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from ABC News (& affiliates)
TV Network in New York, New York
President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Japan on Friday, in another encounter that Kremlin officials have suggested they were enthusiastically seeking out, but which for Trump comes fraught with potential political dangers at home.
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Rio Grande bishop: U.S. asylum crisis ‘a moral issue, and not a complicated one’
“Two basic factors are exacerbating each other. The first is that the system was designed to catch and detain illegal migrants, not legal asylum seekers; adult men, not families and children. The second is that there have been thousands more people presenting themselves for asylum, and the sheer numbers are overwhelming the capacity of the system,” Episcopal Church Bishop Michael Hunn says. “Unaccompanied children who arrive at the border are refugees, and they deserve immediate care as refugees.”
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More to Like in Zuckerberg's Aspen Talk Than Not
Yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touched on some of the most pressing issues facing his company and big tech as a whole. While his continued calls for government regulation of social media companies and other online services are dismaying, many of the principles Zuckerberg laid out represent exactly why such government intervention is not necessary and likely won’t produce better results.
Vladimir Putin: friendship with China, ‘Donald’ and the rise of national populism
As he heads to the G20 in Japan, the Russian leader believes he is back at the top table. During a 90-minute interview in the Kremlin’s cabinet office, with statues of four of Imperial Russia’s most revered rulers looking on from each corner, the former KGB officer turned statesman took on all subjects. He ranged from the breakdown of the international rules-based order, the rise of China and the end of liberal ideology to the prospect of improved relations with the UK. Ahead of the G20, Mr Putin highlights multiple risks to global stability. He singles out American unilateralism, starting with the tariff war against China and the threat of conflict in the Gulf. “To put it bluntly, the situation has definitely become more dramatic and explosive,” he says. Just before midnight, Vladimir Putin perks up at the mention of the word “risk”. It encapsulates the man and his 20 years in power. Latterly, Russia has embarked on a growing number of foreign policy gambles, from the military intervention in Syria, the annexation of Crimea and the attempted meddling in the US presidential election. Is his appetite for risk increasing with each passing year?“It did not increase or decrease. Risk must always be well-justified,” he replies. “But this is not the case when one can use the popular Russian phrase: ‘He who doesn’t take risks, never drinks champagne’.”
A citizenship question is off the 2020 US census form — for now. The US Supreme Court sent back to the lower courts a case looking at whether the federal government has the right to ask a person's citizenship status on the census. The 5 to 4 ruling said that the federal government needs to provide clearer justification for asking the question. In its opinion, the court found that federal officials’ reasoning was “incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency’s priorities and decision-making process” and that there was a “disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given.”
Does bullying happen in our churches?
"In 2011, when speaking on bullying at the Catholic National Justice and Peace Conference, I received an interview request from the Catholic weekly The Tablet. Church bullying must be very rare, the journalist postulated. It is not: figures from the Faithworkers’ branch of the trade union Unite show that 30% of its helpline calls are about bullying. People who have been the subject of past bullying may not wish to speak of the humiliation and abuse they have experienced, usually over a prolonged period of time, but during the course of writing this book, numerous people have commented on bullying in church life."
“Two basic factors are exacerbating each other. The first is that the system was designed to catch and detain illegal migrants, not legal asylum seekers; adult men, not families and children. The second is that there have been thousands more people presenting themselves for asylum, and the sheer numbers are overwhelming the capacity of the system,” Episcopal Church Bishop Michael Hunn says. “Unaccompanied children who arrive at the border are refugees, and they deserve immediate care as refugees.”
from Competitive Enterprise Institute
Yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touched on some of the most pressing issues facing his company and big tech as a whole. While his continued calls for government regulation of social media companies and other online services are dismaying, many of the principles Zuckerberg laid out represent exactly why such government intervention is not necessary and likely won’t produce better results.
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from Financial Times
Vladimir Putin: friendship with China, ‘Donald’ and the rise of national populism
As he heads to the G20 in Japan, the Russian leader believes he is back at the top table. During a 90-minute interview in the Kremlin’s cabinet office, with statues of four of Imperial Russia’s most revered rulers looking on from each corner, the former KGB officer turned statesman took on all subjects. He ranged from the breakdown of the international rules-based order, the rise of China and the end of liberal ideology to the prospect of improved relations with the UK. Ahead of the G20, Mr Putin highlights multiple risks to global stability. He singles out American unilateralism, starting with the tariff war against China and the threat of conflict in the Gulf. “To put it bluntly, the situation has definitely become more dramatic and explosive,” he says. Just before midnight, Vladimir Putin perks up at the mention of the word “risk”. It encapsulates the man and his 20 years in power. Latterly, Russia has embarked on a growing number of foreign policy gambles, from the military intervention in Syria, the annexation of Crimea and the attempted meddling in the US presidential election. Is his appetite for risk increasing with each passing year?“It did not increase or decrease. Risk must always be well-justified,” he replies. “But this is not the case when one can use the popular Russian phrase: ‘He who doesn’t take risks, never drinks champagne’.”
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from PRI Public Radio International
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from Psephizo Blog
Does bullying happen in our churches?
"In 2011, when speaking on bullying at the Catholic National Justice and Peace Conference, I received an interview request from the Catholic weekly The Tablet. Church bullying must be very rare, the journalist postulated. It is not: figures from the Faithworkers’ branch of the trade union Unite show that 30% of its helpline calls are about bullying. People who have been the subject of past bullying may not wish to speak of the humiliation and abuse they have experienced, usually over a prolonged period of time, but during the course of writing this book, numerous people have commented on bullying in church life."
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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The U.S. and Iran are Already at War Online
When a U.S. Navy surveillance drone was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz on June 20, the U.S. blamed Iran. The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said his country was “ready for war,” and President Donald Trump responded by declaring that Iran had made a “very big mistake.” Around the world, observers worried that the two countries were headed for battle. In a sense, however, they were already at war. There are no international rules governing digital conflict; tracing attacks is notoriously difficult, and targets can include industry, infrastructure and ordinary citizens. “There is not even an agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a cyber ‘act of war,’ assuming the term itself is still relevant,” former U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tells TIME. The U.S. has powerful capabilities in this new area. Military hackers and coders at Fort Meade, Md., maintain a long list of potential targets. The command, created in 2009, has played a larger role in war planning since the Trump Administration granted commanders new authority and Congress quietly issued a declaration defining online operations as a traditional military activity.
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from Time Media/News Company
The U.S. and Iran are Already at War Online
When a U.S. Navy surveillance drone was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz on June 20, the U.S. blamed Iran. The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said his country was “ready for war,” and President Donald Trump responded by declaring that Iran had made a “very big mistake.” Around the world, observers worried that the two countries were headed for battle. In a sense, however, they were already at war. There are no international rules governing digital conflict; tracing attacks is notoriously difficult, and targets can include industry, infrastructure and ordinary citizens. “There is not even an agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a cyber ‘act of war,’ assuming the term itself is still relevant,” former U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tells TIME. The U.S. has powerful capabilities in this new area. Military hackers and coders at Fort Meade, Md., maintain a long list of potential targets. The command, created in 2009, has played a larger role in war planning since the Trump Administration granted commanders new authority and Congress quietly issued a declaration defining online operations as a traditional military activity.
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