The Young Autocrats in Their Thirties
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Congratulations to Eric C. for being the winner of last week’s Daily Pnut Week in Review! Eric is a financial analyst currently living in Norcross, GA. Here are the correct answers. |
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North Korea’s Prince Charming Prepares For Trump: Apparently North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un charmed the pants off everybody in last week’s historic Korean summit in Seoul. Gone was the porky princeling with the bizarro ‘do who had people killed right and left on his way to the top. In his place was someone “rational, reasonable, accommodating, and accessible…frank, open-minded, and courteous.” Oh, and someone with a mastery of the issues “from A to Z,” a really mature 34-year-old who “didn’t need help from aides or assistants.” Chung Yung-woo, a former national-security adviser and chief negotiator with North Korea said: “Kim is playing a high-risk, high-return survival game…He’s far more sophisticated than his grandfather…He’s far more strategic, not swayed by emotions. That’s why he wins every time he plays games with the outside world. So far, he’s never lost a bet.” Kim Jong-un does have an aunt who lives in New York. She has been living in the United States since 1998 and has raised suspicions regarding Kim’s age. Kim is on the list of autocrats in their 30s right now: Kim Jong-un (32, 33, or 34), Mohammad bin Salman (32), and Mark Zuckerberg (33). Here is a list of state leaders by age. Millennial power! Despite what stereotypes there are about millennials, baby boomers, or any other generation, when a group is in power, they will do what previous generations did: Maximize their own position and power. (Washington Post, Wikipedia) |
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-An ancient virus that can cause leukemia and lymphoma is wreaking havoc in remote regions of central Australia. More than 40% of adults, particularly in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, are infected with the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1, or HTLV-1. While only discovered about 40 years ago, the virus’s DNA can be found in 1,500-year-old Andean mummies, and can be spread by sex, by blood contact, even by breastfeeding. HTLV-1 is sometimes called a cousin of the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, and except for some Japanese efforts, almost nothing has been done to try developing a vaccine to treat it. (CNN) -Since taking office in 2013, President Nicolás Maduro has allowed the world-class HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment program that was Venezuela’s under former president Hugo Chavez, to crumble. As a result of government disinterest, a profound shortage of medicine, and widespread ignorance, HIV is spreading rapidly throughout the Orinoco River Delta in eastern Venezuela, and hundreds of the Warao, the indigenous people living there, are dying of AIDS. (NYT) –Two girls in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand were raped and then set on fire afterward. India is reeling from a series of violent sex crimes, including the rape and murder earlier this year of an eight-year-old girl. Lawmakers recently approved the death penalty for the rape of a young child. 40,000 rape cases were reported in 2016; many more undoubtedly went unreported. In India, rape is increasingly used as an instrument to assert power and intimidate the powerless; unsurprising, critics believe, in a hierarchical, patriarchal, and increasingly polarized society, where hate is used to divide people and garner votes. (BBC) –Nowhere is hate used more tyrannically than against India’s Dalits (formerly Untouchables). They rank at the bottom of an unforgiving Hindu caste hierarchy. Many thousands of Dalits protested against a Supreme Court ruling, which they said diluted a law meant to protect them. The court had ordered safeguards against “misuse” of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, popularly known as the SC/ST Act. A heart-wrenching photographic exhibition in Mumbai recently documented Dalit families who had lost loved ones to prejudice and violence. (BBC) More News Reads:
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Mattis’s Military: The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is legislation that authorizes the level of US defense spending and sets policies controlling how the funding is used. Both houses of Congress must pass a defense spending bill every year. It is such important legislation that it is often used as a mechanism for a broad range of policy measures. The NDAA for fiscal year 2019 is currently working its way through Congress. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is an inter-agency task force that reviews foreign investment in the US with the goal of preventing deals being made that would harm America. The Trump administration wants to reduce Chinese access to US technology and slow down its plans to dominate key technology sectors. One really good way to accomplish the latter (curb Chinese access to US technology) would be to marry it up with the former (CFIUS). Attaching measures toughening CFIUS to the defense bill is a surefire way to be sure the measures become law. Cue US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. On Friday, Mattis wrote to the Armed Services committees in both chambers with a request to include in the NDAA measures that would broaden the powers of CFIUS. “Of particular concern is the national security risk that may arise from (China’s) coercive industrial policies that force the transfer of technology and associated support through joint ventures,” Mattis wrote. He also supported another measure that would force a foreign buyer of vacant land to go through CFIUS, as possible proximity to a military facility could certainly have national security implications. Additional read: China needs semiconductors to speed up and catch up and perhaps surpass the United States in terms of technology and military might. But it doesn’t have the capacity right now to build semiconductors at home. And this is a major reason why China has historically looked overseas to develop and own such technology. (Bloomberg) |
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-Can You Overdose on Happiness? The science and philosophy of deep brain stimulation. Doctors already face ethical issues about when to prescribe antidepressant medication. Alleviating depression has become an even more complicated issue as doctors narrow in on how quickly to bring about happiness via deep brain stimulation. Just how much stimulation and happiness can (and should) the brain take? (Nautilus) -Hockey is a notoriously pugilistic sport with enforcers, checks, and brawls. One hockey player has been licking his opponents (two so far) and has not been penalized yet for his actions. He has been warned by the National Hockey League that he will be disciplined if his licking continues. (Bleacher Report) – Extreme and runaway inequality characterizes the United States today: “In 2017 the three richest Americans held more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of the population — no surprise when you consider that incomes for the bottom 50 percent have been stagnant since 1980. And, “if you’re a stock-market investor, you might have benefited along the way, but only about half of Americans own any stock at all, and 84 percent of all stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10 percent.” (The Sun) More Fascinating News:
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