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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, June 4, 2021

America’s Biggest Companies (Fortune) Fortune magazine released its annual ranking of America’s largest companies, with Walmart topping the list for the ninth straight year. Boosted by the pandemic-driven consumer shift to online and bulk purchasing, the retail behemoth brought in nearly $560B in revenue. The company was followed by Amazon ($386B in revenue), Apple ($275B), CVS Health ($269B), and UnitedHealth Group ($257B). The combined list generated almost $14T in revenue last year—about two-thirds of the US economy.

Drought ravages California’s reservoirs ahead of hot summer (AP) Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation’s crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires. But now the mighty lake—a linchpin in a system of aqueducts and reservoirs in the arid U.S. West that makes California possible—is shrinking with surprising speed amid a severe drought, with state officials predicting it will reach a record low later this summer. While droughts are common in California, this year’s is much hotter and drier than others, evaporating water more quickly from the reservoirs and the sparse Sierra Nevada snowpack that feeds them. The state’s more than 1,500 reservoirs are 50% lower than they should be this time of year, according to Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California-Davis. If Lake Oroville falls below 640 feet (195 meters)—which it could do by late August—state officials would shut down a major power plant for just the second time ever because of low water levels, straining the electrical grid during the peak demand of the hottest part of the summer.

Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change (NYT) Three years ago, not long after Hurricane Irma left parts of Miami underwater, the federal government embarked on a study to find a way to protect the vulnerable South Florida coast from deadly and destructive storm surge. Already, no one likes the answer. Build a wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed in its first draft of the study, now under review. Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods—except for a one-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city’s financial district. The dramatic $6 billion proposal remains tentative and at least five years off. But the startling suggestion of a massive sea wall up to 20 feet high cutting across beautiful Biscayne Bay was enough to jolt some Miamians to attention: The hard choices that will be necessary to deal with the city’s many environmental challenges are here, and few people want to face them. The trouble is that the magnitude of the interconnected obstacles the region faces can feel overwhelming, and none of the possible solutions are cheap, easy or pretty.

A deadly vote (Washington Post) TAXCO, Mexico—Mario Figueroa sat in his armored SUV, surrounded by bodyguards clutching semiautomatic rifles. The bulletproof vest was stashed behind the back seat. These days, Figueroa rarely travels without his security team. As a candidate for mayor of this Spanish colonial city—once popular with American tourists, now lashed by drug violence—the 53-year-old businessman has already taken a bullet in the chest. Mexico is in the final days of one of its most violent electoral campaigns in modern times. Eighty-nine politicians have been killed since September, according to the security consulting firm Etellekt. Scores more have been wounded or threatened. The campaign has become a stark illustration of crime organizations’ quest to expand their control of Mexico’s territory. The violence has focused largely on races for mayor and other local government posts. “They want control of the police, control of public works projects, the budget, and illicit activities,” said Marcial Rodríguez Saldaña, the state leader of Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “We’ve reached an extreme,” Figueroa said.

US troops storm sunflower oil factory in Bulgaria (Foreign Policy) The owner of a sunflower oil factory in Bulgaria has taken legal action after U.S. soldiers accidentally stormed his business during a NATO training exercise. The mix-up occurred while soldiers were simulating the clearing of an airfield in southern Bulgaria, and continued on to Marin Dimitrov’s factory, where workers watched on as gun-wielding soldiers stalked through the premises. The incident has led to a rebuke from the highest levels with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev calling it “absolutely unacceptable.” “We always learn from these exercises and are fully investigating the cause of this mistake,” the U.S. embassy in Sofia said in a statement.

Beijing Introduces Three-Child Policy (Foreign Policy) On Monday, China announced that married couples would be allowed to have up to three children, raising the official two-child limit in a widely anticipated move. Despite government hopes, the introduction of the two-child policy in 2016 failed to produce a baby boom. It’s unlikely the latest policy change will affect China’s fertility rate, either. The public has responded with mocking contempt toward the idea that government restraints have held parents back from having more children, rather than the exorbitant costs of child rearing in China—from migrant families forced to pay fees for local public schools to upper-class parents who fear their children will fall behind without flute or calligraphy lessons. So why keep a limit on the number of children a couple can have at all? One reason is to provide cover for the ongoing forced sterilization of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, whose birthrate fell by nearly 50 percent between 2017 and 2020. Another is that China now has an enormous family planning bureaucracy that supports many jobs. Party leaders may also be concerned that the rich flaunting large families—such as late Macao casino tycoon Stanley Ho, known for his four wives and 17 children—would spark resentment.

Lebanese leaders exchange barbs as country sinks into crisis (AP) Lebanon’s president and prime minister-designate traded barbs Wednesday, accusing one another of obstruction, negligence and insolence in a war or words that has for months obstructed the formation of a new government as the country sinks deeper into economic and financial crisis. The power struggle between the premier-designate, Saad Hariri, on one side and President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil on the other, has worsened despite warnings from world leaders and economic experts of the dire economic conditions tiny Lebanon is facing. The World Bank on Tuesday said Lebanon’s crisis is one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years. In a late night burst of anger, protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and north of the capital. A young activist told a local TV station the protest was against the constant humiliation of Lebanese who line up to fill their cars with fuel, increasing power cuts, search for medicine and deal with confused banking decisions that are robbing thousands of their savings. The Lebanese pound, pegged to the dollar for 30 years at 1,507, has been in a free fall since late 2019. It is now trading at nearly 13,000 to the dollar at the black market.

Netanyahu opponents reach coalition deal to oust Israeli PM (AP) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents announced Wednesday that they have reached a deal to form a new governing coalition, paving the way for the ouster of the longtime Israeli leader. The dramatic announcement by opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, came shortly before a midnight deadline and prevented what could have been Israel’s fifth consecutive election in just over two years. The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset, or parliament, in a vote that is expected to take place early next week. If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end Netanyahu’s record-setting but divisive 12-year rule. Netanyahu, desperate to remain in office while he fights corruption charges, is expected to do everything possible in the coming days to prevent the new coalition from taking power. If he fails, he will be pushed into the opposition. (Foreign Policy) While a new government is not yet set in stone, normal business carries on: Benny Gantz arrives in Washington today to request $1 billion in emergency military aid in order to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome defenses and help restock its bomb supply following the bombardment of Gaza. “I would imagine that the administration would say yes to this request and it will sail through Congress,” Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday.

In Syria camp, forgotten children are molded by IS ideology (AP) At the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, children pass their days roaming the dirt roads, playing with mock swords and black banners in imitation of Islamic State group militants. Few can read or write. For some, the only education is from mothers giving them IS propaganda. It has been more than two years since the Islamic State group’s self-declared “caliphate” was brought down. And it has been more than two years that some 27,000 children have been left to languish in al-Hol camp, which houses families of IS members. Most of them not yet teenagers, they are spending their childhood in a limbo of miserable conditions with no schools, no place to play or develop, and seemingly no international interest in resolving their situation. Only one institution is left to mold them: remnants of the Islamic State group. Kurdish authorities and aid groups fear the camp will create a new generation of militants. They are pleading with home countries to take the women and children back. The problem is that home governments often see the children as posing a danger rather than as needing rescue.

‘Come On In, Boys’: A Wave of the Hand Sets Off Spain-Morocco Migrant Fight (NYT) Daouda Faye, a 25-year-old migrant from Senegal, was elated when he heard that Moroccan border guards had suddenly started waving in undocumented migrants across the border to Ceuta, a fenced-off Spanish enclave on the North African coast. “‘Come on in, boys,’” the guards told him and others as they reached the border on May 17, Mr. Faye said. Normally, Morocco tightly controls the fenced borders around Ceuta, a six-mile-long peninsula on Morocco’s northern coast that Spain has governed since the 1600s. But now its military was allowing migrants into this toehold of Europe. Over the next two days, as many as 12,000 people flowed over the border to Ceuta in hopes of reaching mainland Spain, engulfing the city of 80,000. The crisis has laid bare the unique pressure point Morocco has over Spain on migration. Spanish government officials and other experts say Morocco increasingly sees the migrants as a kind of currency and is leveraging its control over them to extract financial and political prizes from Spain. Hours after the migrants began pouring into Ceuta, Spain approved 30 million euros, about $37 million, in aid to Morocco for border policing.

A Military Drone With A Mind Of Its Own Was Used In Combat, U.N. Says (NPR) Military-grade autonomous drones can fly themselves to a specific location, pick their own targets and kill without the assistance of a remote human operator. Such weapons are known to be in development, but until recently there were no reported cases of autonomous drones killing fighters on the battlefield. Now, a United Nations report about a March 2020 skirmish in the military conflict in Libya says such a drone, known as a lethal autonomous weapons system—or LAWS—has made its wartime debut. But the report does not say explicitly that the LAWS killed anyone. The assault came during fighting between the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord and forces aligned with Gen. Khalifa Haftar, according to the report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on Libya. “Logistics convoys and retreating [Haftar-affiliated forces] were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2 ... and other loitering munitions,” the panel wrote. The Kargu-2 is an attack drone made by the Turkish company STM that can be operated both autonomously and manually and that purports to use “machine learning” and “real-time image processing” against its targets.

#headlines #news

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ruminativerabbi · 5 years

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Die Kippa

As report after report confirms the rise of anti-Semitic incidents at home and abroad, the controversy surrounding the remarks of Felix Klein, Germany’s anti-Semitism commissioner seems worth considering carefully.

The whole brouhaha began innocently enough just a week ago when Klein told the Berliner Morgenpost, an important German newspaper, that he felt it unwise for Jews to wear kippot in the streets of Germany without first considering where they were and in whose company they might be finding themselves there. When I first read his remark, it didn’t seem that shocking to me. The German government recently reported a twenty percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in just one year. I have heard anecdotal evidence from friends in Germany in this regard: not that they feel unsafe as Jews living in Germany, merely that it would be foolhardy to advertise one’s Jewishness in the street in at least some neighborhoods. Klein then went on, entirely reasonably, to insist that Germany do better in educating its public officials, and specifically police officers, to recognize anti-Semitic gestures and slogans and to react to anti-Jewish agitation forcefully and decisively. That all sounded entirely right to me!

The response was complicated. Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, a Chabad rabbi stationed in Berlin, commented that, while he was sure that “Klein’s intentions were good,” he was also sure that “hiding our identity is never the solution.” That also sounded right to me too! Other Jewish spokespeople fell into step with Rabbi Teichtal, most speaking warmly about Felix Klein and admitting that he was certainly right technically, but feeling uncomfortable hearing a government minister appearing simply to accept the status quo as part of how things are and, at least for the foreseeable future, will be.

If anything, it was the response from the non-Jewish world that was surprising…and far less charitable. Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior and a member of a right-wing Christian party, commented that “everyone can and should wear a kippah wherever and whenever he wants to.” And then he went on to warn specifically about the dangers of giving in “to the hatred of the Jews” and making it clear why this should be a matter of deep concern not just for Jews but for non-Jewish Germans as well. Now I’m really not sure what I think: he sounded right too!

But if the response from inside Germany was emotional and strongly put, the response from outside Germany was even more shrill. The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, pronounced himself “deeply shocked” by Klein’s remark. And then he went on to note without any trace of historical irony that “responsibility for the welfare, the freedom and the right to religious belief of every member of the German Jewish community is in the hands of the German government and its law enforcement agencies.” And then, speaking for his nation more than just for himself, the President went on to say this: “We acknowledge and appreciate the moral position of the German government, and its commitment to the Jewish community that lives there, but fears about the security of German Jews are a capitulation to anti-Semitism and an admittance that, again, Jews are not safe on German soil. We will never submit, will never lower our gaze and will never react to anti-Semitism with defeatism – and expect and demand our allies act in the same way.” So what can I say? He’s right too!

The national newspaper, Bild, one of Germany’s largest, went so far—is this beyond bizarre or truly touching?—they went so far as to publish a kippah in the newspaper that sympathetic citizens could cut out, paste together, and then presumably wear in the streets of Germany as a kind of public rejection of the kind of anti-Jewish sentiment that Klein was decrying in his interview with the Morgenpost.

The headline was unambiguous: “Show Your Solidarity with Your Jewish Neighbors! Make the Bild-Kippa.” The copy beneath the cut-out was what you’d expect, but was somehow still very moving: “If even one person here can’t safely wear a kippah, then the answer can only be that we’re all going to wear the kippah.” And then, for people unfamiliar with the concept, Bild offered even more explicit instructions: “Place the kippah on the back of your head and attach it to your hair with a hairclip. Done!” But it was the words of Bild editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt that stopped me in my tracks: “Die Kippa gehört zu Deutschland,” he wrote: The kippah belongs to Germany. It’s hard to know what to say to that!

This whole incident feels personal to me.

Joan and I lived in Germany before reunification, when Heidelberg was still in West Germany. But that’s not the only way Germany was a different place back then. The war was in the past, for example, but not that far in the past. I was present in Heidelberg on May 8, 1985, the fortieth anniversary of German’s unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces under the leadership of General Eisenhower, for example, and at several ceremonies I attended surrounding that anniversary I took note of the presence of actual Wehrmacht veterans, many of who were younger then than I am now. (I write about this now with a certain level of sang-froid. But it was beyond creepy to be there at the time, unsettling and wholly unnerving for me actually to see these people in the flesh.) I had students young enough then to be the children, not the grandchildren, of Nazis. One of my students’ own grandfathers had been a guard at Sobibor. The basic story of the Shoah was known to educated people, of course, but the details were so regularly brushed past for the 1979 broadcast of the American mini-series Holocaust, starring (among many others) Meryl Streep, James Woods, Joseph Bottoms, Michael Moriarty, and Tovah Feldshuh, to be able to capture the attention of an unprecedented number of viewers. Fifty percent of the entire population of Germany, 20 million people, watched the series. After each episode, a panel of historians appeared on screen to take questions from viewers, but no one expected there to be thousands of calls—or, more amazingly, for most of them to be from people who seemed to have previously known nothing about Treblinka or Babi Yar. The national catharsis surrounding that show, in fact, was sufficiently intense for people still to be talking about it five years later when I arrived in Heidelberg in 1984.

Germans have grappled with their own heritage for decades now. They seem to veer back and forth, sometimes embracing the horrific nature of their own nation’s war crimes and other times backing off from accepting what must for most be the almost unbearable burden of history. When Henryk M. Broder wrote in 1986 that the Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz, he was saying something profound about the amount of energy and steadfastness it takes for a nation to consider crimes on the scale of the Nazis’ war against the Jews without flinching or seeking the blame the victims. He made that comment in 1986, but the comment just last year of Alexander Gauland, co-leader of the extreme rightist party Alternative für Deutschland, that the Shoah was merely “a speck of bird poop on a trajectory of German history that has gone on for a thousand years,” he was essentially saying the same thing. Yes, he was speaking in a crass, vulgar way, but he was nonetheless giving voice to a deep wish of all Germans: that the nation of Kant, Goethe, Schiller, and Beethoven not solely be remembered for Sobibor. I imagine I’d feel the same way if I were in his boots! And yet…the bottom line is that having illustrious ancestors does not exonerate anybody of anything. And I have to assume that Alexander Gauland knows that as well.

Other nations that collaborated in the extermination of their Jewish neighbors have yet even to begin to come up to Germany’s level of self-analysis and acceptance. (And in that regard, I think not only of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, but also of nations like France and Holland, whose perception of themselves as victim-states has almost entirely rid them of the need to confront their own wartime perfidy with respect to their Jewish co-citizens.) For one thing, other than Germany and our own country, how many nations even have federal officials tasked with addressing anti-Semitism? And also worth noting is that, in the end, Felix Klein did backtrack and announced that he had merely been speaking in a monitory voice intended to awaken people to a serious problem, not actually suggesting that Jewish people should be afraid to identify in public as Jews.

The German blogosphere is busy debating the question of whether the “real” problem with anti-Semitism in Germany today has more to do with the resurgence of the German version of the alt-right or the deeply engrained hatred of Israel that festers in parts of Germany’s Muslim community. There are reasons to see it both ways, but the bottom line has to be that the Germans are trying to do the right thing, both by their current Jewish citizens and also by the generations whose ongoing existence was brutally terminated by the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of today’s Germans. As Simon Wiesenthal taught over and over, only the dead can forgive their murderers. Surely the living cannot speak for them. But we who are alive today can note that, despite the dark forces that continue to gather force in the various lands of our dispersion, there are also decent people in the world for whom anti-Semitism is anathema. We should hold that thought close to our breasts as we do what we can to combat the forces of hatred that seem to exist in an eternal cycle of dormancy and revivification. Sometimes fighting the battle is winning the war.

#Anti-Semitism #Germany #Felix Klein #Die Kippa

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mikeo56 · 5 years

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize“

– Voltaire

Why do I speak of “AngloZionists”? I got that question many times in the past, so I am making a separate post about it to (hopefully) explain this once and for all.

1) Anglo:

The USA in an Empire. With roughly 1000 overseas bases (depends on how you count), an undeniably messianic ideology, a bigger defense-offense budget then the rest of the planet combined, 16+ spy agencies, the dollar as the world’s currency, there is no doubt that the US is a planetary Empire.

Where did the US Empire come from? Again, that’s a no-brainer – from the British Empire. Furthermore, the US Empire is really based on a select group of nations: the Echelon countries, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and, of course, the US. What do these countries have in common? They are the leftovers of the British Empire and they are all English speaking. Notice that France, Germany or Japan are not part of this elite even though they are arguably as important or more to the USA then, say, New Zealand and far more powerful.

So the “Anglo” part is undeniable. And yet, even though “Anglo” is an ethnic/linguistic/cultural category while “Zionist” is a political/ideological one, very rarely do I get an objection about speaking of “Anglos” or the “Anglosphere”.

2) Zionist:

Let’s take the (hyper politically correct) Wikipedia definition of what the word “Zionism” means: it is “a nationalist movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the Land of Israel“. Apparently, no link to the US, the Ukraine or Timbuktu, right? But think again. Why would Jews – whether defined as a religion or an ethnicity – need a homeland anyway? Why can’t they just live wherever they are born, just like Buddhist (a religion) or the African Bushmen (ethnicity) who live in many different countries?

The canonical answer is that Jews have been persecuted everywhere and that therefore they need their own homeland to serve as a safe haven in case of persecutions. Without going into the issue of why Jews were persecuted everywhere and, apparently, in all times, this rationale clearly implies if not the inevitability of more persecutions or, at the very least, a high risk thereof. Let’s accept that for demonstration sake and see what this, in turn, implies.

First, that implies that Jews are inherently threatened by non-Jews who are all at least potential anti-Semites. The threat is so severe that a separate Gentile-free homeland must be created as the only, best and last way to protect Jews worldwide. This, in turn, implies that the continued existence of this homeland should become a vital and irreplaceable priority of all Jews worldwide lest a persecution suddenly breaks out and they have nowhere to go. Furthermore, until all Jews finally “move up” to Israel, they had better be very, very careful as all the goyim around them could literally come down with a sudden case of genocidal anti-Semitism at any moment. Hence all the anti-anti-Semitic organizations a la ADL or UEJF, the Betar clubs, the networks of sayanim, etc.

In other words, far from being a local “dealing with Israel only” phenomenon, Zionism is a worldwide movement whose aim is to protect Jews from the apparently incurable anti-Semitism of the rest of the planet.

As Israel Shahak correctly identified it, Zionism postulates that Jews should “think locally and act globally” and when given a choice of policies they should always ask THE crucial question: “But is it good for Jews?“.

So far from being only focused on Israel, Zionism is really a global, planetary, ideology which unequivocally splits up all of mankind into two groups (Jews and Gentiles). It assumes the latter are all potential genocidal maniacs (which is racist) and believes that saving Jewish lives is qualitatively different and more important than saving Gentile lives (which is racist again).

Anyone doubting the ferocity of this determination should either ask a Palestinian or study the holiday of Purim, or both. Even better, read Gilad Atzmon and look up his definition of what is brilliantly called “pre-traumatic stress disorder”

3) Anglo-Zionist:

The British Empire and the early USA used to be pretty much wall-to-wall Anglo. Sure, Jews had a strong influence (in banking for example), but Zionism was a non-issue not only among non-Jews, but also among US Jews. Besides, religious Jews were often very hostile to the notion of a secular Israel while secular Jews did not really care about this quasi-Biblical notion.

WWII gave a massive boost to the Zionist movement while, as Norman Finkelstein explained it, the topic of the “Holocaust” became central to Jewish discourse and identity only many years later. I won’t go into the history of the rise to power of Jews in the USA, but from roughly Ford to GW Bush’s Neocons it has been steady. And even though Obama initially pushed the Neocons out, they came right back in through the backdoor. Right now, the only question is whether US Jews have more power than US Anglos or the other way around.

Before going any further, let me also immediately say that I am not talking about Jews or Anglos as a group, but I am referring to the top 1% within each of these groups. Furthermore, I don’t believe that the top 1% of Jews cares any more about Israel or the 99% of Jews than the top 1% of Anglos care about the USA or the Anglo people.

So, here is my thesis:

The US Empire is run by a 1% (or less) elite which can be called the “deep state” which is composed of two main groups: Anglos and Jews. These two groups are in many ways hostile to each other (just like the SS and SA or Trotskysts and Stalinists), but they share 1) a racist outlook on the rest of mankind 2) a messianic ideology 3) a phenomenal propensity for violence 4) an obsession with money and greed and its power to corrupt. So they work together almost all the time.

Now this might seem basic, but so many people miss it, that I will have to explicitly state it:

To say that most US elites are Anglos or Jews does not mean that most Anglos or Jews are part of the US elites. That is a straw-man argument which deliberately ignores the noncommutative property of my thesis to turn it into a racist statement which accuses most/all Anglos or Jews of some evil doing. So to be very clear:

When I speak of AngloZionist Empire I am referring to the predominant ideology of the 1%ers, the elites which form the Empire’s “deep state”.

By the way, there are non-Jewish Zionists (Biden, in his own words) and there are plenty of anti-Zionist Jews. Likewise, there are non-Anglo imperialists and there are plenty of anti-imperialists Anglos. To speak of “Nazi Germany” or “Soviet Russia” does in no way imply that all Germans were Nazis or all Russians Communists. All this means it that the predominant ideology of these nations at that specific moment in time was National-Socialism and Marxism, that’s all.

My personal opinion now:

First, I don’t believe that Jews are a race or an ethnicity. I have always doubted it, but reading Shlomo Sand really convinced me. Jews are not defined by religion either (most/many are secular). Truly, Jews are a tribe (which Oxford Dictionaires defines as: a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader). A group one can chose to join (Elizabeth Taylor) or leave (Gilad Atzmon).

In other words, I see “Jewishness” as a culture, or ideology, or education or any other number of things, but not something rooted in biology. I fully agree with Atzmon when he says that Jews can be racist, but that does not make them a race.

Second, I don’t even believe that the concept of “race” has been properly defined and, hence, that it has any objective meaning. I, therefore, don’t differentiate between human beings on the basis of an undefined criterion.

Third, since being Jew (or not) is a choice: to belong, adhere and endorse a tribe (secular Jews) or a religion (Judaics). Any choice implies a judgment call and it, therefore, a legitimate target for scrutiny and criticism.

Fourth, I believe that Zionism, even when secular, instrumentalizes the values, ideas, myths and ethos of rabbinical Judaism (aka “Talmudism” or “Phariseeism”) and both are racist in their core value and assumptions.

Fifth, both Zionism and Nazism are twin brothers born from the same ugly womb: 19th-century European nationalism (Brecht was right, “The belly is still fertile from which the foul beast sprang”). Nazis and Zionists can hate each other to their hearts’ content, but they are still twins.

Sixth, I reject any and all form of racism as a denial of our common humanity, a denial of the freedom of choice of each human being and – being an Orthodox Christian – as a heresy (a form of iconoclasm, really). To me people who chose to identify themselves with, and as, Jews are not inherently different from any other human and they deserve no more and no fewer rights and protections than any other human being.

I will note here that while the vast majority of my readers are Anglos, they almost never complain about the “Anglo” part of my “AngloZionist” term. The vast majority of objections focus on the “Zionist” part. You might want to think long and hard about why this is so and what it tells us about the kind of power Zionists have over the prevailing ideology. Could it be linked to the reason why the (openly racist and truly genocidal) Israeli Prime Minister gets more standing ovations in Congress (29) than the US President (25)? Probably, but this is hardly the full story.

(This is the end of the 2014 blog entry. The current article begins below)

It is undeniable that Jews did suffer persecutions in the past and that the Nazis horribly persecuted Jews during WWII. This is important because nowadays we are all conditioned to associate and even identify any criticism of Jews or Zionist with the kind of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist rhetoric which the Nazis used to justify their atrocities. This is quite understandable, but it is also completely illogical because what this reaction is based on is the implicit assumption that any criticism of Jews or Zionist must be Nazi in its argumentation, motives, goals or methods. This is beyond ridiculous.

Saint John Chrysostom (349 – 407), the “Golden Mouth” of early Christianity, recognized as one of the greatest saints in history by both Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics, authored a series of homilies, Kata Ioudaiōn, which are extremely critical of Jews, yet no sane person would accuse him of being a Nazi. Chrysostom was hardly alone. Other great saints critical of Jews include Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Justin Martyr and many others.

But if these saints were not Nazis, maybe they still were racist, no? That, of course, depends on your definition of ‘racism’. Here is my own:

First, racism is, in my opinion, not so much the belief that various human groups are different from each other, say like dog breeds can be different, but the belief that the differences between human groups are larger than similarities within the group.

Second, racism is also a belief that the biological characteristics of your group somehow pre-determine your actions/choices/values in life.

Third, racism often, but not always, assumes a hierarchy amongst human groups (Germanic Aryans over Slavs or Jews, Jews over Gentiles, etc.)

I reject all three of these assumptions because I believe that God created all humans with the same purpose and that we are all “brothers in Adam”, that we all equally share the image (eternal and inherent potential for perfection) of God (as opposed to our likeness to Him, which is our temporary and changing individual condition).

By that definition, the Church Fathers were most definitely not racists as their critique was solely aimed at the religion of the Jews, not at their ethnicity (which is hardly surprising since Christ and His Apostles and most early Christians were all “ethnic” Jews). This begs the question of whether criticizing a religion is legitimate or not.

I submit that anything resulting from an individual choice is fair game for criticism. Even if somebody is “born into” a religious community, all adults come to the point in life where they make a conscious decision to endorse or reject the religion they were “born into”. Being a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew (in the sense of “Judaic”) is always a personal decision. The same applies to political views. One chooses to become a Marxist or a Monarchist or a Zionist. And since our individual decisions do, indeed, directly impact our other choices in life, it is not racist or objectionable to criticize Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Marxism, Monarchism or Zionism. Criticizing any one of them, or even all of them, in no way denies our common humanity which is something which racism always does.

Having said all that, none of the above addresses a most important, but rarely openly discussed, issue: what if, regardless of all the arguments above, using expressions such as “AngloZionism” offends some people (Jews or not), what if the use of this term alienates them so much that it would make them unwilling to listen to any argument or point of view using this expression?

This is a very different issue, not an ethical, moral or philosophical one – but a practical one: is it worth losing readers, supporters and even donors for the sake of using an expression which requires several pages of explanations in its defense? This issue is one every blogger, every website, every alternative news outlet has had to struggle with. I know that I got more angry mails over this than over any other form of crimethink I so often engage in.

I will readily admit that there is a cost involved in using the term “AngloZionist Empire”. But that cost needs to be compared to the cost of *not* using that term.

Is there anybody out there who seriously doubts the huge role the so-called “Israel Lobby” or the “Neocons” or, to use the expression of Professor James Petras, the “Zionist Power Configuration” plays in modern politics? Twenty years ago – maybe. But not today. We all are perfectly aware of the “elephant in the room”, courtesy not only of courageous folks like Gilad Atzmon, Israel Shahak or Norman Finkelstein but even such mainstream Anglo personalities as John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt or even Jimmy Carter.

It is plain silly to pretend that we don’t know when we all know that we all know.

Pretending that we don’t see this elephant in the room makes us look either subservient to that elephant, or simply like a coward who dares not speak truth to power. In other words, if you do want to shoot your credibility, pretend really hard that you are totally unaware of the elephant in the room: some of your sponsors might love you, but everybody else will despise you.

What about the very real risk of being perceived as some kind of Nazi?

Yes, the risk is there, but only if you allow yourself to flirt with racist or even para-racist notions. But if you are categorical in your rejection of any form of racism (including any form of anti-Jewish racism), then the accusation will simply not stick. Oh sure, the Zionists out there will try hard to make you look like a Nazi, but they will fail simply because they will have nothing to base that accusation on other than some vague “overtones” or “lack of sensitivity”. In my experience, people are not that stupid and they rapidly see through that worn-out accusation of “anti-Semitism” ( a meaningless concept to begin with, as Michael Neumann so brilliantly demonstrates in his essay “What is Antisemitism?”).

The truth is that the Zionists are only as powerful as we allow them to be. If we allow them to scare us into silence, then indeed their power is immense, but if we simply demand that they stop treating some humans as “more equal than others” then their own racism suddenly becomes obvious for all to see and their power vanishes.

It is really that simple: since nobody can accuse a real anti-racist of racism, then truly being an anti-racist gives you an immunity against the accusation of anti-Semitism.

So what we need, at this point, is to consider the terms used.

“Israel Lobby” suffers from several major issues. First, it implies that the folks in this lobby really care about Israel and the people of Israel. While some probably do, we also have overwhelming evidence (such as the testimony of Sibel Edmonds) that many/most folks in the “Israel Lobby” use the topic of Israel for their own, very different goals (usually power, often money). Have the people of Israel really benefited from from the Neocon-triggered wars? I doubt it.

Furthermore, when hearing the word “Israel Lobby” most people will think of a lobby in the US Congress, something like the NRA or the AARP. The problem we are dealing with today is clearly international. Bernard Henri Levi, George Soros or Mikhail Khodorkovsky have no connection to AIPAC or the US Congress. “Zionist Power Configuration” is better, but “configuration” is vague. What we are dealing with is clearly an empire. Besides, this is clearly not only a Zionist Empire, the Anglo component is at least as influential, so why only mention one and not both?

Still, I don’t think that we should get too caught up in semantics here. From my point of view, there are two truly essential issues which need to be addressed:

1) We need to start talking freely about the “elephant in the room” and stop fearing reprisals from those who want us to pretend we don’t see it.

2) We need to stop using politically correct euphemisms in the vain hope that those who want us to shut up will accept them. They won’t.

Currently, much of the discourse on Jewish or Zionist topics is severely restricted. Doubting the obligatory “6 million” murdered Jews during WWII can land in you jail in several European countries. Ditto if you express any doubts about the actual mode of executions (gas chambers vs firing squads and disease) of these Jews. “Revisionism”, as asking such questions is now known, is seen either as a crime or, at least, a moral abomination, even though “revisionism” is what all real historians do: historiography is revisionistic by its very nature. But even daring to mention such truisms immediately makes you a potential Nazi in the eyes of many/most people.

Since when is expressing a doubt an endorsement of an ideology? This is crazy, no?

I personally came to the conclusion that the West became an easy victim of such “conceptual hijackings” because of a sense of guilt about having let the Nazis murder so many European Jews without taking any meaningful action. It is a fact that it was the Soviet Union which carried 80% or more of the burden of destroying Hitler’s war machine: most Europeans resisted shamefully little. As for the Anglos, they waited until the Soviet victory before even entering the war in Europe.

Okay, fine – let those who feel guilty feel guilty (even if I personally don’t believe in collective guilt). But we cannot allow them to try to silence those of us who strongly feel that we are guilty of absolutely nothing!

Do we really have to kowtow to all Jews, including the top 1% of Jews who, like all 1%ers, do not care about the rest of the 99%? How long are we going to continue to allow the top 1% of Jews enjoy a bizarre form of political immunity because they hide behind the memory of Jews murdered during WWII or the political sensitivities of the 99% of Jews with whom they have no real connection anyway?

I strongly believe that all 1%ers are exactly the same: they care about themselves and nobody else. Their power, what I call the AngloZionist Empire, is based on two things: deception and violence. Their worldview is based on one of two forms of messianism: Anglo imperialism and Zionism (which is just a secularized version of Judaic racial exceptionalism). This has nothing to do with Nazism, WWII or anti-Semitism and everything with ruthless power politics. Unless we are willing to call a spade a spade we will never be able to meaningfully oppose this Empire or the 1%ers who run it.

In truth, since we owe them nothing except our categorical rejection and opposition. It is, I believe, our moral duty to shed a powerful light on their true nature and debunk the lies they try so hard to hide behind.

If their way is by deception, then ours ought to be by truth, because, as Christ said, the truth shall make us free.

Euphemisms only serve to further enslave us.

The Saker

#anglo-zionist

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eternalloveheart · 6 years

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Morality: God or man?

I started reading the book “What if the bible never existed” by Dr Kennedy. He explores the importance of the bible by its impact on the world. I am only a few chapters in so far just wanting to bring out my thoughts and the quotes I pulled that made me think. I am pretty much summarizing my take on the points of the first few chapters. I will be making more posts on this book with different points. I know this is a blog so I am not making this into some kind of academic essay just posting the aftermath of my reading.

God or man’s?

There are many reasons we cannot officially have a moral code without God. One main “reason you can’t have morality without religion is not that can’t draw up a common code of ethics. It is that without an external authority, most people will not follow it. Now, I will grant that the humanists have drawn up a code, and they have gotten some people to follow it” (Dr Kennedy, page 435).

Brute force

It seems one of the easiest successful ways to get people to conform to a set of moral rules is by religion. A main problem is being human we know that everyone is capable of just as much evil as us if not more with no true claim to some high ground. I have personally asked some atheists how one might go about ensuring morality with those who do not agree with them such as sociopaths who have no empathetic compass. I explained that religion has helped a sociopath namely David Wood turn from his murderous ways to live a life for God. I wait attentively for a response only to hear the atheist respond with the words “brute force”.

It is difficult to use of brute force as it often leads to tyranny and rebellions. I am taking a policing course where we overview policing history. History shows it only aggravates the people further when more force was involved such as military intervention. It went against the human desire for a decent amount of liberties and rights (which even a sociopath would desire). In the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, Vol. 55 by J. L Lyman from the Northwest university of Law there is a review of historical mistakes using force against one’s citizens. In the journal it mentions the way the law enforcement was so hated it was inefficient in stopping crime which in turn had crime running more rampant. The journal states that “by 1828 one person in every three hundred and eighty-three was a criminal” in London. The method of “brute force” had worsened the situation as it never got to the core of the problem.

Reasoning

I assume not everyone would have immediately jumped to “brute force”. I think some may have even thought of just reasoning with people. I mean someone has to be able to convince if not through force or empathy that one should dogmatically follow a moral code. I do not just mean sociopaths I include anyone with opposing views of morality. I have to concede everyone has their own views of morality whether right or wrong.

In recent times “the president of the Yale University in a meeting of university professor and educators. He said that we need a new renaissance of education and morality in American colleges. You would think he would have been applauded. But he was booed! They hissed. They asked ‘Whose morality, professor, are you going to impose upon them?” He couldn’t answer the question (Dr. Kennedy, page 482). His ideas might have been the most perfect ideas in the world. It did not matter because no matter how perfect his moral is the human heart is just so full of its own evil. It will not listen to reasoning because it does not care for reasoning based upon their own moral reasoning.

So what if he got a chance to speak would anyone have listened? No one cares what anyone or any group claims is moral. “Charles Darwin knew this. He said it was a horrid thought to realize that all of his speech may have no more significance or meaning than the babbling of a monkey. He said, ‘Would anyone trust the conviction of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?” (Dr. Kennedy, page 506).

It is a hard pill to swallow to admit only God is righteous enough, powerful enough, efficient enough, knowledgeable enough, loving enough and so on to sustain a moral code. God even offers this moral code yet again to those who have broken it with a renewing of his mercies.

Born in sin

So if God is so great why is not everyone just following Him? The heart being born in sin wants to refuse the law for himself and have the laws imposed on others. It is where hypocrisy and double standards arise. I mean having the mental capacity to measure fairness and justice while having fleshly overruling savagery sins.

“Huxley was the most prestigious evolutionary scientist in the world at the time. The interviewer asked him, “Why do you think that evolution caught on so quickly?” Huxley began, “We all jumped at The Origin [The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin] because . . .” Now if you ask a high school science class to finish that sentence, what do you think the students would say? They would say, “The reason we jumped at The Origin of Species was that the evidence amassed by Darwin was so intellectually compelling that scientific integrity required that we accept it as fact.” That is not what Huxley said. Rather, I heard him say, “[ I suppose the reason] we all jumped at The Origin [was] because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.” I almost fell out of my chair! What does that have to do with science? (Dr. Kennedy, page 692).

It seems like the same problem all over again with no one caring about absolute morality when they care too much for their own morality. This time it is different when we peak behind the veil. God makes a promise to those who seek Him diligently in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 36:26-28 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Change

Before we go any further we must consider historical ways people have tried to impose change in the human heart. I know not all have tried “brute” force or “reasoning”. I must admit some have tried changing the environment to help people flourish into their best selves with the hope of fostering perfect peaceful moral.

Many people have been convinced the heart can be changed apart from divine intervention with environmental remodeling. The communists thought they were going to create the “new communist man” without religion. Karl Marx the intellectual founder of communism found his ideas to be the key to solve the mankind’s predicament proclaiming this as the “true solution”. It is no wonder they prohibited ministers from preaching heaven when they had ushered it in prenatally. He thought man was pretty good inside just corrupted by his environmental structures. I have read some books on communism the dream does not pan out.

The communist plan instead of thriving the fruit of good people had made room for a greater evil as “Marxism did produce a new Communist man—a man so cruel that he could commit the most barbaric crimes against his fellow human beings without the slightest qualms of conscience. When we become aware of what took place in the ghastly labor camps, or gulags, we can understand the nature of the new Communist man, perhaps the cruelest man the world has ever seen” (Dr. Kenny, page 811).

“An example of Communist torture occurred just within the last few years. Two Christian women were being punished by the Chinese authorities for the “crime” of being a part of the unregistered house church movement. They were stripped naked, hung up by their thumbs with wires, and beaten unconscious with cattle prods. The system Marx helped create—based on a false paradigm, which was itself based on a false picture of man’s true nature—has probably caused more evil than any system known to man” (Dr. Kennedy, page 821).

In the West “we are told, the new man will be fashioned by psychology and psychiatry. Before you become too excited about that possibility, remember that of all of the professions in America, the highest level of suicide is found in psychiatrists. So if you are contemplating such an act, I don’t recommend that you go see one. He might decide to hold your hand and jump first” (Dr. Kennedy, page 854). I have run into some issues with psychologists lately as I have been told by numerous friends their psychologists think they are beyond help. I almost think that should be illegal to tell a patient because these vulnerable people will remember this every time they reach another low. I can see how a self-fulfilling prophesy could take into effect.

Testimonies

The bible has changed many lives for the better helping people turn a new leaf. It is because being born again is gives a person a new heart and spirit with new desires. God promises to give people a new heart so is there any evidence of this change?

The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead still has the power to change a person to this day. “No unbeliever could tell me why His words are as charged with power today as they were nineteen hundred years ago. Nor could scoffers explain how those pierced hands pulled human monsters with gnarled souls out of a hell of iniquity and overnight transformed them into steadfast, glorious heroes [of the cross]” (Dr. Kennedy, page 936).

Kwai

There is a movie called “The bridge over the River Kwai” based on the book called “Through the Valley of Kwai”. The author of the book had spoken to the chaplain man of Princeton University who had been part of British forces. He was the very man that had written “The bridge over the River of Kwai”. “He told [him], heartbrokenly, what Hollywood had done to the truth. Here is the real story of the bridge over the River Kwai. The captives had been reduced to savagery. They were starving. They were snapping for every crust of bread like animals. And then the British commander discovered in one of their backpacks a New Testament. He began to read it. As he read it, the wonder of the love of Christ began to fill his soul, and he surrendered his life to the Savior and called on Him for His grace and help. He was transformed. He began to read that New Testament to his men each day. One after another became transformed until virtually the entire camp was transformed by the gospel of Christ. These animal-like men began to save their crusts of bread to give to those who were weaker and sicker than they were” (Dr Kennedy, page 897).

Joad

It is often easy to believe mankind is mostly good when one is living safely in a first world country founded on Christian foundations (which is further elaborated in later chapters). “C. E. M. Joad was one of the great philosophers of England in this century. He was a brilliant intellect and a militant unbeliever. [...] Earlier he had thought that man was basically good and that, given the right conditions, we could create heaven on earth. But two devastating world wars and the threat of another one brought home to him the reality that man is sinful. The only solution to man’s sin, concluded this former skeptic, is the cross of Jesus Christ” (Dr. Kennedy, page 957).

David wood

youtube

Note: the pages may not be exact though they are within the range of the found text. It is harder to tell on the kindle app if it is the exact page number.

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techcrunchappcom · 3 years

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/the-latest-cdc-estimates-only-1-8th-of-infections-caught-world-news/

The Latest: CDC estimates only 1/8th of infections caught | World News

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — NEW YORK — A new government report says the U.S. is still missing nearly eight coronavirus infections for every one counted.

By the end of September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculates that as many as 53 million Americans had been infected. That is just under eight times the confirmed cases reported at the time.

Previously, the CDC estimated that one of every 10 infections were being missed.

The latest CDC calculation is meant to give a more accurate picture of how many people actually have caught the virus since the pandemic began. Of the 53 million estimated infections, the CDC says about 45 million were sick at some point and about 2.4 million were hospitalized.

———

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— EXPLAINER: China’s claims of coronavirus on frozen foods

— Restaurant employees out of work again as coronavirus surges anew

— A migrant’s odyssey from boat to COVID-19 nursing job in Spain

— Christmas traditions axed as pandemic sweeps rural Kansas

— Germany set to extend partial shutdown well into December

———

Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

———

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

Oregon’s governors says bars and restaurants can reopen for limited outdoor service next week but many restrictions will remain in place until a vaccine against the coronavirus is widely available.

In making the announcement Wednesday, Gov. Kate Brown urged Oregonians to stay safe during the Thanksgiving holiday and protect others by not ignoring safety protocols, like wearing masks and limiting personal contacts.

The revamped pandemic restrictions take effect when the current two-week “freeze” expires Dec. 3. Currently, only take-out restaurant service is allowed. The restaurant industry pushed hard against the restrictions as several eateries closed for good and others were at risk of doing so.

———

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says he has tested positive for the coronavirus, but has only minor symptoms.

Gordon said Wednesday that he plans to continue working remotely.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people who test positive for the virus isolate themselves for 10 days.

Gordon said on Nov. 13 that Wyoming residents need to be more responsible about preventing the spread of the coronavirus. In his words, “We’ve relied on people to be responsible, and they’re being irresponsible,” Gordon joins nearly 26,700 Wyoming residents who have tested positive.

———

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Health announced Wednesday that public schools will be allowed to offer in-school quarantines for students exposed to the virus.

Schools in Mustang became the first in the state to adopt the policy, the department said.

Effective from Nov. 30 through Dec. 23, the policy would allow students to quarantine in school.

Interim State Epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor said students who tested positive for COVID-19 and students who had interactions with the infected student would have previously moved to distance learning for 14 days.

Under the new policy, students who are quarantined will be allowed to go to school to take part in virtual classes, but will be kept out of individual classrooms in buildings such as gyms or an auditorium where they would be socially distanced and must wear masks.

———

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Officials in Santa Clara County said they will ramp up enforcement of state health orders during the holiday weekend to make sure businesses follow the permitted capacity, employees and customers wear masks at all times and social distance guidelines are being followed.

With Thanksgiving week kicking off the holiday shopping season, compliance officers will fan out throughout the Silicon Valley county starting Thursday and at least through Sunday with the help of firefighters who normally enforce capacity issues for fire codes. They will be able to issue fines on the spot starting at $250.

Until now, most California counties have taken an education approach, issuing warnings instead of fines.

But the county recorded its highest individual new case count for a day and has only 68 available ICU beds, testing officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib said Wednesday, surpassing any levels hit during the peak of the summer surge.

“We are really, really concerned,” Fenstersheib said. “All of the metrics that we have been following, that have done well in previous months, are now going up very steeply.”

———

SALT LAKE CITY — Physicians in Utah are warning that Thanksgiving could become a major super spreader event for COVID-19 transmission if people don’t follow public health guidelines.

An increased number of hospitalizations across the state has prompted doctors and public health officials to advise against attending Thanksgiving gatherings with people outside their immediate households.

On Wednesday, an infectious disease specialist said COVID-19 cases could further overwhelm a strained healthcare system if people do not follow this guidance. His pleas comes just days after Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said he would not extend his previous order requiring people to limit social gatherings to people in their home.

In Utah, 1 in 136 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 over the past week and the state is ranked tenth in the country for new cases per capita, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

There have been over 182,000 reported virus cases in Utah and more than 800 known deaths related to the virus, according to state data.

———

HELENA, Mont. — Montana schools will receive nearly $13 million in additional coronavirus relief funds before Dec. 30.

Gov. Steve Bullock announced Wednesday that more than 180 schools across the state were approved for additional funding after they submitted requests in October.

The new funding includes about $5.7 million in unspent funding from the $75 million allocated to K-12 schools in July.

Bullock called on Congress to pass additional relief for the coming calendar year. State health officials reported over 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday. That brings the total number of Montana confirmed cases since the pandemic began to more than 58,000.

———

ANKARA, Turkey — The number of daily COVID-19 infections in Turkey has jumped to above 28,000 after, in a surprise development, the government resumed publishing all positive cases and not just the number of patients being treated for symptoms of the coronavirus.

The government was accused of hiding the full extent of the virus spread in Turkey, after it was revealed that the number of asymptomatic cases were not being included in data published since July 29. The Health Ministry was under pressure to resume publishing the total number of cases.

In a news conference Wednesday following a weekly scientific advisory council meeting, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced 28,351 new infections in the past 24 hours, emphasizing that the data represented “all people whose PCR tests are positive whether they display symptoms or not.”

Koca on Wednesday, also announced 168 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours. Turkey had previously been reporting around 6,000 daily new patients

The total number of cases since the outbreak started now stands at 467,730, with 12,840 fatalities.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a Turkish-developed vaccine against COVID-19 could be ready for use by April.

The vaccine, ERUCOV-VAC, is being developed by Erciyes University, in the central Turkish province of Kayseri, and is currently undergoing phase 1 of testing.

———

NEWARK, N.J. — In New Jersey’s largest city, officials are urging residents to shelter in place for the next 10 days to quell a resurgence of the new coronavirus.

The test positivity rate has soared to around 40% in Newark’s Ironbound, the epicenter of the city’s nightlife and the heart of the Spanish and Portuguese community. That has prompted Mayor Ras Baraka to impose a curfew and use police checkpoints to restrict access to residents and those conducting essential business.

Citywide, where the positivity rate is around 20 percent, double the statewide rate, non-essential businesses are being asked to close at 8 p.m.

———

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles has begun to require travelers arriving to by airplane or train to sign a form acknowledging California’s recommended two-week self-quarantine in response to surging coronavirus cases.

Anyone over the age of 16 coming from another state or country must submit the form online before or upon arriving at Los Angeles International Airport, Van Nuys Airport or Union Station.

City officials said those who don’t submit the form may face a fine of up to $500.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the requirement on Monday as he warned the virus was “threatening to spiral out of control” in Los Angeles.

———

PORTLAND, Ore. – A federal judge has declined to bar or alter Gov. Kate Brown’s two-week freeze that prohibits indoor and outdoor dining at restaurants and bars in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut on Tuesday denied a temporary restraining order sought by the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association and Restaurant Law Center.

Immergut issued her ruling after hearing nearly an hour of argument. It marked the latest rejection by a judge in Oregon of a challenge to the governor’s coronavirus restrictions.

———

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister has ruled out imposing another virus lockdown, despite a steady increase in fatalities from COVID-19. Imran Khan says his government doesn’t want people to die because of hunger while trying to save them from the pandemic.

Khan spoke to journalists Wednesday in the eastern city of Lahore hours after authorities reported one of the highest COVID-19 death tallies in a 24-hour period yet at 59, and over 3,000 new cases.

Pakistan is experiencing a second wave of the virus and hospitals are being flooded with patients.

Khan urged people to strictly adhere to social distancing rules and said wearing face masks is the easiest way to contain the spread of the virus.

Khan said he did not want to shut down factories, shops and shopping malls as it could affect country’s economy.

Pakistan has recorded 382,892 confirmed cases, including 7,803 deaths, since February when the country reported its first case.

Pakistan imposed a nationwide lockdown in March but eased restrictions in May.

———

ROME — Italy registered a slightly higher new daily caseload of coronavirus infections, but significantly more swab tests were conducted compared to the previous day. That’s according to Health Ministry figures released Wednesday.

With the addition of 25,853 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, Italy’s known total in the pandemic rose to 1.480,874. The number of persons hospitalized with symptoms in regular care beds declined by 264 since Tuesday, but the number of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients rose by 32 on Monday.

In the same 24-hour period, 722 deaths were registered, bringing to 52,028 the number of known dead in the pandemic.

Later this week, the government must decide whether to extend nationwide restrictions, including an overnight curfew, as well as determine which regions should stay “red zones” due to worrisome factors like high rates of contagion and pressure on local hospital systems.

The “Red zone” designation means only essential shops, like food stores and pharmacies, can open, while restaurants and cafes can only do take-out or delivery service, and residents can’t leave their towns, except for reasons like work or medical care.

Businesses are pressing the government to lift or ease restrictions to salvage the upcoming holiday shopping and travel season.

———

HONOLULU — A Honolulu city councilman has called on the city’s police chief to reinstate its coronavirus enforcement unit. The unit was suspended after allegations that officers abused overtime hour submissions.

Councilman and Legal Affairs Committee chair Ron Menor proposed this week that Police Chief Susan Ballard should only ban officers currently under investigation for wrongdoing. He says that the rest of the officers should continue to enforce coronavirus restrictions around the city, especially with the upcoming holiday season fast approaching.

The job of ensuring that Honolulu’s residents and tourists are following coronavirus guidelines is now conducted by on-duty patrol officers. They take assignments based on their availability.

———

LIHUE, Hawaii — The first coronavirus death on the island of Kauai has been reported.

Mayor Derek Kawakami announced in a statement this week that an elderly resident of the island with no travel history had died from the coronavirus, which has killed 232 others in Hawaii.

The Garden Island reports that a Kauai resident died in Arizona earlier this year.

The island reported four newly confirmed virus cases Monday, including one adult resident and three adult visitors. Kauai currently has 117 confirmed virus cases since the pandemic began. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested.

#caught #estimates #infections #latest #World

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cryptodictation · 4 years

Text

ATO calls for “expand force coverage”

Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman of the Board Gürsel Baran said, “One of the sectors related to each other is within the scope of force majeure and the absence of the other leaves our traders in a difficult situation for the same reason. Our members are waiting for the scope of force majeure to be expanded. ” indicating that the whole world under the influence of the field managed successfully in Turkey in the process of fighting the virus to new types of chorus ATO President Baran, especially Tayyip Erdogan Prime Minister Recep congratulated everybody who contributed to this success. All over the world simultaneously fought the outbreak of the global scale of the economic consequences will register Baran breed, Turkey's process with the least damage to dodge order, trade, 213 in all sectors in order to maintain production and employment of Tax Procedure Law has expressed the need to faydalandırıl the force majeure provisions.

“Commercial life is the whole that is inseparable”

Pointing out that the government took fast and effective steps within the scope of the measures taken in the fight against coronavirus, Baran stated that the sectors that are thought to be most affected by the epidemic were included in the scope of force majeure, but all sectors affected each other due to the nature of the commercial life. Baran said, “The whole life, all sectors that affect commercial life, affect each other. Sectors that were not expected to be affected at first were also exposed to the negativities of the process. While one of the two enterprises side by side is evaluated within the scope of force majeure, the company next to it has great difficulties in business volume, employment and other issues. ”

Stating that the individual businesses and capital companies doing the same job are exposed to different practices, Baran said, “Our members state that this practice, which was initiated in order for our real sector to circumvent the process easily, discriminates and undermines the principle of tax justice.”

Reminding that NACE codes are taken into consideration in the application of 'force majeure', Baran noted that companies that added different sector activities next to the main activity subject were lost due to the activity code. Pointing out that the sectors that are the locomotives of each other in the supply chain are also evaluated separately, Baran said:

“At the same time, we are struggling not to spread viruses and trying to keep our economy alive at the same time. Our government launched the 'force majeure' application with a very appropriate decision. However, the fact that the application is limited to certain sectors adversely affects the commercial life, which includes unlimited competition. For example, businesses such as retail trade, restaurants, cafes are included in the scope of force majeure, while suppliers who serve these sectors and are affected by the process at the same rate are excluded from the application. While the sectors whose activities were interrupted for a while with the circular of the Ministry of Interior were included in the scope of force majeure, the educational institutions whose activities were interrupted by the Ministry of National Education were not evaluated within the same framework. For example, driving courses, which do not have the opportunity to do distance learning, and create employment for approximately 353 thousand people with their trainers and other personnel, are also experiencing hard times. “

Baran continued his words as follows:

“While our members, who are in contact and consultation 24/7, clearly reveal the table in the field, they demand support in removing small obstacles to the success of the process. At the end of this process, in order for the wheels of the real sector to function as before, no loss of work, vaccination, and employment, the precautions taken today must be fully and fully evaluated and the scope of force majeure must be expanded. ”

PHOTO 20

Because of the coronavirus outbreaks all over the world with fast acting and especially in our country needed masks and protective materials Turkey's leading brand for open field began production in its factories.

Some companies started to produce masks according to the suitability of the production facilities, while some companies took action for the most needed respirators.

The manufactured masks and respirators are donated to many health institutions, especially the Ministry of Health.

Ready-made clothing workers who closed their factories because of the coronavirus epidemic rolled up their sleeves for healthcare workers. Approximately 15 companies producing for both domestic and foreign companies have joined forces to produce 1 million masks per day.

Many groups including companies such as Özak, Taha and Talu Tekstil, Colin's, Paşahan, Aydın Tekstil, TYH, Aycem, UTS will carry out the mask production required by the Ministry of Health within the framework of health standards and by ensuring the necessary hygiene conditions.

Turkey's new type of koronavirüsl (Covidien-19) to press the button to make contributions to the struggle of Ford Otosan, which forms the cornerstone of the fight against Corona virus outbreak health workers designed a face mask.

The face mask, which is taken from an open source but whose design has been improved by Ford Otosan R&D Department, will be produced by cutting the front glass from specially developed PET or PETG material, while protecting the entire face at a 150 degree angle.

My desire, at the forefront in the fight against the pandemic Kovid-19 experienced on a global scale, which takes all day and night and began clapping to the face shield mask for Turkey's production deserves health care workers.

In cooperation with Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters Association (OIB) and Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Arı Teknokent, it will produce plexiglass-protective shield mask for healthcare workers within the scope of combating the new type of coronavirus (Kovid-19) outbreak.

President of Turkey Exporters Assembly (TIM) Ismail Shot, coronavirus announced measures covered by a mask and they have started production from desenfek mobilization.

Gülle said that we have worked for our export until today, after that we will work for our health. Gülle announced that they will produce 1 million masks per day for healthcare workers.

Alpaslan Baki Ertekin, CEO of Erciyes Anadolu Holding, announced that they produced masks and presented them to the Ministry of Health as Erciyes Anadolu Holding in order to prevent coronavirus (Covid-19) disease.

Özyeğin University, founded by the FİBA Group, supports the fight against the corona epidemic with 3D printers.

In the Openfab Makerlab at the university, shielded masks produced with 3D printers are delivered to health institutions in need.

Ecoplas of Turkey's leading companies supplying the automotive industry, Coronavirus (Covidien-19) went to the production of critical importance for the mask visor struggling with an outbreak of health care workers.

The company, which manufactures parts for the world's leading automotive manufacturers, and this time uses all its knowledge and technical skills for healthcare workers, has produced 42,000 visor masks to be delivered to 200 state hospitals and health institutions serving 81 provinces.

Nef Foundation aimed to produce 500 thousand protection visors, 10 thousand intubation and sampling cabinets, 2 thousand disinfection stations and 100 thousand antibacterial overalls, and started to deliver more than 340 thousand materials to health institutions.

Cem Hakko, chairman of the board of directors of Vakko Holding, handed over the 'Vakko Production Center' to the Ministry of Health to be allocated for mask production.

The first prototype of the breathing apparatus developed by BioSys was designed and tested in cooperation with Aselsan and Baykar. The device developed in Arçelik Garage is now ready for mass production.

Uğur Cooling, which started a mobilization against the corona virus (Covid-19) epidemic, started respiratory equipment production after a mask production with a company that produces products for the health sector.

They closed their factories and started to produce masks and respirators

koronavirüsl to new types of Turkey (Covidien-19) masks a large number of partially halting factory production to contribute to the fight and was rolled up their sleeves to produce a breathing apparatus.

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#Economy

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rethinkingthefaith · 4 years

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The Multiple Pastor Model

Everywhere, the belief persists that the local church is to be presided over by one leader who has been "called to the ministry." He is to be the principle teacher and preacher. The care of the church is primarily his concern. He counsels, presides over board meetings, visits the sick, marries the young, buries the dead.

His name is often in the bulletin and on the sign in front of the church building, as if it is somehow his church. When the spiritual vitality of a church wanes, he is often blamed and summarily fired.

Unlike the deacons or elders, the pastor is almost always imported from outside the church. Churches, in fact, "shop" for a pastor when they are without one. These clergymen are usually formally educated in theology. Often they are "licensed" or "ordained" by a denomination.

Many modern authors on church growth tout the need for a strong one-man pastorate. Such sentiments as those expressed by C. Peter Wagner are fairly common within churches today:

"The local church is like a company with one company commander, the pastor, who gets his orders from the Commander-in-Chief [Jesus]. The company commander has lieutenants and sergeants under him for consultation and implementation, but the final responsibility of his decisions is that of the company commander, and he must answer to the Commander-in-Chief....the pastor has the power in a growing church."1

But where is any of this reflected in the New Testament? If "the pastor has the power in a growing church," why don't Paul or John or Peter ever say so? Does this common perception of the pastor exist on the pages of Scripture?

Leaders in the Church

Amazing as it may sound, the New Testament does not authorize a single leader to be responsible for oversight of the church. On the contrary, the notion is flatly contradicted several times by the New Testament authors.

From earliest times, the church was governed by a body of men, not a single leader. Paul made this clear when he wrote to the Philippians: "To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons" (Phil. 1:1, NIV).

Note that there was a plurality of bishops in the Philippian church, not one man. In his writing to that congregation, Paul never once addresses "the pastor," nor does he in any of his epistles.

Elders, Bishops, Pastors

The bishops are entrusted with the spiritual oversight of the flock. The Greek word episkopos literally means "overseer," and is translated that way in some versions of Scripture.

These leaders, whose qualifications are spelled out in the pastoral epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), are to be mature. For this reason, they are also called "elders." The words "bishop" and "elder" are interchangeable in the New Testament. This is obvious in Paul's letter to Titus: "This is why I left you in Crete, that you might...appoint elders in every town as I directed you, if any man is blameless...for a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless (Tit. 1:5-7, KVJ).

An elder, then, is a bishop and a bishop is an elder. There is no distinction between the two. The words give only different emphases. "Elder" (presbuteros) denotes maturity and "bishop," oversight. However, they refer to the same leaders, which are plural in number (see Acts 14:23; 20:17; Tit. 1:5; Jas. 5:14).

What about the pastor? Where is he in all of this? After all, didn't God give "some pastors and teachers" (Eph. 4:11, KVJ)? Yes, He did. But this refers to the same body of leaders elsewhere called "bishops" and "elders," not a single leader.

The word "pastor" (singular) is absent from most translations of the New Testament. The plural form "pastors" occurs only once, in Ephesians 4:11. It is a translation of the Greek word poimen. Poimen is translated "shepherd" or "shepherds" 16 times in the King James Version. The verb form poimaino also occurs in the New Testament. It means to "shepherd" or "pastor" a flock.

But poimen (pastor), presbuteros (elder) and episkopos (bishop/overseer) all refer to the same function. It is unbiblical to speak of the pastor, on one hand, and the elders, on the other, as if they were somehow different. The Scripture makes no distinction whatsoever between the two.

This is fairly easy to demonstrate in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 5, for example, all three words - in either noun or verb form - are applied to the same group of leaders. The apostle writes to the church leadership: "The elders (presbuterous) which are among you I exhort...feed (poimanate, "shepherd," "pastor") the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight (episkopountes)" (1 Pet. 5:1,2).

Peter expected the body of elders to pastor the flock and oversee it. Can there be any doubt, then, that the modern idea of distinguishing between elders, bishops, and pastors is wrong? Paul conveyed the same idea while giving his farewell address to the elders (plural) of the Ephesian church in Acts 20: Paul "sent to Ephesus and called to the elders (presbuterous) of the church. And when they were come to him, he said...take heed...unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers (episkopous), to feed (poimainein, "shepherd," "pastor") the church of God" (Acts 20:17,28).

Again, Paul makes no distinction between elders, bishops, and pastors. These are different terms for the same function. And so, the idea of each church having one man who is "the pastor" who is separate from the body of elders is a tradition without Scriptural support.

Having said this, there is actually one example of a single leader ruling the church as "company commander." His name was Diotrephes. John wrote of this man in 3 John 9,10. Here is a leader with far too much power in the church. He personally put people out of the congregation and refused to welcome the brethren. He did so without God's authority.

So the lone example of a "one-man pastor" in the Scripture is held up as a bad example. He is exposed as one "who likes to put himself first" (v. 9). That is not to say that all pastors are like Diotrephes. Far from it. Many are humble, virtuous men. T he point is that the New Testament never mentions one man as the church's overseer, except for one negative instance. Despite this, it has become the dominant pattern of leadership in churches - even those which ostensibly profess themsleves "Bible-believing."

The Lone Leader

There is a great deal of harm in the doctrine of the "one-man pastor." To begin with, it gives too much power to one person. Authority in the church was meant to be shared among several leaders. This provides a kind of check and balance against a powerful leader "lording over God's heritage" (1 Pet. 5:3, KJV). Most Christians have heard horror stories about one minister ruling a church with an iron rod. Even if the members oppose what he's doing, they are impotent because of their subordinate "layman" status.

When authority in the church is shared, there is less of a chance of a dictatorial rule. The other elders can step in and prevent one leader from overstepping his authority.

On the other hand, the "one-man pastorate" gives a single leader too much responsibility. God has granted a diversity of spiritual gifts to the church, but no individual has all of them. It is unreasonable to expect one man to excel in preaching, teaching, counseling, exhortation, helps, mercy, administration, wisdom, and knowledge. That is what the "one-man pastorate" calls for - an unrealistic, superhuman Christian.

True, many pastors have done good work in the churches. But the mutual ministry of "one another" mentioned often in the New Testament fails to flourish when traditional pastoral leadership is at the helm. Ministry is suddenly "his responsibility." That's why he's paid. It's his vocation. The "layman," accordingly, is not given much responsibility for ministry in most churches. Few "laymen" preach from the pulpit or officiate at funerals or visit the members - that is the particular province of the professional clergyman in many churches.

I believe that many churches, if they took seriously the ministry of the elders and the "one another" responsibility of the saints, could function very well without a paid minister. Many smaller churches might be relieved of an oppressive financial burden if they followed a New Testament pattern of leadership. People would also discover and use their gifts of ministry.

The tendency of the one-man pastor, however, is to stifle such activity, even when the pastor himself encourages it. It is nearly impossible to get the saints to assume responsibility for the church when one man is "the minister" and everyone else, "lay persons." The system creates a hard-and-fast distinction, sometimes unspoken, between "the minister" and "the ministered unto." Most church members, I believe, would place themselves in the latter group - truly a spiritual tragedy.

The Bible presents church leaders as those who equip the saints for ministry (Eph. 4:12), not as those who do it all themselves. An author from the 19th century notes:

"The apostle plainly tells us, that 'if they were all one member there would be no body,' and who is there that does not see in these words a condemnation of the clerical system, which presents the body in the form of one member only - the minister, the ordained, official, and salaried minister, who, whether he be appointed to his office by a prelate or a popular election, supersedes all spiritual gifts in the church? In such a system as that, the saints are reduced to silence, the body is dead, all the members are inanimate, the 'honorable' or 'feeble are alike useless, and one individual is eye, mouth, ear, hand and foot." 2

The tendency of one pastor undertaking the bulk of church ministry cannot help but contribute to, or even cause, the "burnout" so common among the clergy. God never intended one person to shoulder so large a burden. When a pastor attempts it, the result is often exhaustion, depression, emotional distress, divorce - sometimes even a lapse into immorality.

The idea of importing pastors from outside the church is also without biblical precedent. The qualifications of an elder (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-9) suggests that candidates have been observed for some time by a local church. How can a church know if a potential bishop is above reproach or has obedient children (Tit. 1:6) unless he has been in the church for awhile? This seems to suggest that overseers were "home-grown" leaders.

May the church of Jesus Christ put leadership back where it belongs, in the hands of those mature Christians (plural) who are "temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach" (1 Tim. 3:2, NIV). It is time for us to move forward, with our elders out in front.

Notes

1 C. Peter Wagner, Your Church Can Grow (Ventura, CA: Royal), 1984, p. 65.

2 Campaginator, Priesthood and Clergy Unknown to Christianity; or, the Church a Community of Co-Equal Brethren (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.), 1857, p. 47.

#pastors #elders #bishops #clergy

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coolblog2stuff-blog · 5 years

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What is CPU for Miss Coggins?

By Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

Coggins’ commitment to the Lord has raised many Filipino Christian young leaders.

May Angeline Coggins was the Chairperson of the Faculty Council of Central Philippine College during the years 1946-1947. The Faculty Council was created as an emergency measure, in the absence of a College President, to manage and operate Central Philippine College as an administrative-executive body. This Faculty Council later ceased to function when Prof. J. Morris Forbes arrived to serve as the President of Central Philippine College.

Miss Coggins, as she was fondly called, was also the Dean of the BMTS or Baptist Missionary Training School—a Bible school for Women. This was later merged with the College of Theology. Miss Coggins later on became the Dean of the College of Theology in 1951. She was described as someone who heroically helped pick up the broken pieces of a war-destroyed college and did the job with courage and determination. She was respected by the faculty for her fairness and tact, loved by the students for her deep personal influence.

On July 4, 1946, Miss Coggins represented the United States of America during a memorable ceremony in Iloilo. On that day (the Independence Day of the Philippines at that time), she lowered the American Flag from its position at the top of the pole and watched with joy as the flag of the free and independent Republic took its place.

She was theologically trained with two master’s degrees—Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School and Master of Theology from Gordon College, School of Theology.

In 1947, Central Philippine College had been in operation for two years after World War II. The destroyed campus had by then been rebuilt with the Normal College (the old term for the College of Education), the College of Engineering, and the College of Commerce already running. Ms. Coggins gave a vivid illustration of what life at Central after the ravages of war by likening it to climbing to the mountaintop.

In her message to the graduates of 1947 entitled “Fulfill our dreams and His purposes,” she wrote, “To one who looks at Central Philippine College from the angle of its place in the life of our new Republic, a school year can be compared to the climbing of a high mountain. The ascent has its trials and its joys. There are times when the “going is hard,” when each new step requires more strength than one seems to have and the tendency is to wonder whether the goal is worth the effort. There are resting places from which the vistas are inspiring and the air is exhilarating. But only when one reaches the top is one in a position to judge the true worth of the climb.”

Miss Coggins put forward a challenge that we must not stop climbing even when reach the mountain top. Instead, we must look for other mountains to climb: “But from the mountain top, one does not only look back upon the path up which one has trod. One looks ahead, across the valleys to higher, more glorious peaks and vistas. We, whose hearts and lives are closely bound to Central, look ahead to greater accomplishments, finer buildings and equipment, a stronger and more adequate leadership, and a larger place in God’s purposes for our Philippines. No one person can bring to fruition these dreams. The Alumni, the present student body, the professors and teachers, the Trustees and our friends are needed. As we all join hands and together reach up to grip the strong hand of our God, we shall fulfil our dreams and His purposes.”

In another message, Miss Coggins compared CPC to a sharp instrument of the Surgeon, Jesus Christ: “If a surgeon is to operate successfully and remove the malignant part and restore health and vigor, an instrument is an essential. And a keen, sharp instrument does the work much better than a poor, dull one. Yet neither instrument is of any value for good apart from its yieldness to the hand of the surgeon. CPC was established upon that conviction. A youth trained to think clearly, independently, and honestly, and yielded to the Master is of infinitely more value than the youth who is not trained or spiritually equipped. However, training without glad commitment to Him who have to youth his life, his mind, his ability to think and love and choose is like a Stradivarius violin without the master violinist—nay, it is like a sharpened weapon in the hands of a criminal.”

Miss Coggins was confident of the future of Central Philippine College. Looking at Central Philippine University now since 1905, her words have been proven true: “The hopes for the future of Central Philippine College are as the promises of God. The school began as a dream, a God-inspired dream, in the hearts of American friends who believed that their gifts invested in the name of Christ, for the Christian education of Filipino youth would bring rich returns to the Philippine nation and to God.”

Later in 1965, Central Philippine University conferred to Miss Coggins, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. On April 26, 1975, on her 77th birthday, the Bacolod City Council passed a resolution making her “Adopted Daughter” of Bacolod City, Philippines. She worked as matron, providing spiritual and physical care to countless boys and girls from 1924-1940 in the Boys & Girls Dormitories, Provincial High School, Bacolod City. She was called the affectionate name “Manang May” by the many people that she ministered upon.

May the missionary spirit of Miss Coggins remind us of what it means to do mission: “It is my conviction that God has a special place of service for the Philippines in His plan for His world. I am most happy to have a small part in helping fulfill his purpose in and through our Islands here.”

(References: Centralite 1946, 1947; Central Echo April 1946)

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englishchinesetranslations · 3 years

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Who are the baddies these days? Globalisation has been tricky for Hollywood action screenwriters, whose stories need a source of villains that it’s culturally legitimate to hate. In earlier, more nationalistic eras, this role was fulfilled by either Nazis or Russians. But since the end of the Cold War, it’s been increasingly difficult to find an Other to serve as big screen bad guys without insulting potential customers somewhere.

Two recent Chinese films, Wolf Warrior (2015) and Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) suggest that the Chinese movie industry has no such squeamishness about Official Foreign Villains. With the poster tagline “Anyone who offends China, no matter how remote, must be exterminated”, the films depict a muscular Chinese military hero seeing off drug lords and their American mercenaries, bringing life-saving vaccines to Africa and generally showing off superior Chinese technology, competence and morality. In contrast, America is degenerate, weak — or simply absent. As one character says: “Why are you calling the Americans? Where are they? It is a waste of time.”

SUGGESTED READING

Is China trolling the West?

BY IAN BIRRELL

Discussions of ‘national populism’ in the UK have tended to focus either on the USA, or on European phenomena such as the Rassemblement National in France, the Brexit vote, or the Orbàn regime in Hungary. We hear lots of parallels anxiously drawn with the 1930s. But a variant of the national-populist political settlement has been the norm in China for decades, and enjoys widespread popular support.

Not long ago, most in the West paid little attention to China except as a source of manufactured goods, or possibly of economic competition. The prospect of ideological competition seemed remote. But the Chinese Communist Party has made economic nationalism a central part of its domestic strategy of legitimation since the days of Chairman Mao. When Deng Xiaoping crushed pro-democracy protests in 1979, he dismissed agitators for political changes as lackeys of hostile foreign power.

Until recently, China’s highly nationalistic domestic debate has not been widely remarked-on in the West, the way identitarian nationalist politics might be in – say – Austria. The Western consensus at the turn of the century was that WTO accession would result in moves toward liberal democracy, interdependence and mutual understanding. More recent popular discussion has focused on China’s growing economic heft as a matter for international concern, while her internal political discourse seemed only of interest to scholars and political wonks.

But in recent months, official Chinese mouthpieces have embarked on a change of tack in communications terms that has become known as ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy. This new approach looks less like the soft-spoken approach typically understood as ‘diplomatic’ than a kind of geopolitical trolling. Often conducted in English, via social media, it involves highly-placed Chinese officials posting provocative challenges to the global liberal order, and particularly to American foreign policy.

SUGGESTED READING

Is China trolling the West?

BY MAAJID NAWAZ

Geopolitical commentator Peter Zeihan argues that the new direction aims to whip up a global backlash against China, in order to head off dawning domestic unrest. The Chinese Communist Party’s contract with those it governs has been straightforward: absolute control in return for stratospheric growth and ever-increasing prosperity. But as the global economy teeters on the brink of the most brutal recession in a century, China’s — predicated on bottomless lending to state-backed enterprises in order to drive ever-increasing shipments of consumer products to other countries — may face trouble.

If double-digit Chinese growth ends, so does the current Chinese social contract. Fomenting mass domestic anger toward the West via a kind of state-sponsored accelerationism would create an external enemy, Zeihan argues, and divert resentment that might otherwise be directed at the CCP.

If this is the plan, it’s working. Those who remain committed to the liberal international order were still banging the drum at the beginning of May for engagement with the aim of Westernising Chinese governance. After a few weeks of Wolf Warrior, though, even the most obdurate liberal-internationalist believers in ‘engage, don’t alienate’ are beginning to use words like ‘bullying’ in connection with China.

The favoured news outlets of the identitarian Right now bristle with China stories. The cumulative effect of these is to depict Beijing as a looming, sinister, mendacious dystopian nightmare busy lulling the West into dependency with cheap plastic tat while spreading disease, torturing animals, stealing technological patents and trashing Western industries.

SUGGESTED READING

Is China trolling the West?

BY IAN BIRRELL

At the elite level, Beijing and Washington have each recently expelled each others’ journalists, amid an escalating war of words about ‘ideological bias’ and ‘fake news’. Building on last year’s tit-for-tat tariff wars, a US bill is on the way that will allow the US to delist NYSE-listed Chinese firms. In the UK, Boris has U-turned on the decision to include Huawei in British 5G networks. Trump is muttering about resuming nuclear testing.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see this escalating. Tribalism is deep-rooted in humans, and it’s not hard to picture both ‘sides’ in the Western culture war uniting with some relief against a common outgroup. And whether it’s locking up a million Uighur Muslims in ‘re-education camps’ in Xinjiang; increasingly blatant disregard for the Sino-British Joint Declaration; suborning British universities; state-backed industrial espionage; ignoring US sanctions on Iran; the coronavirus cover-up; or — as of this week — sabre-rattling along the border with India — there is plenty about the way a newly self-confident China engages with the world that is frankly unnerving.

For Westerners in search of an Other they can criticise without getting immediately cancelled for racism, China offers plenty to work with. Commentators are getting stuck in, with a growing number of voices now accusing any media outlet that echoes or doesn’t aggressively counter the Chinese line on, well, anything of swallowing Chinese propaganda.

SUGGESTED READING

Is China trolling the West?

BY GEORGIE STEWART

We face a perilous path forward. On the one hand, it’s not unreasonable to be wary of a vocally nationalistic emerging superpower with a totalitarian approach to governance and frequently-expressed ambitions to replace the US as global hegemon. But on the other, if this emerging superpower is intentionally encouraging a global backlash against itself, for internal political purposes, then obliging them by swelling the chorus of reflexive China-haters may not be the best course of action.

First and foremost (and regardless of which ‘side’ is most responsible for driving the rise in tension) we must all do our part to ensure Chinese-heritage people in the West do not become innocent victims of escalating geopolitical divisions. But while we must hold on to our values by resisting emerging forms of anti-Chinese racism, it doesn’t follow that we must also cling to the Clinton-era delusion of a historically inevitable liberal-democratic world order.

On Monday, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the US of risking a new Cold War over coronavirus. But as Maajid Nawaz recently suggested in these pages, that Cold War is already here. Geopolitics is sliding inexorably away from any prospect of a ‘rules-based international order’ toward something more multipolar. The wisest response is not to fan the flames of confrontation but to ignore ‘wolf warrior’ provocations and Trumpian rhetoric alike, while methodically working to decouple from strategic dependency on China in key industries.

A new Cold War is upon us. We must recognise this and act accordingly. But we must also resist the temptation to let it get hotter.

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brassring2020 · 5 years

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AYA Analytica financial health memo June 2019

As of June 2019, this regular podcast is available on our Andy Yeh Alpha fintech network platform.

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz proposes the key economic priorities in lieu of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism encompasses lower taxation, deregulation, social welfare minimalism, and less government intervention. This ideology has become the root cause of socioeconomic problems such as wage stagnation, wealth inequality, market power concentration, and environmental degradation. In response, Stiglitz recommends 3 major economic policy prescriptions. First, the benevolent social planner should better balance free markets, civil communities, and state mechanisms. The government better shapes and facilitates markets and communities by investing in basic research, technology, education, health care, and infrastructure. This public investment pays well in terms of more connective communities and market mechanisms. Second, wealth creation arises from scientific inquiry and social organization that collectively allow people to work together for the common good. Free markets still facilitate most social cooperation, but they serve this purpose only if market participants are subject to democratic checks and balances and the rule of law. Third, the government can curb corporate rent protection that may arise from information advantages, hostile takeovers, or other entry barriers. The government has to sever the nexus between market power and political influence. A public investment reform should thus focus on higher education, research, technology, affordable health care, and infrastructure.

Berkeley tax economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez find fresh insights into wealth inequality in America. Their latest estimates show that the top 0.1% of U.S. taxpayers control 20% of American wealth. This result represents the highest share since 1929. The top 1% of U.S. taxpayers control 39% of American wealth, whereas, the bottom 90% of U.S. taxpayers control 26% of American wealth. In contrast, the bottom half of Americans collectively have a negative net worth (i.e. total liabilities exceed total assets). Zucman further finds that multinational corporations move 40% of their $600 billion offshore profits out of high-tax countries into lower-tax jurisdictions. With their empirical results, Saez and Zucman champion bold and aggressive tax policy recommendations. For instance, Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes a wealth tax that would bring in $2.8 trillion over the next decade. Warren confers with Saez and Zucman again before she floats a corporate tax on net profits above $100 million. This tax may raise $1 trillion over 10 years. Also, New York congressional rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposes to hike the top marginal tax rate for Americans who earn annual income above $10 million. The Saez-Zucman empirical results lend credence to these bold tax policy proposals.

Investing in stocks is the best way for most people to become self-made millionaires. A recent Gallup poll indicates that only 37% of young Americans below the age of 36 own stocks, whereas, 61% of Americans over the age of 35 own stocks in the same time window from 2017 to 2019. This evidence suggests that most Americans fail to leverage the stock market as a worthy investment vehicle. The magical power of compound interest exponentially contributes to personal wealth accumulation. For instance, if a young investor saves $100 per week to earn an 11% stock market average return each year, he or she can receive more than $1.2 million after 30 years. This financial discipline requires automatic money transfers on a periodic basis. In other words, most people can consistently invest a small amount of money with great discipline to reap exponential cash rewards at retirement age. Moreover, these wise investors can smooth out most extreme stock price gyrations by waiting patiently to accrue compound interest on regular stock investments. As compound interest snowballs into greater dollar amounts of stock bets, both principal and interest payments roll over and become substantial lump sums after a sufficiently long time span.

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 affects many millennials as they now face the major costs of college tuition, residential demand, health care, and childcare. Ages 22 to 39, millennials have less purchasing power than previous generations did at the same age. Although millennials have benefited from a 67% increase in real wages since the 1970s, this wage boost is insufficient for millennials to keep up with price inflation over the past 4 decades. More than half of millennials cannot afford to own residential properties, have less than $5,000 in their bank deposit accounts, and maintain no retirement accounts. Nowadays millennial affordability attracts both public and private solutions. For instance, Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes that the government forgives $50,000 in student loan debt for every American whose family makes up to $100,000. Also, Former Vice President Joe Biden supports the new proposal that it should be free for students to complete 4-year bachelor degrees at public universities. Moreover, the venture fund Kairos invests in more than 5 companies with $20 million to design solutions that tackle the inflationary costs of student loan debt, residential demand, childcare, and health insurance. Overall, millennial affordability has hence become a major socioeconomic issue in America.

Amazon and Google face comprehensive antitrust scrutiny. In recent times, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have reached an agreement to conduct independent investigations into these tech titans. Justice Department takes responsibility for Google antitrust matters, whereas, Federal Trade Commission handles Amazon in light of potential consumer harm. This internal agreement presages intense antitrust scrutiny. Google already faces antitrust fines in Europe due to the E.U. charges that the online search algorithms favor Google-driven software products. U.S. antitrust law focuses on the broader notion of consumer protection; however, smart algorithms help constrain Amazon retail price hikes. Federal Trade Commission conveys concern and suspicion that the sheer size and market power of Amazon may induce anti-competitive effects. Limiting the market power of tech titans may be one of the few policy domains where both Republicans and Democrats can find common cause. Democratic presidential candidates such as Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren call for greater antitrust scrutiny on the campaign trail. Also, President Trump and other Republicans accuse Amazon and Google of political bias. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission either stimulate greater competition in e-commerce and Internet search, or the regulatory agencies may consider breaking up Amazon and Google.

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy. Due to the current Sino-U.S. trade tension, the global economy seems to slow down quite a bit. Several other global economic issues need resolution too. For instance, Halloween Brexit may result in negative consequences for Eurozone trade and financial capital exodus. Daly indicates that the U.S. economy may experience unforeseen challenges if business sentiment and economic data get out of sync. If business sentiment turns out to be negative, this pervasive negativity may become a self-fulfilling prophecy that can lead to significant fluctuations in real economic output. Nevertheless, Daly reiterates that the U.S. economy operates near the long-term efficient level with 3.6%-3.7% unemployment as inflation rises toward the 2% target. In the current macroeconomic scenario, the federal funds rate remains neutral. This outcome accords with the Federal Reserve dual mandate of price stability and maximum sustainable employment. The recent interest rate hikes help dampen extreme asset price gyrations and so contribute to financial market stabilization. At any rate, Daly emphasizes that it is important for the Federal Reserve to remain patient before the FOMC members consider the next interest rate adjustments.

To secure better trade arrangements with the European Union, Jeremy Corbyn encourages Labour legislators to back a second referendum on Brexit. In recent times, Theresa May has indicated her intention to resign as British Prime Minister, and the European election results shine fresh light on a second referendum on Brexit. Nigel Farage, his Brexit Party, and Conservative Brexit supporters are likely to fight hard against Corbyn-led Labour legislators. Labour Party now has a strategic advantage if Corbyn and his fellow MPs pivot in favor of a second referendum on Brexit. As the European Union remains the largest trade bloc to Britain, Britons must reconsider the economic pros and cons of closer trade ties with the Eurozone. The Brexit withdrawal agreement may involve a gross amount of €100 billion. Net of some U.K. assets, the final bill would involve about €65 billion. The withdrawal transfer funds can contribute to better British health care, social welfare, infrastructure, taxation, and other aspects of public finance. However, Britons use the British pound but not the Euro, so the U.K. has never been part of the E.U. monetary union. British millennials prefer to remain in the E.U. for closer trade ties and better economic arrangements.

The Sino-American trade war may slash global GDP by $600 billion. If the Trump administration imposes tariffs on all Chinese imports and China retaliates with countermeasures, the global stock market may decline by 10%. In this worst-case scenario, Bloomberg expects global GDP to fall 0.6% or $600 billion by mid-2021. The same simulation suggests that both U.S. and Chinese economic output may decline by 0.7% to 1%. Several countries such as Canada and Europe rely heavily on Sino-American trade and so may suffer as a result. In terms of better balancing the bilateral trade deficit, this deficit has indeed declined from $91 billion to $80 billion from 2018Q1 to 2019Q1 (as the Trump tariffs come into effect). Also, the current U.S. CPI inflation hovers in the range of 1.6% to 1.9% (still below the 2% target level). This fact defies the Chinese allegation that the Trump tariffs may substantially raise the Chinese import prices with substantial inflationary pressure. U.S. retail sales growth continues to slow down although American consumer confidence rebounds in early-2019 due to higher wages and tight labor market conditions. The recent 8% renminbi devaluation coincides with the 25% Chinese stock market plunge and less foreign direct investment.

The Chinese Xi administration may leverage its state dominance of rare-earth elements to better balance the current Sino-American trade war. In recent times, President Xi visits a Jiangxi hardware factory that spins rare earth elements into permanent magnets in iPhones, electric cars, wind turbines, and military missiles. China monopolizes 80% of the strenuous extraction of 17 vital rare-earth elements for ubiquitous applications from consumer electronic technology to national defense. Although the ores are as common as copper and lead, rare-earth ores oxidize quickly and their extraction can cause severe pollution. With its low labor costs and lax environmental regulations, China has become the dominant force in the rare-earth market since the 1980s. With almost half of global rare-earth deposits, China produces 120,000 metric tons of rare-earth per annum, or about 80% of the global supply. Australia is the second largest supplier of only 20,000 metric tons of rare-earth per year. The Chinese Xi administration has a strategic incentive to reduce the quota of rare-earth elements from 60,000 tons for better environmental protection. The next quota reset is due in June 2019, and this reset can indicate whether China intends to leverage its rare-earth quasi-monopoly to counteract the Trump tariff tactic.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan expects the U.S. economy to grow at 2.25%-2.5% in 2019-2020 as inflation rises a bit. In an interview with Fox Business Network, Kaplan indicates that it might be too soon to gauge the ripple effects of U.S. tariffs on Chinese and European imports, greenback fluctuations, and inflationary concerns. As the Federal Reserve remains patient on the next monetary policy adjustments, independent and credible central bank communication can help circumvent financial imbalances in the U.S. real economy. Meanwhile, the China-U.S. trade tension intensifies, so many stock market analysts now consider low inflation to be transitory. Federal Reserve balance sheet shrinkage continues, but some stock market analysts expect this balance sheet strategy to halt in light of higher Treasury yields. These higher Treasury yields may inadvertently tighten credit conditions for most mortgage borrowers and corporate debtors. In this negative light, this rationale leads to financial imbalances in the form of exorbitant mortgage and business debt. In turn, these financial imbalances exacerbate the current real estate and business debt dilemma. When push comes to shove, monetary policymakers need to consider the potential ramifications of credit supply shortage before the Federal Reserve steers the next interest rate adjustments.

St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard indicates that his ideal baseline scenario remains a mutually beneficial China-U.S. trade deal. Bullard indicates that the Chinese Xi administration should accept U.S. demands on trade deficit curtailment and intellectual property protection and enforcement in order to attract more foreign capital investments as the oriental country can reap enormous benefits. In the baseline scenario of a major Sino-U.S. trade deal, the Trump tariffs may linger such that the Federal Reserve has to address the likely U.S. economic growth concerns. Since the U.S. and China cannot conclude their yearlong trade conflict, this economic policy uncertainty stokes fresh worries about the global economy. U.S. FOMC members agree that their current patient monetary policy approach can remain in place for some time. In this positive light, the Federal Reserve halts the next interest rate hikes as Fed governors jawbone their implicit expectations of anchoring both U.S. economic growth and interest rates at 2.25%-2.5%. To the extent that inflation risk remains low or slightly below the 2% target level, the Federal Reserve keeps intact the 2.5% federal funds rate as the U.S. economy operates near full employment (with the 3.6%-3.7% unemployment rate). Patience pays well in time.

The world seeks to reduce medicine prices and other health care costs to better regulate big pharma. The Trump administration now requires pharmaceutical companies to disclose medicine prices in U.S. television ads. Proponents support more transparent disclosures of medicine prices and other health care costs. However, some other industry groups argue that astronomical medicine prices may discourage patients because many specialty medications are not so affordable. In recent times, the World Health Organization (WHO) discusses universal health care, antimicrobial resistance, and the impact of climate change on global health etc. A major topic pertains to the high prices of new specialty medicines. For instance, the immuno-oncology medicine Keytruda costs $13,600 per month for continual cancer treatment. Also, the specialty medicine for cystic fibrosis, Orkambi, costs $23,000 per month. In America, many diabetics die primarily due to the high costs of insulin. The Trump administration encourages multinational big pharma firms to reduce medicine prices in the U.S. with healthy price hikes elsewhere, whereas, high health care costs in general, and astronomical specialty medicine prices in particular, remain a widespread problem worldwide. On balance, the government should enforce medicine price reductions to help enrich the economic lives of patients around the world.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggests that the recent surge in U.S. business debt poses moderate risks to the economy. Many corporate treasuries now carry about 40% debt as part of equity market valuation. St Louis Federal Reserve Bank recent data indicate that the corporate-debt-to-EBITDA ratio has risen to the upper range of 2.3x to 3.1x. Powell warns that the current level of business debt can cause financial stress to borrowers if the U.S. economy weakens. However, Powell adds the cautionary caveat that business debt may not present imminent risks to U.S. financial system stability, household consumption, and business growth. As the Federal Reserve continues to assess the potential amplification of business debt deterioration, short-term liquidity risk remains moderate in the U.S. financial system. Meanwhile, the Trump administration seeks to raise fiscal deficits to support ambitious public programs on infrastructure, education, residential estate, health care, and social security. This public debt accumulation may crowd out intertemporal business debt capacity at the margin. If the U.S. total debt capacity remains invariant over time, the government either has to tolerate higher inflation in the form of seigniorage taxes, or needs to consider the ripple effects of incremental corporate debt on the real economy.

The Sino-U.S. trade war may be the Thucydides trap or a clash of Caucasian and non-Caucasian civilizations. The proverbial Thucydides trap refers to the historical fact that the dominant superpowers may experience inevitable economic sanctions or even military confrontations as these countries become more powerful in the world. The current Sino-U.S. trade conflict may lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy that the incumbent superpower fights fears of losing global dominance by precipitating a tit-for-tat trade war against its most plausible challenger. In accordance with what Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington suggests, these dominant superpowers may inadvertently go through the clash of civilizations. In the current Sino-U.S. trade war, China and the U.S. may have fallen into the Thucydides trap or an aggressive clash of Chinese and Caucasian civilizations. The Trump administration advocates *America First* trade protectionism with ubiquitous domestic populist support, whereas, the Chinese Xi administration calls for free markets and open trade flows. U.S. trade regulators should help curtail the imminent Chinese threat to global institutions such as WTO rules and other fair trade practices. The Trump administration must demonstrate that a higher moral purpose motivates U.S. protectionist trade policies if the Trump team intends to garner wider international support.

Top tech firms such as Google, Intel, and Qualcomm suspend their Android hardware and software services to HuaWei as the Trump administration blacklists the Chinese company. HuaWei can no longer license the complete Android operating system with tech services from Google, Intel, and Qualcomm. Stock market analysts suggest that this hurdle hits half of HuaWei smartphone shipments worldwide. Soon after President Trump issues an executive order on blacklisting HuaWei in America, Google suspends Android updates for the second biggest handset manufacturer. U.S. microchip makers Intel and Qualcomm also cut off HuaWei. These strategic moves can cause serious ramifications for the Chinese tech titan because the new ban blocks HuaWei from Android software updates and apps that normally preload on HuaWei mobile devices sold around the world. As the Trump administration blacklists HuaWei, this ban speeds up digital isolation for China amid Sino-U.S. trade war and economic policy uncertainty. If China and the U.S. have begun a technological cold war in recent times, the HuaWei ban can best be viewed as the dawn of a digital iron curtain. The current 90-day reprieve may be a tactical solution for Trump to urge the Chinese Xi administration to affirm a fair trade agreement.

AYA finbuzz podcast June 2019

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marilynngmesalo · 5 years

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Backlash after Egyptian President el-Sissi tells citizens to lose weight

Backlash after Egyptian President el-Sissi tells citizens to lose weight Backlash after Egyptian President el-Sissi tells citizens to lose weight https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

CAIRO — President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is demanding Egyptians lose weight.

In televised comments earlier this month, the general-turned-president railed about the number of overweight people he sees and told Egyptians they must take better care of themselves. He said physical education should become core curriculum at schools and universities and suggested TV shows shouldn’t let presenters or guests on the air if they are overweight.

The next morning, before sunrise, he drove his point home by energetically cycling to the national military academy in a Cairo suburb. In black sweat pants, a dark top and a matching baseball hat, he told cadets that he was adamant they wouldn’t leave basic training before fulfilling fitness requirements.

It was the typical style of el-Sissi, who sees even the smallest minutiae as needing his shaping and weighs in on anything from road building to filmmaking, often while scolding and haranguing Egyptians to correct their behaviour.

But el-Sissi’s critics said he was fat-shaming and taking an elitist approach to a problem whose roots lie to a large extent in poverty. They also criticized him for not offering concrete plans to combat obesity and spread fitness. Prices for food — particularly fruits and vegetables — have spiraled because of economic reforms introduced by el-Sissi, often making cheaper junk foods more appealing.

No one disputes that Egypt has a weight problem. One in three Egyptians suffers from obesity, the world’s highest rate, according to a 2017 global study by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. It found 35% of adults — some 19 million people in the country of 100 million — are obese, again the world’s highest rate, as well as 10.2% of Egyptian children, or around 3.6 million.

El-Sissi, who often tells Egyptians they must buckle down and accept hardships to get through hard times, said they must change their habits to shed the fat.

“The second I walk into any place I look at things you cannot possibly imagine I would notice; and I ask myself ‘what is this? Who are these people? Why are these people not looking after themselves?”‘ el-Sissi said in the Dec. 15 comments.

He derided Egyptians for not walking enough and, laughing, turned to his prime minister — seated next to him — and told him not to put on weight.

Egypt’s pro-government media prominently trumpeted his comments. Parliament, packed by his supporters, has said it intends to introduce legislation making physical education part of the core curriculum at schools. Similarly, his education minister said students taking a 10-stop ride on the Cairo metro should get off two stops early and walk to their destination as a form of exercise.

In social media, possibly the only platform of relatively free speech left in Egypt, the response was more critical. Some said el-Sissi was removed from reality or speaks his mind without weighing his words first. A flood of jokes spilled forth on Twitter and Facebook, playing on the risks of being too fat under a president whose security forces have arrested thousands in a widespread crackdown against dissent.

One joke that went viral told of people in a car sucking in their bellies as they approached a police checkpoint. Another has a man asking to hide at a friend’s house from police until he loses weight. In another, a man informs on his overweight wife to authorities on the phone.

El-Sissi’s comments “laid bare a great deal of elitism,” said novelist and socio-political analyst Amar Ali Hassan. “They are symptomatic of an authoritarian ruler who’s convinced he’s on a mission, that he alone knows what is in the public interest while everyone else is ignorant of the lofty goals in his head.”

Since taking office in 2014, el-Sissi has depicted himself as trying to refashion Egypt into a prosperous, stable and modern nation. But he has made sure there is no one influential or brave enough to question any of his policies or offer alternatives. He once angrily told Egyptians to listen to him alone and shouted down a lawmaker who suggested delaying the lifting of subsidies. This month, he declared he did not allow feasibility studies to be the deciding factor on the multi-billion-dollar projects he has embarked on.

Some of his policies have seen successes. The country is slowly recovering from the economic slump it suffered in the years after a 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Security has improved.

But el-Sissi has also sought to quash any opposition, jailing thousands of Islamists along with secular pro-democracy activists, silencing critics in the media, reversing freedoms won in the 2011 uprising and winning a second term in office this year after authorities jailed potentially serious challengers or intimidated them out of the race.

Some longtime el-Sissi critics commended him for drawing attention to the need to fight obesity. But they pointed out that Egypt’s poor majority cannot afford to eat healthy when a diet of sugar and carbs is cheaper.

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“The president’s concern with health and weight should not be taken against him,” Negad Borai, a rights lawyer banned by authorities from travel, wrote on Facebook. “Poverty never stopped anyone from exercising.”

Mohamed Zaree, another rights lawyer, said el-Sissi needs to enable Egyptians to lose weight rather than ordering them to exercise.

“He needs to make healthy food available at low prices, set up venues where people can exercise and allow emergency obesity operations to be performed under the cover of the state’s medical care system,” he said.

//<![CDATA[ ( function() { pnLoadVideo( "videos", "6k5zt72b7D4", "pn_video_215541", "", "", {"controls":1,"autoplay":0,"is_mobile":""} ); } )(); //]]> Click for update news Bangla news http://bit.ly/2TesPsJ world news

#metronews24 bangla #Latest Online Breaking Bangla News #Breaking Bangla News #prothom alo #bangla news #b

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djgblogger-blog · 6 years

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Why evangelicals are OK with voting for Roy Moore

http://bit.ly/2kYlH7J

Are conservative evangelicals and Catholics in political decline?

Many liberals apparently see hypocrisy over sexual harassment bringing down this once-formidable social and political movement.

Roy Moore allegedly stalking girls, Donald Trump’s mic’d misogyny, family values Congressman Wesley Goodman’s alleged sexual harassment of young Republican men and the Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes resignations at Fox News – all of these point to a would-be crisis.

Some evangelicals have rebelled.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, condemned President Trump during the presidential campaign, saying, “Trump’s horrifying statements, heard in his own proud voice … must make continued support for Trump impossible for any evangelical leader.”

But unlike Mohler, most conservative evangelicals and Catholics have remained rock-hard faithful to Trump and Moore. While many find this paradoxical, it really does make sense.

I have recently published a study of Christian responses to key public policy issues. The study took the form of surveys and interviews, a cross-sample of hundreds of Christians conducted across America, on topics ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion to the nature of evil and goodness in the world. The results are a reminder of why religious beliefs and values are so intertwined with politics in the United States.

Understanding these underlying core beliefs can explain the actions of most evangelical voters in the #MeToo era.

Liberals don’t get it

Liberals claim to detect a double standard in those with whom they have long disagreed. They cite the resignations of members of Congress Al Franken and John Conyers as examples of the righteousness of the Democratic Party – while a Republican president who admitted to what sounds like sexual assault remains in office.

But that won’t help the Democrats win elections in the future. What I learned in my research is that the ways people – be they Democrat or Republican or independent – process political decisions is a complex combination of deep-held values and trade-offs.

Do the resignations of Senators Al Franken and John Conyers really give Democrats the moral high ground? Senate TV via AP

Let’s start with the obvious. For decades, Democrats could win presidential elections only with the solid support of segregationists in the South who controlled the electoral votes that propelled northern liberal candidates from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy.

Hypocrites? Not really. Democrats made a cold assessment of how they could win and what policies were most critical to the party. That meant Kennedy promised Southern governors he would never use federal troops to desegregate schools. And, of course, Democrats were silent over the sexual exploits of their leaders as they were over corruption and election manipulations. Hypocrisy on the part of the politicians? Perhaps. But liberal Democratic voters understood and made a cold-blooded, rational choice. Landmark legislation, from Social Security to Medicare, as well as historic civil rights bills, were the result.

Emphasizing issues, not candidates

Research shows that across all parties, voters make contradictory political and policy calculations all the time.

Evangelicals of today are no more or less rational in their choices as they prioritize what really matters to them. The evangelical Christians I interviewed believe the world is filled with sin, repentance is possible and that American exceptionalism flows from God’s love and from a Christian commitment to purity. The battle to protect America from what these believers see as the potential pollution of American society is fundamental to their religious – and their political – worldview.

For many American Christians, the Bible provides a very clear and commanding code of purity that informs their views on such issues as adultery and premarital sex, homosexuality and abortion, condoms in schools and sex education. They fervently believe that humans are sinful and have the demonic capacity to defy the divine plan for America and drive God out of the United States and out of our world.

For these believers, the sin of abandoning the sacred is not limited to the sinners alone. Once the evil they perceive is endorsed by their government – whether same-sex marriage or abortion – not only the evil-doers will be punished. America’s sins, it is believed, will also bring faithful Christians down with them. By allowing sin to flourish, Christians themselves will have contributed to the contamination of God’s sanctuary. In short, they see salvation at stake.

Like religious leaders who were arrested fighting for civil rights and protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s, evangelicals and conservative Catholics of today are unwilling to keep their religious beliefs private.

This is how one evangelical minister I interviewed explained evangelical support for Trump campaign: “Hillary, who apparently practices more of a moral lifestyle, nevertheless promotes policies … which are seen as undermining the moral fabric of the nation even more than one man’s actions. In other words, in this vein at least, Mrs. Clinton is even more of a purity violation than Mr. Trump.”

The same rational thinking was often used by evangelicals to endorse Roy Moore, whose passionate defense of core Christian fundamentalist values is unequivocal and who supports a solidly conservative Republican agenda. And what is that agenda? The 2016 Republican platform calls for defunding Planned Parenthood, ending abortion, halting the Obama administration’s transgender restroom edict, rejecting the “LGBT agenda” and restoring the traditional definition of marriage while protecting the religious freedom of Americans to reject same-sex marriage or provide contraception. If you believe that there is a biblical mandate to battle the moral taints condemned in the Republican Party platform, then Roy Moore is your man, no matter what his personal behavior.

The faithful may well believe that Moore and Trump, among others, are deeply flawed human beings. For them, God’s ways are mysterious. The idea that a flawed human being can be a vehicle for God’s plan is as old as King David in the Bible from whom descends the Messiah. Americans reelected Bill Clinton, also a morally compromised leader, believing that what he could accomplish as president transcended who he is.

An awareness that pragmatism, not hypocrisy, runs both left and right should open an avenue for productive conversation among Americans across the spectrum. Certainly there are limits even in today’s vitriolic discourse. Nobody should vote for a candidate who endorses racism, misogyny and homophobia, white or Christian supremacy or religious hatred and violence.

But no matter one’s religious and political beliefs, viewing the political terrain as the forces of light against the forces of evil on every issue is overrated. There is certainly hypocrisy in politics, but what seems cynical or insincere to outsiders may be better understood as thoughtful compromise in the name of deeper-held core values. Reaching out to engage and try to understand these values may well allow liberals and conservatives, and people of different faiths, to cross the polarized divide.

David Elcott receives funding from Ford foundation and NYU

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premimtimes · 6 years

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A former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, on Thursday criticised the Goodluck Jonathan administration for not doing enough in security, the economy and other sectors.

Mr. Tinubu also highlighted the successes of the Muhammadu Buhari administration so far.

The All Progressives Congress leader stated these at the presentation of a book: ‘Making Steady, Sustainable Progress’ in Abuja.

Read his full speech below

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK

‘’MAKING STEADY, SUSTAINABLE PROGRESS’’

NOVEMBER 16, 2017

ABUJA-NIGERIA.

PROTOCOLS

We are many things as a people. Among them, is that we can be a clamorous nation.

Noise abounds. Voices rise. Critics moan. The angry and the desperate even question whether this nation should exist, whether it is an experience or experiment that has failed.

Mr. President, the noise can be loud, almost deafening at times. Yet ultimately both noise and clamour shall fade, for progress.

What shall be left is reality and fact. The core reality, the fact of our political existence, is that Nigeria is an indivisible entity; a nation of many peoples wedded in common enterprise with its better days yet before it.

Yes, we were born of a complicated past, and face a challenging present. Ah, but our future, yes our future, can be one of progress, compassion, justice and hope, if only we have the courage to make it so.

We have passed but two years under this government. In the measure of human affairs, this seems a brief period in part but also long in part. We are both the same and different now than we were then.

Before this government came into being, Boko Haram wreaked havoc on a daily basis. Spreading its evil arm across great expanses of our national territory, Boko Haram invaded town and villages, erasing the peace and normalcy of the people to replace it with wanton brutality, hatred and death.

They hoisted their dreadful flag where only the green and white of Nigeria should have been.

Today, that evil flag is not planted over an inch of our precious land. This violent scourge recedes into the darkened shadows of inhumanity from whence it came.

People once under its horrid dominion now breathe the air of freedom and safety.

Boko Haram has not been completely defeated. But there is no question, that it has been decimated and made shorter and weaker. They shall never constitute the threat they once were.

This is no accident. It is the result of the policies and commitment of President Buhari, his government and the men and women of our armed forces who place their lives on the line in silent heroism to protect this nation and its people.

Had the previous government remained in place, Boko Haram would have surely eaten more territory and devoured more people. This nation might have indeed been divided and cut asunder, not by choice but by the knife of terrorism.

The prior government used the public treasury as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves.

So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would cause the devil to blush.

One minister and her rogues’ gallery picked the pocket of this nation for billions of dollars. While poor at governance, these people could give a master thief lessons in the sleight of hand. In governance, they earned a red card but in the corruption, they won the gold medal.

It was not that our institutions had become infected by corruption. Corruption had become institutionalized.

President Buhari has set an axe to the root of this dangerous tree. I would be lying if I said the war against large-scale corruption has been won.

It has not. It will take time and countless swings of the axe to fall such a deeply-rooted tree. But try we must. This is what the President is doing.

Gone are the times when a minister can pilfer billions of dollars as easy as plucking a piece of candy from the table.

We have much to do to combat this disease. Not only must we track down the takers. In the long term, we must review the salaries of public servants and create universal credits for our people to reduce temptation.

We must also take greater care by placing people of character, competence and goodness into key positions. When they fail, they must be removed without remorse or favour.

Unlike its predecessor, this government has demonstrated the will to walk this path. While this might not cause much fanfare or celebration, this cleanses the institutions upon which a nation’s wellbeing is founded with a future assured.

The economy remains our biggest long-term challenge. The prior government operated during times of plenty. The opposite is the case now. Sadly, that plenty was stolen or directed toward policies of no lasting consequence to the average Nigerian save to compel them to say another opportunity had been wasted.

Through no fault of its own, this administration had to grapple with a rapid fall in oil prices.

That fall brought recession and collapsed our exchange rate regime. More fundamentally, it showed that the very economic model upon which this nation operated was outmoded and flawed. Unfortunately the past administration did nothing to re-calibrate the economy.

With fewer resources at hand, this government is compelled to do more. It must respond to immediate needs in a way that leads to long-term economic reform.

This will be a complex journey. This government has taken the first steps in the right direction.

We are inching out of recession. The exchange rate has stabilized. Internationally, we are seen as on the mend and have been recognized for making significant progress in the ease of doing business.

In hindsight, the election of President Buhari had an air of inevitability to it. Despite the odds arrayed against him, the sovereign will of the people lifted him to victory.

He is truly the right man for this time and place.

This is why I am pleased by the publication of this book with the just and appropriate title ‘Making Steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Security.’

The president’s media team, Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu and Laolu Akande, worked with the various ministries to assemble this comprehensive, objective catalogue of the work this government has done.

This book is a good account of the work this government has accomplished to date.

This book is needed for it sheds light on what may be obscure to the average person.

President Buhari is a man who exercises an economy of speech. He is a man of action not of chatter.

President Muhammadu Buhari

He will not spend time blowing his own trumpet because his preference is to move to the next important task.

Thus, it is apt that these men serve him in a way he would never think of serving himself.

I have already discussed the progress made regarding security, corruption and the general economy, this triad being the core promises made by the President and our party to the Nigerian people.

But this book reveals so much more being done in all areas of life. This work may not be spectacular but it is essential. It may not be flashy but it is foundational and enduring.

In agriculture, where the bulk of our people make their living, this government has strengthened research and development to enhance productivity, it has taken steps to increase exports, while rationalising fertiliser and seed distribution. Farm credits and financing have improved allowing farmers to expand existing crops and grow new ones, including fisheries and aquaculture.

I don’t know about you, but I call this the progress we need!

In education, this administration has reduced the number of out-of school children. School lunch programs for the poorest among us have been initiated.

Teachers have been hired and are being better trained. This government seeks to inject ICT into the school system. Universal Basic Education is more of a priority than ever before. Our universities and other tertiary institutions are better funded than ever before.

I don’t know about you but I call this the progress we need!

With regard to labour, this government works with the private sector to create jobs and to engage people in the training required as we transit from a mono-dimensional economy to one more diverse and reliant on industry and skill.

I call this the progress we need!

Regarding social welfare, the opposition scoffed when this government announced living stipends for the poorest families. Now this is becoming reality. Relief of the poor has replaced the ridicule of the uncaring. The selfish unbelievers scoff no longer.

I call this the progress we need.

Regarding infrastructure, this government is making progress in building and rehabilitation of strategic ports, bridges, railways and highways.

I call this progress that we need!

This government responded when states were unable to pay workers salaries. This saved tens of thousands of families of civil servants from wallowing in despair and poverty.

I call this the type of responsible government we need!

I could go on with examples. But due to the constraints of time, let me say just that this book demonstrates this government has moved with a sure and steady hand toward sustainable progress.

While each change may not be dramatic in itself, the cumulative effects of these reforms make for a stronger nation and a future assured.

Yet, I lay caution to those people whose words and actions would counsel complacency.

True, much good has been done by this government to ignore. However, too many of our people remain too poor and put-out to ignore as well.

Daylight comes but not yet to all and not in equal measure.

Due to the neglect of prior governments, our economy was not allowed to blossom in a way that offered jobs to the poor and empowered the common man.

Where prosperity should have stood, poverty was erected. Where progress should have been established, stagnation assumed residence. We are trying hard to escape this deep hole.

While we work toward this good end, we must recognize the situation of millions of our people. Wrongfully denied for so long, they suffer still. But we ask them to take heart. Don’t forfeit hope. Understand that tomorrow will not be as the past when what was built and bought was not intended for you.

What we now building, is meant for you. This is your government and you will be the beneficiaries of its policies and programs. You are no longer the forgotten. You are the hope and promise of a nation and its future.

As this government implements its economic plans, the griping poverty you have long suffered will give way and ultimately turn into the fertile progress and prosperity that only good governance can bring.

We do this with a sense of urgency!

We race against unrelenting time. By incident of technology, the black liquid underground could be converted into money and international prestige.

By further incident of technology, that liquid is already progressively losing its economic value. We no longer have an underground vault of money. One day, the liquid beneath our feet will simply be that – merely liquid beneath our feet.

We must train our policies to ensure when that day finally comes we will not be lost again. The history of a depressed economy must not be allowed to repeat itself.

Here, permit me to offer a few observations on how we might proceed. There will be those who might distort what I say here as evidence of “space” between President Buhari and me. There evidence will be false and their news about this will be fake.

Mischief never dies. Fortunately, nor does the truth.

What I proffer today is done in the spirit of utmost respect and affinity by one who wants the best for this government and for Nigeria. I say these things to encourage the government to achieve the greatness the times demand and of which this government is capable.

The battlefront upon which this nation’s fate shall be decided is the economy.

On this, almost all else shall hang.

In addition to talking about this book which describes our immediate past and present, I want to briefly mention another document: The 2018 budget.

This budget moves us farther in the right direction. It is a bolder, more creative one than this government’s earlier editions.

It shows this government has embraced its progressive identity despite the chorus of opposition. Also that it more clearly realizes the depths of the economic and financial challenges before us.

One of the important aspects of this budget is the capital expenditure for needed infrastructure.

This investment means the government fully recognises our economy must grow but that it cannot expand beyond the parameters of the infrastructural grid that serves it.

With this book and with the budget we come to the place where past intersects with the present to interact with the future. The place where what we do or don’t do will dictate the Nigeria of tomorrow.

We are inching out of recession but growth must increase.

It is time to lead our people to a place where poverty and hunger become infrequent and where prosperity and hope are the daily fare of the common man.

There are three key ideas I would like to table before you today.

First, we are among the world’s most populous nations and potentially one of its most powerful. No populous nation has ever attained prosperity without first establishing a robust industrial capacity.

In one form or another, England, America, Japan and China implemented policies to protect key industries, promote employment and encourage exports.

These nations represent the past, present and immediate future of national economic achievement.

If Nigeria is to be a leader in the next phase of global economic history, we must learn from these prior successes. The common thread between these nations was the objective of buffering strategic industries in ways that allows for the expansion and growth of the overall economy.

In this vein, our national industrial revolution plan must be more than mere words. It must be refined and implemented with a laser-like focus. Just as the private sector may partner with government on public endeavours, government must guide and support the private sector into new areas of industry and production.

Government must invest in research and new products the private sector may find risky and uncertain in the initial stage. Government policy must push and incentivise the private sector into the production of goods that will be demanded in the immediate future and for some time to come.

This requires a heretofore unprecedented coordination between the private sector and government.

Whether we focus on steel, textiles, cars, machinery components, processed agricultural goods, other items, or any combination of the above, we must manufacture things the rest of the world wants to buy and not necessarily the things we think are the easiest to do.

Second, as a corollary to the push for industrial maturity, we need a national infrastructural plan that accords with both the industrial plan and with extant agricultural activity. The fulcrum of this plan must be continued progress in the achievement of adequate and affordable electric power, especially solar and winds.

Third, we must help the common farmer by improving rural output and incomes. We must return to commodity exchange boards or similar mechanism to allow farmers to secure their income and hedge against loss. An active and expanded agricultural loan scheme is needed to further promote these goals.

What Tinubu said about Buhari, Jonathan govts (FULL TEXT) A former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, on Thursday criticised the Goodluck Jonathan administration for not doing enough in security, the economy and other sectors.

#All Progressives Congress #Bola Tinubu #former Lagos State governor #Goodluck Jonathan #News #Nigerian news #PREMIUM TIMES

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naimnaqvi-blog · 7 years

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Will the 1977 repeat itself in 2018 (as it appeared in Merinews - Oct7, 2017. We are being given to understand that four most important pillars of democracy work independently. However, the other day, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India told us that there are no pro-government judges and we took a sigh of relief. But the cluttering of allegations against these august bodies like CBI and CAG etc sends a shiver through the spine of the observant Indian. Even before the baseless allegation against the Election Commission about the glitches in EVM machines performance, we were used to take the words of EC in high esteem. In Focus On the following Wednesday, the Election Commission launched a web-based application, Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) network, aimed at efficient conduct of elections and said it would be "logistically equipped" by September 2018 to hold simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha and assemblies. The announcement by the poll panel came days after it issued a formal direction that VVPAT or paper trail machines will be used at polling stations in all future elections where polls are held using EVMs. "The Election Commission was asked by the Centre as what it would require for becoming capable of holding the parliamentary and assembly polls together. And that statement has set the alarm bell ringing for and early elections. They say – see rather smell how the wind blows! Pradhan Sevak, as he calls himself, Shri Naredra Modi is passing through a toughest period of this 3 point something political honeymoon as nothing except empty slogans seem to going his way. Most of the much tom-tomes schemes of NDA are coming as cropper. The hard liner CM of Uttar Pradesh is hell bent to highlight crude depictions of erotica of Khajraho as Indian culture and ignore the subtle and scented message of love that reverberates from the Taj Mahal. UP is stinking in crimes and corruption as never before. Girls are molested at the hostel of BHU in Varanasi. Children are dying in government hospitals. Even the smaller promise of covering the puddles and pot-holes of roads in UP have met the miserable flop. In Kerala, Amit Shah ran away with an excuse of PM's call as he found the crowd thinning for BJP is the most advanced and highly educated state of India. It seems the old RSS tricks are not yet gaining ground there. Out of desperation or a political gamble, as the situation is turning from bad to worse, early Lok Sabha election might be gifted or imposed upon the election-prone nation. And that reminds me of year 1977 when the magic of Indira Gandhi was dissolving in thin air. Bangladesh liberation war of December 1971 had become the part of history and a well-coordinated coalition of disgruntled anti-Indira elements had come together. An overconfident Indira Gandhi had declared emergency after her election to Rae Bareli had been challenged in court. As the tide turned against her, sycophants such as D K Baruah, who coined the phrase "India is Indira and Indira is India", made matters worse. J P's cry for Sampoorna Kranti or total revolution was gaining ground. A student and middle-class revolt in Gujarat combined with events in the north belt. All those events had dimmed the after-war glow and led to Indira losing control. On 23 March 1977, one of the greatest architects of modern India has lost decisively and historically. Mrs Gandhi had tendered her resignation today after acknowledging her defeat at the polls and declared that "the collective judgment of the electorate must be respected." The acting President, Mr B D Jatti, asked her to continue as caretaker Prime Minister until Thursday. Her son Sanjay who shared defeat with his mother in their home constituencies publicly apologised for his role in the electoral overthrow of the Congress' government. After resigning Mrs Gandhi entertained her official aides to tea. She had recorded a message to All-India Radio saying that "winning or losing of the election is less important than strengthening the country. "My colleagues and I accept the people's verdict unreservedly and in a spirit of humility." Sanjay Gandhi told reporters he was sorry if "what I did in my personal capacity has recoiled on my mother, whose life has been spent in selfless service." My readers must be well aware what Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shouri, the old guards of BJP have told the Indians about the present political scenario of the country. In UP, instead of building the better utility facilities for suffering masses they are planning to build a grand temple to aggrandize Naredra Modi. Only time will tell what sort of speeches Shri Modi ji, Shri Amit Shah ji or Shri Arun Jaitley ji (if he survives politically the cloud bursts of demonetisation and GST) would be making in 2018, if the election eventually falls in 2018.

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/the-latest-italy-leader-to-virus-deniers-look-at-numbers-world-news/

The Latest: Italy leader to virus deniers: Look at numbers | World News

ROME – Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says he has no words for those who deny the coronavirus pandemic – except to look at the numbers.

Pandemic deniers and those against masks and vaccines are expected to rally in Rome on Saturday. Conte said: “To those people gathering in Rome today and who think the pandemic doesn’t exist, we reply with numbers: More than … 274,000 infected and some 35,000 dead. Period.”

The daily case load, after dropping down to below 200 at the start of summer, surpassed more than 1,700 on Friday, the biggest one-day increase since early May.

Many of the recent infections have occurred in returning vacationers, most of them young people. Conte says, “if things go badly, we’ll be able to intervene in a targeted and very circumscribed way” to manage any dramatic surge.

His country was hard hit when the outbreak first erupted in Europe and went into lockdown. Italy has confirmed nearly 275,000 coronavirus cases and counts 35,518 known dead.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

— Czech Republic has 700 new cases for 1st time

— Brazil leader rapped for stirring doubt on COVID-19 vaccine

— Russia publishes virus vaccine results, weeks after approval

— India’s coronavirus caseload has surpassed 4 million, deepening misery in the country’s vast hinterlands.

— Police in Australia’s hardest-hit Victoria state made several arrests among a crowd of about 300 people protesting the lockdown in Melbourne.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

LONDON — The head of Britain’s civil service is telling public sector bosses to get staff back to the office, as the government seeks to revive city centers.

Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill has written to government department chiefs “strongly encouraging an increased workplace attendance” and saying 80% of civil servants should be working from the office at least part-time by the end of September.

The government urged people to work from home when the country went into lockdown in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Society is gradually reopening, but many people remain reluctant to return to workplaces and public transport. That’s bad news for downtown cafes, shops and restaurants that rely on commuters for trade.

The number of new coronavirus infections in the U.K. is rising. Unions say the need for social distancing makes a full-time return to offices impractical.

Dave Penman, head of civil service union FDA, says the government needs to accept that the world of work had changed for good.

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BERLIN — Germany wants to boost its public health system with 5,000 new jobs and 4 billion euros ($4.735 billion) in investment to get the country’s 375 local health offices up to speed.

The announcement by Health Minister Jens Spahn on Saturday came after a meeting with the country’s 16 state health ministers about the coronavirus pandemic. Germany wants to add are at least 1,500 new doctors, medical and administrative staff by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has suggested the country mourn the victims of the coronavirus pandemic at an official memorial. Steinmeier told newspaper group RND on Saturday “we must help people who are mourning and think about how we can express our compassion.”

The German president, whose office is mostly ceremonial, says he was in talks with other officials regarding a memorial.

On Saturday, Germany registered 1,378 new coronavirus infections for a total of nearly 249,000 cases. Total deaths stand at more than 9,300 people, according the country’s disease control center.

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HOUSTON — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop detaining unaccompanied immigrant children in hotels.

That allows for expelling them without the chance to seek refuge in the United States, a new policy the government has enacted during the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled Friday the use of hotels violates a two-decade-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children in custody. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Sept. 15 and to remove children from hotels as soon as possible.

At least 577 unaccompanied children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since March have been held in hotels, sometimes for weeks, according to government data.

That’s instead of sending them to shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services, where minors receive legal services, education, and the chance to be placed with relatives living in the U.S. Those facilities are licensed by the states where they are located.

More than 13,000 beds in HHS facilities are currently empty.

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will visit Assisi next month, in his first visit outside Rome since the coronavirus pandemic.

He’ll journey to Assisi, the birthplace in the central Italian region of Umbria of his namesake saint. He’ll sign an authoritative papal letter to clergy and faithful worldwide, the Vatican said Saturday. The encyclical is expected to stress the value of brotherly relations during and after the pandemic, a theme Francis evoked repeatedly during the pandemic.

Francis has stressed the coronavirus reveals the fragility of existence and the importance of helping one other, especially the poor.

Italy was put under lockdown in early March when it became the first country in Europe to feel the full brunt of the coronavirus.

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PRAGUE — The number of people infected with the coronavirus has continued to surge in the Czech Republic, surpassing 700 for the first time.

The Health Ministry says the day-to-day increase reached a record of 798 new confirmed cases on Friday.

The announcement comes after the country registered over 600 cases the previous two days, also records at the time.

Health authorities have already imposed new restrictive measures in the Czech capital, reacting to the spike. Starting on Wednesday, it is mandatory again to wear face masks in stores and shopping malls. At the same time, bars, restaurants and nightclubs have to be closed from midnight to 6 a.m.

The Czech Republic has 27,249 cases and 429 deaths.

———

MEXICO CITY — The coronavirus pandemic has hit Mexico so hard that the governments of several states ran out of death certificates.

Officials said Friday the federal forms started running out about 15 to 20 days ago in at least three states — Baja California, the State of Mexico and Mexico City.

Authorities say a million new forms have been printed and are being distributed. The certificates are printed with special characteristics because falsification has been a problem in the past.

Mexico has suffered the fourth-highest level of COVID-19 deaths in the world. On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose by 6,196 to 623,090, while deaths rose by 522 to 66,851. Cases in Mexico now appear to have plateaued and are no longer decreasing.

———

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported 168 new cases of the coronavirus, the third consecutive day the daily jump came below 200 in a possible sign the country is starting to see the effects of unprecedented social distancing restrictions.

The figures released Saturday brought the national caseload to 21,010, including 333 deaths.

Officials say 115 of the new cases were in the Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the country’s 51 million population. Infections were also reported in other big cities, including Bunsan, Gwangju, Daejeon and Daegu.

Authorities have decided to extend for another week tougher social distancing restrictions in the Seoul area, saying the viral spread is still at risky levels. Restaurants are allowed to provide only takeout and home delivery after 9 p.m. Gyms, billiard clubs and after-school academies are closed.

Officials have also shut down churches and nightspots and shifted most schools back to remote learning nationwide.

———

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana athletic and education officials are cautiously planning for high school football games to begin in October, while Gov. John Bel Edwards is expressing hope he will be able to ease some restrictions on businesses next week.

State officials, leaders of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and lawmakers discussed plans for resuming football at a meeting Friday amid positive trends in the state’s coronavirus statistics.

Later in the day, Edwards made no commitment to ease restrictions that have limited public gatherings and restaurant seating while shutting down bars since July. But, noting that current restrictions expire next Friday, he said he hopes he will be able to move to less restrictive regulations. He didn’t give any details on what looser rules might allow.

———

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico officials say enrollment in Medicaid has increased by nearly 7% in the state since the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, with employers shedding jobs and more families entering into poverty.

In a briefing Friday for state legislators, Human Services Secretary David Scrase praised federal legislation that increases the federal matching rate for Medicaid health care and allows the state to quickly extend no-cost coronavirus testing to the poor and undocumented immigrants.

At the same time, he says the current 6.2% boost in federal matching funds is inadequate to keep up with rebounding demand for medical services under Medicaid and could end abruptly at the discretion of federal health regulators.

———

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is urging Americans to “remain vigilant” about the coronavirus over the Labor Day weekend.

Trump said at a White House briefing Friday that “we need everybody to be careful” and to “apply common sense” in their interactions with one another.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that several Midwestern states that have seen jumps in coronavirus caseloads should be especially vigilant during the holiday weekend. They are North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.

Past increases in cases of COVID-19 have followed the Memorial Day and Fourth of July holidays.

Trump is eager to put the pandemic in the past, but he tells Americans to “let’s just try to get through this one weekend.”

———

#deniers #italy #latest #leader #numbers #virus #World

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