China vs. the US, The Great 21st Century Rivalry
| SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE |
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“Politics is war without blood, while war is politics with blood.” – Mao Zedong “All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.” – Zhou Enlai (Mao’s Second in Command) |
| IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ |
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Israel’s Impressive Iranian Intelligence Exposé or a Colin Powell Moment?:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always been opposed to the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), and heartily supports a US pull out. In a televised prime-time speech Monday, he presented what he claimed was “new and conclusive proof” that Iran has continued to hide and expand its nuclear weapons know-how after the JCPOA was signed in 2015. He showed a cabinet filled with folders that he said contained copies of 55,000 pages of incriminating evidence, and a screen to which close to 200 CDs had been affixed that he said held videos and photos of clandestine Iranian research and development. President Trump said the evidence proved he was 100% right about the bad JCPOA. Olli Heinonen, former chief inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said his department first saw the same documentation in 2005. After studying it, IAEA determined substantial work on Iran’s nuclear weapons development had ceased in 2003, and there was no evidence of weapons research after 2009. In 2011, the IAEA declassified the information and released it to the public. Since 2015, the IAEA has been conducting on-site visits and verifying Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA. Heinonen, who watched Netanyahu’s presentation, said: “I just saw a lot of pictures I had seen before. Some of the images that we saw I briefed to the board in closed session in February 2008.” Netanyahu did not say how Israel obtained the half ton of “evidence” from a Tehran warehouse, but said he would send it to the IAEA for review. Additional Read: Israel’s Iran documents show nuclear deal ‘was built on lies’ (BBC) |
| NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ |
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What Happens When We Want a War and Falsify “Intelligence” (ahem…Colin Powell): In 2003, Iraqi Gen. Nijm al-Jabouri was a brigadier general working on national air defenses when the US invaded his country, cutting off communication between Iraqi troops and the military command. He and thousands of other officers left the capital and returned home. “I took my family and went to Mosul to go back to my tribe,” he said. “Everyone returned to their tribes—we knew a big mess was coming in Baghdad.” US administrator Paul Bremer quickly disbanded Iraq’s 350,000 member army, and literally all hell broke loose. Jabouri was happy the dictatorial regime was gone and hopeful that the new Iraq would be orderly, liberal, and secular. “We thought we would breathe freedom, we would become like Europe.” Instead, he says, “We returned to the Dark Ages.” Rather than bring order and freedom, unfortunately, the past 15 years have brought only death and destruction. It has caused many Iraqis to look back longingly for the stability that existed under Saddam Hussein. “Those who came after haven’t improved the infrastructure, they haven’t built anything, they haven’t done anything for the people,” says Jabouri. “Saddam’s was a brutal regime. But now, I really regret hitting the statue.” Today, General Jabouri is in charge of security for Mosul. It has been eight months since fighting ended, and most of the city is still in rubble. The government hasn’t restored electricity or running water in Mosul’s Old City, and hundreds of residents with no other choices have returned to try living in their damaged houses. |
| MIXED NUTS: QUICK TAKES ON WORLD NEWS |
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-A record was set Monday, and not in a good way. It was the deadliest day for journalists in Afghanistan in 16 years, and one of the most lethal worldwide. Nine journalists were among 25 people killed in twin bombings in Kabul, and another was shot and killed in a separate attack outside Kabul. (NYT) -Richard Painter was George W. Bush’s chief White House ethics lawyer. But he’s been so disgusted by Donald Trump and his Republican “collaborators” that he’s decided to switch parties and run as a Democrat for the Minnesota Senate seat vacated by Al Franken. “Our democracy is at stake,” Painter said. “I’m going to put my country first.” He will challenge Tina Smith, who was appointed to fill Franken’s seat, in the Democratic primary in August. (The Guardian) -Spies who retired used to go away quietly. Now they write op-eds, appear on talk shows, and send tweets criticizing the president. Former CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden is one of a growing number of former intelligence officials who have eschewed obscurity in favor of regularly speaking their minds in public. (NPR) -For two years, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been testing food samples for residues of glyphosate (the active ingredient in hundreds of widely used herbicide products) but has not yet released any official results. Glyphosate is a weedkiller that has been linked to cancer. Internal documents obtained by The Guardian show the FDA has had trouble finding any food that does not carry trace amounts of the pesticide. (The Guardian) -The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) hosts the world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission, which is tasked in part with protecting civilians from armed militia groups that are especially active in the eastern part of the country. Recently, a wave of fighting has broken out in the province of Ituri, on the border with Uganda. More than 260 people have died and more than 200,000 have fled their homes since December, but the reasons for the conflict are unclear. (NYT) More News Reads:
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| KEEPING OUR EYE ON |
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The Sino-American Trade War: American officials arrive in Beijing this week to open high-level trade talks, but China has already drawn a line in the sand. Senior Beijing officials say there will be no discussion of President Trump’s two toughest trade demands: a mandatory $100 billion cut in America’s $375 billion annual trade deficit with China, and curbs on Beijing’s $300 billion plan to finance their industrial upgrade into advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, semiconductors, electric cars, and commercial aircraft. China would be willing to discuss shrinking the annual deficit, but wants to do so by buying more high-tech American goods. The US has blocked such deals in the past over concerns the goods might have military value. China would also buy more oil, natural gas, and coal, and help finance extra pipelines and other infrastructure needed to move them to China. But it will not negotiate any curbs on Made in China 2025, which includes large-scale government assistance to favored industries in advanced-technology manufacturing. China is clearly frustrated with Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese goods. Its hardline position suggests Beijing feels its economy in now big enough and resilient enough to hold its own with the US. May 1 is the deadline for Trump to decide whether to grant permanent exemptions to the steel and aluminum tariffs; the inscrutable nature of his decision-making has already caused chaos in international supply markets. China will surely insist on removing any tariff threats before a final trade deal can be struck. |
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| LOOSE NUTS: FASCINATING NEWS |
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-A deadly smell emanating from a university library in Melbourne, Australia sent 500 students and staff reeling from the building on Saturday. 40 firefighters and specialists arrived on the scene prepared to find poisonous gas or another life-threatening chemical hazard. After an anxious, eyes-watering search, a putrefying Southeast Asian fruit, the durian, was found stashed in a cupboard. Firefighters said it’d been a rotten afternoon on campus. (TIME) -Scientists from the UK and US are embarking on a five-year research project to study the precarious state of the vast, remote Thwaites glacier in west Antarctica. The glacier is already responsible for a 4% sea-level rise, and scientists are keen to document any firm indication that the glacier could be responding to a warmer climate, in turn causing faster ice melt that could augur disaster for coastal areas of the globe. Due to the seriousness of the expedition, the principal research vessel will be named the RSS Sir David Attenborough, instead of its originally-christened name, Boaty McBoatface. (The Guardian) -According to a new report by Pew Research Center, fewer women are getting married these days. Instead they’re simply living with their significant other, even if children are involved. Marriage rates in the US have dropped significantly in the past 40 years, and the age of first marriage is rising. And 2017 marked a new high in the percentage of cohabiting parents – 35%. Apparently couples just aren’t feeling the pressure their folks did. One of those young unmarried parents said the only grief he’d ever gotten was from his live-in girlfriend’s grandparents. (BBC) -A whole lot has been written about the opioid prescription drug problem. Now attention is being drawn to America’s other prescription drug problem: benzodiazepines. They’re frequently prescribed for anxiety and insomnia. Benzos for short, are a class of medicines known as sedative-hypnotics, with names like Lorazepam (Ativan), Valium, and Xanax. A recent essay in The New England Journal of Medicine spotlights massive growth in the use and abuse of these drugs, including that benzo overdose deaths have risen sevenfold in the past 20 years. (NPR) More Fascinating News:
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