Tillerson in Russia, Xi and Trump Have a Call, French Gamers Can Now Kill Capitalists

Supporters of far-left French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon have created a video game called “Fiscal Kombat,” where players grab passing capitalists and shake them until money drops out of their pockets and is added to France’s coffers. International Monetary Fund head and convicted criminal Christine Lagarde even makes an appearance. Gamers can pick her up and throw her at…you guessed it! Oncoming capitalists!

Putin and Tillerson on Collision Course: As US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for his first visit to the country since taking office, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed his ongoing support for Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad and denied that the Russian-backed regime used chemical weapons in last week’s attack. Putin claimed that last week’s chemical attack was orchestrated by Syrian militants who are planning further “provocations” using chemical weapons that would be blamed on Assad’s government and used as a pretext for further US strikes. Putin said the situation reminded him of “the events in 2003 when U.S. envoys to the [UN] Security Council were demonstrating what they said were chemical weapons found in Iraq. We have seen it all already.”

The Trump administration countered by accusing Russia of trying to shield the Syrian government from blame for the deadly gas attack. In a four-page document, the White House refuted many of Moscow’s claims about the circumstances surrounding the attack. The report said that Syrian planes were in the vicinity of Khan Sheikhoun about 20 minutes before the attack and left shortly afterward. The report also stated that US intelligence found evidence that personnel who had previously been involved with Syria’s chemical weapons program were at Shayrat airfield last month making preparations for an upcoming attack and that those individuals were present at the airfield on the day of the attack.

Chinese Newspaper Issues Stark Warning to North Korea: Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump spoke by phone on Wednesday about escalating tensions with North Korea as Global Times, a prominent Chinese state-run newspaper, warned North Korea that it faced sanctions on oil imports if it tested a nuclear weapon. On Saturday, North Korea will celebrate the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder. There is worry that the occasion will be used to either stage a nuclear weapons test or launch yet another missile.

In its editorial, Global Times also reminded North Korea that the US ordered missile strikes against Syria last week and that President Trump has stated numerous times that the US is willing to take unilateral action against North Korea if necessary. The newspaper called on North Korea to avoid “head-on collision” with the US: “Not only is Washington brimming with confidence and arrogance following the missile attacks on Syria, but Trump is also willing to be regarded as a man who honors his promises.”

German Soccer Players in the Crosshair: In a highly brazen manner, members of German football club Borussia Dortmund–one of the country’s most well known teams–were attacked yesterday when three separate explosions detonated on their team bus as it was arriving at the L’Arrivée Hotel, the team’s usual pre-game stop. One athlete, Marc Bartra, was brought to the hospital with a fractured arm.  

The explosives, which have yet to be identified by German police, were strong enough to shatter the bus’ massive bulletproof windows. While it is unknown why the team was targeted, police identified a letter that was found in the surrounding area and that claimed responsibility. German police later confirmed that the Dortmund vs. AC Monaco game will continue as scheduled on Wednesday under “heightened security measures.”

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More Reads:

• Do we prefer unequal societies? Yes, argue scholars in Nature
• Is Harvard Business School the root of all evil as it pertains to corporate greed? Yes, says Duff McDonald (NYT)
• Speaking of Harvard Business School, a Harvard Business Review article says that Facebook is the root of all evil, as in the more you use it, the worse you feel
• If the health of the Great Barrier Reef is an index for badly we’ve mistreated nature and our habitat, then we’ve done a really bad job, and future generations will question our priorities (The Guardian)
• An article about a documentary that explores drugs, rampant corruption, and murderous hitmen in Mexico (Rolling Stone)
• A historian of conservatism looks back at how he and his peers failed to anticipate the rise of Trump (NYT)
• Has “winner-take-all urbanism” deepened inequality, segregation, and poverty in American cities? (The Atlantic)
• Yesterday, United Continental Holdings stock dropped 4%, taking close to $1 billion off the company’s market value. Later in the afternoon, after a you-better-apologize like-you-mean-it-in-order-to-save-yourself mea culpa from the CEO, the stock recovered, but its market value was still off by $250 million (CNN)  

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