TDB Top 5 International Stories: Wednesday 18th January 2017

5: We Talked to an Ex-KGB Colonel and Putin Critic About the Trump-Russia Dossier

Gennady Gudkov, a former deputy in Russia’s parliament, talks to VICE News about kompromat’s long history and continued use in modern Russia.

The salacious allegations about President-elect Donald Trump made in a dossier authored by an ex-British intelligence officer have brought the old Soviet practice of ‘kompromat’—the gathering of compromising material—to the forefront.

Gennady Gudkov, a former deputy in Russia’s parliament, is known for his vocal criticism of President Putin and his party United Russia. He’s also a former KGB and FSB colonel. VICE News spoke with Gudkov about kompromat’s long history and its continued use in modern Russia.

Vice News

4: NoDAPL: Standing Rock and the ‘Deep North’

Standing Rock Indian Reservation, United States – Early last month, more than 2,000 veterans gathered at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota in a show of solidarity with protesters camped there, who opposed the proposed Dakota Access pipeline. The veterans were drawn by pictures and video of fire hoses, police dogs, and rubber bullets being used against protesters.

For many people following the story, these images evoked ones from the civil rights movement in the 1960s; but for some activists and Native residents of the Dakotas, this comparison is all too real.

“We are the Mississippi of the North,” Native American activist Winona LaDuke told reporters at the camp. “Welcome to the Deep North. It’s not just about the pipeline. Civil society could use a little help out here.”

Aljazeera

3:  EPA UNDER SCOTT PRUITT COULD COST THE U.S. BILLIONS IN ADDITIONAL HEALTH CARE COSTS

Supporters of Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency clearly believe the Oklahoma attorney general would be good for business. A climate denier and avowed foe of the agency he’s poised to head, Pruitt appeals to conservatives because he understands “that regulations affect our property rights, our ability to compete, and our livelihoods,” according Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, III, who joined Pruitt in suing the EPA over air pollution limits. Among the 23 ultra-right groups that signed a statement supporting Pruitt posted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute are the Exxon-funded Frontiers of Freedom and several groups tied to the Koch brothers, including the Independent Women’s Voice, and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

Coal and oil companies are probably correct that Pruitt, whose Senate confirmation hearing will be held Wednesday, would save them money, at least in the short run. The Oklahoma attorney general teamed up with companies that were subject to federal environmental regulations in 13 of his 14 attempts to roll back these measures through the courts. But what about the cost to the public? Although it’s hard to precisely quantify all the devastation a Pruitt EPA could wreak, consider the financial stakes of just one case. In 2011, Pruitt filed suit — along with Murray Energy, Peabody Energy, and Southern Power Company, all of whom donated to Pruitt and his political action committee — against the EPA challenging the agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR).

The Intercept

2: Hard Brexit will hurt UK more, say EU diplomats and business leaders

European leaders and industry chiefs welcomed the clarity brought by Theresa May’s Brexit speech, but said the course she had chosen would hurt Britain more than the remaining EU member states.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, summed up the bloc’s official reaction in a tweet: “Sad process, surrealistic times, but at least more realistic announcement on Brexit. EU27 united and ready to negotiate after article 50.”

Less officially, Volker Treier, of the German chamber of industry and commerce, made it clear that Britain’s departure from the single market and customs union would do substantial damage to business ties between the UK and Germany.

The Guardian 

1: Xi Jinping signals China will champion free trade if Trump builds barriers

China’s premier, Xi Jinping, has delivered a strong defence of globalisation, serving notice to Donald Trump that Beijing will seek to usurp America’s traditional role as the champion of free trade and open markets.

Xi used an hour-long address to the World Economic Forum (WEF) to take a number of sideswipes at the US president-elect, attacking Trump’s protectionist views without mentioning him by name.

In the first speech by a Chinese president at the annual Davos meeting of global political and business leaders, Xi said China would keep its borders open, stressed that there would be no winners from a trade war, and urged that all countries continued to support the 2015 Paris climate change accord.

The Guardian