Sunday, June 18, 2017

In the news, Friday, May 26, 2017


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MAY 25      INDEX      MAY 27
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from Asia Times Online

No foreigners, mate: Australia balks at Chinese home-buying
A new survey shows a majority of Sydney residents are opposed to foreign property ownership after a surge in Chinese purchases and skyrocketing prices

Same dead-in-the-water US economy
Businesses still waiting to see Trump’s tax reform take shape. Q1 GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.2%

Blackstone-Saudi deal gives hope for Trump infrastructure plan
Private cash could help fill the infrastructure spending hole in Trump’s proposed budget. Many assumed Trump’s campaign promises of huge projects to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure would be bankrolled by government debt and tax-payer money.

Film breaks silence on ‘madness’ of Sri Lanka civil war
Demons in Paradise, which premiered at Cannes, tells the story behind the country's 30-year civil war. The documentary shatters a taboo by insisting that some of most horrific violence the minority endured was at the hands of their supposed defenders.

A terror group emerges in the Philippines
Before its siege of Marawi city, the Islamic State-affiliated Maute Group had long been overlooked by security forces as insignificant guns-for-hire.

As numbers grow, Catholics in China still face oppression
Some 17,000 mainland Chinese Catholics were baptized on Easter Sunday alone. These striking numbers emerged during a symposium on the conditions of Chinese believers held in Rome on Wednesday under the auspices of the Holy See’s Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and AsiaNews, a Catholic news agency based in Italy. So despite all the restrictions and limitations imposed by the Chinese government, the Catholic Church is showing strong resilience coupled with the capacity to spread across the country.

Duterte flexes his iron fist
The Philippine leader says he will resort to any means necessary, including nationwide martial law, to counter the rising threat of Islamic State-linked militancy. Duterte took a firm step by declaring martial law across all of Mindanao.

China’s market – sensible people acting insensibly
The recent US-China 100-day action plan – under which Beijing mostly agreed to do things it was already supposed to do but wasn’t, while the US kept its market wide open – once again shows the Chinese market’s hypnotic effect on foreigners.

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from BBC News (UK)

Egypt Coptic Christians killed in bus attack
Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others, officials say. The bus was travelling to the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor, 135km (85 miles) south of Cairo, from Minya province when it came under fire.

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from Business Insider

Melania Trump wore a coat that costs more than most Americans earn in a year
Melania Trump wore a $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana jacket to a meeting with the spouses of some of the most powerful world leaders at the annual G-7 summit in Catania, Italy, this week.

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from Conciliar Post

The collective process of remembering rightly is precisely at play in the latest controversy surrounding the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans and Charlottesville.

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from EUobserver

Nato head defends 'blunt' US leader
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg defended US leader Donald Trump’s behaviour at Thursday’s (25 May) summit. The prime minister of Montenegro also apologised for him.

Trump calls Germans 'bad' but agrees EU trade plan
US president Donald Trump reportedly called Germans “bad, very bad” because of the US' trade deficit with Germany. His comments came even as the European Commission had said that the EU and US would work on a common trade plan.

Tusk deplores 'too many leaks' in Brussels
The European Council president has denounced a “culture of permanent leaks” after Trump's comments in his EU meeting were published in Germany.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

There's No Way Obamacare Can Last
The problems are getting more intense. A new report shows that the whole program is unraveling very quickly. If some dramatic reform is not passed soon, premiums will continue to rise, options will dwindle, and access to health care will effectively shrink and dramatically so. This whole program is a massive failure.

Twin Peaks Pioneered Great TV, and Now It's Back | Logan Albright
Twin Peaks , the cult TV murder mystery from the ‘90s, is coming back to finish what was started 25 years ago. The original show had a cultural impact far exceeding its meager two seasons worth of content and changed the feel of television forever. It's convention-breaking has been adopted and parodied in everything from The Simpsons to House of Cards.

How To Survive a World of Instant Feedback
The dark ages: everything before 1995. Times have dramatically changed. I could right now post a thought and get hundreds of reactions within a few minutes. There’s no shortage of input, that’s for sure. There’s email of course, but also comment boxes, forums, social media posts, and lightning-fast Twitter interactions. Twitter is often called a cesspool of toxicity. This is mostly untrue. It’s just that the toxic parts stand out in our minds because they have a bigger impact on our psyches.

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from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

Only the Rule of Law Can Break the Poverty Cycle
How do you stimulate economic growth in poor countries with faulty institutions? In the past, some thought foreign aid was the answer. But, as we have found out over the past 60 years or so, foreign aid cannot spur growth in countries lacking the rule of law, property rights and accountable government.

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from Indian Country Today Media Network
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

‘Squaw’ Closer to Being Removed From Two Place Names in Washington
Washington state could be the latest to replace the racist term on geographical names

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from LifeZette (& PoliZette)

Obamacare Premium Hikes Worse Than Thought
Ryan says GOP on 'rescue mission' after report finds average health care bill doubled since 2013.

Battle for Britain: Authorities Inundated with Terror Leads
Manchester bomber evaded detection despite warnings, ties to radicalism, and possible travel to Syria. As the full picture of Salman Abedi’s ties to radical Islam and a network of extremist Muslims takes shape, fresh concern is sure to be cast on the ability of British authorities to handle the scale of the jihadi threat in the country.

Former CIA Chief: Trump Right to Needle NATO
United States needs to press Europeans on paying for defense of Europe, says James Woolsey. President Donald Trump was right to needle NATO leaders on defense spending as he did in a multilateral meeting with European and Canadian leaders in Brussels, Belgium. So says the former CIA chief James Woolsey, who served as top spy under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1995.

Hillary Compares Trump to Nixon — and Worse
At Wellesley commencement speech, Clinton characterized Trump as danger to society. Vanquished 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday used a commencement address at her alma mater to warn that President Donald Trump is a danger to the country and the world.

Democrats Hit Rock Bottom with Montana Loss
Gianforte's big win in special election for U.S. House seat shows Trump's reform agenda a hit in red-state America. After losing their second straight congressional election in 2017 and failing to win a runoff in a third, Democrats appear to be in complete disarray. Republican Greg Gianforte, a Bozeman, Montana, businessman who allegedly assaulted a reporter the night before the Thursday election, easily dispatched his Democratic candidate, Rob Quist.

Joe Scarborough Says Trump Respects Leaders Who ‘Cut People’s Heads Off’
'Morning Joe' co-host goes further and further off the rails in his opposition to the president.

Geraldo Says ‘Rats’ in Intelligence Agencies Out to Get Trump
On 'Fox and Friends,' pundit decries steady drip of leaks damaging presidency.

Why the Persecution of Coptic Christians Impacts All Believers
One of the oldest communities of the faithful is under siege — and the world must act. Worldwide attacks on Christians are at a level not seen since the first centuries of Christianity, as Pope Francis noted recently.

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from Miami Herald

When journalists are called "enemies of the people," it's no surprise a reporter gets body-slammed.

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from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

The Eye-Care Industry Wants Big Government to Crush the Competition
In a typical case of an industry using government to fight the competition, the American Optometric Assoc. wants a monopoly in the eyecare industry.

What Keeps James Bullard Up at Night
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard informs us that "U.S. prices are now 4.6 percent below the price level path established from 1995 to 2012, when inflation was growing near the Fed's target of 2 percent each year." This lower than expected price level is deeply "worrisome," for Bullard. We all have our worries in life. For Bullard, it's that your cost of living is not as high as it should be.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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