• Turkey tightens grip on Syria's Afrin, and continues to threaten Manbij
  
• Israel-Iran missile barrages in Syria take a pause on Thursday
  

• Turkey to open a new border crossing to Syria's Afrin (12-Apr-2018)
  
  
• Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey's forces enter (16-Mar-2018)
  
  
• Socialists and feminists to act as 'human shields' protecting Kurds from Turkey in Afrin Syria (12-Mar-2018)
  
  
• Turkey begins its air and ground invasion of Syria's Afrin (21-Jan-2018)
  

• Israel braces for attack from Iran in retaliation for Sunday's airstrike (12-Apr-2018)
  
  
• Syrian war escalates sharply, after Israel, Iran, Turkey and Russia all lose aircraft (11-Feb-2018)
  
  
• Israeli warplanes strike Syrian weapons site, as UN confirms al-Assad's Sarin use (08-Sep-2017)
  
  
• Israel's warplanes strike weapons depot inside Syria near Damascus (28-Apr-2017)
  
  
• Israel and Syria have unprecedented missile clash over Jordan (19-Mar-2017)
  

• Climate change activists struggle to replace US climate change money
  
• China backs out of its climate change commitments with 'bifurcation'
  

• UN Climate Change conference appears to be ending in farce (14-Dec-2007)
  
  
• African leaders once again furious that they won't get a climate change bonanza (18-Nov-2017)
  
  
• 175 countries sign farcical climate change agreement (23-Apr-2016)
  
  
• Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change (29-Dec-2015)
  
  
• Horse manure and climate change (23-Sep-2014)
  

• North Korea schedules dismantling of nuclear test site as TV ceremony
  
• North Korea offers series of theatrical noncommittal gestures
  
• The most likely Kim-Trump meeting outcome: Mutual accusations and recriminations
  

• North Korea's negotiating position collapses, along with Mount Mantap (27-Apr-2018)
  
  
• Chinese geologists warn of looming nuclear disaster from North Korean tests (01-Nov-2017)
  

• North Korean media has quoted Kim Jong-un as saying that no
  further tests were needed, since testing had already been successfully
  completed.
  
  
• As described, the dismantling of the nuclear test site is
  meaningless, since it couldn't be used again anyway. As I understand
  it, the North could bore tunnels into another mountain, and quickly
  create a new test site.
  
  
• With big fanfare, Kim Jong-un released three American hostages
  this week. They should never have been abducted in the first place,
  and Kim can easily abduct three more Americans if he doesn't get his
  way.
  
  
• Kim has not agreed to release similarly abducted Japanese and
  South Korean hostages and prisoners of war.
  
  
• Kim Jong-un has been conducting a charm offensive since the Seoul
  olympics games began in January, with singing and dancing girls,
  capped off by a magical meeting between Kim and South Korea's
  president Moon Jae-in.
  
  
• The meeting between Kim and Moon produced a "Panmunjom
  Declaration" that promised peace in our time, but provided no
  concessions.
  
  
• The Panmunjom Declaration said “South and North Korea confirmed
  the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a
  nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.” However, the word "denuclearization"
  has been used for decades by the North Koreans as including the
  withdrawal of American troops from South Korea and the dissolution of
  the United States-South Korea alliance.
  
  
• The Panmunjom Declaration says nothing about ending development of
  ballistic missiles.
  
  
• North Korea promised to stop nuclear weapons and ballistic missile
  tests until the meeting Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, but development
  is believed to have continued without testing.
  
  
• A series of North Korean leaders -- Kim Il-sung (the grandfather),
  Kim Jong-il (the father), and Kim Jong-un (the child) have starved,
  tortured and brutalized the North Korean people for decades, saying
  that it was all worth it because one day North Korea would be nuclear
  power and would be a great nation, a peer to the United States. North
  Korea will never be a great nation under Kim Jong-un, but it's close
  to being a nuclear power, and there's no possibility that they'll simply
  throw away decades of starvation and torture and dismantle their
  nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles without a war. If Kim
  seriously recommended denuclearization, then in my opinion one of his
  own generals would shoot him dead.

• China angrily demands that the US retract the new North Korea sanctions (25-Feb-2018)
  
  
• US considers military options as North Korea continues nuclear weapons development during Olympics (21-Feb-2018)
  
  
• What was Kim Yo-jong thinking as she returned to North Korea from the Olympics? (12-Feb-2018)
  
  
• NY Times publishes a generational analysis of South Korea (30-Jan-2018)
  
  
• North Korea's Olympics publicity stunt gains widespread media adoration (18-Jan-2018)
  
  
• North Korea reveals major change in strategic direction (05-Jan-2018)
  

• ISIS linked family of six bombs three churches in Indonesia
  
• Saturday's Paris knife attacker had links to jihadists in Syria
  
• Growth of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in Indonesia
  

• Third terrorist bomb blast in Indonesia in three years (09-Sep-2004)
  
  
• Threat of Christmas terror attacks in Indonesia (25-Dec-2005)
  
  
• Rise of ISIS spawns new jihadist groups in Indonesia (15-Jul-2014)
  
  
• Tensions grow with China over Indonesia's Natuna Islands (21-Oct-2014)
  
  
• China's coast guard warship rams vessel in Indonesian waters (24-Mar-2016)
  
  
• China demands that Indonesia end plans to rename its own territorial waters (10-Sep-2017)
  

• Gaza violence surges in Palestinian 'Great March for Return' into Israel
  
• Opening of US embassy in Jerusalem stirs strong reactions
  

• Mideast Roadmap - Will it bring peace? (01-May-2003)
  
• Gaza Palestinians burn tires to hide protests from Israel's army (07-Apr-2018)
  
  
• Gaza Palestinian 'Land Day' demonstrations lead to violence with Israel's army (01-Apr-2018)
  
  
• Israel announces that it will ban al-Jazeera in Israel (07-Aug-2017)
  
  
• US embassy to Jerusalem will commemorate Israel's founding -- Palestinian 'Naqba Day' (24-Feb-2018)
  
  
• Palestinian reconciliation talks ignore Hamas commitment to destroy Israel (12-Oct-2017)
  
  
• Channeling Sisyphus, Trump and Abbas say Mideast peace not as hard as it looks (04-May-2017)
  

• Taliban launches major military operation in Farah province in Afghanistan
  
• Afghan officials blame Iran and Pakistan
  
• Afghan government continues to lose control to the Taliban
  

• Nine journalists killed by suicide bombers in Kabul Afghanistan (01-May-2018)
  
  
• ISIS-K suicide bomber kills over 50 in Kabul, Afghanistan, registering to vote (23-Apr-2018)
  
  
• New reports show that Taliban are gaining territory in Afghanistan (01-Feb-2018)
  
  
• Trump promises victory in Afghanistan by redefining 'victory' (23-Aug-2017)
  
  
• Kabul bombing brings back memories of bloody 1990s Afghan civil war (03-Jun-2017)
  
  
• Brief recent generational history of Afghanistan (25-Jul-2017)
  

• China says that its military exercises are intended to threaten Taiwan
  
• Taiwan, in cooperation with the U.S., strengthens defenses against China
  

• Trump administration approves selling submarine technology to Taiwan (08-Apr-2018)
  
  
• Taiwan's president responds to military threats from China (01-Jan-2017)
  
  
• China demands new Taiwan leader explicitly affirm that Taiwan is part of China (26-May-2016)
  
  
• Taiwan's pro-independence party wins historic presidential election (17-Jan-2016)
  
  
• China's 'Anti-secession law' provokes massive Taiwan riots (27-Mar-2005)
  

• New Ebola outbreak in major DR Congo city is called potentially 'explosive'
  
• Applying lessons learned, WHO and MSF move quickly to contain Ebola outbreak
  

• With a large, densely packed population, it will be easy for
  the virus to spread from person to person through human contact. Once
  infected, a person may not show symptoms for as many as 21 days,
  meaning that an infected person could infect many other people before
  he even knows of his own infection. It's theoretically possible that
  this has already happened, and that there will be many new cases in
  the next 3-4 weeks.
  
  
• Mbandaka is a port city on the Congo River, one of the longest and
  deepest rivers in the world, almost 3,000 miles long. With heavy
  traffic traveling from port to port along the river, the infection
  could spread to DRC's capital city Kinshasa, with a population of 11.6
  million, or it could spread to Brazzaville, population 2 million, the
  capital city of the neighboring country, the Republic of The Congo
  (sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from DRC).
  Kinshasa and Brazzaville are situated opposite each other on the Congo
  River south of Mbandaka, and once Ebola reaches those two cities, it
  could spread further to other countries, or to other
  continents.

• DR Congo boycotts its own international humanitarian conference for DR Congo (14-Apr-2018)
  
  
• DR Congo's Joseph Kabila brings the art of power and corruption to new heights (24-Jul-2017)
  
  
• West Africa at significant economic risk as Ebola panic intensifies (16-Aug-2014)
  
  
• World Health Organization says Ebola outbreak is 'in decline' (30-Oct-2014)
  
  
• Forecasting the Ebola endgame and Global Risk (19-Oct-2014)
  

• Iranian police clash with marginalized Qashqai tribe in southern Iran
  
• Iranian police kill two as new protests erupt in Iran
  

• Anti-government, anti-war and economic protests spread across Iran (30-Dec-2017)
  
  
• Iran's 'moderate pragmatist' Hashemi Rafsanjani dies at age 82 (09-Jan-2017)
  
  
• As Iran's election approaches, generational conflict becomes vicious (06-Feb-2016)
  
  
• Theological split in Iran widens as opposition protests continue (09-Nov-2009)
  
  
• Tens of thousands protest in Tehran after Rafsanjani says Iran is 'in crisis' (18-Jul-2009)
  
  
• Iranian police swoop down on women with loose headscarves (25-Apr-2007)
  

• China escalates militarization of South China Sea, preparing for war
  
• China prepares for war on multiple fronts
  

• China deploys cruise and surface-to-air missiles in South China Sea (04-May-2018)
  
  
• China resumes military buildup in Bhutan's Doklam Plateau (19-Dec-2017)
  
  
• China says that its military exercises are intended to threaten Taiwan (17-May-2018)
  

(05-19-2018, 10:04 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: Writing these articles makes it starkly clear how much utter craziness
there is in the world. Would America be better off if it invaded and
annexed Cuba?  Would Britain be better off if it invaded and annexed
Ireland?  No one would even consider such insane moves.  So then why
on earth does China think it will be better off by invading and
annexing Doklam Plateau?  One doesn't have to be a full-fledged
pacifist to see how insane this is, but that's what the Chinese are
doing.

China has repeatedly hidden its intentions, and will continue to do so
until it's prepared to launch its attack.  China is following exactly
the same path that the Nazis followed.  Xi Jinping's "Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics" is the same as Hitler's National Socialism.
Like the Nazis, the Chinese believe that they're a Master Race that
will conquer the world.  They'd have to be crazy to believe that they
could succeed at that, but the Chinese are crazy.  And they'll do
exactly what the Nazis did -- bring destruction and catastrophe to
themselves and the entire world.  New Delhi TV and The Print (India) and South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) and The Diplomat

(05-20-2018, 01:58 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote:

(05-19-2018, 10:04 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: Writing these articles makes it starkly clear how much utter craziness
there is in the world. Would America be better off if it invaded and
annexed Cuba?  Would Britain be better off if it invaded and annexed
Ireland?  No one would even consider such insane moves.  So then why
on earth does China think it will be better off by invading and
annexing Doklam Plateau?  One doesn't have to be a full-fledged
pacifist to see how insane this is, but that's what the Chinese are
doing.

China has repeatedly hidden its intentions, and will continue to do so
until it's prepared to launch its attack.  China is following exactly
the same path that the Nazis followed.  Xi Jinping's "Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics" is the same as Hitler's National Socialism.
Like the Nazis, the Chinese believe that they're a Master Race that
will conquer the world.  They'd have to be crazy to believe that they
could succeed at that, but the Chinese are crazy.  And they'll do
exactly what the Nazis did -- bring destruction and catastrophe to
themselves and the entire world.  New Delhi TV and The Print (India) and South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) and The Diplomat

An aggressive country conquering a small island and attacking a border ridge is a far cry from "conquer the world". You consistently refuse to contemplate a war over Taiwan being just that: a war over Taiwan. Nor is your delusional notion that China would never build aircraft carriers has any basis in reality. All public evidence indicates that Taiwan is the fundamental objective of Chinese aggression and all evidence indicates that a Chinese carrier fleet is part of China's long-term plans.

• Stage is set for a new humanitarian catastrophe in Syria's Idlib province
  
• Turkey warns Syria's Bashar al-Assad not to attack Idlib province
  

• Turkey's troops mass on border, preparing to invade northern Syria (20-Jan-2018)
  
  
• Syria demands 'immediately' pullout of Turkey's forces from Idlib province (15-Oct-2017)
  
  
• Terrorist bombings in Damascus, airstrikes in Idlib, break Syria's ceasefire (16-Mar-2017)
  
  
• U.S. preparing for worst-case chemical weapons scenario in Syria (13-Oct-2012)
  
  
• Syria crosses a 'red line' with chemical weapons (20-Mar-2013)
  

• China will end 'one-child policy' and all limits on births
  
• China's gender imbalance caused by one-child policy has been disastrous
  

• China's end of one-child policy doesn't dent Vietnamese wife trade (18-Nov-2013)
  
  
• Chinese peasants use fertility drugs to get around 'one-child' policy (26-May-2007)
  
  
• A generational view of China's growing melamine food disaster (17-Nov-2008)
  
  
• Boys, boys, boys! China is running out of girls. (01-Feb-2007)
  

• European markets in turmoil over Italy's unbridled spending proposals
  
• Key proposals from Italy's M5S-League coalition
  

• Bank run worsens Italy's banking crisis (28-Dec-2016)
  
  
• Italy announces bank bailout that will 'bail in' ordinary depositors (22-Dec-2016)
  
  
• Italy bank crisis more dangerous to EU than Brexit (05-Jul-2016)
  

• Debt: To tackle Italy's crushing public debt, the new
  government will remove the debt by cutting taxes and spending more
  money. (I wish I could tell you that this is a joke, but it isn't.)
  According to the policy document:
  
  <QUOTE>"The government's actions will target a program of
  public debt reduction not through revenue based on taxes and
  austerity, policies that have not achieved their goal, but rather
  through increased GDP by the revival of internal
  demand."<END QUOTE>
  
  Here you see how the two sides are supporting each other. The
  left-wing M5S will spend more money, and the right-wing League will
  reduce taxes.
  
  
• Basic income: Five-Star's flagship basic income plan will
  be implemented, guaranteeing a minimum income &euro;780 per month to
  each person.
  
  
• Minimum wage and economy: There will be a minimum wage, but
  the amount was unspecified. The development of the "green-economy"
  and use of electric cars is also a priority.
  
  
• Immigration: They'll crack down on smuggling networks, and
  speed up expulsions of illegal immigrants. They also want the rest of
  the EU to share in the responsibility for the immigrants, but the EU
  has abandoned Italy on this issue for years, and that's not likely to
  change.
  
  
• Muslim integration: Unauthorized mosques will be closed
  down, and a new law on the inclusion of "community involvement" in the
  building of mosques will be reversed.
  
  
• Pensions: The retirement age will be reduced from 67 to
  enable retirement when the sum of a person's age and years of social
  security contributions reach 100. So someone who works continually
  starting at age 18 would retire at age 59.
  
  
• Security: In the name of self-defense individuals would be
  allowed to shoot anyone who enters their home, even in the absence of
  a clear physical threat.
  
  
• Russia: Sanctions against Russia should be removed.
  
  
• Education: Free nursery schooling for children of "Italian
  families." All illegal Roma camps to be closed and Roma children who
  don't attend school removed from their families.
  
  
• Leaving the eurozone: This is supported by both parties,
  but it's been removed from the policy proposal, apparently to avoid
  scaring people.

• France, Italy have bitter feud over migrants as quota system collapses (16-Jun-2015)
  
  
• Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days (30-Jun-2017)
  
  
• After Brexit and Trump, Italy's Five-Star-Movement may be the next surprise (18-Nov-2016)
  
  
• German official says that 'two clowns have won' in Italy (01-Mar-2013)
  

(05-22-2018, 10:34 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:

• Leaving the eurozone: This is supported by both parties,
  but it's been removed from the policy proposal, apparently to avoid
  scaring people.
  

(05-22-2018, 10:34 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:

• Leaving the eurozone: This is supported by both parties,
  but it's been removed from the policy proposal, apparently to avoid
  scaring people.
  

(05-23-2018, 09:13 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: > How else are they going to fund their proposals than with an EU
> bailout?