The Boston Globe - 13.09.2019

A4 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

WASHINGTON — The
White House on Thursday
dropped its resistance to re-
leasing a package of military
assistance to Ukraine, amid a
bipartisan outcry from law-
makers and an open investi-
gation into whether President
Trump and his allies were dis-
torting the United States for-
eign aid program for their
own political benefit.
Senators Lindsey Graham,
Republican of South Carolina,
and Richard Durbin, Demo-
crat of Illinois, said the ad-

ministration told them

Wednesday night that it

would release $250 million,

which is intended partly to

train and equip Ukrainian

forces defending against a

Russian incursion.

The White House had pre-

viously requested a review of

the spending, ostensibly to

ensure it was being used to

further US policy interests.

But the delay prompted a

backlash from Republicans

and Democrats in Congress.

NEW YORK TIMES

US aid to Ukraine will go forward

MADRID — A large area of
southeast Spain was battered
Thursday by what in some
places was the heaviest rain-
fall on record, with the
storms wreaking widespread
destruction and killing at
least two people.
The regional emergency
service said a 51-year-old
woman and her 61-year-old
brother were found dead in-
side an overturned car that
floodwaters washed away in
Caudete.

Thefiredepartmentsaid

in a tweet that emergency

crews also pulled three people

from a river.

Four police were injured in

the rescue operation.

The Spanish weather ser-

vice AEMET classified the re-

gion as being ‘‘at extreme

risk’’ from torrential down-

pours. It forecast more down-

pours of up to 3½ inches an

hour and up to 7 inches over

24 hours.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Record storms leave 2 dead in Spain

BEIJING — Thick, gray,
soupy air used to be synony-
mous with this sprawling city
of 22 million.
No longer.
The Swiss firm IQAir
Airvisual said Thursday that
the Chinese capital could
drop out of the list of the
world’s 200 most polluted
cities, with concentrations of
small particulates falling to
their lowest level since re-
cords began in 2008.
The data, pulled from sen-
sors installed by the US Em-
bassy in Beijing and local
Chinese authorities, confirms
what many longtime resi-

dentshavereportedanecdot-

ally: a noticeable — if not to-

tal — improvement in the

city’s air in the last two years

as the government clamped

down on the burning of

coal for heating, shuttered

polluting factories, and kept

heavy trucks outside city lim-

its.

Despite the improvement

in the capital, however, other

regions appeared to be mov-

ing backward as local author-

ities sought to stoke growth

amid an economic slow-

down, said Lauri Myllyvirta

of Greenpeace.

WASHINGTON POST

Air quality improving in Beijing

Daily Briefing

The World

THEMBA HADEBE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

DISPUTE MARKS DAY OF MOURNING —People stampeded Thursday after the arrival of the coffin carrying

former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe at Rufaro Stadium in Harare, where Mugabe will lie in state for

a public viewing. Controversy has swirled over his family’s intention to hold a private burial ceremony.

By Aron Heller

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERUSALEM — Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-

tanyahu said Thursday that

continued rocket fire from Gaza

is making another war against

Palestinian militants in the

coastal strip inevitable, his lat-

est headline-grabbing an-

nouncement just days before he

seeks re-election.

Netanyahu said advanced

plans were in place to strike Ga-

za and that he would decide the

optimal timing of the offensive,

given the unwillingness of Ga-

za’s Hamas rulers to stop the

daily barrages.

The recent attacks have

caused no casualties. The Israe-

li military has responded with

limited strikes against Hamas

installations that have caused

no casualties and little damage,

and has refrained from risking

a larger conflagration as Israelis

prepare to head to the polls.

The Israeli leader has been

criticized for failing to respond

harshly to the rockets, which

have sent residents of southern

Israel racing for cover. Netanya-

hu, who counts on the working-

class, Gaza border towns as

part of his electoral base, was

himself whisked away by body-

guards from a campaign event

on Tuesday when Palestinian

militants fired rockets toward

the area.

Israel withdrew from the

Gaza Strip in 2005 and Hamas

militants seized power two

years later. Israel and Hamas

have fought three wars and en-

gaged in several other rounds of

violence over the past decade.

‘‘I do not wage war unless it

is a last resort and I don’t risk

the lives of our soldiers and citi-

zens just to get applause,’’ Ne-

tanyahu said in an interview

with Kan Reshet Bet Radio.

‘‘We will probably have no

choice but to set out on a big

campaign, a war against the

terror forces in Gaza.’’

‘‘I won’t start it one minute

before we are ready, and we are

preparing for a ‘different war’,’’

he added, shortly before flying

to Russia for a meeting with

President Vladimir Putin.

It was Netanyahu’s first ma-

jor interview with a main-

stream media outlet in a frenet-

ic campaign in which he has

been dictating the agenda with

a dizzying array of maneuvers.

Just this week, he alleged

fraud in Arab voting areas,

without providing any evi-

dence, and pushed for legisla-

tion to place cameras in polling

stations on election day. He also

claimed to have located a previ-

ously unknown Iranian nuclear

weapons facility and vowed to

annex the heart of the West

Bank if he wins re-election.

His pledge to extend Israeli

sovereignty over the Jordan

Valley sparked international

condemnation. Stephane Du-

jarric, spokesman for the UN

secretary-general, said it would

be a ‘‘serious violation of inter-

national law.’’

Jordan, one of only two Arab

states to have reached a peace

agreement with Israel, con-

demned Netanyahu’s ‘‘cata-

strophic’’ announcement.

‘‘It will not only undermine

the two-state solution, which

the whole world sees as the only

path toward resolving this con-

flict, but it will kill the whole

peace process,’’ Foreign Minis-

ter Ayman al-Safadi said.

Saudi Arabia, a regional

power that has grown closer to

Israel in recent years, also con-

demned the move.

Netanyahu said it was im-

portant to act now as President

Trump prepares to unveil his

Mideast peace plan after the

elections next Tuesday in Israel.

In a statement issued

Wednesday evening, the Rus-

sian Foreign Ministry said it

took note of Netanyahu’s an-

nouncement and the ‘‘highly

negative reaction in the Arab

world.’’ It said it would share its

concerns with Israel since ‘‘im-

plementation could trigger a

sharp escalation in the region

and undermine hopes for estab-

lishing a lasting peace between

Israel and its Arab neighbors.’’

Prior to his departure to

Sochi, Netanyahu said the focus

of his talks with Putin would be

to promote the ‘‘joint goal’’ of

removing Iranian forces from

neighboring Syria.

Israel warns of conflict in Gaza

Netanyahusays

warinevitable

amidrocketfire

By Ruth Eglash

WASHINGTON POST

JERUSALEM — Israel on

Thursday denied a report by

Washington-based news site

Politico claiming that it had

placed cellphone surveillance

devices in sensitive locations

around Washington, including

near the White House.

According to the report,

which cited three anonymous

former senior US officials ‘‘with

knowledge of the matter,’’ the

equipment — devices that mim-

ic cell towers, fooling cell-

phones into giving them their

locations and identity informa-

tion — was discovered some

time ago.

However, Israel has faced no

reprimand or consequences for

the alleged action, with the re-

port suggesting the violation

has been downplayed due to

the exceptionally close ties be-

tween President Trump and Is-

raeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu.

The report comes at a sensi-

tive time, with Israelis return-

ing to the polls next week for a

second general election this

year as Netanyahu fights to

hold on to his office. It also

comes in a week where Trump

appears to be breaking ranks

with the Israeli leader’s unwav-

ering narrative on Iran, indicat-

ing the possibility of meeting

with Iranian President Hassan

Rouhani.

Netanyahu has been fierce

in his lobbying of Trump, urg-

ing him to pull out of the con-

troversial 2015 nuclear pact

with Iran and consistently

pushing the United States for

increasing economic sanctions

against its regional archenemy.

Last week, Netanyahu spent

a day in London, meeting with

British Prime Minister Boris

Johnson, and visiting Secretary

of Defense Mark Esper to dis-

cuss, he said, Iranian entrench-

ment in the Middle East, partic-

ularly on Israel’s northern bor-

der. On Thursday, Netanyahu

headed to Sochi, Russia, to

meet with President Vladimir

Putin.

Following publication of the

Politico report, Netanyahu

called the claims ‘‘an absolute

lie.’’

‘‘There is a longstanding

commitment and a directive

from the Israeli government

not to engage in any intelli-

gence operations in the US.

This directive is strictly en-

forced without exception,’’ said

a statement from Netanyahu’s

bureau.

Israel’s minister of foreign

affairs and intelligence, Israel

Katz, also denied that Israel

had installed listening devices

in the United States.

Charles Freilich, a former

national security adviser in Is-

rael and an analyst on US-Israel

relations also said the report

was likely false.

‘‘There are ‘dramatic’ reports

of Israeli spying in the US every

few years, when someone in the

administration does not like Is-

rael or an Israeli policy and

tries to use lingering American

suspicions, ever since Jonathan

Pollard, to sabotage the rela-

tionship,’’ he said.

Pollard was a former US Na-

vy analyst who was found guilty

of spying for Israel in the ‘80s

and spent three decades in jail.

He was freed in 2015 by Presi-

dent Barack Obama, but his

fate continues be a source of

discomfort for Israelis, with the

United States continuing to re-

fuse his request to immigrate to

Israel.

Official denies report country set

up spying devices in Washington

‘Wewillprobably

havenochoicebut

tosetoutonabig

campaign,awar

againsttheterror

forcesinGaza.’

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU,

Israeli prime minister

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