Fly Like a G7
August 26, 2019
“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.” – Robert B. Cialdini
USA Against the World
President Trump attended this weekend’s annual G7 conference, hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron in the seaside resort of Biarritz, but he didn’t attend several important meetings on issues he has no interest in — like the environment and climate change — which administration officials called “niche issues.
Trump learned that the Iranian foreign minister had flown in on Friday to meet privately with Macron, who has taken the lead in trying to diffuse escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington ever since the president pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Trump downplayed Macron’s mediation efforts, saying he would continue with his own initiatives vis-a-vis Iran.
Trump is the only leader of the Group of Seven nations — including France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Japan — to push for the re-admittance of Russia, expelled in 2014 after Putin invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. A European official who declined to be named said Russia was the thorniest issue discussed at a dinner on Saturday. The president has said it was “certainly possible” he would invite Russia to join in when the US hosts the group in 2020.
Sunday morning Trump had breakfast with British PM Boris Johnson, the only US ally with whom he feels politically aligned. When reporters asked the president if he’d had any second thoughts on the trade war with China, Trump made a rare admission. “I have second thoughts about everything,” he said, indicating he might soften his hard-line stance on tariffs on Chinese goods which many economists believe are causing a global economic slump. Hours later aides insisted Trump did not hear the question, and that he’d only regretted not imposing higher tariffs.
The Divide in the West
- When Richard Grenell, President Trump’s ambassador to Germany, arrived in Berlin last year, there were many plans to welcome him as was the custom, including speaking invitations and social engagements.
- The very important non-profit organization Atlantik-Brücke has worked to “deepen the collaboration between Germany, Europe and America on all levels” for almost 70 years.
- For every new chief US diplomat that arrives the Atlantik-Brücke organizes a big dinner, an event that has become a regular tradition.
- But Grenell wasn’t interested in attending that, or several other planned events; he turned them down and has had no contact with the group since. The radio silence between Trump’s representative in Berlin and the most important German-American lobby group is symptomatic of a relationship that has reached a new low-point. According to a former US ambassador to NATO it is “a crisis [in the US-German relationship] I would never have expected to occur in our time.” (Spiegel)
From Benjamin To Benny
- Polls show roughly half of Israelis want the Benjamin Netanyahu era to end. Since last April’s election the PM has failed to form a coalition government with his usual array of right-wing and ultra-religious parties.
- Former army chief of staff Benny Gantz’s upstart Blue and White party fought Netanyahu’s reigning Likud party to a tie last April, and Gantz should be Netanyahu’s strongest competitor for the do-over September 17 election.
- But with just a little over three weeks to go, Gantz’s strategy is indecipherable, his message muddled, and voters don’t know what to think. (NYT)
- Israeli Airstrike Hits Weapons Depot in Iraq (NYT, $)
- Hezbollah Says Drones That Crashed in Beirut Suburbs Came from Israel (NYT, $)
All Aboard The Coral Corral
- On August 16, an Australian couple sailing a catamaran to Fiji were the first to spot a rock rubble slick of pumice stones nearly 58 square miles, or 37,066 acres in size, floating in the Pacific toward Queensland.
- The pumice raft was created when an underwater volcano erupted off Tonga. A Queensland geologist said the raft will be the temporary home for billions of marine organisms, including barnacles, corals, crabs, snails and worms, that will tag along as it travels toward Australia and becomes a “potential mechanism for restocking the Great Barrier Reef.” (Guardian)
- Great Australian cafe war ends with ‘insanely painful’ coffee cup tattoo: When Fraser Harvey crowned himself his local coffee shop’s No 1 customer he thought he had no competition. He was wrong (Guardian)
Additional World News
- Justin Trudeau: the rise and fall of a political brand – Thanks to his clever use of social media, he was dubbed the first prime minister of the Instagram age – but after four years in power, cracks in his image have started to show. (Guardian)
- Hong Kong police deploy water cannons as violence returns to protests (WaPo, $)
- As Clashes Over Hong Kong Reach Australia, Speaking Up Brings Death Threats: Fear of attacks — and of the consequences of speaking out for family members who remain in China — is keeping many in the Chinese community here quiet. (NYT, $)
- India’s Move in Kashmir: More Than 2,000 Rounded Up With No Recourse (NYT, $)
- Pakistan Leader Vents Frustration at India: ‘No Point in Talking to Them’ (NYT, $)
- The future of food: Why farming is moving indoors (BBC)
- Facebook Bans Ads From The Epoch Times (NYT, $)
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What Could Have Lead To This?
- Newark, New Jersey’s lead contaminated water crisis has been more than three years in the making. Residents feel officials have been slow to act and critics are beginning to compare what is happening to the disaster in Flint, Michigan.
- Newark is currently handing out two cases of 24 half-liter bottles for each residence, regardless of how many people live there.
- New Jersey senator and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Cory Booker, who was mayor of the city between 2006 and 2013, tweeted that the “water emergency” represented a broader “national crisis of lead-contaminated water disproportionately hit[ting] poor black and brown communities like my own.” (Guardian)
Additional USA News
- In Los Angeles, only people of color are sentenced to death: The county’s prosecutor has won death sentences for 22 defendants, none of them white, report shows (Guardian) And Landmark US case to expose rampant racial bias behind the death penalty: Top capital lawyers head to North Carolina as judges consider the cases of four inmates who faced ‘bleached’ juries (Guardian)
- Meltdown On Main Street: Inside The Breakdown Of The GOP’s Moderate Wing (NPR)
- Elizabeth Warren Slams Student Loan Watchdog Appointment As ‘Outrageous’ (NPR)
- A story of two McCain’s: ‘Goodbye, Old Man’: How a McCain came home from war to mourn his famous father (WaPo, $) And Did an astronaut commit an earthly crime from the International Space Station? A couple’s domestic troubles on Earth, it seemed, had extended into outer space. (Boston)
- Electoral College Members Can Defy Voters’ Wishes, Court Rules (NYT, $)
Lose The Fat Or Lose The Fad?
- Currently trending in the dieting world is intermittent fasting, which involves alternating intervals of extreme calorie reduction with periods of normal eating, and restricted eating hours, which requires meals be eaten much earlier in the day.
- A new study published last month in the journal Obesity showed that research subjects who were fasting for 18 hours a day, and who finished eating by 2 pm, had lower levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin and higher levels of the satiety hormone peptide YY. Early time-restricted feeding also tended to lower people’s desire to eat and boosted their fullness across the day, though it didn’t affect how many calories they burned.
- But Harvard Health Publishing fills you in on the cons as well as the pros of this latest weight loss fad. (Today, WSJ, HHP)
Additional Reads
- The American Missionary and the Uncontacted Tribe: When a 26-year-old American missionary set out for a lush island in the Indian Ocean last year, it was with one objective in mind: to convert the uncontacted Sentinelese tribe, who had lived for centuries in isolation, free from modern technology, disease, and religion. John Chau’s mission had ambitions for a great awakening, but what awaited instead was tragedy. (GQ)
- 6 Google Tricks That Will Turn You Into an Internet Detective: Even if you’re already a Google pro, these tricks will get you to your desired results even faster. (NYT, $) And 14 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Google Drive could do: Make Google’s online storage service better than ever with these unexpected options and productivity-boosting add-ons. (Fast Company)
- Scientifically Proven Sources of Sex Appeal: Beards, scars, red clothes, and other secrets of attraction (The Atlantic)
LAST MORSELS
“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it.” – Robert B. Cialdini