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© Reuters/Carlos BarriaJoe Biden gestures as he delivers remarks during a visit to the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 2021.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump don't see eye-to-eye on much and, immediately after taking office in January, Biden set about undoing nearly every single Trump policy by executive order. However, hostility toward China is a rare policy shared by both Democrats and Republicans in Washington.
Biden proved this on Thursday, signing an executive order that prohibits US investment in 59 Chinese companies. The order is almost identical to one signed by Trump late last year, though it adds a handful of firms and shifts authority for enforcement from the Defense Department to the Treasury, a move that officials told the WashingtonPost beforehand is more legally sound.
The firms on the list were chosen due to their overt or alleged work for China's defense or surveillance sectors, or for their owners' ties to these sectors.
© AP Photo/Channi AnandIndia Kashmir Politician Killed:
Relatives of Rakesh Pandita, a politician who was killed late Wednesday, mourns at their residence in Jammu, India, Thursday, June.3, 2021. Assailants fatally shot the politician belonging to India’s ruling party in disputed Kashmir, police said Thursday, blaming separatist rebels for the attack. The unidentified assailants fired at Pandita late Wednesday in the southern town of Tral, where he was visiting a friend, police said. He was declared dead in a hospital.
Relatives of Rakesh Pandita, a politician who was killed late Wednesday, mourns at their residence in Jammu, India, Thursday, June.3, 2021. Assailants fatally shot the politician belonging to India’s ruling party in disputed Kashmir, police said Thursday, blaming separatist rebels for the attack. The unidentified assailants fired at Pandita late Wednesday in the southern town of Tral, where he was visiting a friend, police said. He was declared dead in a hospital.
The unidentified assailants shot Rakesh Pandita late Wednesday in the southern town of Tral, where he was visiting a friend, police said, blaming anti-India rebels for the attack. He was declared dead in a hospital.
Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting the central government for decades. Suspected militants carried out a string of deadly attacks last year on members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in Kashmir. Among those killed was a top BJP politician and his father and brother, who were also party members.
The National Security Agency (NSA) logo. Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images; (inset) Mette Frederiksen Wikipedia
On Tuesday, Denmark's public broadcaster reported that the US exploited its relationship with the Nordic nation's intelligence agency to spy on political figures in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden between 2012 and 2014.
America's National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly used internet cables to and from Denmark, which hosts key landing stations for the underwater lines, to intercept digital communications, including text messages, telephone calls, and online activity.
Comment: For other recent spying revelations, see:
- Spy equipment planted in Russian military attache car in The Hague, Moscow summons Dutch Charge d'Affaires
- Senior French military officer arrested on suspicion of spying for a 'foreign power'
- Denmark helped US spy on Angela Merkel and European allies
- Denmark tries to push through permanent 'epidemic law' that includes forced vaccination
- Germany investigates second suspect of spying for U.S.
© UnknownThe Gaza War and Carnage: Did Israel calculate the economic losses of its offensive?
Israel was just recovering from the COVID 19 pandemic. It had mass vaccinations underway and was hoping to get its economy going again. Did investments in Israel fall? What about business closures? These are some things which Israel may have neglected to factor into its calculations of the cost of war.
There has been a call from the BDS movement, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, to boycott firms complicit in Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine land. Did their voices get heard, did the international community react? These are some things that we shall delve into.
It was a brutal war. Israel bombed Gaza. There were civilian casualties on both sides; on the Israeli side, 11 were killed; on the Palestinian side, about 300. It was disproportionate. But another area was also uneven, the number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
Over 4000 Palestinian missiles were sent deep into the occupied territories, disrupting the lives of Israeli citizens and closing businesses across the occupied territories.
Comment: The War on Gaza was Netanyahu's 'Hail Mary' pass to reelection. Instead it took down the candidate as part of the cost and carnage.
See also:
- Israel's Lapid informs President Rivlin he has formed a government ousting Netanyahu
- Israeli opposition figures reach deal aimed at ousting Netanyahu
© Wisconsin SpotlightRacine, Wisconsin election line
In a "statement of concern" published on Monday, these "scholars" - political science, government, and journalism professors from American universities - warn that Republican-controlled state legislatures "are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections."
These include Texas, where a bill will likely pass that would allow more observers into polling places, criminalize the mailing of unsolicited ballots, and prohibit ballot drop boxes - the latter of which have been associated with so-called "ballot harvesting." The bill would also restrict after-hours voting, purge voter rolls of dead or inactive voters, and add more ID requirements for absentee ballots.
Republicans say these measures tighten security and prevent fraud. Democrats say they're racist. The scholars who penned Monday's letter are in agreement, and compared Republican talking points about protecting the "purity" of the vote to "arguments widely used across the Jim Crow South as reasons for restricting the Black vote."
© Getty Images/Pierre PerrinGold Reserves
Anton Siluanov said that the National Wealth Fund would reduce its share of dollars to zero within the next month. Speaking as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, he said that the process would be "fast enough" and would mirror a similar move by the country's central bank to reduce assets held in American currency.
Under the plans, the proportion of dollars in the fund will fall from 35% to zero, while assets held in euro and the Chinese yuan will increase to 40% and 30%, respectively. The share of the British pound will halve, from 10% to 5%, while the investment vehicle will buy into gold for the first time, with 20% of its assets to be hedged on the precious metal.
Speaking later on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov backed the decision, saying that "the de-dollarization process is constant. It is, in fact, now visible to the naked eye." He added that the move away from financial dependence on Washington "is taking place not only in our country, but also in many countries around the world, which have begun to experience concerns about the reliability of the main reserve currency."
Comment: The run to financial shelter has begun. The mad rush is just up the road.
© AFP/Helmut FohringerAustrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Kurz gave an interview to TASS on Thursday, ahead of his virtual appearance at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, where he will be speaking alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
According to Kurz, despite the wide range of existing disagreements between the EU and Russia, both parties have many topics on which they agree - for example, the fight against climate change or the non-proliferation of weaponry.
"It is obvious that the EU and Russia have clear differences on some issues, such as human rights or the territorial integrity of Ukraine. In the future, we should be able to both openly discuss differences and, at the same time, cooperate in areas of mutual interest. In the end, it is absolutely clear to me that peace in Europe is only possible with Russia, and not against it."Kurz highlighted Russia's importance to the EU as one of its most important trading partners, noting that about 600 Austrian companies currently operate in the Russian market, providing jobs in both nations.
Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett and Mansour Abbas in image purporting to show them reaching a deal. June 2, 2021.
Netanyahu has served as prime minister since 2009, the longest term of any Israeli p.m. He has so far survived a series of four elections in two years as Israeli politics stalemated.
The deal would give Bennett, 49- who has adamantly opposed a Palestinian state, pushed for annexation of West Bank lands, and bragged of killing Arabs — a wide-ranging coalition of political support from Lapid's Yesh Atid party, which has 17 seats in the Israeli parliament, to right-wing New Hope party, a breakaway from Netanyahu's party, to Labor and Meretz on the center-left.
Comment: So Netanyahu is finally gone, hopefully to face all the corruption charges he has managed to dodge for nearly a decade. Will the new government improve the Palestinian situation? Social media doesn't think so. Naftali Bennett may actually be worse, incredible as it may seem.
- Israel invokes 'fight for survival' response as it descends into racist state
- Israel's Lapid informs President Rivlin he has formed a government ousting Netanyahu
- Israel, the 'only democracy in the Middle East' rejects bill to 'maintain equal rights amongst all its citizens'
(L) Jeffery Epstein (R) Bill Gates
Less than a week after the initial announcement of the divorce, on May 7, the Daily Beast reported that Melinda Gates had allegedly been "deeply troubled" by Bill Gates's relationship with child sex trafficker and intelligence asset Jeffrey Epstein. The report suggested that Melinda was a major reason for her husband's decision to distance himself from Epstein around 2014 because of her discomfort with Epstein after they both met him in 2013. That previously unreported meeting had taken place at Epstein's mansion on New York's Upper East Side.
The Daily Beast also revealed that the details of the Gates's divorce had been decided several weeks prior to the official announcement. Then, on May 9, the Wall Street Journal published a report suggesting that the plans for divorce went back even farther, with Melinda having consulted divorce lawyers in 2019. Allegedly, that consultation was made after details of Bill Gates's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein had gained considerable mainstream media attention, including from the New York Times.
Comment: See also: The conflict in Kashmir