] recollected with deep emotion the road of arduous struggle he covered for the great cause of building the most powerful country, with faith and will as firm as Mt Paektu."
Nothing evokes an image of power quite like a leader astride a white steed, taming the first snows of winter while galloping through one of the Korean peninsula's most sacred places.
This may be an attempt to project the strength and authority of the "Paektu bloodline" - the Kim family line. A not-so-subtle reminder for the North Koreans of their leader's power, as well as his prowess on a horse.
But there are a few quotes in the soaring state media prose that should give us pause for thought.
The last line in particular is striking. We are told that the officials with Mr Kim were convinced "there will be a great operation to strike the world with wonder".
Kim Jong-un's previous visits to Mount Paektu have come ahead of major decisions.
There's speculation that this time Kim could be rethinking his promise to refrain from testing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. Talks with the US are currently at a stalemate and Donald Trump is a little distracted by other domestic and foreign affairs.
The North Korean leader may be using the brisk mountain air to consider ways of attracting the attention of the Trump administration.
Pyongyang has given the US until the end of this year to come up with a denuclearisation deal. Kim has repeatedly called for sanctions relief upfront before making any moves to dismantle his nuclear programme, but he has so far failed to convince Washington.
Perhaps he feels it's time to turn up the pressure with a few more launches?
Or just maybe the North Korean leader just fancied enjoying the first snow of the winter?
I have a feeling we will find out which one it may be within the coming months.
Mr Kim has reportedly climbed Mount Paektu at least three times, and made a joint visit to the mountain with South Korean president Moon Jae-in in 2018.
KCNA previously released photos of Mr Kim atop the mountain, after apparently climbing it in black leather shoes.
Mount Paektu, an active volcano, is said to be the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom more than 4,000 years ago.
The mountain is hundreds of kilometres from the capital Pyongyang, and sits right on the border between North Korea and China.
Earlier this month, North Korean officials held talks with US officials in Sweden, the first since US President Donald Trump and Mr Kim met briefly at the inter-Korean border zone in June.
North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Myong-gil said the negotiations had "not fulfilled our expectation and finally broke off".
Let us not think too deeply about this one. Kim Jong-un did a photo shoot on a horse.
The North Korean dictator rode the white steed through snowy fields, galloping between dusted trees, pausing for an aw-shucks-I’m-on-a-horse smile at the camera. His servants in the state media said on Wednesday that his eyes “were full of noble glitters.”
While Mr. Kim has no shortage of obviously posed propaganda photos, “world leaders on horseback” has been a very special genre at least since Vladimir Putin’s famous bare-chested entry in 2009. This doesn’t come along every day.
The geopolitical impact of the news was limited. Unless, that is, you trust the North Korean state media, which called Mr. Kim’s horseback ride up Mount Baekdu “a great event of weighty importance in the history of the Korean revolution.”
Mount Baekdu is considered a sacred mountain laden with symbolism, the mythical birthplace of the Koreans. A volcano that straddles the Chinese and North Korean border — the Chinese call it Changbaishan — it is a central setting for North Korean propaganda, a place where soldiers are sent on pilgrimages to swear loyalty to their leader. North Korea insists that Mr. Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, was born in a log cabin there, despite proof that he was born elsewhere.
In the past, Mr. Kim has visited Mount Baekdu before making major decisions, giving rise to speculation that this latest trek could portend a shift in policy toward the United States. An attempt to revive denuclearization talks between the two countries broke down this month.
“Having witnessed the great moments of his thinking atop Mount Paektu, all the officials accompanying him were convinced with overflowing emotion and joy that there will be a great operation to strike the world with wonder again and make a step forward in the Korean revolution,” reported the North Korean state news agency, which spells Baekdu that way.
Anyway, here’s Mr. Kim riding through a forest.
Though Mr. Kim chose not to go full Putin, keeping his torso covered with a parka in the cold, he is part of a somewhat exclusive club of current world leaders to have been photographed on a horse. (A much less majestic horseback photo of Mr. Kim from 2012 suggests that he has grown into the role.)
To our knowledge, President Trump has not been photographed on a horse, though he did get near one recently. Of the Democratic hopefuls for president, Bernie Sanders appeared on a horse in a 1987 video, and Tulsi Gabbard was photographed on one for a New York Times article in August.
Hong Kong's embattled leader Carrie Lam on Wednesday delivered her annual policy address by video, after being heckled by pro-democracy lawmakers on the floor of the city's parliament.
Those lawmakers shouted "five demands, not one less," referencing the list of requests by protesters, at Lam as she was set to deliver her speech. In those remarks, Lam was expected to formally withdraw the extradition bill that sparked nearly five months of sometimes violent protests in the city. The bill's retraction meets one of the protester demands.
Lam's remarks were initially suspended amid disruption. As she was set to begin her address a second time, pro-democracy lawmakers interrupted her and some even threw objects at her. Live feeds of the meeting were cut amid the disorder.
The proceedings were ultimately adjourned as the six democratic lawmakers were escorted out of the room. Lam also left the legislature's chambers. Outside the chambers, pro-democracy lawmakers held an impromptu press conference and called for Lam to step down.
Pro-democracy lawmakers wearing masks with the image of Chinese President Xi Jinping disrupt proceedings during the annual policy address of Carrie Lam on October 16, 2019.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images
Andrew Leung, president of the Legislative Council, asked the lawmakers to leave, citing rule 73 of the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. That section states that any person, including legislators, who interfere with the parliament's proceedings can be removed from the chambers.
Housing is Hong Kong's 'toughest livelihood issue'
According to an official translation of her remarks, Lam said housing is the "toughest livelihood issue" facing the city's citizens and pledged to make more land available for public housing development. In a video delivery of her policy address, she emphasized that housing issues are essential to social stability and upward mobility.
"Every Hong Kong citizen and his family will no longer have to be troubled by, or preoccupied with, the housing problem, and that they will be able to have their own home in Hong Kong, a city in which we all have a share," she pledged.
Lam's focus on land and housing initiatives is seen as a bid to restore confidence in the city's future after months of anti-government protests that have crippled the city and dampened investor sentiment in the Asian financial hub.
She also reiterated the need for an immediate end to violence and said that the violent clashes have been "spreading chaos" and "seriously disrupting people's lives" in Hong Kong.
The political uncertainties have seeped through into economic matters as the city slashed its GDP growth outlook and businesses have reported huge slumps. Retail and hospitality industries been hit the hardest. The demonstrations have also snarled the city's normally efficient underground rail system and airport, unnerving investors.
In August, the government unveiled a HK$19.1 billion package to support the slowing economy, including subsidies for the underprivileged and business enterprises, as well as somewhat higher salary tax rebates.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam leaves her annual policy address due to disruptions by pro-democracy lawmakers in the Legislative Council on October 16, 2019.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images
The semi-autonomous city battles to overcome its greatest political turmoil since 1997, when the former British colony was handed over to China. Hong Kong now operates under the "one country, two systems" principle, in which Beijing grants Hong Kong citizens financial and legal independence from the mainland.
At the beginning of her video address, Lam again pledged to adhere to the "one country, two systems" structure. She also said any acts advocating Hong Kong's independence "will not be tolerated." She also said it is crucial for Hong Kongers to respect the rule of law which is the cornerstone of its society.
China's foreign ministry responded on Wednesday, saying that that Beijing resolutely opposed the new measures and urged lawmakers to stop interfering. The Hong Kong government also said it "expressed regret" over the House's actions.
