The Wall Street Journal - 09.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, August 9, 2019 |A

WORLD NEWS

Iran’s disruptions of Persian
Gulf oil shipments are putting
the country’s leaders in a diffi-
cult position as they retaliate
against foes while trying not to
irritate their remaining allies.
Tehran captured two U.K.-
connected vessels in the Per-
sian Gulf on July 19, two
weeks after Britain seized an
Iranian oil tanker near Gibral-
tar it accused of exporting oil
to Syria in breach of European
Union sanctions. Iran, which
had threatened to respond to
its vessel’s seizure, also de-
tained an Emirati-based ship it
accused of smuggling.
The seizures were in keeping
with Iran’s vow to disrupt mar-
itime traffic in the Strait of
Hormuz as a retaliatory show
of force after the U.S. banned
Iranian oil exports. The U.K.,
though it is working with other
European countries to salvage
the international nuclear deal
with Iran, was singled out by
Tehran as a target after the Gi-
braltar incident and now faces
the same threat as adversaries
like the U.S., Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates.
But Iran’s strategy has also
vexed the country’s remaining
trade partners, including India,
China and Iraq. Dozens of crew
members aboard the seized
ships have been Indian and
one of the ships temporarily
seized was chartered by China.
“It’s like mutual-assured de-
struction. Everything is a po-

tential collateral damage,” said

Helima Croft, chief commodi-

ties strategist at Canadian

broker RBC. “You think you

get a British tanker and you

get an Indian crew.”

When Iran’s Islamic Revolu-

tionary Guard Corps boarded

the Liberian-flagged Mesdar on

July 19 as it headed to Saudi

Arabia to load crude, Iranian

state media identified the ves-

sel as British because it is

managed by Glasgow-based op-

erator Norbulk Shipping U.K.

But as Iranian forces began

forcing the vessel into its wa-

ters, Iran received urgent calls

from the vessel’s real owner:

Algeria, whose state-run oil

company Sonatrach is the

Mesdar’s ultimate beneficiary.

Algeria maintains cordial

BYBENOITFAUCON

Iran Risks Angering Allies With Tanker Seizures

An IRGC speedboat navigates around the U.K.-flagged Stena Impero on July 21 in the port of Bandar Abbas, two days after Iran seized it.

HASAN SHIRVANI/MIZAN NEWS AGENCY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

To keep potential trespass-

ers at bay, others have turned

to visual signals. A tech worker

in Georgia installed a light-up

sign that reads “on air” above

the door to his office; flipping

it on is a signal for his wife to

keep their three kids quiet.

Laura Stack, a productivity

consultant based in Colorado,

has had success rolling out

caution tape, not unlike the po-

lice might deploy at the scene

of a crime, to block the en-

trance to her office. “My chil-

dren, even at 4 and 5, knew do

not come through here unless

someone’s bleeding,” she said.

She urges clients to fasten “do

not disturb” signs over door-

bells and install privacy

screens around computers to

block out embarrassing

ephemera—like dirty laundry

or suggestive movie posters—

that might be in view during a

video conference.

Workers say even when

they’re being paranoid, things

still go wrong. Dana Kennedy

checked that her mute button

telling the truth—it’s possible

she confessed for no reason.

“That makes it even more

embarrassing,” she said.

Meeting organizers at insur-

ance company National Life

Group now automatically mute

a 50-person conference call for

remote sales advisers after a

rogue rooster punctuated the

end of each participant’s dia-

logue with a cock-a-doodle-

doo. They aren’t sure where

the fowl noise came from.

“It didn’t feel random,” said

Carey Earle, a marketing exec-

utive who helps organize the

call. “It felt like the rooster

was participating in some

strange way.” Now the call is

opened up only at the end so

participants can ask questions.

Sometimes no amount of

safeguarding can prevent a

breach. Tim Zallmann, a direc-

tor of engineering at fully re-

mote company GitLab, joined a

video call from South Africa

when one of his colleagues

started pointing vigorously

through his laptop screen.

“I turned around and

screamed, very loud and very

high pitched,” Mr. Zallmann

said. A monkey was halfway

through the window behind

him. It retreated, and Mr. Zall-

mann threw down his laptop,

shut the window and secured

the perimeter of the rest of the

house.

Employers that allow full-

time telecommuting rose 4

percentage points to 27% in

2019 from the prior year, ac-

cording to a recent survey

from the Society for Human

Resource Management, and

nearly 70% of employers said

they let people work from

home on an ad hoc basis.

In June, Andrew Froning, a

32-year-old sales development

manager at software-maker

Justworks, took advantage of

his company’s “work from any-

where” week to visit his par-

ents in Washington state. Hun-

kered down in their home

office, he found himself wel-

coming a surprise guest to a

routine sales meeting—his

mom. She began rifling

through the desk drawers

where he was videoconferenc-

ing in search of her coupons.

When she realized she was on

air live, “she just started chat-

ting,” he said. Next year, dur-

ing work from anywhere week,

he plans to go abroad, partly

to avoid making calls from his

parents’ house.

After the call with his shirt-

less counterpart, Mr. Trahan,

head of business development

at software company CircleCI,

worked to avoid a similar fate.

He became religious about

checking that his chat wasn’t

defaulting to video and in-

stalled a plastic camera

blocker on his laptop as a sec-

ond layer of defense.

“You have a near massively

embarrassing experience, you

want to make sure this never

happens to you,” he said. Nei-

ther of them has ever men-

tioned the phone call faux pas

to each other, he said, and

when they interact now, they

pretend it didn’t happen.

WORLDWATCH

relations with Iran—a rarity

among Arab nations—and has

frequently opposed unilateral

sanctions against the Islamic

Republic. A crisis team led by

the Algerian ministries of for-

eign affairs and energy ob-

tained the ship’s release

within just over an hour,

Sonatrach said in a subse-

quent statement.

Even more awkward for Iran

was that the tanker had been

contracted to carry oil for Uni-

pec, the trading arm of Chinese

state energy companyChina Pe-

troleum & Chemical Corp., also

known as Sinopec, Sonatrach

said. Sinopec didn’t respond to

a request to comment.

The Chinese company re-

mains an investor in Iran’s

mammoth Yadavaran oil field.

China remains Tehran’s last

main crude buyer, now that

U.S. sanctions have scared off

its biggest customers in Eu-

rope and India. China im-

ported 208,205 barrels a day

of Iranian oil in June, a third

of its level a year ago, accord-

ing to Chinese customs data.

“The normal cooperation

between China and Iran, in-

cluding in the field of energy,

is just, legitimate and legal,”

said a representative for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs in

Beijing. “We hope such legiti-

mate rights will be respected

and protected.”

The day Iran’s Islamic Revo-

lutionary Guard Corps forces

stormed the Algerian-owned

Mesdar, the Guard also seized

the U.K.-flagged Stena Impero,

which is owned by a Swedish

company and was manned by a

mostly Indian crew. The deten-

tion of both the vessel and its

18 Indian sailors has become a

cause célèbre in Kerala, a

southern Indian state from

where four of the crew hail.

Indian lawmakers and pro-

vincial officials with TV crews

in tow descended on the

weeping parents of the ves-

sel’s messman, Dijo Papac-

chan. They promised to lobby

the government in New Delhi

for the crew’s hasty return.

India’s foreign-ministry

spokesman Raveesh Kumar said

the Indian Embassy in Tehran

was granted consular access to

the detained 18 crew members.

“We continue working with Ira-

nian authorities to secure their

early release,” Mr. Kumar said.

Sweden’s Stena last week

expressed “growing concern

for the welfare of the crew who

are confined to the vessel.”

The collateral victims of the

incidents underscore broader

risks for Iran as it seeks to tar-

get oil flows: Most oil-laden

tankers in the region are bound

for ports in Asian nations—

countries that have trade ties

with both Iran and its regional

rival Saudi Arabia. And it is

largely the citizens of those na-

tions who staff vessels.

One in four officers aboard

vessels in the Middle East,

Asia and Africa region is In-

dian, according to consulting

firm Deloitte.

—Lekai Liu in Beijing

contributed to this article.

FROM PAGE ONE

about South Korea on the BBC.
Four-year-old Marion jauntily
bounded into the room sidling
up to her father’s desk; baby
James followed in a walker.
Mr. Kelly is now on high alert
and recommends “physical ob-
struction.”
“I like throw all kinds of
stuff in the hallway in front of
my door. I’ll put chairs and pil-
lows,” he said. Even so, his
children, now 6 and 3, occa-
sionally still breach the barri-
cade. “Sometimes if you hear
me do the interview and my
voice goes up it’s because my
kids are pounding at the door,”
he said. “Yeah. That’s a prob-
lem.”

ContinuedfromPageOne

Workers

Plan for

Video Calls

ISRAEL

Off-Duty Soldier

Killed in West Bank

An off-duty Israeli soldier was
found stabbed to death near a
West Bank settlement early
Thursday, prompting a manhunt
for the killer in what the Israeli
military called a terrorist attack.
The soldier, identified as 19-
year-old Dvir Sorek from the
Gush Etzion settlement bloc sit-
uated in the southern West
Bank, wasn’t in uniform when he
was killed, a spokesman for the
Israeli military said.
The military is investigating
whether Mr. Sorek was killed
during a kidnapping attempt by
militants, the spokesman added.
The military didn’t say why it
believed Mr. Sorek’s death was a
terrorist attack.
No one has claimed responsi-
bility for Mr. Sorek’s killing. But
Hamas, the Palestinian militant
group that controls the Gaza
Strip, praised multiple attackers
but stopped short of taking re-
sponsibility.
Mr. Sorek was a student at a
religious seminary where stu-
dents study Judaism while also
completing their military service.
—Dov Lieber

AUSTRALIA

Lawmaker’s Remarks

Stoke China Tensions

An influential Australian law-
maker has likened China’s rise to
that of Nazi Germany, in com-
ments that risk exacerbating
tensions with Beijing and under-
score the U.S. ally’s challenge in
balancing security ties with
America and relations with its
most important trade partner.
The lawmaker, Andrew Hastie,
head of the powerful intelligence

and security committee in the

Australian Parliament, wrote in a

column published in the Sydney

Morning Herald newspaper

Thursday that China poses a se-

curity and economic challenge

unseen in the world for decades,

warning “choices will be made

for us” if Beijing’s ambi-

tions go unchallenged.

Mr. Hastie said that

while Western nations once

hoped economic liberalization

would lead to a more democratic

China, it is becoming clear that

the world risks underestimating

the Communist government in

the same way France misjudged

the threat of Nazi Germany.

China’s diplomatic mission in

Canberra hit back at the re-

marks, urging Australian law-

makers to “take off their ‘col-

ored lens’ and view China’s

development path in an objec-

tive and rational way.”

—Rob Taylor

KYRGYZSTAN

Ex-Leader Arrested

After Clashes

Police in Kyrgyzstan detained

the Central Asian nation’s ex-

president Thursday following vi-

olent clashes with his support-

ers, a day after a previous

attempt to arrest him left one

policeman dead and nearly 80

people injured.

The violence has raised the

threat of a new round of turmoil

in the ex-Soviet nation.

Almazbek Atambayev, who

was in office from 2011 to 2017,

accused his successor and one-

time protégé Sooronbai Jeen-

bekov of fabricating false crimi-

nal charges against him to stifle

criticism. He urged his support-

ers to rally Thursday to demand

Mr. Jeenbekov’s resignation.

—Associated Press

ROME—Matteo Salvini,

head of Italy’s far-right,

sought to trigger snap elec-

tions by declaring an end to

the government in which he

serves, exploiting his strong

lead in opinion polls in a bid

to make himself the country’s

next leader.

Mr. Salvini said on Thurs-

day that differences between

his anti-immigration League

party and its larger coalition

partner, the antiestablishment

5 Star Movement, had become

irreconcilable.

The statement brought It-

aly’s populist government

close to an end after only 15

months in power.

“Let’s go immediately to

Parliament to establish that

there is no longer a major-

ity...and let’s quickly let the

voters have their say,” Mr. Sal-

vini said.

His move followed weeks of

intensifying tensions and spec-

ulation about the govern-

ment’s survival.

The awkward coalition has

foundered on the contradic-

tions between the conflicting

brands of populism of League,

a nativist, pro-business party,

and the environmentalist, pro-

welfare 5 Star Movement.

The path to elections isn’t

straightforward. Parliament

would have to reconvene early

to hold a vote of no-confi-

dence in the government. Ital-

ian President Sergio Mat-

tarella would then consult

party leaders to see if another

governing majority can be as-

sembled.

Only if that fails would the

president dissolve Parliament,

leading to elections around

two months later.

The 5 Star Movement’s

leader, Luigi Di Maio, said his

party stood ready for elec-

tions, but appealed for delay-

ing them until after Parlia-

ment has passed a

constitutional change aimed at

cutting the number of law-

makers in Italy’s bloated two-

chamber legislature. The

change is currently scheduled

to be debated in September.

On paper, Mr. Salvini is It-

aly’s deputy prime minister

and interior minister and the

party he leads, the League, is

the junior partner in Italy’s

governing coalition.

In practice, he is Italy’s

dominant politician and a fig-

urehead of populist politics in

the European Union.

Around 38% of Italians in

polls say they would vote for

Mr. Salvini, who routinely lam-

bastes Italian elites, immi-

grants and the EU.

That level of electoral back-

ing could give the League

enough seats in Parliament to

lead a new government with

support from smaller right-

wing parties.

The 5 Star won the support

of one in three Italians in na-

tional elections in March 2018.

But they have struggled to

adapt from grass-roots activ-

ism to government.

Mr. Salvini has repeatedly

maneuvered the 5 Star’s inex-

perienced leaders into deci-

sions, from immigration crack-

downs to infrastructure

projects, that hurt their popu-

larity while swelling the

League’s.

In recent days, Mr. Salvini

stripped down and mingled

with beachgoers on Italy’s

Adriatic coast.

When liberal Italian media

criticized his shirtless appear-

ances as undignified, Mr. Sal-

vini shot back with a popular

saying: “A man with a belly is

a man of substance.”

“By showing his seminude

body, he’s saying: ‘I am like

you!Iamfatlikeyou,Isweat

like you.’ This makes people

feel that he embodies them,

that they are in government,

in the system, through him.

It’s a new form of representa-

tion,” said Nadia Urbinati, a

politics professor at Columbia

University.

Elections this fall would

clash with the need to draw up

a budget. Italy is already

struggling to rein in its deficit

and comply with EU rules

against debt-fueled spending.

Mr. Salvini wants sharp tax

cuts to spur Italy’s economy,

which has flatlined over the

past year.

Finance Minister Giovanni

Tria, a nonpartisan economist,

has resisted a bigger deficit.

A new, League-led govern-

ment would give Mr. Salvini a

freer hand to cut taxes and

run a bigger deficit. Protests

by EU officials would be un-

likely to deter him unless bond

markets also balked.

BYMARCUSWALKER

Italian Populist Pushes Snap Election

Strong Surge

Matteo Salvini's League party has pulled ahead

of its governing partner in opinion polls.

Sources: SWG survey of 1,500 Italian adults between July 24-27; margin of error: ±2.5 pct. pts.;

Italian interior ministry (election results)

0% 10 20 30 40

Governing coalition

League

5 Star Movement

Opposition

Democratic Party

Brothers of Italy

Forza Italia

Other parties

Latest poll

2018 national election

‘Let’s quickly let the voters have

their say,’ Matteo Salvini said.

GIUSEPPE LAMI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

was on three times before tak-

ing her phone into the bath-

room during a conference call

that was stretching into its

third hour. She flushed, then

walked back to her desk and

sneezed, prompting one of two

clients on the phone to re-

spond with a “Bless you.”

“I just spent the rest of the

call just dying inside,” she said.

She doesn’t know how it hap-

pened.

Obsessed with figuring out

whether her covert bathroom

break had been broadcast, she

asked a more-senior colleague

who had been on the call. He

demurred, saying he hadn’t

heard. She’s not sure if he was

Employees say even

when they’re being

paranoid, things

still go wrong.