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Category: Politics

China overtakes U.S. in rankings of world’s richest people

China overtakes U.S. in rankings of world’s richest people

The Guardian reports: The number of wealthy Chinese people has overtaken the number of rich Americans for the first time, according to a report by Credit Suisse. The Swiss bank’s annual wealth survey found there were 100m Chinese people among the world’s top 10% of richest people, compared with 99m in the United States. The report says the “rapid transformation of China from an emerging nation in transition to a fully fledged market economy” helped create a record number of…

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Trump campaign floods Web with ads, raking in cash as Democrats struggle

Trump campaign floods Web with ads, raking in cash as Democrats struggle

The New York Times reports: On any given day, the Trump campaign is plastering ads all over Facebook, YouTube and the millions of sites served by Google, hitting the kind of incendiary themes — immigrant invaders, the corrupt media — that play best on platforms where algorithms favor outrage and political campaigns are free to disregard facts. Even seemingly ominous developments for Mr. Trump become fodder for his campaign. When news broke last month that congressional Democrats were opening an…

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Trump’s relentless effort to promote his personal business interests while conducting U.S. foreign relations

Trump’s relentless effort to promote his personal business interests while conducting U.S. foreign relations

Politico reports: President Donald Trump was sitting beside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office in March when he fondly recalled his luxury golf resort on Ireland’s west coast. He gushed about his two tony Scottish resorts months later while standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron in France. And in August, while meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he first suggested that he just might bring the G-7 summit of world leaders to one of his own…

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Commentators in Moscow are starting to wonder whether Trump ‘really is a Russian agent’

Commentators in Moscow are starting to wonder whether Trump ‘really is a Russian agent’

Julia Davis reports: President Trump has boasted he’s “getting a lot of praise” for his abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops out of northern Syria, abandoning the Kurds—America’s longstanding allies—to Turkey’s incursion. On the home front, the controversial move has been met with criticism on both sides of the political aisle, but the reaction in Moscow was far from mixed. As Trump uncorked chaos in the Middle East, champagne tops were likely popping at the Kremlin. “Putin won the lottery!…

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How Hillary Clinton boosted Tulsi Gabbard

How Hillary Clinton boosted Tulsi Gabbard

Tom Nichols writes: What was Hillary Clinton thinking? The 2016 Democratic nominee, for some reason, felt the need to insert herself into the 2020 race with an attack on Tulsi Gabbard, an oddball Democratic presidential contender who barely registered in polls. The congresswoman from Hawaii is a completely discreditable candidate—more on that in a moment—but Clinton’s accusation that Gabbard is a tool of the Russians was so blunt and clumsy that it has added new life to a primary bid…

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World economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis, warns former chief of Bank of England

World economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis, warns former chief of Bank of England

The Guardian reports: The world is sleepwalking towards a fresh economic and financial crisis that will have devastating consequences for the democratic market system, according to the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King. Lord King, who was in charge at Threadneedle Street during the near-death of the global banking system and deep economic slump a decade ago, said the resistance to new thinking meant a repeat of the chaos of the 2008-09 period was looming. Giving a lecture in…

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A new world order is up for grabs

A new world order is up for grabs

Simon Tisdall writes: Syrian developments [have been] taken by some observers as proof that an increasingly isolationist America is turning in on itself and giving way – as failing empires inevitably do – to a successor world order shaped by emerging global powers, principally China. But is the Syrian crisis really a watershed moment? And if it is, who are the contenders for America’s crown as no 1 global superpower – and what are their own strengths and weaknesses? The…

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Socialism doesn’t work? An emerging middle class of Bolivians would beg to differ

Socialism doesn’t work? An emerging middle class of Bolivians would beg to differ

The Washington Post reports from La Paz, Bolivia: People in this high-altitude metropolis once schlepped to work through the mud. Now they commute via ­Disney-esque aerial cable cars. Brick hovels have been replaced by whimsical mansions. The poorest are reveling in a basic convenience they lacked before massive investment in state infrastructure: indoor toilets. “We used to do our ‘business’ in bags, and bring them down to the river,” said Vidal Colorado ­Mamani, community association president in Huancané, an indigenous…

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ISIS eyes breakout opportunity as Turkish forces batter Kurds

ISIS eyes breakout opportunity as Turkish forces batter Kurds

The Washington Post reports: The Islamic State is racing to capitalize on the deteriorating security situation in northern Syria, stepping up attacks on prisons as well as on the now-weakened Kurdish militia that served as the vanguard in the U.S.-led war against the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate, intelligence officials and terrorism experts say. Despite Thursday’s announced cease-fire, Turkey’s week-old incursion into northeast Syria is already proving to be a propaganda windfall for the extremist group, which in recent months had been…

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How Trump operates above the law and outside ethical standards — even those he set for himself

How Trump operates above the law and outside ethical standards — even those he set for himself

The New York Times reports: The rules are clear for nearly everyone who works in the executive branch: Officials are prohibited from playing even a minor role in a decision that directly creates a financial benefit for the employee or the employee’s immediate family. But those rules do not apply to the president and vice president, the only executive branch officials who are exempt from a criminal statute and a separate ethics regulation that govern conflicts of interest. That exemption…

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Why conservatives who want to save America may need to vote for Elizabeth Warren

Why conservatives who want to save America may need to vote for Elizabeth Warren

The conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, is (not surprisingly) not a supporter of Elizabeth Warren, but, he writes: [I]f it comes to Trump vs. Warren in a general election, the only plausible choice is to support Warren. Over the past month Donald Trump has given us fresh reminders of the unique and exceptional ways he corrupts American life. You’re either part of removing that corruption or you are not. When your nation’s political system is in danger, staying…

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Ugly America

Ugly America

Gary Younge writes: The rhetorical objects of [Trump’s] disdain are not random. He has not lashed out at the National Rifle Association, the religious right or white people. Politically, his tantrums invariably find their mark in the weak, the poor, the dark, the female, the Muslim, the marginalised and the foreigner. (He will attack powerful people, but not simply for existing. They must cross him first.) These inclinations were clear when he stood for the presidency. He has been every…

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Diplomat tells investigators he raised alarms in 2015 about Hunter Biden’s Ukraine work but was rebuffed

Diplomat tells investigators he raised alarms in 2015 about Hunter Biden’s Ukraine work but was rebuffed

The Washington Post reports: A career State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy told congressional investigators this week that he had raised concerns in early 2015 about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company but was turned away by a Biden staffer, according to three people familiar with the testimony. George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified Tuesday that he worried that Hunter Biden’s position at the firm Burisma Holdings would complicate…

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Turkish trolls hijacked American right-wing media — and Rudy Giuliani’s brain

Turkish trolls hijacked American right-wing media — and Rudy Giuliani’s brain

BuzzFeed reports: Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer and former Republican mayor of New York who has been amplifying misinformation to Republican President Donald Trump, has more than just one favorite online conspiracy. His obsession with the utterly unfounded theory that Democrats colluded with Ukrainian nationals to delegitimize Trump’s 2016 presidential win is only Giuliani’s latest flight of fancy. It is predated by another that is equally ridiculous: that a 78-year-old Muslim cleric named Fethullah Gülen used a global network of followers…

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The counterintelligence ‘nightmare’ created by Trump’s withdrawal from Syria

The counterintelligence ‘nightmare’ created by Trump’s withdrawal from Syria

Mike Giglio writes: This version of the forever war in Iraq and Syria was built around the work done by local U.S. allies. The fight against ISIS was America’s, but it was also being fought by Syrians, Kurds, and Iraqis—a U.S. strategy known as “by, with, and through.” It meant that local troops carried out ground fighting in battles drawn up by American war planners. It meant that they received arms, training, and logistical support from the U.S. military and…

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‘Blatant corruption’: Trump has awarded next year’s G-7 summit of world leaders to his Miami-area resort

‘Blatant corruption’: Trump has awarded next year’s G-7 summit of world leaders to his Miami-area resort

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has awarded the 2020 Group of Seven summit of world leaders to his private company, scheduling the summit for June at his Trump Doral golf resort outside Miami, the White House announced Thursday. That decision is without precedent in modern American history: The president used his public office to direct a massive contract to himself. The G-7 summit draws hundreds of diplomats, journalists and security personnel and provides a worldwide spotlight. The announcement that…

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