The Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona is preparing for contract talks with Liberty Media, and the venue is hoping to remain the home of the Spanish Grand Prix beyond 2019.

At a time when the future of several historical European races – Silverstone, Hockenheim and Monza – remains uncertain, Barcelona’s management joins the chorus of tracks seeking better financial conditions with Formula One.

However, the venue’s negotiating power could be limited given that Liberty Media has “alternatives” to Barcelona.

“We have to know how to play the cards we have,” said Circuit de Catalunya boss Vicenc Aguilera.

“When we face a contract renewal, we must look at our ability to generate revenue, what we pay for the contract, the conditions under which we manage the grand prix — there are many variables and we will see how it progresses.”

Silverstone boss won’t pay ‘any price’ to retain British GP

Like other circuits, Barcelona relies on subsidies to make ends meet with F1’s demands. But according to Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo, the local government’s financial aid is set to be cut from 2.5M euros to 1.5M euros.

“The health of the circuit is clearly good in its structure,” said Aguilera, “but financially it is mediocre.

“We are not able to generate resources and cope with losses due to the current harsh conditions. We need extra contributions.

“We have had an agreement that has lasted three years and now we have to consider what to do for 2020. In 2019 there are elections right after the grand prix and we will see what happens.”

Formula 1 will visit Barcelona twice next year, for the Grand Prix scheduled at mid-May, and two and a half months earlier for pre-season testing which will take place February 18-21 and February 26-March 1.

Despite the adverse weather that wreaked havoc on this year’s pre-season testing at Barcelona, fellow track boss Joan Fontsere convinced F1 teams to return to Catalunya this winter.

“It was the hardest negotiation that I have faced to date,” he said.

“This year’s snowfall did not help because the teams want to test in optimal conditions, but the commitment to improvement and those who appreciate the circuit in technical terms meant they decided to stay.”

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The Trump administration’s trade war is ravaging exports to China across the U.S. and well beyond the farm belt, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show.

More than 30 states, stretching from Florida to Alaska, suffered double-digit drops in merchandise exports to China through September. Sales to the Asian nation fell 39% in Texas, the No.1 China-exporting state with a heavy concentration on oil and gas products.

In Alabama, which touts its status as the No. 3 auto-exporting state in the U.S., total shipments to China plunged 49% in the first nine months of the year. Florida’s merchandise sales to the country slumped 40% in the period, while West Virginia and Wisconsin each saw drops of about 25%. Product exports to China from the U.S. as a whole dropped 15% to $78.8 billion.

California, the second-largest state exporter to China, has fared better than many other states, but still saw its outbound shipments drop 8%.

“Chinese demand for imports overall has been weak,” said Brad Setser, senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. The recovery time for various U.S. products will depend on the nature of the trade deal, he said.

“In some cases, U.S. exports will never recover,” he added.

Washington state, home of Boeing’s industrial base, saw total Chinese merchandise exports fall 45% through the third quarter amid the grounding of the 737 Max, the company’s best-selling jet.

China has struck back in the trade war by imposing duties on about $135 billion of U.S. goods, targeting farming products such as soybeans and pork, motorcycles, cosmetics and wigs. With talks underway for a phase-one deal, Beijing has re-upped its demands for the removal of tariffs that the U.S. has put on $360 billion of Chinese imports.

Exports to China support more than a million U.S. jobs, according to the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents American companies doing business in China.

Amid the Chinese export carnage are a few bright spots. Buyers are still snapping up semiconductors made in Oregon, primarily by Intel Corp., which operates one of its biggest manufacturing plants in the state. Oregon’s total exports to China surged 65% in the nine months, according to the data. Only about a third of the state’s products are affected by the proposed tariffs, according to Business Oregon spokesman Nathan Buehler, who said semiconductors for the most part are exempt.

Similarly, South Carolina’s sales to China jumped 30% through September, partly on airplane exports. Some Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner planes are made in the state, and about 17% of those aircraft to date have been sold to China. The Chinese were set to buy 100 more Boeing wide-body jets, including the 787 and 777X, but the deal has stalled on trade uncertainties.

Indeed, neither South Carolina nor Oregon officials are complacent about the future of their Chinese exports.

“It’s the uncertainty that provides so much concern,” Buehler said, noting that potential new tariffs are an obstacle for existing exporters and a barrier for companies weighing the costs of entry. “There’s lots of angst.”

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When Los Angeles’ Red Line subway was completed in 2000, it’s northernmost station appeared desolate above ground.

People arriving in North Hollywood on the underground train rode up a grand escalator past tile murals to find themselves on an expanse of asphalt parking lots, where commuters could rush through free of temptation to linger over so much as a cup of coffee. It looked like what it was — the end of the line.

Thousands of apartments and some plush office buildings have been added nearby in intervening years, but the prime real estate around the portal is still mostly bare, waiting on a long-imagined development where people might live, work, shop for groceries and have drinks or dinner.

That vision is finally taking shape, with developers and transit officials set to apply Monday for city permission to build a $1-billion mixed-use complex that would surround the subway entrance and adjacent hub for connecting bus routes, including the well-traveled Orange Line to Warner Center and Chatsworth.

The latest proposal by developer Trammell Crow Co. and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls for a village called District NoHo that would include apartments, offices, stores, bars and restaurants. It would be the largest development at an MTA station in an era that has seen a flurry of construction around train stops as new rail lines branch out around the county.

“We probably won’t have an opportunity like this again,” said Wells Lawson, a senior director in the MTA’s joint development group.

Development sites around the NoHo train station were assembled by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which was disbanded in 2012. Other new stations such as those being built along Wilshire Boulevard are in densely developed neighborhoods, making it harder to find adjacent sites for new construction.

But in North Hollywood, Trammell Crow and its housing group High Street Residential have nearly 16 acres to create a community with 1,500 apartments, a 10-story office tower and various dining and entertainment options. There would be about three acres of open space that could be used for leisure or public gatherings, including live entertainment events.

“Our goal is to create a project of regional significance that would bring to the Valley a live-work-play dense urban environment,” said Brad Cox of High Street Residential. “The east Valley doesn’t really have a true urban node.”

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The apartments are to be divided among six different buildings, with two of them containing a combined 300 units designated affordable, or 20% of the total. Renters who earn no more than 60% of the area’s median income at the time would qualify for a lottery to become residents.

The other 1,200 units are to rent at market rates, and Cox anticipates that many of the occupants will work in the entertainment industry. Nearby via train are Universal City, Burbank and Hollywood.

North Hollywood, meanwhile, has long been known as a home to people in performing arts, and the arrival of the subway two decades ago only bolstered its reputation, said Abbey Ehman of Trammell Crow.

“It’s considered the dance capital of the world,” Ehman said, and the NoHo Arts District near the station has about 20 live theaters including the El Portal, which opened as a vaudeville house in 1926.

A few paces from the transit terminal on Lankershim Boulevard is the home of the Television Academy, where a gold 27-foot Emmy Award statue commands its courtyard.

“There are a lot of working artists in the community,” Lawson said. “Ensuring they have a place to live and work in the community is really important.”

Retaining artists in gentrifying neighborhoods historically has been tricky; it’s a common pattern that artists help make an inexpensive neighborhood such as New York’s SoHo hip but end up being displaced by wealthier newcomers attracted to the vibe.

Many artistic people moved to North Hollywood in recent years because it was a bit more attainable than other desirable neighborhoods, the developers said.

Average monthly apartment rent in North Hollywood was $2,371 in September, according to Zillow, up about $25 from the same month a year ago.

In addition to outdoor performance space that may be used for theater and dance, District NoHo would have public art integrated into the buildings in murals, sculptures and their actual forms, Lawson said. “We’re looking at the buildings themselves to be artful. It should be something that stimulates you.”

In an effort to make the complex more visually interesting and less homogeneous, the developers hired three different architecture firms that specialize in urban infill projects: Gensler, HKS and KFA. A network of pedestrian and bicycle paths would link residents and office tenants with restaurants, bars, stores and transit.

Included in the mix of tenants would be a grocery store, Ehman said, in keeping with MTA’s desire to have businesses in the complex’s 100,000 square feet of retail space dedicated to serving neighborhood residents.

“District NoHo retailers will be a mix of local neighborhood businesses and national brands,” Ehman said.

The 400,000-square-foot office tower on the southwest corner of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards would hold about 1,000 workers each day, and the apartments would be home to about 3,000 people, Cox estimated.

District NoHo is to be developed in a public-private partnership that requires Trammell Crow to pay for public improvements including upgrades to the station and the consolidation of bus arrivals on the west side of the station, intended to make transitions between transit lines more efficient.

The company expects to spend about $100 million on transit improvements and rent to the MTA on a ground lease giving Trammell Crow control of the land for its for-profit developments.

The developers would extend existing streets into the complex and create parking for more than 4,000 cars, including at least 900 spaces for drivers getting on Metro lines. About 28,500 weekday travelers come into or leave North Hollywood on Metro now, but the total is expected to increase as people move into District NoHo.

Trammell Crow would be required to finish the public improvements and one building of affordable housing before constructing the offices, shops and market-rate apartments.

If approved by the city, the first phase of construction would begin in late 2021 and proceed in phases tied to market demand for the new housing. Completion would take six to eight years, Lawson said.

The MTA met with local residents before preparing guidelines to develop the site, he said, and found them generally willing to back a large-scale project.

“The community has been exceptionally supportive of higher densities at this location,” he said, “which helps make it an interesting project.”

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We see you, @ThierryLasry! So much fun collaborating, #BarbiexThierryLasry is here! ? #barbie #barbiestyle

A post shared by Barbie® (@barbiestyle) on Nov 11, 2019 at 4:25pm PST

The @BarbieStyle Instagram account has further cemented the doll’s aspirational status among millennials. The account now boasts 2.1 million followers compared with the younger-focused @Barbie account, which has 1.5 million followers.

For 27-year-old Chelsie Hill, an influencer and disability activist, there is a poignant reason for the doll’s ongoing appeal.

Hill, who uses a wheelchair, told The Times, “I love Barbie, especially now because [Mattel is] being so diverse, and their big thing right now is including people with disabilities.”

In June, Mattel launched a doll with a prosthetic leg and another that comes with a wheelchair. Both are part of the Barbie Fashionistas line and have been featured on the high fashion-focused @BarbieStyle Instagram account.

Although most of the products in the Barbie truck are aimed at adults, Barbie hasn’t forsaken her core audience. (Prices for items range from $16 for a holographic cosmetics pouch to $70 for a denim jacket.) There is also merchandise suited for younger fans, including a Barbie logo necklace ($15) and a pin set ($26).

Six-year-old Kaui Yip, who, together with her brother, Kingston, has amassed more than 20,000 followers on Instagram, is a Barbie fan. She said the fashion toy now fights for her attention. She’s also into her L.O.L Surprise dolls and her iPad.

Despite technology advancements and newer rival dolls, there’s one area where Barbie is ahead of the competition: her wardrobe. “I like that they have a lot of accessories,” Yip said.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” says Drew Coblitz with a laugh. The 31-year-old Philadelphia-based luxury expert and entrepreneur is the owner of Singer Vehicle Design’s latest work of art, a gloriously up-leveled and optimized 1990 Porsche 911. I’m laughing too, but mostly because of the visceral reactions his meticulously specced, inky-blue-black car is provoking in me.

For a few high-speed moments I’m the lucky one in his driver’s seat, a work of woven-leather art in its own right. With the hand-carved ebony wood shifter knob in my right hand (pretty much every detail, from the car’s tuning down to literal nuts and bolts, is customized by Singer for each client) and my feet dancing across all three pedals in the footwell below, I’m in internal combustion heaven. Coblitz’s one-off is a formidable yet nimble sports car with a howling, high-revving soul, hellbent on devouring the curvaceous canyon road we’re on as though it might never see another.

For the record:

10:34 AM, Nov. 16, 2019
In an earlier version of this article, an inaccurately rendered quote by Rob Dickinson suggested that hip hop-mogul Jay Z had been interviewed on TV while driving in one of Dickinson’s customized vehicles. Dickinson was referring to himself, not Jay-Z, in the quote.

Singer Vehicle Design is a skunkworks hidden away in Sun Valley that optimizes Porsche 911s from 1989 to 1994, the era that purists consider the pinnacle of the German manufacturer’s air-cooled engineering. These are not merely restored sports cars, though, these are masterpieces of next-gen engineering, materials science and haute couture-level interiors. Think of them as the automotive equivalent of Faberge eggs on steroids. Or to personify it all, imagine Sean Connery’s 007 crossed with Charlize Theron and blended with a dash of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker: sexy, strong, audacious — and ultimately brilliant.

The man behind Singer is Rob Dickinson, a wickedly witty Brit and former songwriter and lead singer of the ’90s rock band Catherine Wheel. Since the first 911 he spotted on the road in 1970 as a 5-year-old, he’s been smitten with them. Finally, after a stint designing at Lotus Cars before focusing on his music and a world tour with his band ahead of their breakup in 2000 — with lots of tinkering on his own cars in between — Dickinson landed in Los Angeles to buy a 1969 911 E and fell in love with its rich car culture. By 2009, he started Singer. “We’re taking a legend that Porsche put to one side 20 years ago to pursue other, forward-looking cars,” says Dickinson. “We have the benefit of hindsight, and I’d like to think we are shining quite a bright light on Porsche’s heritage.”

So what does an “insane” Singer detail look like? On every production car, even Mercedes and Ferrari models, there’s a gap between each panel — the door and the rear fender, for example — and something called flush. Run your hand over the gap between panels and if one is higher or lower, the flush is off. “If you take a caliper and measure our gaps and flush, they will be perfect on every car,” says Mazen Fawaz, Singer managing director, tech entrepreneur and Formula One legend Jenson Button’s teammate for this year’s Baja 1000. “It sounds silly, but you have one shot at getting those perfect. If they aren’t, a car doesn’t leave our hands.”

Every car that passes through a Singer transformation requires a minimum of 4,000 human hours to transform. Customers can spend up to a year choosing the right bespoke combinations of leathers and paint colors, trim and multiple transmission and suspension parameters. There are 500 leather colors, 13 leather types to sort through (each car uses seven hides) and limitless paint options. The leather is hand-stitched in the company’s Orange County-based interiors studio, overseen by Andy Harrison, who has masterminded the insides of important machines such as the McLaren F1, Formula 1 cars, Lotuses, Jaguar super cars, the DeLorean and even SpaceX rockets. “One owner showed us a photo of a sunset,” says Harrison. “We ended up using nearly a dozen different colors in the weave for the seats — a weave that is only achievable by a few companies in the world.”

Coblitz, one of Singer’s youngest customers, went into the commissioning of his car with a specific vision too. “I wanted to do a murdered-out Singer because people very often go for the very pretty, very bright colors or the heritage colors, which are awesome,” he says. “But I wanted something more modern and edgy.”

That led to months of testing dozens of exterior paint solutions. Through the process, Coblitz realized that black, even complex versions, was too pedestrian. He finally landed on a shade of dark blue that looks black in certain light conditions, while others highlight the depth of the navy. He also worked with the Singer team to change all the brightwork on the car —the metal trim — to dark nickel, another nod to his desired look, and one no other customer had requested. He even came up with a name for the car that Singer turned into a dark nickel-plated aluminum alloy nameplate on the rear deck lid: SINQNON, a reference to the Latin for “essential to existence,” sine qua non. “I don’t usually name my cars,” Coblitz says. “But it was my take on Rob’s ‘everything is important’ mantra.”

He’s referring to a now-hallowed moment early on at the Singer headquarters when late one evening Dickinson, frustrated by others not grasping the depth of his desire for perfection, grabbed a can of black spray paint and memorialized those words on the original shop wall.

It’s time, though, to rip the bandage off and talk price. A 911 reimagined by Singer will set you back a minimum of $475,000 for a classic coupe, not including the “donor” car that each customer must provide. In today’s collector-car market, that base vehicle can cost on average from $48,000 and up. (Singer Vehicle Design isn’t a dealer, but the company can offer some direction.) “There’s a high cost to what we do but everything we do doesn’t have to be expensive,” Dickinson says, “but it does have to be brilliant; I only want to build cars that make my mouth go dry I want them so much.”

That may not sound like a winning business model — the road is littered with failed attempts to restore, modify, hot rod or otherwise tweak famous models — but against all odds, Singer is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and steadily growing. The company has delivered 130 cars to date and has as many on order.

Dickinson’s vision, while laser-focused on making brilliant machines, also has a restless side. Last year the company debuted an ultra-rare, limited-edition version referred to as the DLS. It was co-created with the engineering arm of the U.K.-based Williams Formula 1 team, Michelin and other partners. Only 75 will be made, with a base price of $1.8 million.

The company’s design standards have branched out beyond automotive. In 2017, Dickinson collaborated with Italian watch designer Marco Borraccino, former head designer at Panerai. The resulting company, Singer Reimagined, is creating high-end watches that pay homage to the iconic sports models of the 1960s and 1970s. They are as authentic and expensive as Singer’s cars: up to $85,000 for what is a unique solution in the watch world, just as Singer’s cars reinvent in their own realm.

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And while he won’t comment on future plans, Dickinson acknowledges that he’s only just begun to apply his aesthetic to objects he deeply desires. So stay tuned.

I asked him when, in the flurry of the last 10 years’ worth of hard labor, occasional cash flow worries and scaling a custom-car business into a limited-production concern, he picked his head up and realized his success. “The first time, it was walking into a Starbucks in Northern England and being recognized — not for my music but because they’d seen all of our car videos on YouTube and were die-hard fans,” Dickinson says. “The second moment was when my son saw a journalist interviewing me while driving together in one of our cars. He turned from the TV to look at me with an awe and respect I’d never seen before.”

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 

The Dutch version of St. Nicholas arrived Saturday in the Netherlands in an annual children’s party that has become the backdrop for increasingly acrimonious confrontations between supporters and opponents of his sidekick, “Black Pete.”

White people often don blackface makeup to play the character in parades across the country.

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Opponents say such depictions promote racist stereotypes, while supporters defend the helper of Sinterklaas, the white-bearded, red-robed Dutch version of St. Nicholas, as a traditional children’s character.

Though the two sides faced off along the route of parades in a number of towns, there were no reports of serious violence. Police presence was high in towns where demonstrations were organized.

The nationally televised arrival parade happened amid tight security, in the central city of Apeldoorn. Thousands of children and their parents cheered as an actor playing Sinterklaas arrived. His helpers handed out candy and high fives.

For the first time, there were no “Petes” in full blackface at the official arrival. Organizers instead put smears on their faces to represent soot from chimneys they climb down to deliver gifts to children. The “soot” ranged from light to dark dustings.

Dutch media reported that the leader of the Netherlands’ arm of anti-immigrant movement PEGIDA — wearing a Pete costume and blackface makeup — was detained by police in Apeldoorn.

Police said in a tweet that a number of people were peacefully detained for refusing to go to locations set aside for demonstrators.

Hundreds of anti-“Black Pete” protesters gathered in a park in The Hague, where blackface Petes formed part of the official parade, for a peaceful demonstration.

A row of three umbrellas carrying the messages “Black Lives Matter,” “Black Pete is Racism” and “Stop Black Face” was laid out on the grass by demonstrators.

Mariam El Maslouhi told the crowd she hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to protest in the city again next year.

“The Netherlands has heard us, The Hague has heard us, Parliament has heard us,” she said.

Some Dutch cities, including the capital, Amsterdam, have stopped using blackface makeup in their Sinterklaas parades.

But the changes anger some.

Overnight in The Hague, supporters of the traditional version of the character put up hundreds of posters that superimposed the face of the leader of anti-Pete activists on a blackface depiction of Pete.

Last week, a group of protesters vandalized cars and threw fireworks at the venue of a meeting of anti-Pete activists in The Hague. On Thursday and Friday police detained three people for making online threats to the festivities in Apeldoorn.

BIHAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina  — 

A prominent humanitarian group is warning that migrants trying to reach Western Europe are living in “dangerously cold and harsh conditions” in Bosnia, where hundreds have rallied amid tensions over the influx of people fleeing war and poverty.

The protesters in the northwestern city of Bihac on Friday demanded the closure of overcrowded refugee camps and the relocation of the migrants from the city area. They carried banners reading “Free Bihac!” and chanted anti-migrant slogans.

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Bosnia has been overwhelmed by the arrival of migrants heading toward Europe along the so-called Balkan route. Most migrants flock to the northwest section, which borders European Union member Croatia.

This has led to tensions in the border area, with local authorities demanding that other parts of the country share the migrant burden and take in some of the more than 6,000 people staying in the area.

The Doctors Without Borders group warned that “people may die without adequate shelter and other basic services” in Bosnia, where many migrants are sleeping in makeshift shelters and abandoned homes.

“Four official centers for migrants exist, but services are inadequate and tensions are high, leading most people to stay elsewhere,” the report added.

It singled out the improvised Vucjak refugee camp in northwestern Bosnia, describing it as a “dangerous and inhumane place” that does not meet minimum living standards. The camp is located on a landfill and next to a minefield from the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

“People arrive at our clinic from Vucjak in flip-flops, without socks or jackets, a lot of them suffering from respiratory infections and from skin diseases caused by the horrific living conditions,” said Nihal Osman, Doctors Without Borders’ deputy field coordinator. “It should be closed now.”

In a bid to pressure the central Bosnian government to relocate some of the migrants, the regional government vowed to fully restrict migrant movements at the two main camps beginning Friday.

Bosnia’s central government has said it would turn two former army barracks in other parts of the country into new migrant facilities. This was hailed by the EU mission in Bosnia, which expressed hope that it would lead to the closure of the Vucjak camp.

“We expect all the authorities in the country to continue working together in good faith to find ways for burden sharing and long-term solutions,” the EU said.

Ethnically divided since the war, Bosnia has failed to come up with a unified, efficient response to the migrant crisis. The Bosnian Serb part of the country has refused to accept any migrants on its territory and has blocked efforts to deploy the army to stem the influx of migrants from Serbia. Many other Bosnian regions have also rejected hosting refugee centers.

A municipal official in Bihac, Ermic Zulic, said both Bosnia and the EU have failed to manage the migrant influx.

“The situation is out of control. The situation has escalated,” he complained. “They are telling us that even greater number of migrants will be pouring in next year, so we had to react.”

While many Bosnians have expressed sympathy with the migrants because of their own war experience, many also have protested their presence and demanded that the migrants be moved or restricted to the refugee camps.

Fadil Dizdarevic, who lives close to the Bira camp in Bihac, said, “We want this to stop, we want them out of here.” At Friday’s protest outside the camp, another resident, Omer Demirovic, insisted, “We are demanding they be moved out of the city.”

No incidents were reported at the gathering, which was secured by about a dozen policemen.

Inside, migrants said police wouldn’t let them move freely about the town.

“Everything is a problem. It’s cold and everybody is dirty,” said Obit Han from Afghanistan.

MEXICO CITY — 

Postelection violence causing turmoil in the South American nation of Bolivia could “spin out of control” if officials resort to the use of disproportionate force, the United Nations human rights chief said Saturday.

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Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, issued her statement after the deadliest postelection incident to date — the killings on Friday of at least nine people and injuries to dozens of others as coca-leaf farmers sympathetic to ousted President Evo Morales protested and clashed with security services in the town of Sacaba, outside the city of Cochabamba.

Reports indicated that gunshots were responsible for most if not all of the deaths, and that the majority of victims were coca-leaf farmers, whose crop is the prime ingredient in cocaine. Surviving protesters and family members of the victims blamed security services, but government officials said some demonstrators were also armed during clashes.

“I am really concerned that the situation in Bolivia could spin out of control,” said Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement. “The country is split and people on both sides of the political divide are extremely angry. In a situation like this, repressive actions by the authorities will simply stoke that anger even further and are likely to jeopardize any possible avenue for dialogue.”

At least 21 people have been killed in the turmoil since the disputed Oct. 20 elections, Bolivia’s human rights ombudsman said.

Morales said he won his fourth term in the balloting, but protesters took to the streets alleging that the election was rigged. Morales stepped down under military pressure last Sunday and fled to Mexico, where he was granted political asylum.

The leftist ex-president says he was the victim of a right-wing “coup” backed by the United States. The Trump administration called his departure a step forward for democracy in Bolivia.

Meanwhile, in a Twitter message from Mexico, ex-president Morales accused the interim administration of Bolivian caretaker President Jeanine Añez of issuing a new decree that shields military personnel from responsibility for acts of violence. “It’s a blank check of impunity to massacre the people,” Morales wrote.

But Jerjes Justiniano, minister of the presidency for the caretaker government in La Paz, denied that the new decree was a “license to kill,” reported the Bolivian daily El Deber. Rather, the minister described the decree as a series of guidelines to ensure that the military “acts in proportion with every situation, which does not mean use of arms in every case,” El Deber reported.

Añez, a former opposition senator, assumed what she called the interim presidency on Tuesday and vowed to restore peace and organize new elections. Morales has labeled her government illegitimate and called for national dialogue brokered by the United Nations or the Vatican.

Añez has accused Morales of “inciting” chaos from Mexico and declared that he would be banned from participating in new elections and should face arrest if he returns to Bolivia. Morales’ allies have been staging daily protests and setting up road blockades calling for his return. Authorities have voiced concern about shortages of fuel and foodstuffs because of blocked roadways.

BANGKOK, Thailand — 

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday the United States and South Korea have indefinitely postponed a joint military exercise in an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea.

The move comes even as Japan’s defense minister, whose country feels threatened by repeated North Korean missile launches, told Esper “no one could be optimistic about” changing the North’s behavior.

The statement by Japan’s defense chief, Taro Kono, was a stark illustration of the difficulties facing the U.S. and its international allies and partners as they struggle to get North Korea back to negotiations to eliminate its nuclear weapons and missiles. Talks launched by President Trump in 2018 have stalled with no resumption in sight.

Although the U.S. military for years has called its joint military exercises with South Korea an important means of keeping troops and commanders ready for combat on short notice, Trump has called them a waste of money and a provocation to the North.

Esper announced the postponement of the military exercise at a joint news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo. They were in Bangkok to attend an Asia defense ministers’ conference.

Esper insisted the postponement was not a concession to North Korea but rather an attempt to “keep the door open” to diplomacy to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

“I see this as a good-faith effort by the United States and the Republic of Korea to enable peace, to shape … to facilitate a political agreement — a deal, if you will — that leads to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” Esper told reporters.

North Korea hardly seemed ready to reciprocate. Shortly after Esper and Jeong spoke, the North Korean foreign ministry issued a statement of defiance. It said it has no plans to negotiate over its nuclear programs, even if talks were to resume, unless the U.S. offers to first discuss the withdrawal of its “hostile” policies against Pyongyang.

North Korea’s statement also criticized Washington’s support of a recent United Nations resolution condemning the North’s widespread human rights violations, saying that the resolution shows continued U.S. intent to isolate the North and destroy its political system.

The North also has harshly criticized U.S.-South Korean military drills as provocative and as preparations for an invasion.

Kono, the Japanese defense minister, met with Esper and Jeong after they made their announcement. In remarks with reporters and photographers present, Kono said it was important that the three nations consult closely “under the current situation where no one could be optimistic about North Korea.”

He added that the North Koreans have launched “more than 20 missiles this year including new types of missiles as well as a submarine-launched ballistic missile” in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Kono called North Korea “a serious threat to peace and stability” in Japan and across the region.

Esper told reporters he did not consider the postponement a concession to North Korea, although it follows earlier cutbacks in the scale and prominence of U.S.-South Korean exercises.

“We have made this decision as an act of goodwill to contribute to an environment conducive to diplomacy and the advancement of peace,” Esper said.

As recently as Friday, when Esper was in Seoul to consult with South Korean officials, there was no word on postponing the military air exercise, which had been called Vigilant Ace.

Seoul and Washington had scaled back the exercise recently and changed the name, but North Korea strongly objected, calling it evidence of a lack of interest in improving relations.

Jeong said the exercise had been put off pending further consultations between Seoul and Washington. No new date has been set.

Esper said Seoul and Washington encourage North Korea “to demonstrate the same goodwill” as it considers decisions on its own military training, exercises and testing.

He also urged the North to return to the negotiating table “without precondition or hesitation.”

Esper said that even without the planned exercise of South Korean and U.S. air forces, both militaries “will remain at a high state of readiness” for potential combat.

The U.S. has about 28,000 troops in South Korea.

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n more ways than one, Argentina’s October 25 elections represented a watershed moment in the country’s political history. After twelve years of a populist, center-left government, Argentine politics are on the brink of turning right. Even if Peronist Daniel Scioli beats out conservative businessman and Cambiemos coalition candidate Mauricio Macri in today’s presidential runoff election, the landscape of Argentine political life is likely to be changed for the foreseeable future.

Last month’s elections confirmed that there is now a strong center-right party in Argentina. The leadership of that party is decidedly porteño in origin, unapologetically pro-market in its ideological orientation, and led by members of the country’s economic elite. What’s more, Macri’s Cambiemos coalition has shown that it has the ability to win votes among the poor on its own.

The elections were not good for Peronism. Scioli raked in the lowest share for the party since 1983 (37 percent), while the Cambiemos coalition surprised everyone, obtaining 34 percent of the national vote. The election in the province of Buenos Aires, which contains 38 percent of all Argentine voters, included even greater losses for Peronist candidates.

Even though the province of Buenos Aires is historically a Peronist stronghold — a non-Peronist governor has not been elected there since 1983 — Cambiemos won the governorship of the province by four points (39 percent to 35 percent). In the cities of the province, voters rejected half of the Peronist mayoral incumbents. This included the defeat of a Peronist trade union leader and sitting mayor, Francisco “Barba” Gutiérrez, who lost in the city of Quilmes to a TV chef.

For the first time, Peronism was even defeated in the town of Berisso, nicknamed “the cradle of Peronism.” The first protesters demanding Juan Domingo Perón’s liberation from prison famously marched from Berisso to Buenos Aires in 1945, a moment that is considered the birth of the Peronist movement.

Moreover, as electoral distribution maps show, the results of October’s elections mean that, for the first time in Argentine history, the same party could control the city of Buenos Aires (which began electing its head of government in 1996), the province of Buenos Aires, and the presidency.

Both the new governor of Buenos Aires and the Buenos Aires mayor are close allies of Mauricio Macri, having risen to their current positions from within Macri’s own inner circle rather than holding positions of local leadership. Neither of them have their own loyal constituencies and would likely answer to Mauricio Macri in a very direct and vertical manner, should he be elected.

A rightward shift in Argentina’s electoral landscape does not necessarily have to do with the candidates per se. Both Macri and Scioli are the sons of wealthy businessmen, and there is little evidence that their public policy portfolios are drastically different.

While Macri’s father amassed his fortune as a public works and housing contractor working for the Argentine state, Scioli’s father was one of the owners of Canal 9, a massively popular TV network in the sixties and seventies. Both came into the public eye through sports; Scioli was a speed-boat racer, and Macri was the elected president of one of Argentina’s more popular soccer clubs, Boca Juniors. And both bring executive experience. For eight years, Scioli was governor of the province of Buenos Aires, while Mauricio Macri has governed the city of Buenos Aires for two terms.

Instead, the rightward shift is more structural, and has emerged out of Macri’s success in building what Argentina’s economic establishment has never had: its own party.

Argentina’s political party system is, as most analysts stress, a curious animal. In the twentieth century, it had a relatively strong party system, particularly compared to other South American countries. The only two national parties — the Peronist party, officially known as the Partido Justicialista, and the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) — split the vote almost evenly in the first democratic election of 1983, after the country’s military dictatorship came to an end.

But what made Argentina’s political party system so unique is that neither one of these two main formations could be accurately characterized as a right-wing or leftist party. Rather, each contained its own respective left and right wings, a fact which often led to ferocious intra-party conflict. Given that Cambiemos is a much more ideologically defined, pro-market coalition, this situation is about to change.