EU-DIGEST: 5/1/20

5/31/20

German-US Relations: Little love, as Berlin bids 'auf Wiedersehen' to Trumpism - by Andrew Rettman

He provoked lively debate about Russia, Iran, and Nato spending.

He might still clash with Germany on the Western Balkans, on which he remains a US special envoy.

But Richard Grenell, the outgoing US ambassador to Berlin, might well be remembered in Europe mostly for his "Trumpian" style, which did not help an already rocky transatlantic relationship.

Grenell, a 53-year old former civil servant and media consultant, harangued German politicians on the strategic dangers of Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline to Germany.

He spotlighted alleged Iranian violations of an EU-backed nuclear non-proliferation deal.

"I do not comment on the ambassador's [Grenell's] statement on Twitter," German foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said on Monday, referring to Grenell's threat to keep up US "pressure" on issues such as Nord Stream 2.

But the German and wider EU public did comment on Trumpian diplomacy when asked by US pollster The Pew Research Centre last year.

Just 39 percent of people in Germany approved of the US in general and fewer than half did so in France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

And only 13 percent of Germans trusted Trump personally - a lower rating than those of the Chinese and Russian leaders, and far from the 86-percent approval of former US president Barack Obama.

Read more:
Little love, as Berlin bids 'auf Wiedersehen' to Trumpism

Coronavirus Travel Restrictions: Trump Says Europe Arrivals Soon Welcome - by Tamara Thiessen

U.S. travel will soon be possible for some travelers from Europe says Donald Trump. President Trump says the U.S. plans to “open up” to travelers arriving from low-risk countries in Europe and elsewhere. This means many Europeans may soon be able to plan American vacations or business trips.

Trump’s travel ban has put a block on all travelers coming from 26 European countries as well as the U.K. and Ireland since March 13. Not just European citizens and residents, but anyone who has set foot in those places in the previous fortnight.

Speaking of the new Brazil flight ban on Wednesday, President Trump indicated the Europe travel restrictions will soon ease. At least for some arrivals. Travelers coming from countries with low Covid-19 risk profiles will be given the green light first he hinted.

Read more:
US Travel, Great News: Trump Says Europe Arrivals Soon Welcome

The Global Economic Meltdown: The Pandemic Bodes Ill for Both American and Chinese Power - by Kevin Rudd

In January and February of this year, there was audible popping of champagne corks in certain quarters of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. What some observers had long seen as this era’s giant geopolitical bubble had finally begun to deflate. China’s Communist Party leadership, the thinking went, was at last coming apart, a result of its obsession with official secrecy, its initial missteps in responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak, and the unfolding economic carnage across the country.

Then, as China began to recover and the virus migrated to the West in March and April, irrational jubilation turned to irrational despair. The commentariat greeted with outrage any possibility that the pandemic might in fact help China emerge triumphant in the ongoing geopolitical contest with the United States. This concern was a product of China’s seemingly cunning remolding of the narrative on the origins of the virus, the brutal efficiency of the Chinese authoritarian model in containing it, and Beijing’s global COVID-aid campaign. China’s own nationalist commentariat happily piled on, delighting in the United States’ distress and noting the supposed contrast between Chinese largesse and American indifference: the “people’s war” against COVID-19 had been won, and the virtues of China’s political model had been vindicated.

Yet despite the best efforts of ideological warriors in Beijing and Washington, the uncomfortable truth is that China and the United States are both likely to emerge from this crisis significantly diminished. Neither a new Pax Sinica nor a renewed Pax Americana will rise from the ruins. Rather, both powers will be weakened, at home and abroad. And the result will be a continued slow but steady drift toward international anarchy across everything from international security to trade to pandemic management. With nobody directing traffic, various forms of rampant nationalism are taking the place of order and cooperation. The chaotic nature of national and global responses to the pandemic thus stands as a warning of what could come on an even broader scale.

Read more:
The Pandemic Bodes Ill for Both American and Chinese Power

USA: Data Shows the US Economy Was Collapsing 5 Months Before the Coronavirus Outbreak

The Covid-19 outbreak has been scary, but a lot of people are more frightened by government regimes than the virus itself these days. Governments worldwide, without vote or discussion, shut down major industries and severe cracks in the supply chain are beginning to show. On May 1, financial columnists Pam Martens and Russ Martens explained in a report that the economic carnage started five months before the Covid-19 virus started to scare the population. For instance, Martens details that the first death in China was reported on January 11, 2020, but the signs of an economic meltdown started on September 17, 2019. In fact, The Federal Reserve gave primary dealers a whopping $6.6 trillion before the first death from Covid-19 was reported in America.

Read more at :
Data Shows the US Economy Was Collapsing 5 Months Before the Coronavirus Outbreak | Finance Bitcoin News

USA Economy:- Civil unrest puts U.S. economy in a vicious circle - by Anna Szymansk

Protests and riots have complex causes, but inequality is clearly acatalyst. From Detroit in 1967 to Los Angeles in 1992, political outrageis often mixed with concerns about economic injustice. Anger inMinneapolis was sparked by long-time concerns about the police’srelationship with the African American community, but the stark economicdivide laid bare by the pandemic may also be playing a role.

Read more at:
Breakingviews - Civil unrest puts U.S. economy in a vicious circle - Reuters

5/30/20

USA - Demonstrations from Coast to coast: : Miami protesters thinning as police enforcing curfew

A peaceful protest that began Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Torch of Friendship turned into a chaotic scene around nightfall.

The order was put into place after there were reports of lootings at Bayside on Biscayne Boulevard. A SWAT team was dispatched there and looters took off before police arrived.

Local 10′s Ian Margol arrived to find glass broken and merchandise laying in the middle of the walkway of Bayside.

Hallandale Beach in Broward County has now put a curfew into effect from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice.

USA: Policing in the US is not about enforcing law. It’s about enforcing white supremacy - by George Floyd

Police treatment of two CNN reporters at a George Floyd protest shows the US has opposite systems of justice – one for white people, one for people of color

Read more: Policing in the US is not about enforcing law. It’s about enforcing white supremacy | George Floyd | The Guardian

USA: Trump pulls military into political fray of Minneapolis unrest but is unlikely to follow through on threat

Trump’s reaction immediately pulled the Pentagon into a crisis that already has racial and political dynamics. It follows other incidents in which the president has politicized the military, including the deployment of active-duty service members to the southern border, threats to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Twitter and intervention into criminal justice cases.

Troops historically have been put under federal control to quell unrest only when more local forces were unable to do so, said Lindsay Cohn, a professor at the Naval War College. While federalized troops can be effective peacekeepers in situations where trust between police or civilians is broken, she said, Trump’s comments indicated he wanted to use military force in a suppression role, and are consistent with his tendency to use tough-guy rhetoric.

5/29/20

Spain: Minimum income: Socialist government backs benefit for 850,000 vulnerable families

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, from the ruling Socialist Party, described it as "historic measure", adding: "a country does not prosper if it leaves out part of its population".

He said that it will "protect those who are having the worst time, fight poverty and contribute to the economic recovery of the country".

Read more at:
Spain minimum income: Socialist government backs benefit for 850,000 vulnerable families | Euronews

USA: Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin charged with 3rd-degree murder in George Floyd's death

Mike Freeman of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced the third-degree murder and manslaughter charges after Derek Chauvin's arrest was initially announced by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Read more at:
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin charged with 3rd-degree murder in George Floyd's death | CBC News

Taiwan: China Says It Will Use Military Force to Take Control of Taiwan If Diplomacy Fails

Chinese general has warned that Beijing will not rule out the use of force to take control of Taiwan, as the Chinese Communist Party closed its annual National People's Congress in Beijing.

Read more at: China Says It Will Use Military Force to Take Control of Taiwan If Diplomacy Fails

5/28/20

USA: Trump signs executive order targeting social media giants' legal protections

Trump—angered this week by Twitter’s tagging of one of his tweets for the
first time with a fact-check notice—said regulation was needed because the companies are no longer neutral forums but engaging in “political activism.”

Read more at:
Trump signs executive order targeting social media giants' legal protections

Brazil: Coronavirus: Brazil Is Starting to Lose the Fight Against Coronavirus

On May 9, Brazil’s death toll from the coronavirus topped 10,000. Instead of marking the grim milestone with an address or a sign of respect for the victims, President Jair Bolsonaro took a spin on a jet ski. Video footage widely circulated on social media shows Brazil’s far-right leader grinning as he pulls up to a boat on Brasília’s Paranoá Lake where supporters are having a cookout.

As he grips onto their boat, Bolsonaro jokes about the “neurosis” of Brazilians worried about the virus. “There’s nothing to be done [about it],” he shrugs. “It’s madness.”

Even by the standards of other right-wing populists who have sought to downplay the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro’s defiance of reality was shocking. From the favelas of densely packed cities like Rio de Janeiro to the remote indigenous communities of the Amazon rain forest, Brazil has emerged as the new global epicenter of the pandemic, with the world’s highest rate of transmission and a health system now teetering on the brink of collapse.

Read more at:
Brazil Is Starting to Lose the Fight Against Coronavirus | Time

USA: Donald Trump's move against Twitter factchecking could backfire

Donald Trump’s apparent plans to punish Twitter for appending a factcheck to his claims that mail-in ballots would be “substantially fraudulent” could reshape the web – but not necessarily in the ways he or his supporters intend.

Trump’s expected avenue of attack focuses on section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. That law underpins much of how the internet is regulated in the United States, by effectively creating the hybrid publisher/platform model that has become the norm for social media companies worldwide.

EU Recovery Plan: Angela Merkel takes her cue from Alexander Hamilton to overhaul the European Union

The EU would borrow the money and then hand it out to member states. And for the first time in EU history, two-thirds of the money handed out would be grants — not loans — that the recipient countries wouldn't have to repay.

In fact, though, this was German Chancellor Angela Merkel's moment. Nine days earlier, she had launched this quiet European revolution along with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Together they said their countries would put up Euro 500 billion in grants to help Italy and Spain climb out of the economic hole caused by COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

That sum is now the core of the announced EU program.

Spain's central bank forecast last month that the country's economy could contract by more than 12 per cent this year, and unemployment could surpass 21 per cent. It has lost more than 27,000

5/27/20

In Memorian: USA passes 100,000 coronavirus deaths as states relax lockdown measures

The United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a grim milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain, which has recorded more than 37,000 Covid-19 deaths.

The latest count of fatalities is 100,047 according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Donald Trump did not immediately react to the news. On Twitter, he posted a clip of Fox New’s Lou Dobbs calling Trump “arguably the greatest president in our history”. Earlier this month, Trump said 100,000 deaths would be “horrible”, but he claimed that actions by his administration had prevented a much higher toll.

The virus has killed more Americans than the Vietnam and Korean wars combined, and the death toll is approaching that of the first world war, when more than 116,000 Americans died in combat.

The number of fatalities in the United States is still climbing, , and federal officials warn that the likely actual toll from the coronavirus is higher than the official figure.

A tracking project by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) of “excess deaths” in each state beyond seasonal averages suggests the official count of Covid-19 deaths could leave out thousands of cases.

“These deaths could represent misclassified Covid-19 deaths, or potentially could be indirectly related to Covid-19 (eg, deaths from other causes occurring in the context of healthcare shortages or overburdened healthcare systems),” the CDC said.

The first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States emerged on 20 January, in Washington state, the same day that a first case was confirmed in South Korea. Months ensued in which the White House told states they would receive minimal federal support in obtaining testing kits, ventilators, protective equipment and other gear.

The United States has increased its testing capacity but has yet to stand up a national plan for the contact tracing of positive cases, a step South Korea took immediately. That country has since recorded 269 deaths from coronavirus

In a video, former vice-president Joe Biden expressed grief for the lives lost and condemned the administration for not acting sooner. “To those hurting, I’m so sorry for your loss,” Biden said.

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts and former presidential candidate, struck a similar tone. “100,000 Americans are gone. They were our brothers and sisters. Our friends and neighbors,” she said. “And too many of them could have been saved if our federal government had just done more.”

Across Europe, the virus exacted a terrible toll. Eight of the 10 countries with the top per-capita rates of Covid-19 deaths are in Europe; the United States ranks ninth on that list, with about 30 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Britain is third, with 55.64 deaths per 100,000.

Health experts warn that the United States can expect millions more Covid-19 cases and a tragic number of deaths to come, unless the virus takes an unprecedented and unforeseen vector. With regional infection rates varying from about 5-20%, most experts believe the virus will continue to churn through the US population until the overall rate of infection is 50-60% – or until a vaccine is widely.

Note EU-Digest: May those who lost their life rest in peace and may their

sacrifice not have been in vain and eventually set America on a new and more democratic course.

EU-Coronavirus: European Commission unveils €750 billion recovery plan

In a statement on its website, the EU governing body proposed the creation of a new recovery instrument, dubbed Next Generation EU, to address the economic damage caused by the outbreak.

"Next Generation EU [consists] of €750 billion as well as targeted reinforcements to the long-term EU budget for 2021-2027 [and] will bring the total financial firepower of the EU budget to €1.85 trillion," the statement said.

The recovery fund would be embedded within the next long-term EU budget.

"The recovery plan turns the immense challenge we face into an opportunity, not only by supporting the recovery but also by investing in our future: the European Green Deal and digitalization will boost jobs and growth, the resilience of our societies and the health of our environment," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the statement.

USA-Historic launch of SpaceX rocket delayed over bad weather | CBC News

SpaceX, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private rocket company, was forced by foul weather to scrub a planned launch on Wednesday of two Americans into orbit from Florida, a mission that would mark the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years.

Read more:
Historic launch of SpaceX rocket delayed over bad weather | CBC News

lnfrastructure:The U.S. Has Forgotten How to Do Infrastructure - by Noah Smith

As Vox’s Matthew Yglesias points out, the problem with high infrastructure costs is that they force us to debate the wrong things. If costs were reasonable, even skeptics would probably agree to fix roads and build better trains. But when the price of maintaining high-quality infrastructure is ridiculously high, the issue gets divided into two camps — a pro-building contingent that advocates biting the bullet and overspending to maintain transportation networks, and an anti-building group that throws up its hands at the price tag. When this is the debate, the country loses either way, because it ends up either spending too much money or living with potholed roads and trains that never arrive.

The U.S. is in the grips of exactly this sort of dilemma. For some mysterious reason, the same mile of road or train track costs a lot more to build in the U.S. than in other rich countries like France or Japan. When it comes to trains, the disparity is particularly egregious. During the past few years, people who pay attention to this problem have catalogued a list of potential culprits. But none of these is really satisfying.

EUROZONE: Keeping the promise of eurozone convergence – by Philip Heimberger, Maximilian Krahé, Dominic Ponattu and Jens van 't Klooster

Covid-19 is first of all a health crisis. Its economic consequences, however, are no less severe. Given the pandemic’s uneven progression across Europe, unequal fiscal starting points geographically and this month’s ruling by the German constitutional court, the coming months and years will put the eurozone to the test once more.

In its current architecture, the eurozone is a web of glass—superficially stable, but brittle when subject to shocks. To avoid a break-up and render it resilient for the long term, the sources of this fragility must be identified and remedied.

Read more at:
Keeping the promise of eurozone convergence – Philip Heimberger, Maximilian Krahé, Dominic Ponattu and Jens van 't Klooster

5/26/20

Germany extends coronavirus distance rules to June 29th

Up to 10 people will be allowed to gather in public places but Germans should be in contact with as few people as possible, according to the rules agreed between the federal government and 16 states.

The date was pushed forward slightly from the government's original draft plan, which stated that the social distancing rules - currently in place until June 5th - would be extended until July 5th.

Read more at:
Germany extends coronavirus distance rules to June 29th - The Local

USA: Social Media: Twitter places fact-check notification on Trump tweets about 'fraudulent' mail-in ballots

On Tuesday, Twitter for the first time prompted readers to check the facts in tweets posted by U.S. President Donald Trump, warning his claims about mail-in ballots were false and had been debunked by fact-checkers.

The blue exclamation mark notification prompted readers to "get the facts about mail-in ballots" and directed them to a page with news articles and information about the claims aggregated by Twitter staffers.

Trump, who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, had claimed in tweets earlier in the day that mail-in ballots for the election in November would be "substantially fraudulent" and result in a "rigged election." He also singled out the governor of California over the issue, although the state is not the only one to use mail-in ballots.

Read more at:
Twitter places fact-check notification on Trump tweets about 'fraudulent' mail-in ballots | CBC News

Middle East: Russia sends fighter jets to Libya to support mercenaries

The military fighter aircraft left Russia and first stopped in Syria where they "were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin" before arriving in Libya, said Stuttgart-based Africom.

The US military did not specify when exactly the jets arrived, only saying that it was "recently".

The announcement comes a day after Libya's UN-recognised government said hundreds of Russian mercenaries backing rival military commander Haftar had been evacuated from combat zones south of the capital Tripoli

5/25/20

China-US relations: China asserts ‘strong dissatisfaction’ after U.S. expands tech blacklist for human rights abuses

China on Monday denounced a move by the U.S. Commerce Department to expand its so-called entity list of Chinese companies, which are restricted from doing business with U.S. firms, for alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjian Uighur Autonomous region.

China’s foreign ministry professed “strong dissatisfaction” with the decision in a briefing with reporters, according to Bloomberg News.

Read more at: China asserts ‘strong dissatisfaction’ after U.S. expands tech blacklist for human rights abuses - MarketWatch

EU Summit: EU eyes first face-to-face summit in months to haggle over budget

EU leaders may meet for a face-to-face summit in the coming weeks to bargain over the next joint budget and a linked coronavirus recovery fund, suspending lockdown rules imposed to contain the pandemic, diplomats and officials said.

The European Union has struggled to run on video conferences since going into a gradual lockdown in March to curb the spread of coronavirus, which has ravaged the EU’s economy and thwarted regular ga

EU eyes first face-to-face summit in months to haggle over budget - Reuters

France: 'Her gender doesn't matter': French village elects first transgender mayor

People didn’t vote for me because I was or wasn’t transgender. They voted for a programme and for values," she said.

"The social bond has disappeared. The inhabitants wanted change.”
A business manager with a background in agricultural and sustainability, Cau has lived in the village for 20 years and faces significant challenges during her first stint in political office.

Read more at:
'Her gender doesn't matter': French village elects first transgender mayor | Euronews

Memorial Day: Crowds cram beaches across U.S., raising physical distancing concerns

The Memorial Day weekend marking the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. meant big crowds at beaches and warnings from authorities Sunday about people disregarding the coronavirus physical-distancing rules and risking a resurgence of the scourge that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans.

Read more at:
Crowds cram beaches across U.S., raising physical distancing concerns | CBC News

USA: How Financial Triumphalists Destabilize the US Economy - The Globalist

Triumphalism serves as an opioid for the Washington establishment. It can breathe easier if the — once upon a time justified — claims about the United States’ economic superiority are endlessly repeated.

Such recitations have traditionally also served as an opioid for the masses. Things might not be so great for oneself, but at least “we as a nation are still number one.

That this predictable, but ill-advised reaction pattern simply kicks the can of overdue reform down the road, and even accelerates the very decline that triumphalists categorically deny is even conceivable, evidently does not concern many of the elites and their appointed soothsayers.

Read more at;
How Financial Triumphalists Destabilize the US Economy - The Globalist

5/24/20

US Economy: Why the Economy Is Headed for a Post-Coronavirus Depression

In September 2006, Nouriel Roubini told the International Monetary Fund what it didn’t want to hear. Standing before an audience of economists at the organization’s headquarters, the New York University professor warned that the U.S. housing market would soon collapse — and, quite possibly, bring the global financial system down with it. Real-estate values had been propped up by unsustainably shady lending practices, Roubini explained. Once those prices came back to earth, millions of underwater homeowners would default on their mortgages, trillions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities would unravel, and hedge funds, investment banks, and lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could sink into insolvency.

Of course, the ensuing two years turned Roubini’s prophecy into history, and the little-known scholar of emerging markets into a Wall Street celebrity.

A decade later, “Dr. Doom” is a bear once again. While many investors bet on a “V-shaped recovery,” Roubini is staking his reputation on an L-shaped depression. The economist (and host of a biweekly economic news broadcast) does expect things to get better before they get worse: He foresees a slow, lackluster (i.e., “U-shaped”) economic rebound in the pandemic’s immediate aftermath. But he insists that this recovery will quickly collapse beneath the weight of the global economy’s accumulated debts. Specifically, Roubini argues that the massive private debts accrued during both the 2008 crash and COVID-19 crisis will durably depress consumption and weaken the short-lived recovery. Meanwhile, the aging of populations across the West will further undermine growth while increasing the fiscal burdens of states already saddled with hazardous debt loads. Although deficit spending is necessary in the present crisis, and will appear benign at the onset of recovery, it is laying the kindling for an inflationary conflagration by mid-decade. As the deepening geopolitical rift between the United States and China triggers a wave of deglobalization, negative supply shocks akin those of the 1970s are going to raise the cost of real resources, even as hyperexploited workers suffer perpetual wage and benefit declines. Prices will rise, but growth will peter out, since ordinary people will be forced to pare back their consumption more and more. Stagflation will beget depression. And through it all, humanity will be beset by unnatural disasters, from extreme weather events wrought by man-made climate change to pandemics induced by our disruption of natural ecosystems.

Bayram: Muslims worldwide begin celebrating Eid al-Fitr under Covid-19 restrictions

The festival, one of the most important in the Muslim calendar marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, is traditionally celebrated with mosque prayers, family feasts and shopping for new clothes, gifts and sweet treats.

But this year, the celebration is overshadowed by the fast-spreading respiratory disease, with many countries tightening lockdown restrictions after a partial easing during Ramadan led to a sharp spike in infections.

Further dampening the festive spirit, multiple countries -- from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, Turkey and Syria -- have banned mass prayer gatherings, a festival highlight, to limit the spread of the disease.

Read more at
Muslims worldwide begin celebrating Eid al-Fitr under Covid-19 restrictions

France: Coronavirus: Churches, mosques and synagogues reopen across France

0Nearly two weeks into the relaxation of its shutdown, the government finally allowed churches, mosques and synagogues to reopen.
Last Monday, the France's Council of State, which instructs the government on legal issues, ordered it to lift its sweeping ban on all religious services, in place since the lockdown.
The ruling said that such a ban on freedom of worship caused "damage that is serious and manifestly illegal", ordering the government to lift the ban within eight days.

Read more at:
Coronavirus: Churches, mosques and synagogues reopen across France - The Local

Israel; Netanyahu trial: Israeli prime minister faces Jerusalem court

He was sworn back into office as head of a rare unity government a week ago.His political rival, Benny Gantz, agreed to share power following three inconclusive elections in under a year.

Read more at:
Netanyahu trial: Israeli prime minister faces Jerusalem court - BBC News: The country is gripped by the spectacle of a serving leader being tried for the first time.

5/23/20

Multinational Tax Evation: Waiting for Godot: tackling multinationals’ tax avoidance – by Francesco Saraceno and Tommaso Faccio

The Netherlands’ insistence that everyone ‘go Dutch’ on mushrooming coronavirus deficits in the European Union has (given its complicity) revived the debate on tax havens within the EU. In an ideal world, action on joint debt issuance should go hand in hand with tax harmonisation and brakes on fiscal dumping.

But, given the current standstill in Europe, it is more likely that national solutions to avoid tax-base erosion will be sought, at least in the near future. Enforcing transparency and leveraging on company reputations could be enacted more effectively than the bans and regulations currently considered.

Note EU Digest: The Netherlands Government of Mark Rutte is one of the major EU culprits in facilitating these Multi- National Corporations (Mainly US companies) to dodge paying their local country taxes, by registering them as "special status" Dutch corporations.

Read more at;
Waiting for Godot: tackling multinationals’ tax avoidance – Francesco Saraceno and Tommaso Faccio

Global Warming and Climate Change: Hurricanes are getting more frequent, more violent, and changing locations due to climate change - by Mark Sumner

Every time a hurricane plows into the southeastern United States, or a tropical storm devastates some other area of the globe, there is a question about the involvement of climate change. While the media may have gotten into a habit of simply repeating that it’s not possible to connect climate change with any given storm, that’s not really true, because climate change is affecting every aspect of weather. No storm, or drought, or flood, that’s happening now, has been altered to some degree by the human-caused warming of the planet.

But this week a pair of new scientific papers look at two aspects of just how climate change is affecting hurricanes and other tropical storms. One demonstrates that the likelihood of the largest, most damaging storms is increasing because of climate change. The other shows that climate change is also driving these storms into new areas and, strangely enough, may eventually drive them to extinction.

Both papers are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. The first comes from a team at NOAA and the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Looking back over decades of storm data, they found increasing strength among tropical cyclones, and increasing probability of major storms. In particular, there is a “positive trend” toward storms that reach levels 3 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. Though … it’s really hard to call this trend positive. These are, after all, the storms that are most likely to bring death and destruction to coastal areas, like those that recently devastated Puerto Rico.

The NOAA paper isn’t really making predictions about where storms are going in the near term. It’s just reviewing the information back to the 1970s to confirm what might have already seemed obvious — storms are getting worse. It’s just that now they’re getting worse … with a 95% probability level. Both the possibility of a storm developing, and the possibility that a storm will reach higher intensities has increased.

The second paper, this time from a NOAA team paired with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, doesn’t look so much at the intensity of storms, but where those storms are occurring. The authors of this paper show that, even more than the growing intensity, the changes over the last forty years are visible in the tracks that tropical storms have taken and in the places where they form. For example, people living around the southern Indian Ocean could be forgiven for thinking that tropical storms are on the decline—because they absolutely have declined in that area. On the other hand, Americans looking at storms in the Atlantic are definitely right in thinking that storm frequency has increased. Overall, storms are up around the world, but they’re not up evenly. Not everything in the pattern of storm development can be mapped directly to warming oceans, but human-caused warming appears to be the driving factor.

One thing that the location team did that the intensity team did not was to take the model into the future, and that’s where an unusual effect appears. As the oceans continue to warm throughout the remainder of the 21st century, the warming oceans continue to push the development of storms away from the equator. And by the final decades of the century, the number of tropical cyclones begins to decrease … because these storms have been pushed right out of the tropics. There may be storms, they just won’t be tropical storms.

Which probably won’t be a lot of comfort to anyone in their path.

Read more at: Hurricanes are getting more frequent, more violent, and changing locations due to climate change

Wall Street: in "Dream On Mode": Are stock investors too complacent about a full-scale blowup between China and the U.S.? Here’s what Wall Street experts say

As MarketWatch’s sister publication Barron’s writes, the Sino-American issues are many and include actions taken by the U.S. to censure China’s new security rules that threaten Hong Kong’s

semiautonomous status, restrictions against Huawei Technologies, a push to increase scrutiny of Chinese companies listed in the U.S., funding for the World Health Organization, and accountability for the handling of the viral outbreak that has likely ushered in one of the most severe global recessions in the past 100 years.

“The list is long as my arm,” said Ian Bremmer, Eurasia Group’s founder and president, of the Sino-American tensions, during a Friday interview on CNBC.

“It’s never a good thing that the two largest economies in the world are battling,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Advisory Group, told MarketWatch in an emailed exchange on Friday.

Tensions between the countries, however, don’t seem to have supplanted the intense investor focus on reopening the economy in the U.S., and elsewhere in the world, or attention on a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic, which have helped to buoy risk assets.

“I think the market likely sees the upside risk related to finding a vaccine or treatment as near-term, and the downside risk related to China as long-term, so they are focusing more on the near-term right now,” Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist with Ally Invest, told MarketWatch on Friday.

“After a 30% plus rally from the March lows, the bar is definitely much higher. As the worries with China heat up, we do think investors could be a little too complacent here and now,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial.

“The economic recovery is still very fragile and any larger repercussions between the U.S. and China could put a halt to the equity rally quite quickly,” he told MarketWatch.

Read more at: Are stock investors too complacent about a full-scale blowup between China and the U.S.? Here’s what Wall Street experts say - MarketWatch

USA: - Trump's Coronavirus Failure: At least a quarter of the workforce is out of a job. How much worse will it get? - by JANAY KINGSBERRY

The economic impact of the pandemic is staggering. The latest numbers on unemployment claims came out this morning: 2.4 million workers filed for unemployment last week, which means at least 38.6 million Americans — about 23.4 percent of the workforce — have lost their jobs over the past nine weeks as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the economy.

Read more: At least a quarter of the workforce is out of a job. How much worse will it get? - POLITICO

China-US Relations: The pandemic could reshape the world order. Trump's chaotic strategy is backing the US into a corner - by Nic Robertson

Europe outright rejected US President Donald Trump's vision of the world this week. Tensions between these historic democratic allies that have been simmering since Trump came to office three years ago have now come to a boil during the coronavirus pandemic.

Covid-19 has shocked the world by the speed of its spread, but it is also accelerating another global change in the balance of power -- and not in America's favor.

The extent of the divide became clear on Tuesday during a vote at the World Health Organization annual assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, backing Europe's conciliatory approach to China relating to an investigation into the outbreak. Power had visibly ebbed away from the United States as its demand for a tougher approach was dismissed, a move that should sound alarm bells in Washington.

Read morte at: The e pandemic could reshape the world order. Trump's chaotic strategy is backing the US into a corner - CNN

5/22/20

G7: Donald Trump wants a 'comeback' summit in the US. But does anyone else?

World leaders have been hesitant to accept an invitation from Donald Trump to travel to the US for a G7 summit.

But, amid the COVID-19 outbreak in mid-March, Trump said the meeting would instead be held by video conference.

Now Trump wants to go back to meeting in person, except the response from his counterparts has been so far lukewarm.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been the clearest. His office said he would be happy to travel to Camp David in Maryland but only "if the health conditions would allow it".

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "definitely fight for multilateralism" whether or not that was during an in-person or virtual summit, and stressed she chose her words "with care" when pressed by Associated Press on whether she would consider actually making the transatlantic trip.

Read more at:
G7: Donald Trump wants a 'comeback' summit in the US. But does anyone else? | Euronews

Saudi-Arabia: Khashoggi's sons forgive Saudi killers, sparing 5 execution

The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi announced Friday they have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving legal reprieve to the five government agents convicted of his murder who'd been sentenced to execution.

"We, the sons of the martyr Jamal Khashoggi, announce that we forgive those who killed our father as we seek reward from God Almighty," wrote one of his sons, Salah Khashoggi, on Twitter.

Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia and has received financial compensation from the royal court over the killing, explained that forgiveness was extended to the killers during the last nights of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in line with Islamic tradition to offer pardons in cases allowed by Islamic law.

Read more at:
Khashoggi's sons forgive Saudi killers, sparing 5 execution | CBC News

NATO allies alarmed, annoyed by US Open Skies exit

After a special NATO session on Friday to discuss next steps, the statement read out by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was little more than a compilation of long-held views reconfirming NATO's commitment to arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and a relatively mild rebuke that Russia's "selective implementation" of its obligations "has undermined" the treaty. NATO noted US plans to "reconsider its withdrawal should Russia return to full compliance," and pledged further efforts toward convincing the Kremlin to do so, which it suggested should happen at "the earliest date possible."

Read more: NATO allies alarmed, annoyed by US Open Skies exit | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 22.05.2020

5/21/20

The Netherlands: Could the 'liberal' Dutch have learned from Taiwan's approach to coronavirus?

The whole world has been struggling to contain the coronavirus and “flatten the curve”, but Taiwan has had no curve. Out of a population of 24 million, only 440 people have tested positive for Covid-19, and there have been just seven deaths.Compare that with the Netherlands: while it is similar in size to Taiwan with a population of 17 million, well over 5,000 lives have been lost to the virus.

What has made the difference? Clearly, the Netherlandsis not an island that could cut itself off from the rest of world, lockdown completely and thus contain the disease. Taiwan is – but Taiwan didn’t do that either.

Public spaces in Taiwan, restaurants, shops and schools, have all remained open since the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. Life in Taiwan hascontinued pretty much the same as before. What Taiwan did however, wasopt for a complex tradeoff involving viruscontainment strategies and information gathering, while balancing individual autonomy with trust and control.

Read more at:
Could the 'liberal' Dutch have learned from Taiwan's approach to coronavirus? | | Opinion | The Guardian

Open Skies Treaty: Trump Announces U.S. To Exit Open Skies Treaty | HuffPost

The Trump administration notified international partners on Thursday that it is pulling out of a treaty that permits 30-plus nations to conduct unarmed, observation flights over each other’s territory — overflights set up decades ago to promote trust and avert conflict.

The administration says it wants out of the Open Skies Treaty because Russia is violating the pact, and imagery collected during the flights can be obtained quickly at less cost from U.S. or commercial satellites. Exiting the treaty, however, is expected to strain relations with Moscow and upset European allies and some members of Congress.

President Dwight Eisenhower first proposed that the United States and the former Soviet Union allow aerial reconnaissance flights over each other’s territory in July 1955. At first, Moscow rejected the idea, but President George H.W. Bush revived it in May 1989, and the treaty entered into force in January 2002. Currently, 34 nations have signed it; Kyrgyzstan has signed but not ratified it yet.

Germany: Social market economy in Germany: growth and prosperity

The goal of the market economy is the greatest possible prosperity with the best possible social protection. It is about benefiting from the advantages of a free market economy, which include free choice of workplace, pricing freedom, competition and a wide range of affordable goods, while at the same time absorbing its disadvantages, such as monopolization, price fixing, and existence-threatening unemployment. This is why the state to a certain extent regulates the market and protects its citizens against illness and unemployment through a network of social insurance

Read more at:
https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/business/social-market-economy-in-germany-growth-and-prosperity

USA - Big Tech: Breaking up big tech companies like Amazon and Google is really popular, poll shows

Americans are pretty on board with breaking up Big Tech, especially if it means companies such as Amazon and Google stop showing them search results they make money off of first.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans would support breaking up tech firms by undoing recent mergers, such as Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, if it means ensuring more competition in the future.

5/20/20

EU: Europe’s leaders must stem falling trust – by Juan Menéndez-Valdés

The impact of Covid-19 continues to create chaos in people’s lives across Europe and the world. The economy is heading towards another major dip and a general insecurity pervades. The daunting challenges confronting health services and the anticipated long-term impacts of the crisis dominate the public sphere—and with good reason.

But how is the pandemic actually affecting us all? How are Europe’s citizens experiencing this crisis, beyond the drama of illness and death and the anxiety about the economy? Using a short online questionnaire, Eurofound has collected the experiences of more than 60,000 citizens across all European Union member states, weighting their replies to reflect the structure of the EU population.

Read more at:
Europe’s leaders must stem falling trust – Juan Menéndez-Valdés

USA: Donald Trump gets rebuffed by International Community: WHO Members Reject Trump's Demands but Agree to Study Its Virus Response - by Michael D. Shear and Andrew Jacobs

In a four-page letter late Monday, Trump had threatened to permanently cut off U.S. funding of the WHO unless it committed to “major, substantive improvements” within 30 days. It was a major escalation of his repeated attempts to blame the WHO and China for the spread of the virus and deflect responsibility for his handling of a worldwide public health crisis that has killed more than 90,000 people in the United States.

But representatives of the organization’s member nations rallied around the WHO at its annual meeting in Geneva, largely ignoring Trump’s demand for an overhaul and calling for a global show of support in the face of a deadly pandemic.

The outcome left the United States isolated as officials from China, Russia and the European Union chided Trump over his heated threats even as they acknowledged the need for a review of how the WHO performed as the virus spread from China to the rest of the world.

Public health experts noted that Trump’s threats to withdraw from the organization and halt funding ignored the reality that any such moves would require the consent of Congress, something many analysts said was unlikely.

Virginie Battu-Henriksson, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said it was “the time for solidarity, not the time for finger pointing.” Valentina I. Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Moscow would stand behind the WHO, adding that there was “certainly no reason to perform a mock trial or any kinds of investigations” or to “destroy the useful things that have been accumulated for decades by mankind.”

Read more at: WHO Members Reject Trump's Demands but Agree to Study Its Virus Response

EU-US Relations: Europe is abandoning Trump on the world stage as it turns away from the US toward China

President Donald Trump is presiding over the deterioration of the US’s position on the world stage as European countries increasingly look toward China as a future global leader.

This shift is apparent in a series of recent opinion polls that found European sentiment toward the US to be in decline since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Recent polling suggests Europeans are turning away from the US under President Donald Trump’s leadership.

Public opinion toward America has declined in major European countries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Seventy-six percent of Germans in a new poll said their view of America had deteriorated since the start of the crisis.

Roughly equal numbers of Germans in the poll favored maintaining close relationships with China and the US over the other.

One poll last week found that just 2% of French people trusted Trump to provide world leadership.

China is exerting growing political, diplomatic, and financial power across Europe.

Read more at:
Europe is abandoning Trump on the world stage as it turns away from the US toward China

USA: The Coronavirus is exposing major flaws in America's political and economic structures

Staggering Food Bank lines across America

As we watched the long lines of people waiting for a food handout, and heard their sad stories about not knowing how they could feed their children for another day, and some even having to rely on school provided meals to feed their kids.

It showed, that the Coronavirus pandemic had not only brought turmoil to America, but also that it had exposed major flaws, as to how Right Wing US politicians have manipulated Capitalism and turned it into a corrupt system of Government.

You can't escape the reality that America today is the land of great disparity, and inequality, without a social net to help those which need help, without proper healthcare for those who can't afford it, or free education for everyone, and the list goes on and on.

America needs to change for the better, and the status quo is absolutely not the answer anymore.

If not, the disparity will get worse and worse, and eventually "the party will suddenly be completely over" for the US and its lopsided Wall Street driven economy.

EU-Digest

5/19/20

USA: Will Donald Trump end up in prison? He could be a step closer …

On Monday, the US attorney general, William Barr, burst his boss’s bubble and dismissed the possibility of a criminal investigation into Obama or Biden. Because, you know, they didn’t do anything wrong. Trump responded to Barr’s statement in his usual fashion: sulking like a petulant child and saying: “Well, if it was me they would [investigate]” before continuing to babble incoherently.

It may be wishful thinking, but I have a feeling that one reason Trump is so keen to accuse Obama and Biden of criminality is because he is starting to get nervous about going to jail himself. Last week, Biden pledged that, if elected president, he wouldn’t use his executive powers to pardon Trump of potential crimes. This wasn’t the first time the presumptive Democratic nominee has said he wouldn’t go easy on Trump. In October, Biden told an Iowa radio station that it had been a mistake for Gerald Ford to pardon his predecessor, Richard Nixon, after Watergate in 1974. Pardoning Trump, Biden said, “wouldn’t unite [the US]” and would send the message that some people are above the law.

Read more at:
Will Donald Trump end up in prison? He could be a step closer … | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Stocks: Don’t even think of owning stocks unless you’re willing to buy and hold for at least 10 years - MarketWatch

With U.S. stocks having recovered from its March waterfall decline to within 13% of its Feb. 19 all-time high, many are wondering if it’s safe to step back into the market.

In fact, some brokers are now enticing investors with visions of another bull market run like the one that began in March 2009, the longest in U.S. market history.

Those visions may come to pass, but you’re in for a long wait. In fact, only if you’re willing not to touch your money for 10 years — until 2030 — should you even think of putting new money into the stock market right now.

Power Shift: US awol from world stage as China tries on global leadership for size

When the UN security council and the G7 group sought to agree a global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the efforts stumbled on the US insistence on describing the threat as distinctively Chinese.

There are other reasons for the lack of collaboration in the face of a global crisis, but the focus on labelling the virus Chinese and blaming China pursued by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, helped ensure there would be no meaningful collective response from the world’s most powerful nations.

For some US allies, the fixation on words at a time when the international order was arguably facing its greatest challenge since the second world war encapsulated the glaring absence of US leadership.

The Netherlands to Allow Bars, Restaurants to Reopen From June 1

The Dutch government confirmed that bars and restaurants can start opening for business again next month as the country slowly lifts more restrictions to aid an economy hurting from the coronavirus outbreak.

Bars and restaurants are allowed to reopen beginning at noon on June 1 for up to 30 guests excluding staff as long as they adhere to the 1.5 meter distance rule, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a press briefing in The Hague on Tuesday.

With the number of reported new cases and fatalities in the Netherlands having slowed to the lowest levels since March, Rutte’s government is cautiously working to open up an economy suffering from the outbreak.

Read more at: The Netherlands to Allow Bars, Restaurants to Reopen From June 1 - Bloomberg

Canada-U.S. border to remain closed for another month as provinces slowly reopen

Canadian Provinces are cautiously beginning to allow businesses and services to reopen from their pandemic lockdowns, but the Canada-U.S. border will remain closed for at least another 30 days.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the agreement to extend the closure during his daily news conference today.

Both countries reached an agreement in March to temporarily close the border to non-essential travel — meaning no recreational visits — while keeping it open to commercial traffic and essential workers who cross for work.

Read more at: Canada-U.S. border to remain closed for another month as provinces slowly reopen | CBC News

Tourism: Spain: How soon will I be able to visit Spain?

José Luis Ábalos, the Spanish Minister of Transport insisted that once the nation has moved through the four phase plan to reach “the new normal” there would be no reason to keep the country shut off to foreign visitors.

Currently Spain has closed borders and is only allowing those who have very good reason to enter Spain, either because they are citizens or permanent residents here or because they have legitimate work reasons.

Since May 15th all those who enter are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine where they must self-isolate in their own homes or lodgings.

Internal travel in Spain is also banned with residents restricted to moving only around their own province until restrictions are lifted further.

Read more at: Q&A: How soon will I be able to visit Spain? - The Local

5/18/20

The Netherlands: Hand sanitizer in Netherlands Ikea replaced with drain cleaner

At least three people suffered chemical burns at an Ikea in the Netherlands after the contents of a hand sanitizer bottle were replaced with drain cleaner.

Police say a cleaning woman who was not a native Dutch speaker made the swap accidentally, according to NOS.

IKEAs across the Netherlands closed voluntarily in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They are reopening, but allowing fewer customers inside.

Read more at
Hand sanitizer in Netherlands Ikea replaced with drain cleaner - Insider

USA: The Trump Blame Game Continuous: U.S. savages WHO as it promises pandemic review, but China pledges $2 billion

The World Health Organization said on Monday an independent review of the global coronavirus response would begin as soon as possible and it received backing and a hefty pledge of funds from China, in the spotlight as the origin of the pandemic.

But the WHO’s chief critic, the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, decried an “apparent attempt to conceal this outbreak by at least one member state”.

Trump said later in Washington that the WHO, which he called a “puppet of China”, had “done a very sad job” in its handling of the coronavirus and he would make a decision about U.S. funding to the body soon.

Note EU-Digest: Trump covers up his disastrous handling of the Coronavirus in the US, by blaming everyone else.

Read more at;
U.S. savages WHO as it promises pandemic review, but China pledges $2 billion - Reuters

Wall Street Fata Morgana: Dow soars almost 4% main stock-market indexes turn positive for May on coronavirus vaccine hope

U.S. stocks soared on Monday, erasing May losses, on optimism that the American economy might be percolating again, while the medical community works toward a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

Risk assets also received a boost after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Sunday night struck a more upbeat tone on the U.S.’s growth prospects, while highlighting that the central bank still retained tools to limit the economic downturn.

Note EU-Digest: Wall Street "Fata Morgana" goes in overdrive, as it clamps on to imaginary "positive" news. Stop dreaming. It's time for a reality check folks. The US economy is on life support.

Dow soars almost 4% main stock-market indexes turn positive for May on coronavirus vaccine hope - MarketWatch

USA: ‘They don’t give him enough credit’: the voters who back Trump, even through the pandemic

Few people understand the terrible cost of the coronavirus like Lee Snover, a Republican party chair in one of the key swing counties that could determine whether Donald Trump is reelected as president in November.

Snover, who helped deliver an upset victory for Trump in 2016 in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, lost her father to the virus this spring. Her husband fell critically ill, too, spending 17 days in an intensive care unit before recovering. Her mother, a cancer survivor, was also in intensive care for eight days before emerging.

“It spread through my entire family,” Snover said.
Trump stands accused of driving up the coronavirus death toll by downplaying the public health threat and urging the country to “reopen” too quickly. But Snover does not see the president as having failed her family.

“I don’t think people give him enough credit,” she said. “If you think about what a businessman he was, and how much he loved that booming economy, do you know how hard it was for him to shut the country down? That was hard. So I give him credit for that.”

Read more at :
‘They don’t give him enough credit’: the voters who back Trump, even through the pandemic | US news | The Guardian

EU - Coronavirus latest: France, Germany propose vast recovery fund

Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron propose a major European rescue fund, to come from an increased long-term EU budget

Read more at:
Coronavirus latest: France, Germany propose vast recovery fund | News | DW | 18.05.2020

US-China tech race: Beijing has strength to catch up with US lead - by Audrey Cher

The United States might be leading in some areas of its technology race with China — but experts warn against the world’s largest economy resting on its laurels, urging instead for cooperation with allies and shifts in domestic policy.

Alongside trade war developments between the U.S. and China, both parties have been embroiled in growing competition to dominate various fields of next-generation technology, such as 5G networks and artificial intelligence.

5G refers to the latest mobile networking technology that promises super-fast download speeds and the ability to underpin critical infrastructure. That’s one reason why it is seen as crucial technology for both countries.

In the last few years, Beijing has laid out a number of plans it hopes will turn China into a world leader in various tech areas:

The country is currently gearing up to release a 15-year blueprint — known as “China Standards 2035” — that will outline its plans to set the global standards for future technologies.
In 2017, China announced ambitions to become a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence by 2030.
Five years ago, in 2015, Beijing unveiled a “Made in China 2025” plan to dominate global high-tech manufacturing.

5/17/20

Travelers Ban: The Netherlands extends its ban on foreign travellers to June 15

The Netherlds extended its ban to travelers from outside the EU, including Britain to June 15

The Netherlands has extended its ban on people travelling to the country from outside Europe and the UK until June 15. The ban, which was imposed on March 18, applies to all but urgent travel, although there are some exceptions. Diplomatic and NGO staff, medical staff and lorry drivers may continue to enter the Netherlands, as well as foreign nationals with residency cards or long stay visas, the guidelines state.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

USA: ‘Attorney General is not done’: experts raise concerns about attorney general’s legal reach

Legal experts and and alumnae of the US Department of Justice have begun sounding the alarm about Donald Trump’s attorney general, William Barr.

Recently Barr’s justice department withdrew charges against Michael Flynn, the former Trump administration national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to federal law enforcement officials about his dealings with Russia’s ambassador over sanctions, just before Trump took office.

France: Daily death toll from the coronavirus in France drops below 100 as people enjoy first post-lockdown weekend

Several other recent positive trends continued as well, with 71 fewer people in intensive care, the health ministry said.

The latest figures came as France enjoyed the sixth day of the partial easing of a nationwide lockdown imposed on March 17 to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

On Friday French officials called for self-restraint as the country prepared for its first weekend since the coronavirus lockdown was eased.

They warned that police would break up any large gatherings of people taking too much advantage of newfound freedoms.

Read more at:
Daily death toll from the coronavirus in France drops below 100 as people enjoy first post-lockdown weekend - The Local

EU: Protesters rally against coronavirus measures across Europe

German police detained 200 people in Berlin as several parallel protests were held in the city on Saturday, with some of the protesters rallying against anti-infection measures and others decrying conspiracy theories.

Rival events were also held in Frankfurt, where about 1,500 people gathered to protest the government measures and about the same number of joining a counter-protest, police said.

Read more at:
Protesters rally against coronavirus measures across Europe | News | DW | 16.05.2020

USA Presidential Elections - Democrats: Only 54% of Democrats Want Biden As Nominee says Rasmussen Poll

Joe Biden has the support of just over half of Democrats, although the vast majority still expect the former vice president to be their party’s presidential nominee.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of Likely Democratic Voters are satisfied with Biden as the Democrats’ 2020 nominee. Twenty-eight percent (28%) think the party should find someone else to be their nominee, while another 18% are undecided.

Read more at:
Only 54% of Democrats Want Biden As Nominee - Rasmussen Reports®

The Liberal International Order: Donald Trump and the Future of Liberal International Order - by Shazia Farooq

Amid Covid-19 Pandemic, President Trump issued an executive order on April 22 temporarily banning some individuals from obtaining U.S. permanent residency. Since assuming power, Donald Trump has shaken one international arrangement after the other and followed the policy of economic nationalism. He withdrew from the Trans-Pacific partnership trade agreement, threatened to terminate NAFTA and slapped import tariffs on U.S. allies. He abandoned the global Paris accord aimed at curbing climate change. He scuttled the deal curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and questioned Americas commitments to NATO and allies encouraging even the dissolution of the European union. The global order was already under strain. However, under Trump it has attained death knell. The retreat from its traditional role sounds alarm for the entire world.

The liberal international order is essentially a body of rules, norms and institutions that govern international affairs. It encompasses security, economic and human rights order. Washington was the founder of this traditional order and anchored it for the past half century. With Donald Trump coming to power, there has been a retreat of America’s global commitments. Few observers have equated Donald Trump’s presidency to policy of isolationism.

During the 1930’s isolationist sentiments persisted. Only after Japanese attack on pearl harbor, the futility of placing ‘America first’ was realized. It seems that isolationism is back in vogue in U.S. with Trump giving new vigor to the “America first rhetoric of interwar sovereigntists.”

The Paris agreement has been seen in the same light. The deal which is based on country’s voluntary commitments to cut their carbon emissions violated American sovereignty according to Trump. Trumps argument is certainly baseless and unfound. The Paris agreement is a flexible arrangement consistent with the U.S. constitution. It does not mandate how the U.S. or any other party should go about fulfilling this obligation. Rather each government submits its own individual, nationally determined contribution to that joint effort.

The mission to put America first and abandon the liberal international order can have serious backlash for the American people as well as its economy. It has isolated U.S. on key global issues and has also undermined its soft power diplomacy.

Trump by favoring a close bilateral and nationalist agenda in contrast to that of multilateral cooperative society is doing more harm than can be done by open and rule bound order governed by international institutions. This way it paves path for adversaries to grow at the cost of world peace and security. An unpredictable and unsafe world is what awaits us. The need of the hour is to renew commitment to collective security for the survival of the planet as well as the deterrence of aggressors. Moreover, a consolidated bloc and a common cause with other nations can give it a more leverage to deal with China on trade related negotiations.

While it is evident that Donald Trump does not want to make any compromise on American interests, he desires a lighter global workload for the U.S. However, at the same time there is an aspiration of keeping the global leadership. The two cannot go hand in hand. In a world of sovereign states minding their own affairs, the idea of nativism or isolationism is bound to create conflict. The embracing of isolationist policies by U.S. can lead to power vacuum in the liberal international order, pushing new states to acquire this position. Though the U.S. followed isolationist policies post World War I, for a peaceful interwar period. Today the situation is different and the world cannot do away without liberal order and take to exclusionist mode.

China has been making every effort to replace the U.S. at global level. The isolationist policies of Trump have provided greater scope and leverage to Beijing. China has positioned itself as a growing climate leader along with European Union. It has been making great strides not only in policy domain but also gathering the influence required for filling the gap. For instance, when Trump paralyzed the WTO by leaving its appellate body inquorate, China along with Europe and other 15 countries set up their own ad hoc shadow appellate body to maintain WTO standards and procedures. The successor to U.S. global leadership seems to be collective global leadership, with the two largest economies––EU and the China.

Read complete report at: Donald Trump and the Future of Liberal International Order - Modern Diplomacy

5/16/20

Brexit: EU-UK talks: 'disappointing' progress, says Barnier

COVID-19, with both chief negotiator Michel Barnier and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson being personally affected.

In the meantime, a June deadline for significant progress is looming, and key arguments remain unresolved. Questions remain over fishing rights, how closely the UK will stick to EU regulations and allowing a role for the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice.

More bumps in the road came this week, as the EU Commission opened infringement proceedings against the UK for failing to comply with free movement rules. While the UK said the EU was at risk of breaching the terms of the Brexit agreement over British expats registering to stay in the EU.

Read more at:
EU-UK talks: 'disappointing' progress, says Barnier | Euronews

Eurovision: Abba's Waterloo voted best song of all time

Eurovision: Come Together saw the public vote for their favourites, on the night that this year's song contest was due to take place.

The 2020 competition was cancelled in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Swedish foursome won it in 1974 in Brighton. The track, which topped the UK charts and set them on their way to fame, went on to sell nearly 6m copies.

Speaking later on the night, Bjorn Ulvaeus from the band said he found it "hard to believe" that was where it began for them all those years ago.

Read more at:
Eurovision: Abba's Waterloo voted best song of all time - BBC News

USA: 23% of Republicans Think GOP Should Nominate Someone Other Than Trump

Republicans overwhelmingly expect President Trump to be their nominee this fall, but nearly one-in-four GOP voters would prefer someone else.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 23% of Likely Republican Voters think their party should find someone other than Trump to be their presidential nominee. Seventy percent (70%) disagree. Only seven percent (7%) are undecided.

Read more at: 23% of Republicans Think GOP Should Nominate Someone Other Than Trump - Rasmussen Reports®

Donald Trump better take note: COVID 19 Today and China’s Great Famine

Between 1959 and 1961, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) underwent the Great Chinese Famine, one of the country’s darkest times.

Yang Jisheng, senior journalist from the Xinhua News Agency, estimated that China registered 36 million deaths back then due to starvation. It was one of the greatest tragedies in human history.

Although current global circumstances are vastly different now, the following question offers itself up quite naturally: Can any lesson be derived from that experience in China 60 years ago for today’s world that is facing the worst pandemic of the last century?

Read more at : COVID 19 Today and China’s Great Famine - The Globalist

5/15/20

Ethnic discrimination: Ethnic minorities in UK, US pay hefty price in Covid-19 crisis

Does ethnicity play a role in the risk of dying from Covid-19? According to studies from both the UK and the US – where the collection of ethnicity-related data is legal – it does. But instead of being attributed to genetic denominators, researchers believe wider social injustices in the two countries may be to blame.

In a study published by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) on May 7, statistics showed that Covid-19 patients with an African or Caribbean background were four times more likely to die from the illness after being admitted to hospital than their white counterparts. Similar findings were made among Brits of Asian descent, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree.

Another study, published by the University of Glasgow on April 30, showed that aside from demonstrating a higher Covid-19 mortality rate, ethnic minorities in the UK also face an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus.

Read more at:
https://www.france24.com/en/20200515-ethnic-minorities-in-uk-us-pay-hefty-price-in-covid-19-crisis

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