Refactoring the World

We have recently devoted a fair bit of coverage to North Korea’s nuclear weapons testing and development. Internally some of the team feel this is unnecessary as it is simply North Korea SNAFU (situation normal all fouled up) saber rattling. While others feel this is actually an uniquely dangerous situation because we have lapsed into unjustly treating all North Korea incidents as normal despite how bizarre and perilous the situation. Many factors converge for the alarmists: China clearly does not seem to be able to influence North Korea, the international community does not understand North Korea’s actions and motivations, and we have an untested U.S. President.

India’s Victims And Beneficiaries Of Progress: Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, announced the Sardar Sarovar dam completed after three decades of construction. The dam is the second largest in the world by volume of concrete used and was the center of major environmental controversies. Activists estimate 40,000 families across hundreds of villages inside the “submerge zone” will lose their homes as a result of the dam’s completion. Many of the dislocated families are Adivasis, or Tribals, one of India’s poorest communities that has borne the brunt of the country’s large-scale development projects. The dam’s completion should bring much needed relief to three states regularly suffering drought by providing drinking water, irrigation, and hydroelectricity.

President Trump Hopes to Streamline the United Nations: Tuesday is Day Two of United Nations week in New York City, and all eyes are on President Trump as he delivers his highly anticipated speech to the General Assembly. The U.S. supports U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ reform goals which take aim at the organization’s outsized bureaucracy and mismanagement. Trump hosted a reform meeting Monday attended by roughly 128 countries that had signed on to a U.S.-drafted 10-point political declaration advocating changes the administration wants to see.

Candidate Trump had complained about the U.S. paying a disproportionate amount of money to the U.N., and he reiterated the point in his short remarks Monday, saying “We must ensure that no one and no member state shoulders a disproportionate share of the burden and that’s militarily or financially.” As the U.N.’s biggest contributor, the U.S. provides 22% of its $5.4 billion biennial core budget and 28.5% of its $7.3 billion peacekeeping budget.

Annual mandates are coming up for Security Council renewal, and the US is reviewing each of the U.N.’s peacekeeping missions with an eye to cutting costs. “The United Nations must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistleblowers and focus on results rather than on process,” Trump said. But when asked if the U.N. refugee agency could accomplish its current missions, the High Commissioner for Refugees answered: “I would say no. U.S. aid is vital to what we do to support refugees around the world.”

UK Police Arrest Two Suspects in London Tube Bombing: UK police are questioning two suspects arrested over the weekend on suspicion of attempting to blow up a London Underground train. An 18-year-old man and a 21-year-old were arrested separately by police on Saturday, a day after the incident, and searches were conducted at two addresses on the outskirts of London. Both men had been fostered by the same elderly couple, and at least one was a refugee from Iraq, local officials said. The 18-year-old was arrested by police in the departure lounge of the Dover ferry port. The second man was arrested by police at a fast food restaurant in a west London suburb that is on the route to Heathrow Airport. Police have not released the names of either suspect.

The U.S and North Korea’s Scary Game Of  Stop It! – Make Me!: President Donald Trump has vowed that North Korea will never be able to threaten the United States with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile. Kim Jong-Un is equally determined to  have nuclear weapons that can reach the U.S. with powerful, nuclear-tipped missiles. It’s a totally frightening standoff that, to date, has shown no signs of resolution. The U.N. Security Council has repeatedly imposed sanctions against the North, and neighboring countries China and Russia have repeatedly called for a peaceful solution and talks to resolve the issue. Nothing has convinced Kim to back off his missile launches, the latest just last Friday.

Ahead of President Trump’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, the U.S. military and South Korea staged bombing drills over the Korean peninsula, Russia and China began naval exercises off the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the U.N. Security Council had run out of options to get Kim to stop his nuclear program. Please don’t let the next step be Fire and Fury. That’s Lose-Lose for Everyone.

Italy Has Stemmed Migrant Flows From North Africa…But How, Exactly?: More than 180,000 migrants arrived in Italy last year from North Africa, with over 5,000 people dying in the Mediterranean Sea. Italian officials have stated they felt abandoned by their European neighbors, especially France, which refused to take in more migrants. So the Italians decided to go it alone. This past July, Italy persuaded the militias that control the migrant trade along the Libyan coast to keep their boats onshore. As a result, migrant arrivals in Italy have plummeted in recent months. In August alone, they fell 85 percent.

But just how Marco Minniti, Italy’s interior minister, and the Italian government “turned human traffickers into gatekeepers” is a contentious issue and has provoked questions about the methods and the humanitarian costs. Some allege that Italy has paid off Libya’s most notorious warlords (at the risk of further destabilizing the fractured North African country), while condemning returned migrants to misery in militia-run detention centers inside Libya that have been likened to concentration camps. The Italian government flatly denies paying off Libya’s armed militias. Instead, it attributes its success in stemming migrant flows to diplomacy and a range of initiatives that reach far and wide into Libya, which still has no central authority. Stopping human trafficking by relying on the same armed groups that have hugely profited from the trade in the very recent past? Observers and analysts are skeptical, and so are we.

Someone Will Be Stinkin’ Rich In Switzerland: Prosecutors are investigating after toilets in a bank and three restaurants in Geneva were plugged up by about $100,000 in 500-euro notes. “We are not so interested in the motive but we want to be sure of the origin of the money,” spokesperson Vincent Derouand said, adding that neither throwing money away nor blocking a toilet was a crime (Phew! That’s a relief). Derouand said there was no immediate reason to think it was dirty money (well, uh…maybe a tiny bit dirty…). Last year, the European Central Bank discontinued the 500-euro note over concerns that it was often being used for illicit activities, including money laundering. Well, it turns out that this money will need to be laundered. Would that constitute a crime? Hmm…  

Please support Daily Pnut!