Donald Trump defined the 2020 Presidential vote as "the most important election in US history" but its impact will also be felt on this side of the pond too — and not just at the highest of political levels.
Trump’s politics over the past four years have affected both the pockets and the most intimate sphere of millions of Europeans.
On one hand, many EU workers have incurred substantial losses in their incomes as a result of the EU-US trade war.
On the other hand, unknown but influential lobbying groups with ties to the US administration are bringing on a fight to erode basic human rights for women and LGBT communities.
Read more at: US election: Here's how it can impact Europeans' lives | Euronews
10/31/20
Canada - Democracy: Things fall apart in the United States — and Canada takes a hard look in the mirror
John Turner, who passed away in September, was particularly fond of a phrase that could stand now as an abiding lesson for everyone who has watched the chaotic last four years of the American experiment.
"Democracy," the former prime minister used to say, "does not happen by accident."
Read more at: Things fall apart in the United States — and Canada takes a hard look in the mirror | CBC News
"Democracy," the former prime minister used to say, "does not happen by accident."
Read more at: Things fall apart in the United States — and Canada takes a hard look in the mirror | CBC News
England lockdown: Boris Johnson issues new stay-at-home order
England will go into a new monthlong lockdown on Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday.
Read more at: England lockdown: Boris Johnson issues new stay-at-home order | News | DW | 31.10.2020
Read more at: England lockdown: Boris Johnson issues new stay-at-home order | News | DW | 31.10.2020
Wall Street: The stock market's 'presidential predictor' is forecasting a Biden victory - by William Watts
The stock market’s Friday fall spells trouble for President Donald Trump’s re-election hopes.
The “Presidential Predictor,” popularized by Sam Stovall, CFRA’s chief investment strategist, tracks the S&P 500 index’s SPX, -1.21% presidential election-year performance from July 31 to Oct. 31. Going back to 1944, it’s found that a positive move over that period usually corresponds to a presidential victory by the incumbent party, while a negative move signals a loss (see chart by clicking on link below).
Read more at: The stock market's 'presidential predictor' is forecasting a Biden victory - MarketWatch
The “Presidential Predictor,” popularized by Sam Stovall, CFRA’s chief investment strategist, tracks the S&P 500 index’s SPX, -1.21% presidential election-year performance from July 31 to Oct. 31. Going back to 1944, it’s found that a positive move over that period usually corresponds to a presidential victory by the incumbent party, while a negative move signals a loss (see chart by clicking on link below).
Read more at: The stock market's 'presidential predictor' is forecasting a Biden victory - MarketWatch
US Housing Market: The great divergence: U.S. COVID-19 economy has delivered luxury houses for some, evictions for others - by Michelle Conlin
Professionals like Kullman are thriving, thanks in part to pandemic-induced policies by the Federal Reserve that have buoyed the stock market and fueled industries such as real estate with record-low interest rates.
For many lower-wage workers, meanwhile, the crisis has delivered a cruel shove, toppling families like the McGees who were already living on the financial edge. Nationwide, millions of people including hotel workers, retail clerks, waiters, bartenders, airline employees and other service workers have lost jobs as COVID-19 fears crushed consumer demand.
Read more at: The great divergence: U.S. COVID-19 economy has delivered luxury houses for some, evictions for others | Reuters
For many lower-wage workers, meanwhile, the crisis has delivered a cruel shove, toppling families like the McGees who were already living on the financial edge. Nationwide, millions of people including hotel workers, retail clerks, waiters, bartenders, airline employees and other service workers have lost jobs as COVID-19 fears crushed consumer demand.
Read more at: The great divergence: U.S. COVID-19 economy has delivered luxury houses for some, evictions for others | Reuters
The US Presidency: Donald Trump as Julius Caesar: The Curtain Raiser - by Brent Ranalli
In the summer of 2017, New Yorkers were treated to a Shakespeare in the Park production that depicted a Julius Caesar modeled on President Donald Trump. There he was, with business suit, blond hair, oversized red tie and bronzer, tweeting from a golden bathtub.
Right-wing news outlets sprang into full outrage mode. Indignantly, the National Review presumed a double standard and deplored it. Imagine, it argued the “actual protests and actual rioting if this or any other major New York play gleefully depicted the stabbing murder of Barack Obama.”
Read more at: Donald Trump as Julius Caesar: The Curtain Raiser - The Globalist
Right-wing news outlets sprang into full outrage mode. Indignantly, the National Review presumed a double standard and deplored it. Imagine, it argued the “actual protests and actual rioting if this or any other major New York play gleefully depicted the stabbing murder of Barack Obama.”
Read more at: Donald Trump as Julius Caesar: The Curtain Raiser - The Globalist
10/30/20
Coronavirus - Flu Vaccination: A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests - by Melinda Wenner Moyer
U.S. health officials are urging Americans to get their flu shots this year in the hopes of thwarting a winter “twindemic”—a situation in which both influenza and COVID-19 spread and sicken the public. But a new study suggests that there could be another key reason to get a flu jab this year: it might reduce your risk of COVID-19. The research, released as a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, indicates that a flu vaccine against the influenza virus may also trigger the body to produce broad infection-fighting molecules that combat the pandemic-causing coronavirus.
n the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.
Read more at: A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests - Scientific American
n the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.
Read more at: A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests - Scientific American
Global Coronavirus trend: The pandemic is far from over
Over the past few weeks the trend has worsened globally and the situation has deteriorated further: 133 countries have reported more cases in the past two weeks, compared to the previous 14 days.-
Read more at: Coronavirus trend: The pandemic is far from over | Science| In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | 30.10.2020
Read more at: Coronavirus trend: The pandemic is far from over | Science| In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | 30.10.2020
USA - Presidential Elections: Why this election calls into question whether America is a democracy
America has long held itself up as the world’s leading democracy, but it has an equally long history of denying people the right to vote.
To understand how voter suppression is shaping the 2020 election, just look at Texas. While many states do not require voters to have a reason to vote by mail, Texas only allows voters to do so if they are 65 or older or meet other conditions. The state does not allow people to register to vote online.
Read more at: Why this election calls into question whether America is a democracy | US news | The Guardian
To understand how voter suppression is shaping the 2020 election, just look at Texas. While many states do not require voters to have a reason to vote by mail, Texas only allows voters to do so if they are 65 or older or meet other conditions. The state does not allow people to register to vote online.
Read more at: Why this election calls into question whether America is a democracy | US news | The Guardian
EU - Coronavirus: Restrictions needed to battle COVID-19 in Europe, EU says
European Union Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Friday that EU countries should be ready to impose restrictions on people’s lives to battle the spread of the new coronavirus throughout the continent.
Read more at: Restrictions needed to battle COVID-19 in Europe, EU says | Reuters
Read more at: Restrictions needed to battle COVID-19 in Europe, EU says | Reuters
Turkey: Deadly 7.0 earthquake rocks western Turkey, Greece
A strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on Friday and inflicted damage in both Greece and Turkey, where buildings collapsed killing at least four people with many others trapped in the rubble.
Read more at: Deadly earthquake rocks western Turkey, Greece | Greece | Al Jazeera
Read more at: Deadly earthquake rocks western Turkey, Greece | Greece | Al Jazeera
10/29/20
Germany: Only one in ten Germans would vote for Trump
If the Germans were allowed to take part in the presidential election in the United States, their vote would be clear: only 10% would vote for incumbent President Donald Trump, a clear majority of 56% his challenger Joe Biden.
Read more at: Only one in ten Germans would vote for Trump | – re:Jerusalem
Read more at: Only one in ten Germans would vote for Trump | – re:Jerusalem
Multilateralism: Trudeau, EU leaders express faith in American people and call for return to multilateralism
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the European Union's two top political leaders expressed faith in the American people Thursday ahead of next week's U.S. presidential election whose outcome will have major implications for global relations.
rudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the European Union Council president, all refrained — as is customary — from directly commenting on whether they'd like to see current U.S. President Donald Trump remain in office or his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, take over.
The choice is up to the American people, the three leaders said.
Read more at: Trudeau, EU leaders express faith in American people and call for return to multilateralism | CBC News
rudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the European Union Council president, all refrained — as is customary — from directly commenting on whether they'd like to see current U.S. President Donald Trump remain in office or his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, take over.
The choice is up to the American people, the three leaders said.
Read more at: Trudeau, EU leaders express faith in American people and call for return to multilateralism | CBC News
France -Terrorism - Radical Islam: 3 dead as woman beheaded in France, gunman killed in separate attempted attack - by Thomson
A knife-wielding attacker shouting "Allahu Akbar" beheaded a woman and killed two other people in what French officials described as a terrorist act at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday while a gunman was shot dead by police in a separate incident.
Read more at: 3 dead as woman beheaded in France, gunman killed in separate attempted attack | CBC News
Read more at: 3 dead as woman beheaded in France, gunman killed in separate attempted attack | CBC News
USA: God and the GOP: will conservative evangelicals stay loyal to Trump? –
In 2016, white evangelicals made up a quarter of all US voters. And 81% of them voted for Donald Trump. Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to the pivotal battleground state of North Carolina to see if Trump's religious base is showing signs of crumbling. They meet extreme evangelical pastors, travelling progressive preachers and the moral movement leader Rev William Barber
Read more at: God and the GOP: will conservative evangelicals stay loyal to Trump? – video | US news | The Guardian
Read more at: God and the GOP: will conservative evangelicals stay loyal to Trump? – video | US news | The Guardian
US Presidential Elections: Wall Street drops Donald Trump in favor of Joe Biden
For a long time, Wall Street had only two concerns about the upcoming US presidential election. Some feared a chaotic handover of power should President Donald Trump lose the election and challenge the result. Others dreaded a victory for the Democrats because of a fear that their tough economic policies could endanger recent stock gains.Now they support Joe Biden.
Read more at: Wall Street drops Donald Trump in favor of Joe Biden | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 29.10.2020
Read more at: Wall Street drops Donald Trump in favor of Joe Biden | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 29.10.2020
Social Media: CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter grilled on content moderation in US Senate hearing
The leaders of Twitter, Google, and Facebook have faced strong criticism from US senators over content moderation in a high-profile hearing.
Read more at: CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter grilled on content moderation in US Senate hearing | Euronews
Read more at: CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter grilled on content moderation in US Senate hearing | Euronews
10/28/20
The Netherlands: Current coronavirus rules will last well into December, Dutch prime minister says
The partial lockdown imposed in the Netherlands two weeks ago will last deep into December, prime minister Mark Rutte and health minister Hugo de Jonge told reporters on Tuesday evening.
‘You can assume that you will celebrate Sinterklaas in a small group, with no more than three people from outside your household,’ Rutte said. ‘It is still too early to say about Christmas.’ Ministers are also working on new recommendations for holiday travel, both in the Netherlands and abroad, and that could be published as early as later this week, Rutte said.
Read more at: Current coronavirus rules will last well into December, Dutch prime minister says - DutchNews.nl
‘You can assume that you will celebrate Sinterklaas in a small group, with no more than three people from outside your household,’ Rutte said. ‘It is still too early to say about Christmas.’ Ministers are also working on new recommendations for holiday travel, both in the Netherlands and abroad, and that could be published as early as later this week, Rutte said.
Read more at: Current coronavirus rules will last well into December, Dutch prime minister says - DutchNews.nl
USA: Stocks Close Sharply Lower on Rising Coronavirus Cases - as Donald Trump brags the US turned the corner on the Coronavirus
U.S. stocks continued to sell off on Wednesday in what is shaping up to be their worst week since late March, as rising coronavirus infections shook investors’ confidence in the global economic recovery.The Dow industrials lost 943.24 points, or 3.4%, to 26519.95, their fourth losing session in a row and worst day since June 11.
Read more at: Stocks Close Sharply Lower on Rising Coronavirus Cases - WSJ
Read more at: Stocks Close Sharply Lower on Rising Coronavirus Cases - WSJ
Coronavirus: Germany to impose one-month partial lockdown
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's state premiers announced on Wednesday a new partial lockdown to begin on Monday, November 2.
Read more at:Coronavirus: Germany to impose one-month partial lockdown | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 28.10.2020
Read more at:Coronavirus: Germany to impose one-month partial lockdown | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 28.10.2020
France imposes four-week national lockdown to combat coronavirus
In a televised speech on Wednesday evening, Macron called for a “collective effort” to combat Covid-19, admitting recent efforts to contain the virus were “useful, but not enough”.
The new lockdown will see the return of sworn declarations needed to leave home, but schools will remain open. Universities will give courses online. All non-essential businesses, including bars and restaurants, will be closed from midnight on Thursday.
Read more at: France imposes four-week national lockdown to combat coronavirus | World news | The Guardian
The new lockdown will see the return of sworn declarations needed to leave home, but schools will remain open. Universities will give courses online. All non-essential businesses, including bars and restaurants, will be closed from midnight on Thursday.
Read more at: France imposes four-week national lockdown to combat coronavirus | World news | The Guardian
USA: What is QAnon, the conspiracy theory supporting Trump in the 2020 presidential election? - by Emanuela Campanella
Misinformation has been spreading like wildfire in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In the last couple of months, QAnon has gone mainstream.
The unfounded internet conspiracy theory alleges the world is run by a cabal of satan-worshiping pedophiles including Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities running a global child sex-trafficking ring.
The starting point right now is really that there is this deep state or shadow government, which has in mind the takedown of Trump,” said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism.
QAnon followers have been flooding social media with false information about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and most recently about the U.S. election.
At its core, the far-right conspiracy theory is that U.S. President Donald Trump is fighting a battle against evil, according to Perry, who studies extremism extensively. The theory suggests the military, supposedly eager to see the deep state overthrown, recruited Trump to run for president. But the deep state, which controls the media, quickly tried to smear him through “fake news.”
They claim it is only Trump who can get “deep state” leaders arrested in what they call “The great awakening,” Perry says. Trump, however claims They claim it is only Trump who can get “deep state” leaders arrested in what they call “The great awakening,” Perry says. Trump, however, says QAnon deeply love American vcalues and him.
Read more at: https://globalnews.ca/news/7425408/qanon-misinformation-donald-trump-us-election/
The unfounded internet conspiracy theory alleges the world is run by a cabal of satan-worshiping pedophiles including Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities running a global child sex-trafficking ring.
The starting point right now is really that there is this deep state or shadow government, which has in mind the takedown of Trump,” said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism.
QAnon followers have been flooding social media with false information about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and most recently about the U.S. election.
At its core, the far-right conspiracy theory is that U.S. President Donald Trump is fighting a battle against evil, according to Perry, who studies extremism extensively. The theory suggests the military, supposedly eager to see the deep state overthrown, recruited Trump to run for president. But the deep state, which controls the media, quickly tried to smear him through “fake news.”
They claim it is only Trump who can get “deep state” leaders arrested in what they call “The great awakening,” Perry says. Trump, however claims They claim it is only Trump who can get “deep state” leaders arrested in what they call “The great awakening,” Perry says. Trump, however, says QAnon deeply love American vcalues and him.
Read more at: https://globalnews.ca/news/7425408/qanon-misinformation-donald-trump-us-election/
10/27/20
Democracy: A free press and a continuous and active involvement of private citizens in matters of public interest
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens" - Alexis de Tocqueville - It was as true then as it is today. Don't sit on your hands, do your part and voice your opinion. Check out all our MORBIR Electronic Publications. Scan the QR codes below📱
From top to bottom: EU-Digest, Turkish-Digest, Almere-Digest and Insure-Digest.
EU-Digest For all your advertising requirements, please see the advertising application form on each of the above mentioned MORBIR publications.
From top to bottom: EU-Digest, Turkish-Digest, Almere-Digest and Insure-Digest.
EU-Digest For all your advertising requirements, please see the advertising application form on each of the above mentioned MORBIR publications.
USA - Judicial independence: Commentary: Politics is threatening local judicial independence - by Diane Shelley
Politics has no business in America’s court system but it has done so over the years.
Rad more at: Commentary: Politics is threatening local judicial independence - Chicago Tribune
Rad more at: Commentary: Politics is threatening local judicial independence - Chicago Tribune
10/26/20
EU -Britain: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old as well as young adults - by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Kelland, Kate Holton
The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, also triggers lower adverse responses among the elderly, British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc AZN.L, which is helping manufacture the vaccine, said on Monday.
Read more at: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old as well as young adults | Reuters
Read more at: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old as well as young adults | Reuters
USA: Republicans closely resemble autocratic parties in Hungary and Turkey – Stockholm study shows - by Julian Borger
The Republican party has become dramatically more illiberal in the past two decades and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former centre-right equivalents in Europe, according to a new international study.
n a significant shift since 2000, the GOP has taken to demonising and encouraging violence against its opponents, adopting attitudes and tactics comparable to ruling nationalist parties in Hungary, India, Poland and Turkey.
read more at: Republicans closely resemble autocratic parties in Hungary and Turkey – study | US news | The Guardian
n a significant shift since 2000, the GOP has taken to demonising and encouraging violence against its opponents, adopting attitudes and tactics comparable to ruling nationalist parties in Hungary, India, Poland and Turkey.
read more at: Republicans closely resemble autocratic parties in Hungary and Turkey – study | US news | The Guardian
USA: Rasmussen Poll: White House Watch - Trump 48%, Biden 47%
It’s neck-and-neck, with President Trump just barely ahead in Rasmussen Reports’ first daily White House Watch survey.
The latest national telephone and online survey finds Trump edging Democrat Joe Biden 48% to 47% among Likely U.S. Voters. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, while two percent (2%) remain undecided.
Last Wednesday, Biden held a 49% to 46% lead, but the race has been tightening since early in the month. This is the first time Trump has been ahead since mid-September.
Read more at: White House Watch - Rasmussen Reports®
The latest national telephone and online survey finds Trump edging Democrat Joe Biden 48% to 47% among Likely U.S. Voters. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, while two percent (2%) remain undecided.
Last Wednesday, Biden held a 49% to 46% lead, but the race has been tightening since early in the month. This is the first time Trump has been ahead since mid-September.
Read more at: White House Watch - Rasmussen Reports®
QAnon-Canada: How conspiracies like QAnon are slowly creeping into some Canadian churches - by Joel Dryden
Van Sloten said he has received criticism, hate mail and even protests outside his church over the years, and has mostly ignored instances that seemed like trolling.
But he said he's also read about the advent of the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon in American churches, and feels that churches in Canada should be carefully tracking its possible journey north.
"The Christian church has always been exposed to heresies and incorrect thinking historically from the get-go," van Sloten said. "Heresies come and heresies go, and this is the heresy du jour. And I think we ought to treat it like that."
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory include members from both secular and religious groups, and aren't made up specifically of those people who participate in the Christian faith.
Read more at: How conspiracies like QAnon are slowly creeping into some Canadian churches | CBC News
But he said he's also read about the advent of the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon in American churches, and feels that churches in Canada should be carefully tracking its possible journey north.
"The Christian church has always been exposed to heresies and incorrect thinking historically from the get-go," van Sloten said. "Heresies come and heresies go, and this is the heresy du jour. And I think we ought to treat it like that."
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory include members from both secular and religious groups, and aren't made up specifically of those people who participate in the Christian faith.
Read more at: How conspiracies like QAnon are slowly creeping into some Canadian churches | CBC News
USA: Could Wall Street Crash: It's been years since investors have been this fearful of a stock market crash, Nobel-winning economist warns - by Shawn Langlois
Robert Shiller, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Yale professor, urging a cautious approach to investing in the top-heavy stock market in an op-ed for the New York Times: “The coronavirus crisis and the November election have driven fears of a major market crash to the highest levels in many years,” Shiller wrote. “At the same time, stocks are trading at very high levels. That volatile combination doesn’t mean that a crash will occur, but it suggests that the risk of one is relatively high. This is a time to be careful.”
Read more at: It's been years since investors have been this fearful of a stock market crash, Nobel-winning economist warns - MarketWatch
Read more at: It's been years since investors have been this fearful of a stock market crash, Nobel-winning economist warns - MarketWatch
10/25/20
The Netherlands: Experts call for shorter and sharper lockdown to battle coronavirus - by Victoria Séveno
The Red Team is advising the Dutch government to put the Netherlands into a stricter lockdown as soon as possible, closing everything - including schools - for two weeks and only leaving supermarkets and pharmacies open for necessities. Wim Schellekens, former inspector at the Health Care Inspectorate and member of the Red Team, told RTL Nieuws: “If we opt for a strong lockdown now, we can resume our life somewhat normally in a few weeks.”
Read more at: Experts call for shorter and sharper coronavirus lockdown in the Netherlands
Read more at: Experts call for shorter and sharper coronavirus lockdown in the Netherlands
Economics: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - by Noah Smith
Ever since China’s spectacular economic growth became apparent in the 2000s, people have wondered whether that country’s brand of authoritarian state capitalism has proven superior to the more liberal American model. Until recently, it was possible to dismiss those concerns, but Chinese successes and U.S. failures keep piling up. If the U.S. wants to maintain both its relative power and its prestige as a model for the world, it needs to make some big adjustments.
Read more at: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - Bloomberg
Read more at: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - Bloomberg
EU- Europe’s hidden biodiversity crisis – by Laura Hildt and Patrick ten Brink
his week the European Environmental Agency (EEA) released its State of Nature in the EU report. The grim news should alarm us all: four-fifths of habitats are in poor condition and the trends are mostly downwards. Species and habitats are increasingly under threat, from unsustainable farming and forestry, urban sprawl, pollution and climate change.
The EEA concludes that only 15 per cent of habitats are in good shape. More than half of dune, bog, mire and fen habitats, which have the capacity to store a lot of carbon, are in poor condition. Moreover, the situation for about 35 per cent of species and habitats is deteriorating, while less than a tenth of habitats with poor or bad conservation status show improvements.
There are, though, a few success stories. The Agile Frog in Sweden and the Bearded Vulture across Europe are showing improvements and the Natura 2000 network of protected areas is generally having a positive effect on species and habitats.
Red more at: Europe’s hidden biodiversity crisis – Laura Hildt and Patrick ten Brink
The EEA concludes that only 15 per cent of habitats are in good shape. More than half of dune, bog, mire and fen habitats, which have the capacity to store a lot of carbon, are in poor condition. Moreover, the situation for about 35 per cent of species and habitats is deteriorating, while less than a tenth of habitats with poor or bad conservation status show improvements.
There are, though, a few success stories. The Agile Frog in Sweden and the Bearded Vulture across Europe are showing improvements and the Natura 2000 network of protected areas is generally having a positive effect on species and habitats.
Red more at: Europe’s hidden biodiversity crisis – Laura Hildt and Patrick ten Brink
The environment: China takes the climate stage – by Adam Tooze
n January, sights were set on the next round of the United Nations climate conference, ‘COP26’, scheduled for Glasgow in November, just days after the elections in the United States. The strategy of the European Union was to broker a deal with China to raise its national commitment under the terms of the Paris Agreement of 2015. To get there, diplomatic attention focused on the EU-China summit billed for Leipzig in mid-September.
Xi has done big climate policy before. In November 2014 he appeared alongside the then US president, Barack Obama, to declare that China—despite its status as a developing country and although the climate problem was the historical responsibility of the west—would make commitments to curb its emissions from 2030. That declaration opened the door to the Paris Agreement.
Xi’s announcement means that, for the first time in the history of UN climate talks, the largest emitter is actually committed to radical action. For the EU, as for anyone who cares about the climate, this is good news. But it may also turn out to be disorientating.
Read more at: China takes the climate stage – Adam Tooze
Xi has done big climate policy before. In November 2014 he appeared alongside the then US president, Barack Obama, to declare that China—despite its status as a developing country and although the climate problem was the historical responsibility of the west—would make commitments to curb its emissions from 2030. That declaration opened the door to the Paris Agreement.
Xi’s announcement means that, for the first time in the history of UN climate talks, the largest emitter is actually committed to radical action. For the EU, as for anyone who cares about the climate, this is good news. But it may also turn out to be disorientating.
Read more at: China takes the climate stage – Adam Tooze
US Presidential Elections: 'Deep down, he's a terrified little boy': Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump
There is an atmosphere in Washington of high anxiety. Trump is melting down, to put it charitably. His campaign has been about lashing out, about wanting his former political opponents – President Obama and Joe Biden, who’s now running against him, of course – to be indicted then charged. Then there was his announcement that he is not necessarily going to accept the electoral result against him. The idea that the president would put in doubt the basic process of democracy and voting is not only unacceptable, it is a nightmare.
Read more at:'Deep down, he's a terrified little boy': Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Read more at:'Deep down, he's a terrified little boy': Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump | Donald Trump | The Guardian
10/24/20
US election: How Donald Trump has changed global foreign policy - and the perception of America around the world
From his early days on the 2016 campaign trail, Donald Trump made clear in just two words the aims his foreign policy would pursue: "America first."
Now, after nearly four years of a Trump presidency, those words have been fleshed out with facts and events. Unilateralism and confrontation have marked Trump's foreign policy, as have personnel turnover, surprise and confusion.
Regardless of the outcome of the US election on November 3, the changes under Trump in both policy substance and delivery have shaped the arena in which other global actors conduct diplomacy, as well as their own approaches.
Read more at: US election: How Donald Trump has changed global foreign policy | Americas| North and South American news impacting on Europe | DW | 24.10.2020
Now, after nearly four years of a Trump presidency, those words have been fleshed out with facts and events. Unilateralism and confrontation have marked Trump's foreign policy, as have personnel turnover, surprise and confusion.
Regardless of the outcome of the US election on November 3, the changes under Trump in both policy substance and delivery have shaped the arena in which other global actors conduct diplomacy, as well as their own approaches.
Read more at: US election: How Donald Trump has changed global foreign policy | Americas| North and South American news impacting on Europe | DW | 24.10.2020
America's Latest Export: The Conspiracy Theorists Crazies have crossed the Atlantic and QAnon is now in Europe–by Mark Scott
If you don't know what QAnon is this is how wikileaks divines the cult - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon.
At first glance it’s not a natural fit. The U.S. conspiracy theory — now with millions of acolytes worldwide — alleges a vast deception to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump. It blends anti-government, anti-lockdown and anti-Semitic rhetoric with unfounded beliefs about a vast pedophile ring run by the global elite. Its followers adhere to a quasi-religious belief that a great savior — aided by “Q,” an anonymous government insider from whom QAnon gets its name — will protect followers from the dark forces behind the conspiracy.
In the U.S., discussion about QAnon has broken into the political mainstream. When Trump was asked to disavow the group at a recent town hall event, he first said he knew “nothing about QAnon” but then added: “I do know that they are very much against pedofiles.
Despite its digital roots, this conspiracy based, populst, ultra -right-wing QAnon has extended its reach into the real world, with attendees at protests against anti-coronavirus measures and supportive of conspiracy theories spreading its talking points across Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Read more at: QAnon goes European – POLITICO
At first glance it’s not a natural fit. The U.S. conspiracy theory — now with millions of acolytes worldwide — alleges a vast deception to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump. It blends anti-government, anti-lockdown and anti-Semitic rhetoric with unfounded beliefs about a vast pedophile ring run by the global elite. Its followers adhere to a quasi-religious belief that a great savior — aided by “Q,” an anonymous government insider from whom QAnon gets its name — will protect followers from the dark forces behind the conspiracy.
In the U.S., discussion about QAnon has broken into the political mainstream. When Trump was asked to disavow the group at a recent town hall event, he first said he knew “nothing about QAnon” but then added: “I do know that they are very much against pedofiles.
Despite its digital roots, this conspiracy based, populst, ultra -right-wing QAnon has extended its reach into the real world, with attendees at protests against anti-coronavirus measures and supportive of conspiracy theories spreading its talking points across Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Read more at: QAnon goes European – POLITICO
EU-France-Turkey relations: France recalls envoy after Turkey scolds Macron over Muslims -by Daren Butler, Geert De Clercq
France recalled its ambassador on Saturday after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his counterpart Emmanuel Macron needed mental help over his attitude towards Muslims.
The French leader this month declared war on “Islamist separatism”, which he believes is taking over some Muslim communities in France.
Read more at: France recalls envoy after Turkey scolds Macron over Muslims | Reuters
The French leader this month declared war on “Islamist separatism”, which he believes is taking over some Muslim communities in France.
Read more at: France recalls envoy after Turkey scolds Macron over Muslims | Reuters
10/23/20
EU: MEPs urge EU to be ready to dump disputed energy treaty - by Elena Sánchez Nicolás
Cross-party MEPs on Thursday (22 October) called on the European Commission to be prepared to withdraw from the controversial Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), if negotiations for its modernisation fail.
The ECT is an international agreement that grants cross-border cooperation in the energy sector, signed in 1994 by nearly 50 countries, including all EU member states, plus most countries from eastern Europe, central Asia, and Japan. Currently, all EU member states are contracting parties except for Italy, which withdrew in 2016.
Read more at: MEPs urge EU to be ready to dump disputed energy treaty
The ECT is an international agreement that grants cross-border cooperation in the energy sector, signed in 1994 by nearly 50 countries, including all EU member states, plus most countries from eastern Europe, central Asia, and Japan. Currently, all EU member states are contracting parties except for Italy, which withdrew in 2016.
Read more at: MEPs urge EU to be ready to dump disputed energy treaty
USA: 2020 and the Company US Voters Keep - by Alton Frye
Guilt by association is a troublesome notion. As a matter of law, Americans learned just how troublesome in both the Mitchell Palmer raids of 1919-20, and the McCarthy era commotions over fears of communist infiltration.
No need to rehearse here the litany of dubious behaviors displayed by Mr. Trump. In the rawest and simplest sense of the terms, do Americans wish to associate with a man who has brought the nation into domestic turmoil and international disrepute?
2020 and the Company US Voters Keep - The Globalist
No need to rehearse here the litany of dubious behaviors displayed by Mr. Trump. In the rawest and simplest sense of the terms, do Americans wish to associate with a man who has brought the nation into domestic turmoil and international disrepute?
2020 and the Company US Voters Keep - The Globalist
10/22/20
Nato and EU silent on Turkey, despite Armenia's appeal - by Andrew Rettman
"It is vital that all sides now show restraint, observe the ceasefire, and de-escalate. Any targeting of civilians is unacceptable and must stop," Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday (21 October) after meeting Armenian president Armen Sarkissian in Brussels.
Read more at: Nato and EU silent on Turkey, despite Armenia's appeal
Read more at: Nato and EU silent on Turkey, despite Armenia's appeal
US Presidential elections: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally in new Quinnipiac poll
Former Vice President Joe Biden maintains a wide national lead over President Trump heading into the final 12-day stretch before Election Day, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday.
The Democratic nominee has a 10-point advantage in the race, garnering the support of a slight majority of likely voters — 51 percent — while Trump lagged behind him at 41 percent, according to the latest poll. That margin is virtually identical to the lead Biden held in two Quinnipiac polls from September that showed the former vice president ahead of Trump 52 percent to 42 percent.
Read more at: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally in new Quinnipiac poll | TheHill
The Democratic nominee has a 10-point advantage in the race, garnering the support of a slight majority of likely voters — 51 percent — while Trump lagged behind him at 41 percent, according to the latest poll. That margin is virtually identical to the lead Biden held in two Quinnipiac polls from September that showed the former vice president ahead of Trump 52 percent to 42 percent.
Read more at: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally in new Quinnipiac poll | TheHill
10/21/20
China's global fishing dominance, unmatched in size and reach - by Ian Urbina Ian Urbina
More than a hundred kilometres from shore, near the coast of West Africa, I accompanied marine police officers from Gambia as they arrested 15 foreign ships for labour violations and illegal fishing over the course of a week in 2019. All but one of the vessels arrested were from China.
At the beginning of that same year, during a month-long voyage on a toothfish longliner headed into Antarctic waters from Punta Arenas, Chile, the only other ships we passed were a dozen rusty Chinese purse seiners that looked barely seaworthy.
Read more at: China's global fishing dominance, unmatched in size and reach | CTV News
At the beginning of that same year, during a month-long voyage on a toothfish longliner headed into Antarctic waters from Punta Arenas, Chile, the only other ships we passed were a dozen rusty Chinese purse seiners that looked barely seaworthy.
Read more at: China's global fishing dominance, unmatched in size and reach | CTV News
EU-Britain Relations: How a ‘Global Britain’ Could Cope With the Brexit Consequences - by Ben Judah, Georgina Wright
Over the past four years, as the United Kingdom has wrestled with the consequences of its narrow vote to leave the European Union, there has been little to no broader foreign policy debate in the country. Instead, Britons seem to have become caught between three temperaments. There are the catastrophists, who argue the U.K. has become completely irrelevant on the international stage as a result of Brexit; the nostalgics, who see a powerful Britain through the lens of a great colonial power; and the denialists, who refuse to accept that Britain must adapt to a changing global context. All are characterized by a surfeit of emotion and deficit of strategy⎯and none have answers to the key questions their government must now answer.
Read more at: How a ‘Global Britain’ Could Cope With the Brexit Consequences
Read more at: How a ‘Global Britain’ Could Cope With the Brexit Consequences
A Coronavirus vaccine: If you're pinning your hopes on a Covid vaccine, here's a dose of realism | Vaccines and immunisation - by David Salisbury
For those holding on to hope of an imminent Covid-19 vaccine, the news this weekend that the first could be rolled out as early as “just after Christmas” will have likely lifted the spirits.
The UK’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, reportedly told MPs a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca could be ready for deployment in January, while Sir Jeremy Farrar, Sage scientific advisory group member and a director of the Wellcome Trust, has said at least one of a portfolio of UK vaccines could be ready by spring.
Much has been said about how the world will return to normal when a vaccine is widely available. But that really won’t be true. It is important that we are realistic about what vaccines can and can’t do.
Read more at: If you're pinning your hopes on a Covid vaccine, here's a dose of realism | Vaccines and immunisation | The Guardian
The UK’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, reportedly told MPs a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca could be ready for deployment in January, while Sir Jeremy Farrar, Sage scientific advisory group member and a director of the Wellcome Trust, has said at least one of a portfolio of UK vaccines could be ready by spring.
Much has been said about how the world will return to normal when a vaccine is widely available. But that really won’t be true. It is important that we are realistic about what vaccines can and can’t do.
Read more at: If you're pinning your hopes on a Covid vaccine, here's a dose of realism | Vaccines and immunisation | The Guardian
Google sued by EU and US: Pre-election lawsuit against Google sets the stage for global action on tech giants
European Union regulators hit Google with a $1.68-billion US fine on Wednesday for abusing its dominant role in online advertising.
It's the third time the commission has slapped Google with an antitrust penalty, following multibillion-dollar fines resulting from separate probes into two other parts of the Silicon Valley giant's business.
The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, announced the results of the long-running probe of Google's AdSense advertising business at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
Read more at: Pre-election lawsuit against Google sets the stage for global action on tech giants | CBC News
It's the third time the commission has slapped Google with an antitrust penalty, following multibillion-dollar fines resulting from separate probes into two other parts of the Silicon Valley giant's business.
The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, announced the results of the long-running probe of Google's AdSense advertising business at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
Read more at: Pre-election lawsuit against Google sets the stage for global action on tech giants | CBC News
Russia-US relations: Intel Officers 'Terrified' Of Briefing Trump On Russia Because He Would 'Explode': Report by Sara Boboltz
“No one’s going to brief anything on Russia to the president,” Marc Polymeropoulos told GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe. “They’re terrified of doing that. I know that from the briefers. Because he’ll explode and the whole thing will get derailed, because he has this weird affinity for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Read more at: Intel Officers 'Terrified' Of Briefing Trump On Russia Because He Would 'Explode': Report
Read more at: Intel Officers 'Terrified' Of Briefing Trump On Russia Because He Would 'Explode': Report
10/20/20
Covid-19: Dry rooms and airco indoors hike covid-19
Dry rooms and air-conditioned indoor spaces hike Covid-viral infection,
conclude Indian and German researchers in their meta-study. They're
urging optimum humidity standards for building interiors and public
transport.
U.S. Supreme Court grants Pennsylvania 3-day extension to count election ballots - and provide a small victory for Dems in PA
The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Pennsylvania to count ballots received up to three days after the presidential election, rejecting a Republican plea.
,br> The justices divided 4-4 Monday, an outcome that upholds a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed election officials to receive and count ballots until Nov. 6, even if they don't have a clear postmark.
Republicans, including President Donald Trump's campaign, have opposed such an extension, arguing that it violates federal law that sets election day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and that such a decision constitutionally belongs to lawmakers, not the courts.
Read more at: U.S. Supreme Court grants Pennsylvania 3-day extension to count election ballots | CBC News
,br> The justices divided 4-4 Monday, an outcome that upholds a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed election officials to receive and count ballots until Nov. 6, even if they don't have a clear postmark.
Republicans, including President Donald Trump's campaign, have opposed such an extension, arguing that it violates federal law that sets election day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and that such a decision constitutionally belongs to lawmakers, not the courts.
Read more at: U.S. Supreme Court grants Pennsylvania 3-day extension to count election ballots | CBC News
The Netherlands: Dutch economy outperforming others because of “intelligent lockdown”
While the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic dealt an unprecedented blow to the Dutch economy, the Netherlands is still doing better than many other European countries, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday. This may have to do with the Netherlands' "intelligent lockdown" keeping more sectors open than in other countries with stricter lockdowns.
In the second quarter, the Dutch economy contracted by 8.5 percent compared to the previous quarter. "This was the strongest contraction ever recorded," the stats office said. But compared to other European countries, the Dutch economy came off favorably. Germany's economy shrank by 9.7 percent, Belgium's by 12.1 percent, and France's by 13.8 percent
Read more at: Dutch economy outperforming others because of “intelligent lockdown” | NL Times
In the second quarter, the Dutch economy contracted by 8.5 percent compared to the previous quarter. "This was the strongest contraction ever recorded," the stats office said. But compared to other European countries, the Dutch economy came off favorably. Germany's economy shrank by 9.7 percent, Belgium's by 12.1 percent, and France's by 13.8 percent
Read more at: Dutch economy outperforming others because of “intelligent lockdown” | NL Times
EU makes bond market history with record $275 bln demand for SURE issue - bankers report
The European Union attracted the highest demand ever for a bond sale on Tuesday at over 233 billion euros ($275 billion), bankers involved in the deal said, as it kicked off fund raising for its SURE unemployment scheme.
Demand was nearly 14 times the 17 billion euros the EU raised from the issue, comprising 10 and 20-year social bonds, bankers said.
Read more at: EU makes bond market history with record $275 bln demand for SURE issue - bankers | Reuters
Demand was nearly 14 times the 17 billion euros the EU raised from the issue, comprising 10 and 20-year social bonds, bankers said.
Read more at: EU makes bond market history with record $275 bln demand for SURE issue - bankers | Reuters
China's economy accelerates as virus recovery gains strength
A woman wearing a face mask walks out of the Auchan supermarket in Beijing on Monday. China's economic growth accelerated to 4.9 per cent over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from the previous quarter's 3.2 per cent. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)
China's shaky economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is gaining strength as consumers return to shopping malls and auto dealerships while the United States and Europe endure painful contractions.
Growth in the world's second-largest economy accelerated to 4.9 per cent over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from the previous quarter's 3.2 per cent, official data showed Monday. Retail spending rebounded to above pre-virus levels for the first time and factory output rose, boosted by demand for exports of masks and other medical supplies.
Read more at: China's economy accelerates as virus recovery gains strength | CBC News
China's shaky economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is gaining strength as consumers return to shopping malls and auto dealerships while the United States and Europe endure painful contractions.
Growth in the world's second-largest economy accelerated to 4.9 per cent over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from the previous quarter's 3.2 per cent, official data showed Monday. Retail spending rebounded to above pre-virus levels for the first time and factory output rose, boosted by demand for exports of masks and other medical supplies.
Read more at: China's economy accelerates as virus recovery gains strength | CBC News
EU-Britain Negotiations-Stalemate: No more trade talks unless EU changes position, Johnson says
There will be no more trade talks with the European Union unless the bloc fundamentally changes its stance on the discussions, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Greek counterpart in a call on Tuesday.
Read more at: No more trade talks unless EU changes position, Johnson says | Reuters
Read more at: No more trade talks unless EU changes position, Johnson says | Reuters
US 2020 election: Who does China really want to win? - by John Sudworth
The world's freest and wealthiest economy, once thought to be so much better placed to fight the virus with its tools of transparency and accountability, has fallen well short.
While China despite an initial cover-up thought to expose its inherent weaknessweaknesses, has gone on to use the sweeping powers of a unitary, surveillance state to test and quarantine people at will, en masse and to great effect.
Factories, shops, restaurants, schools and universities are all open, passenger numbers on public transport are just a little below average, and it is the only major economy expected to grow, rather than shrink this year.
Read more at: US 2020 election: Who does China really want to win? - BBC News
While China despite an initial cover-up thought to expose its inherent weaknessweaknesses, has gone on to use the sweeping powers of a unitary, surveillance state to test and quarantine people at will, en masse and to great effect.
Factories, shops, restaurants, schools and universities are all open, passenger numbers on public transport are just a little below average, and it is the only major economy expected to grow, rather than shrink this year.
Read more at: US 2020 election: Who does China really want to win? - BBC News
10/19/20
10/18/20
EU - Second Wave Coronavirus: Europe braces for impact of 2nd-wave pandemic restrictions - by Chantal Da Silva ·
Millions of residents across Europe are bracing for what is likely to be a difficult winter ahead.
After making the necessary sacrifices to get through the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring, Europeans enjoyed a period of relative freedom — to return to schools and bars, fly between countries and go on holiday.
But rising infections in the last month have forced governments to consider tightening restrictions again. While some countries have seen COVID-19 case numbers return to what they were before the spring, others are being hit harder than ever.
For example, the Czech Republic warned earlier this week that the country's medical system could be on the brink of a breakdown.
"We are in danger of collapsing here," Interior Minister Jan Hamacek warned Czech media earlier this week. If the current outbreak, which saw a record 9,721 cases confirmed within a 24-hour period on Thursday, is not contained soon, Hamacek said, there will be "corpse freezers in the streets."
Europe braces for impact of 2nd-wave pandemic restrictions | CBC News
Canadian-US relations: Trudeau and Trump are worlds apart on the Canada-U.S. border closure
Although Canada and the U.S. have agreed to close their shared
land border to non-essential travel, they don't appear to agree on
several related issues — including what to do next.
More than seven months after the border closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have offered up contradictory messages about what happens now.
The Canada-U.S. border is set to stay closed until Oct. 21, and Trudeau implied this week that the date will be extended.
In an interview Wednesday on Winnipeg podcast The Start, Trudeau said Canada plans to keep the border closed as long as COVID-19 case counts in the U.S. remains high.
Read more at:
Trudeau and Trump are worlds apart on the Canada-U.S. border closure | CBC News
More than seven months after the border closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have offered up contradictory messages about what happens now.
The Canada-U.S. border is set to stay closed until Oct. 21, and Trudeau implied this week that the date will be extended.
In an interview Wednesday on Winnipeg podcast The Start, Trudeau said Canada plans to keep the border closed as long as COVID-19 case counts in the U.S. remains high.
Read more at:
Trudeau and Trump are worlds apart on the Canada-U.S. border closure | CBC News
USA - Gun Control: ‘Guns are a way to exercise power’: how the idea of overthrowing the government became mainstream - by Lois Beckett
Josh Horwitz has been an
American gun control activist for nearly 30 years. In 2009, he co-wrote a
book warning that the idea of armed revolt against the government was
at the center of the US gun rights movement.
Read more at:
‘Guns are a way to exercise power’: how the idea of overthrowing the government became mainstream | US gun control | The Guardian
Now, after a year that has seen heavily armed men show up at state capitols in Virginia, Michigan, Idaho and elsewhere
to confront Democratic lawmakers over gun control and coronavirus
restrictions, more Americans are taking gun owners’ rhetoric about
“tyrants” seriously. Some of the same armed protesters who showed up at Michigan’s state house and at a pro-gun rally this summer were charged last week with conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s governor and put her on trial for tyranny.
Other members of the “boogaloo” movement have allegedly murdered law enforcement officers in California and plotted acts of violence across the country in hopes of sparking a civil war.
Read more at:
‘Guns are a way to exercise power’: how the idea of overthrowing the government became mainstream | US gun control | The Guardian
US Presidential Elections: Trump's hopes fade in Wisconsin as 'greatest economy' boast unravels
Coarse, cruel, chaotic. Donald Trump
has been called a lot of things. Even some of his supporters have had a
hard time embracing the darker aspects of his personality. Until
recently they have, however, trusted the president on one one vital
issue: the economy.
But with just 16 days to go until the election, there are clear signs that Trump’s claims to have created the “greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country” are unravelling.
Perhaps nowhere is that more worrying for Trump than in Wisconsin.
Losing Wisconsin ended Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances in 2016. Famously she didn’t campaign there, presuming a win that was snatched from her by Trump’s promises to end unfair trade practices that had hurt the state’s dairy industry and to bring back manufacturing jobs.
Read more at:
Trump's hopes fade in Wisconsin as 'greatest economy' boast unravels | US news | The Guardian
But with just 16 days to go until the election, there are clear signs that Trump’s claims to have created the “greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country” are unravelling.
Perhaps nowhere is that more worrying for Trump than in Wisconsin.
Losing Wisconsin ended Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances in 2016. Famously she didn’t campaign there, presuming a win that was snatched from her by Trump’s promises to end unfair trade practices that had hurt the state’s dairy industry and to bring back manufacturing jobs.
Read more at:
Trump's hopes fade in Wisconsin as 'greatest economy' boast unravels | US news | The Guardian
The Netherlands: Churchgoers in Dutch 'Bible Belt' defy coronavirus instructions
Hundreds of Dutch worshippers from a deeply conservative branch of
Protestantism gathered in churches across the Netherlands on Sunday,
defying government instructions to limit indoor groups to 30 to try to
contain surging coronavirus infections.
Read more at:
Churchgoers in Dutch 'Bible Belt' defy coronavirus instructions | Reuters
Although
Dutch churches are exempt on constitutional grounds from the government
order, almost all church associations had said they would follow the
rules, after massive gatherings in some Protestant churches last week
had sparked outrage.
Reformed
Protestant churches in what is known as the Dutch Bible Belt had made
it clear they would continue to receive considerably more than 30
faithful at a time, despite the heavy criticism.
Read more at:
Churchgoers in Dutch 'Bible Belt' defy coronavirus instructions | Reuters
USA: Jewish groups pen letter opposing Amy Coney Barrett nom to Supreme Court
An array of liberal Jewish groups signed a letter with other faith-based
organizations appealing to senators not to confirm President Donald
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, citing her past opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
The letter, signed by 41 groups in all — and spearheaded by the National Council of Jewish Women — notes a case upcoming on the Supreme Court docket that could dismantle the act, also known as Obamacare.
Read more at:
Jewish groups pen letter opposing Amy Coney Barrett nom to Supreme Court - The Jerusalem Post
The letter, signed by 41 groups in all — and spearheaded by the National Council of Jewish Women — notes a case upcoming on the Supreme Court docket that could dismantle the act, also known as Obamacare.
Read more at:
Jewish groups pen letter opposing Amy Coney Barrett nom to Supreme Court - The Jerusalem Post
10/17/20
The Netherlands: Coronavirus leads to increased risk of extremist attack in the Netherlands - by Victoria Séveno
The Dutch counter-terrorism unit (NCTV) has warned in its quarterly
threat assessment that, while there is no indication that an attack is
imminent, there is nonetheless an increased risk of attack in the Netherlands from radicalised right-wing extremists.
Read more:
NCTV: Coronavirus leads to increased risk of extremist attack in the Netherlands
Read more:
NCTV: Coronavirus leads to increased risk of extremist attack in the Netherlands
Technology: How to Stop Innovation From Breaking America - by Tim Wu
America has long carried on a great love affair with technological
progress. But the truth is that really big inventions—the printing
press, the internal-combustion engine, the internet—have both upsides
and downsides. They make new things possible, but they also tend to undo
settled expectations and create chaos. The real question is not whether
there will be major technological changes, but whether societies can learn to better handle the disruptions that follow.
here is a lot to learn: Over the past 500 years, humanity has repeatedly blown it. Consider how things stood a century ago, in the early 20th century. People love to say that technology is changing faster today than ever before. But the 1890s through the 1920s witnessed changes far more dramatic than the birth of social media: the invention of airplanes, home electricity, radio broadcasting, tanks, and machine guns. That period and the period immediately after also witnessed terrible labor violence, the rise of totalitarianism, two depressions, two world wars, several genocides, and other mass killings of extraordinary volume. If these horrors were not exactly caused by the wondrous new technologies of the age, they were certainly aided and abetted by them.
In all these cases, technological inventions were like catalysts, creating what chemists call rapid reactions and what laypeople call explosions. For example, military advances upended whatever deterrence equilibrium existed, giving some countries—Spain, Germany, Japan—reason to think they might overpower others.
Today’s most powerful nations don’t have the problem of Ming China. Instead, they have embraced the opposite orientation—extreme technophilia. America in particular is exceptionally forward-looking. We are always imagining utopian futures, believing that “the best is yet to come.” The phrase scientific progress has an almost talismanic allure to it, and calling someone “backward-looking” is an insult. As the social critic Neil Postman put it in 1992, we “gaze on technology as a lover does on his beloved, seeing it as without blemish and entertaining no apprehension for the future.”
Read more at:
How to Stop Innovation From Breaking America - The Atlantic
here is a lot to learn: Over the past 500 years, humanity has repeatedly blown it. Consider how things stood a century ago, in the early 20th century. People love to say that technology is changing faster today than ever before. But the 1890s through the 1920s witnessed changes far more dramatic than the birth of social media: the invention of airplanes, home electricity, radio broadcasting, tanks, and machine guns. That period and the period immediately after also witnessed terrible labor violence, the rise of totalitarianism, two depressions, two world wars, several genocides, and other mass killings of extraordinary volume. If these horrors were not exactly caused by the wondrous new technologies of the age, they were certainly aided and abetted by them.
In all these cases, technological inventions were like catalysts, creating what chemists call rapid reactions and what laypeople call explosions. For example, military advances upended whatever deterrence equilibrium existed, giving some countries—Spain, Germany, Japan—reason to think they might overpower others.
Today’s most powerful nations don’t have the problem of Ming China. Instead, they have embraced the opposite orientation—extreme technophilia. America in particular is exceptionally forward-looking. We are always imagining utopian futures, believing that “the best is yet to come.” The phrase scientific progress has an almost talismanic allure to it, and calling someone “backward-looking” is an insult. As the social critic Neil Postman put it in 1992, we “gaze on technology as a lover does on his beloved, seeing it as without blemish and entertaining no apprehension for the future.”
Read more at:
How to Stop Innovation From Breaking America - The Atlantic
EU - Britain - Negotiations: Brexit : ′Little chance′ of broad Brexit trade deal: says EU parliament deputy chief
European Parliament politician Katarina Barley says Brexit talks are
becoming "increasingly difficult" and only a bare-bones trade deal is
likely. The UK claims talks are over, accusing the EU of not being
serious.
EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have said the bloc was still willing to seek compromise. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the EU still wanted a deal, though "not at any price.''
On Friday evening, an EU spokesman tweeted that chief negotiator Michel Barnier held video talks with his British counterpart David Frost and that negotiators from both sides will be in touch on Monday for further discussions on the "structure" of talks.
Read more at:
′Little chance′ of broad Brexit trade deal: EU parliament deputy chief | News | DW | 17.10.2020
EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have said the bloc was still willing to seek compromise. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the EU still wanted a deal, though "not at any price.''
On Friday evening, an EU spokesman tweeted that chief negotiator Michel Barnier held video talks with his British counterpart David Frost and that negotiators from both sides will be in touch on Monday for further discussions on the "structure" of talks.
Read more at:
′Little chance′ of broad Brexit trade deal: EU parliament deputy chief | News | DW | 17.10.2020
US Economy: It is time to stop looking at the US economy from Wall Street - by Cristina Ramirez
Crises
have a way of turning existing cracks in political and economic systems
into fault lines. They bring to light what has been hiding beneath the
surface. This is why the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, the most serious global health crisis in a century,
has exposed the many pre-existing weaknesses of the US economy and laid
bare the nation’s failure to judge the economy by what actually
matters: How it works for working and middle-class Americans.
In a matter of weeks, the pandemic left 26 million Americans unemployed and food
banks overwhelmed. As one in four workers in the country are not
entitled to a single day of paid sick leave, COVID-19 also forced many
Americans to choose between staying healthy and putting food on their
tables. It brought to the surface the growing economic precarity
of tens of millions of Americans which Wall Street, and many in
Washington, have long been ignoring.
While some economists and politicians, such as Treasury
Secretary and former Goldman Sachs Executive Steven Mnuchin, claim that
the American economy was doing just fine before the start of the
pandemic, the truth is many Americans have been
living on the verge of economic collapse long before COVID-19 reached
the country. After the 2008 economic crash, Wall Street and big
corporations rebounded quickly, but millions of Americans did not.
The likes of Mnuchin get away with
claiming the US economy was doing brilliantly before the outbreak
because they judge economic success merely by the success and
profitability of big corporations and not the economic stability and
wellbeing of ordinary Americans, such as small business owners,
warehouse workers and delivery drivers.
If Mnuchin judged the health of the US economy by how
well everyday people are coping, he would have seen that things were not
so rosy on “Main Street” even before COVID-19.
It is time to stop looking at the US economy from Wall Street | US & Canada | Al Jazeera
Beyond geopolitics: what are challenges in making our world more sustainable?
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face in
building a better, more inclusive world for everyone. “Conflict,
insecurity, weak institutions and limited access to justice remain
threats to sustainable development,” among many others, says the UN SDG Progress Report 2020.
These challenges have crystallized in recent months. As several World Economic Forum experts and partners explained,
“the rise in populism and ‘country first’ politics have threatened the
spirit of international co-operation and the workings of the
multilateral institutions,” which are sorely needed right now to work
together to overcome the crises. “This left the international community
at a significant disadvantage as it faced the COVID-19 pandemic,” they
continued. Around the world, journalists are persecuted
and even killed trying to get to the truth. Even the wealthiest nations
aren’t immune: systemic racism is embedded in police departments,
medicine, even housing and financial policy in the United States, says the IMF, a sign of decades of injustice towards Black and African American communities across the country.
As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on all economies, societies
and people, we’re physically separated, with people staying in their
homes, meetings and travel all but halted – and the world’s most
vulnerable are falling through the cracks.
Read more at:
Beyond geopolitics: what are challenges in making our world more sustainable? | World Economic Forum
10/16/20
Latin America-US Relations: How Biden Would Change US-Latin America Relations - by Frida Ghitis
From the start of the 2016 election campaign, it was all too clear that a
Donald Trump presidency would bring dramatic and destabilizing changes
to U.S. foreign policy, especially in Latin America. Candidate Trump
publicly pummeled the region, fulminating about “rapists” and drug traffickers crossing from Mexico, and vowing to build a wall to keep Central American migrants from “invading” the United States.
The rhetoric was jarring in itself, but it was even more startling because it represented such a sharp departure from President Barack Obama’s administration, when even the most critical measures or sanctions came wrapped in diplomatic language. Will U.S. policy in the region return to that if former Vice President Joe Biden defeats Trump next month?
If Biden wins the presidency, U.S. policy toward Latin America is certain to change in both tone and substance. Relations will unfold against an unspoken backdrop of great-power competition, since Washington’s role in the region has been shrinking, while China, Russia and even Iran widen their footprints. Ties with Latin America are more than a hemispheric matter now; they are a global geopolitical concern.
The Trump administration’s policies toward the region have been shaped by two principal and reactionary currents. The first is the relentless push to slash immigration and refugee flows, mostly from Central America via Mexico. That has been one of the most consistent themes in an otherwise mercurial and often volatile administration. The second is the Cold War-style campaign against what Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, branded the “Troika of Tyranny”—Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, all with socialist and authoritarian-minded leaders. It is at least as much a campaign strategy as a policy, since it is driven in large part by electoral considerations—think Florida, where it appears to have paid some dividends for Trump. Polls have shown Biden well ahead of Trump among Hispanics, but trailing among them in some polls in Florida, where a key part of the electorate has roots in Venezuela and Cuba and feels visceral hostility toward their regimes.
Biden would come into the Oval Office with vast experience in the region. He was something of the point man for Latin America during the Obama administration, traveling throughout the region well over a dozen times. He was the public face of the administration’s ambitious, $1 billion plan to fund development, security and good governance initiatives in Central America.
The difference in Biden’s approach to Trump is stark, and it is already visible on the campaign trail, starting with how Biden speaks about the region. He is certain to restore the Obama-era initiatives to promote the rule of law and democracy and fight corruption in Latin America. Washington’s efforts on that front were enormously helpful in a region where corruption has been a major obstacle to prosperity and economic growth. Under Trump, Washington’s focus has generally been narrowed to combating what he sees as the twin scourges of migration and socialism.
Perhaps most of all, a Biden administration would mean the end of Washington’s automatic philosophical alignment with regional demagogues such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a favorite of Trump. Biden’s more assertive efforts on human rights, the rule of law and corruption could create tensions behind the scenes with other governments, although the stridency of those disagreements would be kept to diplomatic decibels. It would be a welcome change from Trump. Insults by the American president, including references to “shithole” countries, would finally, and thankfully, disappear.
Read more at:
How Biden Would Change US-Latin America Relations
The rhetoric was jarring in itself, but it was even more startling because it represented such a sharp departure from President Barack Obama’s administration, when even the most critical measures or sanctions came wrapped in diplomatic language. Will U.S. policy in the region return to that if former Vice President Joe Biden defeats Trump next month?
If Biden wins the presidency, U.S. policy toward Latin America is certain to change in both tone and substance. Relations will unfold against an unspoken backdrop of great-power competition, since Washington’s role in the region has been shrinking, while China, Russia and even Iran widen their footprints. Ties with Latin America are more than a hemispheric matter now; they are a global geopolitical concern.
The Trump administration’s policies toward the region have been shaped by two principal and reactionary currents. The first is the relentless push to slash immigration and refugee flows, mostly from Central America via Mexico. That has been one of the most consistent themes in an otherwise mercurial and often volatile administration. The second is the Cold War-style campaign against what Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, branded the “Troika of Tyranny”—Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, all with socialist and authoritarian-minded leaders. It is at least as much a campaign strategy as a policy, since it is driven in large part by electoral considerations—think Florida, where it appears to have paid some dividends for Trump. Polls have shown Biden well ahead of Trump among Hispanics, but trailing among them in some polls in Florida, where a key part of the electorate has roots in Venezuela and Cuba and feels visceral hostility toward their regimes.
Biden would come into the Oval Office with vast experience in the region. He was something of the point man for Latin America during the Obama administration, traveling throughout the region well over a dozen times. He was the public face of the administration’s ambitious, $1 billion plan to fund development, security and good governance initiatives in Central America.
The difference in Biden’s approach to Trump is stark, and it is already visible on the campaign trail, starting with how Biden speaks about the region. He is certain to restore the Obama-era initiatives to promote the rule of law and democracy and fight corruption in Latin America. Washington’s efforts on that front were enormously helpful in a region where corruption has been a major obstacle to prosperity and economic growth. Under Trump, Washington’s focus has generally been narrowed to combating what he sees as the twin scourges of migration and socialism.
Perhaps most of all, a Biden administration would mean the end of Washington’s automatic philosophical alignment with regional demagogues such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a favorite of Trump. Biden’s more assertive efforts on human rights, the rule of law and corruption could create tensions behind the scenes with other governments, although the stridency of those disagreements would be kept to diplomatic decibels. It would be a welcome change from Trump. Insults by the American president, including references to “shithole” countries, would finally, and thankfully, disappear.
Read more at:
How Biden Would Change US-Latin America Relations
Democratic Forces in Turkey on the Rise: Turkey′s opposition on the rise
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) are used to success, having dominated politics
in the country for almost two decades. But they currently find
themselves in an unusual situation. According to most polls, the AKP's
government coalition with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is losing
popularity.
The ongoing economic and currency crisis and the government's handling of it has contributed significantly to the population's waning support. The Turkish lira continues to fall, now trading at just below 8 to the US dollar — as compared to below 6 at the beginning of the year — after the Turkish central bank raised interest rates and introduced a number of other measures that have been roundly criticized.
Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told DW the government had also miscalculated the annual inflation rate, with Ankara claiming it was 11.75%, when in reality it is far more likely around 37%.
The Turkish population is also increasingly dissatisfied with the way in which the government has reacted to the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more at:
Turkey′s opposition on the rise | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 15.10.2020
The ongoing economic and currency crisis and the government's handling of it has contributed significantly to the population's waning support. The Turkish lira continues to fall, now trading at just below 8 to the US dollar — as compared to below 6 at the beginning of the year — after the Turkish central bank raised interest rates and introduced a number of other measures that have been roundly criticized.
Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told DW the government had also miscalculated the annual inflation rate, with Ankara claiming it was 11.75%, when in reality it is far more likely around 37%.
The Turkish population is also increasingly dissatisfied with the way in which the government has reacted to the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more at:
Turkey′s opposition on the rise | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 15.10.2020
Brexit negotiations: EU tells UK to move if it wants post-Brexit deal - by Eszter Zalan
EU leaders on Thursday (15 October) called on London to make the "the
necessary moves" in negotiations on the EU-UK future relationships, in
order to have a deal ready for January next year.
The EU-27 also called on the EU Commission to draw up contingency measures in case there is no deal.
The heads of government talked Brexit for over two hours at their Brussels summit, and without phones in the room, as the negotiations now enter two critical weeks.
The EU wants to UK to move on the following issues: fair competition and state aid, fisheries, and governance of the future agreement.
"We are united and determined to reach on agreement, but not at any cost," European Council president Charles Michel told reporters online in a break of the EU summit, which is also dealing with climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I will continue intensive discussion in the coming weeks," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said, who gave the press conference along with Michel after commission president Urusla von der Leyen had to abruptly leave the summit to go into precautionary self-isolation after one of her staff tested positive for coronavirus.
Barnier said that he will discuss with his British counterpart, David Frost, a schedule for talks, adding he will be in London ready to continue talks throughout next week, and offered to continue in Brussels the week after.
Read more at:
EU tells UK to move if it wants post-Brexit deal
The EU-27 also called on the EU Commission to draw up contingency measures in case there is no deal.
The heads of government talked Brexit for over two hours at their Brussels summit, and without phones in the room, as the negotiations now enter two critical weeks.
The EU wants to UK to move on the following issues: fair competition and state aid, fisheries, and governance of the future agreement.
"We are united and determined to reach on agreement, but not at any cost," European Council president Charles Michel told reporters online in a break of the EU summit, which is also dealing with climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I will continue intensive discussion in the coming weeks," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said, who gave the press conference along with Michel after commission president Urusla von der Leyen had to abruptly leave the summit to go into precautionary self-isolation after one of her staff tested positive for coronavirus.
Barnier said that he will discuss with his British counterpart, David Frost, a schedule for talks, adding he will be in London ready to continue talks throughout next week, and offered to continue in Brussels the week after.
Read more at:
EU tells UK to move if it wants post-Brexit deal
EU-US Relations after Trump: What Should Europe Expect from a Biden Trade Policy? – by Uri Dadush
The European Union-United States trade
and investment relationship remains the world’s most intensive even
after Brexit. Trade between the U.S. and the EU (minus the United
Kingdom) totalled around $1 trillion in 2018, about a third larger than U.S. ties with China. EU27/U.S. bilateral FDI stocks surpassed $4.5 trillion,
dwarfing those with China. Despite the frequently differing positions
of EU members on trade policy, the EU-U.S. relationship stood the test
of time and continued to deepen. But, over the last four years,
President Trump’s strictly transactional approach to trade policy, with
an obsessive emphasis on reducing bilateral deficits, has amounted
essentially to managed trade and is diametrically opposed to the
principle of non-discrimination enshrined in multilateral trade
disciplines, which Americans and Europeans worked together to establish.
There is little doubt that a Biden Presidency would mark a toning down of EU-U.S. tensions and a return to civility. Attitudes across the Atlantic will converge again in important areas such as climate change. Surprisingly, voters who identify as Democrats are far more likely than Republican voters to support open trade, even though that is not the case in the U.S. Congress.
Although Biden appeals to many in the rust belt and has supported steel tariffs in the past, the present tariffs on steel and aluminium, based on Section 232 (national security), are hardly compatible with rebuilding alliances. A way will be found to eliminate them or replace them with other mechanisms. The threat of auto tariffs, which are widely opposed anyway, is certain to fade. Biden, of Irish ancestry, has said that a trade deal with the U.K. should be conditional on preserving peace on the island of Ireland in line with the Good Friday Agreement. This is generally seen as requiring a continued open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in keeping with the U.K.’s withdrawal agreement from the EU.
Read more at:
What Should Europe Expect from a Biden Trade Policy? – BRINK – News and Insights on Global Risk
There is little doubt that a Biden Presidency would mark a toning down of EU-U.S. tensions and a return to civility. Attitudes across the Atlantic will converge again in important areas such as climate change. Surprisingly, voters who identify as Democrats are far more likely than Republican voters to support open trade, even though that is not the case in the U.S. Congress.
Although Biden appeals to many in the rust belt and has supported steel tariffs in the past, the present tariffs on steel and aluminium, based on Section 232 (national security), are hardly compatible with rebuilding alliances. A way will be found to eliminate them or replace them with other mechanisms. The threat of auto tariffs, which are widely opposed anyway, is certain to fade. Biden, of Irish ancestry, has said that a trade deal with the U.K. should be conditional on preserving peace on the island of Ireland in line with the Good Friday Agreement. This is generally seen as requiring a continued open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in keeping with the U.K.’s withdrawal agreement from the EU.
Read more at:
What Should Europe Expect from a Biden Trade Policy? – BRINK – News and Insights on Global Risk
US jobless claims rise to 898,000 with layoffs still high - by C. Rugaber
The number of
Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week by the most in
two months, to 898,000, a historically high number and evidence that
layoffs remain a hindrance to the economy’s recovery from the pandemic
recession.
Read more at:
US jobless claims rise to 898,000 with layoffs still high
Thursday’s report
from the Labor Department coincides with other recent data that have
signaled a slowdown in hiring. The economy is still roughly 10.7 million
jobs short of recovering all the 22 million jobs that were lost when
the pandemic struck in early spring.
Read more at:
US jobless claims rise to 898,000 with layoffs still high
10/15/20
EU: Electric car sales triple in race to meet Europe CO2 rules - by Peter Campbell
One in 10 new cars sold across Europe this year will be electric or plug-in hybrid, triple last year’s sales levels after carmakers rolled out new models to meet emissions rules, according to projections from green policy group Transport & Environment.
The market share of mostly electric cars will rise to 15 per cent next year, the group forecasts, as carmakers across the continent race to cut their CO2 levels. The projections are based on sales data for the first half of the year, as well as expected increases as manufacturers scramble to comply with tightening restrictions in 2021.
“Electric car sales are booming thanks to EU emissions standards,” said clean vehicle director Julia Poliscanova. “Next year, one in every seven cars sold in Europe will be a plug-in.”
Read more at:
Electric car sales triple in race to meet Europe CO2 rules | Financial Times
The market share of mostly electric cars will rise to 15 per cent next year, the group forecasts, as carmakers across the continent race to cut their CO2 levels. The projections are based on sales data for the first half of the year, as well as expected increases as manufacturers scramble to comply with tightening restrictions in 2021.
“Electric car sales are booming thanks to EU emissions standards,” said clean vehicle director Julia Poliscanova. “Next year, one in every seven cars sold in Europe will be a plug-in.”
Read more at:
Electric car sales triple in race to meet Europe CO2 rules | Financial Times
Soccer: Italy 1-1 Netherlands: Improved Oranje earn point in Bergamo - Italy
The Netherlands kept their chances of progressing in the Nations League alive with a well-earned point against Italy in Bergamo.
Frank de Boer is still searching for his first win after four games as manager, but his team looked far more assured and incisive than they did in the goalless draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday.
Read more at:
Italy 1-1 Netherlands: Improved Oranje earn point in Bergamo - DutchNews.nl
Frank de Boer is still searching for his first win after four games as manager, but his team looked far more assured and incisive than they did in the goalless draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday.
Read more at:
Italy 1-1 Netherlands: Improved Oranje earn point in Bergamo - DutchNews.nl
Russia: EU imposes sanctions on 6 individuals over poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny - by David Walsh
EU
foreign ministers agreed on the sanctions on Monday, urged on by France
and Germany, who are convinced the nerve agent came from a state
facility.
The EU statement on Thursday says that "taking into account that Alexei Navalny was under surveillance at the time of his poisoning, it is reasonable to conclude that the poisoning was only possible with the involvement of the Federal Security Service".
The Russian government disputes the finding by European experts that the extremely toxic chemical weapon Novichok, developed by Soviet scientists in the Cold War, was used.
The EU statement however says the sanctions are part of action to counter "the proliferation and use of chemical weapons". EU leaders are meeting for a two-day summit in Brussels.
The statement says "it is reasonable to conclude that the poisoning of Alexei Navalny was only possible with the consent of the Presidential Executive Office".
Read more at:
EU imposes sanctions on 6 individuals over poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny | Euronews
US Presidential Elections: Violence a risk without clear-cut U.S. election result, says former adviser Susan Rice
Without a decisive result in the November U.S. election, former U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice says there is a chance some groups could turn to violence.
"I hate to predict something like that, and I'm not going to do that. I do think that there is a risk that if there is a contested or manipulated election result that those on either or both sides may choose to resort to some forms of violence," Rice said Sunday on Cross Country Checkup.
Rice's comments follow news that authorities in Michigan foiled an alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Six men face federal charges, with seven others charged under Michigan state laws.
U.S.Attorney Andrew Birge called the suspects, who have links to militia groups, "violent extremists."
Read more at:
Violence a risk without clear-cut U.S. election result, says former adviser Susan Rice | CBC Radio
10/14/20
Japan supercomputer shows humidity affects aerosol spread of coronavirus - by Rocky Swift
A Japanese supercomputer showed that humidity can have a large
effect on the dispersion of virus particles, pointing to heightened
coronavirus contagion risks in dry, indoor conditions during the winter
months.
The finding suggests that the use of humidifiers may help limit infections during times when window ventilation is not possible, according to a study released on Tuesday by research giant Riken and Kobe University.
The researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the emission and flow of virus-like particles from infected people in a variety of indoor environments.
Air humidity of lower than 30% resulted in more than double the amount of aerosolised particles compared to levels of 60% or higher, the simulations showed.
The study also indicated that clear face shields are not as effective as masks in preventing the spread of aerosols. Other findings showed that diners are more at risk from people to their side compared to across the table, and the number of singers in choruses should be limited and spaced out.
Read more at:
Japan supercomputer shows humidity affects aerosol spread of coronavirus
The finding suggests that the use of humidifiers may help limit infections during times when window ventilation is not possible, according to a study released on Tuesday by research giant Riken and Kobe University.
The researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the emission and flow of virus-like particles from infected people in a variety of indoor environments.
Air humidity of lower than 30% resulted in more than double the amount of aerosolised particles compared to levels of 60% or higher, the simulations showed.
The study also indicated that clear face shields are not as effective as masks in preventing the spread of aerosols. Other findings showed that diners are more at risk from people to their side compared to across the table, and the number of singers in choruses should be limited and spaced out.
Read more at:
Japan supercomputer shows humidity affects aerosol spread of coronavirus
EU: Affordable and sustainable housing must become a priority of Europe’s recovery plan
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many cracks in our society, from the
unequal and unprepared public health policies to the dramatic lack of
social cohesion. A particular issue has truly come home to roost:
housing inequality has been dramatically emphasized by the current
health emergency. When we were all housebound for weeks on end, far too
many people were locked down in poor-standard, overcrowded or unhealthy
spaces. In addition to this, many did not have the means to pay their
energy bill to heat their homes, and most did not see nor have access to
nature for months.
The European Union has been going through a systemic housing crisis for a long time now, which has its root causes in a structural shortage of affordable, public and social housing and from the lack of public investment. However, the housing issue interconnects with three other major crises that need to be tackled simultaneously: the social crisis, the climate crisis and the economic crisis.
With over 50 million people overburdened by housing costs, social housing waiting lists at an all-time high, and 700,000 people sleeping rough every night in the streets of Europe, it is clear that fixing the housing crisis will mean putting the focus on social inequality in our society.
Read more at:
Affordable and sustainable housing must become a priority of Europe’s recovery plan – EURACTIV.com
The European Union has been going through a systemic housing crisis for a long time now, which has its root causes in a structural shortage of affordable, public and social housing and from the lack of public investment. However, the housing issue interconnects with three other major crises that need to be tackled simultaneously: the social crisis, the climate crisis and the economic crisis.
With over 50 million people overburdened by housing costs, social housing waiting lists at an all-time high, and 700,000 people sleeping rough every night in the streets of Europe, it is clear that fixing the housing crisis will mean putting the focus on social inequality in our society.
Read more at:
Affordable and sustainable housing must become a priority of Europe’s recovery plan – EURACTIV.com
The US Economy and the US Dollar: the US is facing a dollar collapse by the end of 2021 and an over 50% chance of a double-dip recession, economist Stephen Roach says - by Shalini Nagarajan
- The US dollar could collapse by the end of 2021 and the economy can expect a more than 50% chance of a double-dip recession, the economist Stephen Roach told CNBC on Wednesday.
- The US has seen economic output rise briefly and then fall in eight of the past 11 business-cycle recoveries, Roach said.
- Grim second-quarter data cannot be dismissed, he said, pointing out that "the current-account deficit in the United States, which is the broadest measure of our international imbalance with the rest of the world, suffered a record deterioration."
- Roach last predicted a crash in the dollar index in June, when it was trading at about 96. He said at the time that it would collapse 35% against other major currencies within the next year or two.
Roach,a former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, also said he sees a more than 50% probability of a double-dip recession in the United States.
He based that prediction on historical evidence, saying that in eight of the past 11 business-cycle recoveries economic output has risen briefly and then fallen.
"It's certainly something that happens more often than not," he said.
Roach last predicted a dollar crash in June, saying it would collapse 35% against other major currencies within the next couple of years. At the time, the dollar index traded at about 96. On Thursday, the index traded at about 94.41.
He said on Wednesday that he expected the collapse to happen by the end of 2021, but he did not say by how much.
Read more at:
The US is facing a dollar collapse by the end of 2021 and an over 50% chance of a double-dip recession, economist Stephen Roach says | Markets Insider
USA: Trump’s Weaponization of the National Security State - by Melvin Goodman
With national polls showing Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in key
battleground states, the president is acting irrationally and deploying
his cabinet secretaries and departments to influence next month’s
election. Trump has used most of the past four years to enforce Steve
Bannon’s “deconstruction of the administrative state,” and most of the
past several months to politicize and weaponize the key departments of
the national security state. He has manipulated the Department of
Justice; the Department of Defense; the Department of Homeland Security;
the Department of State, the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence; and the Central Intelligence Agency in unprecedented ways.
The ostrich puts his head in the sand and because he can’t see, it assumes that it can’t be seen. Donald Trump has lost touch with reality, but those in his administration and his party do not presume to see.
Read more at:
Trump’s Weaponization of the National Security State - CounterPunch.org
1) Attorney General William Barr and the Department of Justice have become Trump’s “personal attorney” and “personal law firm,” respectively. Bill Barr marshaled federal law enforcement and the National Guard to enable Trump’s blasphemous photo opportunity in front of the St. John’s Episcopal Church on the first of June, 2020. The Department of Justice utilized the command center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to manage the aggressive show of force that took place on the first of June to remove peaceful protestors from Lafayette Square to enable the photo opportunity. Barr also threatened to punish New York City, Portland, and Seattle and their Democratic mayors as “anarchist jurisdictions,” and even to cut off funding to those cities, which he is not in a position to do.
2) Barr has ignored Trump’s latest demands on the Department of Justice to move against his political adversaries, citing Hillary Clinton, who should be “jailed,” Joe Biden, a “criminal” who “shouldn’t be allowed to run,” and President Barack Obama, who was included in a string of charges. This is the first Trump red line that Barr appears hesitant to cross. Thus far, Barr has said publicly that Obama and Biden are not under investigation. Barr disingenuously contends that Trump “has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case,” although he acknowledged that Trump’s tweets about the Department of Justice “make it impossible for me to do my job.”
3) Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf is using his department as the personal militia of the president of the United States. DHS played a central role in dealing with protest activity in Portland and Seattle, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement occupied U.S. cities this month to conduct arrests in so-called “sanctuary enclaves.” ICE’s campaign was designed to distract from Trump’s incompetent handling of the pandemic and the economic setback.
John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, cooperated with Trump’s weaponizing of the government by providing unsubstantiated intelligence to Senator Lindsey Graham’s Judiciary Committee to justify opening an investigation against Hillary Clinton. The so-called intelligence has been repudiated by senior intelligence officials as well as the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, who concluded Ratcliffe’s so-called intelligence was in fact Russian disinformation. Ratcliffe conceded that he released the information “at the direction of the president of the United States.”
4) CIA director Gina Haspel is making sure that Trump doesn’t receive any unwanted intelligence at his Resolute desk in the Oval Office. In an unprecedented step, Haspel has ordered intelligence analysts to vet intelligence dealing with Russian interference, for example, with the General Counsel, Courtney Elwood. Ms. Elwood previously provided the CIA whistleblower’s affidavit on Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president to the National Security Council rather than to the Department of Justice, which various rulings require her to do. When the inspector general of the director of national intelligence provided the affidavit to the Senate Intelligence Committee as required by law, Trump fired him.
5) The Pentagon’s contribution to Trump’s photo opportunity at the St. John’s Episcopal Church in June was requesting National Guard commanders from all over the country to airlift citizen-soldiers to Washington, D.C. to assist in clearing out protestors from Lafayette Square. In the wake of 9/11, a obscure law allowed governors to send guardsmen across state lines, but only for counter-terrorism missions. In June, nearly all of the 3,800 troops that arrived in Washington came from states with Republican governors. Most blue state National Guard commanders sided with the head of the California National Guard, who remarked “f— this, I have other things to worry about.”
+ Secretary of Defense Mark Esper actually described those cities that were occupied by National Guard troops as “battle-space,” which is a rather unusual description of American cities. In fact, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the deployment of U.S. land forces in the United States without an act of Congress or the concurrence of state officials.
6) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump’s most vocal loyalist and a serial violator of the Hatch Act, carried out the president’s order to release Hillary Clinton’s emails sent through her home server between 2009 and 2012. Trump said that he was “not happy” with the way the secretary was “running the State Department” and that he should “get them out.” Pompeo immediately announced he would do so on Trump’s network, FoxIt couldn’t be more worrisome to have every principal of the national security team willing to follow the dictates and commands from someone as unhinged as Donald Trump. There appears to be no concern with someone who tweeted last week after spending several days in Walter Reed Hospital: “I’m back because I’m a perfect specimen and I’m extremely young.” And if that wasn’t enough to cause alarm, he then released a video in which he stated: “I’m a senior. I known you don’t know that. Nobody knows that.”
The ostrich puts his head in the sand and because he can’t see, it assumes that it can’t be seen. Donald Trump has lost touch with reality, but those in his administration and his party do not presume to see.
Read more at:
Trump’s Weaponization of the National Security State - CounterPunch.org
10/13/20
EU-US Relations: Reviving transatlantic relations after Trump – by Max Bergmann
If Joe Biden were to win the White House, transatlantic
relations could return to default or be transformed—with much depending
on how Europe reacted.
A political cliché is rehearsed every four years in the United States: ‘This is the most important election of our lifetime.’ Yet it is hard to think of a more important election in US history—rarely, if ever, has the country faced two such sharply divergent paths.
All its deep-seated divisions have been exposed in 2020. Covid-19 has foregrounded the jaw-dropping inequality, the frailty of a for-profit healthcare system and the impact of a generation-long, conservative effort to weaken the functioning of government. When Americans needed the state, the state couldn’t cope.
Economically, Wall Street hasn’t missed a beat but queues for food banks grow and ‘for lease’ signs populate vacant shop fronts. Socially, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May and the subsequent protests—believed to be the largest in US history—brought into the mainstream a conversation on systemic racism and exposed the abusive nature of law enforcement, militarised and immunised from public sensitivity after ‘9/11’.
Read more at:
Reviving transatlantic relations after Trump – Max Bergmann
A political cliché is rehearsed every four years in the United States: ‘This is the most important election of our lifetime.’ Yet it is hard to think of a more important election in US history—rarely, if ever, has the country faced two such sharply divergent paths.
All its deep-seated divisions have been exposed in 2020. Covid-19 has foregrounded the jaw-dropping inequality, the frailty of a for-profit healthcare system and the impact of a generation-long, conservative effort to weaken the functioning of government. When Americans needed the state, the state couldn’t cope.
Economically, Wall Street hasn’t missed a beat but queues for food banks grow and ‘for lease’ signs populate vacant shop fronts. Socially, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May and the subsequent protests—believed to be the largest in US history—brought into the mainstream a conversation on systemic racism and exposed the abusive nature of law enforcement, militarised and immunised from public sensitivity after ‘9/11’.
Read more at:
Reviving transatlantic relations after Trump – Max Bergmann
The Covid-19 Vaccine development pains: COVID-19 vaccine setback weighs on Wall Street
News of a setback on a coronavirus vaccine candidate and reports of the
first COVID-19 reinfection in the United States are sapping investor
sentiment, while the official start of earnings season, the unofficial
start of the US holiday shopping season, and Apple’s iPhone launch event
are all moving markets.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson were down more than two percent minutes into the trading session after the pharmaceutical giant said it had paused clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate due to an “unexplained illness” in a study participant.
Last month, AstraZeneca halted a late-stage trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate after a participant fell ill.
The news follows in the wake of more documented evidence that sheds doubt on whether herd immunity to COVID-19 is possible.
Read more at:
COVID-19 vaccine setback weighs on Wall Street | US & Canada News | Al Jazeera
Shares of Johnson & Johnson were down more than two percent minutes into the trading session after the pharmaceutical giant said it had paused clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate due to an “unexplained illness” in a study participant.
Last month, AstraZeneca halted a late-stage trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate after a participant fell ill.
The news follows in the wake of more documented evidence that sheds doubt on whether herd immunity to COVID-19 is possible.
Read more at:
COVID-19 vaccine setback weighs on Wall Street | US & Canada News | Al Jazeera
The Netherlands goes into partial lockdown; face masks will be compulsory
Cafes, bars and restaurants in the Netherlands are to be shut for at least four weeks from Wednesday 10pm in an effort to get coronavirus under control, prime minister Mark Rutte told reporters on Tuesday evening.
The measures, in total, amount to a partial lockdown, Rutte said. ‘The number of social contacts and movements we make has to be cut drastically,’ he said. ‘It is the only way. We have to be tough on ourselves and on our behaviour.’
The number of newly notified positive coronavirus tests in the Netherlands soared by a further 7,393 cases in the 24 hours to Tuesday 10am and there were nearly 44,000 newly registered cases of coronavirus in the past week.
‘Too many people are not keeping to the rules,’ Rutte said.
‘Then we have no choice but to take tougher measures to make sure that we can no longer meet each other.’
The government also plans to make face masks compulsory in all indoor public spaces, but that still needs to be worked out legally. ‘We want to prevent discussion about the measures,’ Rutte said. ‘We want people to stick to them.’
This is also why a ban on the sale of alcohol after 8pm is being introduced, Rutte said. ‘People were asking why cafes had to close at 10pm while they could still buy alcohol. So now we have dealt with that,’ he said.
The measures, described by Rutte as a hammer, would be assessed after two weeks to see if any progress is being made. ‘But they will last at least four weeks and if that does not help, then we will go into a total lockdown.’
Read more at:
The Netherlands goes into partial lockdown; face masks will be compulsory - DutchNews.nl
The measures, in total, amount to a partial lockdown, Rutte said. ‘The number of social contacts and movements we make has to be cut drastically,’ he said. ‘It is the only way. We have to be tough on ourselves and on our behaviour.’
The number of newly notified positive coronavirus tests in the Netherlands soared by a further 7,393 cases in the 24 hours to Tuesday 10am and there were nearly 44,000 newly registered cases of coronavirus in the past week.
‘Too many people are not keeping to the rules,’ Rutte said.
‘Then we have no choice but to take tougher measures to make sure that we can no longer meet each other.’
The government also plans to make face masks compulsory in all indoor public spaces, but that still needs to be worked out legally. ‘We want to prevent discussion about the measures,’ Rutte said. ‘We want people to stick to them.’
This is also why a ban on the sale of alcohol after 8pm is being introduced, Rutte said. ‘People were asking why cafes had to close at 10pm while they could still buy alcohol. So now we have dealt with that,’ he said.
The measures, described by Rutte as a hammer, would be assessed after two weeks to see if any progress is being made. ‘But they will last at least four weeks and if that does not help, then we will go into a total lockdown.’
Read more at:
The Netherlands goes into partial lockdown; face masks will be compulsory - DutchNews.nl
USA - Presidential Elections: The Press Must Tell It Like It Is: Mitch McConnell Is Not a Hypocrite, He Is a Liar - by Charles Mudede
This headline is one among many:
"AOC considering impeachment, Schumer weighing Supreme Court expansion
in wake of Mitch McConnell's 'blatant, nasty hypocrisy.'"
But this description of McConnell's push to fill Ginsburg's seat with less than two months before the presidential election is way too kind.
The Wikipedia entry for hypocrisy includes this definition by the British political philosopher, David Runciman: "...kinds of hypocritical deception include claims to knowledge that one lacks, claims to a consistency that one cannot sustain, claims to a loyalty that one does not possess, claims to an identity that one does not hold." My point is that the word is too broad and, as a consequence, lacks the sharpness of the more direct word, "liar."
On the day Scalia died, nine months before the presidential election of 2016, McConnell lied when he said, "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." He was not telling American voters the truth. And this fact is made plain by his pledge to give Trump's nominee to replace Justice Ginsburg a vote in the Senate.
Read more at:
The Press Must Tell It Like It Is: Mitch McConnell Is Not a Hypocrite, He Is a Liar - Slog - The Stranger
But this description of McConnell's push to fill Ginsburg's seat with less than two months before the presidential election is way too kind.
The Wikipedia entry for hypocrisy includes this definition by the British political philosopher, David Runciman: "...kinds of hypocritical deception include claims to knowledge that one lacks, claims to a consistency that one cannot sustain, claims to a loyalty that one does not possess, claims to an identity that one does not hold." My point is that the word is too broad and, as a consequence, lacks the sharpness of the more direct word, "liar."
On the day Scalia died, nine months before the presidential election of 2016, McConnell lied when he said, "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." He was not telling American voters the truth. And this fact is made plain by his pledge to give Trump's nominee to replace Justice Ginsburg a vote in the Senate.
Read more at:
The Press Must Tell It Like It Is: Mitch McConnell Is Not a Hypocrite, He Is a Liar - Slog - The Stranger
Religion and Politics: Why Churches Cannot Endorse or Oppose Political Candidates
Churches cannot favor or oppose particular candidates for political
office. The ban on electioneering has nothing to do with the First
Amendment or Jeffersonian principles of separation of church and state.
Instead, the ban is based on a provision in the 1954 tax reform act
prohibiting all tax-exempt organizations from supporting or opposing
political candidates. I show that the provision grew out of the
anti-communist frenzy of the 1950s and was directed at right-wing
organizations such as Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional
Government. It was introduced by Lyndon Johnson as part of his effort to
end McCarthyism, protect the loyalist wing of the Texas Democratic
Party, and win reelection to the Senate in 1954. I also discuss the
implications these findings have for contemporary church policy.
Read more at:
Why Churches Cannot Endorse or Oppose Political Candidates on JSTOR
Read more at:
Why Churches Cannot Endorse or Oppose Political Candidates on JSTOR
10/12/20
USA: The Gang of Four: House Report Cites Monopoly Power Of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google - by Bobby Allyn, Alina Selyukh, Shannon Bond
n a sweeping report spanning
449 pages, House Democrats lay out a detailed case for stripping Apple,
Amazon, Facebook and Google of the power than has made each of them
dominant in their fields.
The four companies began as "scrappy underdog startups" but are now monopolies that must be restricted and regulated, the report from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel says.
"These four corporations increasingly serve as gatekeepers of commerce and communications in the digital age, and this gatekeeper power gives them enormous capacity to abuse that power," a lawyer for the subcommittee's Democratic majority said in a briefing with reporters.
Read more at:
House Report Cites Monopoly Power Of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google : NPR
The four companies began as "scrappy underdog startups" but are now monopolies that must be restricted and regulated, the report from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel says.
"These four corporations increasingly serve as gatekeepers of commerce and communications in the digital age, and this gatekeeper power gives them enormous capacity to abuse that power," a lawyer for the subcommittee's Democratic majority said in a briefing with reporters.
Read more at:
House Report Cites Monopoly Power Of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google : NPR
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)