RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-is-losing-the-trade-war-with-trump-1532729725?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s

One thing came through loud and clear in President Trump’s press conference Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. When they announced an alliance against third parties’ “unfair trading practices,” they didn’t even have to mention China by name for listeners to know who their target was. Cooperation between the U.S. and EU will squeeze China’s protectionist model, and even before this agreement, there’s been evidence that China is already running up the white flag.

Yes, China is acting tough in one sense, quickly imposing tariffs in retaliation for those enacted by the Trump administration. But while U.S. stocks approach all-time highs and the dollar grows stronger, Chinese stocks are in a bear market, down 25% since January. The yuan had its worst single month ever in June, and is well on its way to a repeat this month. Chinese corporate bonds have defaulted at a record rate in the past six months, yet this week China unveiled a new stimulus program designed to encourage even more corporate borrowing.

That’s probably why Yi Gang, a governor of the People’s Bank of China, took the extraordinary step of channeling Herbert Hoover, saying in a statement this month that “the fundamentals of China’s economy are sound.” And it’s why Sun Guofeng, head of the PBOC’s financial research institute, said, China “will not make the yuan’s exchange rate a tool to cope with trade conflicts.”

Weakening one’s currency is a standard weapon in trade wars, and one that China has often been accused of using—including in a tweet by Mr. Trump last week. Devaluation would be even more dangerous in this case because of China’s power to dump the $1.4 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities it holds. But by denying its intention to plunge the yuan, China has disarmed itself voluntarily. This was no act of noble pacifism; it had to be done. Devaluing the currency would risk scaring investors away, an existential threat to an emerging economy. For China, whose state-capitalism model has so far never produced a recession, such capital flight might expose previously hidden economic weaknesses.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12760/australia-immigration-model

“Europeans think it’s easy in Australia to control our borders, but they’re just making up excuses for doing nothing themselves.” — Major General (Ret.) Jim Molan, co-author of Australia’s asylum policy.

“We have got hundreds, maybe thousands of people drowning in the attempts to get from Africa to Europe… [The] only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats”. — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

“My long experience in Australian politics has been that whenever a government is seen to have immigration flows under control, public support for immigration increases, when the reverse occurs hostility to immigration rises.” — Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

It must be crushing to live in a country where governance might be questionable at best, and economic opportunities limited, if that. People know they are risking their lives in search of a better break. But if the West is not to be overwhelmed, these problems seriously need to be addressed.

Four years ago, the Australian government sparked criticism after it ran an advertisement aimed at discouraging asylum seekers from traveling illegally to the country. “No Way”, the poster read. “You will not make Australia home. If you get on a boat without a visa, you will not end up in Australia. Any vessel seeking illegally to enter Australia will be intercepted and safely removed beyond Australian waters”.

It was an extremely tough message, but it worked. “Australia’s migration rate is the lowest it’s been in 10 years”, said Peter Dutton, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister. Speaking last week on the Today Show, Dutton added that the drop was about “restoring integrity to our border”. The Australians are apparently happy about that. A new poll just revealed that 72% of voters support Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s immigration policy. Australia, a Western democracy, has for years, tried to deal with a migration crisis from the sea.

“Europeans think it’s easy in Australia to control our borders, but they’re just making up excuses for doing nothing themselves,” said retired major general Jim Molan, co-author of Australia’s asylum policy.

In 2013, Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister under the slogan “Stop the boats”. “Stop the boats” is now also the slogan of the new Italy’s new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, who, since the formation of a new government last month, has been totally focused on curbing immigration from “the world’s most lethal” route: across the Mediterranean.

It would seem that the best possible model for Europe to implement is a skills-based immigration system to curb the illegal one.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001784.html
CONTENTS

ANTISEMITIC HATE POSTS ALLOWED BY FACEBOOK (KATE GIBBONS-THE TIMES OF LONDON

U.K.’S JEWISH PAPERS DENOUNCE LABOUR PARTY AS “EXISTENTIAL THREAT” (STEPHEN CASTLE- NEW YORK TIMES)

JEREMY CORBIN IS BLIND TO RACISM IN HIS PARTY (DANIEL FINKELSTEIN- THE TIMES OF LONDON)

LABOUR ACTS AGAINST MARGARET HODGE FOR CALLING CORBIN RACIST (PIPPA CRERAR AND HEATHER STEWART -THE GUARDIAN)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pro-palestinian-bds-movement-versus-german-culture-festivals-a-1217664.html

EXCERPT: “Belgian choreographer Alain Platel and American composer Elliott Sharp also sent letters of protest. Sharp wrote that the decision to rescind the Young Fathers’ invitation had really upset him. He wrote that it has “must be possible to criticize a violent, authoritarian regime without it being labeled as anti-Semitism.” On this issue, Sharp wrote, “I speak as a Jew and son of a Holocaust survivor.”

The Middle East conflict has arrived in Germany in the form of boycotts against German cultural festivals. The development raises the question of where the line is crossed between criticizing Israel as a state and anti-Semitism.

The Young Fathers sound a bit like gospel singers who have long been locked up in a church — and have now been released into freedom, into a world of unlimited possibilities, but also one filled with many truths and conflicts. They sing about identity and power, violence and war, love and sex. And often about God and the devil.

It is the music of doubtful young men, one white and two black, a Scottish pop group in the digital postmodern era. Critics have dubbed them “the most interesting newish band in the English-speaking world,” and Stefanie Carp, the new artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale, an annual music and cultural festival in Germany’s Ruhr region, was proud when she succeeded in booking the Young Fathers for a concert. In a cheerful announcement, organizers of the festival, which begins in August, described the group’s music as “genre-defying.”

But it’s possible that the band member’s political views may indeed fit into a category — and not a nice one: anti-Semitism. The mere question as to whether they can be classified as such has been the subject of considerable controversy and the debate is creating problems for Carp, with some journalists and politicians demanding her resignation. Last week, The New York Times even reported on the case. The story’s  tone: The criticism of the festival has little to do with the band’s music, but much to do with German history.