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Category: Politics

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 Brick hovels have been replaced by whimsical mansions.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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Insider trading? Trump’s talk can move markets — and make some futures traders billions

Insider trading? Trump’s talk can move markets — and make some futures traders billions

William D Cohan writes: On Thursday, June 27, the S&P 500 index stood at about 2915; a week or so later, it was just below 3000, a gain of 84 points, or $4,200 per e-mini contract. Whoever bought the 420,000 e-minis on June 28 had made a handsome profit of nearly $1.8 billion. Traders in the Chicago pits have been watching these kinds of wagers with an increasing mixture of shock and awe since the start of the Trump presidency….

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Trump’s letter to Erdogan was ‘dumped in the trash’

Trump’s letter to Erdogan was ‘dumped in the trash’

Middle East Eye reports: A leaked letter written by US President Donald Trump to Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning his Turkish counterpart not to be a “fool” has sent shockwaves around Turkey due to its lack of protocol and seriousness. Dated 9 October, the day Erdogan launched an offensive in northeastern Syria against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia, the letter aimed to make a deal between Turkey and the SDF and included an open economic sanctions threat. Yet this…

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Brexit deal may be a rare win-win for Boris Johnson

Brexit deal may be a rare win-win for Boris Johnson

The Guardian reports: Boris Johnson’s team were pasty-faced with exhaustion as they briefed journalists about the details of the Brexit deal in Brussels on Thursday afternoon – but the PM himself was unable to suppress a beam of triumph, as he glad-handed his fellow leaders. Just a week after Johnson’s meeting with the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, at a wedding venue on the Wirral, Downing Street hopes it has now engineered that rare thing in politics – a win-win…

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In the U.S., workers are now paying a higher tax rate than investors and owners

In the U.S., workers are now paying a higher tax rate than investors and owners

Christopher Ingraham writes: Most Americans have to work to earn a living. But the rich are different: They get most of their income not from labor but from what they own — companies, stocks, real estate and the like. These income-generating assets are what economists call capital. And because capital is heavily concentrated among the rich, the U.S. government taxed earnings derived from capital at a higher rate than earnings made through labor for the entirety of the 20th century….

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Putin is on a victory lap of the Middle East

Putin is on a victory lap of the Middle East

Matthew Chance writes: After years battling to assert the Kremlin’s power on the international stage, Vladimir Putin is now on what seems like a victory lap of the Middle East. On Tuesday, Kremlin-backed forces further stepped up to fill the vacuum left in northern Syria by the US. Russian military police units patrolled the contact line between Syrian and Turkish forces, while Putin-backed Bashar al-Assad troops gained full control of the town of Manbij and surrounding areas, according to a…

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