Economy
However, many details of the deal still appear murky. The agreement includes changes regarding intellectual property, technology and financial services. Beijing said it would substantially increase agricultural purchases, but didn’t specify how much, and Trump has insisted that China will buy more American crops.
Delhi Police were ‘uncontrollable’ as they unleashed violence at Jamia Millia Islamia, students say (RS)
For Abdul, it was the end of a long evening that had begun with a demonstration in South Delhi against the amendments to the Citizenship Act, which speeds up the naturalisation process for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Many fear that the Citizenship Act will be used in conjunction with the National Register of Citizens promised by the Bharatiya Janata Party to marginalise India’s 200 million Muslims.
Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi’s India (jdargis)
The change in Kashmir upended more than half a century of careful politics, but the Indian press reacted with nearly uniform approval. Ever since Modi was first elected Prime Minister, in 2014, he has been recasting the story of India, from that of a secular democracy accommodating a uniquely diverse population to that of a Hindu nation that dominates its minorities, especially the country’s two hundred million Muslims. Modi and his allies have squeezed, bullied, and smothered the press into endorsing what they call the “New India.”
Paul Volcker’s Long Shadow (newsbuoy)
Less discussed was Volcker’s role at the behest of President Richard Nixon in taking the dollar off the gold standard, which he called “the single most important event of his career.” He evidently intended for another form of stable exchange system to replace the Bretton Woods system it destroyed, but that did not happen. Instead, freeing the dollar from gold unleashed an unaccountable central banking system that went wild printing money for the benefit of private Wall Street and London financial interests.
Canadians travelling to or through U.S. should pay close attention to their withering rights (westcoastjan)
While far less violent than the horrors at the southern boundary of the United States, problems arising across the northern U.S. line are alarming. Incidents of racial profiling against travellers of colour have risen significantly, and the number of people turned back by U.S. border guards has seen an increase in recent years.
The most recent incursion by U.S. border officials comes in the form of amendments made earlier this year to the set of laws that facilitate cross-border movement, known as the Canada-United States Preclearance Agreement.
Startup plans to allow consumers to purchase homes without a mortgage (edelinski)
How does it actually work? Fleq charges rent to the homebuyers. The company says once the buyer has paid for 100% of the home, it will hand over the title – cutting any mortgage down payment or interest rates out of the process. But if the buyer wants to move before paying for the home completely, they would simply split the profits with Fleq based on how much of the home hey have paid off.
William F. Buckley Never Fooled James Baldwin (newsbuoy)
Buckley’s name seldom passed Baldwin’s lips in the years after their encounters in 1965. Late in life, though, as Baldwin found himself so deeply alienated from Ronald Reagan’s America, Buckley was back on his mind. During a discussion of “Blacks and Jews” in 1984, Baldwin explained that he felt a “certain bitterness” toward his Jewish “ex-running buddies” who had become “neoconservatives.” Unlike “William Buckley, from whom obviously I expect nothing,” Baldwin was disappointed by the fact that some American Jews had come under the spell of “a peculiarly vindictive form of American neofascism.” Buckley’s neofascism, Baldwin seemed to be suggesting, was to be expected; his “old running buddies” should have known better.
Wisconsin judge’s ruling could purge 200,000 from voter rolls (TS)
“I don’t want to see someone deactivated but I don’t write the law,” said Malloy, who was appointed in 2002 by the then Republican governor, Scott McCallum, and has since been re-elected. “There’s no basis for saying 12 to 24 months is a good time frame. It’s not that difficult to do it sooner … If you don’t like [it], you have to go back to the legislature.”
Special Report: Icebound – The climate-change secrets of 19th century ship’s logbooks (tmn)
For the past decade, its far-flung volunteers have shown that the Jeannette’s logbooks, and others like them, are more than what Melville called “the records … of our two years of toil and suffering.” They are rich repositories of data that can help us understand how profoundly the Earth’s climate has changed and what might happen to it in the future.
U.N. Climate Summit Goes To Extra Time, But Ends With Major Questions Unresolved (TS)
“The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle the climate crisis. But we must not give up, and I will not give up,” he tweeted. “I am more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and a no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise.”
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon up by more than double: data (LesPhelps)
Another satellite-based system used by the INPE known as PRODES, considered more reliable but slower to compile data, reported in late November that in the 12 months beginning August 2018, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon had passed the 10,000 square kilometer threshold for the first time since 2008.
That represented a 43 percent increase from the preceding 12-month period.
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