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Ruble flexes its muscle after Moody's boosts Russia's rating to investment grade


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 19:16 UTC
Russian ruble
© Iliya Pitalev / Sputnik
The Russian ruble has been gaining ground on the US dollar and the euro after global credit rating agency Moody's upgraded Russia's sovereign rating to investment grade with a stable outlook.

The ruble was trading at 65.85 against the greenback at 07:50 GMT, rising by 0.17 percent on Monday and marking a nearly three-percent gain on the year.

The Russian currency is trading 0.18 percent higher against the euro at 74.34, representing a 3.8 percent growth since January 1.

Comment: Prudent management, avoiding debt, reducing reliance on foreign money, and investing in domestic infrastructure have all paid off for Russia. The US could take a lesson.

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Hate crime probe in UK after Jewish cemetery trashed & grave of a prominent rabbi smashed


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 17:43 UTC
Vandalized grave
© Shmuli Brown / Twitter
Vandals have targeted a Jewish cemetery in Manchester, England, smashing a rabbi's grave and causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage in what police have described as an "abhorrent act of hate."

The grave of a prominent rabbi was opened and dozens of headstones were damaged at the Phillips Park Jewish cemetery in Whitefield. Three of the chapels were damaged, with two stained-glass windows smashed and a number of sinks pulled from the walls during the incident, believed to have taken place sometime between Friday afternoon and early Saturday.

The cemetery's CCTV system was also stolen in what Greater Manchester Police said was a "clear attempt to cover their tracks."
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Attention

Indonesian police apologize for using a live snake as an interrogation tool


Channel News Asia
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 17:48 UTC
snake interrogation
© Screengrab from Twitter video
The man, a suspected thief, was seen on video with the snake wrapped around his neck and waist.
Indonesian police have apologised and pledged disciplinary action after officers draped a live snake around the neck of a suspect to persuade him to confess during an interrogation session in the easternmost area of Papua.

A video circulated online shows a man being questioned about stolen mobile phones. He was seated with his hands tethered behind his back yelling in distress as a snake is pushed towards his face by an officer.

The interrogator is heard laughing as the man screamed in fear.

Police revealed that the incident happened recently, during a crackdown on petty crime in Jayawijaya district, according to an Associated Press report on Monday (Feb 11).

The man, who can been seen writhing on the ground for much of the time is asked by an officer: "How may times have you stolen mobile phones?"
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Fish

CNN accuses Trump of fish stick collusion with Russia


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 17:33 UTC
fish stick
© Global Look Press / Karl-Josef Hildenbrand
There may be many stinky things about fish sticks in school lunches, but CNN smelled President Donald Trump helping Russians, albeit "inadvertently." Social media responded with some fishy, and hilarious, comments.

The report from last week conveyed the concerns of genuine Alaska pollock producers who said that about half of fish sticks in US school cafeterias are made from pollock caught by Russia that is processed and pumped with additives in China.

American fishermen have long been frustrated by this competition and hoped that Trump would solve this problem when he slapped Beijing with tariffs. But it turned out that the "confusing nomenclature and an arcane coding system" used by trade and customs officials to label goods saw no difference between who caught this type of fish and where, and still called it 'Alaska Pollock'.
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Handcuffs

Charged with murder: Missouri jail nurse allegedly poisoned husband, set house on fire in bid to marry inmate

Karma Allen
ABC News
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 01:16 UTC
Amy Murray on was arrested
© Miller County, Missouri Sheriff's Office
Amy Murray on was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 07, 2019, in connection with the December death of her husband.
Police charged a jail nurse in Missouri with murder after she allegedly poisoned her husband and tried to cover it up by setting their home on fire -- all in a bid to marry an inmate.

Amy Murray was arrested on Thursday in connection with the December death of her husband, Joshua Murray, who she allegedly set on fire and poisoned with antifreeze, according to a probable cause statement.

She allegedly set the couple's bedroom on fire and left with her 11-year-old son and dogs to go to McDonald's, according to the statement. As an alibi, Murray said she found the house on fire when she returned and the smoke was too heavy for her to go inside, according to a probable cause statement.

Police said the fire was set intentionally and autopsy results indicated that Joshua Murray died before the fire began, according to the Miller County Sheriff's Office.
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Stock Down

Paul Krugman: US wildly unprepared for imminent recession

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:49 UTC
paul krugman economy
© Bloomberg News
Paul Krugman
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman is possibly the world's most famous Keynesian economist thanks to his position on the New York Times editorial board. And he just joined the growing chorus of voices calling for a US recession in the next two years.

The US economy is struggling for two reasons: The scope for a powerful monetary and fiscal response is limited, and the current "leadership" under President Trump lacks the competence to adequately respond to a crisis, during an interview with Bloomberg in Dubai.

But moving past the US, Krugman echoed the IMF's finding that the world is "dangerously unprepared" for the coming global recession, citing the slowdown in China, and a Europe inching ever-closer to a eurozone-wide recession, as the two biggest risks the global economy.

Comment: Some see even worse:

Several red flags warning us that we're speeding towards an economic collapse - RIGHT NOW

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Family

How 'asymmetrical multiculturalism' has generated a populist blowback

Eric Kaufmann
The Nation
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:26 UTC
trump supporter rally
© Carlos Barria/Reuters
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pa., in 2016.
Toward a solution for the rising distemper in the West

Right-wing populism and left-wing identity politics have risen in tandem since 2013. Why?

The connecting thread is the contradictions of multiculturalism, which encourage a "common enemy" form of minority identity while repressing even moderate expressions of majority identity. The former produces antagonistic identity politics on the left, while both contribute to populist blowback on the right.

In the high culture, the advent of social media helped the cultural Left experience its Third Great Awakening, matching the waves of enthusiasm of the late '60s and late '80s. Meanwhile, multiculturalism's half-century sway has presided over profound ethnic shifts, producing mounting conservative discontent. By narrowing the space for debating immigration, progressive taboos prevented mainstream liberals and conservatives from reaching a settlement on the issue. We are now reaping the results.
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At least 99 dead, many hospitalized after consuming toxic alcohol in India


Channel News Asia
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 05:54 UTC
Toxic alcohol
© AFP Photo/STR
Cheap, locally-made liquor is common in parts of rural India, where bad or adulterated batches can have deadly effects for poor consumers.
At least 99 people have died and scores have been hospitalised in northern India after drinking toxic alcohol, triggering a crackdown against bootleggers, officials said on Monday (Feb 11).

News of the deaths in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has trickled in over the past three days, with police suspecting the moonshine had been cut with methanol.

Cheap, locally-made liquor is common in parts of rural India and bootleggers often add methanol - a highly toxic form of alcohol sometimes used as an anti-freeze - to their product to increase its strength.

If ingested in large quantities, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death.

In one district of Uttar Pradesh 59 people had died after consuming toxic alcohol, police spokesman Shailendra Kumar Sharma told AFP.
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Chart Bar

New student radicals find violence more acceptable than those with non-college degrees

Audacious Epigone
The Unz Reader
Sat, 09 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
violent students
Revisiting a previous post on the expressed tolerance for violence as a means of achieving a better society, another interesting demographic angle I didn't cover now jumps out at me. The idea of using violence is far more popular among those with college educations than among those without one. Percentages, by age and educational attainment, who agree that "to achieve my idea of a better society, violent acts are acceptable":

student radicals
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Black Cat 2

Animal activists demand ban on declawing cats in Russia


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 11:29 UTC
Cats
Based on a successful online petition calling for a ban on declawing, Moscow lawmakers have advanced a proposal that would protect cats from this painful surgery on the owners' whim.

If approved by the Lower House, the bill would prohibit veterinarians from performing declawing surgeries unless they're necessary for medical reasons, such as the removal of cancerous nail bed tumors. Currently, some owners declaw their cats to keep them from scratching people and ruining furniture.

Declawing, or onychectomy, is a surgical procedure that removes the claws on either both front feet or all four on a cat, by cutting off the last toe joints. If performed on a human being, declawing would be like cutting off each finger at the last knuckle.
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