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from Asia Times Online
News & Media Website
As many as 500 projects in 43 African countries have been supported, including special loans to small and medium-sized businesses.
After Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit this week to Saudi Arabia, his government announced on Thursday that the Gulf state had been invited to be the third investor in a key segment of the China-led Belt and Road Initiative. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry made the announcement but did not detail whether Saudi Arabia had agreed to lend money to the Pakistani government, which is struggling to cope with an accumulating debt burden. Also on Thursday, the deputy secretary general of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said on Twitter that “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia struck an agreement worth US$10 billion.”
Wall Street’s three main equities benchmarks all gained around 1% on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both hitting fresh record highs.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Pakistani army’s chief of staff, made a three-day official visit to China earlier this week, meeting with his counterpart and President Xi Jinping. Just a few days before his trip to China, which concluded on September 19, he met the Chinese ambassador in Islamabad, Yao Jing, and discussed matters of mutual interests. He assured him of his support for the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and briefed him on security arrangements for Chinese nationals in Pakistan. The ambassador was impressed and praised his efforts to protect Chinese citizens in Pakistan. Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi made a state visit to Pakistan on September 7.
Rule of law is deteriorating across Southeast Asia
With the arrest of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak on money laundering and abuse of power charges, Southeast Asia’s handling of the rule of law is once again in the spotlight. In the region, adherence to the rule of law has been on the retreat at an accelerating pace, with the UN naming countries such as Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines on a list of 38 “shameful” countries that commit or tolerate human rights abuses. From arresting lawyers, persecuting the opposition and bending the judiciary to the will of the regime, Southeast Asia is changing for the worse. Seeing how the triple promises of reform, democracy and due process have been broken in many countries in the region, there’s little hope for change any time soon.
Non-Japan Asia ETF has better risk-reward than China
The Non-Japan Asia Equity ETF (AAXJ) trades closely with the MSCI China ETF (MCHI). Over the past three years, the two ETF’s have returned 39% and 38%, respectively, and tracked with a 93% r-squared from 2018 to date. There is considerable speculation that Chinese manufacturers will respond to American tariffs by shifting production to Southeast Asia, to the benefit of those economies.
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from CBS News (& affiliates)
Walmart, the biggest U.S. retailer, warned the Trump administration the newest round of tariffs on imported Chinese goods could prompt it to raise prices on products from shampoo to bicycles to food. "This round of tariffs could impact a significant number of common consumer items that are not easily replaceable," Sarah F. Thorn, a senior director for global government affairs at Walmart, wrote in a Sept. 6 letter to the U.S. Trade Representative. "The immediate impact will be to raise prices on consumers and tax American business and manufacturers. "
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from Conservative Intelligence Briefing
Kavanaugh Accuser May Testify Next Week
Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct decades ago, may testify next week. Ford would appear in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. President Trump has continued to stand behind Kavanaugh, taking to Twitter Friday to question why Ford never went to the police, and is only coming forward now, on the eve of his confirmation.
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from Crosscut (Seattle)
Foster kids trapped as WA system collapses
Abused and neglected kids in Washington’s overwhelmed foster care system were housed in hotels and state offices at a higher rate than ever over the last year, newly released figures show — a practice that costs taxpayers millions and that experts say further traumatizes some of society’s most vulnerable young people. State officials say they had no choice: The foster system currently has a severe shortage of homes and group treatment facilities willing to take children who have been removed from their parents. Meanwhile, for the first time, the practice of using hotels to house foster youth spread over the last year from the Puget Sound area to Eastern Washington. And, in another sign that the foster care system is floundering, the state increasingly ships foster children with serious mental health and behavioral problems to group homes in other states, where they are far away from relatives, lawyers and others who can monitor their well-being. About 100 foster children are now living outside Washington, more than double the number in past decades.
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from Episcopal News Service
According to news reports and a fundraising page, the Rev. Boase, who is not a U.S. citizen, applied for a driver's license in 2005, and was asked if he also wanted to register to vote. Boase said he was surprised but signed the voter form and voted once, in the 2006 election.
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization
How the Myth of the 'Robber Barons' Began—and Why It Persists
The widely-accepted "history" of America's Gilded Age was grossly inaccurate, but it told a compelling story that many fell for hook, line, and sinker.
Most Socialists Can't Even Define Their Own Ideology
Claims that "socialism is freedom" sound bizarre. Because they are.
How the Myth of the 'Robber Barons' Began—and Why It Persists
The widely-accepted "history" of America's Gilded Age was grossly inaccurate, but it told a compelling story that many fell for hook, line, and sinker.
Most Socialists Can't Even Define Their Own Ideology
Claims that "socialism is freedom" sound bizarre. Because they are.
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from Independent SentinelRIGHT BIAS
Schumer Demanded FBI Probe Kavanaugh, Was Mum On Wife’s Role in NYC Deadly Crash
Democrat minority leader, Chuck Schumer has deemed Brett Kavanaugh accuser’s claims against the judge as “extremely credible”. Yes, the pathologically partisan senator has proclaimed that; 6 different FBI background checks, days of grueling testimony and an endless number of character witnesses to the contrary, Christine Blasey Ford’s 36-year-old allegation, unsupported by specific critical details such as year, time, and place, is plenty good enough for him!
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from LifeZette (& PoliZette)
Media/News Company in Washington, D. C.CNN Chaos: Kavanaugh’s Accuser Gets the Benefit of the Doubt from Far Too Many People
A ridiculous exchange on the mainstream media network shows the difficulty of proving a negative. In the absence of corroboration, a sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has become something of a Rorschach test. People who are already opposed to Kavanaugh’s nomination to the highest court in the land have rushed to express their belief in the accusation made by California clinical psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford — while the nominee’s supporters find it lacking. Kavanaugh’s critics have employed circular logic: They say Ford’s accusation is credible because women deserve to be believed. That shifts the burden of proof from the accuser to the accused. It puts Kavanaugh (pictured above left) in the position of having to prove a negative from 36 years ago.
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from New York Magazine
America, Land of Brutal Binaries
It was entirely a coincidence that I found myself reading Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind in the same week that Brett Kavanaugh was credibly accused of sexual assault in his teens, and Ian Buruma lost his job as editor of The New York Review of Books, after publishing an essay by a man credibly accused of 23 separate instances of sexual abuse, but cleared of all criminal charges. And the book does not, of course, address the specifics of either case. But it’s a sharp analysis of the toxic atmosphere in which our current debates take place, a reminder that it is close to impossible, in this polarized climate, to deal with the specifics and complexities of each scandal from a non-tribal perspective. And so it seems that Kavanaugh is either a perfect exemplar of judicial expertise and impeccable moral conduct, or he is a lying rapist determined to destroy and control the lives of all women.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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