South Korea fires warning shots at Russian military aircraft

South Korea says its jets fired hundreds of warning shots at a Russian surveillance plane that entered its airspace on Tuesday.

Officials said the plane twice violated the airspace over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands, which are occupied by Seoul but also claimed by Japan.

South Korea’s Ministry of Defence said it scrambled fighter jets in response and fired 360 warning shots.

Russia has denied violating the country’s airspace.

Moscow said two of its bombers carried out a planned drill over “neutral waters” and denied any warning shots were fired by South Korean jets.

This is the first incident of its kind between Russia and South Korea.

Puerto Rico police fire teargas on thousands of protesters calling for governor to resign

• US island territory hit by general strike
• Ricardo Rosselló insists: ‘I am a good man’

Oliver Laughland in New York and Norbert Figueroa in San Juan

Mon 22 Jul 2019 19.26 BST

Police in San Juan fired tear gas on Monday night to disperse thousands of protesters demanding Puerto Rico’s governor resign over offensive chat messages, the latest scandal to hit a bankrupt island struggling to recover from 2017 hurricanes.

Police moved in at about 11pm to break up protesters still on the streets of San Juan’s old city following day-long demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of residents. It follows Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s attempt to cling on to power despite resigning as president of the ruling New Progressive party and announcing he will not run for re-election next year.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro restricts drugs policy council, legalizes agritoxins

It was a busy day for the president, who stripped the drug policy council of independent members and legalized dozens of agritoxins. Jair Bolsonaro wants tighter control of Brazil’s deforestation data.

President Jair Bolsonaro wants tighter control of government data on deforestation. He spoke just days after accusing Brazil’s space agency, the INPE, of falsifying data.

Data released by the INPE in July data shows deforestation accelerating — raising concerns as officials negotiate an EU trade deal. Bolsonaro said his Cabinet should review data before the INPE releases it.

The president came out swinging at regulators Monday. His Agriculture Ministry authorized 51 pesticides and herbicides, bringing the number of agritoxins permitted to 290 in the just over half a year of his government so far.

Hong Kong police criticised for failing to protect protesters from attacks

Hong Kong police faced criticism on Monday for an apparent failure to protect anti-government protesters and passersby from attack by what opposition politicians suspected were gang members at a train station over the weekend.

US expands fast-track deportations of undocumented migrants

The Trump administration to expand its powers to deport migrants without allowing them to appear before court.

The administration of US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that it will vastly extend the authority of immigration officers to deport migrants without allowing them to appear before judges, its second major policy shift on immigration in eight days.

Starting on Tuesday, fast-track deportations can apply to anyone in the United States illegally for less than two years.

Previously, those deportations were largely limited to people arrested almost immediately after crossing the Mexican border.

Kyoto arson suspect likely spent hours scouting anime studio area

The suspect in last week’s deadly arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co studio may have walked for hours scouting the area and that of the nearby company headquarters the day before the fire, investigative sources said Tuesday.

Shinji Aoba, 41, who allegedly ignited the fire that left 34 people dead in the three-story studio building in Kyoto on Thursday, likely bought empty gasoline containers at a hardware store located directly 5 kilometers from the studio, put them on a handcart and pushed it all the way to the area of the targeted buildings, they said.

The walk could have taken more than an hour as anyone trying to get to the anime studio from the store needs to use a bridge to cross a river and to pass through a complex residential area.

Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson is as likely to avoid an Irish backstop as fly to the moon
by Simon Jenkins, The Guardian
Mon 22 Jul 2019

Build that wall! Build that wall! So Donald Trump’s fans roared their support for his xenophobic rants. So scream fans of Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit. He wants walls against the EU in place by 31 October. But he has no more idea than Trump about how to erect them. This is despite having been foreign secretary and with a former Brexit negotiator, Dominic Raab, at his side.

You cannot be outside a customs union and not have a border. You cannot have friction and no friction. A bureaucratic mountain of technology may withdraw the border some miles back, but somewhere there must be tariffs, payments, forms, regulation and inspection. A 40% tariff on a shipment of lamb is a barrier, wherever it gets levied. A chlorinated chicken inspection is a wall, wherever it is done.

In the Telegraph today, the only answer Johnson could give to this paradox is casually to refer to the moon. If the Apollo mission, he writes, “could use hand-knitted computer codes to make a frictionless re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere, we can solve the problem of frictionless trade at the Northern Ireland border”. This trivialises what, for thousands of businesses, is now misery and, in the case of farmers, bankruptcy.
…
While no-deal Brexit may merely cause severe and costly disruption at Dover and other sea- and airports, the open roads of Northern Ireland cannot be so policed. No deal will mean anarchy, or state-sponsored banditry. Johnson continues to claim he can avoid a “hard Irish border”. But he still wants a hard border with the EU, so where is it to be? It can only be down the Irish Sea. Bang goes whatever is left of Johnson’s commons majority.

There is no majority anywhere, except in Johnson’s scrambled brain, for a no-deal Brexit. As Whitehall officials – if not men in white coats – gather round him in the coming weeks, they will tell him a brutal truth, political as much as administrative. He needs a deal badly, and the only route to that deal is through Dublin.

Johnson must go at once to Dublin and promise its prime minister, Leo Varadkar, to safeguard an open Irish border, which means a de facto customs union, for the time being. That is the only hope of Ireland inducing the EU27 to unlock some cosmetic redrafting of the withdrawal agreement – without which they will simply not play ball. Whatever humble pie he must swallow, Johnson must return from Dublin with a deal. So much for “taking back control”.

Trade is not about control but about power. The UK has little power against its bigger neighbour. If it wanted power it should have stayed in the EU, or at the very least in Thatcher’s single market. Johnson sacrificed such power to outflank his rivals for the leadership. He must now pay the price for that chicanery. An awful awakening beckons. If Johnson cannot get a Northern Ireland deal he faces parliamentary armageddon. Perhaps he can fly to the moon.

‘Where were the police?’ Hong Kong outcry after masked thugs launch attack

Showtunes!

Still traveling. I’d have to stream it later anyway.

Beyoncé

Blighty