November 2019 – Page 49

Ericsson endured ‘a few nervous weeks’ before Sauber decision

Marcus Ericsson admits it was a long and restless period which preceded Sauber’s decision to keep him on board for 2018.

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The Swede concluded his third year with the Swiss outfit as the only driver on the grid not to score a championship point in 2017, apart from Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley who joined the fray late in the year.

Outscored by team mate Pascal Wehrlein this season and forced to deal with Ferrari junior Antonio Giovinazzi as a serious contender for his seat, Ericsson admits the uncertainty and stress surrounding his future were not easy to deal with.

“I had a few nervous weeks but of course it’s nice that everything is ready now, especially with Alfa Romeo as a major sponsor and partner,” he told the Swedish motoring magazine Teknikens Varld.

Ericsson keeps seat at Sauber for 2018 alongside Leclerc

“It has been quite a tough career so far in Formula 1,” he said.

“It has been difficult to show what I can do with cars that are always at the back of the grid.

“But now with Sauber together with Alfa Romeo, it should mean that for the first time I can be much higher on the grid,” Ericsson added.

The 26-year-old will however have a tough opponent sitting on the other side of the Sauber garage next year, with F2 champion Charles Leclerc hailed by many as a veritable gem in the raw.

“Charles Leclerc is an incredibly talented driver who really dominated F2 this year and will of course be a tough opponent for me next season,” Ericsson said.

“He is also Ferrari’s new super junior but I’m sure we will work well together to develop the car in the best way.”

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Citing US Airstrikes, Reports Indicate Some Militia Forces May Abandon Battle for Tikrit

Marking another twist in a faltering offensive on Tikrit, key Shiite militias involved in the operation expressed anger that the U.S. is launching air strikes to back the operation, and according to reports, thousands of combatants are boycotting the fight on those grounds, with some threatening to attack U.S. forces.

McClatchy reported

One Iraqi security official said three major Shiite groups – the League of Righteousness, the Kateb Hezbollah and the Badr Organization, already had withdrawn their forces. The official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive military matters, said he had been told that the militia commanders were meeting late Thursday to decide whether to remain or return to Baghdad, where many had mustered last summer in response to the Islamic State advance.

Launched over three weeks ago, the operation on the hometown of Saddam Hussein is the largest counter-offensive against ISIS yet, involving tens of thousands of Iraqi and Shiite militia fighters. This force is dominated by Shiite militias, which outnumber Iraqi troops 6 to 1 around Tikrit, according to the Washington Post.

The U.S. initially did not take part in the attack, with Iranian advisers playing a much more visible role, including Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s overseas unit.

As the offensive stalled, the U.S. began launching air strikes to back the operation late Wednesday night.

Pentagon officials have sought to publicly downplay—and even deny—de-facto U.S. collaboration with Shiite militias and Iran.

“Currently, there are no Shia militia and as reported by the Iraqis today, no PMF [Popular Mobilisation Forces] in that area as well,” Central Command’s leader, Army General Lloyd Austin, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

Speaking Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Army Col. Steve Warren attempted to spin U.S. involvement in the offensive as a show of U.S. strength and power, contrasted with Iranian humiliation. “When Tikrit operations kicked off…we heard quite a bit from the Iraqis and some even from the Iranians, some fairly high-confidence statements about how rapidly the operation in Tikrit would go,” he said. “Obviously they were incorrect.”

However, numerous reports contradict this version of events. The Huffington Post reports that, “on Thursday afternoon, after U.S. airstrikes had pounded ISIS-held positions the night before, Shiite paramilitary forces held many of the towns, roads and military positions leading from Baghdad to Tikrit, with Shiite fighters still inside the city.”

In other words, there are signs that the U.S. is still collaborating with at least some Shiite militias.

Juan Cole argued that, despite U.S. claims, the reluctance to collaborate came from Shiite militias—not the U.S. He wrote:

US air intervention on behalf of the Jerusalem Brigades of the IRGC is ironic in the extreme, since the two have been at daggers drawn for decades. Likewise, militias like Muqtada al-Sadr’s “Peace Brigades” (formerly Mahdi Army) and League of the Righteous (Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq) targeted US troops during Washington’s occupation of Iraq. But the fight against the so-called “Islamic State group” or Daesh has made for very strange bedfellows. Another irony is that apparently the US doesn’t mind essentially tactically allying with Iran this way– the reluctance came from the Shiite militias.

However, as the U.S. tactically allies with Iran in Iraq, in Yemen it is collaborating with Iranian rivals, including Saudi Arabia, in an anti-Houthi, large-scale invasion and bombings campaign.

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In Turnaround, Swedish Supreme Court to Hear Assange Appeal

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday was granted a hearing with the Swedish Supreme Court, where his lawyers will appeal to lift an arrest warrant against the whistleblower which has kept him confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London under political asylum since June 2012.

Assange has repeatedly argued that extradition to Sweden will allow him to be sent to the U.S., where he faces espionage and conspiracy charges for his role in publishing a cache of military and State Department documents in 2010. Former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning is currently serving 35 years in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for her part in the leak.

Assange has also said that his confinement to the embassy, now approaching three years, is a violation of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees fundamental liberty and security of person.

The court’s decision on Tuesday was a turnaround from a previous appeal court ruling in November, which found that lifting the warrant would risk allowing Assange to flee legal proceedings and that his confinement to the embassy was self-imposed.

The arrest warrant against Assange stems from sexual assault allegations in Sweden, although he has not been formally indicted with any crime. Marianne Ny, the prosecuting attorney in the case, has repeatedly denied requests to interview Assange at the embassy, which observers say may have been the catalyst for changing legal opinion in Sweden on Assange’s fears of extradition.

In its decision on Tuesday, the court remarked on “the issue of the conduct of investigations and the principle of proportionality.”

Earlier this month, government documents acquired by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are continuing an “ongoing criminal investigation of WikiLeaks.”

In response to the ruling, WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter:

Why Germany Should Pay War Reparations to Greece

In 1960, the then Federal Republic of Germany paid Greece 115 million Deutschmarks on account of compensation for Nazi crimes. Greek governments stated that this was only a fraction of what is due on account of loss of life, damaged infrastructure, and the repayment of a forced loan the Nazis extracted on Greece in 1942. Recent statements by leading German politicians seem to indicate that reparations are now a possibility. Both the law and fairness suggest payment is the right thing to do.

On February 8, 2015, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appeared in front of the Greek parliament, officially demanding Germany’s payment. Tsipras spoke about Athens’s “historical obligation” to claim reparation from Germany for the death and destruction resulting from Germany’s occupation of Greece. “Greece has a moral obligation to our people, to history, to all European peoples who fought and gave their blood against Nazism,” he added.

Greece’s claims, allegedly amounting to some $303 billion, have been recognized by the Greek and Italian highest courts, as well as by the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Yet, collecting such debt is obstructed by Germany’s immunity of jurisdiction, a principle of international law impeding under most circumstances for a country to sit in judgment for the misdeeds of another. But it is the historical and political legitimacy of the claim what counts, beyond the plausible legal arguments that support the claim for reparations.

Greece’s demands stand on two different factual grounds. In 1942, the occupying Nazi regime forced the Greek Central Bank to loan Nazi Germany 476 million Reichsmarks at 0% interest. On October 3, 1943 Nazi soldiers murdered 92 people, including 34 children, in the city of Liguiades. In June 1944, Nazi troops slaughtered 281 men, women and the elderly at Diostomo, a small town near Delphi.

The rule that a State’s violation of international humanitarian law is a compensable wrong constitutes a long-standing principle of customary international law, crystallized in the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) and its Additional Protocol I. This long-standing principle has been put into practice in numerous post-conflict settlements, subsequently codified in the Draft Articles on State Responsibility as an international obligation “to compensate for the damage caused…insofar as such damage is not made good by restitution.” Numerous official statements and a good a number of resolutions by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly have confirmed its binding force.

Germany argues that the 1990 Two-Plus-Four Agreement, a treaty concluded between both Germanies immediately prior to German reunification and the former Allied countries (United States, Great Britain, France and Russia) had put a formal end to all WWII claims for reparations against united Germany. Greece disagrees, asking for discussions between Greece and unified Germany. Even if Greece’s total claims are not accepted, Germany should not refuse to engage in further discussions, seeking an acceptable settlement. This is also Germany’s historical obligation, which is also morally owed to the millions of Germans still seeking to close this still inconclusive chapter of their past. As German President Joachim Gauck stated recently, “We are descendants of those who, during WWII, left a path of destruction, in Greece, among other places. Something that, to our shame, we ignored for a long time.”

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a
winner of several journalism awards.

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UN Security Council Slammed for 'Endorsing Siege and Mass Starvation' of Yemenis

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday passed a resolution, drafted largely by the Gulf countries leading the war on Yemen, imposing an arms embargo on Houthis but not the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition pummeling and blockading the impoverished country.

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Analysts warn that the measure amounts to an endorsement of the siege on Yemen, which is cutting off vital supplies of food and medical aid and unleashing a profound humanitarian crisis.

Independent journalist and former Yemen resident Iona Craig raised the alarm on Twitter:

Sanaa-based reporter Adam Baron echoed this concern.

The UNSC resolution, which is legally binding, was approved by the 15 member council, with 14 voting in favor and Russia abstaining.

The language calls for all member states to “take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer” of military equipment and weapons to Houthi forces.

Furthermore, the resolution orders Houthis to immediately cease combat operations and withdraw from territory they have seized.

Russia had lobbied for the language to include text mandating a “humanitarian pause” in the Saudi-led air strikes, which have hit residential areas and civilian infrastructure, including markets, medical facilities, and at least one displaced person’s camp in the country’s north. Since March 26 when the coalition bombings began, at least 364 civilians have been killed and 681 wounded in the country’s conflict, according to the UN’s own estimates.

But instead, the final version of the resolution merely, “Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts in order to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and evacuation, including the establishment of humanitarian pauses.”

The Saudi-led coalition—which includes the United States, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, and Morocco—has repeatedly blocked aid from getting through to civilian populations in Yemen, leading to public rebuke from aid organizations, including the Red Cross.

Houthis have also used deadly force against civilians, and people across Yemen and the world have charged that the large-scale military campaign, waged by some of the most wealthy and despotic countries in the world, is causing the humanitarian situation to deteriorate exponentially.

Robert Naiman, policy director for Just Foreign Policy, told Common Dreams that the UNSC resolution is one-sided. “You would hope the Security Council would take a balanced approach, not just go after the Houthis, who—regardless of what you think of what they’ve done—are clearly an internal party to the conflict,” said Naiman.

Meanwhile, people across Yemen and the world are turning to social media to call for an end to the fighting, as part of the online campaign Kefaya War, which means “Enough War” in Arabic:

Tweets by @KefayaWar

G7 Climate Goal Will 'Send Shivers Down the Spine' of Fossil Fuel Industry

In an acknowledgement of the severity of the climate crisis, officials from the some of the world’s leading economic powers on Monday issued a joint statement calling for a “decarbonization of the global economy over the course of this century.”

In a communique (pdf) issued on the second and final day of the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, leaders from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Canada, Italy, and Germany reaffirmed the need to limit global warming to 2º Celsius and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70 percent of 2010 levels by 2050, which is the amount recommended by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Climate action proponents say the statement sends a strong message to financial institutions as well as to the fossil fuel industry that ‘change is coming.’

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While the G7 plan was critiqued for its lack of binding provisions, as well as its dearth of crucial details on how such goals will be achieved, the statement singles out the financial sector for its role in the climate crisis through the subsidization of fossil fuels.

The plan calls for the elimination of “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” as well as increased investment in renewable energy both domestically and in developing nations, particularly in Africa.

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“We commit to doing our part to achieve a low-carbon global economy in the long-term, including developing and deploying innovative technologies striving for a transformation of the energy sectors by 2050, and invite all countries to join us in this endeavor,” the communique read.

Ruth Davis, senior associate at E3G who serves as a political advisor to Greenpeace, said the plan will send “shivers down the spines of directors in coal, oil and gas companies.”

In a press statement, 350.org executive director May Boeve said: “The G7 is sending a signal that the world must move away from fossil fuels, and investors should take notice. If you’re still holding onto fossil fuel stocks, you’re betting on the past. As today’s announcement makes clear, the future belongs to renewables.”

While 350.org notes that decarbonization “should proceed at a faster pace” than the 2050 targets laid out by the G7, even realizing that goal “will require a massive shift of investments away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy.”

Further, the G7 pact also reaffirms pledges made in the oft-criticized Copenhagen Accord to mobilize jointly $100 billion, both in public and private investment, for climate finance and “intensify support for vulnerable countries’ own efforts to manage climate change related disaster risk and to build resilience.”

At the same time as the G7 meeting, international climate negotiators in Bonn worked to hammer out a draft text ahead of the COP21 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, during which world leaders are expected to put forth a binding climate action agreement.

According to reports, negotiations continued to be held up as rich and poor nations remain deeply divided over how to apportion responsibility for emissions cuts.

As Davis notes, despite the shortcomings of the G7 pledge, the statement itself “is a particularly notable result from a political grouping which some think of as a historic anomaly, and whose members often struggle to find big strategic priorities in common.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had reportedly pushed the group to endorse a pledge to reach zero carbon emissions, but sources close to the talks say that the governments of Canada and Japan had blocked that effort.

“Canada and Japan are the most concerned about this one,” a source that had seen the draft document told the Canadian Press. “The two of those countries have been the most difficult on every issue on climate. They don’t want any types of targets in there, so I think they are trying to make it as vague as possible at this point.”

View from Yemen: Violence, Siege, Prospects for Peace

After more than two months of war and an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis that has become lost in the global news cycle, independent journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports Tuesday from the ground in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa to offer an up-close look at the devastation.

Speaking with Democracy Now! on Tuesday, Kouddous warned that Yemenis face rising food costs, declining economic life, failing infrastructure, and mounting civilian casualties amid daily bombings and “vicious street battles.” He warns, “Its really a very grave situation here in Yemen.”

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In his recent report for Foreign Policy, Kouddous noted a marked shift in the war: “Since the beginning of June, analysts and residents in the capital say, the bombing campaign has entered a new phase: Planes have begun targeting the homes of Saudi Arabia’s enemies, rather than just military targets. Civilians have found themselves increasingly caught in the crossfire.”

The Democracy Now! interview with Kouddous, as well as Wall Street Journal correspondent Joe Lauria, is available below:

F1i’s Top 5 Moments of 2017: Liberty gets F1 ready to rumble

Our final ‘defining moment’ of the 2017 Formula 1 world championship takes a look at the impact that the arrival of the sport’s new owners Liberty Media has had so far – and what lies ahead…

Proposing the 2017 United States Grand Prix as one of the defining moments of the year might be a little left-field, but bear with us. The race itself was a perfectly decent affair – Hamilton inched close to the title with another win over Sebastian Vettel – but nothing to really write home about. Instead, it was what happened off the track that was genuinely startling.

Liberty Media had completed its £6 billion buy-out of Formula 1 in January. It had been widely understood that Bernie Ecclestone would stay on as CEO for a three-year transition period. However, that didn’t happen. Liberty found themselves at odds with Ecclestone’s unique management style of dividing and conquering via the tactic of lobbing in the occasional provocative hand grenade to keep everyone off balance. A trap door opened under Ecclestone’s feet and he was gone, leaving behind just a few waspish comments hanging in the air. The affable Chase Carey took over, but for the first half of the season he contented himself by soaking up the atmosphere. He was also busy assembling his management team, including the wildly popular appointment of Ross Brawn as director of motorsport.

But the softly, softly approach changed when it came to Austin. Saturday’s qualifying session was rescheduled to accommodate a pop concert. Sunday’s traditional pre-race build-up was replaced by an American-style grid introduction hosted by boxing announcer Michael Buffer, famous for his exultation to ‘Get ready to rumble!’ It started to feel that the showbiz side was more important than the motor racing.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, Liberty was only trying out some things already commonplace in US championships. But for many fans, that was precisely the problem: they didn’t want to see Formula 1 reduced to being sort of globe-trotting version of NASCAR.

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Read on: Formula 1 gets a facelift

Hungary call ‘reconfirmed Mercedes values’, insists Wolff

Toto Wolff has picked a controversial moment at the Hungarian Grand Prix as his Formula 1 highlight of 2017.

Toward the end of the race, Valtteri Bottas agreed to team orders and allowed Lewis Hamilton to pass him for third place. It was part of an effort to put pressure on the two Ferraris leading the race.

Although he quickly pulled away from his team mate, Hamilton ultimately wasn’t able to close the gap on Kimi Raikkonen. That left the team with a difficult call about whether to order their drivers to switch back.

Eventually that’s exactly what happened. The swap cost Hamilton three championship points, allowing Sebastian Vettel to go into the summer break with a 14-point lead in the drivers standings.

In a tight season, those three points could have ended up deciding the title. Wolff had been under no illusion about what had been at stake, but he was proud of the way it had been handled.

“My Formula 1 highlight is probably Hungary,” Wolff said. “For me, [it] was a very difficult race, and very difficult decision-making at the end of the race.

“But somehow [it] was important to reconfirm the values of the team,” he insisted.

It was certainly very different to previous seasons when Hamilton gave absolutely no quarter to his Nico Rosberg.

Bottas praises Hamilton for sporting gesture

“I kept my word – I said that if I couldn’t pass Kimi then I would let Valtteri back,” Hamilton said at the time. “I believe in doing the right thing and that when you put good things out there, they come back to you.

“Perhaps I will look at it in a different way if, at the end of the season, I lose out by a small margin,” he had added. “[But] I have said through this year that I want to win this title in the right way.”

The move certainly seemed to allow Hamilton to bank some positive credit in terms of his relationship with Bottas.

“Lewis and the team kept their promise,” the Finn said. “I don’t think every team-mate would do that in a championship fight. I think that was really nice of him. It shows that he is a real team player.”

Wolff said that it had been “a great day for the team because we saw our ethos played out for everybody to see with great respect between Lewis and Valtteri.

“These are the values that helped us win six championships. And in the long term it is the approach that will win us many more titles.”

Ultimately the points lost in the manoeuvre proved academic, with Hamilton winning the title by 46 points. Even so, it remains Wolff’s on-track highlight at the end of a long season.

Off-track, however, it’s another matter.

“My personal highlight was the birth of my son,” he admitted. “This goes beyond anything else.”

Wolff and his wife Susie, a former Williams F1 test and development driver, welcomed their first child together in April.

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Renault ‘motivated’ by Red Bull and McLaren challenge

The Renault Sports F1 team says it is getting extra motivation from the prospect of racing against Red Bull and McLaren in 2018.

Both teams will have the same specification Renault engines as the factory team this season. Red Bull is in the last year of its contract with the French manufacturer, while McLaren is transitioning from Honda.

“I accept it’s going to be high maintenance and going to be an interesting season to manage,” Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

He admitted that the upcoming season would be a challenging one for everyone at Enstone. However, he felt that there would also be significant benefits to the new arrangement.

“I think there is more positives than there is some negative in those relationships,” he insisted.

“There is clearly pride to be supplying engines to other great teams and their fantastic drivers.

“It’s interesting because it’s challenging,” he explained. “But at the same time it’s providing motivation to everyone.”

Force India prepping for ‘massive’ battle with McLaren and Renault

Far from being concerned, Abiteboul actually welcomed the arrival of McLaren to the stable of Renault-powered teams.

“McLaren has a wealth of experience,” he said. “[They] can show us the way to push our engine. But also new ways of making sure we have a winning package.

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“Frankly I’m looking forward to it,” he added. “It’s good to be in a competitive environment. But it’s also good to be challenged.”

Renault advisor Alain Prost has previously said that the team might struggle to stay ahead of its engine customer squads in 2018.

“On paper we cannot beat Red Bull and McLaren,” he said last month. “For me, the pressure is positive, even if it is difficult.”

“In the end, if we want to win, we will have to beat everyone,” he added. “The comparison with the customer teams will help us to gain experience in order to get closer to the top teams.”

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