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SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2017 Adelle Chua, Editor

Opinion

Joyce Pangco Pañares, Issue Editor

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SPICER WASN’T WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS WHITE HOUSE

EDITORIAL

By Jonathan Bernstein

SONA CLICHÉS

WE’VE finally found the one thing that’s perfectly normal about the Donald Trump White House: When things go bad, blame the message (and the messenger), not the substance. And so, with things going quite badly indeed, we get to the resignation of Sean Spicer, press secretary and short-term celebrity “Saturday Night Live” send-up, and the hiring of a new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.

Spicer reportedly resigned over his opposition to Scaramucci, although as with all such explanations, we’ll have to see whether it holds up over time. What is obvious from Friday’s news is that the White House is as chaotic and mismanaged as ever, given that the news media has already reported not only Spicer’s objection to the new press secretary, but also the strong opposition of both White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior adviser Steve Bannon, who said Scaramucci would get the job “over my dead body.”

That part is not normal.

It is meaningful.

And it doesn’t bode well for the future.

Nor do reports that Scaramucci got his job by impressing the president with his hard-hitting defense of the administration on cable TV shows. While appearing on television certainly is part of the job of a White House communications director, the real job is to map out and execute an overall communications strategy, something Scaramucci doesn’t appear to be qualified for. He hasn’t worked in government or politics, much less in a White House; his background is in finance, not communications. His hiring is another disturbing indication that the president of the United States is still governing mainly by reacting to what is on TV news shows, and that he still uses a “cut of his jib” test for personnel. That’s all very bad news.

Indeed, as the Washington Examiner’s Sarah Westwood and Al Weave report: Scaramucci would take the prestigious communications director title “but would not be fulfilling that responsibility because he doesn’t know how,” the source said. “Basically, Trump wanted to give Scaramucci something to do because he thinks he’s a ‘good Italian kid,’” the source said.

Replacing Spicer and former White House communications chief Mike Dubke with Scaramucci is also another step away from the Republican Party and toward a more personal presidency. That’s not good news, either, since the record of personal presidencies in the 1960s and 1970s was not very impressive. Indeed, Sean Spicer was one of the very few people in the Trump White House who actually had the proper experience and credentials for the job he was hired to do.

Was he good at the job? I’ll admit up front: As a former Hill press aide long ago, I have a principled bias in favor of all White House press secretaries.

It’s a very difficult job in the best of times, and with the current president, it was almost certainly impossible for anyone to look good doing it. I do agree that Spicer made a serious mistake when, on Trump’s orders, he undermined his own credibility in his first days on the job by arguing an impossible position over inauguration crowd sizes. As hard as it would have been to do, Spicer should have stood up to Trump right away and explained that no one could do the job under those circumstances.

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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte addresses the nation a second time tomorrow, a year and change after assuming the presidency.

It’s that time of the year again and we expect to see things we have always seen at around this time.

The occasion would not be complete without the usual protests on the road leading to the Batasan. The President will no doubt be pilloried on the streets, rightly or wrongly, for his controversial methods in quelling the drug problem. A likely result would be traffic jams near the House of Representatives.

There will be dramatizations of issues, likely the supposed extrajudicial killings of suspects in drug cases, the gaping wealth inequality, the destruction of the environment. In previous administrations, effigies were burned and other gimmickry staged.

Lawmakers would be in their Sona best, even as Mr. Duterte last year said he would have no more of the annual fashion show that traditionally featured government officials and their spouses in designer outfits. Perhaps the best costume they would put on is their show of loyalty to their political patron, the majority or the minority.

Last year, the Duterte administration engaged a multi-awarded filmmaker to direct the State of the Nation Address, and we indeed saw experimental shots—curious angles, undue focus. We wonder whether there would be more of the same tomorrow, for the viewing pleasure, or disgust, of those watching from their television sets, computers or mobile devices.

Last year, too, we were promised a concise, moving speech from the President. “Moving” would be arguable—different people can be moved in different ways—but the speech was by all standards not concise. This is a speaking style we all got used to over the next few months.

But since this is a president who ran and won on the promise of change, we will continue to hope that tomorrow’s address will assure us all that the change is not merely in form.

No matter Mr. Duterte’s same rambling, expletive-laden manner of speaking. We have long accepted that he will never act or talk like a conventional, presidential head of state. But we would like to hear concrete plans—though not down to the last tactic—about how he intends to bring the terrorists down, now that Congress has granted his request for an extension of martial law. We would like to hear how he would address the drug menace, balancing it with adherence to the rule of law and respect for human rights.

We want to be assured that he knows what he is doing about China, and he is not just being swayed by promises of official development assistance and other investments. Finally, we want to hear that the aggressive infrastructure program is not a pipe dream, and that it would realistically provide opportunities for as many Filipino workers as possible.

We would not mind the Sona clichés, just as long as we can also bank on something new, something different, and something doable to glue us together in these most trying of times.

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NEWS FROM THE ACADEME: LITERATURE AND COMMUNICATION EVENTS POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE

MULTI-AWARDED writer Edgardo B. Maranan has been selected as a recipient of this year’s University of the Philippines Alumni Award in Culture and the Arts (Literature).

Along with other honorees, he will be recognized at the UP General Alumni Homecoming on Aug. 19 at

the Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman campus, for “leadership, achievements, and contributions in [their] field of endeavor,” according to UP Alumni Association President Ramon M. Maronilla, that have “benefited not only [the individual and their] profession, but also the University and

the community [they] have chosen to serve.”

Maranan taught undergraduate courses in political theory and international relations science, and graduate courses in Philippine studies, in UP. From 1993 to 2006, he served as the information officer of the

Philippine Embassy in London.

An essayist, fictionist, playwright, poet, translator, and writer of children’s stories, he has received 30 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in various categories, and Turn to B2

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher ManilaStandard

Published Monday to Sunday by Philippine Manila Standard Publishing Inc. at 6/F Universal Re Building, 106 Paseo de Roxas, corner Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City. Telephone numbers 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558 (connecting all departments), (Editorial) 832-5554, (Advertising) 832-5550. P.O. Box 2933, Manila Central Post Office, Manila. Website: www.thestandard. com.ph; e-mail: contact@thestandard.com.ph

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SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

NEWS...

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his work has been recognized by many other award-giving bodies. *** Professor Ma. Ailil B. Alvarez was recently named director of the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, succeeding Dr. John Jack G. Wigley. Alvarez served as deputy director of USTPH until her new appointment. Both she and Wigley teach literature at UST. *** The Communication Research department of the UP Diliman College of Mass Communication (UP-CMC) is holding the 5th National Communication Research Conference on Nov. 22-25 in Baguio City, with the theme “FCX: The Filipino Communicative Experience.”

The event is being staged in cooperation with the UP Baguio College of Arts and Communication, the University of the Cordilleras, and the Philippines Communication Society. It is open to the public.

This is the first time it is being held outside Metro Manila, opening it to wider inter-regional interaction and scholarly collaboration.

Last year’s conference attracted nearly 1,000 attendees who viewed 30 research presentations. This year’s event has three pre- and postconference workshops that will provide students with valuable knowledge about research conceptualization, methodologies, and dissemination.

Students, faculty, and communication professionals will be presenting research papers on communication and media studies.

Among the themes that will be covered are: Filipinos as creators and audiences of content in traditional and new media; communication in various Filipino groups such as family; indigenous peoples, and organizations; and communication in Philippine politics and governance, development, and identity (religion, gender, class, etc.).

The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to Aug. 31. Abstracts must be between 350 to 500 words, in Filipino, other Filipino languages, or English. Include five keywords. Find out more on Facebook: @NCRCPhilippines. *** UP-CMC recently announced that this year’s UP Gawad Plaridel will be awarded to 40-year veteran broadcaster Tina Monzon-Palma on Aug. 23 at the UP Film Center.

Monzon-Palma will also deliver a lecture at the ceremony.

The annual UP Gawad Plaridel, established by UP-CMC in 2004, is named after nationalist journalist Marcelo H. del Pilar’s pen name. The award recognizes outstanding media practitioners in print, radio, film, and television who have performed at the highest level of professional integrity in the interest of public service.

Previous awardees were: Eugenia Duran-Apostol (2004, print), Vilma Santos (2005, film), Fidela “Tiya Dely” Magpayo (2006, radio), Cecilia “Cheche” L. Lazaro (2007, television), Pachico A. Seares (2008, community print), Kidlat Tahimik (2009, independent film), Eloisa “Lola Sela” Canlas (2011, radio), Florence “Rosa Rosal” Danon-Gayda (2012, television), Jose “Pete” Lacaba (2013, print), Nora “Nora Aunor” Villamayor (2014, transmedia), Ricardo “Ricky” Lee (2015, film), and Francisca “Babes” Custodio (2016, radio).

Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @jensdecember, @artuoste

SPICER...

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Still, much of what Spicer was subsequently hit for seemed to me mostly about blaming the messenger. Of course he was going to spin. Of course the White House was going to limit access at times. And of course reporters would complain about it. That’s how the system works, and as far as I could see, Spicer— more than most in this White House— was doing his job more or less the way it was supposed to be done.

One could certainly argue that Spicer simply should have resigned early on, and that no competent professional could possibly hold down that job in this administration. There’s a pretty good case for that.

And obviously he made his share of mistakes over his six months in the job.

Still, anyone who thinks Sean Spicer was among the top 100 problems with Donald Trump’s presidency is confusing visibility with importance. And there’s a much-better-than-zero chance that the press corps six months from now will be telling stories of how much everything has deteriorated since he left.

Bloomberg

WHY THE SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH CAN MAKE US A BETTER SOCIETY

By Pecier Decierdo THE suicide of Linkin Park front man Chester Bennington has caused a recent spike in the conversation surrounding mental health. And while the conversation surrounding depression and mental health has matured over the recent years, we as a society have still a long way to go.

Here in the Philippines, the Senate has just recently approved the Philippine Mental Health Act of 2017. Senate Bill No. 1354 was unanimously approved upon third and final reading in May. In a statement she made shortly after the approval, Senator Risa Hontiveros, who sponsored the bill, hailed the event as “historic.” While this is certainly true, the late arrival of this historic event, and the fact that concrete legislation that addresses mental health issues is still in the works, is telling of where Philippine society is when it comes to dealing with mental health issues.

What Senator Hontiveros said later in the same statement drives the point of why such a bill is urgently needed in the Philippines: “Sa lahat ng hindi makatarungang sinabihan ng sira-ulo, lukaret, maluwag ang turnilyo, may sayad, baliw, abnormal, may topak, emo, praning, sinto-sinto,

at buang dahil sa maling pang-unawa sa issues sa mental health—para po sa inyo ang batas na ito.”

In that part of her statement, Senator Hontiveros is touching on the fact that like in many societies, there is a widespread view in the Philippines that mental illness is a sign of some moral failing or a weakness of personality instead of a health issue like diabetes or pneumonia.

Such a view is often accompanied by a belief that mental disorders, because they are not physical like polio or diabetes, are less serious, or even less real. Closely related to this is the view that because the illness is mental, the patient can just will them away.

Such views have resulted in a lack of understanding toward the mentally ill and their actions. Worse, they have led to interactions that make the illness worse. Many mental health patients are yet to seek professional help and treatment because of many reasons. Among them is the view that such treatments are unnecessary because willpower is enough.

But what does the science say about mental health and mental illnesses?

Unfortunately, many details of the picture are not yet very clear. For example, scientists are only now realizing that there may

be more kinds of depression that we previously thought. This might explain why there is a very wide array of possible causes and symptoms for depression, which makes the illness difficult to diagnose early or prevent.

This might also explain the very wide array of treatments out there, only a few of which work for a particular patient. Often, each treatment can only partially help the patient, and so a combination of treatments must be explored, often by guesswork.

This is why, at the moment, many psychologists and psychiatrists explain that the treatment of many mental health disorders is as much an art as it is a science. This does not mean that there is no scientific basis to the many treatments that exist and are prescribed by specialists. On the contrary, there is a significant body of research to back up our current understanding of what causes different kinds of mental illnesses, how they affect those afflicted with them, and what possible treatments can be given to people who suffer from mental illness.

However, our understanding is far from complete. This is no surprise.

After all, the human brain is the most complex thing known to science. To understand its inner workings, we are using the very same brain, with all of

its limitations. For another, scientists have only begun approaching the issue of mental health from a throughly scientific and medical standpoint. Some psychiatrists even compare our current understanding of mental health to that of doctors during the time when they were only beginning to understand that the cause of infectious diseases were not imbalances in the body’s “humors” but rather disease-causing agents such as microbes and toxins.

That said, we must welcome every advance in our understanding of mental health and mental illness, instead of holding on to old notions of human agency. For one, it will make us more effective in dealing with our own mental health and that of those near and dear to us. But more importantly, a more up-to-date scientific understanding of mental health will make us more empathetic and understanding. This also serves as a reminder of the general rule that a deeper scientific understanding of the human condition has the potential to increase our capacity to build a more compassionate and humane society.

Pecier Decierdo is resident physicist and astronomer of The Mind Museum.

EUROPE’S SOFT CORE IS GETTING TOUGHER

By Leonid Bershidsky THANKS to the defeats of populist candidates in several European elections and Theresa May’s failed bid for UK political dominance last month, the European Union has appeared triumphant. But it’s only a triumph for an increasingly exclusive club of countries that is increasingly willing to embrace conflict on its periphery.

In the euro area, mainstream political parties are riding high after populist failures in Austria, the Netherlands, France and, soon, in Germany; the split of the Finnish far right; the taming of Alexis Tsipras’s oncefiery far-left government in Greece; the lack of political achievement by radical leftists in Spain, and the lackluster performance of the Five Star Movement in the Italian local election last month.

It’s that heart of the EU—19 out of the 27 countries remaining after the UK leaves—that will be the focus of fiscal and banking reforms that French President Emmanuel Macron is discussing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The rest of the EU is no longer courted. Core Europe appears to have few reservations about alienating the Eastern European countries that have chosen to keep their own currencies and nations that could be the targets of further expansion, such as Turkey and Ukraine, with harsh rhetoric or public expressions of contempt.

The standoff with Poland over its ruling Law and Justice Party’s

attempts to give the parliament and the government more control over the judiciary is an example. On July 19, European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said the EU was “very close” to triggering Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty—a procedure that has never been used against any country. Seen through to the end, it strips a member nation of its vote for deviating from the EU’s core values, which include the rule of law.

Poland is also the first country under investigation for possible rule-of-law breaches for previous moves to take control of the judiciary.

No one as senior as Timmerman has ever threatened to invoke Article 7, even though Hungary, like Poland run by a populist government, has also weakened its courts in recent years.

Though the EU made threatening noises and took legal action in several cases, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has never been challenged as forcefully as his Polish allies are challenged today.

There’s even high-level talk in Berlin and Brussels about making subsidy payments to Eastern European countries conditional on their compliance with the core European values. That’s another new kind of threat in response to Eastern Europe’s illiberal tendencies and its refusal to help Western European allies with the crisis presented by migrants from North Africa.

The Eastern Europeans appear to be betting that the threats are not serious.

On July 19, the leaders of the Visegrad

Four—Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic—wrote a letter to Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni saying they’d be happy to help his country deal with the influx of migrants smuggled across the Mediterranean from Libya, but not by taking in migrants. The Polish government is defiant despite the prospect of an Article 7 procedure.

The Visegrad countries are also pushing the issue of dual food quality—branded foods sold with cheaper ingredients in Eastern Europe than in the West—to show that they won’t tolerate being treated as secondclass members.

The defiance is based on the assumption that the loud noises from Western Europe mean little: The core EU and the bloc’s institutions have always preferred to signal inclusiveness, even at the expense of declared values.

Things could be changing, however, as attention switches to deeper euro-area fiscal integration.

The EU’s toughness in Brexit talks is an example of what could come for Eastern Europe, too. Eastern European nations have called on the European Commission to be softer on the UK as it tries to leave. Instead, the negotiators in Brussels have taken a hard line, which was evident throughout the first round of substantive talks this week.

Negotiations are deadlocked on every key issue: the exit bill to be paid by the UK, post-Brexit citizens’ rights, the Ireland-UK border, the post-2019 jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The likelihood of no deal by

2019, when the UK drops out of the bloc, is higher than ever. The EU doesn’t feel it has anything to gain by being toothless; its uncompromising position on Brexit appears tougher than in the 2015 negotiations with Greece, which, although in a far weaker economic position, was still a privileged partner as a euro-area member.

Core Europe also shows a new, sterner face to its allies just outside the bloc. Germany has just announced a “reorientation” of its policy toward Turkey, warning tourists and investors to stay out of the semi-authoritarian country.

A recent EU-Ukraine summit ended without a concluding document because core EU countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and France, refused to include a line recognizing Ukraine’s desire for eventual full membership – even though a similar formula is part of Ukraine’s trade and association agreement with the bloc.

Eastern Europeans pushed for the small concession but were ignored.

The more assertive EU core—which also dares to state its differences with the US on trade and environmental policy—may be just an optical illusion born of the Western European centrist parties’ forced electoral combativeness in the face of populist threats. But it could also mean the birth of a smaller, tighter and tougher Europe that only wants allies on its own terms and is confident of its power. Like a harmless, over-friendly teenager whose patience has been abused by classmates, this core of Europe is beginning to lose its temper and ball up its fists. Bloomberg

‘DUNKIRK’ AND THE GREAT FILMS THAT WON’T BE MADE

By Megan McArdle

course, that there is only one Christopher Nolan, and only so many people willing to give him $150 million I WAS perhaps unreasonably excited to see “Dunkirk,” to spend putting thousands of extras and some World Christopher Nolan’s new movie about the evacuation War II-era ordnance onto a French beach. But the easy of British forces from a French beach during World answer is incomplete.

War II. The historical event on which it is based is It is getting rarer for a genius like Nolan to be given astonishing: unable to get enough warships close substantial sums of money to put their vision on the to the beach to load their fleeing troops, the British screen. Instead, the substantial sums go to “franchise government mobilized a flotilla of small private craft, films.” The pursuit of blockbuster movies is becoming which ultimately helped evacuate more than 330,000 less of an act of creation, and more an exercise in brand soldiers ahead of the German army. I was eager to see management. Franchises generate box office revenue, what one of my favorite directors would do with the merchandising revenue and what economists call story. option value: “Furious 7” does not simply bring ticket He did not disappoint. This nearly flawless film put revenue for the studio, but also the ability to make more me on the edge of my seat for two hours. It is the best revenue through Fast and Furious Episodes 8, 9, 10 and thing I’ve seen about war since the stunning opening of onward to “The Fast and the Furious 987.”

“Saving Private Ryan”—and Nolan, bless him, is not prey Naturally, such valuable properties cannot be left to Steven Spielberg’s compulsion to mar his creations to the quirky whims of some individual; studios have by slopping them over with speechy goo. intervened more and more heavily to ensure that As with all of Nolan’s films, it’s emotionally distant no director goes too far off the rails. As with other from its characters. Cillian Murphy plays an officer markets where mass franchises have taken over, the credited only as “Shivering Soldier,” and none of the result is a sort of flattening of the available quality: characters have much in the way of backstory or goals, There aren’t so many truly awful blockbusters being other than survival. Matt Zoller Seitz calls it an “Ant Farm made anymore, but there aren’t so many truly great Picture,” a portrait of society in which individuals are ones either. Indeed, there aren’t so many big movies almost incidental. That’s rather the point. being made at all, because studios find it much more A lesser director would have given in to the attractive to rake in cash off of a predictable comic temptation to make this a story about the righteous book film with a big global audience than to make crusade against the Germans, men fighting other men, risky bets on greatness. but Nolan shows us a world in which the enemy is a In some ways it looks like a return to the studio plane, a torpedo, the water and the flying bullets, and system of yore, with its factory-like control over every men are reduced to little more than their rage to live. aspect of production. But in the old days, the studios The result is less a war film than a disaster movie. An were mostly making lots of cheap films fast. The studios exquisite disaster movie. I didn’t expect such a vivid and could afford to permit a little more variance, a little visceral illustration of how quickly a ship can sink, or more creativity and serendipity, because the bets were just how difficult it is to hit a target in the sky. I left the reasonably small, and even an oddball picture might theater almost too overwhelmed to talk. find an audience somewhere. But if the old studio Having recovered, I began to wonder why we can’t system was a well-diversified industry placing lots of have more pictures like “Dunkirk.” The easy answer is, of bets—the cinematic equivalent of an index fund—the

modern system is looking more and more like a hedge fund taking a few giant positions. When all the bets are potential firm-killers, the investment committee is going to want to oversee every detail, leaving less room for genius to emerge, much less thrive.

One reason “Dunkirk” is such a joy is that here is a film in which the deadening hand of the committee is nowhere evident. A committee would have wanted something with more merchandising and tie-in opportunities (“Just a thought: What if the captain of the destroyer is drinking a Diet Coke? Then we could give his action figure a detachable can that fits in his right hand.…”) A committee would have wanted a lovable band of misfits who could be taken into sequels. (“No, this is terrific: Next time, instead of fleeing France, they invade it!”)

A committee would have wanted all the mawkish paraphernalia of the modern war picture—the rumpled photograph of the girl back home, the square-jawed lead who learns a Very Important Lesson about leadership and loyalty, and the speeches, oh Lord, the speeches, about what war is, and what it all means. Even the pictures that explicitly reject the cheap and easy sentimentality of the modern war movie are still hung up on rejecting it. Nolan simply ignores it, and does something infinitely more interesting.

As the “tentpole” picture increasingly becomes the main product of Hollywood, and directors are selected for their ability to please a committee, how many more memorable big films can we hope to get? When a legend like Spielberg has so much trouble getting “Lincoln” into theaters that it comes “this close” to ending up on HBO, you have to wonder if the days of the original creative project are numbered within the studio system. If the flotilla of small craft disappears, all we’ll have left is a few big ships drifting inoffensively in international waters—and a lot of moviegoers stranded on the beach. Bloomberg

World TENSIONS RISE AT JERUSALEM TEMPLE MOUNT JERUSALEM—Three Israelis were stabbed to death and clashes left three Palestinians killed Friday as tensions rose over new security measures at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site where police restricted access for Muslim prayers.

As Israeli and Palestinian leaders faced pressure to respond, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas announced late Friday he was freezing contacts with Israel over the holy site dispute.

The unrest came after Israeli ministers decided not to order the removal of metal detectors erected at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, following an attack nearby a week ago that killed two policemen.

In anticipation of protests on Friday, Israeli police barred men under 50 from entering the Old City in annexed east Jerusalem for prayers, while all women were allowed in.

Police said later in the day that discretion could be applied in the use of the metal detectors instead of forcing everyone to go through them.

But Palestinian and religious leaders still called on worshippers not to enter until the devices were removed. AFP

CIA, US ENDING SUPPORT FOR SYRIAN REBELS

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COPS STILL GUARDING LIU XIAOBO’S HOME B

EIJING—At a small park outside the Beijing home of late Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, security officers sat around a stone table surrounded by shrubbery, scrutinizing everyone who neared the gate they guarded.

More than a week after the Nobel Peace Prize winner succumbed to liver cancer in custody, four agents stood watch on the stoop of the apartment where his widow, the poet Liu Xia, has largely been kept under house arrest since 2010.

Their presence contradicts official claims last weekend that Liu Xia, 56, is “free”.

She appeared in a government-released video on July 15 showing her husband’s sea burial in the coastal city of Dalian, but close friends have been unable to reach her and believe that she is under police control in southern Yunnan province.

But the medley of uniformed and

plainclothes officers outside her home on Friday were undeterred in their surveillance -- even if they may have been guarding an empty apartment.

“Where are you going?” a man wearing a “special duty” uniform asked two middle-aged women who approached.

“We live here,” one of them retorted, as if accustomed to the question.

On the other side of the gate, a uniformed officer sat in a chair parked outside the entrance to Liu Xia’s apartment.

Three other men sat inside the dark entranceway, including one eating a bowl of noodles.

They all stood up when an AFP reporter approached.

“What are you doing here? You don’t live in this neighborhood,” said the uniformed officer, gesturing for the reporter to leave.

Outside the gate, security agents talked among themselves as they waited for their lunch break.

“Yesterday there were five to six reporters who came,” a middleaged man said to the group. He wore a black T-shirt, the preferred attire of plainclothes agents.

“Those foreigners just come here to make trouble. They want to take photos of everything. Lunch time is rush hour for them, then things die down after 7 p.m.”

Earlier that day, a four-person foreign television crew had come through one of the complex’s main gates.

They were soon surrounded by officers in both black and green uniforms.

“Do you know who Liu Xia is?”

one of the journalists asked a guard, who barked back: “Never have I met anyone as rude as you!”

At around the same time, an AFP photographer was held by police who asked him to delete three photos he had taken of the apartment exterior.

He did not comply, and was shortly released.

All was calm on the riverfront boardwalk that Liu Xia’s apartment overlooked, as joggers, bikers and fishermen alike appeared to be unaware of the commotion on the other side of the gate.

The Chinese government has erased virtually all mentions of Liu Xiaobo, a 1989 Tiananmen Square protest veteran, from the internet and domestic media.

Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “subversion” after co-writing Charter 08, a petition calling for democratic reforms in the Communist Party-ruled country. AFP

WASHINGTON—The head of the US military’s special operations confirmed Friday that the Central Intelligence Agency is shutting down its program to support rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

General Tony Thomas denied that the four-year-old operation was ended to placate Russia and earn its support for a ceasefire in southwestern Syria.

It was a “tough, tough decision” but “absolutely not a sop to the Russians,”Thomas said at a forum in Aspen, Colorado.

“It was, I think, based on an assessment of the nature of the program, what we’re trying to accomplish, the viability of it going forward.”

Asked about Thomas’s comments, the CIA declined to comment.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported the covert CIA program was being shut down.

The Post said President Donald Trump made the decision nearly a month ago after a meeting with CIA chief Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor HR McMaster.

The Post said Trump made the decision to find ways to work with Russia in Syria, where Moscow supports Assad’s government. Trump has said the main US focus in Syria should be to eliminate the Islamic State group, rather than opposing the Assad regime. AFP

EAST TIMOR VOTES FOR PARLIAMENT AMID CHALLENGES DILI, East Timor—East Timor headed to the polls to elect a new parliament Saturday, as Asia’s youngest democracy battles economic challenges 15 years after gaining its independence from Indonesia.

About 760,000 people are expected to cast their votes for candidates from 21 parties in the tiny half-island nation, in the first parliamentary election since the departure of United Nations peacekeepers in 2012.

The polls come at a challenging time for the country, with key oil reserves running dry while the government struggles to resolve a long-running row with Australia over lucrative energy fields.

But despite fears of violence, there were no reports of unrest in the run-up to the election.

“I am happy I can vote today because it’s important we choose the best to lead our country,” said voter Mateus Araujo.

The parliamentary election will determine the choice of prime minister for the former Portuguese colony.

The prime minister, chosen by the winning party or a coalition of parties in parliament, oversees the government and is the most influential political figure in the country.

East Timor voted for a new president in March with Francisco Guterres -- known by his nom de guerre “Lu-Olo” -- winning the presidency, a role which is largely ceremonial but can help keep the peace between feuding politicians. AFP

This file handout photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office shows late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia (center) holding a portrait of Liu Xiaobo, and family members holding a portrait of Liu Xiaobo and receiving the ashes (right) in an urn at a funeral parlor in the Chinese city of Shenyang, Liaoning province, on July 15. The death of Liu Xiaobo deprives China’s dissident movement of a crucial figurehead at a time when political activism on the mainland is being forced ever deeper underground, and pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong are under threat. There are fears that Liu’s supporters will now be targeted, particularly his wife Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010. AFP

QATAR EMIR READY FOR CRISIS TALKS WITH CONDITIONS

INUNDATED. An Indian commuter rides along a flooded street after heavy rain in Amritsar, India on Saturday. AFP

DOHA—Qatar’s ruler said Friday that the Gulf emirate is ready for talks to resolve a diplomatic crisis with a Saudiled bloc so long as his country’s sovereignty is respected.

“We are open to dialogue to resolve the outstanding problems,” so long as Qatar’s “sovereignty is respected,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in his first public comments since Saudi Arabia and its allies severed ties with the gas-rich emirate.

“Any settlement of the crisis must be based on two principles,” he said in a televised speech.

Sheikh Tamim insisted that any deal “must not take effect in the form of diktats but rather through mutual commitments undertaken by all the parties.”

“We are open to dialogue to find solutions to lingering problems within the framework of respect for the sovereignty and will of each state as mutual undertakings and joint commitments binding all,” he said.

On June 5, Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United

Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar accusing it of backing extremism and fostering ties with their Shiite rival Iran. Doha denies the claim.

In his speech delivered on Friday night, the emir said Qatar was “fighting terrorism relentlessly and without compromises, and the international community recognizes this.”

The crisis between the regional allies is the worst to hit the Gulf in decades.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and its allies also imposed sanctions on Doha, including closing its only land border, refusing Qatar access to their airspace and ordering their citizens back from Qatar.

And on June 22, they went on to present the emirate with a list of 13 demands with which to comply to resolve the crisis.

Kuwait has been trying to mediate the crisis and several top Western diplomats have toured the region to try to defuse the row, including US Secretary of States Rex Tillerson. AFP

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SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2017 Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor / Jimbo Gulle, Issue Editor

World

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

POST: SESSIONS DID TALK TO RUSSIAN ENVOY

ALL FOR SHOW. The Viking ship of the History Channel show’s ‘Vikings’ burns during the Viking Funeral Ceremony at San Diego Comic Con 2017 on Friday in San Diego, California. AFP

SEAN SPICER QUITS IN WHITE HOUSE SHAKEUP

W

ASHINGTON—White House press secretary Sean Spicer abruptly resigned Friday in protest at a major shake-up of Donald Trump’s scandal-tainted administration, as pressure mounted from a broadening investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci (left) replaces Sean Spicer (right) as President Donald Trump’s chief spokesman. AFP

Spicer quit after Trump named Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and one-time critic, as the new White House communications director -- a role Spicer had hoped to play.

“It’s been an honor & a privilege to serve @POTUS @realDonaldTrump & this amazing country.

I will continue my service through August,” Spicer tweeted.

In a written statement, Trump said he was “grateful” for Spicer’s work and praised his “great television ratings” -- a reference to Spicer’s keenly watched, combative and often-satirized news briefings.

“Spicer is a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media - but his future is bright!” Trump tweeted.

Spicer was replaced by deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

In an interview with Fox News, Spicer said he stepped aside to “not have too many cooks in the kitchen” to convey Trump’s message.

Trump used the occasion of Spicer’s departure to lash out at the media, claiming his administration had “accomplished so

much” and been “given credit for so little.”

“The good news is the people get it even if the media doesn’t,” Trump added.

Spicer’s resignation marked an escalation of tensions within an administration that has seen its legislative agenda falter at the same time it has been buffeted by an investigation into alleged collusion with Russia.

The Washington Post reported late Friday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, contrary to his prior testimony, discussed campaignrelated and policy matters with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, citing intelligence intercepts.

The report will heap pressure on Sessions, who already was on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing

by Trump over the Russia probe.

The president suggested Sessions had betrayed him in stepping away from the investigation.

And in another blow, Mark Corallo -- who was coordinating the Trump legal team’s public response to the Russia crisis -- told AFP that he, too, had stepped down. AFP

US DIALS UP PRESSURE ON IRAN OVER HOSTAGES WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s White House dialed up the pressure on Iran Friday, demanding the quick return of Americans detained in the Islamic Republic.

“President Trump is prepared to impose new and serious consequences on Iran unless all unjustly imprisoned American citizens are released and returned,” the White House said in a statement.

The tough warning comes just days after Trump rowed back on a campaign promise and upheld the Iran nuclear deal, while introducing new non-nuclear related sanctions.

The threat of prisoner-related sanctions opens a new front in tensions between Tehran and the Trump administration.

The measure comes after a Chinese American accused of “infiltration” in Iran was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The man was identified as Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old researcher at Princeton University.

US officials say Trump has taken a keen interest in the fate of Americans held overseas and was deeply affected by the case of Otto Warmbier, a student who was released last month

from a North Korean prison in a coma and died shortly after being sent back home.

“President Donald J. Trump and his Administration are redoubling efforts to bring home all Americans unjustly detained abroad,” the White House statement said.

“The United States condemns hostage takers and nations that continue to take hostages and detain our citizens without just cause or due process.”

The statement mentioned Xiyue Wang by name, along with Siamak and Baquer Namazi and ex-FBI agent and CIA contractor Robert Levinson -- who went missing in March 2007.

Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since April 1980 in the wake of the Islamic revolution, and tensions have sharpened under Trump after a brief warming under his predecessor, Barack Obama.

The two countries along with other major powers signed an accord July 14, 2015 aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program. Washington has continued to honor the accord despite Trump’s threats as a candidate last year to “rip it up.” AFP

MAN’S BEST FRIEND. Singer/songwriter Michael Ray and his rescue dog Wrigley show affection on the bus during Day 2 of the ‘Country Thunder in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin’ show on Friday. AFP

WASHINGTON—Embattled US Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed campaign-related issues with the Russian ambassador to Washington during the presidential race—something Sessions has insisted he did not do, The Washington Post reported late Friday.

The paper quoted current and former administration officials who cited US intelligence intercepts of Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts to his bosses in Moscow of two encounters he had with Sessions, then an adviser to Trump, during the campaign.

The report is certain to add more pressure on Sessions, whose job security is seen as being in jeopardy after President Donald Trump criticized him in scathing terms in an interview this week with The New York Times, saying he was sorry he had hired him.

Trump said he regretted the hiring because Sessions in March recused himself from overseeing an FBI-led probe into Russian meddling in the election in Trump’s favor and whether the Trump team colluded in that effort. AFP

MINNEAPOLIS IN FUROR OVER AUSSIE’S DEATH CHICAGO—Fallout intensified Friday from the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Australian woman, as Minneapolis’s police chief resigned, an angry crowd shouted down the mayor, and protesters filled streets for the second day in a row.

Police chief Janee Harteau resigned at the request of the Midwestern US city’s mayor, who herself faced calls to stepped down by an angry crowd that brought her Friday evening news conference to an abrupt end.

Meanwhile, protesters filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis, demanding - among other things - greater police accountability and reform. Some celebrated news of the police chief’s resignation.

Mayor Betsy Hodges promised to remain in her post, but said she understood the frustration of residents following the police shooting of Justine Damond last Saturday night, which has ignited an international outcry. AFP

LONDON HUNTS FOR WAYS TO STOP YOUTH STABBINGS LONDON—Nearly one young person a week has been stabbed to death in London so far this year, leaving British authorities hunting for ways to stop the increasing violence.

Twenty-seven people under the age of 25 have been stabbed to death in London since the start of 2017, according to figures from city hall.

The alarming figure is but “the tip of the iceberg” according to Patrick Green from the Ben Kinsella Trust, an educational organization set up in memory of a teenage stabbing victim.

Police registered more than 12,100 knife attacks which left 4,400 people injured between April last year and March, the highest figure in five years.

“Many of the victims of stabbing are left with permanent disabilities, permanent scars, and the most awful disability which isn’t reported is the mental trauma,” Green told AFP. “The fact that you recover doesn’t mean that you return to your normal life,” he added.

In contrast to widely held perceptions, most attacks are unrelated to organized crime. Three out of four cases involve individuals who carry a knife because they believe it will make them feel safer. AFP