On Our Weekly "Virtual Route 66" This Week: On the Week That Was in Our World

A new week is upon us.   Our team was on the prowl as we continued on our "Virtual Route 66" around the World as President Biden signed off on the Debt Ceiling, Turkey's new President began a new term, and as the war in Ukraine raged on--and as the US Presidential Election is gathering team.

We present the following courtesy the Economist, Counterpunch, Crooked Media and the Institute for Economics and Peace: 

The red and the black Conservative Americans are building a parallel economy For-profit polarisation

The baby-bust economy Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences What might change the world’s dire demographic trajectory?

Soldiers, go home Pakistan’s perma-crisis Imran Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, must be free to contest timely elections

Shine, no matter what Tina Turner turned a tough life into splendour The singer and ultimate performing artist died on May 24th, aged 83

Charlemagne Bakhmut and the spirit of Verdun Two small front-line towns that symbolise the horrors of war

 

Thursday, June 1, 2023 BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Disgraced former president Trump taking a shot at Meatball Ron’s favorite boogeyman We’re all sick of the fucking debt limit. But we’re also less than four days away from a global economic meltdown courtesy of the GOP, so we gotta talk about it. I don’t make the rules.   On Wednesday night, a bipartisan coalition in the House of Representatives passed the ransom note bill to raise the debt ceiling 314-117. Members on both ends of the political spectrum comprised much of the bill’s opposition. The bill faces possible changes, stiffer competition, and more procedural chokepoints in the Senate, all while lawmakers race against the clock to get it passed before June 5, the date the Treasury has projected the U.S. will run out of borrowing authority. Without that: sorry nana, sorry bond holders in China, not enough money to pay what we owe.   Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that the upper chamber will remain in session until President Biden gets the bill for signature. He urged members of his caucus not to offer amendments, which, if passed, would send the bill back to the House. That plan is already out the window. In some rare productive infighting, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced an amendment to the debt-limit bill  that would rescind its approval of the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline backed by Fossil-Fuel King Sen. Joe Manchin (W-VA).    The 300-mile pipeline would stretch between northwest West Virginia and southern Virginia, and the delegation of Virginia Democrats in Congress has vocally opposed it from the beginning. Kaine rightly pointed out that the pipeline has nothing to do with the debt limit and had already announced that he would file this amendment earlier in the week. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ed Markey (D-MA), our very good boys, both cited the provisions on the pipeline and fossil-fuel development in their statements announcing that they would vote against the bill. It looks like Senate Republicans are gearing up to get amendment-happy as well.    Under the Biden-McCarthy agreement, non-defense spending will remain mostly flat, while the military will, you guessed it, get a big fat increase. But that simply isn’t enough for the war hawks in the GOP who are very scared that China’s military will overpower America’s. Do they care that 11 million children in the United States live in poverty that could be alleviated by what would amount to a rounding error in the defense budget? They do not! Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on Fox News Wednesday night to claim the deal (which again, will increase an already-staggering $886 billion defense budget by 3.3 percent) is “a disaster for the United States military.”    A number of senators want to force votes on amendments to the bill that will retard the process. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) says he will agree to an expedited agreement but only if his amendment gets a vote, and he estimated that there would be between 10 and 12 amendments total. That’s…not great, given how ponderous our blubbering senators can be! Nevertheless, most of them seem confident that the bill will pass by Thursday night. Hard-right Senators like Lee, Graham, and Rand Paul (R-KY) have all but promised to gum up the works unless the bill adopts more aggressive spending cuts to all non-defense programs.  It’s gonna be a long night. Next week should be fun, too! In a frightening harbinger of the climate crisis to come, state lawmakers in Arizona have decided to halt housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, as well prohibit developers from building some new subdivisions, due to the dwindling water supply. Phoenix and its suburbs reside in Maricopa County, which receives more than half of its water supply from groundwater, while the rest comes from rivers, aqueducts, and recycled wastewater. But unlike some of the latter sources, groundwater is a finite resource, and can take thousands of years or longer to replenish. This halt in housing development will increase real-estate prices, and is likely to continue across the American southwest if climate change continues to go unaddressed and the 23-year drought in the region persists. But yeah, give another trillion dollars in federal funding to the military! The Federal Trade Commission disclosed in a Wednesday court filing that a former employee of Amazon’s Ring doorbell-camera unit spied on female customers for months in 2017 using cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms. The company will pay a $5.8 million settlement for privacy violations.   The Supreme Court dealt another blow to organized labor on Thursday in a ruling that will make it easier for employers to sue over strikes that cause property destruction. The (yikes) 8-1 decision sided with a Washington state concrete business, which sued the union representing its truck drivers when they were on strike.    President Biden tripped over a sandbag and fell onstage after delivering an address at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony (but he got right back up!). Surprisingly agile for an octogenarian.    Speaking of the Air Force, a new report shows that it tested a drone enabled by artificial intelligence to destroy specific targets, but when a human operator tried to override the drone’s mission, the A.I. ordered the drone to attack the human operator so the mission could be completed. Hasta la vista, baby?    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is reportedly planning to give January 6 security footage to far-right conspiracy theorist and avowed election denier Julie Kelly. Man, this guy is a non-stop great-decision machine.    Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) national security adviser has resigned after the Washington Post reported that he was behind the senator's, ahem, controversial strategy of stalling military nominations in an attempt to stop a new DOD policy that helps ensure abortion access for service members.  The stock market ticked up on Thursday as the bill to avert a GOP-imposed global financial crisis advanced through Congress. Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly threatened to retaliate against the United States if it crossed an ambiguous “red line” of excessive interference in defense of Ukraine. Nevertheless, the White House persisted. Last month, President Biden announced that the United States would help Ukraine obtain F-16 fighter jets, on top of the missiles, rocket launchers, advanced missile defense systems, drones, helicopters, and tanks it has already supplied or helped Kyiv obtain. So why are our national security officials ignoring Putin’s threats? Because of a general consensus since the war began that Putin’s threats have been all hot air. As Maxim Samorukov, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, observed, the Kremlin “has devalued its red lines so many times by saying certain things would be unacceptable and then doing nothing when they happen.” Russia’s demonstrated reluctance to retaliate has been the driving force behind Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s decision to encourage the White House and Western allies to do more. But Western officials know that Putin’s hesitancy is not fixed, and could easily change if the war persists. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley estimated in a recent interview with Foreign Affairs that Russia has suffered as many as 250,000 casualties since it invaded Ukraine.

 

May 30, 2023 ◯ Conflict ◯ Development ◯ Social ◯ Economics ◯ Politics

IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION Here's what you need to know: Belarus says West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms, Turkey's Erdogan triumphs in election test, South Korea and US hold the largest live-fire drills to respond to 'full-scale' attacks, Russia gold: UAE cashes in as sanctions bite, G7 officials to hold first meeting on AI regulation this week, neural implant helps paralyzed man walk again. Tweet this email  View this email on the web

SPECIAL EDITION: UKRAINE Belarus: West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms. Western countries left Belarus no choice but to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons and had better take heed not to "cross red lines" on key strategic issues, a senior Belarusian official was quoted as saying. African nations urged to end ‘neutrality’ in the Ukraine war. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called for certain African nations to end their neutrality over Russia's invasion of his country, and to endorse the call for Russia to withdraw from the country. Ukraine's Zelenskyy introduces Iran sanctions bill. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put forward a bill that would see Ukraine impose sanctions on Russian ally Iran for 50 years, a response to what Kyiv says is Tehran's supplying of weapons to Moscow.

POLITICS Turkey's Erdogan triumphs in election test, extending 20-year rule. President Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters celebrated an election win extending his rule into a third decade. Turkey's opposition braced themselves for ‘difficult days ahead’ against an increasingly autocratic government.  Saudi Arabia arrests over 12,000 people in one week. The Kingdom announced more than 12,000 arrests in a single week as it clamps down on residency, labour and security breaches, with arrests made by multiple security agencies. The arrests included 6,598 residency violations and 1,413 labour law violations. Mexican President increases tension with Peru. The outspoken Mexican leftist has repeatedly derided Boluarte as illegitimate. A day earlier, lawmakers in Peru declared Mexico's president was not welcome in the South American country, citing what they described as his meddling in their internal affairs.  Biden, McCarthy appear near two-year deal on US debt ceiling as default looms. U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy are closing in on a deal that would raise the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling for two years while capping spending on most items. Nigeria ex-oil Minister seeks $215 million in defamation lawsuit. Diezani Alison-Madueke filed a defamation lawsuit against the country’s anti-corruption agency, demanding $215 million in damages. The agency accused her of graft during five years at the helm of the West African nation’s key economic sector.

CONFLICT South Korea, US hold the largest live-fire drills to respond to 'full-scale' attacks. South Korean and US forces undertook live-fire exercises simulating a "full-scale attack" from North Korea. These are the biggest such drills to take place, demonstrating their ‘overwhelming military capability against the North's threats’. Kosovo: Fresh clashes as NATO troops called in to northern towns. NATO has condemned as ‘totally unacceptable’ attacks by demonstrators in Kosovo that left some 25 of its peacekeepers injured. Police and NATO troops clashed with Serb protesters in the north where there has been unrest over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors.  UN Chief: World ‘failing’ to protect civilians caught in conflict. The world is failing to protect civilians as the number of people caught up in conflicts and their humanitarian aftershocks skyrocketed last year, Antonio Guterres said. In 2022, the United Nations tallied a 53% in civilian deaths compared to the year prior. Senegalese government websites face cyberattack. Hackers linked to the ‘Anonymous’ hacking group took multiple Senegalese government websites offline last week. The group claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that ‘the people have the right to freely choose a President’. Sudan’s army recalls ex-soldiers as fighting persists. Sudan’s army has asked reservists and retired soldiers to re-enlist to boost its troops amid the ongoing war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Sudanese army has also asked the UN to replace its local envoy after pushing a political transition to civilian rule that some in the army opposed.

ECONOMICS From Russia with gold: UAE cashes in as sanctions bite. Russian customs records show that the UAE has become a key trade hub for Russian gold since Western sanctions over Ukraine cut Russia's more traditional export routes. The Gulf state imported 75.7 tonnes of Russian gold worth $4.3 billion, up from just 1.3 tonnes during 2021. South African Central Bank sounds alarm on threat of sanctions. South Africa’s central bank has warned of dire consequences should the country face censure due to its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The country adopted what a 'non-aligned stance' toward the war in Ukraine, abstaining from UN votes condemning Russia’s actions.  China's Wuhan finance regulator urges hundreds of firms to repay debt. The financial regulator of China's Wuhan city publicly exposed 259 firms with debt to the government and urged them to immediately pay up. The rare action from Wuhan's finance bureau comes as local governments in China become increasingly pressed by higher debt and expenses. Apple strikes major US-made semiconductor deal. Apple says it has struck a multi-billion-dollar deal with chipmaker Broadcom to use more US-made parts. The move comes as a trade row centred on the technology industry continues to intensify between Washington and Beijing. Congo to hike stake in copper, cobalt venture with China. The DRC aims to boost its stake in a cobalt and copper joint venture with Chinese firms to 70% from 32% on concerns that the deal gives away too much of Congo's resources with little benefit to the country.

DEVELOPMENT G7 officials to hold first meeting on AI regulation this week. G7 nation officials will meet to consider problems posed by generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. The working group will consider issues such as intellectual property protection, disinformation and how the technology should be governed. Taiwan to fast-track communications protection. Facing earthquakes and potential conflict with China, Taiwan aims to fast-track its plan for a resilient digital infrastructure. Audrey Tang, head of Taiwan's Digital Affairs Ministry, wants the island to be prepared to withstand a total communications collapse in the event of an emergency by the end of 2024. Musk’s Neuralink receives approval for brain implant tests. Elon Musk's start-up Neuralink said it has received approval from US regulators to test its brain implants in humans. Neuralink said clearance from the FDA for its first in-human clinical study is "an important first step" for its technology. Iraq launches $17 billion road and rail project to link Asia and Europe. Iraq launched a $17 billion project designed to link a major commodities port on its southern coast by rail and roads across to the border with Turkey, in a move designed to transform the country's economy after decades of war and crisis. China deletes 1.4 million social media posts. China's cyberspace regulator said 1.4 million social media posts have been deleted following a two-month probe into alleged misinformation, illegal profiteering, and impersonation of state officials, among other ‘pronounced problems.’

SOCIAL Neural implant helps paralyzed man walk again. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed a neural implant which helped a paralyzed man gain his mobility again. The implant transmits the brain stimuli to the spinal cord via an externally worn processing unit. The human brain shows a weird preference for sounds from the left. According to the brain scans of 13 adults, positive human sounds, like laughter, trigger stronger neural activity in the brain's auditory system when they are heard from the left-hand side, suggesting the human auditory cortex is specially tuned to the direction of sounds that make us happy. Modern slavery most common in North Korea and Eritrea. North Korea, Eritrea and Mauritania have the highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world. The Global Slavery Index notes a “worsening” situation globally since its last survey five years earlier. Rights group Walk Free says up to 50 million people were experiencing forced labour in 2021. World’s oldest Homo sapiens footprint discovered – and it’s 153,000 years old. Scientists working in Africa identified the track made by Homo sapiens in the Garden Route National Park, west of the Cape Coast town of Knysna. It is older than the two previously discovered tracks by 25,000 years. Creating electricity from moisture in the air, even in the Sahara Desert. A 'science-fiction' device developed by scientists in Massachusetts would allow people to pull electricity out of thin air. According to the scientists, any kind of material can harvest electricity from the air—it just needs to have holes smaller than 100 nm (nanometers), or less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair.