Monday, May 25, 2020
Reich at Home: Trump Golfing as the US Mourns 100,000 Dead
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Is Humanity Showing Through Everywhere Except in Trump? | MSNBC
Labels:
Coronavirus,
Donald Trump,
Morning Joe,
MSNBC
Middle-class Americans Queue at Food Banks as US Unemployment Hits 38 million – BBC News
More than 38 million Americans have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic struck in March.
Previously affluent middle-class Americans are now queuing for handouts at food banks, as America experiences the worst downturn since the 1930s and the Great Depression.
Huw Edwards presents BBC News at Ten reporting from North America Correspondent Nick Bryant in New York.
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Bolsonaro's Foul-mouthed Rant to Cabinet over Security Forces
In the video released by the Supreme Court, Bolsonaro vowed to change Cabinet ministers if needed to protect his family.
The two-hour video of a Cabinet meeting, with portions redacted, was released as part of a probe into allegations that the president was trying to illegally interfere in a criminal investigation of his sons, a claim made by former Justice Minister Sérgio Moro when he resigned last month.
The former minister told investigators Bolsonaro openly demanded he make changes in key federal police positions, including the head of the agency as a whole.
Moro resigned after Bolsonaro fired the federal police director-general without consulting him.
Labels:
Brazil,
Jair Bolsonaro
Friday, May 22, 2020
FBI Accidentally Leaked Information on Saudi Arabia's Role In 9/11
Labels:
9/11,
FBI,
Saudi Arabia
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Mika Responds to Trump Tweet | Morning Joe | MSNBC
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Hungary Votes to End Legal Recognition of Trans People
Hungary’s parliament has voted to end legal recognition for trans people, passing a bill that rights activists say pushes the country “back towards the dark ages”.
The new law defines gender as based on chromosomes at birth, meaning previous provisions whereby trans people could alter their gender and name on official documents will no longer be available.
The votes of rightwing prime minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party pushed the legislation through by 134 to 56, with four abstentions. It is likely to be signed into law by the president, János Áder, a close ally of Orbán. » | Shaun Walker in Budapest | Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Labels:
Hungary,
transgender,
Viktor Orbán
Monday, May 18, 2020
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Brian Stelter Calls Out 'Vicious' Cycle of Trump's Anti-Media Attacks
The Observer View on Trump's Continued Goading of China
Donald Trump’s histrionic threat last week to “cut off the whole relationship” with China produced a scornful response from Beijing. “Such lunacy is a clear byproduct of the anxiety the US has suffered since China began its global ascent,” the Global Times, the Chinese government’s mouthpiece, commented. The “Washington elites” were in a panic over the pandemic, it claimed.
While the tone was unfortunate, neither assertion wholly lacked truth. The US and its western allies do have concerns – some legitimate, some exaggerated – about China’s rise to superpower status. And the mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis by Trump, who appears increasingly unbalanced, makes China’s president, Xi Jinping, look undeservedly competent by comparison.
Trump’s threat, as foolish as it is impractical, typified the irrational behaviour of the US leader. His target was no surprise. Trump and his “America first” acolytes have long contended that China is ripping off America by indulging in unfair trade practices, stealing its commercial secrets and destroying manufacturing jobs.
In current jargon, they want to “decouple”, and this process – the Chinese call it “suppression” – is now accelerating. Higher tariffs on Chinese imports, and controls on hi-tech US exports and Chinese inward investment, were extended last week to include new measures targeting the telecoms giant, Huawei. A compromise trade deal agreed earlier this year is in jeopardy. » | Observer editorial | Sunday, May 17, 2020
Labels:
China,
Donald Trump
Saturday, May 16, 2020
'It Eats Him Alive Inside': Trump's Latest Attack Shows Endless Obsession with Obama
President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump once sat together in the Oval Office. “I was immediately struck by Trump’s body language,” wrote journalist Jon Karl in his memoir Front Row at The Trump Show. “I was seeing a side of him I had never seen. He seemed, believe it or not, humbled.”
It was November 2016 and, just for once, Trump was not in charge of the room, Karl recalls. Obama was still president, directing the action and setting the tone. His successor “seemed a little dazed” and “a little freaked out”. What the two men discussed in their meeting that day, only they know.
But what became clear in the next three and a half years is that Obama remains something of an obsession for Trump; the subject of a political and personal inferiority complex.
Observers point to a mix of anti-intellectualism, racism, vengeance and primitive envy over everything from Obama’s Nobel peace prize to the scale of his inauguration crowd and social media following.
Ben Rhodes, a former Obama national security aide, tweeted this week: “Trump’s fact-free fixation on Obama dating back to birtherism is so absurd and stupid that it would be comic if it wasn’t so tragic.” » | David Smith in Washington | Saturday, May 16, 2020
Saudi Arabia’s Big Dreams and Easy Living Hit a Wall
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Saudi Arabia knows about head-spinning change.
“One day there was nothing, the next day there was everything,” a business student, Noura Khalid, 23, said in Riyadh in December, describing how it felt to watch her once-staid country welcome international rap stars and wrestling champions, cars steered by women. movie theaters, gender-mixed cafes and other previously unimaginable innovations in just the last few years. “There’s no break! It’s happening so quickly.”
Now the kingdom faces yet more whiplash.
Not only is the coronavirus redefining daily life for Saudis, but plummeting oil prices are robbing the kingdom of the enormous wealth that was underwriting the new Saudi Arabia. The twin blows threaten to sink Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sweeping social and economic agenda, and have already curtailed the vast welfare state that has given most Saudis a comfortably subsidized life. » | Vivian Yee | Saturday, May 16, 2020
Labels:
MbS,
Saudi Arabia
Friday, May 15, 2020
Covid-19 : le confinement royal et estival d'Elizabeth II
Voilà la reine d'Angleterre bloquée à Windsor jusqu'à nouvel ordre. Plusieurs médias britanniques, dont le Times, annoncent que la souveraine, âgée de 94 ans, devrait y rester pendant plusieurs mois, au moins jusqu'en septembre prochain. Pas question de rejoindre le palais de Buckingham, qui restera fermé au public pendant tout l'été et où plusieurs événements officiels sont d'ores et déjà annulés, comme les garden-parties ou la fameuse parade Trooping the Colour, célébrée habituellement en juin. Elizabeth II devrait également manquer cet été ses traditionnelles vacances en Écosse, dans son château de Balmoral qu'elle affectionne tant. » | Par Marc Fourny | vendredi 15 mai 2020
Trump Puts US in Worst Disaster in Modern History, Says Professor | Morning Joe | MSNBC
Labels:
Coronavirus,
Donald Trump,
Morning Joe,
MSNBC
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Smoke Fags, Save Lives
There’s not much to laugh about these days, but the news that smokers might be protected from Covid-19 is certainly one of them. With study after study showing that smokers are under-represented in coronavirus wards, the renowned French neuroscientist, Jean-Pierre Changeux, is working on a randomised control trial to test the effect of nicotine patches on Covid-19 patients.
This is far from being a crackpot theory. Changeux has explained his hypothesis at length here. In simple terms, he says that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors play a key role in the development of the disease and that nicotine can put a brake on it. If he is right – and the banter heuristic says he is – it would not only save thousands of lives but would also be one in the eye for the ‘public health’ groups who have been claiming that smoking and vaping are risk factors for Covid-19. » | Christopher Snowden | Thursday, April 23, 2020
Noam Chomsky: Trump Is Culpable in Deaths of Americans
In an interview with the Guardian's economic correspondent, Richard Partington, the radical intellectual argued the US president was stabbing average Americans in the back while pretending to be the country’s saviour during the worst health crisis in at least a century
'You Should Ask China': Trump Terminates Press Conference after Clash with Reporters
Has there ever been a ruder, more disagreeable president than Trump? – Mark
Labels:
Donald Trump
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Why Is the US Removing Military Assets from Saudi Arabia? | Inside Story
American weapons and fighter jets were sent to the Kingdom last year after Saudi-Aramco oil facilities were attacked. They were also intended as a deterrent, as tensions rose between Tehran and Washington.
But the reduction in the U.S. military presence is believed by some to be based on assessments Iran no longer poses an immediate threat to U.S. strategic interests. So, what's exactly changed? And is oil politics at play?
Presenter: Peter Dobbie | Guests: Joel Rubin, President of the Washington Strategy Group; Mahjoob Zweiri, Director of Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University; Mohammad Marandi, Head of the American Studies Department at Tehran University
Labels:
Inside Story,
Saudi Arabia,
US military,
USA
Saturday, May 09, 2020
Coronavirus: Death Awaits Many Americans
Labels:
Coronavirus,
Donald Trump,
USA
Hundreds Queue for Food Parcels in Wealthy Geneva
More than 1,000 people queued on Saturday to get free food parcels in Geneva, underscoring the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the working poor and undocumented immigrants even in wealthy Switzerland.
The line of people stretched for more than 1km outside an ice rink where volunteers were handing out about 1,500 parcels to people who started queuing as early as 5am.
“At the end of the month, my pockets are empty. We have to pay the bills, the insurance, everything,” said Ingrid Berala, a Geneva resident from Nicaragua who works part-time. “This is great, because there is food for a week, a week of relief … I don’t know for next week.” » | Reuters in Geneva | Saturday, May 9, 2020
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