Climate Change: Mapped 3/31/19

Climate Change is a subject that will affect the world, yet most people don’t know where or how it is affecting us today.

Thanks to the website CarbonBrief, who created a world map based on more than 230 peer-reviewed studies, we can now see what the current effects of climate change are and where they are causing the most damage.

Beyond that, CarbonBrief made sure to outline which results were and were not influenced by humans, giving a fair and unbiased outline of these issues.

Carbon Brief’s analysis suggests 68% of all extreme weather events studied to date were made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change. Heatwaves account for 43% such events, droughts make up 17% and heavy rainfall or floods account for 16%.

Source: https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-climate-change-affects-extreme-weather-around-the-world

Ukraine’s Battle Against Foreign Disinformation 3/28/19

Ukraine, as well as many other countries across the world, are combating Fake News coming from multiple nations in order to sow doubt and disorder.

Ukraine dealt with these issues very recently, with the attacks from the Russian Government and Russian Backed separatists began a civil war within the country 5 years ago. Now, the Russian Playbook for Disinformation has begun to be utilized by a multitude of countries [1].

The Ukraine government, in cooperation with IREX, a global education organization, have been working to combat disinformation by working within the education system to teach students how to discern accurate information from that which is misleading.

The Listen to Discern program, funded by the U.S. and U.K. embassies in Ukraine, was tested in 50 schools, including in the eastern city of Mariupol which saw major fighting in the war’s first years.
A group of fact checkers, journalists and teachers wove the training into some 15 existing lesson plans.

IREX is also working to educate adults through it’s Learn to Discern program, hosting courses in Ukraine to try and educate the citizens of the country [2].

IREX is currently working to expand their Learn to Discern program and is working to implement it in Guatemala, Jordan, Serbia, Tunisia, and the United States [3].

It is highly suggested that those within above countries try to Contact Ms. Tara Susman-Peña here to attempt to take these courses.

Sources

Source 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/technology/twitter-disinformation-united-states-russia.html

Source 2: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/22/705809811/students-in-ukraine-learn-how-to-spot-fake-stories-propaganda-and-hate-speech

Source 3: https://www.irex.org/project/learn-discern-l2d-media-literacy-training

Economics Pt. 2: China’s Coming Economic Depression 3/20/19

China is looking like it will be the next part of the globe affected by a housing bubble as well as a few other issues that they are trying to hide from the world when it comes to their economy.

Firstly, China’s housing bubble has been growing, as housing development, led by the municipalities leadership in the areas of the continued development, continue to grow even though the building plans are usually based on population and economic data provided by local authorities who have been shown to over-inflate their numbers to increase funding [1].

This, along with the growing real estate bubble due to the lack of Chinese purchasing the new housing being developed, will inevitably destroy the Chinese economy, as Housing is one of the main revenue streams for the Chinese GDP:

25% of the country’s GDP comes from construction, and 80% of the nation’s wealth is in domestic property holdings. That’s $65T, nearly double the size of the economies of every G7 nation combined.
The market has been kept afloat through China’s massive “shadow banking” system, itself such a systemic risk that the Chinese government has been forced to crack down on it. Now, China’s massive, blue-chip property developers have had their debt downrated to CCC and are struggling to issue new bonds — Moody’s rates the debt of 51 out of 61 Chinese property companies as “junk.”
China has 65 million vacant residences, but prices remain stubbornly high, even in “tier-two” cities like Jinan, where a 1000sqft apartment costs RMB2M, while a worker may only earn RMB6,000/month [2].

This data, along with evidence that shows that Chinese Companies are currently attempting to save at higher rates due to the slowing of the economy at levels unseen for over 30 years [3], meaning less money being pumped into the Chinese Economy, and explains the reason why China has been hiding it’s recent Economic Data [4].

This hidden data helps in hiding China’s shortfalls, as well as is an attempt to gain more economic power across the globe by positioning itself as a major economy. While China has been putting out false GDP numbers, their debt has been racking up, building to Credit Bubble proportions, and will likely be another means of destruction to the countries economy [5].

Sources

Source 1: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3002219/almost-one-third-chinese-cities-are-shrinking-city-planners

Source 2: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/16/systemic-risk-2.html

Source 3: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-companies-outlook/asia-firms-spend-less-and-save-more-as-china-economy-slows-idUSKCN1R008P

Source 4: https://thediplomat.com/2019/03/in-search-of-real-data-on-chinas-economy/

Source 5: https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/new-study-shines-light-literally-on-chinas-and-russias-fake-gdp-data/

Brexit Delay Inevitable 3/14/19

Brexit was scheduled by Prime Minister Theresa May to take place on March 29th, but that’s no longer in the cards.

The British Parliament has voted overwhelmingly, 412-202, to seek a delay for a now-unspecified amount of time [1].

At the same time, Parliament voted against a second referendum, 85-334, but the reason for such a loss may be due to the timing, as Parliament is focused on finding a new timeline at the moment. It’s also possible that this number will change as faith in Theresa May’s successful Brexit dealings wane [2].

Sources

Source 1: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/brexit-vote-delay-and-second-referendum/2019/03/14/d97ffdd8-4405-11e9-94ab-d2dda3c0df52_story.html

Source 2: https://www.vox.com/world/2019/3/14/18265393/brexit-vote-second-referendum-parliament

Brexit’s Future Unknown – 3/12/19

With 17 days before the deadline for the “Brexit” of Britain from the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May has again failed to pass a plan to leave the EU with certain guidelines on how their connection to the EU will end up.

A vote was taken in Parliament today that failed with a vote of 242 for the measure and 391 against.

The vote puts the world’s fifth largest economy in uncharted territory with no obvious way forward: exiting the EU without a deal, delaying the March 29 divorce date, a snap election, or even another referendum are all now possible.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu/britain-and-brexit-in-chaos-uk-parliament-rejects-mays-eu-deal-again-idUSKBN1QT0ZO

Week in Review 3/7/19

This week has been a major news week in politics across the world.

A depressing story about the alleged rape of an 18 year old woman by two Detectives in Brooklyn.
Detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall picked up Anna Chambers in September 2017 for marijuana possession.
Anna states that both officers took turns raping her in the back of their squad car after her arrest, even getting a positive match for both officers semen with a rape kit she was tested with after they released her.
The officers however, allege that she consented to the sex, which, at that point in time in NY, was not against the law (it has been instituted in the state since due to this incident), and the officers are only being charged with taking bribes and official misconduct [1].

“She decided to speak out, and they shut it right down. It’s a very bad message to future victims of sexual violence, especially against law enforcement.”
Chambers’ attorney Mike David

The US Government, in coordination with Mexico, created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.
This has led to continual questioning and interrogation by border officials to those that were at the caravan who have been routinely monitored since the event and some have been barred from access to other countries [2].

In an ever developing story, the White House may have abused their power to get security clearances for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner despite opposition from Security Agencies and the WH Security Office [3].

Because of this revelation, both the House Oversight Committee and the group
CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) are attempting to look into the issue [4], with the House Oversight Committee submitting a request to the White House for documents related to the security clearances.
The White House chose, in response, to reject their request for documents, a move that will lead to a subpoenas being handed out, possibly even to Trump himself [5].

Speaking on subpoenas, it seems likely, as stated by Judge Napolitano of Fox News, that Michael Cohen’s testimony may lead to multiple investigations within the House that, if they so choose, may subpoena the White House if documents are asked for and not handed over to the investigations [6].
This may come to fruition sooner than expected however, as the House Judiciary Committee has begun investigating:

The committee told reporters Monday that the investigation will focus on three primary issues: whether the president obstructed justice by interfering with criminal investigations; potential corruption such as violation of campaign and financial reporting laws, as well as possible misuse of office for personal gain; and abuses of power to include misuse of the pardon power and attacks on the press, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. [7]

Fox News reportedly knew of the Stormy Daniels story before the 2016 Election and refused to publish it (as well as avoiding coverage of it across their prime-time shows):

“But Falzone’s story didn’t run—it kept being passed off from one editor to the next. After getting one noncommittal answer after another from her editors, Falzone at last heard from LaCorte, who was then the head of FoxNews.com. Falzone told colleagues that LaCorte said to her, ‘Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.’” [8]

Due to this story, the DNC has barred Fox News from hosting any of their Primary Debates, citing that the DNC believes the station cannot be ‘fair and neutral’ [9].

Reports from South Korea have indicated that North Korea has begun rebuilding their rocket testing sites they had promised to destroy after the initial summit with Trump, with US National Security Adviser John Bolton stating that it may lead to further sanctions [10].

The lack of urgency in the Trump Administrations methods to ensure ending North Korea’s nuclear armament is what is leading to their likelihood of succeeding in becoming a nuclear power, as the more time the US wastes not ensuring the end of their nuclear projects, the higher the chance of success for North Korea.

A massive uncovering of a Russian money laundering operation of over $9 Billion involving Citigroup, Raiffeisen, and Deutsche Bank, as well as Prince Charles, has been exposed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Lithuanian news site 15min.lt using leaked data shared with others including The Guardian that led to the discovery. [11]
Dubbed “the Troika Laundromat,” it allowed for “Russian oligarchs and politicians to secretly acquire shares in state-owned companies, to buy real estate both in Russia and abroad, to purchase luxury yachts, to hire music superstars for private parties, to pay medical bills, and much more, to protect themselves, the wealthy people behind this system used the identities of poor people as unwitting signatories in the secretive offshore companies that ran the system.” [12]

The US has closed it’s Consulate in Jerusalem, causing massive tensions with Palestinian officials. Previously, Palestine had utilized the Consulate in a way similar to having their own Embassy to the United States. This move has caused Palestinian leaders to believe the US has stopped believing in and is moving away from a Two-State Solution. This move, along with the move of the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Palestine has enraged the Palestinian leadership, but the Trump Administration points out the avoidance of peace negotiations with Israel as a major factor [13].

The House Passed a Resolution condemning antisemitism and bigotry in response to Representative Ilhan Omar, in which she stated:

“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask, ‘Why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the [National Rifle Association], or fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policy?'” [14]
Rep. Ilhan Omar

However, many progressives in the Democratic party came to her side, including three candidates for becoming the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris, who stated that asking questions and criticizing Israel should not automatically be seen as antisemitic [15].

House and Senate Democrats Wednesday morning introduced a new three-page bill that would restore the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules. Dubbed the Save the Internet Act, the proposal would also restore FCC authority over internet service providers, stripped away in the wake of last year’s controversial repeal.

The original FCC rules prohibited ISPs from unfairly throttling or blocking websites or services they compete with. It also required that ISPs be entirely transparent with consumers about just what kind of broadband connection they’re buying.

“The Save the Internet Act would enact true net neutrality protections by codifying the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order as a new, free-standing section of law,” Congressman Mike Doyle told attendees of a morning press conference.
“We are on the right side of history, and we will not give up this fight,” Senator Ed Markey noted. “It begins today, and this coalition will not stop until we win.”
…

ISPs have a rich history of trying to use their role as internet gatekeepers both to nickel and dime consumers—and to disadvantage competitors.

In 2005, one North Carolina ISP banned internet phone provider Vonage because it didn’t want the provider competing with its own phone services. In 2012, AT&T blocked FaceTime unless iPhone users ponied up more money. More recently, AT&T has been imposing arbitrary usage caps on broadband users if they use streaming competitors like Netflix, but not if they use AT&T’s own streaming offerings.

Mobile carriers like Sprint have toyed with throttling all video, music, or games unless users pay an additional fee. Verizon now offers “unlimited” data plans that ban HD streaming unless you pay them more money, and the company was also caught last year trying to throttle and upsell firefighters in the midst of a historic forest fire.
Given the lack of competition in many markets, users often can’t switch to another ISP if their existing provider behaves anti-competitively. That’s why net neutrality rules were seen as a useful stopgap measure until lawmakers are willing to embrace policies that drive more competition to market—something telecom lobbyists work tirelessly to avoid. [16]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been discovered to have asked former Justice Minister (in charge of administration of Judiciary) Jody Wilson-Raybould to help a major construction firm called SNC-Lavin Group Inc avoid criminal trial.
The reason behind his actions seems to be based on the fact that SNC-Lavalin employs 9,000 Canadians and is a major employer in Quebec, but in order to do so, repeatedly pressured Wilson-Raybould to avoid going to trial even after she had decided they needed to do so.
Wilson-Raybould was then unexpectedly demoted in January and became a whistleblower after leaving the government [17].

Sources

Source 1: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/claudiakoerner/anna-chambers-nypd-rape-charges-officers-dropped

Source 2: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/investigations/Source-Leaked-Documents-Show-the-US-Government-Tracking-Journalists-and-Advocates-Through-a-Secret-Database-506783231.html

Source 3: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/05/politics/ivanka-trump-security-clearance-pressure/index.html

Source 4: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/433037-watchdog-organization-calls-for-investigation-into-kushner-clearance

Source 5: https://www.axios.com/white-house-rejects-house-oversight-request-security-clearances-3dafb296-376f-4b9b-8bd3-0601f240c28f.html

Source 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YEjFs9JSKo

Source 7: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699976689/house-judiciary-launches-probe-of-allegations-of-obstruction-by-president-trump

Source 8: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/04/fox-news-reportedly-killed-stormy-daniels-story-its-downplayed-it-since/?utm_term=.7ae2994c2b0e

Source 9: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/06/700807729/dnc-bars-fox-news-from-hosting-2020-primary-debates

Source 10: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-nuclear/south-korea-sees-signs-north-korea-restoring-part-of-launch-site-it-promised-to-dismantle-idUSKCN1QM1ZA

Source 11: https://www.businessinsider.com/expos-on-russian-money-laundering-operation-entangles-banks-2019-3

Source 12: https://www.occrp.org/en/troikalaundromat/

Source 13: https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-closes-jerusalem-consulate-demoting-palestinian-mission/

Source 14: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-ilhan-omar-criticized-again-what-critics-call-anti-semitism-n978521

Source 15: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/7/18254616/2020-democrats-ilhan-omar-israel

Source 16: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3mk5w/democrats-unveil-new-bill-to-fully-restore-net-neutrality

Source 17: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-politics-snc-lavalin/under-pressure-canadas-trudeau-denies-impropriety-offers-no-apology-idUSKCN1QO1NF

Trumps Warm Embrace of Dictators 3/3/2019

The news about Trump siding with Kim Jong-un when it came to the torture and eventually death of US Citizen Otto Warmbier is troubling.
This is the third time that Trump has sided with a dictator and disagreed with US National Intelligence conclusions and reports.

Putin – Trump stands with Putin’s statement on not hacking our elections [1]
Mohammad Bin Salman – Trump states that MBS did not know about the killing of Jamaal Kashogi, a US Resident [2]
Kim Jong-un – Trump believes the Korean Dictator did not know about the torture and eventual death of Otto Warmbier, a US Citizen [3]

The irony of his poor international relations comes in how he treats US Allies in the exact opposite way, behaving much more crass and damaging well-planned and thought-out deals with countries like Iran.

Trump’s continued tariffs on Canadian and Mexican Steel and Aluminum. [4]
Planning to reduce forces in South Korea even though North Korea continues to build their Nuclear armaments and do not hold their end of the deal Trump made with Kim Jong-un. [5]
Left Japan off our list of countries exempted from our steel and aluminum tariffs implemented by Trump. [6]
Endangering European allies by ending the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. [7]
Calling Germany “Captive to Russia” due to allowing a pipeline to import gas from Russia (which is still not complete). [8]
And of course, removing the Iran Nuclear Deal. This deal allowed international checks on their nuclear stores and limits their uranium and nuclear stockpiles until 2030. Thankfully, the other countries in the deal (Germany, France, and Britain) will stay in and protect the deal. [9]

Sources

Source 1: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/donald-trump-putin-helsinki-summit/index.html

Source 2: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/20/trump-says-us-stands-with-saudi-arabia-despite-khashoggi-killing.html

Source 3: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/inconceivable-kim-jong-un-wasn-t-aware-otto-warmbier-ex-n977696

Source 4: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-trump-call-1.5039047

Source 5: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/world/asia/trump-troops-south-korea.html

Source 6: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/world/asia/japan-trump-tariffs-trade-.html

Source 7: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/world/europe/world-war-i-trump-macron.html

Source 8: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/11/17559364/trump-nato-leaders-russia-germany-captive

Source 9: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/world/middleeast/trump-iran-nuclear-deal.html

Equal Rights for Women 3/2/2019

The United States and other foreign countries are lagging behind when it comes to establishing equal rights for women in today’s day and age.

There is so much more that can be done.

” Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden scored full marks of 100 in the bank’s “Women, Business and the Law 2019” report.

…

But countries in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa averaged a score of 47.37, meaning the typical nation in those regions gives women under half the legal rights of men in the areas measured by the group.

…

The criteria analyzed were: going places, starting a job, getting paid, getting married, having children, running a business, managing assets and getting a pension. Those were broken down into questions such as: “Can a woman travel outside her home in the same way as a man?” and “Is there legislation specifically address domestic violence?”

Overall, the global average came in at 74.71 — an increase of more than four and a half points compared to a decade ago. But the score indicates that in the average nation, women receive just three-quarters of the legal rights that men do.

The United States scored 83.75, placing it outside the global top 50. The United Kingdom achieved a score of 97.5, Germany measured at 91.88, and Australia scored 96.88. “

Source

https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/03/02/europe/world-bank-gender-equality-report-intl/index.html

Foreign News 2/28/2019

For some Foreign News, I’d like to talk about four things happening while America was focused on Cohen:
The North Korea Summit, the new India-Pakistan conflict, Netanyahu being charged for corruption, and the Colombian-Venezuelan conflict.

Trump visited North Korea this week and left without a deal [1]. Based on what North Korea wanted to bargain for (which was a complete removal of sanctions against NK), I think it was a great thing for Trump to have turned down the agreement brought to the table. When scaled by what is expected from Trump, this was a success due to his refusal to accept a poor deal.

That being said, when compared with other presidents, he’s already made mistakes. He should not have gone to meet Kim Jong-un until there was something agreed upon. He should focus more on an agreement to have international inspectors review their facilities routinely and on an un-prepared schedule, just like what was done with the Iran Nuclear Deal created by Obama in conjunction with the UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany [2].

This week, India’s Air Force conducted air strikes in Kashmir (on the Pakistan side) in retaliation for attacks conducted by the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. No casualties we’re reported by either country, though key to the conflict is knowing that Pakistan has a history of supporting terrorist cells in an attempt to protect themselves from India [3].

Throughout the week, there has been exchanges of fire along the border, with minor wounds and casualties reported so far (4 dead).
On February 27th, Pakistan announced that they had carried out an airstrike on multiple targets and had shot down two Indian aircraft’s near the border and have taken one of the pilots hostage.

Currently, Pakistan is promising to return the pilot as a sign of good peace and to open negotiations to end the conflict [4].

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted for bribery and breach of trust charges. He’s been under investigation since 2017, and became the first sitting Prime Minister to be charged with a crime.

It will take years before the trial and judgement will be handed down, as well as going through the appeals process. In Israel’s laws, he cannot be removed until charges are formally laid, and the next election takes place on April 9th for a 4 year term [5].

This week, conflict’s began springing up on the Venezuelan-Colombian border due to the aid that’s trying to be given to Venezuela.

Part of the issue was due to Guard, the opposition candidate, traveling to the country for support, while another part is the over 300 people hospitalized on Colombia’s side of the border [6].

Colombia has called on the UN Human Rights Council to end Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis and to help in a transition to a free election, and their human rights councilor openly called out Nicolas Maduro as a dictator to the UN Human Rights Council [7].

Sources

Source 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/asia/trump-kim-vietnam-summit.html

Source 2: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33521655

Source 3: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/05/why-pakistan-supports-terrorist-groups-and-why-the-us-finds-it-so-hard-to-induce-change/

Source 4: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/asia/pakistan-india-pilot-kashmir.html

Source 5: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-indictment-intl/index.html

Source 6: https://www.vox.com/2019/2/24/18238579/venezuela-border-clashes-colombia-weekend-violence

Source 7: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-colombia-un/colombia-calls-at-un-for-action-on-venezuela-crisis-idUSKCN1QG1FU

China’s Concentration Camps 2/21/2019

Most people don’t even know about China’s Muslim Concentration Camps.
China, one of the most terrifying countries to live in, is is cementing it’s status as a literal Orwellian Communist Regime.

The authorities called it a free health check. Tahir Imin had his doubts.
They drew blood from the 38-year-old Muslim, scanned his face, recorded his voice and took his fingerprints. They didn’t bother to check his heart or kidneys, and they rebuffed his request to see the results.
“They said, ‘You don’t have the right to ask about this,’” Mr. Imin said. “‘If you want to ask more,’ they said, ‘you can go to the police.’”
Mr. Imin was one of millions of people caught up in a vast Chinese campaign of surveillance and oppression. To give it teeth, the Chinese authorities are collecting DNA — and they got unlikely corporate and academic help from the United States to do it.
China wants to make the country’s Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, more subservient to the Communist Party. It has detained up to a million people in what China calls “re-education” camps, drawing condemnation from human rights groups and a threat of sanctions from the Trump administration.
Collecting genetic material is a key part of China’s campaign, according to human rights groups and Uighur activists. They say a comprehensive DNA database could be used to chase down any Uighurs who resist conforming to the campaign.
Police forces in the United States and elsewhere use genetic material from family members to find suspects and solve crimes. Chinese officials, who are building a broad nationwide database of DNA samples, have cited the crime-fighting benefits of China’s own genetic studies.
To bolster their DNA capabilities, scientists affiliated with China’s police used equipment made by Thermo Fisher, a Massachusetts company. For comparison with Uighur DNA, they also relied on genetic material from people around the world that was provided by Kenneth Kidd, a prominent Yale University geneticist.
On Wednesday, Thermo Fisher said it would no longer sell its equipment in Xinjiang, the part of China where the campaign to track Uighurs is mostly taking place. The company said separately in an earlier statement to The New York Times that it was working with American officials to figure out how its technology was being used.

Source